Category: Uncategorised

As online shopping becomes an increasingly social experience, retailers are connecting with consumers in new ways via social media, but they need to be careful about how they seize this opportunity, says Luke Griffiths (pictured).

Consumers today lead increasingly blurred lives, moving seamlessly through complex purchase journeys, seeking information and inspiration from multiple sources and through a multitude of channels.

And within this 24-hour, hyper connected and consumer-driven environment, social media – in all its guises – has emerged as one of the most trusted channels for shoppers. But before jumping in, we should remind ourselves that because we live in a world where people are three times more likely to share bad news than good, it’s crucial that brands look before they leap into social campaigns. In fact, I’m sure that #badPR or #dumbcampaign are two of the most shared hashtags in the world.

So, how should brands be harnessing the power of social media to turn it into a key differentiator and, ultimately, competitive advantage?

I see three guiding principles at play. They’re not hard and fast rules but I think all brands should ask themselves the questions at the outset. The answers will be revealing.

1. Can we tap into the network and will it feel authentic?
2. Will we listen and respond to what we hear?
3. What can we see, how can we act?

Tapping into the network

Shopping is an inherently social pastime and the rise of social media has enabled brands to incorporate this into their online presence – take Nissan’s new partnership with Instagram, for example.

Engaging consumers with social media must focus on ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ and the brands with the most successful social engagement campaigns are those that tap into the power of the network or community and let their brand enthusiasts become their ambassadors. This means devising relationships that feel ‘right’. In the UK, health brand Bupa sponsoring the Great North Run, for example, feels authentic because there are areas of shared interest.

Rewarding loyalty also feels authentic. Brands can target some of their most loyal customers with special offers that they can then go on to share with their peers via their social networks. This enables brands to tap into social as it was first intended – to share, recommend and advocate while benefiting from this endorsement.

In fact, by passing the baton over to consumers, brands record an average 55% increase in organic reach and 25% in viral reach, along with increased order values according to eBay Enterprise customer analysis.

Listening to consumer voices

The immediate nature of social media means that the customer experience matters more than ever before. In fact, as any retailer will tell you, it’s often the first place customers go to voice their dissatisfaction.

But it’s not only a place to vent frustration. It’s also a place to demand action. Recent research from NM Incite, a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey, shows that 71% of Facebook users expect a customer service response from a brand within a day, while 50% of Twitter users expect a response within two hours.

These individual complaints carry even greater weight than in the past, so in order to maintain (or re-establish, as the case may be) a positive relationship with customers, brands need to respond quickly and efficiently. More than a simple ‘we are sorry’, this requires effective action based on the visibility of all previous customer touch points and interactions across all channels.

This doesn’t mean conversations with customers should be limited to damage control – far from it – brands should think of social media as an evolving, real-time, unprompted focus group. Listening to what consumers are saying across the digital ecosystem and creating a cycle of communication allows brands to deepen their relationship with consumers, creating a feedback loop that builds influence and encourages loyalty.

But in doing this we can’t forget that people, not products, drive social networks. So while brands can use social campaigns to influence experiences and drive social commerce, they should always let users take the lead.

Harnessing observed insights

Beyond encouraging brand advocacy, the power of social media lies in its ability to offer sophisticated targeting capabilities around customised messaging, based on unrivalled insights into consumer interests.

This offers powerful tools to the digital marketer – tools that can drive increased campaign effectiveness, minimising wastage, driving sales and increasing ROI.

Consider a 30-year-old consumer that has both an interest in cars and who has recently been using the word ‘baby’ in posts – a gift to an automotive brand. Being able to recognise these cues, they can promote a family car, tailoring their messaging to focus on safety and economy features.

Not only that, but smart analytics can help unlock real-time insights allowing the car manufacturer to track content and prioritise top-performing campaigns, reshape creatives and allocate budget accordingly.

Online social behaviour is affecting how millions of consumers engage with brands today – a trend that is set to continue. Those who ignore it risk losing out as others learn how to ‘connect the dots’ and drive even greater value from campaigns.

Luke Griffiths is head of Marketing Solutions, EMEA at global commerce technologies and marketing solutions provider eBay Enterprise.

The sheer variety of marketing techniques now available can lead to confusion and indecision as to which element or combination of elements will prove most effective for your business. But, says Hina Sharma (pictured) get the recipe right and big results can be achieved from small budgets.

Today’s marketing cocktail should be a concoction of ingredients – web, print, social and digital – but, as any good mixologist knows, simply throwing everything together is no guarantee of results. It has never been easier for smaller companies to make a big impression and new marketing techniques have levelled the playing field, but they have also presented companies with overwhelming choice. Pitney Bowes offers some simple marketing tips that are designed to help smaller businesses and start-ups achieve a productive communication strategy.

