2018 tempo awards - CADM

NewadMarks-Dec2017.qxd:CADMNewadMarks

11/10/17

3:10 PM

Page 1

adMarks

2 3 6 7 8 10 11

FROM THE CADM BOARD CADM CALENDAR MARKETING VIA TEXT MESSAGE IN MULTICHANNEL PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING

Nominate Response Marketing Professionals for 2018 Tempo Awards Note that this year’s much-anticipated Tempo Awards Gala will be held June 21, 2018. The Tempo Awards honors response marketing talent as well as works. Nominate your colleagues through February 23 for the following awards:

•

BUILDING YOUR BEST SUBJECT LINE A BETTER MEETING FOLLOW-UP EMAIL DM EXPERTS OCTOBER MEETUP

CADM Corporate Sponsors

2017 Charles S. Downs Response Marketer of the Year recipient Pradeep Kumar with CADM President Josh Blacksmith.

•

The Charles S. Downs Award: Chicago Response Marketer of the Year. Named for Charles S. Downs, a founder of CADM and its first president from 1955 to 1957, this prestigious award recognizes one individual for his or her outstanding achievements within Chicago’s Multichannel Response Marketing Community and beyond. The Susan Kryl Award: Silver Marketers of the Year. Named for influential Past CADM President Susan Kryl, this award recognizes up to three individuals, with at least 25 years’ experience, for their outstanding achievements within Chicago’s MR Marketing Community.

•

•

The EL Award: Emerging Leaders of the Year. This award will be presented to up to five multichannel response marketers, with 2–8 years of experience, who have had an impact in their company and/or community. The Pat Wheelless Award: Mentor of the Year. This award recognizes a response marketer who has made an outstanding contribution to being a positive influence in the lives and careers of others.

Nominators and nominees must be CADM members. Access nomination forms at www.cadm.org/tempo-awards.

•

What was YOUR best 2017 marketing work? TEMPO Portal Opens January 2 — Nominations for June 21 Event

★

2018 TEMPO AWARDS

★

See page 3 and cadm.org/tempo-awards for more

4 Mistakes I Learned about Marketing and Data While Working at a Fortune 50 Company By Jon Clark Reprinted from kissmetrics.com See more at bit.ly/2xYrLRH

12

201 7 VOL. 23 • ISSUE NO. 10 • DECEMBER ’17 adMarks is printed by

SG360 Wheeling, IL

For the past nearly three years, I’ve been in charge of Audience Development for one of the largest media companies in the US. I learned a LOT during that time. Even more important, I learned a lot about what NOT to do. Not all of these things were personal ‘mistakes’ per se. Some were top down decisions that were influenced by lack of foresight, knowledge or budget. Others were due to an industry that is undergoing rapid change.

As John Powell said, “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” To that end, here are the top 4 mistakes I learned from during my tenure. I hope sharing these will spark some good discussion and feedback. 1 Not Investing in Building User Data

This one definitely took me by surprise. When I arrived, I had big plans to leverage CRM data to build remarketing pools, lookalike audiences, email campaigns, etc. But there was no CRM database. One thing not often considered about media companies is the fact the consumer

›4


11/10/17

3:10 PM

Page 2

from theBoard

2

Connecting …Sharing … Giving Back

CADM Mission Statement Ignition Is Our Mission. As Chicago's collaborative community for multichannel response marketers, CADM sparks ideas, business relationships and career growth.

2017–18 Leadership Team PRESIDENT Peter Dovnar, Everspring Inc. VICE PRESIDENT Rosann Bartle, UMarketing SECRETARY Zachary Kieltyka, FCB TREASURER Tom Byrne, Byrne Direct Marketing IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

By Betsy Harman Connecting, sharing, and giving back. That’s what the CADM Direct From The Heart Initiative is all about. Direct From The Heart has been a part of CADM since 1997. Members often mention that Direct from The Heart is one of the reasons they joined CADM. As someone who has worked for and with nonprofits my entire career, that’s true for me. Over the years the initiative has taken various forms from speakers bureau, to pro-bono project match-maker for small nonprofit projects, to educational content producer, but at its core, it’s simply about connecting, sharing, and giving back.

“…Take a moment to think about how you can give back to the local nonprofit community and about the expertise you might like to share with local nonprofit organizations in the coming months.”

