"Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Marketing 14 Tips and Strategies for Best Results

Transcription

1 "Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Marketing 14 Tips and Strategies for Best Results

2 MDR s Free Webinar Series Provide customers added value to our sales and marketing solutions. Give you insight and market intelligence through a dialogue with the market s thought leaders. 2

3 MDR s Free Webinar Series Copy of the slides and recording of today s presentation will be sent to you tomorrow and will be posted on schooldata.com. Questions will be answered at the end of the session; submit questions throughout the presentation using the Q & A feature. 3

4 Today s Agenda Overview of as a marketing channel in the education market and why it makes sense to use it to reach administrators and teachers Tricks of the trade" for creating successful marketing campaigns Basic tools and strategies you need to get higher response and maximum results for your marketing dollars 4

5 Regina Brady Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions 5 Reggie Brady has 20+ years of experience in the areas of , privacy, direct marketing, management, and database building. Her consulting practice focuses particularly on marketing and helps companies with business and marketing planning, strategy development and implementation, traditional direct marketing, online traffic building, and permission and privacy. Prior to her consulting practice, Ms. Brady was Vice President of Strategy and Partnerships for FloNetwork Inc., a leading service bureau that has since been acquired by DoubleClick. She was also Vice President of Interactive Services for Acxiom/Direct Media and spent over eleven years at CompuServe, a major global Internet Service Provider as Director of Interactive Marketing. She is a member of the Direct Marketing Association and served for six years on their Ethics Policy Committee, developing standards for direct marketing professionals. Reggie is also a board member and President of the Direct Marketing Club of New York and sits on the advisory board of several direct marketing companies.

6 Christopher Ziemnicki E-Marketing Solutions Leader MDR Christopher Ziemnicki currently leads e-marketing product development at MDR and acts as chief strategy consultant on interactive marketing to MDR s customers. He leads MDR s industry-leading educational e-marketing research and best practices efforts. Before joining MDR, Chris built and managed large-scale Web-affiliate marketing programs and managed marketing programs for both start-up and established B2C companies and catalogers. 6

7 Why Makes Sense for Marketers While 60% of marketers plan to cut their traditional marketing budgets this year, 47% of marketers plan to boost their marketing budgets. Aberdeen Group, "Recessionary Marketing: How Best-in-Class Companies Are Weathering the Storm" (Jan 2009) 80.4% of marketing executives surveyed say performs strongly as an advertising channel for their companies. Datran Media "3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results" (2008) Spending on will rise to $488 million in 2009, up from $472 million in 2008, and will jump to $677 million in emarketer (Nov 2008) 7

8 Why Makes Sense for Marketers What are educational marketers saying? 87% of marketers are engaged in marketing Effectiveness Rating: Scale of 1-5 1=Least Effective, 5=Most Effective rd most effective marketing channel receive only 15% of the marketing budget Sales Force Lead Generation Catalogs Marketing Direct Mail Search Engine Web Advertising Print Advertising Retail 8 Source: Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall 2007.

9 Why Makes Sense for Marketers What are educational marketers saying? 57 Forecasted Increases in Spending in Next 12 Months 42 % Increase 9 was the #1 marketing channel slated for increase in spending over the next 12 months Source: Trends in the Education Market 2007, survey conducted fall Marketing Direct Mail Web Advertising Sales Force Generation Search Engine Catalogs 19 8 Other 7 Print Advertising Retail 2

10 Why Makes Sense for Educational Marketers Educational Marketing Frequency Educational marketing far from saturation point More than 10 per day Number of Education/School-Related Offers Received by Teachers in an Average School Day 6% 9% 8% 8% 13% 15% Some personnel are targeted more % 23% Consumers get on average ~35 nonspam s per day (MarketingSherpa, 2008) 1-2 Less than 1 per day 17% 21% 28% 28% 10 Source: Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.

11 Getting Started With Marketing for the Educational Marketer Prospecting: Sender recognition Create strong relevance/value messaging Primary purpose call to action Scan-ability Rendering considerations Prospect to those that look like your customers Utilize campaign results for segmentation strategy going forward 11

12 Getting Started With Marketing for the Educational Marketer expands the traditional educational marketing window: End-of-year Campaigns inventory blowouts on/off peak times and over summer in support of your catalog and direct mail campaigns 12

13 Teachers Reading Frequency 84% of Teachers check their several times a day, all day long, and nights and weekends 13 Source: Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.

