Clearly the general manager didn’t understand the power of the on-line community.  The marketing manager had just come back from a presentation by one of the pre-eminent industry research experts.  Travel had changed.  People were more likely to book trips on-line between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM.  The other trend the speaker had highlighted was that travelers were more likely to take advice from strangers from the myriad websites that ranged from TripAdvisor to Yelp. While it was possible to reach out to those disgruntled guests and make amends, but the general manager had already dismissed any further action.  No one reads those comments.

Soon the problem became the perfect PR storm. It wasn’t just Trip Advisor or another on-line site. The writer from an international business journal had checked in to the hotel under an assumed name.  When the story ran, the illustration showed a huge spider with a tiny, frightened woman cowering under the covers for protection.  And even worse, she named names.  The phones rang. Reservations, weddings and business meetings were cancelling.  No one wanted to stay at such a ‘terrible place.’

As the damage mounted, the marketing manager called in reinforcements from the corporate office.  The director of marketing did understand and they created a plan that began with a conference call to the hotel.  The general manager and the staff prepared to look into problems that prompted the comments by the disgruntled guests.  The director of marketing and the marketing manager brainstormed ways to reach out to the people who had taken time to post those comments.

The next phase of the plan was to turn the tide of meeting and event cancellations. After working with the reservations department, the marketing manager decided to enlist help from an unlikely source.  The Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown had featured the hotel in an episode of Great Hotels. The marketing manager ordered DVDs of the episode.  Samantha Brown would be the new face of the hotel, showing potential guests and meeting planners around the beautiful grounds and historic buildings.

Within a few months, the guests were back and they were happy.  The hotel’s on-line presence reflected the changes. The general manager admitted that people did read the comments and that a plan was needed to make sure that manage the hotel’s on-line presence.

The take aways:

Yes, people do read those comments.

Any business should be aware of what customers are saying.

Listen and engage with your customers before complaints become the perfect PR storm.

Now it was time for the report from the marketing manager.  The metrics weren’t good. The SPAM complaints had reached an all time high.  Even more important more than 50% of the email remained unopened.  In the past, the email campaigns had been well received and the click-through rate was good.

The well-meaning sales manager looked down the conference table and demanded more action.  Sales are still down. The numbers are still down.  This time she was taking no prisoners. “What we need a bigger list.  After all marketing is a numbers game,” she said looking at the marketing manager.  “I’ve heard that there are companies that have lists for sale.  Find us a bigger list.”

All eyes turn to the marketing manager again, who had been waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Here it came. Yet  another  rerun of so many other meetings and more  flash backs to conversations with sales managers, high priced consultants and others who wanted to misuse one of the most cost effective marketing tools available.

The marketing manager took a deep breath and chose his words carefully. “As we’ve just seen, sending marketing messages to people who don’t want to hear from us was not a huge success.  Buying lists is even less likely to get the response you are after. I really don’t think this will be a good use of our resources.”

The warnings about the consequences of this action fell on deaf ears and the marketing manager was once again instructed to go ahead and find the bigger list then combine it with the new and improved list that had just been created in-house. Reluctantly, the marketing manager started searching for the bigger list.  First, he contacted the list house the company used for direct mail.  Yes, email addresses were available for purchase.  Looking at the sources the company had used for the direct mail, he pushed the button.  Thousands of new email addresses would be available.

Next, he found a broker specializing in email lists, all kinds of lists. After describing the company’s products, the broker came up with the ‘absolutely perfect list.’  But since the broker owned the list, he would have to be in charge of sending the email.  Thousands more new email addresses. The numbers were growing.

The email is configured with a heavy sales pitch. It went to the broker to send to his ‘absolutely perfect list’ and the thousands of new email addresses from the direct mail company were added into the new and improved in-house data base.  Once again email was blasted out. “It’s a numbers game.  I just know it,” the sales manager uttered as once again she walked away, with even greater visions of upward trending graphs in her head.

Two days after the blast, the sales manager confronts the marketing manager about the campaign.  “In all my 30 years in marketing, I’ve never seen such poor results,” exclaimed the well-meaning sales manager. “No one clicked-through from the new lists. Get that list brokers on the phone.  They must have given us the wrong lists.  That list broker probably didn’t send it on time. Get him to send it again.”

The marketing manager reviewed the report from the list broker and made the call. The list broker informed him that he got what he paid for – thousands of names for one time and a report after the send.  The email was indeed sent, the open rate was extremely poor and there were NO click-throughs. Sorry, the list house was not responsible for productivity of the list.

