Marketing Collateral Remains Critical (But Buyers' Preferences are Changing)

Earlier this month, Eccolo Media released its 2011 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report. This survey focused on business buyers who had been involved in a recent purchase of business technology, and it was designed to measure the use and influence of five types of marketing collateral.

• Product brochures/data sheets
• White papers
• Customer case studies
• Podcasts/audio files
• Videos/multimedia files

This survey was limited to technology buyers, so the results may not reflect the attitudes and practices of all B2B buyers. On the other hand, it's probably fair to say that technology buyers as a group tend to be "early adopters" of new communications methods. Therefore, the findings of this survey may provide a good early indication of how other kinds of B2B buyers will use and value marketing collateral in the near future.  You can obtain a copy of the survey here, and I encourage you to review it.

The 2011 survey revealed a surprising shift in the consumption of some types of marketing collateral, so surprising that Eccolo Media conducted a follow-up survey to gain additional insights. (Note:  Eccolo Media has conducted this survey since 2008, so year-to-year comparisons can be made.) I'll describe the change in consumption patterns, but first here are some of the major survey findings.

• Product brochures/data sheets are the most widely consumed type of marketing collateral, followed (in order) by white papers, video/multimedia files, case studies, and podcasts/audio files.
• Marketing collateral continues to have a major influence on purchase decisions.  At least 61% of survey respondents said that all five types of collateral were "very" or "extremely" influential.
• White papers remain the most influential type of marketing collateral.

The surprise in the survey was a significant drop in the consumption of some types of marketing collateral. Compared to 2010, the consumption of customer case studies fell 17 percentage points, white papers declined 14 percentage points, and product brochures/data sheets decreased 11 percentage points.

These results do not mean that case studies, white papers, and product brochures are becoming less critical to effective marketing. The follow-up survey conducted by Eccolo Media addressed five additional types of marketing collateral - company Web pages, social media sites, blog posts, e-books, and presentations. It showed that buyers are using all of the "new" types of content to research business issues and learn about products and services.

So, what's happening is that companies are offering marketing content in a wider variety of formats, and buyers are taking advantage of the expanded options to consume content in the format they prefer.

The results of these surveys contain three important lessons for B2B marketers.

• Informative, valuable, and compelling marketing content is more critical than ever for successful B2B marketing.
• The number of content formats available to companies is increasing, and many of the newer formats are attractive to potential buyers.
• It's becoming important to deliver the same basic content message in a variety of content formats. For example, B2B buyers view white papers as highly influential because they present valuable information in a objective, non-promotional way. This type of information is still essential for marketing success, but it's now important to embody that information in Webinars/Webcasts, podcasts, and presentations, as well as in white papers.

A back-handed compliment to the power of marketing

Does Marketing serve existing consumer needs, or does it
create them?





Sooner or later, a version of this question inevitably pops up
when you’re trying to explain marketing to the general public.



One response to the question is to dismiss it with another:
why does it matter? As long as marketing
influences consumer behavior, should it matter whether it serves pre-existing
needs or

Print...extinct or existential?

In this day and age with the technology and advancement of web, email and social media we can reach thousands of viewers instantly with whatever digital venue we choose. We all know that you can have a campaign up and running instantly with literally with a click of a button and 1/4th of the budget.

This topic has been talked about alot in my tenure as a graphic professional so I am not digging up anything new. But the reality is - the print industry has changed. Am I saying that I think it is totally going away or that print is dying? Absolutely not... But just in the last 3-5 years I have seen a dramatic shift in print requests and direct mail campaigns.

Another strike against the print industry is the added concerns for the environment: recycling, chemical disposal and overall waste. Most printers do their best to meet eco-friendly guidelines but there is still the extra cost and work to comply with the "green" movement.

I am kind of bummed by all of this because I think print is still an effective and very creative vehicle for getting a message out. There is still something special about getting a really cool direct mail piece in your mailbox, or visiting a dealership and bringing home a glossy brochure of your favorite car. Who doesn't remember flipping through the Christmas toy catalog and bookmarking the things you dreamed to have. Even as a designer I find myself hoarding paper sample books because I think they are cool.