Social media offers the opportunity to reach thousands of customers, both existing and new. The trick is to use it to engage, rather than simply to broadcast. By all means announce new products and services, but also be sure to join in conversations, to ask questions, to link to interesting articles or video content. Creating a dialogue between businesses and customers is an exclusive benefit of social media channels. Word of mouth remains one of the most powerful tools in any marketer’s box, so influencing it positively via social media can quickly get your company noticed.

Although Twitter is the site the media uses to track popular reaction and to unearth celebrity gossip (and Instagram is catching up), LinkedIn should not be viewed as a one dimensional platform. LinkedIn groups exist across a huge variety of issues and topics. So, joining (or even starting) a group that relates directly to your business immediately gives you access to a pool of people potentially interested in the products or services you offer.

However, avoid entering these group conversations with a blatant sales message, as this is a turn-off for members. Instead, speak knowledgeably about your business subject, position your business with thought-leadership authority, and make fellow group members aware that your business is informed not only within its immediate circle, but the wider business context.

Make the most of traditional mail, as it still plays a crucial role in today’s communications mix. People still appreciate receiving mail as long as it is relevant to their lifestyle and interests. Using physical mail alongside digital communications can be very powerful. For example, you might run a competition on Twitter, rewarding 50 followers with a free product. After this initial contact, entrants should be nurtured, and mail can play a big part in this. You might continue the relationship by sending participants an updated catalogue or the latest special offer coupons. Ensure that the material is relevant and appealing, as mail can help to keep your business at the forefront of your customers mind.

People often shy away from tech solutions for fear of incompetency, given the multitude of ready-made packages available. However there is little to worry about, as you just need to choose your design, focus on your message and press send. Embracing available technology can add real quality and professionalism to campaigns, helping your brand to stand-out from the competition.

Make every communication count, even the unglamorous administrative duties such as invoices and terms and conditions. These forms of communications should not be viewed as a time-consuming obligation, but rather an opportunity to make an impact. The latest franking technology can add eye-catching marketing messages to the front of envelopes at the same time as adding the correct postage amount. So, everyday transactional documents can become easy promotional vehicles.

These are just some of the cost-effective marketing techniques that our customers are using to grow their businesses. The Marketing Cocktail can be sampled among a small audience to start with and then rolled out into a larger forum once confidence is in place. The different components provide the most impact when combined, rather than on their own. The trick is to establish the correct mix based on your business needs.

Hina Sharma is head of Brand and Content Development for Pitney Bowes.

The old days of simple messages in an envelope are long gone – to stand out from the direct mail crowd, you need to get creative, says Suzanne Stock (pictured).

Grabbing a prospect’s attention as soon as your missive lands on their desk is the hook that every campaign needs, no matter how good your direct marketing data is. So how are successful marketers making that positive first impression?

The basics: Pushing the envelope

You’ve spent money attaining finely-targeted direct marketing lists so now it’s time to consider your direct mail’s content, message – and just as importantly – its presentation.

While you may have a call to action that’ll make your prospects go weak at the knees, if it arrives in a brown envelope, you can expect all that work and investment in direct marketing data to be shown the nearest bin before it’s even been opened.

If possible, make the envelope the product, or at least reflect it in the packaging; Tetra Pack, the food and drink packaging company, wanted to show off its new Prisma Aspetic product that allows brands to print over the entire pack.

Tetra sent out Prisma Aspetic cartons with their prospect’s brand printed on it plus a personalised leaflet and a link to an online hypervideo for more information.

The DM alone had a 53% response rate . . .

Go multi-channel

While marketing bloggers can seem obsessed with comparing direct mail against supposed ‘competing’ channels such as digital, the smart B2B marketer knows that using a multi channel approach is becoming increasingly important.

NetNames wanted to make a splash by positioning itself as the leading global brand protection service for business. It focused its campaign on the concept of very literally ‘unmasking’ cyber criminals and deploying a key message ‘Search. Find. Stop‘. The visuals were simple – orange ‘cybermatter’ splashed over an invisible thief, revealing his facial features.

Working with Earnest, NetNames created an integrated campaign with personalised content – from social media and micro site content to a powerful targeted direct mail campaign, the latter deploying a two-tiered approach:

Low Value

A simple but highly attractive animated, interactive lenticular postcard with the company’s core message personalised for each industry type and job role the postcard was sent out to.

High Value

A plush box containing a personalised pin-art gadget inside to underline the invisible threat of cybercrime to businesses both big and small.

By deploying such an innovative, multi channel approach, NetNames garnered some 72 meetings during the campaign…

Think true multi-media

Other mediums can be used to fantastic effect, again with technology and traditional direct mail being used to complement each other. Step forward Oracle’s B2B direct mail campaign that saw the company reaching out to 40 hand-selected companies in the oil and gas sectors.

