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Joining up TV, Search and Social How to enhance TV campaigns to drive online activity
Using search and social analytics to measure TV ads
How online data can improve offline marketing tactics
Mind the Gap
+44 (0)20 7269 1450 [email protected]/skillset
Econsultancy SkillSet™
Digital Excellence, achieved.
We close the gaps that can swallow up your marketingperformance and erode your Return on Digital.
And it all starts with a meeting.
Econsultancy SkillSet™ is the digital skillsdevelopment practice within the world’s biggest digital marketing community, trainer and publisher.
The gap between where your marketersare today and where they need to be.
The gap between average digital marketing performance and true Digital Excellence.
The gap between your people’s self-assessment of their skill levels and their real, benchmarked competencies.
Econsultancy_SkillSet_Advert_0401_0511.indd 1 05/05/2011 16:38
Mind the Gap
+44 (0)20 7269 1450 [email protected]/skillset
Econsultancy SkillSet™
Digital Excellence, achieved.
We close the gaps that can swallow up your marketingperformance and erode your Return on Digital.
And it all starts with a meeting.
Econsultancy SkillSet™ is the digital skillsdevelopment practice within the world’s biggest digital marketing community, trainer and publisher.
The gap between where your marketersare today and where they need to be.
The gap between average digital marketing performance and true Digital Excellence.
The gap between your people’s self-assessment of their skill levels and their real, benchmarked competencies.
Econsultancy_SkillSet_Advert_0401_0511.indd 1 05/05/2011 16:38
EDITOR’s NOTE
The multichannel revolution is gathering pace. In the seven months since our inaugural JUMP event we have heard many success stories from brands that
are adapting to a joined-up world.Consider Boots, which has rolled out
a ‘Click & Collect’ service to almost all of its 2,500 UK stores. It has revealed that more than 40% of its online orders are now collected in store. Argos and Halfords are also making great progress in this area.
It’s no surprise. A new study from Econsultancy has found that almost three quarters of UK shoppers have used a click and collect service in the past year, which highlights the consumer demand for this kind of thing. In the same study, a third of shoppers say that being able to buy via different channels is “very important”. Look out, pureplays…
Of course it’s not just about buying things. Consumers are increasingly demanding great service, and – as ever – they want to choose the service channel. Many are dodging the pain of the telephone and are instead turning to Twitter and Facebook, where response times are quicker than email (94 and 78 minutes respectively, versus 10 hours). The problem is that a response isn’t assured: only 25% of retailers bother to respond to questions asked of them on Twitter.
For the most part, customer service remains broken, and it’s still perceived by many in the boardroom to be a horrendous cost to the business. However, as more firms commit to the idea of creating a fantastic, joined-up customer experience, there is a great chance to fix it, to try to boost customer satisfaction. The rewards on offer are increased loyalty, advocacy and a higher average customer lifetime value (my favourite KPI). There is a lot to be said for shifting your focus towards customer retention, rather than blindly continuing down the acquisition path.
Some 90% of companies told us that they think it is important to join up the customer experience, yet only 4% have managed to do this. As such we think that this area is going to be at the forefront of strategic planning in the next couple of years, along with transforming internal company structure and culture (most notably for the larger organisations), and trying to achieve a single view of the customer.
In this issue of JUMP Magazine we focus on a number of areas that will help you to join up your business, including optimising your mobile strategy, a guide to location-based marketing, using offline ads to drive online activity, and how to make the most out of your data.
Enjoy.
CHRIS LAKE – MANAGING EDITOR
jump magaz INE
MANAGING EDITORChris Lake
DEpuTy EDITORGraham Charlton
CONTRIbuTORSPatricio RoblesMatt OwenJo Murphy
Editorial enquiries to [email protected]
ART CONTRIbuTORS TaangerineMagnum Opus DesignVelocity Partners
pRODuCTION MANAGERSClare LaurieNatalie EvansChristopher Hipson
COMMERCIAL DIRECTORCharlie Salter
ADvERTISING MANAGERMark Thompson
Advertising enquiries to [email protected]
pRINTED byTMB International
pubLISHED by ECONSuLTANCy 4th Floor, 91-93 Farringdon Road, London, EC1M 3LN+44 (0)207 269 1450
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publishers. All details correct at time of going to press and subject to change.
jump magaz INE 03
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7928 Equifax Ad for Jump_7928 Equifax Ad for Jump 10/05/2011 12:42 Page 1
www.equifax.co.uk
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Equifax can help you find the right targets, build better relationshipsand get the most value with trusted intelligence to empower yourcampaigns, every time.
Drop by our booth at JUMP 2011 to learn more.
Or if you can’t wait till then, contact us at 020 7298 3033 or emailus at [email protected] quoting JUMP.
The Heart of Data Intelligence
7928 Equifax Ad for Jump_7928 Equifax Ad for Jump 10/05/2011 12:42 Page 1
jump magaz INE 05
CONTENTs
7 Blackberry to optimise for mobile engagementThe new Blackberry OS from Research in Motion will support NFC technology.
8 game begins multichannel journeyVideo games retailer GAME has announced plans for a multichannel future with a £15m investment in transforming its traditional retail base.
9 House of Fraser goes multichannel and internationalDepartment store House of Fraser is set to launch foreign language sites and multiple currency capability with a view to expanding its multichannel business abroad.
10 Europe divided over multichannel communication says studyConsumers in the UK, Spain and Italy are most likely to be engaged by multichannel communications, according a recent survey of 5,000 consumers across the six largest European countries.
12 multichannel retail: uK and us trends comparedThe results of a survey of 2,000 consumers in the UK and 2,000 in the US on their attitudes to multichannel shopping and customer service.
15 multichannel trends round upSome recent stats on mobile commerce, multichannel retail, mobile search and customer service.
16 seven multichannel retail success storiesA multichannel approach to retail can give companies the edge over competitors. Here are seven retailers who are seeing the benefits of a joined-up approach.
17 Reaching the ‘holy grail’ of multichannel marketingSome findings from Econsultancy’s Multichannel Customer Experience Report, which looks at whether companies have the right strategy and systems to provide s joined-up customer experience.
40 Econsultancy’s joined-up marketing campaign for jump 2010A case study showing how we used a joined-up approach to raise awareness of our JUMP event.
20 How can marketers use offline ads to drive people online? Offline ad campaigns can send customers online, looking for the products and services they have seen on ads. We look at how brands can enhance their offline campaigns by doing things right online.
24 Television and social media: a match made in Hollywood? We look at how TV companies are using social media to enhance the TV viewing experience and create further opportunities for engaging audiences.
27 measuring and managing multichannel value and equityHow can companies measure brand perception across multiple touchpoints?
30 Q&a with Belron’s Craig sullivanCraig Sullivan looks after customer experience for Belron, which owns the Autoglass brand. Craig talks about using online data to optimise offline marketing.
33 Ten ways brands can use location-based marketingFrom mobile apps to creating hyperlocal content, we look at ways that business can use location-based marketing to attract customers.
34 Who’s who in location-based marketing? A look at some of the companies offering location based services, and how they can be used by marketers.
36 How can retailers appeal to mobile users in store? The growing trend for people to use their smartphones for product and price research while shopping offline presents both a challenge and an opportunity for retailers. We look at how brands can adapt to these consumer habits.
50 seven ways to effectively track offline salesHere are seven suggestions for measuring the effect of online campaigns on offline activity.
NEWs TRENDs INsIgHTCasE
sTuDy
44 Do we invest in multichannel or get the basics right? Social customer care consultant Guy Stephens looks at today’s multichannel customer service landscape.
46 The challenges of gathering and using multichannel dataRichard Lees, Chairman of data and marketing services company dbg, looks at the challenges of gathering and using data across channels.
48 measuring multichannel marketing campaignsAs part of our promotional activity for last year’s JUMP event, we ran a contest to find the best blog post on multichannel marketing. The winning entry, from Peter O’Neill looks at the issue of multichannel measurement.
