eMail advertising

I thought this was an interesting survey that was worth passing along. Anecdotally, we have definitely seen a growth of interest (and participation) in eNewsletter advertising in the past several months.

eMail Tops Online Ad Budget Change in '09 According to a survey of marketing executives by Datran Media, E-mail leads all other channels by a wide margin in terms of performance for their companies. 80.4% of more than 3,000 executives surveyed chose e-mail as a strong advertising performer, compared to 56.8% who chose search, the second leading performer. In addition: 42.1% chose online display advertising as a strong performer 32.8% selected offline media, such as television and print 32.1% chose direct mail 22.9% selected social media 9.2% chose mobile marketing Anticipated Online Advertising Budget Allocation in 2009 (% of Respondents) Media Expected Change Reduce Stagnant Increase Unsure Display 21.9% 33.8% 23.6% 21.1% Email 5.7 23.0 58.5 13.2 Search 3.6 28.2 54.4 13.9 Social media 5.7 24.3 43.9 26.5 Direct mail 25.6 31.2 14.1 29.1 Offline media 34.9 24.6 13.8 27.2 Source: IPSOS Marketing & Media Survey, January 2009 Importance of Selected Advertising Goals in 2009 (% of Respondents for Each Goal) Goal Degree of Importance Least Important Less Important Important Most Important New customer acquisition 2.6% 2.2% 32.7% 63.2% Increased brand awareness 11.3 26.0 48.7 14.0 Increased brand favorability 11.4 26.6 48.7 14.1 Increased customer retention 5.6 7.8 43.7 42.7 Source: IPSOS Marketing & Media Survey, January 2009 2009 Marketing Tactics (% of Respondents, Multiple Response OK) Tactic % of Respondents Monetizing online ad inventory 45.0% Behavioral targeting 53.9 Customer win-back programs 28.4 Newsletters 62.0 List growth 54.2 Affiliate marketing 42.1 Direct mail 29.9 Unsure 5.2 Source: IPSOS Marketing & Media Survey, January 2009

Leadership

There are several fantastic pieces in the MFE Leadership issue that published last month. If you missed it you can find the entire edition online here. 

The last article, Support Structure struck me as being particularly timely given the current economic circumstances. 

"Perhaps leadership is ultimately an act of selflessness, a process of listening, of tuning in to your team and providing them with the corporate assets they are yearning for. They are out there, right now. They are waiting for you to assist them in doing the right thing. They are waiting for a leader. Constantly. Everyday."

Don't let the headlines become a distraction. Keep the focus on the core business and tuning in to the team. 

Quote of the day

I lifted this quote from a recent Mark-Taylor press release but I think it is a case study consistent of the theory I cited in the previous couple of posts.

“Market conditions change but confident and thoughtful management does not,” said Dale Phillips, president of Mark-Taylor Residential. “ We certainly feel the effects of increased competition with home rentals and failed condo conversions. However, we have nearly doubled our size in the past two years. Owners are calling us to ensure their investments are getting the best care possible. Our team is comprised of dedicated, hungry, and talented people who want the best for the company, and it really comes through during the tough times. ”

In addition, here is some insight on recent marketing strategy from the same release.

Mark-Taylor is one of few apartment management companies to “brand” itself through marketing promotions online, onsite, on the radio, through special events and even its own YouTube channel (mark-taylor.tv). Owners contribute to branded leasing campaigns so every community benefits from a consistent message and offer, paying a fraction of what it would cost to launch a campaign independently.

Going to market with this type of creativity and ambition is exciting to see these days. There is not much we can do about the market conditions and while we all are experiencing a huge economic headwind, and have to work 3 or 4 times as hard to achieve success, it is a worthy battle that will pay off.

"Gutsy Marketers"

As I write this post my ticker shows that the DJIA has fallen 7% today. Obviously there are many companies and individuals worried about survival in this current economic climate. For those more fortunate, "cost containment", "weathering the storm" and "efficient investment" are all terms that are still at the top of the priority list.

Burt Helm writes a solid article in the latest issue of Business Week in conjunction with its Best Global Brands feature that I found inspiring despite today's chaos.

Best Global Brands - Gutsy marketers spend into the teeth of a recession. Several of BusinessWeek's 100 Best Global Brands are doing exactly that

I thought the quote below was particularly interesting because it can apply to our business and the business of our customers.

"In good times, people are less apt to try new things. In bad times, they have to start to do things better." - Martin Puris (Ad exec who coined the phrase "The Ultimate Driving Machine" back in 1974 when consumer spending tanked and gas prices soared much like we are seeing today).

