30 odd years ago I was flattered when David Ogilvy asked for my comments on the script of a speech he was going to make in Paris.
His speech was about two different worlds.
He meant the people who measured – direct marketers; and the people who didn’t – general advertisers.
You can easily measure online, where everything is direct. But surprisingly little has changed in the minds of marketers.
There are still two different worlds. Those who judge everything by sales, and those who measure all the wrong things – likes, clicks, number of people reached and so on.
I think you will find that just as when David wrote his speech those who measure all the wrong things tend to be general advertisers and their agencies.
How they got screwed
This failure to measure intelligently is why they have all been ripped off big time by the people who sell on-line ads.
These suckers and their agencies saw all the fancy numbers of people who were supposed to see their oh-so-creative ads and believed them.
If they had been measuring results they wouldn’t have been so royally screwed – but it took years for some overpaid marketing “officer” to notice what was happening.
Serves the silly buggers right.
Those of us who have to sell or go broke still measure the right things
You can call these two groups realists and idiots.
Realists tend to talk about profits and making money whilst the other lot use fancy words like optimizing.
If you’re a realist I saw something yesterday that should interest you.
I was almost put off by the heading “Brand new research reveals fresh insights into the customer journey” because phrases like insights into the customer journey make me want to throw up.
But I read on to see that: “89% of online shoppers are regularly influenced by online reviews when shaping their purchasing decisions?”
I don’t know how your purchasing decisions are “shaped” – mine have often been spurred on by red wine – but this piece in the gloriously named Digital Doughnut got my attention.
Why people buy
As far as I know the chief reason people buy something new is word of mouth.
Somebody they knew suggested it.
When 30,000 people in 60 countries were asked what led them to buy something new my old client Nielsen learned this
- 81% said recommendations from friends.
- 58% said recommendations from people they didn’t know – reviews published on-line
- 56% said TV ads – no longer the fashion, except among ordinary people
- Only 34% said social media.
If the 89% figure suggested in the said Doughnut is true then these online reviews are even more important than I thought
Do you have a plan for word of mouth? For making sure you get the best possible comments and using them to get publicity and new business?
Hardly anyone does – but right now one of my clients is applying it, and so are we in my firm
Will it work for you? Will it work for us? Preliminary results suggest it will.
The chap who devised it quotes the most extraordinary figures.
For example, 58% response rate, and 100% conversion into sales.
I’ll keep you posted if you’re interested. Just drop me a line saying Word of Mouth (mail db@draytonbird.com).
Best,
Drayton