Josh Blacksmith, FCB DIRECTORS Candy Amato, Oracle Andrew Calmontes, Direct ON Betsy Harman, Feeding America Suzy Jackson, Epsilon Marisa Marinelli, Quad/Graphics Executive Director Glenda Berg Sharp, CAE adMarks Editorial Committee: Andy Gold, ASG Direct, Editor Rich Hagle, Racom Communications, Editor Emeritus Marisa Marinelli, Quad/Graphics, Advertising Manager Marilyn Markle, MarkleDesign Group For a complete contact list of CADM’s volunteer leaders, visit www.cadm.org.

adMarks (ISSN# 1083-611X) (USPS # 13036) is published monthly except combined issues of april/may and august/september by CADM P.O. Box 578 Westmont, Illinois 60559-0578 312.849.CADM (2236) www.cadm.org Periodical postage paid in Oak Brook, Illinois Postmaster: Send address changes to adMarks c/o CADM P.O. Box 578 Westmont, Illinois 60559-0578 Each CADM member receives a copy of adMarks as a member benefit. © 2017 CADM All rights reserved.

Our small Direct from The Heart Committee has a lot of ideas and is working on ways to forge connections between the multi-channel response marketing experts in our membership and the nonprofit community. Keep your eyes on the CADM website and on adMarks for information about specific events or opportunities. The committee’s first accomplishment this year though was to update our goal statement. Many thanks to Lori Osborne for leading this important effort. The statement reads: CADM’s Direct From The Heart community outreach supports local nonprofit organizations through two initiatives: 1. offering multichannel response marketing expertise to assist with the creation of successful individual giving and donor campaigns; and 2. encouraging CADM members to engage with and support the cause of local nonprofits through individual efforts and programmed events. As we near the holiday season and you think about all the things in your life that you are grateful for, please take a moment to think about how you can give back to the local nonprofit community and about the expertise you might like to share with local nonprofit organizations in the coming months. There are some very easy ways to give back to the community. Consider inviting a nonprofit staff member to be your guest at a CADM educational event. Help an organization with their entry to the Tempo Awards. Forward an article from adMarks that includes helpful marketing tips to a small nonprofit that may not even have a marketing staff person. Spread the word about the work of organizations you admire through your social media channels. Sharing your expertise and giving back to the community doesn’t have to be time-consuming and it always feels good. I hope to see you soon at a CADM event. Happy Holidays! Best Regards, Betsy Harman CADM Board Member and Direct from the Heart Chair

Betsy Harman, CADM Director and Direct From The Heart Chair, is Director of Donor Cultivation at Feeding America. If you are interested in helping out with the Direct from The Heart Committee please contact Betsy at [email protected]


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 3

cadm Calendar

3

December 7

CADM Meetup Time and Venue TBA See cadm.org/events for details

January 2

Tempo Awards Entry Portal Opens The CADM Tempo Awards honor Chicago’s finest multichannel response marketing work and professionals. The Tempo Awards is open to any marketer, agency or company in the Chicago area and beyond who produced multichannel marketing work/campaigns between October 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. When you compete for a Tempo, you have the opportunity to showcase your outstanding marketing strategy, creativity, innovation, and results. You also have the opportunity to showcase exceptional response marketing talent by nominating colleagues to receive recognition for their contributions to our community. See cadm.org/tempo-awards

February 23

Tempo Entries and Nominations Close

June 21

Tempo Awards Gala

Seeking Tempo Awards Judges CADM seeks volunteers with at least seven years’ response marketing experience to judge the Tempo Awards entries. Judges must have experience in at least three of the awards categories. Judging takes place in late March and April. It’s handled electronically, so volunteers judge at their convenience.

“Judging the Tempo Awards is the best way I know to keep abreast of cutting edge creative developments in all media,” said Tom Byrne of Byrne Direct Marketing. “For me it has always been time well spent!” Review works by leading advertisers, marketers and agencies. Contact CADM at [email protected] or 312-849-2236 to volunteer or request more information.


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 4

insider Insights

4 1

4 Mistakes I Learned About Marketing and Data (continued from page 1) Depending on the ad-server being used, this cookie can remain active for up to 2 years.