14 Teachers Connectivity During Summer Break Usage During Summer Break Self-reported connectivity to their school-based address during summer Several times a day Daily Multiple times a week 6% 20% 26% Summer campaigns, back-to-school campaigns in August, professional development events, etc. Once a week Multiple times a month Once a month Just prior to school opening Never 6% 5% 2% 11% 24% 14 Source: Trends in the Education Market 2009, survey conducted fall 2008.

15 14 "Tricks of the Trade" for Successful Marketing 15

16 1. Plus Direct Mail Doesn t Equal 2 Extend the power of your messaging only response 1% Catalog only response 8.3% + catalog response 11.2% Note use of similar imagery 16 Source: Sherpa 5/1/07.

17 1 + 1 Doesn t Equal 2 (cont.) 2 Test panels All received 3 catalogs Second panel also received 3 newsletters Results: group increase in sales of 18% group orders increased by 6% AOV increased by 12% cost increased 6% 17 Source: Vicki Updike, Miles Kimball 6/08.

18 Send in Advance of Direct Mail Cut through mailbox clutter Time to arrive: 2 to 3 days before Show your outer envelope or catalog cover Prominently feature URL on every spread or mailing component 18

19 Leverage the Channel Direct mail Longer form copy and multiple images Copy blocks Fewer images Short, succinct copy Strong calls to action both above and below the fold 19

20 2. Maximize Your Call Center Train your call center reps to ask for address Make sure reps understand the value an address Customer-initiated call represents perfect opportunity Script a value proposition Newer trend. Marketers seeing this is an important operating metric. They are measuring call centers on number of valid addresses collected. Begin communication ASAP with a welcome Consider flagging bounced s in workstation 20

21 3. Design Include Your 800 Number Multiple studies have found up to 20% of sales will be made via the 800 number Feature it prominently 21

22 4. Design Use the Preview Pane Half your readers will be able to see the header and the beginning of your message Work with the first 2 inches Include teaser text at the top of your , such as a brief list of headlines or contents 22

23 5. Use Effective HTML Design Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are for web page design, not Rendering problems, particularly Hotmail and Gmail Outlook 2007 presents additional problems Use inline HTML. No style defined. Every line of code has to be defined with font faces/attributes/sizes, etc. 23

24 Rendering Problems 24 Reggie Brady 2009

25 CSS Layout in a Web Browser 25 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Campaigns.

26 CSS Layout in Yahoo! Mail No gray box around 26 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Campaigns.

27 CSS Layout in Windows Live Hotmail Two right-hand boxes shift position 27 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Campaigns.

28 CSS Layout in Gmail Logo moved to top, headline font gone, one of the call-out boxes is missing 28 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Campaigns.

29 CSS Layout in Outlook 2007 Ugh! 29 Examples courtesy of Listrak Creating Effective HTML Campaigns.

30 Tables Tips for HTML Formatting Use tables for position Be careful with nested tables Outlook 07 does not support background images in table cells Don t use Flash Embedded media Javascript, DHTML, ActiveX, ASP, PHP Image maps 30

31 Tips for HTML Formatting (cont.) Images Optimized jpegs or gifs pre-formatted in correct size Post images online and include full URL, not just the local reference Set height and width parameters Use ALT tags 31

32 Design Use ALT Tags Use descriptive ALT" tags on all images Will not work with all clients but does work with Google Okay to make these longer 32

33 7. Design Image Blocking More than 60% of recipients have reported some image blocking Link to view full HTML is important Use at least 60% text and 40% images Use ALT tags for images Forrester found 40% of s studied were impossible to understand without graphics Test your own s by viewing them when not connected to the Web 33

34 How Would Your s Look? Nothing to see! 34

35 How Would Your s Look? Text is readable even without images 35

36 8. Copy Long vs. Short Which was more effective? Both had same number of clickthroughs The shorter version generated twice as many requests 36 Source: Sherpa 5/1/07.

37 Make sure your first link is as far up as possible Include links below the fold The more links the better Even if images are blocked, there is still plenty to see in this 9. Links 37 All links point to same landing page

38 10. Columns I like a 2-column design It gives you a chance to organize information It makes it easier to read text across the screen 38 Source: Sherpa 5/1/07.