Using a video-in-a-card (a personalised TV-style news show in a miniature, self-playing video pack), the campaign generated 33 leads and a sales pipeline of more than £600,000 . . .

Remember:

• Innovate with your packaging to ensure prospects actually open it.
• Don’t fear a multi channel approach to complement your direct marketing; embrace it instead.
• Personalisation and targeted direct mail marketing is more important than blanket-bombing hundreds of prospects, so make sure your direct marketing lists are optimised.

Before sending your innovative direct mail campaign, download the eGuide: ‘Wait -– Before you send: The Direct Mail Checklist.

Suzanne Stock is communications director of Marketscan.

Udesh Jadnanansing (pictured) looks at how online retailers should strive for ‘Excellent’ rather than settle for ‘Good’ when it comes to customer experience management. 

Customer Experience Management (CEM) is big business. In an environment where retaining customers is just as important as winning new ones, the battle lines between competing businesses have shifted significantly in recent years.

Largely fuelled by the online retail revolution, customers are far savvier about the service they deserve for their custom and have many avenues to communicate their dissatisfaction to other consumers, if this isn’t met. Retailers, in turn, have ramped up their CEM and Voice of the Customer (VOC) programmes to meet this challenge – but this has raised the bar across the industry. So in this retail arms race the question now is: How do you take CEM to the next level?

Currently there is a lot of interest and use of Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) monitoring. For many businesses, this looks at the customer service function as a whole as an overview, and the types of reporting can vary greatly (from paper reports and Excel files to online dashboards). For some businesses, measuring CSAT scores may only happen twice a year or quarterly. This unfortunately means that many businesses have no real-time measurement – and, more importantly, this means they are unable to react to issues quickly and recover at risk customers.

Ashley Williamson of knowledge provider Informa has worked with organisations of all sizes and agrees that using NPS and CSAT is sometimes regarded as a convenient panacea for CEM needs: “Most companies use some form of CSAT, and NPS is a very common way of working out where your business is within an imaginary league table of competitors. But it is important to consider the objectives of these systems. CSAT is great if you want a simple reflection of satisfaction but NPS can sometimes be seen as? point scoring, the flaw being that it doesn’t really tell you much about the dynamic of your customer relations and where you could make improvements to increase sales. Customer loyalty is more complicated and can fluctuate at different times due to market conditions or seasonal purchasing trends.”

Flat-liner customer experience management

Indeed, there is a phenomenon of so-called ‘Flat-Liners’ – businesses where an NPS or CSAT metric does not improve and simply maintains a level over time. In real terms, this is even more of an issue over time, as competitors inevitably creep ahead by raising customer expectations and fulfilling them. Companies that want to improve loyalty and really want to excel in great customer service need to be aware of the fact that just monitoring or measuring NPS (or any other loyalty metric) is not enough.

Williamson says: “It’s fair to say Flat-Liners look at the results but don’t really see the details of their Customer Satisfaction relationship. Part of the reason for this is that many companies still operate the different departments of their businesses as silos. A sales team will deal with the same customers as the customer service department or returns department, but they won’t necessarily be sharing the customer feedback directly with each other in a proactive way. After-sales teams will often get as much feedback on the sales cycle as the team selling the products/services and yet it’s surprising how rarely this information is considered from an overall view. Until a business can look at its customer sales holistically, it will always struggle to rise above its competition.”

The crux of this argument is that attaining a score of ‘Good’ is not enough when your most successful competitors have reached an ‘Excellent’ level. Often, this means dealing effectively with issues as much as aiming to ensure that things run smoothly for customers in the first place. Pain points also need to be addressed and this often means looking at data from all touch points, be it the website, customer IM, email or telephones. An ‘Excellent’ customer experience will often hinge on the business reacting and taking positive action to rectify any issues or concerns.

“Part of the problem with simply relying on scores is that it can make the company unmotivated to improve,” argues Williamson. “A ‘Good’ score may sound perfectly reasonable but in the context of your market, you want to be ‘Excellent’. But actually even if you reach top scores it is still worth knowing where you can improve or be alerted to up and coming competitors that could steal your sales. Benchmarking is an important addition to any customer service scoring mechanism as it shows you how you are placed within your market. A high satisfaction score may just be an indication you have a passive customer base that tends to repeat buy from the same source – which leaves you in danger of these customers being ‘poached’. In fact, there are significant gains to be made even if your score appears to be high already. I have seen organisations that have moved from a ‘Satisfied’ CSAT score to an ‘Extremely Satisfied’ score and have realised four times more business because they stand head and shoulders above their competition.”

