The NextMark Mailing Lists Search Tool is now available for librarians to add to their business resources pages. 

Just click the link below titled “List Search Tool Instructions“.  It only takes a minute to copy and paste the html code.  Feel free to send me a message via LinkedIn or email me directly if you need help.

Lists Search Tool Instructions

Here’s my work e-mail address if you need some help with the widget installation:  cdemartine@nextmark.com

Enjoy!

It seems that many have forgotten that the rules of marketing still apply to social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). You hear the gimmicks, pleads and campaigns to help us “reach 1,000 followers” or “reach 1,000,000 followers” While this may be exciting in the moment it will wear off and leave you with little. For the celebrity pushing the counter is one thing, when it comes to your business or organization not so much.

Instead focus on Quality of content and followers as opposed to quantity. You can have 1,000 followers but if they aren’t really interest in your content or help to spread the word about your offering what value is there? If they aren’t your target market are you reaching your marketing goals?

When you apply the same focus you give other marketing activities you’ll see the return in social media. As you grow in social media remember quality will get your further than quantity.

Share your success with social media. Have you gained business? Brought in new donors or sponsorships? Have you received media coverage?

Apparently in Britain DM’s  think direct mail is ok . In an article in Marketing Wee  “Direct mail is regarded as a valuable business channel by the boards and senior management teams of organizations, according to marketers.

Marketing Week’s Direct Mail Attitudes research reveals that 56% of marketers believe that direct mail carries weight with the board and top executives at their organization. However, 30% of the respondents believe that direct marketing is not taken seriously at the executive levels of their businesses.”

Whats your thoughts on Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing blends the art of the message and brand in a communication written expressly for you, delivered to (or viewed by) one person at a time.  So why is data so important to direct marketers?

Direct marketing relies on the 3 R’s:

• communicating the Right message
• to the Right person
• at the Right time

This is an iterative process and direct marketers test, test, and retest so that we know that are delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.  We have the data to back that up.

Once you understand who your best customers are (what channels they shop, what they buy, when they buy them, what messages they respond to, where they live, etc, etc), then you can go after more of them by marketing to highly similar people where are throughout the day. 

Proper segmentation of your customers enables better targeting and higher ROIs.  Conversely, it also allows you to avoid or suppress your lowest performing customers.  With better targeting, each message that is written expressly for them and delivered at the right time has a much higher likelihood of being received and an action taken.  And with data, you can track all of this, every step of the way.

My direct marketing friend Laurie and I were lamenting the strange knowledge gap that seems to be cresting among our younger online siblings.  Given the comparatively really, really inexpensive costs of online advertising (versus any offline tactic), why not optimize a campaign to achieve the lowest CPC, CPA, CPO – afterall, why not drive traffic at the lowest possible cost?

For a start-up going from zero to post-launch, this makes perfectly good sense.  But once you start to scale, and start to get a base of customers, this front-end only focus will ultimately kill your business.

The reason is that driving for the lowest possible CPX assumes that all visitors to your site are equal in value to your business.  Take the total number of visitors, apply some average conversion rate and average order size, and bingo – you have a revenue projection.  But visitors are far, far from being equal.  Remember the old 80/20 rule?  80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers?  That rule still rules today.  Not only are visitors to your site not equal, but none of your customers are equal either.

That is where the back-end analytics and data analysis comes in.  Once you start developing a base of customers (B2B or B2C - doesn’t matter), you must start understanding them in-depth.  Where did they come from?  What message did they respond to?  Basic demographics.  Basic behavioral data.  Conversion efforts and costs.  Retention efforts and costs.  All must be figured into a Lifetime Value metric by customer at best (for large enterprise customers) or by profile for B2C customers.  A good direct marketer (online or offline) will have this background.

The problem that I’ve seen with a lot of companies is that marketing (and therefore, IT) doesn’t understand the scope of data that should be captured for these types of analyses.  Therefore, their databases are inappropriately structured, and unfortunately, usually not scalable.  Integrating databases and ultimately migrating to new platforms and adding BI is probably one of the largest IT infrastructure investments that companies need to make when they are ready to jump to that next level of growth.

Without understanding who your best customers are, you’ll flood your organization with low value, generally high maintenance customers, while your best customers get lost in the shuffle and are driven away.  Don’t let that happen to your company.

