The Lunch Pail » Best Practices Insight

Dig Deeper into Unified Messaging Details

Knotice — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:01:20 +0000

Consumers are connected in more ways than ever. They use their mobile devices, desktop, Facebook Twitter and more to stay on top of news, offers, coupons and other happenings. So it’s no surprise that these super connected consumers have extremely high expectations for relevant messages across multiple channels.

Unfortunately, many marketers fail to deliver the level of relevance across channels that consumers demand because they can’t easily create a unified view of their customers or bring their channels seamlessly together so the same real-time data can inform content or different message formats regardless of channel.

Forrester Research Inc. calls on marketers to finally embrace the unification of digital messaging channels, introducing what it calls “customer-focused integrated messaging” in its latest report “The New Messaging Mandate” (January 2012)

In this report, Forrester urges brands to reinvent their current messaging approach by creating http://www.knotice.com/overview/ a unified view of the customer for highly relevant messaging supported by a comprehensive dataset. Knotice refers to this concept as unified direct digital marketing. Additionally, the report takes a look at why marketers must consolidate messaging platforms in order to break down channel silos and facilitate the right-channeling of messages. It really is a must-read for those interested in reaching today’s consumers with relevant, consistent messaging across a variety of digital channels. It also explains how brands increase results by taking a more integrated approach, as did Oreck, a Knotice customer featured in the report. You can download a copy here.

If you’re interested in going deeper into the data and details of “The New Messaging Mandate,” exploring real results and analytics of brands that have already adopted a unified approach for customer-focused messaging across multiple touchpoints, join us for an exclusive webinar on Feb. 14 at 1:30 EST, featuring Ari Osur, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research (and author of the report), along with Knotice’s Brian Deagan and Jeff Carey.

During the webinar, you’ll:

Gain visibility into customer-centric messaging, including the framework behind a unified view of consumers across channels

Take a deep dive into real case-study examples, including Knotice customer Oreck, featuring data profiles, segments, analytics and more

Learn actionable insights to help increase conversions by taking a unified approach

Get exclusive access to information not found in the original report

There’s no fee to take part and definitely worth a listen. You can register here or click on the banner below.

We look forward to having you at the webinar! Be sure to sign up now to get in on your calendar.

Example of Advanced Mobile Scavenger Hunt

Dave Lawson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:27:47 +0000

Check out this recent mobile campaign example from a well-known chocolate brand. Our professional services team worked with Ghirardelli to create a branded scavenger hunt for the annual two-day chocolate festival at the San Francisco Landmark Square bearing the founding family’s name. The team was able to quickly and collaboratively create a scavenger hunt at the event using either QR codes or an SMS dialogue. Festival attendees reported to the On-the-go Store and were given a pin to wear and instructions on how to begin the hunt. Winners received a unique grand prize from the famous chocolate maker that day at the festival.

For more information about how it all worked, watch this quick screencast.

Integrating even simple mobile executions into your current marketing mix can seem a daunting task for already-busy marketing teams. And the advanced mobile campaigns in particular have historically been a lot of work. From strategy and design, to testing and execution – it takes time and talent to get it right for that seamless experience consumers expect and have those consumer interactions become easily leveraged for future marketing purposes.

It’s important to build your internal mobile intelligence and to have a toolset that allows some level of self-administration; however, it’s nice to have strong options for platform and strategic expertise to step in when you need it. Not only can “farming it out” help you get into market faster and with less strain on resources – outsourcing should also dramatically decrease the learning curve when forging new territory, as is often the case with mobile, in your direct digital marketing.

Here at Knotice, many of our customers outsource to our Professional Services organization, leveraging our agency-style support on campaigns and strategies- many powered by the Concentri platform. Our experienced specialists are well equipped to assist you with all your direct digital marketing needs – from strategy, concepts and smart segmentation, to mobile campaigns, email, direct display and more.

Whether using a professional services organization, your own in-house team or a hybrid of the two, here are some tips to make sure your mobile campaign is a success:

Expect the unexpected - Whether it’s a last minute campaign need or unforeseen details like accounting for misspellings with your keywords, make sure you have the resources available to provide the best customer experience possible. A thorough and measurable QA and testing process can be a big help.

Consider that not everyone has a Smartphone - Even though Smartphone adoption is rapidly on the rise, it’s still important to provide options for lower-tech consumers when it comes to interacting with your mobile campaigns. Not everyone will have the connectivity needed to scan a code or visit a mobile site, or they just may not have adopted that user behavior yet. Providing an SMS option along with your other mobile interactions helps to ensure everyone can take advantage of the information you’re providing, and you can maximize your reach– even if that information is accessed quite differently.