Don't assume that the only message here is to spend more to protect your brand or be a savvy marketer. The answer is much more strategic and involves a top-level directive that mobilizes your entire organization. Start answering the important questions like: how will we define success? What is the role of marketing in our organization? How do we communicate more effectively with our customers to show that we can offer a solution that helps them do things better?

In the B2B world we don't have the multi-million dollar marketing budgets but we are closer to our customers then a multi-national brand like Apple or Coca-Cola. We also are fortunate to be aligned with an industry that maintains extremely strong fundamentals and prospects for long-term growth. Let's not sell ourselves short on the invaluable resource we all can access even when capital is in short supply: creativity.

Online Advertising

There was a recent article in a publishing trade that does a fantastic job explaining the full power of online advertising. It is very easy to try to adapt consumer metrics to business to business media and become consumed with clicks, conversions and the ever-elusive ROI factor. I can assure you that there is no silver bullet. It will continue to be a challenge to quantify the direct impact of advertising, even as it moves online and we are able to leverage some extremely powerful technology tools.

The following chain of events explains how many people perceive online advertising and how many folks in my business sell it.

Impression -- Click -- Visit --Sale

This is a bit of an oversimplification but the point is that many can fall into a trap that either undervalues the investment or worse yet causes us to set an unreasonable expectation for measuring success.

Below is a more complete view:
























The more familiar we become with online advertising, the more we begin to understand the strengths of this medium (and weaknesses) and ways which we can create integrated programs that allow us to build our brand, deliver more information and reach well beyond the boundaries of print.

As more firms in our industry figure out a web strategy, the more challenging it will become to stand out in this high speed world. Therein lies the immediate opportunity: those who get there first will distance themselves quickly. If you are interested I have some multifamily-specific case studies that I would love to share. We will also be holding a seminar at the MFE Conference to give a primer to our exhibitors and sponsors firsthand.

There is no question that our customers are using the web to run their business and all of us should get engaged in the dialogue. It doesn't cost anything to explore and if nothing else it is exciting to see how the landscape is changing daily.

Click here for the complete article in Publishing Executive.

Leveraging Brand Value in a Downturn

It is hard to find interesting success stories during the current economic environment but ironically I came across some information from the early 2000 recession years that was retrospective of the early '90 recession years.

The case study illustrates what might have been the beginning of the end for Bear Stearns.

"In the face of a slowing economy, most companies scrutinize their physical assets in order to assess what is critical for their business and what is expendable. However, these same companies also decide to cut investments needed to support their intangible assets, including brands, without even a cursory examination of the ramifications." - Interbrand

Lessons learned from the recession of the early ’90s are illustrative in today’s potentially serious economic slowdown. The following graphs are examples of industries and companies where a well-managed brand alleviated cost and inflation pressures and stresses on earnings in order to maximize share price.

Merrill Lynch vs Bear Stearns - 1990 to 1993 (Merrill ramped up brand investment in the last recession)




We all know the outcome in the case illustrated above. And while there were certainly many reasons for the demise of Bear Stearns it is more important to look at Merrill Lynch and how they leveraged their brand value during troubled times.

This market is such a mixed bag for multifamily housing that I think we will see some interesting power shifts in the lending community, building product manufacturers and other service providers that have huge exposure to the hardest hit areas of the economy. Those in a position to focus on the current opportunities and prevailing trends as we exit the broader economic downturn will reap the rewards for years to come.

It's not necessarily all about advertising but it is about protecting your brand and looking for the strategic opportunities even though the race seems harder than ever.

Media Strategy: What can we learn from a political race?

Here is an article that was sent along to me from Mike DeAnzeris. The full article appears on Adage.com and is worth a read.

Hillary vs. Barack: Who Had the Smartest Media Strategy? Optimedia's Antony Young Rates the Candidate's Primary Campaigns Campaign Trail - The race for the Democrat presidential nomination has been an intensely competitive contest, the equivalent of marketing's Coke vs. Pepsi or Ford vs. GM. In the battle that was Brand Obama vs. Brand Clinton, targeted demographics, TV ads, digital strategies, brand integrations and viral campaigns have all played a role in promoting the two candidates' campaigns.

...Clearly, Obama had a larger budget and significantly outspent the Clinton camp. The relative closeness of the race showed that Clinton was able to deliver a big bang for her buck, and suggests that her campaign's marketing programs were more cost-effective. Obama, on the other hand, had to launch himself as a new brand with low or no consumer awareness. An example of the spending implications, early in Texas (a state which Clinton eventually won) her campaign claimed it was outspent 2-1 or 3-1. Obama's marketing efforts were able to narrow a 20-point lead to 4 points in the space of three to four months in a state in which the Clintons had been effectively campaigning the past 40 years..."

