Are you automating your emails with trigger and drip campaigns? (an overview and 3 good tips)

Lately I’ve been working with clients on automating their marketing tasks, specifically their emails. The more I work in this channel, the more I realize how wide-open a frontier — with a huge upside — it is for cross-channel merchants.

Most medium- to high-end email service providers (ESPs) offer some sort of automated functionality. This gives marketers the opportunity to create “set-it-and-forget-it type” campaigns.

When you acquire a new prospect, for example, you can create a triggered drip campaign. A drip campaign involves a series of emails that are sent to prospects at pre-specified intervals, say once a week over a four-week period.  Each email is designed to either highlight a key company benefit (part of the unique selling proposition), or have a series of progressively stronger offers.

Most ESPs have application programming interfaces available to their clients. By having your IT folks set this up, your ESP can automatically communicate with your database. In simple terms, once a prospect becomes a customer, no more drip emails are sent to them as they move to a different bucket (customer) in your email database. And once prospects become customers, they’re promoted into a different automated email series.

You can set up campaigns for all of your customer statuses — prospects, single, multibuyers, past customers, gift purchasers, cancels and so on. The sky is the limit based on your creativity.

Furthermore, some ESPs have pretty good list management tools available for automated and/or one-off campaigns. For example, a client of mine chose Bronto’s solution, which allows it to store 100 different customer attributes. It can then create campaigns based on whatever criteria meets its needs from Bronto’s list selection module. Want to send an email to someone whose birthday is coming up? It’s simple: Whatever data you collect from customers and prospects can all be sliced and diced within a good ESP’s system.

Try the following three ideas for triggered email campaigns:

• customer satisfaction surveys X number of days after a purchase;
• tell-a-friend offers when customers becomes multibuyers; and
• customer reactivation emails. Instead of doing a query each time you want to send a reactivation message from your internal database and uploading a new list, just create it for X number of days/months/years and the message automatically goes out.

Of course, no new form of direct marketing should be done without testing. Test offers, creative and especially the timing of your messaging.

You’ve worked hard, now let email marketing automation help you drive revenue! Are you automating your marketing efforts? Tell us how it’s working by posting a comment below.

Guest post: The Direct Marketing Hiring Report shows an uptick in hiring and employment

For this week’s post, I wanted to share this study from Bernhart Associates with you. It’s good news for once! It looks like there’s an uptick in direct marketing hiring:

Confidence Returning to Job Market for Digital and Direct Marketers Layoffs drop to pre-recession low; employers expanding use of social networking for hiring

Owatonna, MN, April 7, 2010 — Digital and direct marketing job seekers can expect a spring thaw in layoffs and hiring freezes, according to the latest quarterly employment report by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC.

“Employers are still being cautious when it comes to making hiring decisions, with half expecting no change in hiring plans for the coming quarter. However, we’re seeing more job stability, and employers continue to lift their hiring freezes,” said Jerry Bernhart , Principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, a leading recruiting firm which has been conducting quarterly hiring surveys in digital and direct marketing since 2001.

A total of 454 organizations responded to the employment trends survey between March 23 and April 7. Here are the key findings from the second quarter survey:

• 43 percent of respondents said they’ll add to staff during the second quarter of  2010, down three points from Q1;
• 20 percent of respondents currently have a hiring freeze, a dramatic decline from 45 percent just six months ago;
• the percentage of companies planning layoffs in Q2 fell to 3 percent, the lowest level in three years; and
• when asked if they plan to consider using social networking websites for hiring, 41 percent of respondents said they plan to employ them in “moderate amounts” during 2010, while only 14 percent said they won’t be using social networks at all.

“Just a year ago, I was seeing reports indicating that hardly any companies were thinking about using social media in their recruiting,” said Bernhart.  “Our second quarter survey results show that interest in these online networks among digital and direct marketers has grown quickly and considerably, especially among agencies.”