OpINION
Ret� n On Inv� t� t
Multi Ch� nel
email [email protected] +44 (0)20 7324 6253visit clicksquared.uk.com
come and visit us at booth 47
LEARN MORE: ClickSquared.uk.com
RESULTS not Techno-speakRESULTS not Techno-speak
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Partner universe
Cross Ch� nel
MarketingCross Ch� nel Cross Ch� nel
MarketingMarketing
Cloud Marketing
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Enga� � t Te� logy
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Da� base � � ytics te� lgy
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c2-jump-may-v5.indd 1 10/05/2011 15:36
Ret� n On Inv� t� t
Multi Ch� nel
email [email protected] +44 (0)20 7324 6253visit clicksquared.uk.com
come and visit us at booth 47
LEARN MORE: ClickSquared.uk.com
RESULTS not Techno-speakRESULTS not Techno-speak
Single code based platform
Unifi ed da� ar� itect� e
Da� base � � ytics te� lgy
Partner universe
Cross Ch� nel
MarketingCross Ch� nel Cross Ch� nel
MarketingMarketing
Cloud Marketing
£££’s!!!£££’s!!!£££’s!!!
Enga� � t Te� logy
S� � !! Revenue!!
TCO. SQL. CPU. RDBMS.
xAmortisation
Cloud Cloud Marketing MarketingCloud MarketingCloud Cloud MarketingCloud Marketing Marketing Marketing Marketing
Marketingv
WHATS
THAT ??
Subscription!!SubscriptionSubscription!!!!
Single code based platform
Unifi ed da� ar� itect� eSingle code based
platform
Unifi ed da� ar� itect� eSingle code based
platformSingle code based
platform
Da� base � � ytics te� lgySingle code based
platform
Unifi ed da� ar� itect� eSingle code based
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Unifi ed da� ar� itect� eSingle code based
platformSingle code based
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Da� base � � ytics te� lgy
Partner universeDa� base � � ytics te� lgy
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c2-jump-may-v5.indd 1 10/05/2011 15:36
NEWs
jump magaz INE 07
NEWS ROUND-UPThe multichannel stories and trends that have caught our eye lately...
Research in Motion (RIM) has upped the stakes when it comes to engaging customers through mobile devices. Two new Blackberry handsets and an operating system will pave the way for augmented reality and near-field communications (NFC) payment technology.
The 9900 and 9930 were launched at the recent B l a c kbe r r y Wo r l d
conference in Florida alongside the Blackberry 7 operating system, which promises to revolutionise the smartphone experience. Vastly improved graphics t echno logy, fas te r performance and an “instantaneous” response when switching between applications are some of the improvements listed.
The operating system
will support NFC technology ahead of wallet phones coming to market, which will increase consumer dependence on mobile devices. The system will also provide a platform for developers to build NFC and augmented reality applications, another avenue for mobile innovation.
blackberry adds mobile engagement tools
Renault revs up online presence with real-time RFID ‘liking’Renault successfully bridged the gap between its offline and online presence at the recent AutoRAI Amsterdam Motorshow using Facebook share pillars and RFID technology.
In a bid to remove barriers to online recognition, the car manufacturer distributed free Renault RFID micro-chip embedded cards
to 250,000 visitors. The cards stored visitors’ usernames and passwords allowing them to instantly connect with Facebook and ‘like’ a car by swiping it in front of readers, or share pillars. A link to the car was then posted to the visitor’s Facebook profile, sharing their offline experience with their online network.
Renault developed the share pillars with Dutch company Blogmij. Using the technology at the largest motorshow in the Netherlands gave the brand greater weight vying against the likes of BMW, Mercedes and Porsche.
NEWs
08 jump magaz INE
Mobile retail study shows shoppers are on the move UK consumers now favour shopping on a mobile device over a PC according to recent research carried out by InMobi – with results showing the mobile shopping market more than doubled its revenue from £123m in 2009 to £275m in 2010.
The research reveals a shift in purchasing habits among consumers using the internet: 42% still shop
in store while 28% prefer to buy online using a PC. But the remaining 30% shop on the move through a mobile phone – that’s almost 16 million UK consumers. The study also shows similar trends in the US with clear growth in mobile retail take up.
InMobi claims that over a third of shoppers on the move are buying games and mobile content (39%),
12% favour travel, 10% are spending on clothes and another 10% are purchasing consumer electronics. With one in four people influenced by mobile websites, this could mean big things for advertisers and retailers. InMobi predicts mobile shopping revenue to hit £1bn by the end of this year.
GAME begins multichannel journeyVideo games retailer GAME has announced plans for a multichannel future with a £15 million investment in transforming its traditional retail base to better serve a changing marketplace.
The games specialist outperformed the market in 2010, despite a 25% drop in hardware sales and a 5% fall in software. And
now GAME is pursuing digital downloads and social gaming as healthier routes for revenue growth, leading the way for other video games retailers. Group Chief Executive Ian Shepherd explained: “GAME is on a journey. Our customers have new and different ways to play video games and we need to
make sure our business provides everything they want, wherever they want it. Today, no other business does this for the gamer.”
The retailer aims to outperform the market again in 2011 by tripling
annual online sales to £300m by 2013. Shepherd added: “In the longer term we are putting GAME in the right place to deliver the strongest returns as the industry continues to change and evolve.”
GAME has reported a 5% increase in online market share since February – compared to this time last year – rising to 18%.
Almost 16 million UK consumers shop on the move through
a mobile phone
NEWs
jump magaz INE 09
House of Fraser goes multichannel and multinational
M&S welcomes Multichannel E-commerce Director
Department store House of Fraser is set to launch foreign language sites and multiple currency capability with a view to expanding its multichannel business abroad – and further join up its retail proposition.
The move will increase the brand’s online representation with a focus
on social media and e-commerce. Smartphone apps and a mobile website also feature in the development pipeline.
Multichannel growth will continue in the UK with the expansion of the House of Fraser Buy and Collect service launched last year. Dedicated areas will also be
introduced in-store that enable customers to access reviews and order products online, raising the brand’s e-commerce profi le and merging the customer’s real-time and online experience.
House of Fraser currently operates in 32 countries and will upgrade its current UK website this year in line with the international multichannel proposition.
Former Tesco.com CEO Laura Wade-Gery will step into the newly created role in July, tasked with growing Marks & Spencer’s multichannel business and doubling online sales within three years.
The retailer is putting the spotlight on internet sales with a growth target of £800m-£1bn by 2013/14. With last year’s online sales at £413m, M&S must make its channels work much harder. Wade-Gery’s plans are said to include introducing an online food business.
M&S poached Wade-Gery from Tesco.com where she helped grow online sales last year by 9.1% through innovations including an iPhone app.
NEWs
10 jump magaz INE
Debenhams bucks downward trend with multichannel sales
Europe divided over multichannel communication says study
Debenhams’ half year results showed interim profits of £129.2 million with an overall increase of 4.5% and a jump in online sales of 82.4% through Debenhams Direct. This is the department store’s sixth consecutive half year of pre-tax profit growth.
Contributors to this success include an iPhone app allowing consumers to buy on the move, an online Debenhams TV channel offering fashion advice and interviews with designers, and the launch of a website in the Republic of Ireland.
Chief Executive Rob Templeman believes increasing customer access points to shop at Debenhams will continue to influence growth through the “building of a seamless multichannel business”. Future plans include widening the range of products sold through e-commerce, expanding international delivery from seven to 40 countries and developing Android and Nokia smartphone apps.
Consumers in the UK, Spain and Italy are most likely to be engaged by multichannel communications according a recent eCircle survey. The European Social Media Study analysed responses from 5,000 consumers across the six largest European countries.
Less than a quarter of UK consumers favour email marketing with the majority preferring a combination of online channels. Italian consumers are the heaviest users with 69% interacting through social media, email and online newsletters – 40%
of Dutch and 11% of Spanish consumers use email only.
Newsletters are the preferred method of communication for 83% of consumers in all six countries while Facebook dominates in five with 88% using the social media network. Over a third of UK respondents ‘like’ brand fan pages, but companies are failing to engage other European consumers through social media. Less than 19% in Germany have signed up to fan pages.
This is set to change according to eCircle CEO
Volker Wiewer who claims the growth in mobile engagement through smartphones is affecting the way consumers use online channels.
These results are taken from the second of a three-part European Social Media and Email Marketing Survey published in March.
Consumers in the UK, Spain and Italy are most likely to be engaged by
multichannel communications
TRENDs
12 jump magaz INE
multichannel retail survey: uK and us trends comparedA new study highlights consumer multichannel behaviour
Earlier this month Econsultancy surveyed 2,000 consumers in the UK and 2,000 consumers in the US, to unearth attitudes to multichannel shopping and service. The survey was
compiled using the TolunaQuick tool.We found that there are a lot of
similarities, but also some distinct differences in consumer behaviour in the UK and US.
Let’s look at some of the findings…
Q1 How important is it to be able to purchase from a retailer via different channels
e.g. in a store, by mobile, online?
Notes: This chart aggregates data from the UK and US,
where results were broadly similar.
