Does your marketing team face these challenges?
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on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 
at 8:42 AM 
in There is a great chart from eMarketer today that caught my attention.
It details the results of a survey that asked marketers what types of challenges they face when it comes to the data that they are collecting.
In today’s multi-channel world, most companies are finding and storing more data than ever before about their prospects and customers.
But if they are not properly using that data, or if that data is making it harder for them to achieve key business objectives, then that is a big problem.
Why Companies Are Struggling With Data
One reason that many companies are running into those top 3 challenges — having trouble measuring ROI and sharing data across and organization, not using it to effectively personalize communications, and not being able to link data to individual customers — is because their marketing efforts are not integrated. They may be using separate point solutions for each of their marketing channels…. one soution to send emails, one to create personalized URLs, one to manage collateral and digital assets, one to collect leads from the website, one to collect survey responses, etc.
With that type of approach, marketers are stuck with multiple databases that may not talk to another , which prevents them from having a holistic view of their customers and prospects.
In today’s world, that circumstance can doom many marketers. If the effectiveness of their marketing efforts decreases, or if they can’t prove what’s working, then their job tenure may be cut shorter than ever before.
The Solution to Handling Big Data Problems
However, that does not have to be the case.
Marketers can adjust their strategies to take an integrated approach.
Our CEO John Foley, Jr. wrote this White Paper to help companies find the best ways to do that.
Also, they can also make changes in the technology that they use. They can break down their silo-ed approach, and start using solutions that ensure their activities and results are running through a central database.
When those things happen, then the available data can truly be put to use. And both marketers and consumers will benefit greatly!
Would you like to start walking down that path? If so, I’d love for you to take a moment to register for a demo of interlinkONE’s marketing solutions.
Google and Personalized Search Results
Over the past couple of years, Google has made changes to its search engine to personalize the results that it presents. For instance, Google rolled out changes in 2009 to start integrating a user’s social media data on the Results page.
Today, they have announced that they are making more changes to integrate search and social.
What Do The Changes Entail
A huge part of today’s announcement (which Google is labeling “Search, plus Your World”) involves utilizing capabilities of Google+. A person’s search results may now be affected by the Google+ data that they are connected with. This could include:
- People: Users may now see people that they may want to follow based on what they are searching for
- Pages: Search results may now display pages (or profiles) that are related to a specific topic or area of interest that someone may have searched on
- Photos and Posts: Google may now display photos and information from Google+ posts that you have access to within search results
How Can You Prepare for these Changes?
Google has announced that they will start rolling out these changes in the next few days.
Thus, there are things that you can do now to take advantage of them. Here are a few:
- If you don’t already have one, create a Google Profile.
- Once you have a profile, make sure that you log-in to Google before you run your next Search.
- Get on Google+!
- Google+ allows you to have a personal profile, of course. But you can also create Pages for your Business, Products & Services, Events, and more.
- Start creating and publishing content on your Google+ profiles and pages
- Build your Google+ community: Take the time to add people and Pages to your Circles and invite others to do the same for your accounts.
It certainly will be interesting to see how users adapt and benefit from these changes. If you have a free moment, check out the video that Google has released regarding the “Search, plus Your World” functionality:
LinkedIn: From a Connection Collector to a Sales Generator
When people talk about how they are using social media in the marketing efforts, Facebook and Twitter are often the first answers given.
Sure, they might be on LinkedIn. But they may currently only view it as a way for them to “collect people” – i.e. to amass connections.
If that sounds similar to how LinkedIn is utilized in your business, here is one idea for converting that connection data into a way to build relationships and generate sales.
Connections and Job Status
When someone experiences a change in their employment status, LinkedIn is often the very first social network that they update. Depending on our relationship with that person, taking action on that information can be valuable to them… and us.
I recently talked to a service provider that told me how he acts on that type of data. Here’s his story:
His company helps clients reach their marketing goals with design, print, direct mail, email, mobile, landing pages, and more.
While they have had success launching campaigns for a number of companies, they sometimes run into trouble because of high-turnover among the marketing departments that they work with. Lately, this has often occurred because of budget constraints, rather than performance. But either way, the path to creating long-term, recurring business with those companies is not always easy when the employees change frequently.
In order to capitalize on the successes that they have helped marketers achieve, this company actively seeks to connect with those folks on social networks. Primarily, they try to do this on LinkedIn.
How LinkedIn Helps Deepen the Relationship
If a once-happy customer experiences a job change, the company still has a connection with them. For example, the company may:
- Use LinkedIn to send a personal note when the job change does occur.
- Offer up a recommendation for the person.
- Refer the person’s profile to companies where there may be a fit.
Along with those one-time actions, they will make an effort to stay in touch with them in the weeks and/or months that follow.