Bernhart said job growth in the overall digital and direct marketing industry is keeping pace with progress in overall U.S. employment. However, he pointed out that marketers are lagging behind their agency and supplier counterparts in terms of job growth.

“Agencies have all but eliminated their hiring freezes, and only one agency responding to our most recent survey said it’s expecting layoffs during the next three months,” Bernhart said. “Hiring on the services side also remains strong, with just about half of respondents telling us they plan to hire during the current quarter. By comparison, 38 percent of marketers said they intend to add to staff.”

Meanwhile, the B-to-C segment continues its upswing with major hiring indexes showing more positive trends compared with its B-to-B counterpart.

According to the survey, Bernhart said sales positions would be in the greatest demand during the second quarter. “This comes as no surprise to me given the strong demand I’ve been seeing for sales reps on the recruiting side of the business,” he said. “We’ve been getting steady calls for sales-position searches since the beginning of the year.”

Bernhart added that analytics remained high on the employment list, along with online and multichannel marketing positions.

Bernhart also said that demand for executive search services has been steadily growing since the beginning of the year. “Inquiries are coming in on a fairly regular basis. A year ago, it was little more than a trickle.”

Bernhart Associates’ second quarter survey was emailed to more than 9,700 senior executives and hiring managers, human resource officials, and other key participants in online and offline direct marketing.

According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), direct marketing advertising expenditures as a portion of total U.S. advertising expenditures grew to 54.3 percent and generated 8.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2009. Also last year, there were 1.4 million direct marketing employees in the U.S. Their collective sales efforts directly supported 8.4 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 9.9 million U.S. jobs.

Results of past surveys can be found in the DMA’s annual Statistical Fact Book and on Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC’s website.

Companies interested in participating in the Bernhart Associates Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report should send an email tosurvey@bernhart.com with “Opt-In” in the subject line, or they can sign up directly on Bernhart Associates’ website.

Learn how to give to get, or… Don’t be stingy, give up the product!

Social media has indelibly changed the way we market and brand our companies forever. To compete in the social “mediasphere” (and in general), companies must give to get (G2G). My definition of G2G is as follows:

“The ability to provide consumers real value, rich information and even parts of a company’s ‘secret sauce’ in exchange for their patronage.”

Perhaps the biggest G2G opportunity your company has is its product. Recently I’ve seen a few really smart companies using their product as a powerful consumer engagement tool. My experience has been that clients who have adopted G2G are having unprecedented success, even in this shaky economy.

Consider trying the following to see if G2G could work for your business:

1. Run pop-up specials on your social media channels. Request comments in exchange for the opportunity to win product. For example, try this on Twitter: “The first three people to answer X question successfully will win a free widget.”
2. Ask your customers for videos, pictures and stories documenting their experiences using your products. In return, provide them with free product. A great example comes from Chipotle restaurants. It has a campaign (click here to see) encouraging customers to send in fun pictures of themselves with its product visible for an opportunity to win “free stuff.”

Don’t be stingy here. The more products you give away, the more you draw customers and prospects to your brand.

These are but two examples. The sky is the limit as to what kind of creativity you can come up with. Consider the benefits:

• Your contests, pictures, videos, etc. go viral and extend your brand’s marketing reach.
• You create goodwill for your brand. Remember, social media is the great equalizer. In a world constantly inundated with negative messages, people love to tell — and hear — a good story. Giveaways make for good stories.
• Nothing engages consumers like a giveaway. And engaged consumers are known by another name — repeat buyers.

Here’s my own G2G promo: The first three people who email me at jimdirect@aol.com will win a free half-hour consultation on social media and how to implement G2G in their companies.

Ready, set, go! Good luck!

Winter Weather Affecting USPS Facilities and Direct Mail Delivery

From my friend Eric Schmidt at Quebecor/WorldColor…

Winter Weather Affecting USPS Facilities and Delivery
February 8, 2010
Worldcolor Logistics NEWS FLASH – Issue #264

Significant snowstorms across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast
regions have caused some delays and even closures for the USPS. These
delays have effected the distribution of mail, newsstand and newspaper
deliveries and the storms aren’t over yet. Accumulations between tomorrow
and Wednesday are estimated at 4 to 12 inches across the above noted
regions. Below are the areas currently effected:

Memphis, TN
A winter storm warning remains in effect until 4 p.m. CT this afternoon.