›

data is controlled by the cable provider. The cable company collects the payment and therefore have all the associated consumer data:

• • • • • • • •

Eventually, if the user performs the desired action, that same cookie fires sending the proper attribution for your campaign. All is well in the world.

Name Address Phone

Apple’s Safari browser blocks 3rd party cookies by default, which makes this ‘standard’ tracking more complicated. Among other things, this means your app cannot read the cookie data stored by Mobile Safari.

Email Credit Card Info Purchase history Login Username/Password Etc.

In its simplest form, the media company simply provides the content the cable provider sells to the consumer. For the longest period of time, the value of collecting this data had been overlooked.

the beginning of a customer match marketing program across Google, Facebook and Twitter.

This presents a challenge to advertisers as Safari’s market share is around 33% globally.

It also provided us with the initial piece of consumer data that we could subsequently build on with supplemental offers in exchange for profile completion.

In-App Advertising (sending users to our brand websites): I’m sure you’ve noticed when you open a link in an app, it doesn’t open a new browser window. Rather, it opens an “in-app browser.”

Plan of Action: To access ‘free’ content within an app from the likes of NBC, CBS, Fox and others, you must go through an authentication process. This is done using the same credentials you would login to pay your cable bill.

This makes perfect sense for UX, as it allows you to quickly return to the app. The issue lies in the cookie drop on your phone. This naturally occurs with the click, however, it only drops a cookie for the in-app browser session. Unless the conversion happens immediately within that session, the attribution is lost.

In one of these apps, you’ve likely come across a login page that looks like this: The overarching lesson here is — invest in CRM. Even if you have to start with just a database of email addresses, start somewhere. 2

Not Understanding the Nuances of Mobile Tracking

As you might imagine, much of our marketing strategy and budget focused on the mobile space. Interestingly enough, this is also a space where ad-blockers are not working. This poses two challenges: 1. Many consumers don’t know or remember this login. As a result, a lot of potential video consumption is lost. 2. As mentioned above, this is an interstitial page that drives to the cable provider as they own the username and password information. In collaboration with the product team, a strategy was developed to implement a ‘free trial’ in exchange for the user’s email address. This would allow the user to forego the authentication requirement. (See screen shot top of next column.) This was the minimal piece of information required for us to begin building a CRM and

That said, with mobile advertising comes tracking nuances that I was initially unaware of. When I joined the team, we were full-steam into launching the first ever marketing campaign. In our haste to launch, we did not take the time to fully understand the impact of not solidifying our mobile tracking solution. Our primary mobile advertising consisted of: Desktop & Mobile Banner and Social Ads: The standard process for attribution is based on the use of cookies. When a user visits a website via their desktop or mobile device, your banner displays and a cookie is dropped on the visitor’s computers — regardless of whether or not they click through to your website.

In-App Advertising (sending users to our apps): Quite simply, cookies are not used ‘in-app’. This left us with zero attribution or cross-device tracking. The lack of attention to these details was quickly evident. At the end of the campaign, we were left pointing to engagement metrics like impressions, CTR and social shares as a measure of success. Not at all what a consumer acquisition campaign should be reporting. Plan of Action: The quickest change to a leaky attribution bucket that we could make was to tackle the Safari issue. We simply updated our social and display targeting to remove Safari browsers. While Google struggles with mobile and socially-driven demographic/interest targeting, Facebook provides the ability to target (or exclude) users by Web browser. While not foolproof, for the likes of Twitter and Google, we targeted only older operating systems in an effort to capture users who were still using legacy browsers. Considering our audience was US based, we estimated that we would only be missing out on approximately 15-18% of the overall market.


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 5

5 The other two challenges were a bit more complicated and required a mobile attribution solution that established the match between the user’s advertising ID and the publisher. While there are many companies available for this, after evaluation, we landed on Kochava as our solution provider. Pro tip: if you’re on a budget, Branch.io is a completely free solution that provides many of the same features. 3