Yes, I always check online before buying
I sometimes check online
I never use the internet in this way
39%
29.9%
9.6%7.4%
51.4%
62.7%
UK
US
Q2 Do you research purchases on the
internet before buying from a store?
Notes: Online price and product comparison has been more heavily adopted in the UK, with 30% more shoppers using it compared with their American peers.
33.5%Very important
48%It would be useful sometimes, but isn’t crucial
18.5%It doesn’t matter
Q3 Do you reserve products online before collecting them instore?
Notes: This is a much bigger deal for UK shoppers. Reserve and collect services have been launched by some of the UK’s largest multichannel retailers, including Argos, Homebase and Halfords.
I have done this in the past 12 months
74%42%UK
US
TRENDs
jump magaz INE 13
54.4
% v
s 45
%
At least once in the past year
BUY NOW£=$
Have you used your mobile to �nd a retailer’s nearest store?
Have you used your mobile to compare prices
and check product reviews while out shopping in the
high street?
Have you ever used a barcode scanner on your
phone?
Have you made a purchase via your
mobile?
UK
US
UY OW
BUNO=$£=
24.5%
26.5%
18.5%20.0%
16.7%
20.7%
13.2%12.0%
Q4 Mobile shopping
Notes: US shoppers appear to be slightly more advanced at using their mobile phones, when
compared with UK shoppers, who are more likely to make a purchase via the mobile. Some UK retailers are winning big at mobile: the Argos iPhone app has been downloaded 1.3m times
since it launched in May 2010, and is thought to drive as much as £40m in annual revenue.
��
18.5%No
76.5%Yes
Q5 If you buy something from an online
retailer, do you expect to be able to return it to a local store?
Notes: The story is the same in the US and UK – shoppers want to be able
to return items bought online to their local store, in the event that there is a problem. (Aggregated data)
Q6 How often do you use catalogues before buying
online or instore?
Not
es: C
atal
ogue
s ca
n st
ill p
lay a
big
role
in re
tail,
thou
gh a
roun
d on
e in
two
shop
pers
nev
er re
ad th
em.
(UK)
(US)
jump magaz INE 15
multichannel trends roundupThe latest facts and figures, covering Tv, mobile and social
uRLs in offline adsNominet’s Domain Name Industry report also found that UK consumers respond better to .uk web addresses than .com, with 80% preferring the local address.
•While65%ofallUKprintandtelevisionadvertising now includes a web address, there is a disparity between print and TV.
•83%ofprintadsnowfeatureaURLcompared with just 61% of TV ads, perhaps a missed opportunity given the higher costs of TV advertising.
•Overa thirdofprintand televisionadverts (35%) contain no website address at all.
•Withinnewspaperadvertising,86%ofads feature a web address, though there is a lower occurrence of web addresses in ads featured within supplements.
Mobile search •AccordingtoaPerformicsstudy,more
people use mobile search at home in the evening (81%) compared with any other time or place. At home on weekends is the second most popular usage behaviour (80%).
•66%ofpeopleusemobilesearchwhilewatching TV, a statistic that should appeal to advertisers, while 61% said they use it at work.
•75%saidmobilesearchmakestheirlives easier, 63% said access to mobile search has changed the way they gather information, and 32% said they use mobile search more than search engines on their computers.
•84%usemobilesearch to look forinformation on local retailers, such as opening hours, address and contact details. 82% look for online retailers, 73% find a specific product or manufacturer’s website.
•71%ofmobileuserslearnmoreabouta product or service via mobile search having seen an ad. 68% search to find the best price for a product.
Mobile commerce strategy•Themajorityofretailersareconvinced
that mobile commerce will eventually become as popular as e-commerce, just 16% have a strategy in place, and 28% have no plans to implement one, according to a Vanson Bourne survey (of 100 marketing and IT directors at UK retailers, and 1,000 consumers).
•16% of retailers have a mobilecommerce strategy fully in place at the moment, a further 18% have implemented some aspects, while 8% have yet to implement one.
•42%haveastrategyatvariousstagesof development, and a further 30% plan to develop an m-commerce site or app at some point. 28% have no strategy in place, and no plans to launch an m-commerce site.
Social media and customer serviceA study by Auros found that 20 of the top 25 UK retailers had an account on Twitter, with an average of 69,000 followers. •Despite the researchers actively
engaging with the brand and asking questions, none of the retailers followed them back. This means customers can’t get in touch to provide details to help get their problem sorted out, or to move the discussion to another channel.
•Only25%ofretailerswithaTwitteraccount responded to a question directed at them.
•20%ofretailersrespondedtonegativecomments which had been directed at them, compared with 10% that replied to positive ones.
•For those that replied the averageresponse time was 94 minutes. By comparison email response times were 10 hours on average.
•Fewer(72%)ofthe25retailershadaFacebook page, but the average number of fans was higher, at 258,000.
•Retailersrespondedtoquestionsmorepromptly on Facebook, an average response time of 78 minutes, while 88% gave a helpful answer.
•Whenitcametorespondingtopositiveor negative comments, the figures were different. Just 17% responded to a positive comment on their wall, taking an average of 112 minutes to respond.
•Just11%ofbrandsrespondedtoanegative comment left on the wall.
Multichannel retail•According to an Akamai study,
multichannel shoppers spend 15-30% more on average than someone who only uses one channel.
LocAL vS. GLobAL
80% OF UK CONSUMERS RESPOND BETTER
TO .UK ADDRESSES THAN .COM
SocIAL MEDIA
80% 20 OF THE TOP 25 UK RETAILERS HAD AN
ACCOUNT ON TWITTER, WITH AN AVERAGE OF 69,000
FOLLOWERS
MobILE SEARch
75% OF CONSUMERS SAID
MOBILE SEARCH MAKES THEIR LIVES
EASIER
… the majority of retailers are convinced that mobile commerce will eventually become as popular as e-commerce
TRENDs
TRENDs
16 jump magaz INE
seven multichannel retail success storiesA look at some recent sales figures for some of the uK’s top multichannel retailers
Over the past year, the release of sales and trading statements reveal the advantage that multichannel retailers have over their pure play online rivals.
For example, the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index for March showed the widening gap between multichannel and pureplay online retailers.
Those retailers with a presence online and offline experienced average growth of 19% compared to March 2010, while pureplays experienced growth of just 6%.
1 Dixons RetailA shift to a multichannel strategy has helped Dixons Retail, which
operates the Dixons, Curry’s and PC World brands, to compensate for a decline in purely online sales.
While online-only sales fell by 9% for the year ending April 20 2011, multichannel sales grew by 12% across the three retail brands.
2 DebenhamsSales at Debenhams Direct increased by 82.4% to £92.3
million in the six months to February 26 2011.
The retailer has been working hard on its multichannel strategy, and growing numbers of customers are using services such as in store ordering and collect from store.
In addition, Debenhams has created mobile commerce apps for iPhone and Android, with the iPhone version bringing in £1m in sales in the five months after launch.
3 John LewisJohn Lewis has been extending its multichannel efforts with the
launch of several smaller John Lewis ‘at home’ stores. These store have a smaller range of stock, bit contain customer kiosks so that people can shop from its entire range.
It has also extended its Click and
6 M&STotal M&S group sales rose by 2.3% in the 13 weeks to April 2
compared to the same time last year, while UK sales rose by just 1%. Like-for-like UK sales rose by only 0.1%.
M&S Direct, which includes the retailer’s online and mobile and collect in store services, grew sales by 13.7% during the same period.
Over the last year, M&S has introduced a mobile commerce site as well as rolling out its Shop Your Way multichannel service.
7 Tesco Tesco’s annual financial statement included a pledge to
“become a multichannel retailer wherever we trade”, and the retail giant has been launching several multichannel services over the last year, including an iPhone app which accounted for 12% of customer traffic.
Tesco experienced double digit growth in the grocery delivery business and a 30% rise in sales at Tesco Direct.
Collect service, and customers can now order online and pick up items from any John Lewis branch.
Johnlewis.com achieved sales of £538.2m, up £147.9m, or 37.9%, and well ahead of expectations.
4 Home Retail GroupHome Retail Group, which runs the Argos and Homebase brands,
is the second largest online retailer in the UK, with 400m unique visitors in the year up to February 26 2011.
Multichannel sales grew to £1.9bn in the same period, representing almost half (46%) of its total sales.
Internet orders represent 36% of Argos’ total sales, up from 32% last year, with the remaining 10% of multichannel sales being products ordered either in-store or by telephone for home delivery.