Cincinnati, Ohio
Due to severe weather conditions on Feb. 6, the Postal Service has
suspended delivery and collection operations for the following offices:
* Darke County Post Offices: Ansonia, Arcanum, Bradford, Burkettsville,
Gettysburg, Greenville, Hollansburg, New Madison, North Star, Osgood,
Palestine, Pittsburg, Rossburg, Versailles, Yorkshire.
* Findlay Post Office (45840).
* ZIP Code 453: Brookville, Casstown, Christainsburg, Conover, Eldorado,
Fletcher, Houston, Lewisburg, Russia, West Manchester.

Virginia
Local Postal Operations in Orthern Virginia were suspended Saturday Feb. 6.
Affected postal operations in the ZIP Code areas beginning with 201,
220-223, 224-225, 226, and 227 in Northern Virginia area.
In Richmond, Post Offices, stations and branches closed retail operations
and suspended mail delivery and collections of mail from boxes on Saturday,
February 6, 2010.
This suspension affected postal services in the ZIP Code areas beginning
with 224, 225, 228, 229 and 244.

Maryland
Due to the winter snow storm blanketing the Baltimore metopolitan area, the
Postal Service suspended all services including retail operations, mail
delivery and collections on Feb. 6.
The suspension affected ZIP Code areas beginning 210 through 219 in
Baltimore, MD, and the northern and western portions of Maryland.

Worldcolor Logistics (WCL) will continue to monitor the situation and
implement the best course of action to mitigate the effects of this severe
winter weather.  WCL will provide additional updates should elongated
delays become likely.

For more information regarding Worldcolor Logistics or for access to past
news publications, visit our Web site at www.worldcolorlogistics.com.

An Important Announcement to ALL Environmentalists & Direct Mail Haters (no political correctness here)…

“No trees were killed in the sending of this email. However, a whole bunch of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.”

The above is the email signature of a friend of mine. While meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it actually makes a strong, yet entirely off base point: Electronic mail is somehow less harmful to the environment than paper-based mail.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the sending of email does kill trees (I’ll discuss this more below).

Whenever I write about direct mail here, the environmentalists come out to visit. Well, visit may not be the right word; maybe I should say they come out to hate. They must be trolling the internet looking for anything positive about direct mail to take a shot at, like drive-by haters.

So I’m going to set the record straight. And you environmentalists take note, please.

Here’s my question: Which is worse for the environment, direct mail or email? I think email, and here’s why.

1. Every email sent generates power consumption. Think of all the routers, servers, internet service providers and PCs involved. Consider all of the big-box companies that sell and service PCs. Maybe someone out there has done the math, but I’m sure there’s a hard cost in terms of power consumption per email.
2. Same goes for time trolling the internet looking for direct mail folks to hate on. If a computer’s on, it’s using energy.
3. Now here’s the tricky part: Where does the energy that email and computers use come from? It’s not very clean at all, is it? Our electricity is still very much powered the dirty old way, thus the energy consumed by email and the internet isn’t very clean — something environmentalist, direct mail haters don’t really talk about; truly their dirty little secret.
4. Most people recycle their direct mail, catalogs and newspapers because it’s the right thing to do.
5. The paper industry — the backbone of the direct mail business — is heavily involved in reforestation (i.e., the planting of new trees to replace ones used for paper). In fact, and I hope some paper merchants will respond to this, reforestation efforts are usually at a ratio of two to one or greater.

Just to let you know, I recycle, and I believe in a future with clean energy, not because it it politically correct, or supports a particular political agenda, but because it just makes sense to do. But to say that direct mail is destroying the planet? That’s a weak and opportunistic argument. Direct mail is still one of the most powerful tools in a marketer’s tool bag if done according to principles.

