Tag Archives: customer engagement

Here’s how personalised magazines always over-engage readers for an outstanding CX…

13 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by in Advertising, B2B Marketing, BIG DATA, Branding, Digital marketing, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Media, QR Codes, small data, social selling

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Please accept my apology for the jargon overload in the headline. Back in pre-history, around 2004, I helped a number of competing print companies launch their Variable Data Digital Printers via a series of seminars, trade shows and other marketing activity.

This disruptive technology delivered what many now call data-driven marketing. It was simply the use of relevant data to digitally print personalised publications and link readers to personalised landing pages. An undigi-believable omni-channel breakthrough. But let’s just pretend data-driven marketing is only five year’s old like most digital marketers believe it to be, so as not to confuse them.

One of the most successful promotions and product demonstrations we did, was to personalise the cover of a number of Marketing magazines for individual subscribers. We also personalised the accompanying advertisement to the subscriber inside the respective issues, as well as the landing page.

At the time, the Editor of Marketing magazine said the covers were the most talked about in the history of the publication. They had never had such a positive response. He said subscribers were ringing and writing to congratulate them. It was massive engagement to use today’s jargon.

Leap forward to 2018 and a few months ago I was asked by Kellie Northwood, the Publisher of VoPP magazine, to be the Guest Editor. I readily accepted and suggested the magazine be customised for those on the database. Kellie agreed.

Well VoPP has just hit the streets, and this customised version demonstrates the power of print when it comes to engaging susbcribers via personalisation.

Here’s the outer envelope:

Here’s the personalised magazine cover:

There is a customised message on the cover for each of the key subscriber groups, as well as a custom background colour. If you scan the QR Code it takes you to a PURL where you can complete a survey. There is a segmented group title printed below the code – mine is Agency/Retailer on this edition. And to add some polish there’s a spot fluoro ink printed on the QR code too. The story of how it was produced is in the magazine.

Here are examples from 2004/5:

Fuji Xerox – personalised message on the screen:

Personalised ad on back cover:

Personalised ad inside the front cover:

PURL – Personalised URL:

Direct Smile font printed via HP Indigo:

Personalised advertisement on back cover:

.Another issue:

Penfold Buscombe printed these versions with personal message written on the street sign and the image of the relevant capital city in the rear view mirror:

Customised versions by State printed using postcode data:

VoPP stands for Value of Paper and Print. If you’d like to get a FREE copy of VoPP Mag, visit the website to subscribe: http://valueofpaperandprint.com.au/subscribe/

I’m off to read this issue, there’s an interesting guest editor…

Simple mathematics reveals Facebook engagement is less than letterbox leaflets…

08 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by in Digital, Digital marketing, Marketing, Marketing Automation, Social Media, social selling

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For a couple of years now dear reader, I have been presenting the mathematics of Facebook at marketing events. Each time I invite members of the audience to challenge them and put me straight, to make sure the numbers are correct. But nobody questions the numbers. They just nod in agreement.

Recently I’ve also replied to sales pitches from alleged Facebook experts in my inbox, and replied by inviting their assistance – with no response. But as you know, marketing automation doesn’t allow you to fake sincerity. So I don’t know if my messages have been received and ignored, or not received at all, due to the weaknesses prevalent in most marketing automation systems. That is, when you reply to a message, it gets lost in cyber-space because humans do not monitor the computers.

One issue I have with the numbers, is that I have to rely on Facebook – take it at Facevalue so to speak – when it comes to statistics. And as one of the most dishonest brands when it comes to user statistics, the numbers given out by Facebook always feel dodgy. After all FB regularly claims to have more users in an age demographic, than the living population of that demographic.

Last week folks, Facebook announced its fake accounts to be 270 million – way more than it alleged only a week earlier. Many suspect the real number of fake accounts to be much higher. It’s why so many marketers refer to FB as:

The figure for inactive accounts appears to be unknown. I have at least 3 inactive accounts that are still sitting idle and get the occasional view – according the the FB bots that notify me.

Interestingly, every teenager I know – mates of my kids – has at least one fake FB account. They use the account to log-in to games and other sites that force you to use FB to log-in. The kids don’t post to the account. The account names are fictitious. They only use the accounts for log-ins. So they are active accounts, just not socially active. Who knows how many millions of these false accounts exist around the planet? One can only assume they are included in FB’s statistics of active accounts?

So here’s the maths for you – all numbers are alleged, and taken from reputable online sources:

Total monthly active accounts = 2,000,000,000

Less fake accounts = 270,000,000

Less business accounts = 100,000,000

Less ad blockers (the single biggest consumer protest in history) = 700,000,000

Leaves alleged active accounts = 930,000,000

Percentage of users an ad on FB can reach is way less than 5%, but say 10%.

Advertising Reach = 93,000,000

Maximum engagement (Forrester and others) = 0.7%, but say 1%

Active engagement = 930,000

930,000/2,000,000,000 = 0.00465

So average active engagement = less than half of one percent!!!

This is less than an unaddressed letterbox leaflet.

That’s not so say FB won’t pay for itself, but it’s not viable for all brands or categories.

I have a number of clients who find it pays and others that don’t – it’s horses for courses. And FB is rarely the primary media channel for doing business. It’s just another channel you test and learn, then use if it works profitably.

I welcome any input into the numbers please. Also suggest you read the Ad Contrarian, Bob Hoffman for some more facts and revelations.

Gotta go – need to post this blog to reach the handful of humans who will actively engage with it on FB…

The annual Superbowl advertiser churn rate continues again this year…

08 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Advertising, Branding, Digital, Digital marketing, Marketing, Media, Sales, Social Media

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Here we go again folks – the longest hour of the year is upon us. Some say this hour lasts 6 months given all the media hype, but for those who just watch NFL once a year, it fills most of a day.

