I grew up in a small town in central Michigan...well, home of Central Michigan University to be a bit more specific (GO CHIPS!!). My family history is one filled with two professions...teachers and bankers. When I was young, my brother and I would talk about what we wanted to be when we grew up. Keep in mind that in the late 70's and early 80's those conversations had more to do with gender and which was more "rad" than the other. I guess the word, "cool" hadn't hit mid-Michigan yet!
At an early age I started defying the things our parents called dangerous, forbidden, and "not for girls." For example, my tree house that was about 50' up an old oak tree...you had to make sure the Red Rider was carefully attached to your backpack because that fall could shatter my old crooked shooter (I became the master of compensating for that old thing!). But I digress.
So in the battle for the best "I wanna be a..." I was always the first girl fireman. Yup, long before being PC firefighters, we had firemen, and I was going to be one. Life happened, education was achieved, then some more education (I had a massive change in career path after that child development class...I KNEW I wasn't going to be a teacher after that!), and there I was...a legacy banker.
Wile my degree is in Marketing, it hasn't always been in banking. I did my internship with a beer and wine wholesaler where I did some merchandising, keg rotating, some selling and a lot of display building. When that was over, I migrated to some financial services marketing...a CPA and consulting firm most specifically where I did some contract work on a branding campaign. Then I went to the bank. Mortgage loans, new accounts and a bazillion other things that were in the catch-all job description of the Corporate Marketing Director.
Because I was spread so thin, it seemed that I was constantly putting out fires, and not able to execute the incredibly exciting and aggressive marketing plan I had written. And that's when it hit me. I had actually achieved my ultimate career goal...or at least the one I had when I was 7 years old. I was a fireman...errr...firefighter. Putting out the fires of every department head who needed that (insert the deposit product promotion of your choice) letter out yesterday!
I knew I had to make a change. Putting out fires is no way to market a bank! The change wasn't necessarily where I was working...the change had to be in the way marketing was viewed by the bank. I was on a mission. Today, that bank has shifted their view of marketing from being the people who recruit volunteers to walk in a parade and order the suckers for the drive through (and I am convinced those are called dum-dums for a reason!) to a revenue generating critical function within the bank. Granted it has taken several years (2 marketing directors and the ultimate consulting company) to get them there, but they are there and are experiencing remarkable success.
So, my question to you today is this: Are you a Marketer, or a Firefighter? Because you can't be both and I have never seen billowing smoke come out of a bank!!
No great reward has come without great risk. Take the risk.
Jenna
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Subject Lines with better open rates...
--After testing long vs. short subject lines, I've found that subject lines of less than 50 characters achieve higher open rates than those of 50 or more characters. Here's a great tool to help see which subject lines fall within email providers' parameters.
http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/from-subject-line-tool.html
Some other lessons learned:
--Contain emotional drivers (i.e. greed, fear, vanity)
--Ask a question
--Specificty rules (specific $ or %)
--Incorporate well known names in your industry
--Tie into timely news or current event
--Use a powerful call to action
--Forecasts
--Rare events
http://www.emaillabs.com/tools/from-subject-line-tool.html
Some other lessons learned:
--Contain emotional drivers (i.e. greed, fear, vanity)
--Ask a question
--Specificty rules (specific $ or %)
--Incorporate well known names in your industry
--Tie into timely news or current event
--Use a powerful call to action
--Forecasts
--Rare events
Living the Brand
Frontier Airlines. Have you ever flown them? It's an experience...and the first experience for this traveler was a little, well, how should I say it? Conflicting...that's the word, conflicting. When flying a "budget" airline, my expectations are usually in line with the cost of the flight...low!
So let's start counting my surprises. There are parents with their children and the children's grandparents EVERYWHERE. Pretty much in line with my expectations...but this is when it happens. The little boy (who announces he has to go potty) runs to his mom and says, "don't tell me who it is, I want to be surprised." HUH? I ignored it and continued my walk to the gate. I pass a few airline gates and hear "I think it was the bear." Then I hear "I watched Rachael Ray on my flight." Now I'm listening.
The same little boy comes RUNNING...I mean flat out sprint as fast as his 5 year old legs will take him...running, "did I miss it?" This time, his dad yells back, "Hurry, the plane is pulling up now." All of this running and yelling and rushing and whispering was about the animal on the tail of the Frontier Airlines plane. Our partner in flight this fine Sunday was Montana the Elk. And everyone thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Frontier Airlines launched a brand awareness campaign asking its passengers and anyone within earshot of one of their commercials to vote on their favorite animal, each having it's own name and voice. This ran for what seemed like months, and everyone was talking about it, including our local news channels...and that was free for Frontier! The anchors of the evening news were talking about who they voted for...you can't buy that kind of publicity...LITERALLY!
