Integrate Your Summer Marketing Plans to Build Your Fall Pipeline

Transcription

1 MDR s Market Education Free Webinar Series Integrate Your Summer Marketing Plans June 19, 2012

2 AGENDA MDR s Free Webinar Series Customer file optimization for summer success Best marketing channels to integrate this time of year Summer social media best practices Integrated marketing case study SLIDES Available tomorrow, along with full recording Q & A Submit using the Q & A button in the lower right corner of the screen. Please send your question(s) to ALL panelists.

3 Chuck Romans Education Database Market Consultant Chuck has over 30 years of education database marketing experience. He currently assists marketers with analytics to improve performance and strategies. Previously, he was MDR s VP of Product Development, responsible for list solutions, e-marketing solutions, and MDR Sales Solutions. In this role, Chuck launched many innovative products, including Buyers at School response files, the Educators at Home database, and industry-leading analytical products. He also developed sophisticated predictive indicators using database mining and modeling techniques. Prior to MDR, Chuck managed direct marketing initiatives at McGraw- Hill s American School Publisher Division, the Random House School Division, and Educational Dimensions Group.

4 Christopher Ziemnicki Vice President, Product Development, MDR Since joining MDR in 2004, Chris has been instrumental in developing and managing some of MDR s most successful marketing products, including a broad suite of best-in-class Marketing Solutions. In addition to leading MDR s product development, Chris acts as chief strategic interactive marketing consultant to MDR customers, directing MDR s industry-leading educational digital marketing research and best practices efforts. Chris recently launched the industry s first display advertising solution that exclusively targets educators and expands MDR s offerings to the digital web advertising space. He is a frequent panelist at education marketing industry events and presents regularly on MDR educational marketing webinars.

5 Sandy Fivecoat Founder, WeAreTeachers.com, and Senior Consultant, MDR Sandy founded WeAreTeachers.com, an online network connecting teachers to one another and to companies who do business in education. WeAreTeachers provides social media marketing services and was awarded a Texas Social Media award from the Austin American-Statesman at the SXSW conference. WeAreTeachers was acquired in February 2011 by MDR/Dun & Bradstreet. An established and respected executive coach, Sandy is the principal consultant for Fivecoat and Associates, a consulting firm whose client list includes Dell and Standard & Poor's, as well as several education technology firms. Previous industry experience includes Senior Vice President of Sales for Lightspan, Inc., and Area Director of public sector sales for Apple Computer. Prior to her work in the private sector, Sandy held numerous positions in education, including policy leader as the first Director of Education Technology for the state of Texas.

6 Linda Winter President/Owner, Winter Group Linda Winter is the Founder and President of the Winter Group, a Denver-based marketing communications and research firm. Established in 1978, Winter Group serves companies and organizations marketing to the K-12, higher education, and library sectors. Winter Group s portfolio includes work for Epson, The Wall Street Journal, PBS, ISTE, the National School Boards Association, Teacher Created Materials, Scholastic, Adobe Systems, School Specialty, Inspiration Software, ABC-CLIO, Blackboard, Project Tomorrow, and other education organizations. Winter Group s staff of 14 includes writers, designers, project leaders, researchers, media buyers, and account planners. The firm s services encompass a broad range of creative services, market research, messaging and positioning, and branding and design.

7 It s summertime where are the teachers? From MDR s most recent district update: Back to School: 77% open in August 22% open in September End of Year: 56% had schools that close in May 44% had schools that close in June Overall, less than 1% of districts have a significant number of year round schools.

8 Summer is never downtime for marketers Heavy prep time for back to school But opportunities for outreach now are growing: More tools than ever to reach educators when and where they are to help build a fall pipeline: Mail Web Ads Social It s not too early to start you ll hear how today!

9 Chuck Romans 5 Tips for Using Your Customer Information to Maximize Fall Return

10 Institutions Tip #1: Identify and remove non-responsive customers Closed schools and districts Undeliverable addresses Names No longer teaching and haven t purchased in 2+ years In the school year, over 1 million new educators have been added to the MDR database and 900,000 have left their schools.

11 Tip #2: Enhance your customer records for improved deliverability and profitability Update missing or incomplete information: Standardize institution names and addresses. Verify and add missing addresses. Add titles to name. Update addresses for customers that now teach at a different school. In the school year, 1.3 million educators have had a job title change, and MDR has added over 1.5 new addresses.

12 Tip #3: Identify customers that have the most potential The more recent the purchase, the greater the probability of response. Don t wait until the next campaign to reach recent purchasers follow-up a purchase immediately with a relevant offer by , telephone, or direct mail.

13 Tip #4: Profile to identify the best prospects Profile your customers: Which segments are generating the greatest revenue? Compare/contrast success metrics with previous profiles. What titles are most productive? Use key variables uncovered in profiling to target back-to-school prospects with similar characteristics to your most recent customers.

14 Tip #5: Create a high ROI segmentation program RFM strategy can be a powerful tool to identify the best segments: All customers are important but not all are equal in value. Only 20% of your customers will drive 80% of your future business. The longer the time span between purchases, the less chance of a purchase. Statistical Modeling creates the ultimate segmentation strategy for customers and prospects: Begin to predict customer behavior instead of reacting. Identify prospects most likely to become best customers. Target prospects most likely to respond and eliminate those that are least likely.

15 Key Takeaways Summer is the perfect time to update, clean, and optimize your customer file. Your customer file is a powerful tool to help you identify and segment your best prospects.

16 Chris Ziemnicki and Online Advertising: Ideal Summer Marketing Channels

17 Educators may be on break, but your marketing shouldn t take a vacation Source: MDR Trends in the Education Market 2010 Report.