Argos also launched an iPhone app in May 2010, which achieved more than 1.3m downloads up to February, and has driven around 1% of total sales.
Future plans include the introduction of a TV shopping channel and mobile apps for iPad and Android.
5 NextSales through Next’s retail outlets fell by 2.3% in the year ending
January 2011, but this was offset by an increase in Next Directory sales of 7.1%.
Next Directory sales include online, catalogues and telephone sales, and were responsible for 27% of total group sales, and 40% of group profits.
Multichannel retailers have an advantage over their pure play online rivals
AvERAGE GRowth COMPARED TO MARCH 2010:
19% MULTICHANNEL
RETAILERS
6%ONLINE RETAILERS
jump magaz INE 17
TRENDs
Reaching the ‘holy grail’ of multichannel marketingResearch from Econsultancy suggests that there is a long way to go for most firms
Econsultancy’s recent Multichannel Customer Experience Report, published in association with Foviance, looks at the extent to which companies have the strategy
and framework in place to provide a joined-up customer experience.
While achieving a single view of the customer across multiple touchpoints is desirable for the vast majority of firms, very few have the systems and processes in place to achieve this.
We surveyed more than 500 company and agency respondents, and though 90% of companies see the importance of providing a joined-up customer experience, just 4% claim to have actually achieved this.
Gaining a single view of the customerThe report takes the Foviance Customer Experience Maturity Model (shown right) to ask respondents how close they are to ‘the holy grail’ of a single view of a customer across channels.
The model breaks this progress down into four phases based on long-term business performance and the approach to customer experience:
•Cluttered: Operational systems and processes are tactical and single-channel driven.
•Considered: Individual systems and processes are customer focused but lack links cross-channel.
•Capable: Integrated systems and processes but not fully harnessed cross-channel.
•Cultural:Fully integrated systems and processes harnessed cross-channel.
Importance of multichannel customer experience strategyThe majority of company respondents see the benefits of a joined up strategy, with almost half (49%) saying that a joined-up multichannel customer experience is very important to their organisation, while a further 41% say it is quite important.
Only 9% say it is not very important and 1% say it is not at all important.
91% of agency respondents believe that a joined-up multichannel experience is either very important or quite important for their clients.
Of those companies who say that differentiating their brands through superior customer experience is very much part of their strategy, 67% say a joined-up multichannel approach is very important.
The majority of organisations are either at the “cluttered” (24%) or “considered” stage (44%), and therefore lacking joined-up systems and processes.
Just over a quarter of companies (28%) say they are now at the “capable” stage, with integrated systems and processes which are customer-focused but not fully harnessed cross-channel.
Only 4% claim to have reached the promised land of “cultural” customer experience, built on cross-channel integration which is being fully harnessed.
Approach to Customer Experience
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How important is a joined-up multichannel customer experience
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TRENDs
18 jump magaz INE
Integration of channels with customer experience strategyThe survey uncovers a lack of integration of the various channels into overall customer experience strategy. Less than a third (31%)say their most important customer channels are well integrated.
Just 7% say that there is no integration at all, but the majority (62%) say that channels are not very well integrated.
These fi ndings suggest that companies are typically trying to integrate systems and adopt a customer-centric approach, but haven’t yet reached the stage where they have properly managed to harness these diff erent processes into a truly seamless cross-channel experience.
How to improve the customer experienceRespondents were asked: “What would be the one thing they would do to change the customer experience, if there were no barriers to implementing change?”
The majority of respondents said they needed to implement a single view of the customer across diff erent channels.
In addition to achieving a single view of the customer, greater integration of channels to present a more unifi ed message to consumers was high on respondent’s wishlists.
Companies also wanted to do more customer surveys to drive actionable insight to help improve service levels.
The companies surveyed have the right ideas about how to improve the customer experience but barriers to change, such as tight budgets, and a general lack of strategy and direction prevent them from implementing changes as they would like.
However, in order to put plans into action, marketers will need to tear down the existing silos in their organisations.
In addition, a top-down approach is needed with senior management selling the customer-centric approach. This eff ect will then trickle down at all levels of the company and translate into front-line staff actively taking steps to improve the customer experience.
We asked companies to suggest up to three issues which were proving to be barriers to improving the multichannel experience for their customers.
No single issue emerged as the greatest obstacle to success, but the most commonly cited problem was organisational structure.
Many businesses suff er from a siloed structure which is typically not conducive to an integrated customer experience.
In some cases, companies can lessen the problem by introducing cross- functional customer experience teams, but the best experience is often provided by
companies which are structured and built around the customer from the ground up.
In this respect, smaller and younger companies can often have an advantage over larger rivals.
The next most signifi cant issue is complexity of customer experience, cited as a major barrier by 38% of respondents, followed by diffi culties encountered in unifying diff erent sources of customer data.
Lack of resources (33%) and lack of budget (31%) are the fourth and fi fth greatest barriers respectively.
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Thinking about the di�erent channels you have, how well integrated are they into
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What are the three greatest barriers preventing your organisation from improving the multichannel customer experience?
What is preventing companies improving the multichannel experience for customers?
Fuel All Your Interactive Marketing From a Single PlatformEmail. Mobile. Social. Sites.
Learn More at www.ExactTarget.co.uk
THEWORLD'SFIRST
How can marketers use offline ads to drive people online?Smart advertisers extend and enhance their offline campaigns by taking a big picture view of how, why and where consumers respond...
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In a multichannel environment, brands and marketers need to think carefully about how customers will respond to offline advertising.
If people see a product or service they like, will they open up their laptops and type the URL used on the ad into a search engine? Will they search for the brand online instead? Or will they use the smartphone in their pocket?
Brands need to ensure that, whichever actions users take to follow up their interest in an ad, they are able to easily find more information, or link to buy or sign up.
For example, if I see an advert for a car and type the make and model into Google, I want to see a landing page that matches my expectations, and which provides details of the car, some compelling photos and videos, and a link to find my local dealer, or to book a test drive.
TV campaigns will always drive spikes in online search activity, either by accident or design.
According to a recent study by Efficient Frontier, TV ads can drive an 80% rise in branded search.
In the study, searches during an eight-week TV ad campaign will typically jump between 60% and 80% on the brand name, and between 40% and 60% on generic terms related to the brand.
80% Tv ads can drive an 80% rise in branded search activity online
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Why encourage people to search online? Online offers an immediate response mechanism for viewers of TV ads. It allows brands an opportunity to capitalise instantly on the effect of the ad.
For example, if a customer has seen a pair of shoes that they like in a TV ad then they can head online and purchase them within minutes.
If it’s a car insurance advert, customers can open their laptops and start the quotation process straight away.
Even when the product or service cannot be purchased online, then the internet offers a way to capture customer details, for people to book an appointment or a test drive within minutes of the ad.
People are increasingly using different kinds of media while they are watching TV. With laptops, smartphones and tablet computers like the iPad, many viewers are likely to have the internet at their fingertips while watching TV.
A recent IAB study found that 49% of mobile internet users will often watch TV while browsing on their phones. This offers an excellent opportunity for marketers to get viewers to respond to TV ads by going online.
place a uRL in the adThis is becoming common practice in the majority of TV and print advertising.
A recent survey by Nominet found that 65% of all UK print and television advertising now includes a web address.
There is a disparity between print and TV though: 83% of print ads now feature a URL compared with just 61% of TV ads. This is a missed opportunity, especially when you consider the higher costs of TV advertising.
A URL in an ad gives customers a response mechanism and, if they type in the correct web address, they’ll go to a dedicated landing page.
Unique URLs also provide a mechanism for marketers to track response to offline advertising.
URLs need to be memorable, and not too long, otherwise people will make mistakes.
Search calls to actionAnother option is to direct people to search for a particular word or phrase online.
Users often prefer to conduct navigation-based searches online, rather than using the browser bar to type in the URL to visit the website. The fact that major online destinations like Facebook, eBay and Amazon regularly feature in lists of top searched keywords is evidence of this behaviour.
It makes sense to take account of this behaviour, as people will respond to offline ads via the internet.
Try directing users to search for a particular term. This approach has the added advantage of making the offline campaign more trackable, as brands and advertisers can monitor any spikes in searches for keywords and phrases used in offline advertising.
There are some potential drawbacks to this approach though. The use of a unique search keyword or phrase tells competitors about your search strategy, and gives them the opportunity to bid on these terms and hijack traffic driven by the ads.