November 23, 2009- Mintel Comperemedia, a company that tracks direct marketing expenditures reported that direct mail offers from banks to their current customers increased 42% during the third quarter of last year.  Notable is not just this increase occurring amidst dwindling marketing budgets, but the fact that banks are allocating their resources toward retaining customers rather than acquiring new customers. Trust has become a major PR and marketing issue for financial institutions in the current economic climate, and banks are turning to direct mail as the most effective means of communicating with and cultivating relationships with their current customers.

According to Comperemedia, banks mailed approximately 53 million offers to their customers in the third quarter, nearly double the same period in 2007.  And, this increase came across the board when it comes to bank size:  Major players such as Citi and Bank of America as well as smaller regional banks like Webster and Parish National stepped up their direct marketing efforts.

Banks have also taken note of the recent trend of Americans suddenly awakening to their lack of savings.  Banks sent nearly 300 times more direct mail communications related to ”savings” messages in the third quarter versus the same quarter a year earlier.

The lesson for printers is that you shouldn’t be discouraged when the newspapers are full of articles about financial services firms being strapped for cash and cutting their marketing budgets.  There is money to be made in promoting savings products to their customers such as CD’s, savings accounts, or 529i plans.  Consumers are hungry for information that will help them accelerate their savings and will find it easier to deal with a financial institution that already knows them. Moreover, with their extensive customer lists, banks are better qualified than almost any other industry to communicate effectively by mail with their customers.

Specialized P4 Process is a Cool Direct Mail Idea

Excerpt from an exclusive interview with Alice Mishica, owner and president of Specialized Mailing Services, Inc., Alice revealed the hottest addition to the SMS Direct Mail Marketing family.

“Specialized Mailing Services” has been processing newspaper and magazine tear sheets with hand written personalized sticky notes for over 20 years. One day, a client called and asked if there was any way we could mail a tear sheet with a personalized note using a bulk stamp. Alice responded, “Hand addressed envelopes do not qualify for bulk rates, nor can you have anything hand written inside the envelope of a bulk mail piece.”

The gauntlet had been laid.

“There are many incredible hand writing fonts available today and addressing the envelope was not a problem,” Alice continued.

“It took me a while to figure out a cost effective way to generate a computerized personalized sticky note that had the exact same characteristics of a handwritten envelope.”

Social networking isn’t just for the web. Take it down to its old fashioned roots of neighbors talking to neighbors, friends asking friends, and it is an essential but truly undervalued element of effective audience development for the arts, museums, entertainment – all types of cultural participation.

I’ve been studying this phenomenon for a while. I first came upon it when doing analytics concerning the annual audience growth for a major opera company client. I kept finding that in high rise appartment/condo buildings, our direct marketing strategy took us to Sue in unit 204 and maybe also to Ted in unit 916. And here we were at the results end of things, noticing that in addition to Sue in 204 and Ted in 916, we’d picked up Alice in 206 and Jo in 917. Hmm. Just to see if this was a random occurance, I tracked it through and found that over 30% of newcomers appeared linked to someone nearby. And it wasn’t just limited to high rises. How likely would it be that Yvonne at 516 S. Sidney Ave. just randomly turned up next to Terry at 519 S. Sidney Ave., especially since I saw – through mapping – that we hadn’t tapped anyone else in a multiblock area. Hmm again.

I’ve now been tracking this consistently throughout the last six months. In dense metro areas, the neighbor-to-neighbor network is unfailingly (and easily) evident in high rises. In suburban areas, you’ll find the likely newcomer lives a house or two away or maybe across the street. (Check it by mapping it.)

I just saw it again this morning, which has inspired this entry. I was analyzing an audience in the metro DC area. Three months ago, the “base” list included three units in the same Rockville, Maryland building – units 125, 225, and 409 had all been prior attenders and were as a result targeted this fall by direct mail. Lo and behold, not only did they buy, but they brought? marketed to? handed materials to? units 121, 704, and 1605, all of which also bought and came. So far in analyzing this particular campaign, I have seen dozens of the same scenario played out, and I am confident we’ll see that 30% of the newcomers are friend or neighbor-driven.

A few months ago I posted a question about this on Facebook and Twitter, and most everyone who responded said that they would rarely go to arts, culture (i.e. lectures, readings) and entertainment alone, and that if their spouse/family/friend didn’t want to go to something they really wanted to attend, they’d find a neighbor or call another friend to go. Only friends who travel extensively said they were comfortable going to paid/ticketed events on their own.

