Focused Measurement - KPIs


I recently gave a 3 day training course on multichannel database marketing to a client in the Middle East.  My intent was to cover a lot of territory, from basic concepts through to implementation, with interesting case studies to illustrate, but the one thing that stood out as critical Read more

Ready, Set, Automate Marketing


The decision to automate marketing should be easy and obvious, but it isn't.   The selection of a marketing automation solution should be easy but is not always obvious.  The cost justification, i.e., budget, is usually pretty difficult to get through, but you can move it through quickly with Read more

How "big" is Big Data?


In todays article "CMOs declare 2013 the Year of Digital", survey data show that CMOs are increasingly frustrated by the lack of true measurement for marketing initiatives, especially digital ones.  While the article focuses mainly on the need for more innovation, strategy and effectiveness of digital presence and programs, Read more

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Ready, Set, Automate Marketing

March 7, 2013 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

bigstockphoto_Happy_Businessman_1605046The decision to automate marketing should be easy and obvious, but it isn’t.   The selection of a marketing automation solution should be easy but is not always obvious.  The cost justification, i.e., budget, is usually pretty difficult to get through, but you can move it through quickly with the right analysis!

That all said, there is a process and roadmap for getting from here to there…and it consists of 4 simple steps to begin:

 

1.  Determine where you are today relative to your organization’s growth goals, for example

  • If you are losing customers
  • If you are under new competitive threat
  • If you are resource constrained – particularly in marketing
  • If your capacity to execute marketing is outstripped by planned program

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How “big” is Big Data?

December 4, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

bigstockphoto_Consumer_Demographic_4484957In todays article “CMOs declare 2013 the Year of Digital“, survey data show that CMOs are increasingly frustrated by the lack of true measurement for marketing initiatives, especially digital ones.  While the article focuses mainly on the need for more innovation, strategy and effectiveness of digital presence and programs, they also cite a push from their CEOs:  ‘Listen, customer preference is controlling the switch, so come to me with accurate measurement, give me visibility into the marketing spend.”  And they claim to be “charging” into Big Data.  So what is Big Data, what impact can we expect to see and, how big is it really?

 

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Focused Measurement – KPIs

March 13, 2013 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

color_pencils_452699I recently gave a 3 day training course on multichannel database marketing to a client in the Middle East.  My intent was to cover a lot of territory, from basic concepts through to implementation, with interesting case studies to illustrate, but the one thing that stood out as critical to them was measurement.  In fact, this is consistent with a lot of conversations I have because at the end, we all want our work to be measured and validated, yes?

The clients loved the idea of key performance indicators (KPIs), , and learned how difficult it is to construct them.  Not difficult you say…but I beg to differ.  Tell me, how easy is it to come up with the one or two or three things that define how an organization will be measured both internally and publicly?  And how well does each department within that company understand how to create KPIs to support and roll up to the corporate goal?  Difficult!

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Data Smarts

November 7, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

bigstockphoto_Homing_In_On_Your_Objective_Ab_5578329Census figures show that over 25% of consumers have changes in their contact and demographic information annually; and, the speculation is that people will change jobs an average of 11 times in a typical career, about every 2 years. Isn’t it vital to your business to keep your data updated and precise?

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Investigative Prospecting

May 4, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

As a sales professional I always found it more productive to initiate informed conversations with my prospects vs. making tons of calls hoping to get a hit, i.e., someone who happened to be in the market for “xxx…”  I made fewer dials but had a significantly higher qualified appointment rate.

But this post isn’t about sales per se.  It’s about the type of prospecting that is thoughtful, probing, prospect-focused and directed at finding common ground.   It’s about finding opportunity and gaining better understanding of where the product or service will fit within the prospects toolkit…if it fits at all.  I call it Investigative Prospecting.
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Marketing Lessons from My Furniture Mover

May 1, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

During most of March and April I’ve been consumed with selling my house and purchasing another.  From inspectors for this and that, to contractor estimates, to selecting the service providers who will move my household goods and furniture its been an overwhelming process of specing needs, soliciting bids, evaluation and final commitment.   Aannd….you ask:  How the heck does this relate to marketing?