Let users search for the brand or productWhether you include a URL or a search call to action on the ad or not, it’s likely that many people will respond to ads by searching for the brand or product name online. These are high-value searches.
This is often the easiest way for users to respond to ads, so advertisers need to have done their homework so that they are highly visible in the search results pages for brand terms.
Facebook landing pagesAnother recent trend has been for brands to direct viewers and readers on TV and print ads to a Facebook page.
This is something Ford has been doing in its recent TV ad campaign for the new Focus. Visitors arrive at a landing page with videos and information about the car.
This approach can help brands to build a following on the site, as hopefully users will arrive at the Facebook page while logged into their own account.
Then, if they hit the ‘like’ button, the page will also be promoted to that user’s Facebook friends.
Create a unique phrase or characterBy using ‘Aleksandr’ the meerkat, and inviting viewers to search for ‘Compare The Meerkat’, the insurance brand managed to create a clear call to action which, given the unique nature of the search phrase, made it easier for them
Online offers an immediate response mechanism for viewers of Tv ads. It allows brands an opportunity to capitalise instantly of the effect of the ad.
49%OF MOBILE INTERNET USERS WILL OFTEN WATCH TV WHILE
BROWSING ON THEIR PHONES*
* IAB
What kinds of tactics can brands use to get viewers of TV ads to search online?
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to ensure that the landing page was highly visible in search results.
It was also an excellent way of saving money on paid search. When the campaign was launched in 2009, the cost per click for the word ‘meerkat’ was 5p, compared to £5 for the keyword ‘market’.
This allowed Compare The Market to achieve search visibility in a highly competitive market at a fraction of the normal cost.
QR codesThe use of QR codes isn’t yet widespread, and mobile users do have to download a code reader application before they can scan them, but they do off er a potentially valuable direct response mechanism.
By showing QR codes in offl ine ads, brands can send mobile users straight to a dedicated landing page, a video showing the product, or a voucher to be redeemed at their local store.
SMS According to a recent MMA/Lightspeed survey, 31% of UK consumers would be more likely to respond to an ad if it included a mobile response mechanism.
The same survey found that sending a keyword by SMS to a shortcode was the most widely recognised mobile response mechanism.
Directing searchers to the correct landing page
Encouraging people to search online after viewing an ad is just the fi rst part of the challenge. They also need to be directed to the correct website or landing page, and this is all about having the right search strategy in place...
SEOThis is something that should be planned well in advance so that brand and non-brand search terms are in high enough positions to capture the extra search traffi c that TV ads will generate.
How hard this is to achieve will depend on the brand and product name. If you have a more generic brand or product name, then creating a unique search phrase or URL may be an alternative strategy.
paid search The one guaranteed way to top the search engines around the time of TV ad campaigns is buy the related paid search keywords and phrases.
While brands may be worried about spending on paid search to support a TV advertising campaign, they will often see higher than average conversion rates, which should justify the extra expenditure.
Tips for landing pages
Eff ective landing pags are an essential part of any ad campaign. Optimise them for the best results...
Create mobile-friendly landing pagesPeople are increasingly using their mobiles to access the internet while watching TV or reading newspapers, and are likely to use their phones to respond to ads.
If they do this, only to fi nd a slow-loading page that has not been optimised for mobiles, containing Flash elements and videos that won’t work, then the eff ort made by the advertiser to get a response has been wasted.
Brands don’t need to ‘dumb down’ landing pages just to cater for mobile users, they can simply detect the device accessing the page and divert mobile and tablet users to the most suitable version.
Clear link from main homepage to landing pageBrands may have included a URL or a clear search-based call to action in the ad, pointing viewers to a dedicated microsite, but many people will just end up at the brand’s main homepage anyway.
These visitors should be able to see a link to the microsite and images or copy that matches what they have just seen in the offl ine advertising.
For example, though Ford’s ad campaign for the new Focus invites users to its Facebook page, visitors to its website will immediately see links and information related to the new car and the ad campaign.
Include clear calls to action on your landing pageWhatever the purpose of the landing page is, inviting people to make a purchase, sign up for newsletters, or booking a test drive, it should be unmistakably clear to visitors.
Your landing page should include clear calls to action that make the next step you want visitors to take as clear as possible.
65% of all UK print and television advertising now includes a w
eb address
83%PRINt ADS FEATURE A URL
61%tv ADS
FEATURE A URL
31% OF UK CONSUMERS
WOULD BE MORE LIKELy TO RESPOND TO AN AD IF THERE WAS A
MOBILE RESPONSE MECHANISM ON OFFER
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Continue the ad experience on the landing pageIf customers have taken the trouble to head to your landing page after seeing the TV or print ad, then it must have been effective.
Theme your landing page by using related images, language and video that matches the look and feel of the offline ad and reinforces the message you were aiming for.
Add sharing optionsIf you create a great TV ad and subsequently attract visitors to your landing page, then make it easy for them to share it with their friends. This will extend the reach of your campaign for free.
Add links to allow users to easily share the content with friends via email or social media sites.
Don’t ask too muchIf you are asking people to submit their details or sign up for a quote, then make the process as smooth as possible.
Asking for too much information at this stage risks frightening them off and wasting the investment you made getting them there.
Don’t drive people away by asking for anything you don’t actually need.
provide a range of contact options for visitorsYou may have created the perfect landing page, but some people will still not respond, so give them options.
Provide different contact options, including email addresses, contact forms, phone numbers, so they can choose how they would like to contact you.
Ask customersIf customers have arrived at your site, you can simply ask which media channel influenced their decision to visit.
However, if you make this a compulsory field during the checkout or registration process, then the answers given may not be reliable.
brand trafficA simple measure of the impact of an offline campaign is the traffic driven by your brand keywords.
If a TV advert has encouraged people to think about your brand then you should see more people searching for your brand terms.
Hybrid trafficHybrid traffic combines a brand term with either generic or specific terms.
This could be a combination of brand name and product in the term, or some other feature from the ad, which would show that this search traffic is directly related to the ad.
Catchphrase TrafficSome of the best adverts create memorable slogans or catchphrases. If you have optimised your search results for the catchphrase then you may well see more traffic based on this.
Geographic analysisMost web analytics tools allow you to view where in the country traffic has come from.
This is ideal if you are running a location-specific campaign, on regional TV for example.
paid search trafficAs with brand search terms, you should see a higher clickthrough rate from paid search ads related to the TV campaign.
Conversions / sign upsThe conversions from traffic related to the TV ads, or for the products advertised, should give an idea of the ad’s success.
unique uRLsIf you have a URL that is unique to a TV ad campaign, then traffic to this address will be directly attributable to the ad in question.
measuring the success of TV campaigns
Here are a few ideas to help you measure how effective Tv ads have been in driving traffic online...
Brands need to ensure that users are able to easily find more information, or link to buy or sign up
Social Media as a Television AppGiven the popularity of the internet, it’s not surprising that most television programs have associated online components. These often include websites, as well as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts.
In most cases, these components are designed to provide varying degrees of interactivity. A website for a television programme, for instance, might have a blog that gives viewers additional content, and an ability to comment. MTV provides such blogs for many of its shows.
In other cases, an entire social network might be developed around a television program. The American Idol website features such a social network, which gives Idol fans the ability to create their own blogs and fan groups, post personal photos, and chat with other viewers via message boards, some of which have accumulated hundreds of thousands of posts.
Other popular tools for creating opportunities for interaction around television shows online include branded games, Facebook applications, content aggregators, viral videos, mobile features, and contests. Given the number of tools available to players in the television industry, and the ways in which these tools can be applied, the social web is like a TV app: before, during and after consuming programming on the small screen, there are interactive components that give viewers the opportunity to extend the consumption on even smaller screens – those of their computers and mobile devices.
Twitter TvFor some programming, networks are actually fi nding an opportunity to bring social media into the show.
Cable news network CNN, for instance, has been doing this for several years now. User-generated content from the internet is incorporated by CNN in various ways:
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Television and social media: a match made in Hollywood?Mobile + social + hashtags = massive engagement
Executives are frequently encouraged to adopt a multichannel approach to business because, they’re told, doing so will produce a result that’s
greater than the sum of its parts. but is this really the case?
If any industry can prove that you can put two channels together in interesting ways and produce powerful results, it’s the television industry, which is increasingly fi nding a variety of ways to embrace an ever-social internet.
•Numerous CNN hosts, includingAnderson Cooper and Don Lemon, make time to read opinionated tweets to their audiences.
•CNN’sJackCafferty invitescnn.comreaders to comment on the day’s topics, and reads the opinions he finds most interesting to the Situation Room’s television viewers.