Its accepted wisdom in marketing that happy current customers become top sales force members in recruit of new customers. This foundational concept is under-used when it comes to building arts and cultural participation, but it is true. Its not “group sales:” for most of these folks, the very concept is a turn off. But it is deep and real, and has the ability to add 30% or more to your audience if you do it right.

Make the most out of your fundraising emails!

This week, we share some of the secrets to writing an effective fund-raising email for non-profit organizations. Once you’ve established a landing page where people can make donations, your next step is to write the letter itself. Each section of the email needs to have certain components to ‘make it work’. This week, we let you know what those are.

Put your request in the subject line – If your goal is to get people to give you money, then put it in the subject line. Indirect lines on average have a 21% open rate but only a 4% response rate. Direct subject lines however, have an 18% open rate, and an 18% response rate.  Yes, the open rates are usually lower, but the response rates are dramatically higher. Be direct and ask for what you want.

On a side note, stay away from being ‘catchy’ or ‘clever’. When people open the email and they discover that this isn’t what they thought it was, they will feel misled. If they’re feeling mislead, forget any possibility of getting money from them. This is asking for a donation, not tricking them into donating.

Keep the email copy short – I’ve read fundraising emails that have gone on for as long as 5 pages, and to this day, I can’t figure out for the life of me why someone thinks that an email that long is a good idea. Keep your ideas short and concise. According to studies, longer copy gets an 18% response rate. Shorter copy gets 30%. It should be a no brainer. In all reality, a fundraising email should be no longer than three-four paragraphs, if you can help it (sometimes, an extra paragraph or lines won’t hurt).

Keep the copy simple – You’ve only got a few paragraphs to get your point across. You need to make it count! I’ve done about 50 fundraising campaigns through email and have used the same bare-bones formula every time:

-          Header and/or company banner at the top of the page.

-          Paragraph 1 – State problem your organization fights.

-          Link to donation.

-          Paragraph 2 – State what your organization does to fight the problem.

-          Paragraph 3 – Examples of where the money will go. Short testimonials are fantastic here.

-          Link to donation. Again.

-          Closing statement.

-          If necessary, add a P.S. with donation link.

-          If desired, a footer with a button to donate.

Keep your links separate and keep them simple – The first link to donate in the email should get its own paragraph. Don’t embed it into the copy where it’ll get lost. Why? Because the first link always generates the most donations. In most cases, once you’ve explained who you are, people will be more likely to donate to you.

The second-most responses in your email will likely come from your last link. Some people just need more justification in order to donate. However, if you’ve been direct in your subject line, and they’ve clicked on it and opened your email, they’re ready to give. All you have to do is ask. Ask, but do so simply and directly.

Send a follow-up email with a different subject line – The window to get donations from your first email will be 5 days. Over 90% of all money collected in email fundraising campaigns comes arrives within that period. However, that doesn’t mean you’re finished.

If you don’t get the response you had hoped for, or even if you did and you want to raise more money, change up the subject line, stay direct, and send it out again. The same things aren’t going to inspire everyone to donate to your cause. Target the people who didn’t open the letter with a new subject line.

Once you’ve reached out to the non-openers, it’s time to tackle that group that opened the email but didn’t donate. This is when you change the email up a bit. Shorten the length or make it a little longer. Change up some wording. Change the language on the linked sections. Make minor adjustments here and there and see where you get!

The moral of this lesson is simple! Don’t give up after the first email has been sent out!

Author: Jackie Johnson
Source: isnare.com

1. DVD duplication provides a single delivery method for marketing and promotional information that cannot be matched by any other form of direct marketing:

* The visual impact of Television.
* The audio impression of Radio.
* The, dvd, detail of a Catalogue.
* The, dvd, targeting of Direct Mail.
* The interactivity of the Internet.
* The cost-effectiveness, dvd, of Commercial Print.
* The sophistication of New Media.

Through the use of multimedia design, DVDs can relate sounds, images, ideas, and information that can inspire, educate, stimulate,, dvd, and even entertain the viewer or listener.

2. The best way to stand out from the crowd is to do something unique, different and, whenever possible, something different than what your competitors are doing. Despite the incredibly powerful message that DVDs can deliver, the vast majority of direct-marketing is still done using ‘traditional’ means: Bulky catalogues, clumsy brochures and all manner, dvd, of, dvd, junk-mail. Or in other words – fodder for garbage cans and recycling bins.