At the moment, Social Media has become a lynchpin of customer service for many businesses. There is good reason for this. There is a high degree of visibility of experiences on social media, which is good for consumers. But it is also good for customer managers and executives because it highlights genuine strengths and weaknesses in service. It’s important not to let these remain passive – if it’s just a forum for complaint it can have a negative effect on the perception of your business. As well as addressing complaints properly, appropriate monitoring should guide improvements to your offering as a whole to put issues right for the future. This means investing in monitoring of these channels and this needs to reflect social appetites for communications – social media trends can change like anything else.

It used to be easy to spot good and bad customer service but this is much more flat now. So what is it that will elevate your business above the competition and win more sales? “An ‘Excellent’ score will mostly come from a consistent service to customers, one that offers a personalised service so customers feel valued and appreciated,” advises Williamson. “You also need to be aware of customer satisfaction in real-time, look at what competitors are offering them and provide an offering that persuades them to keep buying from you.”

Udesh Jadnanansing is founder and managing partner at Mopinion.  

Simon White (pictured) tells how to leverage Brits’ love of holidays for campaign success.

Research consistently shows that, despite household budgets remaining stretched, the one thing hard-pressed Brits are reluctant to cut back on is their annual holiday.

In fact, travel association ABTA’s Consumer Trends Survey 2013 showed that, for many Brits, a holiday is a necessity they cannot do without, with one in five (21%) feeling this way about a longer overseas holiday and one in ten (11%) for a longer holiday in the UK.

With this in mind, brands, businesses and organisations that tap into this love of holidays by offering them as a reward or prize in a sales promotion campaign can achieve success. The right reward will capture the consumer’s imagination, create awareness, reinforce brand values and enable the brand or business to benefit from an important opportunity to collect accurate data.

With careful planning and the right advice travel promotions don’t need to cost the earth and can deliver a high ROI. However, there are a number of steps that should be put in place to ensure a promotion offering a holiday as a reward or prize goes smoothly.

Identify your business objectives

What is it that you want to achieve? An uplift in sales? Increased market share? Heightened brand awareness? To instigate product trial? This is the essential starting point in order to establish the right mechanic and reward for the promotion.

Identify the right reward

The reward must achieve the set objectives, but also be aspirational to the target audience in order to capture their imagination, engage them and make them excited. Depending on the preferences of your audience, it could mean offering £200 to put towards their next holiday, or the chance to win a trip to the Lake District, New York, or even the Bahamas.

Choose a cost-effective mechanic

The key to a winning mechanic is to keep it simple as consumers are turned off by overly complicated requirements. It is far easier to text or email in to enter, than to collect coupons, find a stamp and enter via post. Make use of digital technology in order to keep the cost of fulfilment/redemption down, but remember to test any technological aspects of the promotion to ensure it works.

Consider using fixed fee

Agreeing a single ‘Fixed Fee’ with a supplier at the beginning of a campaign allows you to budget for the promotion and offer more big rewards for the available budget, while also giving you total reassurance by removing the uncertainty of redemption levels and allowing someone else to take the risk.

Appoint a supplier who can handle the whole process

Appoint a supplier who has the resources, capacity and experience to handle all the administration and will look after the winners carefully and thoroughly. Booking and finalising travel arrangements, for example, can be very time consuming and people may request changes be made to the original booking. A promotional prize that is handled incorrectly can leave a lasting bad impression and blacken a brand’s reputation not only in the eyes of the individual prizewinner, but wider among consumers at large if there is negative publicity in the media, not to mention on social media channels.

Overall, remember the promotion is not over until the winner has enjoyed the prize and only has positive comments to make about it.

Simon White is business development director, Protravel. 

Is Direct (mail) Marketing dead or smugly toasting its own rude health? Ian Simpson (pictured) explores the arguments for and against.

Direct (mail) Marketing is subject to constant debate and I would guess it’s fair to say it’s a ‘marmite subject’ – you either like it or you don’t. No marketing technique guarantees 100% conversion to sales and marketing is arguably as much about raising brand awareness. And many business baulk at the thought of their marketing being overtly ‘salesy’.

Direct (mail) Marketing does divide opinions though, but with 86% of consumers opening direct mail and 22.4% of the UK population over the age of 15 increasingly responsive to direct mail – it must still have a healthy pulse!

Here are some more interesting numbers: 64% of consumers reported that they value the post they receive in their postbox. This confirms an earlier DMN News/Pitney Bowes survey showing that more than 52% of people receive greater satisfaction from reviewing their postal mail when compared to email. And more than 94% of consumers take action on a promoted offer or coupon received through direct mail. So far, it’s still breathing and hanging in there!

Once upon a time, Direct (mail) Marketing was, well, very direct! The piece would arrive in the mail to a prospect and the engage-to-sale journey would be very short. If it looked too good to be true – then it probably was – but it didn’t matter anyway. Direct (mail) Marketing has evolved somewhat, and it is rarely a single strike to the consumer jugular. It is much more a nurturing tool aimed to develop a relationship between buyer and business. Consumers are far more brand savvy and informed – they know what they want to buy and why. And they will always respond with ‘What’s In It For Me?’ (WIIFM).