•CNNoperatesaplatformcallediReport,which allows citizen journalists to upload their own stories, photos and videos. The most newsworthy are verified by CNN, and are featured on-air.
In many instances, this type of integration may not seem all that substantive, but not all social media-television integration has to be subtle.
In some cases, social media is the programme. Take, for instance, the popular Comedy Central show tosh.0. Little more than a television-based aggregator of funny and shocking viral videos, according to the Los Angeles Times: “Tosh.0 has done so well that it has been attracting more men in the coveted 18- to 34-year-old demographic as the most successful comedy on NBC, ‘The Office.’”
Perhaps an even more powerful example of how social media can serve as the foundation for television programming is the CBS sitcom $h*! My Dad Says. Starring William Shatner, $h*! My Dad Says is based on a Twitter feed created by Justin Halpern, who started tweeting things his dad would say after moving back home at the age of 29. His Twitter account acquired a large following, and before long he signed a book deal and a television deal with Warner Bros., demonstrating that the internet, itself a hub for pop culture, can be a viable source for new content and programming.
Talent Has its Own brandWhile social media is sparking new opportunities for viewers and aspiring
content creators, it’s also a channel that is doing big things for existing television personalities. When Conan O’Brien found himself out of work following his departure from NBC’s Tonight Show, he turned to the internet, and more specifically, Twitter. In a matter of hours, he had more than a quarter of a million followers, and the ‘I’m With Coco’ movement had begun.
In the end, O’Brien’s online popularity helped him seal a lucrative deal with cable network TBS, one that reportedly gave O’Brien just about everything he asked for, as well as an eight-figure pay day up front in addition to an ownership stake in the show. In return, TBS has a true partner who brought with him an audience and a lot of goodwill.
If O’Brien’s TBS deal demonstrates one thing, it’s this: today, top talent can build a brand using social media. On the web, actors and media personalities can ‘own’ their fans, build their own properties and exert almost unlimited control over their creations. In other words, arguably the most powerful asset an individual like Conan O’Brien have is a strong internet presence, and with one, Hollywood executives will increasingly have to recognise that the talent – not the network or the programming - often is the brand. And that can be a good thing for television networks too.
Social Media as 21st Century Water CoolerWhile terrestrial and cable television networks are tapping into social media through their own platforms, integrating social media into their programming, and coming to recognize the benefits of talent-as-the-brand, social media has also fast become a virtual ‘watercooler’ for viewers looking to voice opinions about the shows they love – and hate.
From Facebook to Twitter, television talk is a daily occurrence. Whether it’s a shocking American Idol elimination, or
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…social media provides an outlet for viewers to express their opinions about the shows they’re watching
Glee is one of the most “tweeted-about”
shows on Twitter due in large part to the efforts of its social media-savvy cast,
which actually engages with fans via
Twitter during the show
$h*! My Dad Says is based on a
Twitter feed created by Justin Halpern
Howard Stern tweeted a live commentary
during the broadcast of his movie Private
Parts, boosting ratings
The popular show tosh.0. is little more
than a television-based aggregator of funny and shocking viral videos, but is hugely successful
in attracting 18–34-year-old men
CNN operates a platform called
iReport, which allows citizen journalists to
upload their own stories, photos and
videos
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the season finale of a popular series, social media provides an outlet for viewers to express their opinions about the shows they’re watching. During the 2011 Super Bowl, for instance, Twitter reported more than 4,000 Super Bowl-related tweets per second!
According to a recent study by digital marketing firm Digital Clarity, which polled 1,300 mobile internet users under the age of 25, 80% of young, mobile-savvy youth in the U.K. are using the internet and mobile internet to comment on television programming while they’re watching it. A similar study conducted by Nielsen and Yahoo in the United States found a similar trend.
Although a 2010 study by social media monitoring firm Viralheat found that online buzz isn’t always correlated with ratings, many in the industry believe there is a link. But even if such a link can’t yet be firmly established, one thing is certain: digital chatter is providing television executives with new insights into what viewers think about their programmes.
Sometimes, television networks learn
that their viewers may be more passionate about their programming than previously thought. In 2007, for instance, fans of the ABC series Jericho organised a campaign online which resulted in 40,000 pounds of peanuts being sent to ABC executives. The message - “Don’t cancel our show!” - was heard, and the show was given a second chance.
Naturally, television executives aren’t looking at social media as a one-way street. The possibility of influencing the digital chatter is alluring, and there are efforts to do just that. Cable network A&E, for example, purchased a Twitter Promoted Trend to promote the debut of a new show called Breakout Kings.
But paid media is arguably not nearly as effective as earned media in the realm of social media if FOX’s hit show Glee is any indication. It’s one of the most ‘tweeted-about’ shows on Twitter due in large part to the efforts of its social media-savvy cast, which actually engages with fans via Twitter during the show. As Twitter CEO Dick Costolo told an audience during a discussion at CES 2011: “People feel like they have to watch the show
while it’s going on because the community is tweeting about the show and the characters are tweeting as the show’s happening...”
A similar dynamic was created earlier this year by Howard Stern. Ratings for an HBO broadcast of his movie Private Parts, now more than a decade old, were far higher than anticipated after Stern tweeted live commentary during the broadcast.
The most interesting thing about Glee’s social media popularity, and the one-time uplift HBO experienced with Stern, is that this kind of behind-the-scenes social media interaction doesn’t require that social media be incorporated into the programming itself. The talent, by making itself accessible to the public, is simply adding a new dimension to the viewing experience – one that clearly interests many viewers.
The past is the FutureThe powerful relationship that has developed between television and social media is one of the best examples of how channels can interact in a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional and symbiotic fashion, enhancing the experiences in both channels while at the same time creating new experiences not possible with either alone.
Before the advent of the internet and social media, television content was broadcast in one direction, but that merely created the impression that television was not an inherently social channel. In one direction, television programming has always served as a source of millions of conversations amongst individuals. In the other direction, television programming has always reflected what’s on society’s mind, ranging from its worst fears to its best dreams.
Social media is a channel that can be monitored and participated in, and integrated with other channels. Today, combining television and social media changes the nature and scope of the conversations television produces, how television programming itself is developed, and how those who participate in it market themselves. Other industries can evolve in similarly interesting ways by identifying complimentary channels and finding ways to bring them together.
4,000THE NUMBER OF
RELATED TWEETS PER SECOND DURING THE
2011 SUPER BOWL
COMBINING TELEVISION AND SOCIAL MEDIA
CHANGES THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF THE
CONVERSATIONS TELEVISION PRODUCES
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With an ever increasing number of companies competing across multiple channels, tracking your overall brand equity and the
value each channel provides has become increasingly complicated.
Brand equity at company, product and consumer levels has always been a tricky proposition, with brand measurement heavily reliant on how value is defined rather than on absolute ‘cash’ figures, meaning equity is often a more esoteric term for marketers than for accountants.
As if that weren’t enough, moving into multichannel massively complicates things. Where previously marketers may have been faced with measuring the recognition and recall generated by a single TV ad, we’re now often faced with dozens of touchpoints, each returning information at different rates, with different expectations.
Traditional and digital media campaigns have different benchmarks. Broadcast and offline campaigns can return inaccurate data: Q&A groups may provide you with some measurement for a TV campaign, but these can be easily gamed or unintentionally skewed. Suppose one member of your focus group had a bad journey into work this morning... a small incident but one that can heavily influence results. Meanwhile newer platforms simply don’t have enough available data to make accurate projections (or even educated guesses).
In the past brands could track equity by checking stock performance and conducting focus groups. These days, historical data is still useful, but no amount of mapping can anticipate the damage that a rogue tweet could cause. In multichannel, a small action can massively affect the way your brand is perceived across every channel. In the recent past we’ve seen several examples of brands mishandling or misunderstanding new
mediums. Fashion giant Kenneth Cole recently experienced a huge online backlash when they tagged a tweet with the word #Cairo. During the revolution a lot of people were searching for the term, but they weren’t happy when they found a fashion retailer hijacking the term for its marketing purposes. Meanwhile in Kuwait and Oman, restaurant chains Best Burger and Benihana have threatened bloggers with legal action following poor reviews. The term ‘lead balloon’ springs to mind.
Things move fast online, and while messages are easy to tweak and A/B test, once released into the digital wild it’s almost impossible to maintain ownership or remove them – the internet is definitely written in ink. On the other hand, print and TV and radio exposure may be easier to remove entirely, but they can still do lasting damage.