The other list from the direct mail house did somewhat better but the results weren’t great.  Since these people may have received some direct mail from the company, maybe they knew the company. Hard to know because, all the marketing manager was able to buy were email addresses and the complete database did not belong to his company.

Thousands of new email addresses were not the answer. It was a frustrating, expensive exercise that did not achieve the results.

The takeaways…

• The further away from your core base you go, the less likely people are going to care about your message or your company.
• People on these lists opted-in to something, but for what? They may have opted-in to ‘receive offers from one of our valued partners’ off of a campaign sent by another company with nothing in common with your products or services.
• Even worse, that company sold the lists and you don’t even know how many times.  What are the people on the list receiving? Are they suffering from email fatigue?
• Continuing to market to people who don’t want to hear from you would seem to be a venture with diminishing return.   Not only do you miss your audience, but most of these people could care less.

The search for the perfect list is a bit like searching for the Holy Grail.

Go back to the basics. Know your audience.  Learn as much as you possible can about them.  It’s not the number of people on your list, but who is on your list. Make friends first, and then make offers.  They will tell their friends.

For more information on email, see my posts – A Quick Guide to Email and Can’t we just last out to our entire database?  Contact us if you have other questions about email marketing.

The drama continues. “Couldn’t we just say something like ‘Ooops, some email addresses were not added to the newsletter database?’” she pleads.  “We would like to continue to send you information on our products and special offers available exclusively to friends and past customers so we hope you don’t mind us confirming your free subscription.  Besides they can just opt-out. We’ve got to do SOMETHING!”

All eyes turn to the marketing manager, who has been politely listing to the impassioned appeal.  It is a rerun of many other meetings in other conference rooms and a flash back to conversations with sales managers, high priced consultants and others who wanted to misuse one of the most powerful marketing tools available.

After a lot of verbal pushing and shoving, the marketing manager issues warnings about the consequences of this action but is instructed to go ahead. The email is configured and every available email address in any nook and cranny of the company is dumped into to the data base and blasted out.  The sales manager smugly walks away with visions of upward trending graphs in her head.

Within an hour of the blast, the phones in customer service begin to ring.  Irate callers demand to be removed from the list and never contacted again.  The spam complaints and unsubscribes skyrocket. The open rate is dismal.  No one forwarded to a friend.  Over the next week, instead of a sales increase, a sea of bad blood has spread.

Email is still one of the most tried and true ways to reach customers and generate a healthy ROI with a small investment.  It is a great compliment to Social Media. Misused, it can create more bad will and harm a company’s reputation.  Everyone hates SPAM. There is nothing worse than to open your inbox on a busy morning and find out that you have been invaded by uninvited marauders.  Strangers don’t want to hear from you. It’s no wonder they get annoyed and it’s not a good way to make friends. Now really, did the well-meaning sales manager want to have her company seen as an invasive, uninvited marauder?

Permission-based marketing is a wonderful thing.  When customers like your company, products and services, they raised their hands and invite you to market to them. Nothing could be better. When someone opts in to your email newsletter, they have just put out the digital welcome mat to their inbox and they trust you to be responsible.  A sweet deal for everyone.

Here are some tips for more successful email marketing.  A good database is gold. Opt-ins are a good thing so treat your subscribers with respect.  They want to hear from you.  Remember, it’s not the size of your list, it is who is on the list. Make friends first, and then make offers.

For more information on email, see my post A Quick Guide to Email.

Some of the most successful marketers come from some of the most unsuspected and perhaps unusual places. In 1992, Carol Ann Sayle and Larry Butler bought a historic farm in an East Austin neighborhood and have been growing some of the most amazing organic vegetables at Boggy Creek Farm ever since. Over the years, they have attracted a loyal following to their farm stand.  Austin is a tech town and one of the customers offered to create a website for the farm in the mid 90’s.  By 1997, Carol Ann took Boggy Creek one step further into the on-line community when she launched “News of the Farm.”  It may have been first email newsletters produced by a farmer and it continues.

The first issue was “what-we’re-going-to-have at the farm stand” and there were only about 20 subscribers. After a massacre in the hen house, Carol Ann added a paragraph that described the tragic tale as a way to let subscribers know that there would be no eggs at the next market. Everyone on the list emailed back with great alarm and sympathy, they passed the email along to friends.