When was the last time another airline asked you what you thought about them? Or for that matter, when was the last time ANYONE asked you what you thought of their business, especially about something so inane as the animal on the tail of an aircraft? I am guessing your answer was, "never." Right, mine too. But you don't get voted best in class if you don't.
Everyone was so happy. The ticket agent, gate agent, flight attendants, passengers, EVERYONE was smiling. I thought it was endearing. Then I learned that each seat on my plane had it's own DirecTV with 20someodd channels. Now I am smiling...Rachael Ray on my flight, and as much commercial surfing as I can do for as long as my flight is!
I could ramble on and on about this experience, and the several subsequent, on-time, plenty of frills Frontier Airlines flights I have taken. I gave up American Airlines Gold Status for DirecTV and Sun Chips.
So what can we, as professional marketers learn from this? I can't give away all the secrets, but I can ask you to think. And ask yourselves a few simple questions:
What makes us different? (Lower prices? Maybe. Better tchatchkis? Probably not.)
Do your customers/members talk about you? (What do they say?)
Do they look forward to their next visit?
Have your customers/members become indifferent about you?
A financial institution isn't that much different from any other retail or commercial business. You and your competition are offering almost identical products at almost identical prices...I challenge you to find what makes you different, what makes you better, faster and stronger and capitalize on it!!!
See you soon,
Jenna
So let's start counting my surprises. There are parents with their children and the children's grandparents EVERYWHERE. Pretty much in line with my expectations...but this is when it happens. The little boy (who announces he has to go potty) runs to his mom and says, "don't tell me who it is, I want to be surprised." HUH? I ignored it and continued my walk to the gate. I pass a few airline gates and hear "I think it was the bear." Then I hear "I watched Rachael Ray on my flight." Now I'm listening.
The same little boy comes RUNNING...I mean flat out sprint as fast as his 5 year old legs will take him...running, "did I miss it?" This time, his dad yells back, "Hurry, the plane is pulling up now." All of this running and yelling and rushing and whispering was about the animal on the tail of the Frontier Airlines plane. Our partner in flight this fine Sunday was Montana the Elk. And everyone thought that was the coolest thing ever.
Frontier Airlines launched a brand awareness campaign asking its passengers and anyone within earshot of one of their commercials to vote on their favorite animal, each having it's own name and voice. This ran for what seemed like months, and everyone was talking about it, including our local news channels...and that was free for Frontier! The anchors of the evening news were talking about who they voted for...you can't buy that kind of publicity...LITERALLY!
When was the last time another airline asked you what you thought about them? Or for that matter, when was the last time ANYONE asked you what you thought of their business, especially about something so inane as the animal on the tail of an aircraft? I am guessing your answer was, "never." Right, mine too. But you don't get voted best in class if you don't.
Everyone was so happy. The ticket agent, gate agent, flight attendants, passengers, EVERYONE was smiling. I thought it was endearing. Then I learned that each seat on my plane had it's own DirecTV with 20someodd channels. Now I am smiling...Rachael Ray on my flight, and as much commercial surfing as I can do for as long as my flight is!
I could ramble on and on about this experience, and the several subsequent, on-time, plenty of frills Frontier Airlines flights I have taken. I gave up American Airlines Gold Status for DirecTV and Sun Chips.
So what can we, as professional marketers learn from this? I can't give away all the secrets, but I can ask you to think. And ask yourselves a few simple questions:
What makes us different? (Lower prices? Maybe. Better tchatchkis? Probably not.)
Do your customers/members talk about you? (What do they say?)
Do they look forward to their next visit?
Have your customers/members become indifferent about you?
A financial institution isn't that much different from any other retail or commercial business. You and your competition are offering almost identical products at almost identical prices...I challenge you to find what makes you different, what makes you better, faster and stronger and capitalize on it!!!
See you soon,
Jenna
Thursday, July 5, 2007
In an attempt to personalize, make sure you don't offend...
I am a huge proponent of personalizing direct mail so that the recipient feels like the package and/or offer was developed specifically for them. I think the invention of PURL (personalized URLs) technology and digital printing have created great opportunities for personalized messaging. One word of caution however -- If you don't trust all the information in your database, be careful! When pulling information for personlized direct mail campaigns, make sure that the information fields you are pulling from are correct and complete, otherwise you might end up addressing the solicitation to the wrong name or no name at all. In which case, not only did you fail to personalize the package, you have also most likely offended the recipient.
The Arts Invade Second Life...
Would you like a very inexpensive way to display your artwork in front of over 7 million people? Can't afford a gallery space in the real world--why not open one up in Second Life. Check out this article in the The Art Newspaper about the art scene in Second Life.For video tours of exhibitions and performances on Second Life, go to: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/www.youtube.com/theartnewspaper.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Welcome!