Got comments? Post them below.

A farewell to 2009, long live 2009!

Dear friends and readers,

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season, and a great new year.

Personally, I’m glad that 2009 is coming to a rapid close. As the saying goes, “May you live in interesting times.” This year was certainly interesting. In fact, I can’t recall being bored for one minute in 2009. Instead, I was challenged to do my best for my company and clients. While I don’t like to admit this publicly, I actually enjoyed this last year.  And sure it was hard work, but it was totally fulfilling.  My blog took off (much to my amazement), I got to do some great lectures for the Florida DMA (became a board member there too), started two linkedin groups that took off, and in general made money for my clients in a “hard” year.

While I stayed glued to CNBC and the markets, I stayed positive in the first half of the year.  I think the economy may be coming back, but in truth it’s just a guess (I’m no expert) and wouldn’t be surprised if there was a major correction in early 2010.

But I digress.  I feel lucky.  I feel thankful.  And I wish the same for you!  May 2010 be your greatest year ever!

Us marketers will be presented with many challenges as they enter 2010, but many opportunities as well. I look forward to reporting and providing my opinions on opportunities for you as direct marketers to take to the bank in 2010.

6 key takeaways for getting a handle on this new-fangled social media customer service

A few weeks ago, I downloaded a Monopoly game from a company called GameHouse. My son was itching to play the computer version with us on our family night (mostly because I move too slow).

Downloading was a success, but I had problems finding the activation code for the software, so I went in search of a company contact.

I jumped on GameHouse’s website, and my first instinct was to look for a phone number to call its customer service department. If you read part 1 of my “You Lost Me There” series a few months back, you know that I’m an adamant believer in having your contact info prominently displayed on your website. Another one of my pet peeves is the ubiquitous page with the contact form. Or, more importantly, how long it takes to get a response from said form.

To me it’s simple: Make it easy to speak with me or my business goes elsewhere. I couldn’t find a satisfactory way to contact GameHouse, and I grew frustrated. But there was a big (really big) “Follow us on Twitter” button, so I clicked it. I sent a tweet to GameHouse — and the rest of its followers — on how I was having problems and was aggravated that its website had no contact info. For good measure, I joined its Facebook fan page and sent the same message.

It didn’t take GameHouse long to respond. Thanks to Kristy, who manages GameHouse’s Twitter presence, I had an easy way to establish communication with the company and resolve my issues. Turns out that I also ordered half a dozen copies of Monopoly as I tried to get the activation code. Kristy helped me get squared away with GameHouse’s billing department, too. It took about a week of back and forth to get all the additional orders credited to my account. Kristy had one of GameHouse’s customer service reps work closely with me throughout the process.

Then — and this one blows me away — about a week later I got a package from GameHouse with a different version of Monopoly inside. Also inside was a handwritten card thanking me “for my patience” signed by Kristy with the note: “A little gift for all your troubles.” My son loves it, and everywhere I go (including a lecture I did last week) I tell of my exceptional customer service experience with GameHouse. With this in mind, I offer up some useful pointers.

6 Customer Service Takeaways

1. I sent my “You Lost Me There” article to Kristy, who said she’d pass it up the food chain. I hope GameHouse heeds my advice and makes it easier for customers to be served by adding a prominent phone number to its website. I’m not sure everybody will use Twitter like I did, however, meaning the potential for a negative customer service experience is present.
2. I was also quite surprised by how seamless the customer service experience can be without “traditional” contact methods being in play. As a “stone age” customer, once I adapted I was happy again.
3. Serve your customers in all channels. Social media is having a dramatic impact as a customer service tool; customers will self-select the channel of their choice.
4. Exceptional customer service can (and should) be the rule in all channels — online and offline.
5. If your customer service isn’t exceptional, expect to see negative reviews expressed publicly. Also expect to see bad customer service stories spread virally. Had I not been totally satisfied by the work of Kristy and her team, this column would have read very differently.
6. Upset customers can easily be turned into advocates with proper service. Today’s angry customer is tomorrow’s best customer.