Take the time or make the time - Mobile is all about giving the best information and/or experiences to consumers. Be sure you take the time to focus on things like providing exceptional customer experiences with things like personalized content based on already entered data, defined dialogue paths to assure your message has been delivered to each participant, and copy and content that is highly relevant at that place and time. If you just don’t have time to do it all and do it well, outsourcing some or all of the execution may be a great option.

Ready to do more with mobile? Learn how Knotice’s mobile engagement team can help with anything from strategy to planning to execution. Also, check out these helpful posts on mobile campaign execution.

How to Determine 2D Code Program Success

Dave Lawson — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:04:13 +0000

When considering a 2D code campaign, a question marketers often ask me is, “How will I know if the program is a success?” In most cases, my explanation begins by having the marketers consider the reasonable expectations for the number of scans based on circumstances and historic precedent. (It’s a shot in the dark, but it helps to take the partner through the thought process.)

It’s important to note that each 2D program should be considered on a case-by-case basis, and is truly dependent on a few considerations. That said, here’s an exercise to help you determine the success of your 2D code programs:

Context of the deployment: Is this a programmatic approach to incorporating 2D codes into your brand experience or is it more of a campaign approach? If it’s a campaign, is it an ad? Are there other codes in the media the ad is placed within? Is it in-store? If so, is it a store you own or are you a product for sale in someone else’s store? Is it a single place in the store, what kind of signage is there to promote it, what other products around you have opportunities to engage digitally?
Answers to all of the above questions can play a role in your education needs, your foot traffic/eyeballs, and your scan numbers.

Strength of offer: This is huge. In my experience, it’s the single biggest factor in campaign participation activity. What’s in it for me? What do I get for scanning? What is the value exchange? It’s what drives the participation in SMS campaigns, email offers, in-store promotions, and basically everything else.
If the offer/CTA has a value that is high on the scale relative to competitive products or offers in general, you get more people to participate. If it is in the middle or low in value, participation will likely be reflected in kind. Rocket science it is not. The cost to produce the pay-off does have to make sense for your business; you should really be plugged into the value of the engagement a scan would impart for your brand.

Audience readiness: What is your total population and how does their mobile usage align with this type of activation? Simply put: you should know if there are fish in the water before you buy a pole. Take a good look at your data. Have any customers opened your email on a mobile device? Are you seeing a lot of mobile activity on your other campaigns? Look at the numbers. Mobile adoption rates are climbing nationally, but check your own population as a lens for 2D campaign expectations.
Have more points to include? Share them below!

More Pointers for Investing in Mobile

Dave Lawson — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:04:02 +0000

The true beauty of mobile is that is can connect the varying contexts and mindsets that exist in the path to purchase. Customers have a connected device with them at all places and all times throughout their consideration, conversion, and ownership states. They use it to check email, take pictures, share with friends, contribute to their social circles, remind them of tasks, make better decisions, and more. That covers search, in-store, online, in-household, on-the-go out of home, the list can go on- but even in brief, it sounds integrated to me.

Each of these consumer snapshots have mobile implications to them and what someone does with one can potentially be leveraged to make the next phase better and more favorable for a brand willing to invest in the relationship with the consumer. The consumer’s expectation is to be able to complete an action regardless of how they are participating with your brand.

Integration is the only way to make the most of this opportunity. Take a customer’s search behavior and present better content when they hit your mobile website, use their in-store 2D scanning to drive them to your loyalty club and exclusive insights, know that they opened your last 10 emails on an iPhone and push them emails specifically formatted for their device behavior. If you can integrate your channels and make the data captured across these channels actionable, you have a much higher “data ceiling” to get pretty sophisticated as technology and consumer behaviors continue to evolve.

There are a number of organizations that have assigned ownership of different parts of the customer journey to different people in the organization. Integrating these parts happens a certain way, and mobile turns most of these parts and their current integrations on their ear. Things tend to get more condensed. For example, an SMS message may link to a mobile website – who owns this? Does the email person own the SMS? Does a web programmer own the mobile website? Does the ecommerce person own any conversion opportunity?

The customer doesn’t care, but oftentimes it results in a civil war for ownership of that customer. There is definitely a base-level amount of research necessary to ID key insights that will drive the overall build and deployment of a mobile effort, but the real data that matters is the usage data – the feedback you get. Your customers will tell you which way to branch out from an initial effort if you are open and honest with them about your efforts to deliver a better experience.