This is the time when the single largest flush of the US toilet system occurs. It’s the same time every year – the first 2 minutes of half time in the Superbowl. It occurs because millions of television viewers rush to the loo to drain the gallons of Budweiser, Miller, Sam Adams, Coors, etc they have been chugging down during the previous 3 hours of the first half.

toilet bowl

It also happens to be the most expensive television advertising time slot on the planet, which means an awful lot of marketing money gets flushed down the sewer, as viewers relieve themselves rather than watch the ads.

To ensure people do cross their legs and watch in discomfort, the advertising break has become an event in itself, with leaks (excuse the pun) weeks before the ads are shown on the TV. Advertisers spend a fortune in PR to get people to watch their ads. You can read here the list of brands advertising this year.

Most interesting though, is the annual churn rate of advertisers from the previous year. Only about one third of advertisers return each year to advertise, as the majority of advertisers don’t believe they get value for money. Yet there are those who return every year, because it seems to work for them.

Interestingly too, is how this is always ignored by the advertising trade press, as they fall in love with the publicity and help fuel the promotion of the ads, rather than the performance of the ads. Though I’m sure we’ll hear about brands who establish Social Media Mission Control Rooms – or SMMCR for short.

These highly expensive executive teams spend their Sunday based in a SMMCR responding to Tweets, trying to create publicity around the fact they spend their Sunday in a SMMCR responding to Tweets. That’s a career highlight you’d want to share with your grandkids, hey? Though I suspect, as I’ve shared before, this will be the best use of much of their efforts:

shitter_twitter_1

I have written about the super flush in previous years. And I even put the theory to test with the Sydney Water Board during the Grand Final of the Rugby League, between Canberra and Penrith, in 1991. Sure enough, the single biggest sewerage flow of the year occurred in the first couple of minutes of half time.

Though I suppose one benefit of mobile devices is the ability to stream coverage onto them. So maybe the fans will be able to multi-task and watch the ads while they perform their ablutions? Though given the inebriated  state of some of the fans, I dread what will happen to their phones…

cell-phone-toilet

I wonder if you can insure for it?

Those two marketers walk into a bar and laugh at content marketing tools…

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by in Content Marketing, Copywriting, Digital, Digital marketing

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Those two marketers find the secret content curation tool used by “experts” who peddle content marketing as the foundation for business success. Watch the content appear before your eyes…

Click here to view

avagoodweegend…

B2B B.S. bodes badly but bothers bugger-all bosses…

26 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by in B2B Marketing, Branding, Content Marketing, Copywriting, Digital, Email marketing, Marketing

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I received an email a couple of days ago from someone I don’t believe I know. He has the flash title of Head of Customer Engagement, at a company called nearmap. It started as follows:

Hi Malcolm,

I hope that you’re well.

I tried call earlier this week and your front desk asked me to send this email. As your company attended ADMA and so did we; I wanted to bring the below to your attention with a 20% discount and the first 3 months unlimited data package.

While I appreciate the sentiment about my health, the paragraph is a complete fantasy and almost illiterate.

Hello! I Hope You Are Well And Happy

I guess he uses spell checker – “I tried call”, as against “I tried to call” or “I tried calling”. Regardless, I did not get any call earlier in the week, as I don’t have a land line, only a mobile. And like everyone else with a mobile I can track my calls.

hello

More significantly, as I currently work from a home office, I do not have a front desk – let alone one that can speak. And I’ve never known any sort of furniture that can communicate like humans. Are there some sort of new digital desks with the ability to answer phone calls, manage diaries and send emails? Look out human receptionists.

The next sentence intrigued me as well. He says my company attended ADMA. My company? Does that include the amazing talking furniture, the files, computers, bookkeeper, accountant and other staff? Did we all front-up to the office of ADMA’s CEO and hang out?

If as I assume, he means I attended the ADMA Forum, his small data is corrupt. I didn’t attend this year. But I’m pleased he did and hope it helped his customer engagement.

As for my attendance being the reason he “wanted to bring the below to your attention with a 20% discount and the first 3 months unlimited data package” I have no idea what the statement means. And the rest of the email gave me no clues either.

I won’t bore you dear reader with the rest of the message. Suffice to say the majority of it talked about his company. There was no attempt to determine if I was even a prospect. And there was no other mention of the “20% discount and 3 months unlimited data package”.

no-discount

Though there was one sentence that peaked my curiosity and had me concerned I wasn’t up with my acronyms and jargon:

“Our PhotoMaps are served straight to your web browser via our website or alternatively via our WMS to use directly within your CAD/GIS as a mapping layer.”

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to drop a reference to GIS or WMS into a conversation, though I’m sure I will find a way?

He finished with: “Looking forward to hearing your thoughts so that we can set up a call to go through a full demo.”

Even that final sentence defies logic. Set up a call to go through a full demo? Is the demo over the phone? Is it a video call? Do we have to set up a call to set up the demo while on the call?

looking forward

If this is the quality of direct marketing in the digital world, then we may as well give up now. You cannot build a business using lies. At least if you are going to lie, make an attempt to write with some clarity, so your message has some chance of being read.

Maybe our schools are to blame? You only have to mark a few university assignments to realise the literacy problems throughout our education system.

illiteracy

Of course the real question has to be where did he get my email address – I doubt ADMA would be giving away contact details without permission? And given I didn’t attend how could I be on their list of delegates?

Regardless, how does somebody with a job title of Head of Customer Engagement, get away with this appalling communication? It’s no wonder content marketing is getting such a high profile.

Just write stuff, don’t ask for the order and business will take care of itself.

I wonder if the Head of the Company knows how the business is engaging customers? Does anyone even care anymore?

keep-calm-and-don-t-care-anymore-2

I can’t wait for the omni-channel follow-up…