What’s going to gain you more attention: (A) Sending another piece of junk-mail just like all your competitors do, or (B) providing a unique and meaningful presentation via DVD? The answer, of course, is “B”.

3. Not only does the result of DVD duplication get you noticed, the unique, dvd, and innovative approach to your marketing makes the all important “good first impression” with your prospect, dvd, or client. By association, if your message, dvd, is viewed as being innovative,, dvd, original and professional, then you also get viewed in the same light and thought of as being progressive, forward-thinking and creative.

4. Due to it being a more unique method of marketing communication, DVD duplication marketing pieces have greater longevity and ‘pass around’ value compared to other types of direct-to-client, dvd, marketing. It’s a unique and memorable means of contact, which gives it a perception of value and of being, dvd, worth viewing. This is especially true for Mini DVD due to its small size.

5. Research has shown a response rate between, dvd, 50% and 600% greater than traditional, dvd, direct-mail, dvd, marketing (ie: typical print direct mail generating 1-2% response rates versus disc direct mail generating between 3% and 12%, dvd, response rates).

6, dvd, . Research has shown that memory retention is 50% to 60% greater with disc-based multimedia presentations than traditional printed materials (ie: 10-20% retention with print versus 40-60%, dvd, with discs).

7. DVDs are more cost effective to manufacture and distribute, dvd, (in many cases 10% to 40% less expensive) than catalogues, brochures, booklets, etc. Additional savings are realized on postage/shipping costs due to the reduced weight when compared to many printed pieces.

8. Discs, dvd, are the only physical media which has the ability to link through to your website for immediate contact, breaking news, premium/incentive offerings, additional information, etc. Marketing through DVD duplication helps to drive website traffic, measure responses to your marketing campaign, generate web-commerce and provides increased hits to support on-line advertising revenue streams.

When you combine the dynamic and meaningful message with such a unique and practical, dvd, delivery method and then factor, dvd, in the low-cost of manufacturing and distribution, you will find no, dvd, better means to promote your business, products and services.

For more information visit http://www.predisc.com.

Precision Disc Manufacturing Corp. provides factory-direct CD replication, DVD replication, CD duplication, and DVD duplication services, including top quality print and packaging solutions. For more information on DVD duplication visit http://www.predisc.com.

Answers to the most common questions I receive online or by email about the service:

1. Do you work in our time zone?
Simple answer – Yes.

2. You are based in Europe. My business is in America. How can you help me?
I have worked the B2B/Corporate sector for many years, working with clients in the US, Canada, Australia, UK/Ireland. Not only do I have the experience in these arenas, but I have lived in the US, Europe and Australasia

3. Where are you from?
My nationality is Australian but I travel extensively, at least once a year between Australasia, Europe and North America.

4. Are the fees negotiable?
Simple answer – No.

5. What if I start a trial program, but I want to hold off for a few weeks?
If half-way through the trial week you decide that you want to hold off on the remaining hours, then you are still billed for the hours remaining. In the event that you paid for only half of the hours, then the balance of the hours is due within 24 hours, regardless if you continue or not. The reason for this is simple: You booked the services for a specific set of hours. I have cleared my schedule to work solely on your project. Cancelling or holding off half-way through creates a lot of inconvenience for everyone.

Put it like this: If you take your car to a mechanic and you decide to stop them half-way through, you will still be billed for their time. The same applies here. In the event that the balance is unpaid, you will be blacklisted on this site and many other websites.

6. What if I find that leads are not what I wanted and want to cancel?
There have been situations where a client has said that prospects are not interested in buying. However, upon my call to the prospect, this has proved to be inaccurate.

You can cancel upon 24 hours written notice. However, all leads that were provided are called to verify the feedback you have provided me with. If what the prospect says is contrary to your information, then the recording of my call with the prospect is emailed to you for proof of the follow up call, and all calling will cease at that point, and you will be still billed for the remainder of the time.

7. How do I know the leads are good?
I have been in this industry for 15 years, and I have generated several hundred million dollars for clients globally. If I was not good at this, then do you think I would have stayed in Telemarketing for 15 years?