Engagement and education are very much part of the purchasing journey. Consumers can now compare any product or service online and direct mail is a very tangible way of reaching out to reinforce your proposition.

Marketing life cycles

Marketing trends are incredibly cyclical and each new generation of marketers ‘discovers’ a new approach – or applies a new slant to existing channels. There is the inevitable ‘Eureka!’ period where this new-found technique has a novelty value and responses are high. Once this technique or approach is visibly successful other marketing companies latch on and start to replicate the approach. This leads to market saturation and ultimately less engagement from consumers, finally killing off the strategy. It eventually is recognised as ‘redundant’ and the race is on to find the next marketing innovation.

Digital/Online Marketing

Digital marketing has proved an extremely successful way to connect businesses to consumers. Although online media has been around for some 20 years, it is still in a relative ‘honeymoon’ stage and there is still a fair bit of hype around it. The beauty of digital and online marketing is that it is inexpensive and extremely easy to measure and automate. It is also seen as the universal panacea to all marketing woes – and, in a world of receding marketing budgets, the cost/coverage equation of digital is extremely seductive.

Social media has given digital marketing a huge boost – largely because it can continue marketing conversations away from the desk and blur the distinction between business and personal messaging. Digital is a very personal channel, but as we have seen, it exposes individuals to very real security fears. In the face of rising digital marketing, Direct (mail) Marketing is seen as less of a priority and something of an anachronism. But it is long way short of dead!

Measurement of ROI

The measurement of ROI is one of the cornerstones of all marketing activity. And with so many channels now active, it is increasingly hard to attribute response to a respective channel. Digital marketing is easier to track and often in real time – responses can be quickly tallied and accredited. But ‘click throughs’ and ‘visits’ are only part of the story, it may take several ‘touch points’ to activate a response. And that last final trigger could just be that mailing piece landing on the doormat.

So, is direct marketing dead, then?

There are great parallels with online and offline marketing and they exist for the same purpose – to communicate. The web is a tool, a website is a channel – but the unsung hero of Direct (mail) Marketing is still catalogues. Uniquely, catalogues are both a marketing and sales vehicle – they take the messages to your customers, without them have to ask. They invite themselves to the party – but you have to invite the website and to a certain extent all other digital contact.

Catalogues dive through your letterbox, leap out of magazines and generally make a nuisance of themselves, whether you like it or not! And this is where they hit the spot, they tell you about things you never knew existed, from companies you have never heard of and get you interested in things you never knew you needed. And the web can’t do that nearly as well – although it is getting cleverer. Catalogues are a proven, valuable part of an integrated marketing strategy and great at driving online sales.

The predicted demise of catalogues, in the wake of online marketing, never happened. Yes, catalogue mailed volumes have declined – but they have become far more targeted. They can probe and exploit target markets very effectively, producing a cohesive assault on your prospective customers in combination with digital channels.

Direct (mail) Marketing is not dead, but it is changing and finding an important role within a multichannel (or omni-channel) marketing approach. Catalogues are the most tested and researched pieces of direct mail, we know exactly how they work and how they are increasing in relevancy.

According to the UK DMA’s 2012 Response Rate Report, the average direct mail response rate was 3.4%. That’s more than 30 times the 0.12% response rate for email. OK, so the investment in direct mail is higher – but so is the response! Mail responders spend more.

And you still think Direct (mail) Marketing is dead?

Ian Simpson is managing director of Catalogues4Business. 

Chuck Dulde (pictured) talks about the sales evolution.

If you’ve ever cracked open a fortune cookie, you’ve probably seen a variation of this Lao Tzu quote:

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Modern marketers and sales reps should take this piece of wisdom to heart. With highly educated buyers and a selling landscape that is more competitive than ever, sales teams can no longer rely on what’s worked in the past – selling from their comfort-zones or based purely on building a relationship with their prospect. Sales teams must evolve to sell the way their buyers buy.

As the vice-president of Sales Enablement for SAVO, I spend a lot of time considering sales motion (the sales activities that constitute successful deals) – both ours and those of our clients. In order to make it a thousand miles – or, in our world, close the deal – you must learn how to move with the great shifts and changes in buyer behaviour, and take that first step.

Buyers are moving targets

To realise more closed deals and ultimately higher revenue, you should start by considering your buyers as moving targets. A typical sales motion is no longer about the distance between Point A (your buyer) and Point B (the sale). As buyers continue to self-educate prior to contacting a rep, Point A has become a live, moving target and sales and marketing teams must learn to meet buyers wherever they are in relation to purchasing a product or service.