Happy Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Dear Readers.  I wish you all a happy healthy Thanksgiving.  Be safe, have fun and enjoy your turkey.

As I prepare to take a holiday break, I wanted to let you know how thankful and grateful I am for you and your readership this past year.

And to my readers who are looking to Black Friday and Cyber Monday to make or break your fiscal years, I wish you much luck and customers!  My family and I will be doing our parts to stimulate the economy this year.  Thanks for hanging tough!

Jim

Guest Post: Black Friday? Cyber Monday? It’s Binge Discounting All This Week by Paul Miller

Note to my readers: This article from Paul Miller’s blog does a great job of putting discount holiday shopping into perspective.  As an aside, I’ve known Paul for many years and for the last 3.5 he’s been my editor at Catalog Success (now All About ROI) magazine.  Paul’s position as Editor in Chief recently got budgeted out of existence.  Check out his blog here.

Who knows where we’ll be a year from now, but at least for this season of store and online retail bargains, the killer sales are already going on. Although there will still be big store sales this Friday and probably even bigger ones online next Monday, the big retailers already began to duke it out for the lowest prices earlier this month.

As an article on the front page of Tuesday’s New York Times noted about the biggest store retailer (Wal-Mart) and online merchant (Amazon.com), the gloves have already come off. And as the Times article points out, Wal-Mart has used the media to pick apart Amazon.com’s discounting efforts, trying to ensure the public that its prices will always be the lowest. Meanwhile, Amazon.com has taken more of a high road, noting that bargains can come from all over, not just Wal-Mart.

These two “shopping holidays” haven’t been around all that long. Although Wikipedia tells us that the term “Black Friday” dates all the way back to 1966, it also notes that it didn’t take on a true shopping connotation until 2000. Cyber Monday didn’t hit its stride until just four years ago.

Now, however, with cash-strapped consumers perhaps looking to get back in the shopping game this holiday season, they’re hungrier than ever for a good bargain. Retailers, e-commerce merchants and catalog sellers are equally eager to offer the bargains to show some sort of sales gains this season to make up for the miserable time they’ve had throughout the Great Recession.

Then, you have to factor in the tragedy that took place at a Valley Stream, Long Island, Wal-Mart store just 12 months ago when bargain-hungry shoppers trampled over a defenseless Wal-Mart employee as the store opened at the stroke of 5:00am on Black Friday, fighting their way to the store’s sale items. Wal-Mart announced just last week that although its stores will open at 5am again this Friday, it would keep its stores open a full 24 hours thereafter to try to prevent more The Who’s 1979 Cincinnati concert-like stampedes from occurring again.

What this all adds up to is the likelihood of these two shopping holidays expanding beyond just the two days. This year will offer just a taste of it. Next year could see a considerable expansion of sales days at this time of year.

It’s a trend not unlike the so-called “fifth quarter” of retail business that evolved over the past 20-plus years as the holiday shopping season took on greater and greater importance to retailers, catalog marketers and later, online sellers. What started as a surge of sales immediately following Dec. 25 kept expanding week by week over the years, leading all the way back to this very week we’re now in.

If you can date yourself all the way back to the recession of the early ’80s, you might recall the last extended period of time in American retail when cut-throat discounting reached such levels. As the economy picked up in the mid-’80s, discounting eased up, full-priced retailing edged back and service levels improved. Perhaps that could occur as soon as next year at this time, but I’m guessing that the current state of binge discounting will prevail.

New word of the year – “Unfriend”

For those of you naysayers who believe that social media is a fad, a toy, or something that cannot drive business robustness, engagement and ROI, I have one word for you…

“Unfriend”

As of yesterday unfriend is the word of the year for 2009.  What’s my take?  Social media is changing our lives, the way we communicate (social media took over the top spot from email communications by the way), and the way we shop (customers now find us via social channels).

So what are your thoughts?  Discuss…