One can certainly argue about whether ad spending equates to votes in direct proportion but the case is rather compelling when you look at these hyper-competitive races.

As I read through the comments I found an interesting post that takes this premise one step further:

Here is my take: http://www.thekmiecs.com/misc/hillary-vs-obama-social-media/ At the heart of it, "I was checking out the Twitter profiles for Hillary and Obama today. Something really jumped out at me that showed with crystal clarity the difference between how they've approached those two targets. As of today, Hillary has 4,019 followers and Obama has 33,069 followers. That in its own right says a lot, but that's not the big stat. The big stat is that Obama is following 33,960 people and Hillary is following 0. Literally 0. That's not an "o" that's a ZERO." –Adam Kmiec, Miami, FL

I haven't investigated this stat myself but regardless I think this points out a very important lesson: whenever you invest time or money, it pays to "follow-up".

Here is the definition of a "follower" from the Twitter site.
What are followers? Followers are people who receive your Twitter updates. When you follow someone else, you're one of their followers, or in other words, a person choosing to follow their Twitter updates. You receive Twitter updates by following other people, and the messages you get only come from people you choose to follow, or words you're tracking. When you send a message to Twitter, your followers receive them. You can see all of the people who follow you on your followers page, and all of the people you follow on your following page.

B2B Trends Study

The Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) at Penn State has an ongoing project to study trends in the B2B environment. The respondents (~400 total) to this particular study include academic thought leaders and ISBM practitioner members.

"Often the community of marketers inside a business-to-business firm is nowhere near as large as the community of marketers in a consumer packaged-goods culture. The chance to share and learn from other perspectives, other experiences, and peer networks is very important to business-to-business marketers, and an active part of the ISBM agenda."

Two of the anecdotal findings stood out:
#1 Develop approaches and methods to better understand what CUSTOMERS REALLY NEED, beyond what they can say or articulate. Opportunities to CREATE REAL VALUE…

** How many times have we (in a selling role) "listened" to customer feedback, come back with a well-prepared solution, only to have the customer take a pass on our "great idea".

#7 SELLING THE C-SUITE: developing the case for the value and impact of marketing that is understood and embraced by top management…Connecting with the “C-Suite” in terms they care about – growth, profit, and return on investment, all cited as very critical – and exceptionally difficult in business-to-business markets.

** Many of us has been here as well. The classic disconnect between Senior Management and Marketing or what I tend to see more often in our industry, the disconnect between sales and marketing.

By the way, another important research document can be found on their website which furthers the support of marketing during a recession.

Research: Companies Strong In Marketing Should Increase Efforts During Recession
"The paper finds that firms entering into a recession with a pre-established strategic emphasis on marketing; an entrepreneurial culture; and a sufficient reserve of under-utilized workers, cash, and spare production capacity are best positioned to approach recessions as opportunities to strengthen their competitive advantage.

Comparing these businesses to the best-trained athletes, the authors write that "athletes often choose times of stress to mount attacks: strong runners and bicycle racers may increase their pace on hills or under other challenging conditions" to beat out weaker opponents during the most difficult leg of their race."

As a cyclist I can identify with this comparison and never thought of the business connection until now. The strongest riders in a bicycle race want the race to be as hard as possible. When the race is easy it is much harder to distance yourself from the competition. The current economic environment certainly makes the race hard. Now is the time to put the attack in.

A convenient truth about marketing

Full disclosure: this post is not a public service announcement or political statement. It is simply another observation about marketing & advertising to add to the collection.

A marketing newsletter I received today (MarketingProfs) pointed out the power of Al Gore's advocacy campaign on climate change. Regardless of your political leanings you have to give credit to Al for making the most of every opportunity to talk about his passion. He has mastered the art of PR.

The former democratic presidential candidate was quoted in a recent Washington Post article as saying:

"This climate crisis is so interwoven with habits and patterns that are so entrenched, the elected officials in both parties are going to be timid about enacting the bold changes that are needed until there is a change in the public's sense of urgency in addressing this crisis," Gore said. "I've tried everything else I know to try. The way to solve this crisis is to change the way the public thinks about it."

And how does he plan on doing that? Gore is launching a 3 year, $300 million campaign aimed at mobilizing Americans. This campaign will include investments in magazine display ads, TV Commercials and social networks online. Gore certainly has brand awareness as a politician. He has won an Academy Award for his movie and the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. This notoriety offers him virtually unlimited access to the news media. However, it is important to note that this incredible opportunity for exposure is still limited. It does not allow his campaign to utilize powerful imagery, establish emotional connections and most importantly, target a message to different audiences to maximize impact.