As the years have gone by, Carol Ann has regaled subscribers with tales of the farm.  She writes stories about the characters that populate the farm that include the people who work the land, the chickens and sometimes more nefarious visitors like the ice cream thieves who helped spawn a new flavor after their criminal assault on the freezer. She adds other personal observations to each issue. Over the years, the email chronicled events that range the death of Aunt Penny, the farm’s “spokes hen” and the crop failure of the Roma tomatoes, the source of Larry’s famous smoke-dried tomatoes. The stories are followed up by a link to list of “what-we’re-going-to-have at the farm stand.”

People seek out Boggy Creek Farm after receiving the email. They arrive at the farm stand from destinations as diverse as Seattle and Dallas for the first time asking about the characters from the newsletter and request farm specialties like Gause Yaupon honey and Larry’s smoke dried tomatoes.  The email has also created on-line relationships with readers from around the country who regularly email Carol Ann back after a newsletter has gone out.  The inbound email ranges from condolences over the death of Aunt Penny to requests for products like the smoke dried tomatoes to people requesting advice for their home garden.

Marketers spend millions on research and strategy.  How many CMOs really know their customers or what they want?  Sometimes the answer lies in ideas from one of those unsuspected places like a small farm in East Austin.

What can you learn from Carol Ann?

How can you build relationships with your customers and community?

How can you get people to really care about your product or service?

Can you transcend a business relationship on- line and create committed friends?

Is a large budget necessary to create a successful email campaign?

For Carol Ann, the cost is finding time to gather her thoughts and prepare the email.

Does the size of the list matter? Do you really know who is on your list?

A good question that pops up in so many marketing conversations. Carol Ann has just 3650 subscribers, many of whom have been on the list for over a decade and they do forward to a friend.  They live around the country and on other continents.

“News of the Farm” is the best testimony to the adage that it’s not the number of people on your list, but the relationship you build with them that really matters.

Be authentic. Speak in your own voice.

Carol Ann has created an electronic welcome mat for people to connect to the farm and they do. How can you to the same for your business?

Check out www.boggycreekfarm.com and sign up for News of the Farm.

Things have changed. Learn about CAN-SPAM. Sending unsolicited email or spamming people or can get your email blocked by major ISPs and you will not be notified.  ISPs and domains no longer just filter on content or spam complaints but check the reputations of business and commercial email senders. Take an active role in developing a good email reputation by understanding using best practices to make sure your email reaches your customers’ inbox.

Offer your potential audience the opportunity to opt-in to your email, by providing several opportunities to sign up. It’s not a numbers game. Don’t let enthusiasm to grow your list compromise best practices and your email reputation. Never harvest addresses from info@ or common addresses. Maintaining a clean list is critical and provides better results. Too many bounces or spam complaints will endanger your ability to get your email through. Read the reports from the ISPs and take action by cleaning your list frequently. Sending to old addresses can also affect your email reputation. Discard bad addresses and domains. Move inactive addresses to another list to contact individually at a later date.

Be clear about the kind of messages you are sending. Are they commercial or informational? Provide meaningful content that is wanted and valued. Make sure the “From” line contains easily identifiable information, a key to increasing open rates. Monitor the open rates and track any click through activity to your website. The best barometer of your ability to create interest is the unsubscribe rate. Identify trends before your marketing objectives are compromised.

Use the right tools. There are a number of easy-to-use do-it-yourself email tools with varying capability for reporting but these are just tools.  Many of the larger Email service providers offer advice on best practices.  They also offer great newsletters, white papers, tips and tricks but track trends. These are great for digging a bit deeper into the secrets of email. Before selecting a commercial email partner, interview several companies.  Services vary and remember they will be the keepers of your data and your email reputation.

One thing to remember, it’s all about your list. Don’t limit your data collection to just email addresses.  Get complete contact information so you can begin to build a data warehouse of your contacts to be utilized for other off line marketing activates. The more you know about your contacts, the easier it is to tailor your offerings.  A fully integrated marketing program takes advantage of all the marketing media to improve your ROI, keep your customers engaged and provide a road map for the success of your business.

Consistency is key.  ROI and ROA are important, but providing a sense of connection between your company and your constituents is priceless. Have fun.

Knowing who your customers are can be more powerful if you have the right data to know and reach your target. Understanding past behavior can be critical in defining the parameters of any direct mail campaign. Taking data from your business and appending customer records with information relevant to your goals are critical to the success of any marketing campaign.  A good list house is an invaluable partner in defining a campaign but a specialized CRM vendor can create magic with your data.
A Case Study

Projections for the upcoming summer season for a well known Mid-Atlantic resort were not matching expectations.  Looking at significant needs for the upcoming summer, direct mail was chosen as the way to reach new guests and drive occupancy.

