The 8020Info Water Cooler

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The 8020Info Water Cooler
Issue #101 - Vol. 7 No. 04
26 March, 2007

1. Use Marketing Metrics That Matter

Preparing ads and other marketing material can be quite creative and fun. But don't get carried away: The purpose is to improve your organization's fortunes. One of the biggest marketing mistakes we make, Roy Young writes on MarketingProfs.com, is to use performance metrics that don't matter to the bottom line.
To select the right metrics:

Identify your firm's cash-flow drivers. Those will be tied to your business model, such as whether you rely on high profit margins or rapid turns of inventory, and also the sources of cash.

Identify marketing activities that ultimately affect those cash-flow drivers. Most companies have lots of marketing activities that have matured over time. But which ones affect those cash-flow drivers? List those with the biggest impact.

For each of the key activities listed, define an outcome metric -- a measure that allows you to evaluate how well the activity generates the intended results.

For each outcome metric, articulate your theory of how successful performance on that metric will affect one or more of your company's cash drivers. For example, how might high performance on the metric "number of sales leads" influence customer acquisition and retention?

Examine the assumptions behind your cause-and-effect links, trying to determine where they may be flawed and how you might test them.

Quantify anticipated cash flow over time. Based on the marketing activities you have planned, how might it translate into cash flow?

That process will help you understand the impact of your marketing, and make your efforts more fruitful.

2. Debunking Three Myths of Marketing Top

Brand strategist Lyn Chamberlain says that three myths of marketing hurt us when it is ourselves we are trying to sell. The myths are particularly prevalent, she feels, amongst women, but will also be familiar to many men:

If I am good they will come: Being good is not enough. We believe that if we quietly build behind the scenes, customers will come. Instead, we must find a way to tell our story to people who will listen.

Marketing myself is a dirty business: Successful personal branding means standing far enough away to see yourself and your work without the distortion of modesty or self-doubt. "Successful personal branding means wearing labels such as 'leading,' and 'expert,' 'sought-after,' 'popular,' and 'well regarded,'" she writes on RainToday.com. That means putting your humility aside and becoming memorable, while not getting carried away, since you must still be authentic and consistent.

I can't control what others think: You can influence what others think, in the same way that Volvo influenced us to associate its vehicles with safety. Figure out who you are, create a story that communicates your value, pull out the key words in that story, and communicate them relentlessly in everything you do.

3. How To Use Fusion Marketing Top

When consultant Al Lautenslager walked into the dry cleaners recently to drop off shirts, he found a $5-off coupon for the pizza shop two doors down. He decided he wanted pizza and went in, redeemed his coupon, and found a coupon there for $5 off at the dry cleaning place. Those two businesses were sending each other customers through fusion marketing. "As entrepreneurs, we always think we have to do things alone, but it's amazing the synergy available from collaborating or aligning with others," he writes on Entrepreneur.com.

You can share mailing lists with your strategic partner for a joint mailing, make joint sales calls, or offer an incentive from your alliance partner for each purchase of your product and vice versa. The key is to define your best partner -- someone who has similar prospects as you but isn't in the same business. Then develop a joint offer, making sure to write up a letter of agreement (it doesn't have to be a formal legal document) so things are clear.

4. The Top Things To Measure On Your Web Site Top

How fast is it? Yes, users have broadband these days, but web sites are loading more, and you must still ensure it's quick.

How often does your site hiccup, timing out on potential visitors?

How many visitors show up? Graph the number of visitors over time, paying attention to spikes and troughs.

What are the most popular pages?

Which paths do users tend to follow on the site?

What are they looking for?

As with any operation, you must track results, make changes, and continue to monitor the results in a continuous cycle of improvement.

5. Zingers Top

The better a prospect tends to be, the busier he tends to be, sales coach Brain Tracy says. You need to take responsibility for maintaining momentum throughout the sales process and gently push it to a conclusion at the proper time.
(Source: Selling)

Research reveals that listeners are more likely to respond to a radio ad with a vanity 800 phone number than one with just numbers. Creative Broadcast Concepts tested 800-TRADE-NOW for a car dealer vs. 800-954-2828 in ads. The advantage for TRADE-NOW was 58 per cent over the traditional number format.
(Source: Broadcast Dialogue)

Prospects often will change subjects and steer you away from the sales conversation to chit chat. Try role-playing with a team member to become effective at quickly reverting the conversation back to relevant business issues.
(Source: The Streetsmart Marketer)

Don't exaggerate, warns customer service consultant Jeff Mowatt. If a task will take 15 minutes to complete, don't say, "It'll only be 10 minutes," That's lying, and customers hate it. Instead, underpromise and overdeliver.
(Source: Influence With Ease newsletter)

Be careful when selecting graphic backgrounds for your PowerPoint slides since there may be small elements that will draw eyes away from what should be the main focus of attention. If you have a dark background, eyes will focus on the brightest spot on the screen, which if you're not careful might be a star or a sunspot on a dark black or blue background.
(Source: Dave Paradi's PowerPoint blog)

6. Q & A with 8020Info Top

Question: How can I improve my organization's customer retention?

8020Info's Alison Sortberg responds:

We've all heard that it is more cost-effective to retain current customers than to acquire new ones, yet this rule is often overlooked. Think of companies, for example, that offer bonuses to new customers, but make current clients pay full price. The following quick and relatively inexpensive tactics can help improve your customer retention.

Send handwritten notes to thank customers, let them know about a new product, or just check in. It may seem boring or out of step in an e-mail world, but direct marketing expert Michael Kaselnak says it's "the most effective loyalty building and customer retention tool in existence."

Create an after-sales follow-up survey. Your clients will tell you if you're on the right track. But remember, active customers are satisfied enough to stick around -- it's the inactive or unsatisfied customers who will be more likely to pinpoint areas that need improvement.

Know your customers: According to Laura Lake, a freelance marketing consultant, a database marketing program might enable you to deliver higher quality service by tracking customers' preferences. A database can also act as a listening system that will allow you to detect at-risk customers early, increasing your chances of retaining them.

Win them back: Part of holding on to a customer is simply reminding them you're there and continuing to ask for their business a second or third time. In their Effective Relationship Marketing series, the marketing software company vtrenz suggests developing 'win-back promotions' such as a 10 per cent discount off all purchases for the next year to re-attract inactive customers.

7. News From Our Water Cooler: Top

Last week the 8020Info team was pleased to learn that we have earned an assignment with a new client in B.C., the seventh province in which we've been able to help managers and teams with strategic planning, marketing communications, facilitation, and/or research services. (Along with many projects in Ontario, we've also taken on assignments in Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland.) While every market and community tends to face similar issues, the best solutions depend on their own unique contexts. The rich variety of issues we encounter continues to feed our creativity and gives us a broad perspective in helping our clients to succeed.

8. Closing Thought Top

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."
-- Dale Carnegie