There is no shortage of data, especially now that most reputable metrics providers are making product enhancements that report on mobile usage. Most marketers I have interacted with (even as recently as 2 weeks ago) just don’t have a way to make all that data useful to them. It’s not connected to anything; it’s not normalized for them; they can’t make anything but high-level strategic decisions based on what they see. What they really would need to do to achieve a level of actual success with their customers is to put that data into action and continually evolve their offering. I think that if they aren’t already planning a unification of their digital and data platforms, they should take a hard look at it if they expect to scale their success in mobile.

In summary: Take a look at your customers and learn from what they are doing (or not doing) and work to ID where the unique capabilities of mobile might impact a more desirable behavior. Pick your partners carefully and don’t get sucked into a “point” solution unless it’s the absolute correct fit for your business needs over the coming 12-18 months. Make sure you have planned how to associate cross-channel interactions with an individual; have a plan for parlaying those interactions into great experiences for them and great outcomes for you. Launch, test, analyze, optimize – quickly.

Pointers for Investing More in Mobile

Dave Lawson — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:01:28 +0000

When it comes to the increase in mobile marketing spend, there are numerous drivers to consider. Some are specific to advertising. Others are specific to marketing.

Advertising

The current results for mobile marketing and advertising effectiveness are compelling. Data from firms like comScore and InsightExpress reveals there is more engagement, more brand awareness, and more spend upon conversion with mobile than with any other marketing medium. Historically, it ranks on par or even with TV.

We’ve said it before: finding ways to make meaningful investments in this medium simply makes sense. If we’re looking at advertising specifically, here’s my list of key considerations:

Increased ability to scale (more inventory available to place ads);
Reduction in costs for an amplification of value;
Better metrics and the ability to identify attribution.

Marketing

For marketing, mobility offers a direct channel to a customer literally at any place, at any time. Increased spending is going to be related to program scale growth, sophistication of content and message targeting to cultivate closer to 1:1 relationships, and better ROI to justify larger investments.

For the most part, what you see when you look down the list of successful mobile vendors is a list of “point” solutions (i.e., “this guy is good at SMS,” “this lady can get you a mobile website,” “that dude can make QR work,” “those people will build you an app,” “these folks will roll out your ecommerce site and make it work better on a mobile device,” etc.). You also get fragmentation.

Every one of them will tell you that “mobile shouldn’t live in a silo” and that you should integrate it across your brand experience. Many address this by saying they easily “integrate with your CRM.” But guess what… I can integrate pretty much anything into your CRM, but what good does it do if you can’t access and use that data? Sure, integration is a piece of the puzzle, but there is little context to apply data across channels. The real story is that many mobile vendors’ point solutions are in a silo.

Be wary of point solutions. Here’s why.

Most marketers have limited dollars to invest in mobile, so they choose 1 or 2 “point solutions” because it maxes out their resources (human and fiscal). This means that they get stuck with a silo’d mobile product that can’t truly integrate across channels and offer the correct “mobile value” (fed by data) that’s right for that customer or that moment through that touchpoint.

On top of that, marketers need to deal with demands to grow their mobile program. However, if they’re relying on data trapped in the silos of various systems, they often are building on a less than ideal foundation. Having a truly integrated solution can make all the difference.

Other issues that can’t be placed on the vendor landscape that I commonly see include:

The ability to take action on data and make it usable for planning overall strategy, as well as for delivering an optimized experience to the users.
Allocating budget, time, and attention to proven channels – those that have delivered needle-moving power over time and still do today.

What are some common issues you face when growing a mobile strategy?

Review of Top Time Management Apps

Lori Grim — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:44:12 +0000

The start of a new school year signals the end of a too-short summer and a return to the schedules, processes and tasks of the academic grind. There are PTA meetings, volunteer duties, extracurricular schedules, school fundraisers… on top of your existing work and life responsibilities. It can all get a little overwhelming. (In fact, I’m feeling overwhelmed right now, as I write this.) Not to worry – there are tools that can help you manage.

App stores are filled with powerful task-management systems that will help you whip your chaotic life into shape. All it takes is a few taps and swipes on the touch screen of your device and you’re on your way to a happier, stress-free life. (OK, so maybe I’m exaggerating a bit.) But these apps offer some unique benefits. Activities tracked in mobile apps can be shared across other devices and online so that all members of the family can work from a shared calendar and task list. Mobile apps allow you to build in alerts and reminders so that important activities can be surfaced when they are needed. And some are quite flexible so that users can customize options, like data views, to make them easier to use.

