Using Shazam to Engage Consumers

On a radio ad this morning, I heard something I have never heard before.  A retailer was promoting a sale of watches and didn't start trying to say as many numbers and words possible within their 30 seconds.

Instead, they gave the premise of the sale (30% discount on designer watches) and directed people to use Shazam to be linked to a page with the full details.

Shazam is normally used to find out the name of songs.  Hold your phone to the speaker and after a couple of seconds it will tell you the name of the song and artist, show the YouTube video and link out for you to buy it on iTunes.

But this usage is great innovation as marketers constantly struggle with two major issues;

1. Having too much to say
2. Getting consumers to go beyond the ad

This addresses both issues.  By using Shazam, they don't have to ramble on about the details of the offer.  The page they are linking to can do that.  The app can recognize the digital signature of the ad and direct people accordingly.

They can measure the success of the radio ad in directing consumers to their website (which hopefully includes a deal specific landing page)

Other mechanisms like QR codes and URL shorteners also do a great job of accomplishing this.  The starting point is different (poster or tweet), but the resulting engagement is the same.

There will be an issue with people getting their phone out, starting the app and tagging the ad which may result in some missed opportunities.  But they are still way farther ahead than rattling off all the deals and hoping people go to their store or website later.

Rewarding Customers for Interactions: Dropbox

Promotions, giveaways and coupons have been standard marketing tools for decades, and will be for decades to come.  As an incentive to try a product, marketers will basically give it away.

Tried and true this technique has certainly got a lot of customers to experience new products and services, but I've never been a huge fan.  The customer has no buy in or attachment to the experience, just clipping a coupon or hunting for a deal.  As they have no skin in the game I believe they have a lower chance in converting into a repeat (at full price) customer.

I have always preached that brands need to exchange value with customers to build any relationship.  This is not a rebate, or added service at no charge.  This is a tangible item that they otherwise would have otherwise had to pay for.

Social makes this easy for marketers to do as bringing an influencer strategy down to the everyday user is very powerful motivation for consumers.  Tweet, share, repost and I will give you something for it.  That something needs to be more than "free upgrade" or "be the first to know".  It needs to be something that your company values, and by providing it to your customer demonstrate that you value their time and effort.

Kellog's executed a great campaign this summer using this approach with their Tweet Shop program.  A storefront with Kellog's products was setup and customers could "buy" items in the store by tweeting it out.  Obviously this isn't sustainable in the long term, but I'm sure they easily exceeded their campaign goals.

Dropbox does an excellent job of providing tangible, continuous value to their customers in exchange for their activity.  While their basic service (3 GB of storage) is free, premium accounts (100 GB +) are available on a subscription basis.  You can however access additional free storage through a number of simple activities. 

Connecting your Facebook account?  125 MB
Connecting you Twitter account?  125 MB
Writing feedback to Dropbox about why you love their service?  125 MB
Tweeting that feedback?  125 MB
Referring a friend (who then signs up)?  500 MB

Some math can tell us what the monetary value of that service is.  The premium account is available for $99 / year for 100 GB.  That makes the tweet (125 MB) worth $0.12.  This is a very easy cost for Dropbox to absorb and is relational to the effort taken by the customer.  Real value, for actions that have limited intrusion and are completely optional, in exchange for service.

As savvy customers start breaking this down new competitors may emerge and discover a whole new service offering.  Not to be confused with offers and product constructs like in credit cards.  This is a free service that provides additional free service for your effort.

Now, if you all rush out to sign up for Dropbox send me your email address, I could use the 500 MB.

Generating Leads online for Small Businesses

Digital and social are fantastic ways to generate leads for your business.  The problem for a lot of small businesses becomes where should they focus first, and why?

That of course is a complicated question - or series of questions.  A better approach is to think about two pragmatic ones first.

1. What do you want to achieve?
2. What are you able to do?

Understanding what your short and long term business challenges and objectives are will let you answer question one.  Looking within your company to know if you have the time, budget and will to do anything or everything is question two.