Here’s the analogy.  Just as with the process of selecting a moving company, the selection of a marketing automation vendor should ultimately come down to not just what they will do (pricing, timing, truck size, man hours) but how they will get you from point A to point B.   In the case of moving, ease of packing, management of the move, pre-move check lists, online resources and helpful hints, turnaround time to answering my queries, the number of folks involved in my move are the soft factors that provide the sense of security I need to undergo this fairly stressful change.  I’ve selected a company who will choreograph this event freeing me up for other details that I’m better at.

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Intelligent Targeting

March 2, 2012 Ann McCartan 1

By now it seems clear that matching product or service offers to the consumers who need them, want them and are ready to purchase is the best possible marketing practice.  This is targeting, pure and simple.  Among the many goals of target marketing, efficient use of resources is one of the most important, especially if you are a small or medium sized business – with limited marketing funds and few marketing staff.  You’ve got the product and services ready to go, now who are the right audiences or segments to match up with?  Let’s see how customer analysis can help.

Customer analysis can be applied to answer many different questions.  Depending on what data you have on your customer – from demographic, geographic, firmographic to transactional and behavioral – you can understand what makes customer different or the same and most of all, what motivates their purchases.  As a small or midsized company, SMB, you might not possess all of that data but if you are able to group your customers into some type of business category and match purchases against them, you can accomplish intelligent targeting for your offers.
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B2B Aquisition – Simple but Effective

February 7, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

I’ve been posting recently about multichannel marketing,  “Multichannel Marketing Integration is Vital”, and while I’m convinced that communicating in multiple channels makes for very satisfied customers and responsive prospects, I’ve also noted that it’s possible to be successful even when using one or one+ channels.

Case in point:  a large, eBusiness company wanted to acquire new SMB customers.  As a fully digital company, reaching out to unknown but highly qualified prospects, utilizing email made the most sense.  By working with reputable vendors we acquired email addresses for the majority of our target prospects.  A note here,  when purchasing prospect email addresses it is critical to determine their provenance to insure that these individuals have given permission to be contacted.  In fact we insisted that the email addresses be further submitted to a separate email invitation to connect.  This is known as double opt-in and many good companies even submit their own customers to the process from time to time.

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Multi-channel Marketing Integration is Vital: 3

January 30, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

But How Do You Actually Get There? Part 3

As I’ve been discussing in the post series, “Multi-channel Marketing Integration is a Vital Start But How Do You Actually Get There? Part 1″,  knowing what to do is a start but if you are a small to medium business, or a small department in a large company, with limited staff or technology, how do you implement what could be a complex eco-system?

Again, Here’s the pitch:

“From search to social, customers are interacting with your brand across a variety of channels, most likely created by many different people, in many different departments. However, chances are your customer thinks of your brand as just one entity, purchasing across channels, oblivious to your internal structure and processes. Providing a consistent message and customer experience is critical, so savvy marketers are optimizing campaigns through automated marketing programs and integrated data strategies.”

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Multi-channel Marketing Integration is Vital: 2

January 27, 2012 Ann McCartan Leave a comment  

But How Do You Actually Get There? Part 2

As I’ve already mentioned in my last post “Multi-channel Marketing Integration is a Vital Start But How Do You Actually Get There? Part 1″,  knowing what to do is a start but if you are a small to medium business, or a small department in a large company, with limited staff or technology, how do you implement what could be a complex eco-system?

Again, Here’s the pitch:

“From search to social, customers are interacting with your brand across a variety of channels, most likely created by many different people, in many different departments. However, chances are your customer thinks of your brand as just one entity, purchasing across channels, oblivious to your internal structure and processes. Providing a consistent message and customer experience is critical, so savvy marketers are optimizing campaigns through automated marketing programs and integrated data strategies.”

Read more ›

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