To the new MarketMatch Blog!
MarketMatch is dedicated to providing perspective and strategic vision to our clients and the financial service industry...
A major component of that perspective is the timely review of industry trends, sharing ideas across the country, and helping you to create relevance for your institution, your marketing, and your brand.
We will actively share our thoughts in a lively forum for marketing professionals throughout the country...
Check in often, read up on our thoughts, and share yours!
MarketMatch is dedicated to providing perspective and strategic vision to our clients and the financial service industry...
A major component of that perspective is the timely review of industry trends, sharing ideas across the country, and helping you to create relevance for your institution, your marketing, and your brand.
We will actively share our thoughts in a lively forum for marketing professionals throughout the country...
Check in often, read up on our thoughts, and share yours!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Where Have All the Pop Unders Gone?
Have you noticed that you don't see as many pop ups and pop unders anymore?
That's because many search engines frown on pop ups or pop unders. A matter of fact, if you start a pay-per-click campaign and happen to be redirecting traffic to your website and you have pop ups on your website, the search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo) will ask you to disable the pop up code BEFORE they approve your PPC campaign.
That’s largely because these forms of marketing are intrusive and annoying to Web surfers. They are also oftentimes similar to ‘online spam’, where you can’t see how to close the pop up (as the publisher made the close button very small or faint in color). And the ones you do finally figure out how to close, miraculously spawn children when you hit ‘x’, and all these boxes seem to cascade out of now where and the only thing you can do is reboot to stop the madness.
It’s the oldest form of ‘interruption marketing’, and it typically doesn’t work.
So next time you’re wondering why these ads aren’t as popular as they used to be, it’s because consumers have gotten savvier and less tolerant. Thank goodness!
Lead gen success: Using online polls
Polls ... one of the best marketing vehicles I've used to gauge consumer interest or collect qualified emails. Underestimated by those that don't truly know it's value and how to leverage them. But a completely viable and reliable way to build your prospect database.
Polls can be used on your own website as well as placed on other websites/blogs via banner or text ads through a media buy. Variables for success will include the poll question, media placement, amount of media (impressions) purchased, and your overall budget.
However, unless you have an up-sell landing page that comes up immediately after completion of the poll, the leads will not be initially monetized. To some, initial monetization is important. To others, having those names convert organically in the normal sales cycle of 30 - 90 days is fine.If that’s the case, it’s important to email these names soon after you collect them with a dedicated email for a low priced offer and try and convert leads for revenues to offset the media cost.
Here are some other important things to consider when using polls for lead generation:
1. Interactivity. Your question should engage the reader, encourage participation, peak interest, and tie into a current event. Also, have a "comments" field for additional remarks. Sample proven poll topics include: Politics, economy, health, consumer breakthroughs, the stock market, foreign affairs. It's great to weave current events and hot topics into your poll. Some websites that highlight the most talked about (and searched) topics on the web include: buzz.yahoo.com/, 50.lycos.com/, and google.com/press/zeitgeist.html.
2. Relevance. Your poll question should be related to your product, free eLetter topic, or free bonus report topic. This will greatly improve your conversion rate and up-sell rate.
3. Incentive. If you're a publisher, after people take your poll or survey, mention that to thank them for their participation you’re automatically signing them up for your free eLetter, which they can opt out at any time. If you don't have an eLetter, you can offer a "must read" eReport and mention the reports value. This can be any useful "macro" level report that is anywhere from 3-10 pages. Emailing the report will reduce the number of bogus emails you get. Keep in mind, if it’s part of your privacy policy not to sell or rent email names to third parties (and as a best practice, it should be), mention this by sign up button. This will help reassure users that their email addresses are safe with you.
4. Name Quality. If your poll question and your product are in sync, these names could be extremely qualified for current … or future products. This can help allocate leads for like-minded front end products, such as a paid newsletter. Each name that comes in under a specific topic or product type should be "tagged" accordingly by your database folks for segmentation purposes to help conversion rates.
5. Market sentiment. In addition to name collection, your effort will also gauge general market opinion. The results from your poll could be helpful for product development. You'll be tapping into people's thoughts and behaviors and may consider next steps based on market demand.
6. Follow Up. To help reiterate to prospects the connection between the poll they just took and your incentive, it’s important to make sure that each name that comes in gets an immediate "thank you page" (for taking the poll) and then an auto responder email containing the free eReport or eLetter. Also consider sending a series of bonding emails that basically "warm up" the new subscriber to your company – letting them get to know who you are, what you do, and how it will benefit them. This will help improve the life time value (LTV) of the lead.