I recently had a chance to conduct a digital review for a small business in the Business Intelligence and Analytics space.  Their current website was well designed and generating a lot of traffic for them.  As a smaller player in their field however they have a common challenge of not being well known to their prospective customers and were not generating any leads from their digital efforts.  They had also invested a fair amount of money into their current website and wanted to keep any changes (even improvements) at a minimal cost.

Here are three recommendations I made to help generate leads.

1.  Give content away
Within their service areas and industry vertical sections they had provided some limited examples of their work.  Most of these examples however were password protected and as a technique to generate contact you needed to connect with them to get the password to view more.

I believe that before you can ask a prospect to take that step, you need to show them true value.  My recommendation was to provide a single, solid example of their work within each area and vertical.  No passwords and no hassles for prospects.  Within each example I would also recommended providing a clear call to action to see or learn more by contacting an Account Rep to arrange for an online demo or access to other examples.

2.  Testimonials

No eye rolling here, as this is not news, but is an essential piece of content that helps provide credibility.

For each example of their work my recommendation was to contact the customer who that work was for and ask them to write a recommendation for it.  For this particular case I suggested that they may even write it for them to start and to focus on explaining a) why they chose to use their service and b) what they got out of using it.

No one wants to be the first customer.  People want to know that the tool / service / approach that they are considering is tested and true.

Some new businesses do not have case studies to demonstrate their work, which is a whole new challenge.  Delivering a proof of concept for prospective customers at no charge can help overcome this barrier.

3.  Lead on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the leading professional networking site and can be very valuable for companies to create awareness, whether you're a massive multi-national or 2 person shop.  Company Pages and Discussion groups are a great opportunity to connect with like minded people, participate in discussions and demonstrate leadership.

The employees of this company had incomplete profiles that linked to the company page, and even then the description of their jobs was not consistent.  Cleaning that up is easy.

My recommendation to them was to dedicate time and energy into leading conversations and establishing credibility through discussion groups.  Identifying groups that their customers (current and prospective), competitors and peers were involved in and joining in the conversations is the start of that.

Starting conversations topics and leading discussions within those groups to get their point of view out is the next step.  This company has a treasure chest of content around their ideas and approach on their website.  By using this content through LinkedIn they can easily get more mileage out of it.

From a budget point of view, none of these recommendation cost very much.  This to me seemed more like an exercise in understanding what the true business objectives are and thinking about how to best achieve them.

MLB doing a great job engaging Fans on Instagram

Major League Baseball was one of the first sports leagues to launch an integrated web template for all of their teams a number of years ago.  They have now done the same with Instagram and are doing a great job of integrating the fan experience online through it.

A recent promotion is centered around Miguel Cabrera's race for the triple crown (non-baseball fans click on link).  In order to have a chance to a Miguel Cabrera bat they asked users to take a picture of themselves wearing a "Triple Crown", upload the photo to Instagram and tag it with #MiggysCrown.

I love programs like this on a number of levels

1. Customer Engagement  Cabrera is an engaging figure and an exceptional talent.  Whether you are a Tigers fan or not this contest gives you a great opportunity to personally be involved at the end of the season
2. Measurement  To participate in the contest there are some simple steps, but they are all measurable and can be used to identify the key drop off (and acceleration) points
3. Repeatability  As MLB embeds their Instagram photostreams into their websites this type of program can easily be replicated across other activities and other teams
4. Sharable Moment  Taking a photo of yourself, supporting a top player and supporting the Tigers - all moments that as a fan and someone who is engaged with the game will support and share with their friends and followers

Other brands have tried programs like this using Twitter hastags and Facebook Photo Albums but it's the integration and simplicity of Instagram that MLB uses makes it a winner.

What Marketing can learn from Politics

Marketers’ today (myself included) talk about the customer being in control and the increased need for them to be able to drive the processes that they engage with.   This is being done through delivering increased customization and personalization from simple preference settings all the way to behavioural segmentation.

As their understanding increases of how these systems work, their expectations of what will be delivered to them (when, what, why and how) also increases.