Unfortunately, the outlook is not good. A recent survey that we conducted with BrightTALK found that sales and marketing leaders are adapting poorly to this changing buyer’s journey. Sales pros are facing numerous problems, from nurtured leads being poorly handed off from marketing to a general lack of support during the early stages of a deal – and they’re suffering.

Specifically, the survey revealed that 49 per cent of executives aren’t very well aligned to the modern buyer’s journey – they have the right tools, but hardly anyone uses them – and that, while compromise is key, 64 per cent of respondents admit to not adapting very well to changes within the sales cycle. This stiffness and inability to change directions deftly to accommodate the interests and needs of the prospect or customer can kill a sale in its tracks.

Executives see the source of the problem as a lack of adoption: they are providing the right solutions, but hardly anyone is using them. If only adoption of CRM or Marketing Automation (MA) solutions was higher, all their problems would be solved… right? Not necessarily, as adopting CRM and MA solutions does not automatically equal alignment between marketing and sales, which is the surest way to map to a buyer’s journey and win more business.

Although the survey respondents are not realising where the issue lies, the sales teams, marketing departments and buyers are all recognising and feeling the same business pain, which is the inability to adapt to changes within the sales cycle. Unless they are able to quickly adjust and respond, they will not be able to deliver what their buyers want and will lose the deal.

Taking the first step

Sales pros need more than just resources. They need the entire company to align behind them. The best interests of our prospects, customers and sales teams rest in our ability to meet buyers at the point in the purchasing cycle where they need to be transitioned from self-education to nurturing. Buyers know what problem they need to solve, but they aren’t necessarily aware of the solutions available to them. That’s where the value of our sales and marketing teams, and their ability to align to the buyer’s wants, instigate the sales motion.

Ensuring this alignment between marketing and sales happens cleanly is a crucial responsibility of the teams involved in the early stages of the sales motion. If every member of an organisation understands his or her value proposition to the sales team, the buyer’s transition into the sales motion will be smooth and the chances of a won deal occurring will increase exponentially. If the buyer feels like he or she is being pulled into a sales motion − even if your product is the one needed − the chance of a long, inconsistent sales process increases. So you can understand why this transition demands the focus of sales and marketing leadership.

Align, communicate and make clear the value propositions you hold to your sales organisation and you can turn thousand mile journeys – or sales cycles – into quick wins for your company.

Chuck Dulde is the vice-president of sales enablement for SAVO. Follow him on Twitter at @chuckdulde

Yves de Montcheuil (pictured) has tips to help you gain advantage for your business.

Marketing has been one of the first business departments to appreciate the value of big data as a tool for commercial advantage.

Marketers were quick to recognise the benefit of getting instant insight into customers and using that understanding to influence behaviour at the point of sale. They were also ahead of the game in seeing the potential of analysing vast volumes of data to drive analysis and segmentation of different groups and achieve more accurate targeting of customers and prospects.

Understanding the theoretical benefits of big data is one thing. However, translating the theory into real commercial benefit is quite another. Here are five top tips, outlined to help marketing departments achieve this shift and deliver successful big data projects:

1. Don’t worry too much about volume – Remember, big data is diverse in origin, style, consistency and quality. Size is not always important. Some organisations have to handle massive quantities of data. Others have smaller data sets to manage but more sources and formats to deal with. Always make sure you focus on the ‘right’ data. Whether you are looking at social media feeds, CRM records or sales performance: identify every relevant source and don’t get too worried if it’s not necessary to instantly expand your processes to manage vast quantities of data.
2. Don’t waste the potential of your data – Some of the data needed for big data projects is easy to identify, such as transactional data used or generated by CRM or performance measurement tools. Much more is hidden on servers, log files or desktops and is often neglected. Some even goes to waste in the ‘exhaust fumes’ of IT. Typical examples are activity or sensor data that are not processed until errors or exceptions occur, but which can provide great insight even in normal operating conditions. All of this data is potentially relevant. Don’t limit your project to the first group: record it all and deploy collection mechanisms so that it adds business value.
3. Don’t move everything – Too many marketing departments focus on breaking down data silos and bringing all the data together in one central location. Remember, it’s not always necessary to duplicate everything. Businesses need to think about making distribution as easy as possible beyond the data processing phase. You don’t need all the data physically in the same place in order to get a single view of it, as long as a logical layer exists that enables this data to be accessed transparently.
4. Don’t focus on storage alone – Software frameworks should not just be repositories for big data. They also need to give marketers the opportunity to extract meaningful information from that data. Unfortunately, today’s businesses are not making full use of the processing tools and capabilities available to them. In order to draw out the intelligence needed, they should be applying the latest technology to harness that data, through data processing and analytics.
5. Don’t treat big data in isolation – Sandboxes for testing technologies work well for proof-of-concepts, but when big data projects for marketing go live they need to be managed as an integral part of the business architecture rather than an isolated project. Your business will need to integrate big data applications with other systems – both upstream and downstream – and at the same time ensure big data is part of the business’s overall IT and information governance policy. Marketers may only be one constituent of this overall strategy, but it will have a big impact on them.