39 11. Test Dollars off or a percent discount? 39 Tested in subject line and body Both had similar opens and CTRs $50 Off generated 170% more revenue and 72% higher conversion rate Source: Sherpa 7/23/08.

40 Design Test Franklin Electronic Publishers tested including a Hacker Safe logo in their s Conducted test for 7 months (50% of list saw logo and 50% did not) Results for those who saw logo: 28.3% higher average order 8.1% higher conversion rate CTR 2.1% higher 40 Source: Sherpa 10/30/07.

41 Test Wording of Links MarketingSherpa used Continue here and wanted to test link wording: Click to continue % CTR Continue this article + 3.3% CTR Read more 1.8% 41 Source: Sherpa 9/11/07.

42 Wrong Buttons Right 42

43 12. Test Subject Lines Just for Fun A Quick Test ProFlowers hi Subject line A: Last chance to order for Valentine s Day is this Wednesday, order now Subject line B: Only 48 hours to order for guaranteed Valentine s Day delivery 43 Source: DoubleClick. A is the winner with 23% lift in sales

44 More on Subject Lines Subject lines drive open rates Keep it short! Focus on the first 45 characters it can be longer, 60 characters maximum. Make it compelling State a benefit from reader s point of view Make an offer Intrigue the reader and stimulate curiosity Forrester analysis 52% of subject lines described content but had nothing of real benefit to readers 44

45 Use Action and Benefit Words Top 12 Newsletter Mistakes 6 Actions to Lift Click-Throughs: New Data Get 250 Free Business Cards with Free printing on the back REGINA, BUSINESS 2.0 Magazine Wants to Say Thank You Free Financial Guide Still Available Instant Rebates on Best-Selling Wyse Winterm Thin Clients Save $20 on Your Next OfficeDepot.com Order Dramatically reduce your payroll processing costs 45

46 13. Have a Strong Offer Subject Line Complimentary Leadership Assessment: Identify Your Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses Link to view images Good headlines Images that don t overwhelm Clear offer Testimonial 46 Forrester analysis showed almost 50% of s studied had first call to action below the fold.

47 And a Good Landing Page Same image creates seamless experience Simple vertical form Yellow boxes Toll-free number 47

48 Offers That Work Free Gifts Mayo Clinic invitation to join their list What they did right: Comes from a person Clear call to action Free gift Easy to read What they did wrong: Dear friend???? Logo at top would be nice 48

49 Offers That Work Free Gifts (cont.) Mayo Clinic landing page What they did right: Simple page Immediate gratification What they did wrong: I just clicked on the link to see more, but I was immediately added to their list 49

50 14. Focus on Landing Pages Bring them directly to the content/offer Some create a micro site to support a campaign To focus attention If they start looking at other areas of your site, they may forget your specific call to action Make the layout of the page simple and focus attention Raise the font size, eliminate multiple columns, and eliminate extraneous links Include complementary images 50

51 Landing Page Tests Buy Now button color test by Dymo 4.3% improvement 51 Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.

52 Landing Page Tests (cont.) Add to Cart vs. Proceed to Checkout test on last page before payment 44.1% Improvement 52 Source: MarketingSherpa 7/25/07.

53 Landing Page Tests (cont.) What others have found Removing FAQ from a registration page improved results A Motley Fool newsletter improved sign-ups by removing a picture of the author A red action button worked better than a green button 53 Source: Direct Newsline 6/23/06.

54 Landing Page Tests (cont.) 54 Source: MarketingSherpa B-to-B 9/10/08.

55 Regina Brady Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions Q & A Christopher Ziemnicki E-Marketing Solutions Leader, MDR cziemnicki@dnb.com Market Data Retrieval (MDR), a D&B Company, is the market s first choice for direct sales and marketing solutions, powered by the most complete, current, and accurate education databases available in the industry. As the leading U.S. provider of marketing information and services for the K-12, higher education, library, early childhood, and related education markets, MDR can provide you with direct mail lists, contacts and deployment, sales contact and lead solutions, and market research and analysis Future MDR Webinars: July 23 Upgrade Your Online Marketing: Get top search results and turn them into new business Sign up on September 24 Social Media in the Education Industry Stay tuned! The material in this presentation is copyrighted. Please contact MDR for permission to reproduce or use this content.