Focusing on Sexy vs. Efficient

The programmatic display and mobile space is filled with shiny new tools, ad placements, and even ad units. Combine that with the traditional types of advertising done by media companies (think big billboards, bus sides, etc) and these quickly become distractions from tactics that are proven to work. I think it’s fair to say we spread our tactics too wide in the early years in hopes of capitalizing on that sexy new ad-unit or the hot new ad targeting. This was, unfortunately, at the expense of tried and true tactics like traditional paid search. A smarter approach would have been to test into these tactics rather than build a comprehensive media plan that included them. Plan of Action: I’m a huge fan of Steve Jobs. And Apple in general. One of my favorite quotes from him is: “Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.” With more data and proper attribution in place, we were more empowered to direct the media plans across the brands. We focused on tried and true channels that significantly outperformed the “shiny objects” that had resulted in wasted spend and higher costs for creative development. This paid off in a big way:

• • • •

Total impressions declined significantly, however, clicks increased just as dramatically Average click costs also declined

‘buzztactic’. It’s rife with click fraud and vendors with non-transparent ‘private networks’. It’s susceptible to ad blockers and comes with many privacy issues. Don’t get me wrong. It can work. But, test into programmatic options ONLY after you’ve exhausted the below tactics. Focus on channels where a consumer is actively searching for you. They’re already self-qualified based on their actions. The most applicable here is paid search across Bing or Google. Remarket your way to lower cost per acquisitions. You’ve already paid the premium CPC or CPM to get that user to your website. Typically, remarketing campaigns come with much lower costs. Why not re-engage a warm lead for less? #Hashtags are inherently social, but leave them out of social ad copy. Through our trimming of tactics, we also trimmed areas where consumers might be tempted to leave the topic at hand. In this case, we removed any hashtag mentions in our ad copy so consumers would focus instead on the ‘install’. Our conversion rates improved as a result. When pushing mobile installs, leverage a device in your creative. When you think about it, of course. It makes sense. But we proved it out via testing. Showing consumers an image of their device in the creative they’re being served improved conversion rates. 4

Not Leveraging Always-On Strategy

Consumers, myself included, are always on. Always plugged in. It’s a bad, addicting habit. But, that also means running a campaign for a TV show only when that show is in-season leaves opportunity on the table.

Cost per app install decreased nearly 200% Cost per video start decreased 230%

There are a few challenges with being able to do this:

Sometimes the ‘simple’ things just work better. Ultimately, after seeing the data, I took away a few lessons that can be applied to almost any campaign: Programmatic display isn’t the end all, be all. It’s an industry buzzword. I could even say

First, media companies are selling off the rights to their shows to the likes of Netflix and Hulu. In some cases, the ability to create a show is solely dependent on the revenue coming from these transactions.

This means an always-on strategy will never be an option once the rights are sold. Second, when we first launched our campaigns, we were spending large portions of our budget on fancy creative and higher cost CPMs trying to capture the next big thing. This left us without budget pacing that would allow for an always on strategy. Plan of Action: We tackled the second issue as part of our streamlining of tactics. This enabled our budgets to stretch farther and for longer periods both pre-premier and post-finale. The matter of rights was more complicated and is probably worth a completely separate article. That said, as a test, we decided to focus on a core set of shows where the rights had been retained for several years. The hope was, if we could show a series with multiple seasons resulted in larger average views per user, we could start to build a case for investing in the rights for the more popular shows. It worked. We found not only were the average views per user up, but these campaigns were far outperforming pilot shows and series with limited rights. This resulted in overall efficiencies for the campaign.

Wrapping Up There’s no question the digital space can provide lots of opportunity for growth and learning. I have certainly learned a ton. Hopefully sharing some of these insights will help you better streamline your digital marketing efforts, focus on what works, get your tracking in order and ultimately drive increased performance.

•

Jon Clark is the founder of Fuze SEO, a boutique digital marketing company in New York. He writes regularly on SEO tactics, analytics and social media best practices. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter. When not working or writing, Jon enjoys documenting his travels on Instagram.


6

11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 6

marketing Intelligence Marketing Via Text Message in Multichannel Pharmaceutical Marketing By Gen Petrova Read more at bit.ly/2yjM65t

What is one of the first and last things you see every day? I bet it’s your smartphone. Not only is checking our mobile devices one of the first things we do when we wake up, but we are also habitually attached to our smartphones throughout the day. According to Pew Research, 92% of American adults are using smartphones and most of them are spending an increasing amount of their time on them. Google’s Micro-moments report also uncovers some interesting details about people’s mobile device interaction:

• • •

In addition to having the widest reach, there are numerous advantages of text messaging as a marketing technique in healthcare and pharma.