Cathy Zoi, the Alliance for Climate Protection's chief executive, said the group will focus on individuals known in the advertising world as "influencers" who talk to a disproportionate number of people in their communities. While some ads will target inside-the-Beltway policymakers, the bulk of their efforts will focus on the general public.

Al isn't the only believer in advertising. The Washington Post goes on to report: "Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a nonprofit funded by the coal industry and its allies, is spending about $35 million this election to bolster support for coal-generated electricity.*"

There are a few takeaways from these announcements that might be helpful to advertisers and non-advertisers alike.

* By Juliet Eilperin, Monday, March 31, 2008; Page A04 , Washington Post Staff Writer

Establishing Connections

"If you look at highly successful people, they make the same number of mistakes as others, but they recover quickly. They don’t sit around moaning about what they’ve done wrong."
- Jim McCann, 1-800- Flowers.com

Alison Rice sent me a very good article on Jim McCann from the Sunday New York Times.

It highlighted the importance of establishing a rapport with customers, doing business in a down economy and the important role that advertising played in building his business.

Jim was the keynote speaker at the MFE Conference a couple of years ago and did a fantastic job making comparisons between his business and the multifamily market. Revisiting his message both then and now seemed appropriate so I wanted to share that thought.

"When the going gets rough..."

The most recent issue of B2B Magazine has an interesting article on how b-to-b marketers approach spending in a slowing economy. "Do they focus on advertising that plugs the brand or drives sales leads?"

It is no great secret that one of the first places to look for "savings" when crunch-time hits your business is your marketing spend. It is a quick fix that isn't easily noticed in the short-term. If you didn't have a strategic plan to begin with the pull back is even less noticeable.

The theme in the article keys in on strategy and how to seek opportunity in any market condition.

"Branding has got to be the backbone of advertising, especially when you are in a lot of markets," says Paula Blanchat, director of marketing communications at a North Carolina, based law firm. She added, "when the economy tanks is when you have an opportunity to make an impact; and you see the payoff when the economy improves."

If you are reading this blog chances are that you get all of this and it doesn't change the fact that tough choices need to be made during tough times. The most important point of this article is to use market changes as an opportunity to re-evaluate your marketing strategy.

My suggestion: Meet with your management team, engage your salespeople and consider the profile of your best customers. Re-visit how you got to where you are today and envision where it is you want to go. Come up with a plan together and chart a course that distances you from your competition. It all sounds obvious and overly simplistic but I think the tendency in a tight market is to hunker down and protect our territory which is not conducive to creative and aggressive tactics.

Weakness becomes magnified during economic downturns and senior management is on high alert for the wounded sheep in the field. Be proactive, do your homework and present innovative ideas that connect to sales strategy.

The Power of Advertising

No one wants to believe that advertising has any influence over his or her behavior. The fact of the matter is that all of us will gravitate towards people, products and services with which we are most familiar. And advertising is the most cost effective means of building familiarity with your brand across a wide market of potential users.

The person who articulates the power of persuasion best is a psychologist who spoke at the MFE Conference years ago. His name is Robert Cialdini and he is a professor at Arizona State University.

Here are his 6 principles that can apply to all forms of persuasion:

· Reciprocation. People are more willing to comply with requests (for favors, services, information, concessions, etc.) from those who have provided such things first.
· Commitment/Consistency. People are more willing to be moved in a particular direction if they see it as consistent with an existing commitment.
· Authority. People are more willing to follow the directions or recommendations of a communicator to whom they attribute relevant authority or expertise.
· Social Validation. People are more willing to take a recommended action if they see evidence that many others, especially similar others, are taking it.
· Scarcity. People find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability.
· Liking/Friendship. People prefer to say yes to those they know and like.

If you are a consultant, and happy with your current base of clients, then advertising is probably not going to be an investment that makes much sense for you.

If you are a business with a valued service looking to GROW share of market in a specific industry, then advertising of some variety should be part of your strategy. Advertising will build the value of your brand, help sales people get appointments and lower your cost of sales.

When planning your messaging keep the 6 principles above in mind. And remember that the key to advertising is consistency. Consistency builds familiarity and trust.

Media (and non-media) Mix: Part 2

The second key finding from the Harris Interactive Study commissioned by Hanley Wood is that media AND non-media sources are important.