As part of an on-going data management effort, one of the most effective CRM vendors in hospitality had been contracted to export data from the property management system of the resort into a specialized database and append the information from public and other sources on weekly basis.  The extensive data base contained critical attributes of past guests, defined by profile and behavioral patterns as well as annual business cycles and patterns. This ongoing effort was used to provide data to guide future marketing efforts.

The summer direct mail campaign was created by “cloning” the characteristics defined in the CRM database of past guests to create attributes for the new guests.  From the data we knew they were families, they attended amusement parks, their spending patterns and other desirable characteristics. A “cloned” list with the key characteristics was acquired for a region located 150 miles away to promote overnight stays. The first of the personalized two postcard campaign, was sent to the new list in early May before most plans for summer vacations were firm.  A second card dropped just around July 4 to capture any family planning a second getaway. The campaign generated over $1 million in revenue for the season by Labor Day and created new guests for the property. It was all about talking to the right people at the right time with a pertinent offer.  Is your business ready to generate more revenue with direct mail?
What success stories can you share? Have you had a direct mail failure?

(My post originally appeared as an e-tip on bronsonma.com. Reprinted with permission)

1. Thinking that huge lists are necessary to produce results. It’s not the number of people who are on the list, but who is there and what you know about them. Again, tracking the results can make future campaigns much more effective.

2. Undervaluing the importance of the right CRM system. One size does not fit all. It is worth investing in the right tool or vendor to reach marketing goals. A specialist may be a better choice than widely used software. Really using the tool to acquire specific data is the next crucial step.

3.  Timing is everything. Having the offer in the right hands at the right time is critical. Direct mail campaigns fail, even with qualified lists when they are launched at the wrong time.

A Case Study

A small, custom salad and sandwich shop was opening in an upscale neighborhood of a medium size Central Texas city along a busy highway, with heavy traffic going 60 miles an hour. There were almost no walk in  customers.   The challenge was to reach people who lived in the area and as with all start ups, the marketing budget was tight.

Looking at the three zip codes adjacent to the location, the numbers of addresses exceeded the budget for the project.  In addition to the cost, there were several geographic challenges to operating a successful delivery business.  The plan for the direct mail involved an announcement with an attractive offer sent to a modest list of 5,000 homes in the neighborhoods and subdivisions only within two miles of the restaurant. After the post card dropped, business picked up significantly bringing 150 new customers into the location in the first two days, post cards in hand.  On line and fax orders were also up. Over the next two weeks, new patrons continued to show up with the post cards. It was a great introduction to the neighborhood.  We added information about these new customers to our database and prepared a comeback offer.

The right offer to the right list.  Append, append, append.

Takeaways – Direct mail shouldn’t be  a shot gun approach.  Be strategic. Know your customers and tailor your campaigns to your audience for the best results.

What success stories can you share? Have you had a direct mail failure?

(Parts of this post originally appeared as an e-tip on bronsonma.com. Reprinted with permission)

(The first in a series of discussions on direct mail).

Combining the right components to work together in a direct mail campaign can keep your direct mail marketing efforts and budget from being wasted. Just like making sure the strategy, messaging and creative are all in line with your marketing efforts, making sure the right data is used in combination with a direct mail campaign that will reach your audience that drives sales.

Do you know who your customers are?

It takes a powerful combination of the right data to effectively reach your target. CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is so much more than buying the right software or list. The secret to CRM is the continual collection of pertinent data for defined marketing goals and objectives. Appending customer records on an ongoing basis with information relevant to your business is critical to growing the usefulness of any list. The goal is to match the offer with the right customer. It’s important to fish where the fish are.

How do you continue to refine your knowledge of your customers?

Tracking the responses from any direct mail campaign is extremely critical. Integrating the results into the CRM system to enhance relevant data more completely defines the customer for future marketing. Do you really want to  send to people who didn’t respond to your offer?

Come back and other offers are another good way to improve the reach of a direct mail campaign. Evaluate ROI to determine the cost of customer acquisition and if direct mail works for your business.

What success stories can you share? Have you had a direct mail failure?

(My post originally appeared as an e-tip on bronsonma.com. Reprinted with permission)

Marilyn McCray