Forward thinking

Interest in big data for marketing is growing rapidly. In line with this we are seeing more companies rolling out strategies that address this core business need.

Leading-edge technologies are lowering the adoption barrier, making it easier for marketing departments to get started. Yet, moving pilot projects into mainstream IT requires more than just technology. If marketers take note and follow the five tips above, they should ensure their big data projects get off the ground and help drive success for the business as a whole.

Yves de Montcheuil is VP Marketing Talend.

Native advertising is set to dominate the content marketing landscape in 2014 as it emerges as a new and exciting way for businesses to revolutionise the way they advertise, says Rob Taylor (pictured)..

Often involving large brands, agencies and publishers, native advertising is one of the most innovative advertising platforms for 2014 and has the potential to help brands start new and rewarding conversations with many customers through valuable content. According to content marketing agency TAN Media, Native ad campaigns are now more accessible than ever to SMEs and independent business owners.

In this introduction to native advertising, we provide an overview of the practice and discuss what steps SMEs can take to start developing native projects.

So what exactly is native advertising?

There are a variety of definitions of native advertising. One way to describe it is as an evolution of the traditional advertorial that exists as a sub-set of content marketing.

Typically, a piece of native content will be a blog, feature, case study or white paper that is ‘sponsored’ or ‘promoted’ by a company and hosted on the site of a publisher. The content looks and feels like a natural part of its surroundings and is not designed to be an intrusive advert.

Big brands are using publishers like Vanity Fair and Forbes. But as well as the big players, there are a whole host of publishers looking to work with firms of all sizes.

What does native advertising look like?

BuzzFeed is often held up as an exemplar of native, so let’s start there. Take a look at this post from Coca-Cola to get an idea. Notice the reference to Coca-Cola as a BuzzFeed ‘partner’ at the head of the piece.

Other examples are sponsored updates on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

According to Hexagram’s State of Native Advertising 2014 report, the most popular formats for native advertising projects are blog posts, used by 65% of its respondents, articles (63%), Facebook (56%), videos (52%), tweets (46%) and infographics (35%).

Why the rise of native?

On-site content marketing will remain a growth area, but when it comes to advertising on external sites, it is becoming more and more challenging for companies to succeed.

Display ads, once touted as the future of digital marketing, are declining in their impact. Put simply, many consumers have taught themselves to subconsciously ignore the ads while reading or watching digital content. Research from Adobe shows 68% of consumers find online ads “annoying” and “distracting” and 54% say online banner ads simply don’t work.

So, for some time, better, more effective advertising avenues have been needed. Into this space steps native advertising.

Adam Rock, managing director of TAN Media says: “Importantly, native content should not be overly promotional. It’s a post from BMW on five motoring trends for 2014, not a sales piece for its latest vehicle. It’s also an editorial piece by a local estate agent on the dos and don’ts of selling your home, not something about how great they are at marketing your home. It’s honest content that appeals to people.”

Why do native advertising? Does it work?

Research suggests that it works – when done properly. Importantly, native advertising is not just about generating click-throughs or views. It’s about developing strong relationships with consumers by offering them content they will want to read.

Research shows that native advertising is valued by brands. According to the Hexagram research:

• The vast majority of publishers (84%), agencies (81%), and brands (78%) believe native advertising adds value for consumers
• Brands and marketers use native advertising because it provides a more relevant message (67%), increases consumer engagement (63%), generates awareness or buzz (62%) and creates word of mouth (48%)
• Publishers expect revenues from native advertising to increase by approximately 10% within a year: from an average of 20.4% of overall revenue today to 30.1% in one year’s time

How best to succeed with native advertising?

We think native advertising is an exciting way to develop relationships with customers over the long-term. But the number of companies jumping aboard the native train means that brands need to stand out from the competition.

Remember that there are just as many examples of bad native advertising as there are good, so it’s crucial that firms adopt effective native strategies. Key focus areas are transparency and making sure you offer high-value content. Transparency because it is crucial that consumers do not feel they are being fooled; excellent content because it needs to be good enough to be read and shared.

How can I take it to the next level?

Some large companies, with their own in-house marketing teams, are working directly with publishers on native advertising projects.

But smaller companies don’t always have the same resources. Some may start with writing and publishing their own news features and blogs on their own site. These can then be promoted using social media native advertising services, from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Another option is to work with a specialist agency to develop and produce native content. They find that agencies have the ability to provide native content strategies, generate ideas, write and deliver good content and establish connections with publishing partners.

Is it time you got involved?

Rob Taylor is assistant content editor, the Press Association.