8. Do you outsource the work to someone else?
Absolutely not!

9. Your fees are steep. Why should I use you and not a call center in India or Pakistan?
If you want the frustration of dealing with people in India or Pakistan, then go right ahead. When it comes to taking an inbound call, they are great, but when it comes to more complex things such as Outbound Calls, Web Marketing, Web Designing, I have found that you need to be pushing them constantly to get the work done the way you want. I have experienced it first hand with my own projects, such as Web Design, SEO Marketing, and Cold Calling. Not just once, but numerous times in the last 8 years.

They may be cheap hire, but take into consideration that for $4 an hour, you will be paying for $4 an hour results.

10. Charge Backs:
There are two answers for this, depending on the circumstances, and based on personally experiences and the experiences of others I have talked to:

A: If you have made payment through Escrow or Guru, and I receive notification from Escrow/Guru that there is an issue with your payment, then you need to fix the situation with Escrow or Guru. In some circumstances through Guru.com I have been asked by a client to register on an alternative website to receive payment. With all due respect, if Guru or Escrow has found a problem you need to fix the situation. With that in mind, all calls on your campaign until the situation is rectified. In the event that you have only paid half in advance, then the full amount is due in advance before any more work is done.
B:  In the event that the work has been completed as stated in the agreement, and the amount you paid is suddenly “reversed” without any contact or communication with us, then we will take ALL of the following actions within 48 hours. These measures are harsh, but there are businesses out there (especially some Janitorial businesses) that like to assume that they can receive free labor.

1. ALL of the leads will be called (and emailed) and informed of your business practices, and your prospects will be recommended to do business with your competitor.
2. Your local Chamber of Commerce (Or equivalent) and the BBB will be notified.
3. You will be blacklisted on many of the social networks in your region.
4. A press release will be sent to your local newspapers
5. Your business will be listed with D&B as a bad debt
6. You will also be listed with debt collection agency

The above measures are harsh. But in the past, some companies have liked to assume that they can do a charge-back without making contact, and refusing to explain themselves.

11. If I pay using Guru/Escrow.com, who pays the fee?
For every $100USD sent through Escrow.com, the fee is $25USD. The cost of this is split 50/50.
The fees using Guru.com typically range from 10% to 15%. You pay 50% of this.
We do this instead of charging you VAT/GST etc

12. Are you a company?
Yes I have an incorporated company in New Zealand. All business I do is done through my registered business name.

FYI’s: Your Call Center Team (or individual) is your first line of attack. How the prospect sees you as a company comes down to how Knowledgeable & Professional the telemarketer is.

If you want Professionalism, you hire a professional to do the work. A Professional may cost more, but they also get the job done with no supervision.

In 15 years I have dealt with the small business owner through to A List Executives. Not just in the US, but in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

For more details, contact me.

Forrester’s Sean Corcoran asks this rather existential question of us all:

“The agency model was built during a time when there were only a handful of channels in which they could push one way messages en masse. Does that model still work in a time when nearly a quarter of online US adults now create content online? Many more questions begin to arise as we open Pandora’s Box: Can one agency do it all? Are holding companies the answer? Can digital agencies compete with them and lead brands? Do marketers rely on agencies like they used to? Should marketers consolidate their agencies or de-centralize to dozens of agency partners? Are technology providers and crowd sourcing legitimate threats? Where is this all going?

via The Future of Agencies: What Do You Think?

Where to start? Well, probably with the caveat that while everyone has an opinion and best guess on where things are going, no one knows for sure. What some people predict as being a revolution may turn into the status quo – after all, Forrester says that:

64% of marketers continue to allocate budgets across marketing disciplines based on historical spending

So this is just that, my best guess.

Secondly, the question seems to focus on the rise of the digital agency and presumes that “online” in general, and social media specifically, will impact on the client-agency dynamic. Just a note to say that while digital, online and social are all increasing in importance, we need to remember that we are not going to be recommending an online campaign for the sake of it (remember my “Foundation of all exceptional marketing programmes” post on the need to match the tactics to the audience).

However, if this new discipline of social media, which we have all embraced so heartily is to drive change, here’s what I see happening. Hint: it’s about integration.

No one marketing discipline has the right to “own” social media with the client. There are too many smart people working in the agency world for that to happen – and all of us can bring something new to the table. Strategic planners can derive great insight from the target which can feed into the overarching creative concepts. Advertising can bring scale to the campaign, reaching many with a large funnel, driven by insight. Media planners can ensure the right message gets to the right people through the right, and appropriate channels. Public Relations can support the core message and earn media which earns the consumer’s trust. Digital agencies can build sophisticated communities or destinations to aggregate, enhance and ignite conversations. Direct marketing can ensure no one gets left behind and provide online/offline integration. Point of Sale can reinforce messages to the consumer AND draw them into the funnel.