7. Results. Don’t just leave 'em hanging … make sure you tell prospects on your poll page that "results will be published" and they should check your site regularly. This will help readership and website traffic.
8. Reader Participation. Mention on your poll landing page that some comments may be published (anonymously) when the results are released. Pick the very best, most powerful and provoking responses and publish those on your website. This tactic has been extremely successful with social networking communities and blogs. It also helps with reader engagement as viewers can connect with the realism of the comments.
Polls are a viable way to build you list. So try it out...I know you won't be disappointed with the outcome.
That's because many search engines frown on pop ups or pop unders. A matter of fact, if you start a pay-per-click campaign and happen to be redirecting traffic to your website and you have pop ups on your website, the search engines (i.e. Google, Yahoo) will ask you to disable the pop up code BEFORE they approve your PPC campaign.
That’s largely because these forms of marketing are intrusive and annoying to Web surfers. They are also oftentimes similar to ‘online spam’, where you can’t see how to close the pop up (as the publisher made the close button very small or faint in color). And the ones you do finally figure out how to close, miraculously spawn children when you hit ‘x’, and all these boxes seem to cascade out of now where and the only thing you can do is reboot to stop the madness.
It’s the oldest form of ‘interruption marketing’, and it typically doesn’t work.
So next time you’re wondering why these ads aren’t as popular as they used to be, it’s because consumers have gotten savvier and less tolerant. Thank goodness!
Lead gen success: Using online polls
Polls ... one of the best marketing vehicles I've used to gauge consumer interest or collect qualified emails. Underestimated by those that don't truly know it's value and how to leverage them. But a completely viable and reliable way to build your prospect database.
Polls can be used on your own website as well as placed on other websites/blogs via banner or text ads through a media buy. Variables for success will include the poll question, media placement, amount of media (impressions) purchased, and your overall budget.
However, unless you have an up-sell landing page that comes up immediately after completion of the poll, the leads will not be initially monetized. To some, initial monetization is important. To others, having those names convert organically in the normal sales cycle of 30 - 90 days is fine.If that’s the case, it’s important to email these names soon after you collect them with a dedicated email for a low priced offer and try and convert leads for revenues to offset the media cost.
Here are some other important things to consider when using polls for lead generation:
1. Interactivity. Your question should engage the reader, encourage participation, peak interest, and tie into a current event. Also, have a "comments" field for additional remarks. Sample proven poll topics include: Politics, economy, health, consumer breakthroughs, the stock market, foreign affairs. It's great to weave current events and hot topics into your poll. Some websites that highlight the most talked about (and searched) topics on the web include: buzz.yahoo.com/, 50.lycos.com/, and google.com/press/zeitgeist.html.
2. Relevance. Your poll question should be related to your product, free eLetter topic, or free bonus report topic. This will greatly improve your conversion rate and up-sell rate.
3. Incentive. If you're a publisher, after people take your poll or survey, mention that to thank them for their participation you’re automatically signing them up for your free eLetter, which they can opt out at any time. If you don't have an eLetter, you can offer a "must read" eReport and mention the reports value. This can be any useful "macro" level report that is anywhere from 3-10 pages. Emailing the report will reduce the number of bogus emails you get. Keep in mind, if it’s part of your privacy policy not to sell or rent email names to third parties (and as a best practice, it should be), mention this by sign up button. This will help reassure users that their email addresses are safe with you.
4. Name Quality. If your poll question and your product are in sync, these names could be extremely qualified for current … or future products. This can help allocate leads for like-minded front end products, such as a paid newsletter. Each name that comes in under a specific topic or product type should be "tagged" accordingly by your database folks for segmentation purposes to help conversion rates.
5. Market sentiment. In addition to name collection, your effort will also gauge general market opinion. The results from your poll could be helpful for product development. You'll be tapping into people's thoughts and behaviors and may consider next steps based on market demand.
6. Follow Up. To help reiterate to prospects the connection between the poll they just took and your incentive, it’s important to make sure that each name that comes in gets an immediate "thank you page" (for taking the poll) and then an auto responder email containing the free eReport or eLetter. Also consider sending a series of bonding emails that basically "warm up" the new subscriber to your company – letting them get to know who you are, what you do, and how it will benefit them. This will help improve the life time value (LTV) of the lead.
7. Results. Don’t just leave 'em hanging … make sure you tell prospects on your poll page that "results will be published" and they should check your site regularly. This will help readership and website traffic.
8. Reader Participation. Mention on your poll landing page that some comments may be published (anonymously) when the results are released. Pick the very best, most powerful and provoking responses and publish those on your website. This tactic has been extremely successful with social networking communities and blogs. It also helps with reader engagement as viewers can connect with the realism of the comments.
Polls are a viable way to build you list. So try it out...I know you won't be disappointed with the outcome.
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