So, how exactly can you manage perception when you have a multichannel presence?
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measuring and managing multichannel value and equityIt is becoming much easier to measure the softer brand metrics. praise be!
IN MULTICHANNEL, A SMALL ACTION CAN
MASSIVELy AFFECT THE WAy yOUR BRAND IS PERCEIVED ACROSS
EVERy CHANNEL.
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solutions Generally speaking, there are two main areas that need to be addressed if you want consistently positive feedback. Neither is necessarily straightforward and both require a committed, long-term approach, but it needn’t be painful if you consider the benefits and plan accordingly before launch.
Some traditional approaches still hold up, but increasing brand value is now very much about tying together your measurement and creating an internal business culture that supports this.
1 Get your measurement togetherCreating an all-inclusive measurement model is
achievable, but it will take time (not to mention a few leaps of faith). First things first: start benchmarking your brand against your competitors on every channel.
In April 2011 Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo announced that Pepsi had “lost the cola wars” against arch rival Coke. Not an easy admission to make, but with Diet Coke alone selling an estimated 35 million more cases than Pepsi last year, the writing was on the wall. This doesn’t mean that Pepsi is a failure by any means. The company itself is hugely profitable and has always been ahead of the curve when it came to marketing in multiple mediums. The problem here is simply one of scale. Pepsi continues to generate sales in excess of $1bn, but admits ‘defeat’ when it comes to leading market share.
Despite its size, even a Fortune 500 like PepsiCo makes its own leap of faith: some people just prefer Pepsi, others Coke. That may seem like a precarious proposition to found such a huge marketing effort on, but Pepsi can take that leap because it also spends millions each quarter on advanced tracking across
print, TV, radio and (of course) digital channels. It knows that it isn’t the biggest in the world, but there are still a number of profitable market niches where it can trounce its rivals, and it understands the brand value of being an alternative.
As digital marketing evolved, we’ve become used to the idea that we can accurately measure what customers do, but in many cases this simply isn’t true.
If a customer arrives on your site, views one item and then leaves the temptation might be to assume that they didn’t like the site. But they might have been quickly checking the price before purchasing it in-store. It’s often impossible to tell (without asking them directly).
Multichannel offers you the chance to start plugging the gaps in your knowledge. By creating an integrated, clearly branded experience and requesting customer feedback across several channels, you’ll develop a much clearer understanding of exactly how they behave.
It’s far more cost effective to ask your Facebook fans for their thoughts than to carry out lengthy surveys on the street.
In addition to this it’s worth pointing out that there is a strong argument for maintaining a presence on ‘weak’ channels – that is, those that offer fairly low returns.
Marketers are currently obsessed with
channel ROI, but again, sometimes it simply isn’t available. Instead of looking for hard numbers, it’s worth thinking about brand-building and PR value.
Take a look at computer giant Dell. Many social media ‘gurus’ have spent the last year busily pointing at Twitter. Dell uses the channel to generate an estimated $7m in sales. Of course, if you weigh that against Dell’s overall revenue it’s barely a drop in the ocean.
But in terms of brand resonance and perception, the Dell Outlet Twitter feed is massively valuable. It shows potential customers that Dell is committed to improving service and products according to customer feedback over the long term. In terms of equity this is huge.
Brands should always be willing to measure themselves through the eyes of their users, rather than in strictly financial terms.
There’s also the point of brand recognition, which we can sum up nicely as the ‘microsite effect’. Since Facebook became de rigueur, microsites have decreased in popularity, but they’ve still left some interesting figures in their wake. According to a 2009 study by Dynamic Logic, microsites provided on average a 7.8% increase in both brand awareness and positive brand perception:
online Ad Effectiveness Performance
(Source: Dynamic Logic)
Directly measurable
online conversion
offline conversion
THE UN
KNO
WN
Aided BrandAwareness
Microsite Norms
Overall MarketNorms(Display/Video)
% o
f P
eopl
e Im
pact
ed (
Del
ta)
PurchaseIntent
BrandFavorability
MessageAssociation
Online AdAwareness
+4.1
+2.1
+11.2
+4.3
+7.8
+2.3
+3.4
+1.3
+3.1
+1.1Pepsi continues to generate sales in excess of $1bn, but admits ‘defeat’ when it comes to leading market share.
IT’S FAR MORE COST EFFECTIVE TO ASK
yOUR FACEBOOK FANS FOR THEIR THOUGHTS THAN TO CARRy OUT
LENGTHy SURVEyS ON THE STREET.
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And while they are still young channels, there is data to show that sites like Twitter and particularly Facebook have similar effects.
This improvement is driven by something TV creatives have known for a long time: create an emotional response and you’ll foster recognition.
By actively seeking out opinions from customers you’re engaging them on a personal level, asking for their emotional input into your brand ‘story’. That’s a statement that smacks of boardroom ‘marketing speak’, but in this case the data backs it up. People like being asked for their input, and they love feeling that they have helped shape the direction a brand is taking. It’s a response that’s priceless, because it really does encourage long term loyalty, which in turn reduces your vulnerability to competition.
Holistic measurement is complicated and requires you to feed data from multiple sources, but its value cannot be underestimated.
2Sit comfortably‘Internal Congruence’. So what on Earth does that mean? In simple terms, we’re talking
about internal branding across your entire organisation. Every department should be familiar with your brand message and persona. And we really do mean every department. Whether you’re a boardroom executive or a part-time shop assistant, you should be putting out the right message to customers. Congruence is massively important, and really needs to be driven from the top if you want it to work. Senior management should be collaborating closely with your creative department to forge a cohesive brand personality, an accurate representation of your internal culture, values and goals. While many larger groups will be dealing with a number of separately branded products, the overarching voice should remain consistant on every channel. Is your brand caring? Are you dynamic and energetic? A ‘can’t get enough of that wonderful Duff’ type? Make it clear to your employees what they can and can’t say. Common sense will help, but it shouldn’t be relied on exclusively.
As well as helping you hit the more nebulous goal of ‘having the correct tone’,
In addition to increasing loyalty, you’ll also avoid becoming top-heavy, a particular problem for companies with complex operational structures that cannot expand fast enough to meet the demands of senior staff. Overstretched companies can’t meet customer demand effectively. By connecting the dots internally you’ll avoid this and generate positive feedback from customers.
For marketers this also means moving on from the idea of finite campaigns, instead focusing on ongoing, evolving brand stories. Brands no longer exist as static, ‘built’ entities, but as evolving, engaging stories that customers are emotionally and creatively involved with. For marketers this means moving on from the idea of finite campaigns, and putting more focus on the ongoing voice, adapting their efforts to move beyond the traditional Big Idea advertising, and instead becoming a collaborative effort that anyone can get involved with.
Multichannel marketing requires a more social, flexible and agile business model to achieve maximum efficiency. These changes are complicated, but overall they represent a more stable working structure for multichannel companies which will increase brand recognition and overall equity and provide far more accurate measurement across your entire network.
congruence can also help with value measurement. By drawing a connecting line from management to team leaders, on to employees and out into the information cloud of customer behaviour, you’ll be able to view your strategy not as a hierarchy, but as a connection, where input from all levels comes together.
Now think of Google. The company is famous for being social and inclusive. Anyone at Google can have an idea, and frequently does. The fact that they’re working in the store room doesn’t stop that idea from being used. A good idea can come from anywhere, so you need to be prepared to listen to everyone.
If you’re a fan of graphs, you can even plot this. Draw an axis and mark your resources, focus, internal capabilities and ‘motivation’. This should let you align your strategy towards higher customer engagement, increasing overall brand value as you generate greater loyalty in your customer base (see Figure 1).
For many companies, this sort of organisational shift may be difficult, but it’s far from impossible and there are a number of benefits. Businesses can’t make the mistake of placing customers at the bottom of a pyramid. Instead of orders trickling down from a faceless boardroom, strategy is defined by the needs and desires of everyone involved at every level.
Strategic Alignment • Capabilities
Implementation Resources • Motivation
We love you!You’re doing it all wrong
…meh…High customer engagement
and value
Strategic Alignment • Capabilities
CEO
Leaders / Managers
Employees
Customer Behaviours
Implementation Resources • Motivation
A GOOD IDEA CAN COME FROM ANyWHERE, SO
yOU NEED TO BE PREPARED TO LISTEN
TO EVERyONE.
Figure 1
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Craig sullivan Q&aOne of our favourite practitioners explains how testing is the key to multichannel ROI
Craig Sullivan is Group ebusiness Customer Experience Manager at belron, a company which includes Autoglass among its brands.