Even social media agencies/practices like com.motion can bring something to the table in the form of enabling and adding to the insight that drives the campaign. We can represent the end user by feeding in strategic recommendations and tactical executions which we know will tesellate with their interests and habits. We can manage the community and bring continuity to the micro-interactions stakeholders have with organizations online. We can earn online media from a rapidly fragmenting pool of key influencers

Yes, social media specialists have a role in social media marketing

So that’s it. Same same but different. The rise of social media and digital marketing means that we now have another channel to collaborate on and around with our agency partners. For the brand or marketing manager, it means that incumbent agencies should clear some room for one more seat at the table – if appropriate for the communications goals, objectives and strategy. This is a good thing. The more smart, passionate people who can contribute (constructively) to a campaign, the better.

It also means there is another, more important role up for grabs, transcending the digital/social media debate. It means there is a role for a marketing integrator to oversee how the supporting agencies collaborate.

What do you think? Where do you think the agency is going?

Hit – A request for a file from the web server. Available only in log analysis. A single web-page typically consists of multiple (often dozens) of discrete files, each of which is counted as a hit as the page is downloaded, so the number of hits is an arbitrary number more reflective of the complexity of individual pages on the website than the website’s actual popularity. The total number of visitors or page views provides a more realistic and accurate assessment of popularity.

Page view- A request for a file whose type is defined as a page in log analysis. An occurrence of the script being run in page tagging. In log analysis, a single page view may generate multiple hits as all the resources required to view the page (images, .js and .css files) are also requested from the web server.

Visit / Session – A visit is defined as a series of page requests from the same uniquely identified client with a time of no more than 30 minutes between each page request. A session is defined as a series of page requests from the same uniquely identified client with a time of no more than 30 minutes and no requests for pages from other domains intervening between page requests. In other words, a session ends when someone goes to another site, or 30 minutes elapse between pageviews, whichever comes first. A visit ends only after a 30 minute time delay. If someone leaves a site, then returns within 30 minutes, this will count as one visit but two sessions. In practise, most systems ignore sessions and many analysts use both terms for visits. Because time between pageviews is critical to the definition of visits and sessions, a single one pageview event does not constitute a visit or a session (it is a “bounce”).

First Visit / First Session – A visit from a visitor who has not made any previous visits.
Visitor / Unique Visitor / Unique User – The uniquely identified client generating requests on the web server (log analysis) or viewing pages (page tagging) within a defined time period (i.e. day, week or month). A Unique Visitor counts once within the timescale. A visitor can make multiple visits. Identification is made to the visitor’s computer, not the person, usually via cookie and/or IP+User Agent. Thus the same person visiting from two different computers will count as two Unique Visitors. Increasingly visitors are uniquely identified by Flash LSO’s (Long Storage Objects), which are less susceptible to privacy enforcement.

Repeat Visitor – A visitor that has made at least one previous visit. The period between the last and current visit is called visitor recency and is measured in days.

New Visitor – A visitor that has not made any previous visits. This definition creates a certain amount of confusion (see common confusions below), and is sometimes substituted with analysis of first visits.

Impression – An impression is each time an advertisement loads on a user’s screen. Anytime you see a banner, that is an impression.

Singletons – The number of visits where only a single page is viewed. While not a useful metric in and of itself the number of singletons is indicative of various forms of Click fraud as well as being used to calculate bounce rate and in some cases to identify automatons bots).
Bounce Rate – The percentage of visits where the visitor enters and exits at the same page without visiting any other pages on the site in between.

% Exit – The percentage of users who exit from a page.

Visibility time – The time a single page (or a blog, Ad Banner…) is viewed.

Session Duration – Average amount of time that visitors spend on the site each time they visit. This metric can be complicated by the fact that analytics programs can not measure the length of the final page view.

Page View Duration / Time on Page - Average amount of time that visitors spend on each page of the site. As with Session Duration, this metric is complicated by the fact that analytics programs can not measure the length of the final page view unless they record a page close event, such as onUnload().

Active Time / Engagement Time - Average amount of time that visitors spend actually interacting with content on a web page, based on mouse moves, clicks, hovers and scrolls. Unlike Session Duration and Page View Duration / Time on Page, this metric can accurately measure the length of engagement in the final page view.

