Firstly, hats off to the “organizers”:http://www.meshconference.com for setting up the Mesh Conference in just 9 weeks. They also *sold out* without any traditional marketing; it was strictly via word of mouth and blogs. Talk about ROI.
The conference attendees presented a nice mix of techies, marketers, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, students and PR folks. It was a great opportunity to network with others.
The sessions on day one were very productive, especially Blogging 101 by “Tris Hussey”:http://blog.larixconsulting.com/blog. He didn’t lose us rookies in the room and facilitated interaction amongst the audience. There was some debate about whether blogs generate revenue, but one attendee pointed out his client had many sales leads and referrals for other businesses not to mention job offers because of his blog. Looking strictly at ad revenue from Google Ad Sense is a myopic view.
Month: May 2006
I just got back from the “CMA Convention and Tradeshow”:http://www.the-cma.org/convention/intro.html in Montreal. And what is left ringing in my ears? *It’s all about ME.* Well, it’s all about them… the consumer. Marketers need to internalise that the game has changed and the consumer is taking an active, if not leading role.
Well, not even the consumer, but rather the “prosumer”. Max Lenderman (Creative Director at GMR Marketing LLC) defines the prosumer as a consumer that is: proactive, professional or a producer. In any case, this prosumer is empowered. And if we choose to collaborate *with* them, they can become our most powerful brand evangelists. More details can be found in Lenderman’s blog “Experience the Message”:http://experiencethemessage.typepad.com/.
Co-collaboration was also highlighted by Dr. Martha Rogers (Founding Partner, Peppers & Rogers Group). Rogers asserted that organizations need to enter a “learning relationship” with our customers. By positioning my customer as a co-collaborator with me, I am able to de-commoditize my product/service. I will have something to offer my customer that none of my competitors will – an ability to support my customer in a unique and personalised way. Rogers’ new book “Return on Customer”:http://www.returnoncustomer.com/ contains additional information about creating customer relationships built on trust and co-collaboration.
As marketers are held more accountable for their budget there is a greater need to provide CFO with return on investment (ROI) metrics for programs, campaigns and even individual executions. It seems that nowhere is this more relevant than with email marketing.
Part of the drive for email ROI is that email _is_ so measurable. You can get immediate feedback on your executions and accurately forecast the results of an email drop in just a few days. Furthermore, when you integrate your email metrics with your point-of-sale or e-commerce data and your web analytics platform (“WebTrends”:http://www.webtrends.com, “WebSideStory/HBX”:http://www.websidestory.com, “Omniture”:http://www.omniture.com, etc.) you can get even deeper ROI insights.
Here are a few things that can help you optimize your mail ROI:
*Clean Email Lists* – Keeping your lists clean (removing unsubscribes and bounces) is a best practice for avoiding spam blocks. It’s also a great way to reduce the number of messages sent, therefore reducing your total cost. Furthermore, if you have an old, underperforming list (maybe you inherited it from another division or a company you acquired) you may want to re-subscribe them through an opt-in campaign. Case studies have proven it’s the quality of the list, not the quantity that drives ROI. It’s possible to cut your email list in half and not affect your click-though and other activity rates. Plus you save 50% on your per-message fees, meaning an increase in ROI.