“

•

68% of phone users say they check their phone within 15 minutes of waking up Some users check their phone about 150 times daily and 87% have their smartphone at their side day and night 177 minutes are spent on mobile phones a day (~3 hours) — that’s roughly onefifth of total waking hours

Benefits of Mobile Marketing via Text Message in Pharma One of the quickest ways to reach consumers/patients is via mobile device. Over 6 billion text messages are sent in the US each day, according to Forrester Research.

•

• •

H

ealth professionals can be in constant communication with patients not only from the first touchpoint like an office visit, but also through the whole treatment cycle…”

Efficiency: Text messages have a 98% open rate, while email only has a 20% open rate. Response rate is also very high, ranging from 5%–25% — around 8 times more than for email Immediacy: It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to an email but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message. SMS is probably the most immediate channel available Integration: Text messaging marketing strategy can support and be integrated with other channels in the marketing mix Customer Engagement: SMS marketing strategy can enhance how your brand engages with customers across the entire customer life cycle

How Does It Apply to Healthcare and Why We Should Care? We believe that there are countless applications of mobile messaging in healthcare and pharma marketing. They could take advantage of SMS by integrating it into their overall marketing strategy. In pharmaceutical companies, sales representatives play an influential role in marketing communication with doctors and health professionals. Healthcare providers hold the power to influence patients. Utilizing mobile message marketing with them will be crucial and most beneficial. Healthcare providers can easily personalize messages to specific patients, all while delivering relevant material with a guarantee that the patient will see the information almost immediately, since in most cases SMS messages are read at the time of receipt. In addition, health professionals can be in constant communication with patients not only from the first touchpoint like an office visit but also through the whole treatment cycle by sending appointment confirmation and reminders, test/lab results notifications, and ongoing symptom check-ins. This provides value through the whole process of CRM, strengthens the relationships between healthcare professionals and patients, and most importantly helps patients feel confident in their healthcare decision and well-being. Just imagine patients who could receive daily check-ins from their doctor/care provider about the state of their condition and would be able within seconds to respond and get a health alert and medical advice from them. SMS marketing instant deliverability and short message format provide the ability to reach patients regarding one of most important things in life — their health. Building a mobile message marketing strategy should be an ongoing process that requires flexibility between the pharmaceutical company, sales representatives, and healthcare professionals.

•

Gen Petrova is a Senior Engagement Strategist at AbelsonTaylor, with a professional background in digital marketing, social media, and data analytics. She can be reached at [email protected] and at linkedin.com/in/genovevapetrova.


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 7

actionable Data

7

Building Your Best Subject Line By Elyse Dupre Reprinted from DM News.com See more at bit.ly/2fFwtdn Personalization, character count, and message type are all variables marketers need to keep in mind Creating the perfect subject line is an art form, but there’s also a lot of science and data that goes into the craft. For its new subject line benchmark report, Yes Lifecycle Marketing analyzed more than seven billion emails sent in Q2 2017 via its cross-channel platform Yesmail360. Here are some of the key findings featured in the report.

Personalization Performs Email personalization is hardly a novel concept, but how many marketers are actually tailoring their subject lines for the intended recipient? The answer: Not many. According to the report, just 2.3% of emails analyzed contained personalized subject lines. Of this group, 1.1% were personalized

by name. The other 1.2% were personalized based on other factors, like products in abandoned carts or loyalty program status updates (e.g. expiration dates, tiers, or points).

Honme attributes the lack of personalized subject lines to data integrity issues and marketers not thinking beyond name-based personalization.

Emails containing the latter form of personalization performed better than those containing name-based personalization. Consider: The report found that emails with namebased subject lines experienced a 21.2% average open rate, a 2.9% average click rate, a 13.8% average click-to-open rate; however, emails containing subject lines based on other personalized attributes experienced a 22% average open rate, a 3.8% average click rate, and a 17.5% average click-to-open rate.

Characters Count

“First name [personalization] initially got a bad rap,” says Marie Honme, senior marketing strategist for Yes Lifecycle Marketing. “It started feeling generic and not effective, but it turns out that even just putting a name does enhance the relevancy for that person.” Both types of personalized emails still performed better than emails containing generic subject lines. These non-personalized messages produced an average open rate of 14.1%, an average click rate of 1.2%, and an average click-to-open rate of 8.7%.

