Marketing Productivity Blog

There’s been another eruption of discussion on Engagement.  If (like me) you’re more interested in the higher level ideas not so oriented towards the “tool” aspects of this discussion, make sure you catch this post and hefty comments.  For more, also here, here, and here.

At a high level, there really are 2 kinds of Engagement, and I think it would be helpful for us to start differentiating between them.

(more…)

I’ve spoken in the past about our local CBS affiliate WTSP-10 and their Moms Tampa Bay effort as a great example of “old media” that gets Social and has created something quite powerful using that ‘ol stick of theirs.

WTSP’s 6 PM newscast now features “news pics” sent in by viewers in almost every show.  They headline the story, run through the video they have, and on the way out, the anchor says,

“Here’s some pictures of the scene sent in by our viewers”.

Nice effort to be more interactive.  If I was going to Optimize it, I’d like to see it a bit more personalization, which increases the prep time, of course.  But it would be nice to hear the anchor say “Jody in Seminole sent us this picture” or something similar. 

(more…)

Optimizing Individual Communications

Where the Band 4 Optimization optimizes general communications like newsletters, the Band 5 Optimization is all about hyper-targeted communications to individuals.  We’re talking mostly about special circumstance stuff here, more exotic ideas that may actually fall outside what you might traditionally think of as “Marketing”. 

If Band 4 is the “Air Cover“, Band 5 is Special Ops (see Band Model).

In Band 5, you basically have algorithms of various kinds that are ”sniffing” the databases looking for special situations that have exceedingly high ROMI.  Often, these ideas deal in one way or another with high value customers that appear to be dis-Engaging; many of these scenarios related to Marketing, Service, or Product in one way or another.

(more…)

After the lessons we learned in the Band 1 and 2 Optimizations (see Band diagram) for HSN, we were able to reallocate that budget to invest in Band 3 - Optimizing the Interface.  We realized during the previous Optimizations we were already getting a tremendous amount of traffic through channel surfer / clickers, but this traffic was not “converting”.  In other words, we really needed to Optimize the “Landing Page” for this existing audience - the TV show itself.

Don’t suppose the above scenario sounds at all familiar to the web analytics folks out there - you know, “more traffic, any traffic” is the answer?  Oops, maybe not, what about higher conversion?

I won’t bother providing the Band 3 example for the web; you all know what Optimizing Landing pages / web sites is about, or can certainly find that info elsewhere.  However, you might find the Optimization of a TV shopping channel interesting…

(more…)

Now that we’ve had some discussion on the ideas behind these charts, let’s dig deeper into the Marketing Bands chart and review details at each level (click for a larger image in a new window):

What we have here is a chart of the optimized interactive Marketing Bands system we developed at HSN, with an overlay of comparable online Tactics in red (Band numbers in Blue).

After nearly a decade of testing, we arrived at the place where each dollar of marketing spend - at each level - yielded the highest profitability to the company.  Many of the examples here pertain directly to web marketing, and I promise I’ll be specific on that.

(more…)

So, we had some good ”translation” discussions on the HSN Marketing process document, and the idea that there are a couple of ways to look at “Segments”. 

It’s my belief that if you start with Communication Segments (an idea we finally arrived at with the HSN Optimization in 1993) and then move to Visitor or Customer Segments, you will end up with a clearer, more actionable picture in the end. 

If each Band has a single Objective, and you Optimize to this single Objective, you will end up Optimizing the entire system because Visitors / Customers naturally flow down through the Bands as they pass through the LifeCycle.

There’s really no concrete benefit, on either side, to send the same message to all the folks in these different Bands.  That approach is inefficient at the least and irritating to the customer at the most!

(more…)

Not sure if all the web analytics folks out there will appreciate this post, but I’m pretty sure at least some of you are interested in how all the things we talk about in the Web Analytics / Database Marketing world fit into the larger world of Marketing.  So following on a question from Judah on depth of segmentation, and a post you should read from Gary on joining behavioral and demo / psycho segments, I thought I would offer this example.

One of the challenges people seem to have with behavioral segmentation is finding a way to organize it in their mind.  It just seems too overwhelming to think of Marketing to individuals at the “right time” based on behavior as opposed to some “calendar” idea where you communicate to everybody at once. 

If you want to create a “structure” or “process” to hang behavioral communications on, try this one.

Below is a chart I created in 1993 to explain what Marketing looked like at HSN (you can click for a larger image in a new window):

(more…)

I got e-mail on the review I did of Akin’s new book.

“How is this book different from your book or Kevin’s books?”

Fair question.  Both Akin and Kevin read this blog and are free to add their voices and describe their books here in their own words.  I don’t presume for a second to be a “judge” of other people’s work - at least in this case.

Fundamentally, I think the difference between the books is the writer. 

I’m a Marketing guy, Kevin is an Analyst, Akin (I believe) was / is a Software Engineer.  So even through we talk about a lot of similar things, we approach these topics differently.

The intent of my book is to explain how very simple customer models can be used to drive tremendous increases in profitability, in virtually any business.  The book is about Marketing, it talks about how to create and measure Campaigns that maximize customer value while lowering costs.

Kevin’s books focus on multichannel retailing specifically, bringing varied and deep, often complex analytical insights to bear on this business model.  His books are about Analysis, models you can use to bring strategic insight to the business.