Look at the effectiveness of print this way:
How many emails do you trash not even looking at them because you consider it spam or junk mail or that don't even make it to your inbox due to spam filters? On the other hand... How many high quality printed snail mail pieces do you toss without giving them a once over to a least see the message or craftsmanship on their way to the trash? I know my answer to this...print is generally more effective in comparison.

Overall I think the internet is a tremendous tool, however, print is still much needed. A downloadable PDF isn't going to replace a beautiful brochure, printed on high quality paper (might cost less but not as effective). Consumer products still require packaging. Stores will always need point of sale displays. Retail still needs shopping bags, tags, and promotional items. Restaurants still need menus. Business cards, letterhead and envelopes remain necessary elements for every business. People still read textbooks and novels.

Bottom line: Print is here to stay (that is, until we find a way to market telepathically). Let us help you figure out how best to leverage both print and digital medias to maximize your message. Sometimes you need both, and other times one more than the other, but lets face reality, print is always going to be part of the equation.

Until next time,
Jeremy

The Power of 70 (A Social Media Case Study)

We are on day 38 of a client promotion focused on personalized debit cards (cards that use our own, personal photos).

The goal is to open new checking accounts by using these market-unique access tools as the differentiator.

The campaign was divided into 3 phases.

PHASE 1: Awareness & Acquisition

We promote the debit card through TV, web banners and direct mail.  The foundation of the promotion is a photo contest where each credit union member who opens a photo debit card has the option to add that photo into the contest. 

The call to action for all media is a unique URL where they can create their personalized photo card and begin the account opening process online.

PHASE 2: Voting & Social Media

We end all external media during a 2 week voting period.  We use the same unique URL as Phase 1, but add the voting element.  Of course, members and potential members can still create their own card and begin the account opening process – they just cannot enter into the contest.

During this time, we use email and Facebook to promote the voting.  The key is to provide tools for the contestants to push the message to their social circle to encourage voting for their photo.

PHASE 3: Announce Winner & Continued Awareness

We restart the TV campaign with a new ad featuring the winner’s photo and promoting the unique aspect of the photo debit card.

RESULTS

Phase 1

We experienced a spike on the first day of the media campaign with more than 100 absolutely unique visitors on day 1.  The first week, the daily unique visitors leveled off to about 40-50 per day.  Week two, it lowered to 10-20 unique visitors per day.  

We then launched the direct mail and sent another email to members to re-energize response and saw another one-day spike of more than 400 unique visitors (a 400% increase over our best day of TV).  Again, we leveled out to about 50 visitors per day during the last few days of Phase 1. 

The broad-based media had an immediate impact but leveled out and began to decline in 2 weeks.  The targeted effort of direct mail had a more impactful one-day result, but also quickly leveled off.

Phase 2

Here’s where things get interesting!  Where the client averaged only 8 photo debit cards per month, we generated 70 photo card contestants in 4 weeks (we are still waiting on actual new checking and new member numbers – the true test of success).

From the first day that the voting opened and from the first email to our 70 contestants, encouraging them to promote the voting – we saw an immediate and sustained jump to about 500 absolutely unique visitors per day.  Higher than either of our prior one-day spikes for TV or direct mail!  We are in our 7^th straight day with these sustained results.

THE LESSON

Social media is a powerful tool, but it does not work in a vacuum.  The success of the social media was built on 4 weeks of steady exposure in traditional media.

The social media aspect of this campaign is working because the target is motivated by a prize to push the credit union’s message.  But if 70 contestants can generate about 3,500 unique visitors to a site in just 7 days, without a penny spent on external media … imagine the impact of a sustained social media program, as part of a full on-going marketing effort, where you are offering valuable information, an occasional contest and random product specials.  

As you create your plan for 2012, it's important to consider how social media can help to strengthen your overall results when included the the rest of your media mix.

MarketMatch is a full-service marketing consulting firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the efforts that will generate MOMENTUM and yield the greatest RESULTS for your bottom line.

Learn more here.

Or contact me directly.

Rebranding the Traditional Box Office

In a previous post entitled Subscriptions Dead? Maybe Not, I discussed various strategies Arena Stage employed in order to significantly increase its subscriber base. One of the most important was systematically identifying the best subscriber leads in our database, and then developing and implementing strategies to increase the number of similar leads.