Philip Rooke (pictured) looks at how merchandising has evolved for marketing teams in the digital era.
As the CEO of an e-commerce platform, I spend most of my time trying to balance the things we could do with the diminishing ROI caused by too much complexity or doing too much.

Many CEOs and marketers faced with this issue have opted to drop old school basic marketing tools such as merchandising in favour of new trends without properly considering its ROI.

Building a good brand is hard. The internet came along with the promise to make it easier but also added complexity with the need of a digital identity, multi-channels, social media and instant CRM to name a few – all with the aim of reaching new and engaging existing customers. Ironically, the internet is now also the driver behind the re-emergence of traditional tools of customer engagement such as merchandising, turning the humble T-shirt into an effective brand building weapon.

Modern print-on-demand combined with ecommerce techniques now mean that your brand can offer an infinite number of design and clothing options that customers will actually want to wear. There are few forms of lasting advertising that are as effective as T-shirts in building brand awareness. With the right material combined with a quality printing your message can last longer than a magazine advert or how long someone may remember a 30-second TV or radio spot.

So how exactly does a T-shirt help promote your brand?

Encourages brand loyalty

There is a huge social media industry behind getting customers to Like or follow your brand. This is considered the pinnacle of marketing and relationship building. And yet the act of following a brand is so easy it is almost meaningless. That a friend has Liked X or Y brand on Facebook barely registers in the mind of a consumer and even the follower rapidly sees the updates as wallpaper.

Nothing says ‘I Like’ more than wearing merchandising. By giving them something they love, the customer is not just following you but making you part of their everyday existence. They are likely to immediately feel more a part of what you’re doing and that means they’re more likely to stay loyal to your brand, because you have genuinely rewarded them for being part of it.

Your loyal fans can even be invited to post ideas for slogans and designs, and become part of the building campaign. Modern print-on-demand techniques via the internet now allow an infinite number of variations or designs.

Creates walking billboards

As well as engaging your loyal customer, you have also created an advertising medium in its own right. Your customer is now a walking billboard. A T-shirt travels as far as the person wearing it and can be seen in places traditional marketing campaigns cannot reach; such as work and social situations. And what’s more, it’s a billboard that comes with a large degree of personal endorsement from the wearer.

Customers will gladly showcase your brand if you let them. And they do not just stop there – they engage others, as advocates they often share pictures of themselves on Twitter and Facebook. Social marketing doesn’t get better than this. However, it is not just about having your logo or company name on shirts – it is about a creative and engaging way of showing your brand – sometimes this might be as minimal as the brand colours used in a design or a retro-version of the logo. Creates team spirit

Don’t forget people who work for you can be your biggest fans. Merchandising not only helps signal the social tribe but also who belongs to the corporate family. Employees are valuable assets but they’re rarely used to physically promote a brand. Printed T-shirts are a great way to utilise this and make your team feel valued.

When employees are totally engaged with your brand and feel great pride to be a part of it, they become part of your marketing arsenal. They will happily wear customised T-shirts with special seasonal offers, product launches or #hashtag campaigns so can reap the extra mileage your brand gets out of this.

Makes you stand out from the competition

Thanks to new technology, you no longer have to have big budget. Print-on-demand means that there is no longer need to bulk-buy or worry about storage. Or wait for that big campaign. From small local or internal projects to full international campaigns it is possible to create as many options as you like with no commitment to print runs. The best brands use this to experiment and really find the exciting messages that customers will actively want to wear.

And it’s simple to do

The right platform can even provide the ecommerce website to put the campaign into. This reduces all the major costs and commitments that traditionally prevent marketers from trying new things. You don’t need to be a design techie, you simply upload the designs and the online platform takes care of the rest. You often don’t have to invest a single penny – it can be created on demand. If one person likes your shirt, the store ships one. If a hundred people want them, the store ships a hundred.

Merchandising 2.0 allows you to try something new with an old media, using new technology. It is about challenging old thinking about merchandising and how it can be used. Fans are not just people who press the Like button. They are active or want to be if you give them the chance. Yet, time after time, I see merchandising fail because the brand places just a logo or standardised marketing message on standard products. If you are going to try a new technology, then do something new. Really experiment to find out what the fans want and actively wear. This includes base product choices. Women do not wear men’s T-shirts!

But as with any kind of advertising, you should keep the medium in mind. There is only so much space available on a T-shirt and so much text that a person is willing to read. Personalised or attention-grabbing designs can help to ensure people are drawn to them, but make sure they are not so intricate that your brand’s message or logo gets lost, or the T-shirt won’t be best serving its purpose.

If you keep these things in mind, the value, durability and profile-raising potential could make the T-shirt a sound investment for any business.

Philip Rooke is CEO of Spreadshirt. Follow him on Twitter @PhilipRooke