When it comes to subject line length, 21 to 60 characters appears to be marketers’ sweet spot. According to the report, about threequarters (74%) of emails analyzed contained subject lines that fell within this range. Twenty-one percent contained subject lines with 61 or more characters and 5% featured subject lines with one to 20 characters. Thirty-five is generally the maximum number of characters a marketer can feature in a subject line without it getting cutoff on a mobile device, notes the report. This includes spaces and punctuation. Therefore, the aforementioned data would suggest that a significant portion of analyzed subject lines weren’t getting fully read. But how does subject line length actually impact performance? Based on the report’s findings, it looks like shorter is better.

›9


8

11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 8

best Practices A Better Meeting Follow-up Email By Jeff Molander See more at bit.ly/2iQc36k

You just had a good meeting with a client or potential new client. Now you’re challenged to move the conversation forward. It’s time to send the follow-up email. The three biggest mistakes I see sellers making: 1. Failing to secure key details and commitments before the meeting ends 2. Recounting what happened in the meeting 3. Sending follow up emails that don’t hold customers accountable to the next step Remember, business email is transactional. Not conversational. Beware: Trying to converse within the message may be sabotaging you. Clients don’t have time for “thank you so much” type conversation, especially follow-up email messages. Your follow-up is, by nature, highly deletable because most are simply a recount of what happened during the meeting. Clients have been trained to delete follow-ups because they’re just not important! Here’s a better way to keep clients committed to moving forward with you.

5 Details to Get Before the Meeting Ends As the meeting unfolds, in your head (or on a piece of paper) summarize these points: Current situation: In simple terms, describe the client’s decision-making environment. Business priorities: How this discussion fits into the strategic (not functional) picture. Priorities when making this decision: Jot down what the client says they are. Timeline and process: How much time the client needs to make decisions, what are they and who is involved. Next steps: Any suggested next steps you or your client discuss during the meeting. This is an excellent way to conclude your meeting. Ask your client to confirm your current understanding before the meeting ends. This takes all the work out of writing your pithy follow up email.

Get Commitments Before the Meeting Ends It sound obvious. But are you doing it? Are you earning a commitment for the next meeting before the first one ends?

My hero and sales trainer, John Barrows, likes to point out how we tend to give...and give... and give...and give...until the very end when we finally get (the sale). But here’s the problem: By giving clients everything they ask for we’re conditioning them to treat us poorly.

“

T

here’s that moment right after you gave them something…where they’re open to giving something back.”

Barrows says, “Because we’ve given so much, clients feel like they can do whatever they want. So what we need to do is make sure we get something all the time in return for what we’re giving.” In the case of your first meeting or demo that something is the next scheduled meeting date. Barrows says this has to do with human instinct, reciprocity. And he’s right. When your prospect asks for something there’s a fleeting moment where they feel obligated to give you something in return. “And if you ask for it right then-and-there it’s easy for them to give it to you,” says Barrows. So when they ask you for something, toward the end of the meeting, there’s that moment right after you gave them something...where they’re open to giving something back. For example, it might go like this: Your client says, “Great. Love it. Thanks for that. Send me some information and we’ll get back to you soon.” You reply, “Sure, I can do that. But first what information would you like...and second when can we schedule fifteen minutes to go over that information...and see if it makes sense to take the next steps?”

A Proven, Effective Template Example Remember, email templates don’t work unless you customize them. Without personalization of your messages you’ll end up deleted. Remember to avoid “thank you for taking the time to meet with me” type of chit-chat. They should be thanking you, right? Right. Keep it transactional, not conversational. Help them do their job — hit reply and confirm you are on track.

Get Them to Re-commit to Next Steps The meeting follow up template below gives you specific advantages. It: 1. Holds clients accountable for what they are telling you without being rude 2. Gauges their interest 3. Maintains a sense of urgency 4. Helps you re-engage strongly if/when the prospect goes dark. Subject line: Please confirm? John, Please review the below — confirm I’m accurate on these?

