Before chasing the latest magic bullet, make sure you’re getting the best out of the old ammunition.
This, from my long-time Aussie partner, Malcolm Auld, is just hilarious. It reveals the latest money-gobbling blind alley being followed by people who don’t have to risk their own money
I was asked to speak at a conference recently and arrived early to listen to a session on Apps. The podium was occupied by two blokes dressed suitably ‘Shoreditch’ style, one very ‘creative’, the other quite serious and therefore presumably the ‘propeller-head’ of the duo.
They were delivering a case study of how their ‘cutting edge’ App development had helped their client.
At the end of their session a member of the audience asked “how much extra profit was generated in this case study?”. With a barely concealed smirk to his colleague (‘I can’t believe someone could be so trite’); the creative one answered “I’m afraid you don’t understand… (pause for dramatic effect)… this is about more than sales”. In other words he had no idea!
Possibly because no one wanted to appear ‘old skool’ in a session about the latest ‘magic bullet’, no-one took issue with this assertion and the session ended to applause.
Later on in the same venue, but with a largely different audience, although similar in profile to the earlier one, I decided to repeat the earlier audience exchange as part of the intro to my session, where I suggested (well insisted really!) that there are only three jobs for the marketer:
1) Find and attract the right customers
2) Keep the right customers
3) Help those customers spend more
When I performed what (which if I say so myself) was a passable impersonation of ‘Creative Shoreditch Man’ the audience reacted with a welcome mixture of laughter and incredulity at his pronouncement.
Now I’m not saying that Apps aren’t potentially important and can’t generate closer links and more accessible interaction with customers (notice I didn’t mention the dreaded and currently ubiquitous ‘E’ word… ‘engagement’).
BUT it should be part of a planned strategy to achieve goals critical to any business. Profit is quite a good one, as that’s how a business continues to have the cash to pay our salaries, or in my case consultancy fees.
Jumping on the latest bandwagon is not a new tendency that marketers have succumbed to. They have been doing so ever since the 1940s of USP (Unique Selling Proposition), through the dawn of TV endorsement advertising, to direct mail turning into direct marketing, then into database marketing.
Mind you ‘database’ all sounded a bit ‘technical’, so rather helpfully the technology firms ‘invented’ customer relationship management (or ‘customer relationship marketing’ if you wanted to wrestle it away from the IT crowd) to flog their expensive CRM magic bullet.
Then, of course, we had the dotcom bubble and now digital marketing serves up an almost constant conveyor belt of the latest ‘magic bullets’, SEO, display, PPC, cuddly toy, e-mail, re-marketing, Twitter, sandwich-maker, Facebook, Pinterest and now bang up to date with NFC and Apps (what happened to QR codes?).
The temptation for marketers, face pressed up against the window of the sweetie shop and slavering over the latest tasty offering, continues to be almost irresistible, egged on by their boards who want to know “why we’re not doing what everyone else is doing now?”. It was ever thus.
But how about getting back to marketing principles?
Understand your customers by segmenting them so that we can understand who drives value and profit for the business and future potential value and profit.
Then we can plan and implement a successful customer strategy, designed from the customer’s perspective through understanding of the customer journey, to ensure we invest in what’s most likely to win, keep and grow the right customers and therefore generate ROI (return on investment).
If we can see that an App not only enhances the customer experience but makes it easier to buy, then make sure it’s part of your strategy. If it’s not that important to the customer, why are you prioritising it? Prioritise the stuff that works, even if it is ‘old hat’.
Last year, a new travel client asked me to ‘explore’ whether direct mail might work to retain existing customers.
Direct mail, with its tarnished reputation and “so last year darling” perception, doesn’t get invited much to the annual marketing budget party anymore and your letterbox has become a relatively junk free zone – apart from the pizza leaflets. And with the onset of email you certainly don’t receive as many personal letters or cards anymore, unless it’s from Auntie Doris in Broadstairs.
When something drops through your letterbox, personally addressed, from a brand that you know and perhaps like, with some product or service that is relevant and with a thank you or offer that seems to treat you differently from non-customers, then you are likely to respond… and buy stuff!
And the travel company’s customers bought more stuff, delivering an ROI of nearly 10:1 – ie, spend £1 and make £10 PROFIT.
But of course it’s not just about retaining and growing your best customers, it’s about recruiting the best customers in the first place. Too often the silo mentality of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ stuff means that marketing folk can become ‘busy fools’ blazing away with the new magic bullets.
Customer value analysis and segmentation provide the map of where to direct acquisition’s aim for longer term profit. Anything else and acquisition is just a numbers game, knowing who will find your brand appealing but not necessarily who will generate most profit.
So if you’re disappointed by the latest ‘magic bullet’ served up by your agency or perhaps the various online interest groups or conferences, then don’t ignore what’s gone before. Even direct mail doesn’t need to be junk (it never did!) if it’s planned, targeted, communicates effectively and is analysed for constant improvement.
And of course there are no ‘magic bullets’, just well planned and executed and INTEGRATED marketing that brings together a consistent compelling proposition across a relevant combination of new (and old!) communication channels.
And just to leave you with something to liven up your next planning meeting, when someone uses the term ‘engagement strategy’ combined with prominent reference to the latest magic bullets ask them “What exactly do you mean by that?”.
Nine times out of ten you’ll be able to watch as they flounder ….”Well, you know, engagement … make customers more … er … more engaged”.
Did that ring any bells with you, dear reader? Then you should be at EADIM in October. To get some free videos of people who know about the REAL world of marketing, just go and have a look here.