There are many task management apps available, offering a variety of features and functionality. The cost can range anywhere from $.99 to $19.99 and up. Here’s a quick overview of three of the most downloaded and highly rated mobile apps.

“Remember the Milk” – available for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and a variety of online services

Remember the Milk is a fairly straight-forward task management system. It allows users to organize tasks into lists, to prioritize according to color and to set reminders. You can also add tags, such as “home,” “work” or “school” to categorize. Remember the Milk can be synched across multiple devices. Users can integrate the online service with sites such as Google and Twitter. Best of all, a solid version of Remember the Milk is free (a pro version is also available for $25 per year).

“Todo” – available for iPhone, iPad, Mac and online

Todo is an easy-to-use, powerful app with a cool user interface that mimics a tabbed notebook. It offers online synching, the ability to group related tasks together in a checklist or project view, and multiple task alerts so that you can set as many reminders as necessary. If you use the Getting Things Done (GTD) project management methodology, Todo allows you to organize your tasks in a way that integrates with GTD. The mobile app means you can take Todo anywhere you take your iPhone, but there are also versions for the iPad and Mac and, since you can synch Todo through an online service, you can track your tasks from any device or computer.

“Omnifocus” – available for iPhone, iPad and Mac

If Remember the Milk is task management at its most basic, Omnifocus is task management on steroids. Omnifocus includes basic offerings such as synching and search functionality. But Omnifocus also takes advantage of the iPhone and iPad’s features to offer unique and powerful tools. Using GPS, Omnifocus can read a user’s location and show available actions nearby. So if you need to go grocery shopping or get an oil change in the car, Omnifocus can show you the places nearest to you. You can also create entries based on a voice memo or image that you capture over your device. At $19.99, Omnifocus is one of the more expensive task management apps available, but if you have a demanding schedule and you’re serious about keeping your life in order, this may be a relatively small price to pay.

The most important thing to remember when considering a new task management system is that it has to work best for you. It doesn’t matter how many fancy bells and whistles a system might offer… if it doesn’t make it easier to manage your life, then it doesn’t work.

Your turn…do you use a task management system? Which one and why? If not, what features are important to you?

New Research on Customer Retention and Mobile

Patti Renner — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:04:28 +0000

Just as the new research by Aberdeen Group reveals an interesting dynamic between mobile marketing and increased revenue, there’s a similar dynamic between mobile and customer retention. The report “Metric-Driven Mobile Marketing: Increasing Marketing’s Revenue Contribution,” highlights the differences between organizations effectively using mobile as part of their overall multi-channel mix versus those who do not. The key differentiator for the “Best in Class” (those making best use of the mobile channel) is having data integrated within their mobile initiatives. For customer service purposes, you can then leverage this data to provide more relevant, valuable mobile interactions with customers.

One benefit of these “informed interactions” is a meaningful increase in customer satisfaction and retention. Aberdeen found that Best-in-Class companies improved (increased) customer satisfaction by 16.8% year-over-year, compared to 3.1% improvement for all other companies. They also found that 51% of the overall business in Best-in-Class companies is generated with repeat customers, compared to just 30% for all other companies.

If keeping customer – and keeping customers happy – matters to the growth of your business, keep reading.

Says Aberdeen, “In an environment where a universe of information is at the fingertips of consumers, generating effective marketing programs requires companies to be laser-focused on using only the relevant content that matters to consumers, or risk becoming quickly irrelevant.”

The report goes on to say that “Companies using customer data for targeting and segmentation of their marketing campaigns achieve a 667% greater improvements in click-through rates on a year-over-year basis, as compared to those that don’t.”

Holy cow! I don’t think anybody wants to see their marketing programs become “quickly irrelevant” – all because of a lack of ability to capture and use their data for effective targeting, do you?

While some marketers tip-toe into mobile, just using it as a basic touchpoint, the value of mobile exponetially unfolds when you make use of marketing technology that provides robust data mining and solutions. Such tools help you gain deeper insight as to what drives customer behavior, marketing more effectively within the mobile channel. The right platform like Concentri® can support the acquisition and use of data within mobile and across all direct digital channels.

It’s not as tricky as it seems when you have the right technology backing you up.

To review: “Marketing departments with a keen eye on sustaining consistency of brand image within their marketing activities across any channel enjoy performance improvements in several key measures, including: company revenue; customer satisfaction, and the number of unique and repeat visitors to their website.”

