marketing communications
Steve’s blog :
random musings of a professional scribbler
Test obsessed
Is your business suffering from analysis paralysis?
I recently met with the Managing Director of a – modestly successful, it has to be said – SME, whose marketing is so ‘steeped in stats’ that the company seems to have forgotten the reason it began acquiring such detailed data in the first place.
Indeed, for each direct mail and press advertising campaign the firm runs (interestingly, it never evaluates its email programmes), the marketing team religiously split–tests innumerable variables: envelope copy, graphics, headlines, offers, response mechanisms, formats…
And as a consequence intuits: precisely nothing.
- “Answer #1: test everything.
- “Answer #2: Refer to answer #1.”
Direct mail consultant and founder of American Heritage magazine Richard V Benson said, “There are two answers to every problem….
Quite right too. But… in order to draw practical usable conclusions from those tests, you should analyse no more than two variables each time.
Only then can you truly tell which half of your advertising is really wasted.
Email madness
That email is such an inexpensive medium is, I believe, its undoing.
So many firms add an email component to their campaign simply because they can – merely reworking (sometimes even replicating) their direct mail piece for use as a follow–up.
If that follow–up increases response then… fine.
And if it doesn’t, no matter; it didn’t cost much after all.
Trick duly missed.
By ignoring time–honoured direct marketing principles (benefit centred headers, response oriented copy) to their email programmes – and failing to properly analyse their results, in terms of open rates, click–throughs and so on – these firms are doing their overall campaigns a disservice.
With direct mail response rates on the wane, it’s time to start attaching to email the strategic importance it deserves – treating it not as an afterthought, but as an intrinsic element in every campaign.
Them and Us
I read with interest that the average UK resident receives 59 pieces of email a day.
Now… imagine receiving 59 brown envelopes through the post – with just a short stick of ‘outer’ copy to differentiate their contents. Which will you open?
The ones that make a direct appeal to you, of course – offering a benefit; addressing a need.
Those envelopes whose copy is designed to intrigue, amuse or impress – with clever word play, or self–indulgent superlatives – will invariably be consigned, unopened, to the ‘big round filing cabinet’.
The same applies to your email campaigns.
You’ve just five or six words – your Subject field – separating your epistle from the Trash.
To maximise your chances of success – of getting your email opened – premier American copywriter Bob Bly advocates the use of the Four Us, ensuring your header appears:
- Useful – containing an important benefit.
- Unique – something the prospects will believe they can’t get somewhere else.
- Ultra–relevant – absolutely targeted to their specific needs.
- Urgent – giving them a reason to open your mail now (such as, for example, a ‘time–limited’ or ‘while stocks’ last offer).
With email volumes on the rise, it’s a doctrine you ignore at your peril.
Cheer up – you’re in marketing!
Thomas Edison said: “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.” Lucky chap.
But I can relate to the sentiment.
Fact is, direct marketing has to rank among the most fun you can have during office hours.
It’s genuinely fascinating; a constant learning experience – providing practitioners with unique ‘behind the scenes’ insights into an array of new products, organisations, markets and even cultures.
It’s creative – enabling writers and designers to indulge their passions, get published… and get paid. (Usually very well, thank–you.)
And it’s rewarding – I, like my peers, get a real buzz from making a direct contribution to my clients’ lead banks, sales… and bottom lines.
All of which leads me to wonder why agency personnel appear so bloomin’ miserable!
Could it be that, these days, those same agencies are comprised largely of process–oriented project managers – necessarily analytical folk, whose working life comprises a procession of statistical analyses, review meetings and reports?
And that, increasingly, much of the creative work upon which the business was once predicated, is now largely outsourced to specialists?
If so, and as a beneficiary of that trend, all I can say is: thanks – and for goodness sake, cheer up!
What (else) is in it for me?
Am I wrong, or is the nature of commerce – or more specifically, of consumer expectations – changing? And fast.
Deciding it was time to – finally – ditch my antiquated Toshiba, I set out yesterday to source a new laptop. First (and only) port of call, of course, was the www – in particular, the comparison sites, PC World, Amazon et al.
In other words, the usual suspects.
Price inevitably was a factor. As, of course, was performance: I wanted to get the maximum bang for my buck. And I quickly found two or three alternatives that fit the bill.
The deciding factor then had to be: what else do I get from the deal?
Pre–installed software? Cash back? Loyalty points? An upgrade offer?
Easy payment terms?
Needless to say, my chosen supplier was the company that differentiated itself with a few such ‘finishing touches’.
To my mind, in this increasingly commoditised world, the winners will be those firms who, to paraphrase a recent Siemens campaign, do just that:
offer just a little bit more.
And with "Greasy Palm" – and others of their ilk – taking their online rewards programmes to the High Street, it’s never been easier to augment your product or offer – and maximise your sales.