Like many others, we traded lists with other performing arts organizations during the acquisition portion of our subscription campaign. However, in doing so, we experienced an incredibly high cost-of-sale for each new subscriber. Even when factoring in the value of each new subscriber over multiple years, returns from mailings to traded lists didn't justify the cost. Our strategy was flawed, and it was time for a change.

Data showed that our best leads were in our own database, with the best of the best being single ticket buyers who purchased tickets to multiple productions during the previous fiscal year. Instead of trying to attract new subscribers with no prior transactional history with us by sending direct mail campaigns to traded lists, we shifted strategy by focusing on building multi-buyers during the 2008-09 season. The new strategy was simple--if multi-buyers were the best prospects for subscriber acquisition campaigns, then the more multi-buyers we had, the better off we were for the following year's subscription campaign.

Instead of trading lists for subscription mailings, we traded lists for our most popular productions. Transactional data showed that by luring in new patrons via our most popular programming, we had a much better shot of cross-selling them into other productions soon after they had their first great experience at our theater. If new patrons purchased tickets to just one additional production during the season, they were exponentially more likely to subscribe than a lead with no prior transactional history with us.

Our focus was now clear--in order to grow our subscriber base, we must first focus on building the number of multi-buyers throughout the year. And the most critical component of that strategy was refocusing our ticket sales operations by shifting our box office to a sales office.

The prevailing feeling at the time was that our box office associates were "order takers." They were expected to pick up the phone and process each order in a courteous and timely fashion. They were evaluated on efficiency instead of effectiveness. With the beginning of the 2008-09 season, we rebranded our box office (now referred to as a sales office), and made it clear that associates were expected to function as sales consultants. They were now responsible for up-selling, cross-selling and proactively soliciting annual fund donations. To prepare the office, I promoted an exceptionally entrepreneurial minded manager to lead the division, and she in turn, brought in several experts to train our staff. We adopted a mantra of sales through service, and in doing so, viewed each opportunity to cross-sell as a moment to provide excellent customer service.

Three years later, I am very pleased with our results:

From FY08 to FY11, new-to-file households (those that had no previous transactional history with Arena Stage) increased by 90%, but even more importantly, multi-buyer households increased by 44%, giving us a much larger "best prospects" pool for new subscribers. In this fiscal year alone, that pool was converted into more than 5,100 new subscribers. Despite what some viewed as aggressive sales techniques, our 2011 customer satisfaction survey revealed that satisfaction levels were at an all-time high, and our attrition rate decreased 6% over the last two years.

Today, our sales associates up-sell seat locations, cross-sell buyers into similar programming, solicit various levels of annual fund donations, offer to make reservations at our cafe, suggest pre-paid parking, and will even arrange for a car service with a preferred provider. In addition, during slower sales cycles, our associates also provide support to our group sales office, and participate in outbound calling. By doing so, we maximize revenue, while growing the number of multi-buyer households and providing premium concierge service to all patrons.

Trick or treat?

This is a guest post by John Bradley. John spent 24 years spreading happiness
and tooth decay in marketing with Cadbury before switching careers into writing. He is currently working on his third book.










You’d think Halloween is a treat for candy
makers. But it’s more like Nightmare on Elm Street that is played out for
manufacturers and retailers in the Halloween loot bags being

Something for Everyone

Recently my wife and I took a trip to Las Vegas. I had been there before for business but never really had time to do any sight seeing. So we did all there was to do and saw pretty much everything there was to see. The thing that still has me baffled the most (besides the missing money in my wallet) was the decor. I was utterly amazed that every bar, restaurant, shop and casino that we visited, looked completely different from each other. I never once saw a place that looked like another place. The building materials, colors, and over all themes were totally unique in each venue. That town must be an interior designers/architects dream.












If you never went outside...you would think you've been transported to some of the most exotic places on earth (as opposed to the middle of the desert). As a fantasy land for all walks of life, there is absolutely something for everyone. It is definitely a beautiful and inspiring place. I filled my brain with lots of ideas and got a refreshing look at color schemes, shapes and styles. "Las Vegas...to you and your gleaming bright lights, and shiny marble floors...I salute you." (even though you left me with no money).

Until next time,
Jeremy