• • • •

Business Priorities Statement of Work Requirements (your customer’s priorities when making this decision) Time Line (milestones/projects that must happen in order for the final decision to transact) Next Steps (be sure to include commitments made, if any) you and they mentioned in your meeting

Please confirm the above is accurate — and guide me if not? Thanks, John [your signature] The idea here is to earn a response that is, in effect, a confirmation and further commitment. If you ran a proper meeting the prospect gave you time on their calendar. Put this commitment in writing. You may need it later — if and when they “go dark” on you (don’t respond).

•

Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell. He co-founded the Google Affiliate Network in 1999, and has been selling for 18 years. Jeff is adjunct digital marketing faculty at Loyola University’s business school, a social sales trainer and author of the first social selling book, Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You. Most social selling trainers teach the value of engaging customers and providing relevant content. But no one tells you exactly how to produce leads and sales — using a proven, systematic approach to content. Until now. Contact Jeff through linkedin.com/in/jeffmolander or [email protected]


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 9

actionable Data

9

Building Your Best Subject Line (continued from page 1)

7

›

According to the study, emails containing subject lines with 1 to 20 characters experienced an average open rate of 18.5% — higher than the average open rates for emails containing subject lines with 21 to 60 characters (13.8%) or 61 or more (14.8%). Emails with subject lines between 1 to 20 characters also performed better when it came to average unique click rates (2.4% versus 1.2% and 1.3%, respectively) and average click-to-open rates (12.9% versus 8.5% and 8.9%, respectively). However, Honme says character count isn’t the only thing marketers should consider when crafting subject lines. “Just limiting the number of words will probably not do it for you,” she says.

Message Type Matters Message type can also be a factor. For instance, the study found that 45% of emails containing fewer than 10 characters in their subject lines were triggered emails. Granted, not all marketers kept their triggered message subject lines brief.

According to the study, welcome emails containing subject lines with 1 to 20 characters outperformed those containing 21 to 50 characters or 51 to 90 characters when it came to open rate, unique click rate, and click-toopen rate. However, only 7% of welcome emails contained subject lines that fell into the 1-to-20 character range. Sixty-nine percent of these messages contained subject lines with 21 to 50 characters and 23% featured subject lines with 51 to 90 characters. Similar patterns appeared among abandoned cart triggers. Although emails containing 11 to 30 characters performed the best in terms of engagement, the majority of these triggered emails (62%) contained subject lines with 31 to 50 characters. The opposite occurred, however, among browse abandon emails. Emails containing 31 to 60 characters performed better than those containing 11 to 30 characters when it came to average open rates (40.6% versus 35.5%), average unique click rates (6.6% versus 4.9%), and average click-to-open rates (16.2% versus 13.9%). Still, 61% of browse

abandon trigger emails contained 11 to 30 characters. Homne encourages marketers to test their subject lines for triggered emails regularly and to avoid adopting a “set it and forget it” mentality. “If it’s a trigger, I would just try to refresh it as often as you could or test things,” she says. The impact of subject line length can also vary by industry category. For instance, while emails from consumer services companies experienced their highest average open rates (15.6%) when their subject lines contained 21 to 60 characters, emails from retail and wholesale companies performed better when their subject lines were between one to 20 characters (generating an average open rate of 18.3%).

•

Elyse Dupré is associate editor for Direct Marketing News and covers ever-evolving trends in the marketing world. Elyse can be reached through Direct Marketing News.

Remember your great marketing work and hardworking professionals from 2017?

We do.

CADM’s 2018 Tempo Awards honor Chicago’s best multichannel marketing work and individual professionals. Entries and nominations will be accepted through February 23, 2018. Visit www.cadm.org/tempo-awards for more information


10

11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 10

ask the DM experts Ask the DM Experts by Susan K. Jones, Susan K. Jones & Associates and Ferris State University

Shinola – An American Brand with Ties to Detroit?

Q.

I’m old enough to remember Shinola as a brand of shoe polish. Now I see that this brand is being used to sell watches — what’s up with that?

A.

You’re right about the brand’s history. Shinola was a shoe polish firm that opened in 1907 and closed in 1960. It was famous during World War I and World War II, and notable for the unique key used to open the can of polish. The brand name re-emerged in 2010 as a company called Shinola Detroit. The original Shinola had nothing to do with Detroit; it was founded in Rochester, New York. So how did the shoe polish name become the catalyst for a thriving brand of 21st century watches with Detroit pride as a central focus?