Some brands have allowed customers to help them in product development and actively seek feedback and participation.  Starbucks is the champion of this, and the new Barclaycard Ring has really embraced it.

The ultimate trust you can show your customers, with trust being the path to loyalty, is by placing your brand in their hands.  Being guided by their insights, needs and desires to define and refine your brand will be the next step.

Political policy is shaped like this today.  The ultimate democratic tool, the opinion poll, shapes policy like no other mechanism.  Polls are used to guide politicians on every issue, big or small, so they can understand what their constituents think – and what they want them to do.

Yes, this means that political leasers have become more of a spokesperson or figurehead rather than a leader, but that discussion is for another day.

Thinking of your customers like constituents means a change in organizational philosophy.  It’s more than focus groups or getting them to like you on Facebook, it’s integrating them into your company.

• Put their involvement on your CMO and Executive scorecard
• Give them direct access to Marketing Managers and Communication Plans
• Engage advocates and detractors in product development and product testing

Take the number one thing on the mind of politicians - unless you keep constituents (or customers) happy you’ll be out of a job next time an election (or purchase decision) comes along – and you’ll have the same focus that a customer has when they are choosing you.

Twitter Ads, and now with Targeting why I like them

Twitter has been making a number of changes recently, and with the launch of their new targeted-advertising I think that they are going to finally find that business model they were looking for.

Twitter has used promoted tweets and more recently brand pages to help marketers reach their audience, but with limited success.
 
Targeted ads will let marketers deliver promoted tweets from accounts based on a specific user (or group of users) interests.  Interests are determined by the topics of tweets.
 
I love the idea of targeting users based on subjects for two reasons
1.    Consumers expect relevancy and convert more off meaningful ads
2.    Marketers will pay for targeting – as it leads to higher conversion (see bullet 1)
 
What makes this more interesting is what it could do to the service offering of influence measurers like Klout.  They have been using their perks program (targeting users based on influence / reach on a particular topic) with some success but there is high skepticism around the model and score calculation
 
Announced changes to their API left some core users, and platform providers upset.  But with this new service offering it makes even more sense.  Changing some of the terms of service (what data gets in, what doesn’t, how much/little), Twitter can now provide further assurances that this advertising will be delivered.
 
The monetization of Twitter has always been a question mark.  People have always been skeptical about using advertising on Twitter, but we knew it was coming.
 
Implementing a proven model of relevant content based on user behavior (see Google, Facebook) will generate future success for the platform.

How the DM death spiral will happen

You know the routine, come home from work, put your keys down and collect the mail from the day.  There's a normal "pace" to it - a few flyers, some real estate postcards, maybe a bill - but most of it is just junk.

As a marketer I probably pay more attention to it to see what types of messages or programs are in the junk than most people.  Direct mail still can play a valuable role as a mechanism to support acquisition, cross sell and retention in areas like retail banking, automotive, telecommunications and B2B -  but it's days are numbered.

Every client I have though has over time seen diminishing returns from direct mail, and from every perspective.  One benefit of direct mail to the everyday consumer however is that it's volume is what helps keep the price of personal mail - stamps - down.

That got me wondering though about a bad spiral of cost and engagement that could (ok, will) happen with direct mail in the near future.  Follow me on this one.

As people continue to pay less attention to direct mail, the lower the return for marketers.

The lower the return for marketers, the less junk mail will be sent.

The less junk mail sent, the higher the cost of stamps.

The higher the cost in stamps, the less people will rely on mail for meaningful communications.

The less people rely on mail, the less people pay attention to direct mail.

This of course will take time, and isn't going to come to reach a finality for even longer - but this is how I think it will happen

Fantastic example of personalized content

Getting people to test drive a vehicle is one of the major hurdles in the automotive sales cycle.  Getting people to picture themselves having a dream car may be a new step.

At the end of July Pfaff Porsche upped the game in delivering personalized content to people by parking a new Porsche in their driveway, taking a picture and printing a customized brochure for them on the spot.

I love this on a number of levels.