When reader's were asked to rate information sources here are how they stacked up. The percentages indicate a rating of "very" or "somewhat" important.
1. Trade Magazines - 96%
2. Co-Workers or Peers - 95%
3. Vendor Websites - 94%
4. Salespeople/dealers - 93%
5. B2B Web Sites - 86%
6. Trade Shows - 85%
7. Conferences or Seminars - 80%
8. Consumer magazines - 74%
9. Direct Mail - 73%
10. B2B enewsletters - 65%

The takeaway here is not that trade magazines and word of mouth should be pursued at the expense of direct mail and e-newsletter advertising. The research shows that there are many sources that buyers rely on and that there is an opportunity to influence these buyers through a variety of channels.

On average buyers will utilize 5.5 sources when researching a product/service, 4.7 sources when recommending a product/service, 4.4 sources when specifying a brand and 3.4 sources when making a final decision.

As a business media company, we realize that it is certainly more cost effective to reach our market through a website and email newsletters, but if we did that at the expense of our print product we would be weakening a critical touch point.

Each business is unique and requires an independent evaluation of an ideal mix of sources but all most be considered. Ideally they should work as one towards a common goal.

Media Mix

“There is no specific way to connect the dots in my decision-making process. I talk to people. I read magazines. I go online for details. I may go from step one to step four in 15 seconds, or 15 days.”
-Focus Group Attendee, Media and Marketing's Influence on Buyers (Harris Interactive) Alexandria, Va.

Hanley Wood has invested in a MAJOR research study to take a pulse on how our reader is using media these days. It is very easy to make sweeping statements about the various forms of information delivery but the verbatim comment above really hits home.

One source is not enough.

This holds true for multifamily industry professionals, service providers and publishers like Hanley Wood.

Trade magazines, peer recommendations, vendor web sites, sales staff, media company web sites and conferences are the leading sources of information and ALL are vital in influencing the final decision of a buyer.

In an ideal world our sales team would cover 100% of the market and deliver our firm's "story" to the key influencers and buyers. While we all can push closer to an optimal number of direct contacts, we all know that we are ultimately reaching a relatively small number of potential customers with our direct selling efforts.

So what is the optimal media mix? How can we optimize our multichannel presence? Stay tuned for additional posts or contact your Regional Sales Manager for an advanced look at the complete findings.

This study is a key component of how Hanley Wood will be going to market in the coming year. While other publishers are abandoning print, cutting events and looking online as a cheaper way to do business, we are making big investments across the board. In this information-rich environment it is essential to give our readers, attendees and online visitors more reasons to engage with our brands, not fewer.

The Trade Show Dilemma

In the wake of a stretch of June event participation I wanted to reflect on the value of the conference/trade show. I have been going to events for 13 years and no matter how well attended the event may be there always seems to be an undercurrent of reluctance to participate.

At this year's Builder Show, an event that has more than 100,000 attendees, there were many exhibitors who were concerned about traffic being "off." This observation and concern is very real, but does it mean that the investment is not as valauble?

The multifamily industry doesn't have the market cornered on this marketing challenge. If you have come from another industry you probably can identify. After doing some research of my own, here are the most common issues that ALL industries have with the trade show:

* not enough leads to justify the investment
* attendees don't want to interact on an exhibit floor
* attendees that do interact seem to only be looking for giveaways
* we can't track sales that result from our participation
* my booth was in a low traffic area of the floor

These are just a few concerns, I am sure all of us have a few to add to the list! The bottom line is that trade shows are effective. If they weren't, there simply would not be so many. The key is figuring out how to set a reasonable expectation of success and focusing all of our efforts on achieving that success.

I received a newsletter today that did a wonderful job of explaining the dilemma and why we often think that our efforts may not be effective. Check out this article on BtoB Online. The research is a bit self serving because it is conducted by a firm that creates exhibit displays, but I think the strategy observations are on the money.

In summary: If we define a show by immediate ROI we are typically disappointed. And sometimes within our own orgazinization sales, marketing and senior management each have a different definition of success. This disconnect may seem harmless but it is certainly a barrier to achieving a positive outcome for everyone involved.

When all 3 groups are on the same page, and direct the firms resources towards a unified strategy, the results will follow.

When I look back on a "successful show" it is always the ones where I was able to be most prepared. I set appointments beforehand, had a gameplan during and followed up effectively afterwards. If nothing else a conference or trade show gathers hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of potential clients in one city for a limited amount of time. The opportunity is there to meet customers, change perceptions of prospects, build your company's brand and boost your industry knowledge.

These points seem painstakingly obvious but when we don't make time to prepare and develop realistic goals we are probably better off staying home. Unfortunately I can speak from experience in this area.

I will follow-up with some specific tips that I have gathered on how to make your show experiences more productive.