At the Jacobs & Clevenger Case Writers’ Workshop this fall, two professors from Golden Gate University, Matthew Fisher and Blodwen Tarter, told the story of the new Shinola and how it has become a part of Detroit’s Renaissance.

Founded by Creator of Fossil Watches As the Professors noted, “Tom Kartsosis founded Fossil in 1984 and built the firm into the world’s fourth largest watch company. After leaving active management of Fossil, he started another watch company in 2011. A Texas native with no prior connection to Detroit, Kartsotis understood the value in associating a brand with a place. Sensing opportunity, he selected Detroit as the city for the new company and resurrected the Shinola brand for a new purpose.

“

T

he first brand slogan ‘where American is made,’ directly sought to cement the view that Shinola products are the result of a resurgent manufacturing movement.”

While the original brand had no connection to Detroit, the long-defunct Shinola shoe polish was popular when the city mobilized to help win World War II. “In 2012, Kartsotis signed a lease for 30,000 square feet in Detroit’s Argonaut building. Historically significant, the site housed the General Motors Research Laboratory from 1928 to 1956 ‘where hundreds of patents and products were developed.’ Everyone in Detroit associated the building with the pinnacle of Detroit’s manufacturing dominance, creativity, and innovation. Later, Shinola ads and the company’s website would feature the Argonaut building to reinforce the connection to Detroit. “As a starting point for the brand’s development, Kartsotis commissioned a study that found people would pay $15 for a pen made in Detroit rather than $5 for a pen made in China or $10 for a pen made in the United States. These results suggested that a product associated with the right place could command a price premium. Of course, Shinola’s watches currently retail for $475 and up, definitely a premium price point. “The flagship retail location opened in a restored brick storefront (in Detroit) that reinforced associations of artisan crafted products.

The first brand slogan, ‘where American is made,’ directly sought to cement the view that Shinola products are the result of a resurgent manufacturing movement.” Shinola watch parts are imported from Switzerland, and there is no long-term association of Detroit with watch-making, but there is a strong sentiment among Americans that they would like to see Detroit survive and thrive. One memorable example of this is warm reception of the 2011 Super Bowl ad for Chrysler, featuring iconic scenes of Detroit and an appearance by Detroit native Eminem. That ad can be seen on YouTube — just search “Eminem Chrysler Commercial” and it will pop up.

Watch Designs and Future Products Shinola’s first watches were dubbed “Runwell.” The Professors describe it as “Shinola’s flagship product. Sporting a simple and timeless design with a large round dial face and chunky case, the Runwell’s watchband is made from thick leather with visible contrast stitching that implies that it is handmade.” More recent introductions have included limited edition watches in honor of “Great Americans” including The Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, and Jackie Robinson. Expanding the product line is a high priority for Shinola today, with bicycles, journals, record players, leather satchels, and sunglasses in the line-up. To see the current selection, check out Shinola’s e-commerce site at www.shinola.com.

•

“Ask the DM Experts” is a monthly adMarks feature. Professor Susan K. Jones draws on the knowledge of CADM members and other authorities to answer your questions — so tell her what you want to ask the experts! Contact Susan at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @sjones9200.


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 11

cadm Event CADM October Meetup in Rosemont

11

Get Noticed by Leading Advertisers, Marketers and Agencies

Be a Tempo Awards Sponsor! Put your brand in front of industry leaders. As a 2018 Tempo Awards sponsor you: Sponsorship packages range from $500 – $1,500 The October 25 CADM Meetup attracted a lively group of 15 at the Ram Restaurant and Brewery in Rosemont. Our next Meetup is scheduled for Thursday, December 7. Watch for more details at cadm.org/events.

•

Contact Glenda Sharp to get started. 312-849-2236 or [email protected]

› Increase your visibility among key industry decision makers. › Gain valuable exposure to high-level advertisers and marketers, both on the corporate and agency side. › Strengthen your company’s credibility within the Midwest marketing community through your association with CADM.

adMarks


11/10/17

3:11 PM

Page 12

Connecting Chicago’s Multichannel Response Marketers

CADM P.O. Box 578 Westmont, IL 60559-0578

WHAT WE DO BEST:

Japs-Olson Company is your direct mail production solution provider. To receive our sample kit, text GEN to 313131 or contact Debbie Roth at [email protected] or 952-912-1440.