Akin’s book defines and explains a way to think about, measure, and execute Marketing in a complex multi-channel communications environment.  His book describes a System or “RoadMap”, a step-by-step way to break down this challenge and understand it.

There are similarities and differences between all these approaches.

The really interesting thing to me is this: across all three books, there isn’t any directly conflicting information or guidance, yet there isn’t a lot of redundancy either.  There are preferences for certain ways to approach Marketing issues, to be sure. 

But like I said, I think that’s simply based on where the writer comes from, what their background and experience is.

While we’re talking about Database Marketing books, any further suggestions on good books?  Please give a brief recap of the book.

Metrics and Methods for On and Offline Success, so goes the subtitle of this book.  This is a fantastic piece of work by Akin, who I have known for quite some time - since the early days of eMetrics.

What’s so good about this book?  Well, this is a tough space to write for, this seam where Marketing and Technology meet.  There’s an audience on either side and you’re writing down the middle.  Akin has done a great job producing a work that should have both sides paying attention and hopefully will provide a platform for better communication with each other.

The framework he chose for the book is a brilliant approach.

First, a dissection of Online, Direct, and Brand Marketing.  What are the metrics and methods that drive each of them?  How is each of these Marketing disciplines handling the multichannel challenge within their own silos, and what are they probably missing because of silos?

This first part of the book I think will be widely appreciated, especially on the Technology side, for laying out in a logical way what the various Marketing factions are up to, why they do what they do, and how they look at measurement.  I find in the web space particularly lots of people have 1999-era notions of what “Measuring Marketing” is.  Akin provides really great background here, lots of detail on where the various measurement approaches come from and how they are used. 

This Online, Direct, and Brand Marketing structure becomes the backbone of the book, it continues throughout the entire work and provides the reference point, the base for understanding.  Very smart idea, it brings everybody to the party.

In Part 2, Akin looks at why the various factions should be sharing their metrics and methods, how fusing the various multichannel measurement approaches developed by Online, Direct, and Brand Marketers results in a whole better than the sum of parts.  This section really digs into which metrics and measurement approaches are best for different situations and levels of available data.  I really like this “cascading” approach to data.  Got a little data?  Look at measurement this way.  Got more data?  Think about measurement this way.  Got a ton of data?  Here’s the best way to look at measurement.

This section really gets into the whole control group issue, and why, if you can, you should Measure Customers, not Campaigns, to determine your success.  Response is one thing, lift can be quite another.  Once this idea becomes fully embraced by the web analytics community, it’s going to be very disruptive.  But using controls is standard procedure in the BI world, so trust me, it’s coming to web analytics.

In Part 3, Akin flows it all together, providing sequential examples using the Attract & Acquire, Engage & Covert, Grow LifeTime Value metaphor.  What does truly integrated (no silos) multichannel Marketing look like in practice?  What do you do and how do you measure the results?  Now we’re cutting waste and improving Marketing Productivity throughout the entire Customer LifeCycle.

This section is notable for the use of case studies and detailed examples of what it looks like when you are actually maximizing value in an integrated way across all the touchpoints.  What Marketing looks like as it morphs from the ancient offline calendar-based Campaign model into the “right person, at the right time, with the right message”, Measure Customers not Campaigns approach.

This book is a significant addition to the knowledge base, particularly in the area of integrating Brand Measurement into the overall customer management picture.  He also provides a fabulous aggregation of Brand Measurement research sources I found very useful. 

Notable brand new ideas that I’m not aware of seeing anywhere else are the Maturity of Multi-channel Profiles idea and the Cross-Channel Funnel Report.  There are numerous other concepts that may not be brand new to the reader but are expressed in new or unique ways that are better than what has come before.

Fantastic job, really.  I’d call the book a must read, the kind of book I absolutely would not hesitate to hand to Senior Marketing folks and say, “Read this, it’s about where we are going”.

Probably wouldn’t use those exact words, but you get the idea…

As for the relevance of the picture below, see page 144 in Akin’s book!

The Education Committee of the Web Analytics Association is pleased to present the Knowledge Required for Certification document to the Web Analytics community for comment.  This document contains a detailed overview of what a candidate should know and be able to do to pass the Web Analytics Association Certification Test:

Knowledge Required for Certification Page

The document is available as a 37 page PDF or you can view it online as a series of web pages organized around core topics:

Site Optimization
Marketing Optimization
Analytical Business Culture

Feedback on this doc is welcomed on the WAA Blog post for the document; you do not have to be a WAA member to leave a comment.  An overview of the Certification Test project and projected timeline info are provided here.

We’re hoping to do a trial run of the Certification Test at the eMetrics Optimization Summit this fall in DC to uncover problems and issues, with actual testing to begin some time in 2009.

Many thanks to the more than 60 WAA member volunteers who worked on the various projects that have resulted in this document, including the development of the WAA / UBC Courses.  You don’t have to take the Courses to sit for the Certification Test, but all the Knowledge Required to pass the Certification Test is covered in the 4 WAA / UBC Courses.

Any comments or questions about the document itself (what is or is not included, for example) or the WAA Certification in general should be posted to the WAA blog rather than here.

Frankly, I’m relieved this document has finally been published!