Crass, by design
‘fess up, now: have you ever thought, "That’s a great pic; we’ll use that in our marketing." Then expected your copywriter to come up with a campaign linking (by way of a genuine ‘for instance’) your light haulage business to a particularly endearing image of a tree frog?
Yes: I know it can be done. But should it – really? Of course not.
The resulting ad may be clever; amusing even – but it won’t do its job, which is to command attention and trigger response.
Recent research from Jupiter proves – beyond doubt – that benefit oriented email subject lines with a clear call to action out–pull their quirky counterparts by a factor of 7:1.
Proof positive that a clear message – rather than clever graphics – is the order of the day.
To paraphrase Mobious MD Martin Corlett–Moss: We are not creating art.
We’re in the business… of creating business.
What’s in a name?
A consultant, they say, is someone who asks to borrow your watch, then tells you the correct time. Why, then, do I use the term in my bio? Simple…
Many business owners simply do not understand the value that ‘a mere copywriter’ can bring to their marketing programmes.
In their view, the writer’s role is, simply, that of a glorified proof checker – someone to ensure that the text is spelt correctly, and the commas are in all the right places.
Worse (and all too often) copy is an afterthought; something to be added once the designers have done their job – developing the communication’s look and feel; determining what format it will take, its length and so on.
This is, of course, madness!
With over 20 years’ direct marketing experience, I, like many of my peers, have much to offer marketers from the get–go – in terms of media selection, messaging, concept development and format.
Thus, and ever more frequently, I find myself compelled to take on the mantle of ‘consultant’: to claim my place at the proverbial ‘top table’, and thus ensure the best possible outcome for my clients.
Of course, there’s one other advantage to having ‘the c word’ on my business card: fact is, firms expect to pay a realistic commercial fee for strategic services. Copywriters are, however, regarded as ‘ten a penny’ and happy to haggle.
Not me I’m afraid – I’m a consultant.
Now, does anyone have the time?
Plus ca change…
According to agency Neutralize’s recently published report, Search today attracts upwards of a third of UK marketers’ online budgets. Inevitably, this trend has spawned a whole new breed of consultants, whose job it is to help us come to terms with this latest addition to the black arts.
Good luck to them. But I can’t help but feel that old school direct response copywriters will, as a consequence, enjoy a certain sense of validation.
And of déjà vu. For Search Engine Optimisation, and Pay Per Click advertising, are as much – if not more – to do with understanding your business, and your markets, than of arcane algorithms and IT–based ‘solutions’.
Indeed, Search is, to my mind, the very essence of direct marketing. And the time–honoured principles of research, targeting and testing – espoused by Caples, Reeves and others – are as valid today as they ever were.
Meantime, the development of an array of staggeringly sophisticated campaign analysis tools means copywriters are now more accountable than ever before.
Which means those who can’t deliver will be – very quickly – found out.
Two out of three ain’t bad…
To my mind, one of the greatest challenges faced by consultants today is not staying on top of the latest media trends, emerging markets or technological advances. Nor is it staving off yet another competitive threat, from a Young Turk with an Apple Mac, an iPhone and a mail order MBA.
It is, instead, what I call the “management of clients’ expectations”.
When I began freelancing, I made customer satisfaction my number one priority. And I set my stall out to ‘go the extra mile’. Mooting and costing alternative routes to market. Suggesting additional concepts, messages or market niches.
Throwing in a relevant White Paper, or research report. Keeping my expenses to a minimum.
And, invariably, completing each project ahead of schedule.
In other words: promising a realistic level of service. Then delivering just a little bit more.
In the early days, this approach worked well, earning me a great many referrals and recommendations. But there was a downside: over time, my clients began to expect ever faster turnarounds.
Comments like “Well, we know you said ‘Friday’, but we assumed you’d have the job with us by ‘Wednesday” became commonplace.
Consequently, I now have a maxim that I share with every client before embarking on any new project. It is this:
You can have it good. You can have it cheap. You can have it quick.
Pick any two.
Why I think it’s OK to argue with clients…
It is said that ‘clients get the agency they deserve’.
It’s a sentiment with which I sympathise.
After all, who amongst us has not thought, at one time or another, “Have it your own way” – when confronted with an obdurate MD whose mind remains closed to our carefully honed concept or sure–fire strategy.
The best thing, surely, on these occasions, is to smile sweetly, acknowledge that “This is the way it’s always been done” and bid a strategic retreat to the bar – secure in the knowledge that our invoice is secure, and future projects will be forthcoming.
Well, there’s a case for that, of course. But I’d rather argue the point. Even if it costs me future commissions.
Fact is, though the client may not ‘deserve’ it, I prefer to stand by my instincts and experience. After all, they pay me for my expertise.
If they choose not to act on that expertise – remaining unmoved in the face of empirical evidence, based on proven principles – it’s their call. But I’ll have done my job – and maintained my integrity.
Which means I get to sleep nights.
Does this attitude make me an ethically upstanding fellow – a model for consultants everywhere?
Or a misguided ingénue, who has it all hopelessly wrong?