Page Depth / Page Views per Session - Page Depth is the average number of page views a visitor consumes before ending their session. It is calculated by dividing total number of page views by total number of sessions and is also called Page Views per Session or PV/Session.

Frequency / Session per Unique - Frequency measures how often visitors come to a website. It is calculated by dividing the total number of sessions (or visits) by the total number of unique visitors. Sometimes it is used to measure the loyalty of your audience.

Click path – the sequence of hyperlinks one or more website visitors follows on a given site.

Click – “refers to a single instance of a user following a hyperlink from one page in a site to another”[A growing community of web site editors use click analytics to analyze their web sites.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics

Publishing Business Conference & Expo

March 8 – 10 2010

Cost $825.00

From the Publishers of

Publishing Executive

Book Business

The Publishing Business Conference & Expo discusses and debates the most pressing issues facing book and magazine publishing industries today. Attendees walk away with strategies, tips and tactics to help their companies grow,profit and succeed 

The Publishing Business Conference & Expo discusses and debates the most pressing issues facing book and magazine publishing industries today. Attendees walk away with strategies, tips and tactics to help their companies grow,profit and succeed

Here is something I received last Saturday morning, what I termed as ‘Door Spam’, leaflets/flyers stuck on the front door grille. It is a leaflet for a condominium development. Which one? I really can’t say. This is the second time I have received this leaflet. I cringed both times.

Observe for a moment. What is wrong with this leaflet?

Absolutely Zero Product Branding

Somehow, the creator of this leaflet had failed to provide a name for the condominium. Apart from a spot of personal branding for a ‘Mabel Ang’ and ‘artist’s impressions’ images, no other product branding element is visible on this leaflet. Perhaps they had deemed revealing the condominium’s name as none-too-important, or keeping it a mystery will entice prospects to put in a call. Wrong move I say.

Or perhaps the condo was so badly named, they decided not to use it after reading the article on the importance of naming condos and its significance.

Cryptic Copywriting

What exactly is the inspiration behind ‘cryptic’ and ‘ambiguous’ copywriting? There is a neglect to inform prospective clients of the condominium’s actual address but instead, ‘Minutes to Somerset MRT/Orchard/CBD/IR’ and ‘Prime District 9’ are used.  Come on! That can be anywhere on the southern part of this island.

Is it a top-secret, top-end location that is only to be revealed once you are funneled through the sales pipeline? To see if you fit the bill of a likely buyer persona first, someone who is flushed with cash to spare? But why then did this leaflet appear on my HDB door in Toa Payoh!? I see that as a failure in market research and a waste of money and paper it is printed on.

Does the whole thing sounds fishy?

You bet. The credibility factor is non-present in this effort. For a $800k product, this leaflet certainly did not help in providing consumer confidence to anyone that came upon this. I find it intriguing that, if this leaflet really does indeed belongs to the ‘Developer’s Sales Team’, why the secrecy and ambiguousness behind the effort?

Perhaps someone from the real estate industry, or close to it, can provide an explanation for this? I’d love to get to the bottom of this! Leave your comments below!

Bonus section for the marketer in you!

Using Direct Marketing Mailers to Win Online

Direct marketing via mails (physical or electronic) may not be the best form of marketing (it is interruptive after all). But heck, since this method is being regularly employed and money is going to be spent, might as well use the opportunity to provide content or more information to the prospective customer, right?

So how to do this on limited real estate on a piece of flyer?

By bringing them online to your website through a printed URL. As long as there is compelling content and relevant information provided on your website, you can be sure your prospects will be happy to devote time and attention to your efforts. It is also an excellent opportunity to build a database of customers who are willing to listen to you on a regular basis. With the permission you have received, you are now ready to start a direct mail campaign online. I am sure that is more cost effective than printed materials and manpower cost for ‘door or letterbox spamming’.

Provide your social media information to direct your prospects to connect with you. This is your Facebook or Twitter pages. The fastest way to connect with you.

See? Your investment in a leaflet has possibly doubled or tripled! Perhaps Mabel Ang might want to take a leaf out of this

I’ve found it interesting how one conversation around lead scoring as placed sales and the marketing group in pretty close alignment. We worked through the definitions, some expectations and everyone seemed pretty excited.

There’s more to do, of course, but it was interesting how one excercise has made an impact. While technology itself is not a substitute for training it sure can be the training wheels.