18 When marketers are deploying messages: Source: MDR Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2012 Report.

19 When marketers are sending messages: Source: MDR Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2012 Report.

20 Summer opens and clicks may surprise you: Source: MDR Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2012 Report.

21 Chris tips for summer marketing 1. Use summer campaigns as part of a multi-channel approach to stay top-of-mind, introduce products, or nurture leads for backto-school sales follow-up: Postcards Social Display -> Lead 2. Modify your creative tone to reflect the mindset of your audience and the season: Teachers: Keep it airy and informative. Decision makers: Keep it relevant and preparatory.

22 Chris tips for summer marketing 3. Use summer months to clean up your database: Append missing data/replace s that have gone bad. Weed out non-actives/tee up reactivation campaigns. 4. Work on your creative! Look at your mobile design New templates A/B testing plans Increase relevancy and value

23 Chris tips for summer marketing 5. Conduct drip campaigns: Bread crumb s with valuable content over the summer. Increase the leads (responders) with each deployment to non-responders. Deliver highly engaged (and impression ed) leads to sales at the very start of your back-to-school marketing.

24 Online Advertising Is a Great Way to Stay in Front of Educators Over the Summer

25 Educators use the web year-round, but their priorities shift during the summer Source: MDR Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2012 Report.

26 Educators view online content based on a number of different factors Source: MDR Digital Marketing Trends in the Education Market 2012 Report.

27 Chris tips for summer web advertising 1. Build summer branding/awareness/ favorability campaigns in conjunction with an drip campaign to same audience. 2. Rethink your targeting during the summer target them on the sites they re likely to be on while on break versus when at school. MDR s Targeted Web Advertising makes this easy as it always only serves to confirmed educators wherever they go online.

28 Chris tips for summer web advertising 3. Build banner artwork inventory. 4. Convert static banners into animated banners that promote audience involvement/ immediacy. 5. Overhaul your advertising analytics/metrics to make sure you re properly crediting conversion (tag management).

29 Sandy Fivecoat 5 Tips for Using Social Marketing This Summer

30 Tip #1: Keep programs simple to reflect the summer tone Consider given audience to determine tone and strategies: Teachers: Use humor and usability for classroom; build relationships rather than heavy promotional language. Administrators: Be a bit more direct. Include strategies that share results and research and offer help for back-to-school planning; can also use the summer months to develop reference sites or seed products. Minimize work your audience must do to participate, respond, or contribute content.

31 Tip #2: Increase touch points to build toward fall sales Experiment with connecting to multiple audience types to expand your prospect base. Consider multiple social marketing techniques to add value over the summer: Podcast interviews Blog content Content sponsorship Simple promos (free products, discounts, etc.)

32 Tip #3: Plan social media with other marketing efforts Build your presence and connect with customers on digital channels: Facebook, WeAreTeachers, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Align your focus in these media with your backto-school plans, setting the stage for more integrated marketing touches in the fall. Be active on education conference web and social sites to begin a dialogue with potential attendees over the summer.

33 Tip #4: Use the summer months to build brand advocacy Sales may be lighter during the summer, but educators are always planning. Putting your brand in front of teachers throughout the summer keeps them engaged and more likely to buy in the fall. Summer is a great time to deploy: Contests or giveaways for free products, technology, travel, professional development Free trials that will have products in front of teachers when school opens Podcast interviews with your best customers to create content you can use in fall

34 Tip #5: Free always works Summer is a great time to remind educators how you can help them without charge. Free content and products give teachers a reason to visit your site and potentially become future customers or brand advocates. Free can be products, white papers, research, or interesting teaching ideas day product trials are the least effective free offering.

35 Make social work for you Be relevant and conversational. Great end-of-year relief valve Interesting content can become viral very quickly.

36 Over 800 shares Over 20,000 likes AND All in just a few hours!

37 Linda Winter Small is the new BIG An Integrated Marketing Case Study

38 BIG results small budget The power of integration WNET s Mission US: Flight to Freedom the marketing stars aligned A gripping interactive, role-playing game for middle school that s free and powerfully engaging for students and teachers Precise timing for Black History Month A highly respected education brand A Let s try it approach from the client team

39 ALL THIS for that Budget: under $20,000 Vehicles: Two targeted s to Social Studies Department Chairs Banner advertising in select online venues Targeted print Strong publicity program (education, gaming, consumer) Tap existing social media channels and internal communications vehicles

40 BIG results 30% open rate and 29.19% clickthrough rate for s 83 pick ups in online and print publications, including a major story in USA Today 649,000 impressions in online venues in 21 days All-time highs for visits and unique visitors in one day to the Mission US website and game registrations

41 Key Takeaways The multi-channel integration was key. Messaging was simple, direct, and compelling. Later campaign success was enhanced by leveraging publicity sound bytes and reviews. Internal channels and conference events supported the message. The remarkable quality and innovation built into the game served as catalyst for the campaign the product was the inspiration.

42 Chuck Romans Chuck Romans Education Database Market Consultant (203) Q & A Sandy Fivecoat Founder, WeAreTeachers.com, and Senior Consultant, MDR (512) sfivecoat@weareteachers.com Christopher Ziemnicki Vice President, Product Development MDR cziemnicki@dnb.com Linda Winter President/Owner Winter Group linda@wintergroup.net MDR is the education market s first choice for sales, e-marketing, direct marketing, social media, and research solutions. Powered by the most complete, current, and accurate databases available in the industry, MDR can help you grow in the K-12, higher education, library, early childhood, and related education markets. To learn more about MDR s sales, e-marketing, telesales, and direct marketing solutions, call us at or visit