1. Personalization - it may be creeping the lines on trespassing, but being able to see what a Porsche looks like in your driveway is a great way to get people thinking about buying.
2. Targeting - A lot of people would want a Porsche, but not everyone can afford one.  This was done in areas with higher income levels (I hope no current customers though)
3. Tracking - Household level tracking becomes a reality where you can see exactly where this was effective, or not
4. Cost Effectiveness - With the margin of a single vehicle sale being high (typically around 15k for a premium vehicle) this is a very low cost way to generate interest
5. Scalability - While all manual, it is relatively low effort and could be easily scaled with a couple of extra cars and some additional man-hours

When I steal this idea for another client though I am going to try to add some additional elements to increase the sharability of reach of this type of work.

Make it digital - include a link on each of the brochures to a customized url that includes a sharable photo so the event can be shared with friends and family.

Make it global - coordinate in advance with Google Streetview to time when they are going to be around (it can happen) and park the cars in advance to allow the event to be experienced with everyone.

Crowd-sourcing, be careful what you wish for

Two recent examples in crowd-sourcing should serve as case studies in be careful what you wish for.  One is a minor embarrassment, the other could impact a product launch.


The home run derby is MLB's answer to the slam dunk contest and similarly is the best part of the entire festivities.  To try and increase "engagement" on their page, ESPN offered up an open-ended poll about who people thought would win the home run derby.  Noble, but maybe not thought through to the end.    A recent quote from Bryce Harper ("That's a clown question bro") ended up beating some actual players.

Mountain Dew recently asked people to submit names and vote up the most popular to become the name for their drink.  Somehow I don't think Diabeetus was what they had in mind.

I love engaging audiences for participating in brand development, but I think that both of these could be done with limits and still achieve positive results.

Letting people submit names, have them shortlisted by Mountain Dew with attribution to the contributor and then voted on would achieve the program goals.  Some goes for a closed poll with only the participants as options.

Automotive: Who owns the Customer?

A colleague of mine recently bought a car.  He kicked tires, did some research, negotiated on the price and drove away happy.

Two days later though, he got an email from the manufacturer about a new sale on the very car that he bought - at an even better price. He was no longer happy.

What happened after was more of a customer satisfaction exercise and that's ok, but the lesson in this is for the different pieces of the automotive organization to understand who owns the relationship with the customer, and who can say what when.

All different elements of the organization want something more from every prospect and customer, but to the customer they are all one and the communications must seem as they are from one.  How do you do this?  By establishing a contact strategy that puts the customer in the middle while addressing the results that each of the areas needs to achieve for a healthy business.

The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) supports the other areas by focusing on customer acquisition and awareness.  They should establish a lead management process that qualifies leads and delivers them to Sales when they are ready to buy.

When a prospect is ready to buy it is time for Sales to do their job.  The entire process and all communications related to it should remain with Sales until a sale is completed.  If no sale is made, the customer should go back to the OEM for ongoing communications.

Once a sale completed however, that customer relationship should be owned by the Dealer.  The time between sales for a customer is long and it is the job of the dealer to maintain a positive relationship and a connection through communication.  Ideally, this is done with the support of the OEM through communication platforms, content and messaging - but the relationship stays with the Dealer.

Part of maintaining that relationship is through Service.  The vast majority of revenue for Dealers comes through Service, but as the key driver in customer satisfaction (both good and bad) only a relationship that is based on trust will only pay off.

Cool down periods between steps in the process, and sorting out recent purchases is a part of the process - but can't be implemented without a full understanding of the various areas and how they relate to the customer.

Big Data? Big Deal

There are a lot of articles, posts and tweets about big data and the massive potential for decision makers and marketers - but just because you can capture and store it doesn't mean you should.

The key to making data effective is to understand what you are going to use it for.  Tools today can let you capture the most minute of interactions, shares and "engagements", but if you are capturing it all I see it causing more confusion - by raising more questions - than solving any business problems.

Organizations need to look at the data they capture today and the way that they are using it to first understand where they stand.  Identifying future objectives and the data required to meet them will help them understand what they need to do next.

The goal is not to have the biggest database, or the most complex - it is to have the most useful.