By staying connected and engaged to these folks, they create opportunities to receive future sales and jobs once that person is in place at a new business.
How so? Well, they were already a fan of the services provided by that company. And their appreciation of them will no doubt be deeper because of the conversations and actions that took place during the process of changing jobs. Thus, they may be apt to highly recommend that company’s services to their new employer.
Can it Help You?
Certainly, this effort takes a bit of time and determination on behalf of that service provider! But in their words, “it’s helping me grow my business!”
If you are looking for ways to use social media to create and deepen relationships, paying attention to your LinkedIn connections might be a perfect place to start.
P.S. If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, here I am!
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Tags Business, data, employment, engagement, jobs, leads, linkedIn, relationships, social media, tips Integrated, Multi-Channel Marketing – Why?
About.com recently posted an excellent article detailing the benefits of integrated, multi-channel marketing.
While the study that the article is based on might be geared towards non-profits, the benefits can apply to companies of all shapes and sizes.
The two that I primarily enjoyed were:
- Unification of messages across channels
- Being able to sync online and direct mail databases
Unification of Messages
I’ve had the chance to talk with various print, mail, and fulfillment service providers over the past few years. While I do understand some of the reasoning behind why some may purchase separate point solutions to do various marketing activities, the part that scares me is when there are separate people managing each channel.
In a case like that, companies are almost guaranteeing that branding and messaging will not be in sync across various channels.
But with an integrated system, multiple employees should be able to easily and quickly access key taglines, offers, links, and images to use on whatever they are creating, whether it’s an email, a landing page, a flyer, etc.
Syncing Online and Offline
And in regards to being able to sync online and offline databases, I cannot even imagine having to manage two separate buckets in that case! Today, customers and prospects choose whatever channel they want to use to communicate with us. That choice may vary across different circumstances.
By having an integrated database that is populated by multiple channels, companies can greatly improve their marketing and sales processes.
Making Sense of the Marketing Services Provider Transformation
NOTE: This is Part 2 of a 9-Part Series on Becoming a Marketing Services Provider
No matter how you dress it up, a printer is a printer. Most printers would say that it is their price and customer service that will set them apart. If everyone has the same recipe for setting themselves apart, how much difference is there?
The Practical But Necessary Steps
Becoming a marketing services provider takes some time, and there are some non-negotiable steps along the way to make the transformation complete. First, it is necessary for the online presence of the printer to be inviting, friendly, easy to use, interactive, and functional. The ability for your customers to order online is an important facet of the printer’s transformation. Customers should be able to upload mailing lists using the printer as an email service provider. They should also be able to access and download information to be distributed or printed in small quantities.
But having an online store does not automatically make you a marketing services provider. The printer has to examine cross-media marketing. As I state in the book, cross-media marketing is, “a form of cross-promotion in which promotional companies commit to surpassing the traditional advertisements and decide to include extra appeals for their offered products. The material can be communicated by any type of mass media such as e-mails, letters, web pages, or other recruiting sources.”
So you have become cross-promotional and web-friendly. Now you need to execute some campaigns.
The Importance of Self-Promotion
You are looking to drive traffic to a retail store, whether that store is brick and mortar or digital, and increase sales. There are steps that can be taken to ensure a successful campaign. Create postcards with personalized URL’s or QR codes to attract the attention of potential customers. 80% of all printed material ends up in the mail, and who knows how much of that immediately ends up in the trash. So personalizing gives your efforts a much higher chance to be received than a standardized mailer.
Once the recipient accesses the URL, have them confirm some information to expand and provide accuracy to your database. Then drive them to either take a survey or claim their special offer that you advertised on the mailer. After a couple weeks, follow up with non-responders. When customers do come into the store in response to a direct marketing campaign, track that information to measure the effectiveness. If it’s not effective, go back to the drawing board. This should hopefully all lead to increased profits, data on marketing campaign strategies, and customer contact information. All of this lends itself to one of the most important ideas in marketing: return on investment (ROI).
The Secret to Success
Data is everything. Make sure you aggregate a solid database to help you in your marketing efforts. The best database is one you create yourself. The most relevant information to your business is only known by your business. A list provider can only be so specific to your target audience.
Hop on the Mobile Train
One more big aspect of this chapter is about making print interactive. I mentioned QR codes earlier; they are the best way to integrate new media into your printed efforts. They are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by a smartphone, such as an iPhone or Android. Once scanned, they bring the user to a mobile website or landing page, creating an interactive experience for the customer. This mobile page will be stored in the phone for additional access later on, which means the proper information that you want read will be in the palm of the target audience’s hand.
The groundwork is being laid for the printer to become a full-fledged marketing services provider. In the next installment, we will talk about getting down to fundamentals to really complete the transformation.
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