Again, I invite you to download the report to learn more (it’s free for a limited time): Metric-Driven Mobile Marketing: Increasing Marketing’s Revenue Contribution.

So, how are you using mobile to keep your customers happy?

Targeted Use of Mobile Impacts Revenues

Patti Renner — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 18:14:19 +0000

Our past Lunch Pail declaration that “mobile matters” may be manifesting itself within corporate revenues and growth.

New research by Aberdeen Group reveals an interesting dynamic between mobile marketing and increased revenue. The report, “Metric-Driven Mobile Marketing: Increasing Marketing’s Revenue Contribution,” details the differences between organizations effectively using mobile as part of their overall multi-channel mix (with executive support), and those who are not. The magic-bullet is having metrics behind mobile initiatives – having real data to share, to learn from, and to leverage.

Most executives (58%) have “organic growth of revenues” as a primary goal driving their corporate agendas. Of course, similar growth goals are shared by 40% of marketers. Obviously, revenue growth is important to all.

But things get interesting when you look at the revenue growth of those companies who support and measure the use of mobile campaigns and programs versus those who don’t.

According to Aberdeen, “Every single marketing department conducting a cost/benefit analysis as a part of a ‘metric-driven’ mobile marketing strategy has executive support for their mobile marketing initiatives, compared to only 53% of their peers without this strategy.”

A consistent, relevant mobile approach as part of an overall digital marketing mix can help boost sales and customer loyalty. It also can evolve marketing into a profit center. Using a platform that features robust analytics is becoming increasingly valuable.

Metrics can help executives get behind deeper investment in mobile. The ability to report on real data of results (including ROI) can fuel even stronger mobile initiatives. Stronger mobile initiatives (such as mobile buy-flow programs) can feed increased revenues. It’s a lovely circle – one that’s built on analytics.

“Marketing departments with a keen eye on sustaining consistency of brand image within their marketing activities across any channel enjoy performance improvements in several key measures, including: company revenue; customer satisfaction, and the number of unique and repeat visitors to their website,” says Aberdeen in the report.

I’ve said privately that mobile is too often a stepchild of digital marketing. Companies know they have to do something with mobile, but they do so reluctantly. This reluctance may be a handicap to the organic growth desired.

It helps to have a trusted, experienced partner to help integrate mobile into your overall marketing mix and get your approach backed with experience and expertise. We’re here to help, if you’d like to discuss.

I invite you to download the report to learn more (it’s free for a limited time):Metric-Driven Mobile Marketing: Increasing Marketing’s Revenue Contribution.

WYSIWYG Editors: A Handy Guide

Emily Haase — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:05:33 +0000

WYSIWYG editors are useful tools within software systems that allow non-technical marketers to create and manage live zone or email content. (Need a refresher on live zones? Check out this post.)

Simply put, WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get.” It provides the user with a look at how the end product will appear, without having to edit or insert code. WYSIWYG editors are fairly common in a variety of software these days, and Concentri is no exception.

Here are a few things to keep in mind if you prefer to create content through a WYSIWYG editor.

Have a strong template in place. Having a strong template in place makes it easier to control what that content will look like when used and published. A professional services team or an in-house designer can create a template for you.

Resist the urge to play. When inserting content into the WYSIWYG editor, it’s very important not to mess with it too much with it in that mode, by changing font colors or sizes. This helps maintain a standard look for your messaging.

Whatever you do, don’t copy and paste. Never copy and paste text from a word processing program or from an email into WYSIWYG. That’s because the formatting within the email or word processing program will be carried over into the WYSIWYG editing environment, which interferes with the appearance of your message. Not to mention, copying and pasting from the above programs often causes that email or newsletter you’ve worked so hard on to have a file size that is too large to send.

Solution: Instead, copy and paste your content into WordPad (or “notepad”), and then copy that content into your WYSIWYG environment. Pasting copy into WordPad rinses much of the styling from the text you copied. It’s not foolproof, but it helps. And don’t always rely on format stripping tools as they can’t catch everything. (This is often seen in newsletters that have different fonts in different sections.)

Always check rendering. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. It’s vital to do a variety of message-rendering checks before sending. Send yourself tests. Open those tests in browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) to see what things look like in each, then make adjustments as necessary.

Keep these tips in mind the next time you or someone on your team is using the WYSIWYG editor. They’ll help to ensure your content always looks great.

If you have any questions on how to use a WYSIWYG editor, let me know in the comments below!

(Special thanks to Joe McGarvey, Onboarding Specialist here at Knotice for his input on this post.)