Craig spoke at the fi rst JuMp event last year, on the subject of using online data to optimise offl ine marketing.
Some online people can be too much like Pontius Pilate, dealing with what happens online in their area of responsibility, then washing their hands and not caring what happens to customers after that.
You have to have an eye on what customers are doing before and after they visit the website. The SEO copy they are seeing, the TV and print advertising they read, all of this is important.
After all, you can build the world’s greatest online experience, but if the call centre or store staff screw it up by giving the customer poor service, what’s the point?
Q How have you used online data to improve offl ine marketing?
A We recently launched our fi rst TV ad starring Izzie, a female technician.
Last year, we had Gavin on the ads, and he has a large Facebook following, and
Q Tell me about your JuMp presentation.
A Online is still too often thought of as a separate, hermetically sealed
bubble, set apart from the rest of the business. This is something that is really dumb, and it makes me angry.
Online is measurable, you can be experimental, you can test diff erent things and fi nd out a lot that you couldn’t possibly fi nd out elsewhere.
The important thing to realise is that it isn’t just a channel that operates alone, the journey for the customer doesn’t end when they press the submit button on the website.
There are three parts of the triangle:
1. Having the technical capability to provide the experience for users.
2. Having the business capability.
3. The user’s experience of all of this.
has been popular with customers. However, using multivariate testing
(MVT) I was keen to test what works diff erently on the site when our TV ads are on, and when they’re off air.
We tested images of several diff erent people on the website, including Gavin from the TV ad, and I included Izzie to see what eff ect this would have.
When we had the same person on the site as on the TV ad, this worked well, but we had a huge uplift when the female technician was shown on the site at the same time as TV ads were showing.
The reason we found was that these TV adverts were often shown in daytime TV slots. It wasn’t that this audience was predominantly female, but we found that the people who were engaged enough to act on the ad and visit the site were female.
So this told us that we didn’t always have to have the same person on the
“EVERyONE HAS TOO MUCH DATA AND NOT ENOUGH INSIGHT, AND WHAT IS IMPORTANT IS
TO USE THE DATA TO PRODUCE ACTIONABLE
INSIGHTS.”
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website and the TV ad, the reaction may be different depending on the kind of person that heads to the site.
Using Izzie led to a 10% increase in conversions, so the obvious question was: why not use Izzie in the TV ads?
This is one way in which we have used online data offline, but this data can also feed into other areas.
For example, we can take some of the people scheduled to appear in TV ads and test them on the website first for strong reactions from users (positive or negative). In this way online testing is helping offline advertising.
Online testing drives insight, and can drive changes both on and offline.
Q How much data do you have to ‘play with’?
A We’re testing over a million different recipes each month, buttons, copy,
imagery of vans, and more, building up a library of what works, the audience it works on, and once we have a well baked recipe, we can use it again, confident that it has been proven to work.
For example, I know that certain images work best when users have typed in the term ‘windscreen repair’ on a search engine before arriving at the site, so that user sees a carefully tested version of the landing page that has been proven to work.
Q Is it a challenge to manage such a variety of data and turn in into
actionable insights?
A Everyone has too much data and not enough insight, and what is
important is to use the data to produce actionable insights.
A lot of people, I call them report monkeys, are just churning out reports, but you need to get into the mindset of the customer to have a better understanding of the data and how it can be used to improve the business.
This is where looking across channels
is so valuable: you have to do an analysis at local level to get an understanding of what works and where.
Some people in my position are drowning in a sea of data. For us it’s about producing models that people can use to tune their local offering. There is a great deal that we can standardise though which helps.
Q Can you measure customers across channels?
A We can use dynamic phone numbers, so we can tell which point the
customer was at in the purchase funnel before they made a call.
What people also don’t do is look at the effect that online changes have offline. So, 5% uplift on conversions is great for the online side of the business, but the change that causes it may also have resulted in dropped call volumes.
You have to measure the flow of data to other channels, looking at where you can make changes that are good for the business as a whole.
One classic multichannel example is when one of our businesses came to us as they were worried that a campaign they were running would produce an
uplift in customer calls that they wouldn’t be able to handle.
So, we changed the function on the website so they contact number wasn’t shown, and instead produced an email contact option.
This bought time for the call centre to clear the backlog, and is one example of how the online channel can support the rest of the business.
Q Once you want to act on what you have learned from testing data, are
there challenges in getting the rest of business to learn the lessons and take action?
A I’m lucky that my company is willing to learn from online data and use it
to improve other areas of the business, and this is what a good multichannel business should do.
My job online takes me out into other areas of the business where other online people would not normally venture, and this is because you need to be customer focused and see the customer journey beyond the website.
You have to care about what happens beyond your own area of the business.
“ online is measurable, you can be experimental; you can test different things and find out a lot that you couldn’t possibly find out elsewhere.”
“WHEN WE HAD THE SAME PERSON ON THE SITE AS ON THE TV AD,
THIS WORKED WELL, BUT WE HAD A HUGE UPLIFT WHEN THE
FEMALE TECHNICIAN WAS SHOWN ON THE SITE AT THE SAME
TIME AS TV ADS WERE SHOWING.”
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Who’s who in location-based marketing?A look at some of the established and up and coming players in the market…
blippyBlippy is a social network which allows consumers to share their purchases publicly, so any online and offline products they buy are seen by their friends.
The service means that users can begin to share purchases immediately at physical locations, rather than this being confi ned to an online activity that takes place at a later time.
Facebook placesLaunched in August 2010, Facebook Places allows users to check in via mobile devices and share this information with their connections as an update.
Facebook also announced the launch of ‘Deals’, which allows users to check in to commercial properties in the physical world, such as bars, restaurants or shops and be directly rewarded with digital discounts or coupons.
FoursquareFoursquare is a location-based social network website driven by mobile access. It allows users to connect with friends and share their location by checking in then rewards them with ‘badges’.
Marketers have taken advantage of this by building campaigns around user engagement, where check-ins are encouraged and rewarded. This has been widely seen among retailers and restaurants, as it encourages footfall into physical stores.
GoogleRecent developments have allowed marketers to engage themselves in Google’s map off erings, through Google Places, which lets them display offl ine business information online. This can include store opening times, photos, videos and discount vouchers.
Universal search has been the notable driving force behind this, with users
experiencing map results, business listings and products relevant to them, based on a combination of their initial search query and their browsing location.
GowallaSimilar to Foursquare, Gowalla is a location-based social network, which allows users to check in to physical locations using mobile devices.
In return, they collect stamps and items, which can then be redeemed for rewards such as cinema tickets or discount vouchers.
JiWireJiWire is an advertising network which has strategic partnerships with companies off ering wireless, such as Starbucks, BT, various ISPs, hotels and airports.
Its platform enables advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person’s physical location, while taking the venue type and brand into account.
LooptThis service allows users to see where their friends are located and what they are doing, through maps on their mobile phones. It also allows users to explore their location by connecting them with integrated content from a number of third-party sources, including Bing and Citysearch.
MyTownMyTown is a location-based social game. It has more than 3m players worldwide and combines social gaming with physical locations, by having users rewarded virtually for check-ins.
As of August last year it was being used heavily, averaging more than 60m check-ins per month. A global release is on the way.
RippllRippll is a mobile marketing platform that has created various solutions in apps and location-based advertising that help brands target consumers to increase engagement and drive direct footfall on the high street.
TwitterTwitter Places, launched recently, and shows the location of users as part of an opt-in process. If a user chooses this option, then tweets are attached to publicly shared information about their exact location.
Twitter Places also integrates with Foursquare and Gowalla, meaning that any places shared can have the functionality of allowing users to see other tweets and check-ins from these platforms.
vouchercloudVouchercloud allows users to receive discounts and off ers through a mobile app, based upon where they are. It uses the phone’s GPS system to show users off ers and discounts in businesses close to their location, from restaurants and shopping to hotels and bars.
yelpYelp is predominately a local search platform, driven by social elements, with in excess of 39m unique visitors per month towards the end of 2010.
Information can be accessed by web or mobile browsers. It can also be accessed through Yelp’s mobile app.
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according to stats from the Mobile Marketing Association, 26% of mobile users regularly use a map, navigation tool or similar service
that automatically determines their current location
This location-based behaviour allows brands to adapt their marketing messages based on where consumers are geographically when they see them, and also what that location may tell you about their habits.
There are a number of location-based strategies, which can be split into ‘push’ and ‘pull’ marketing.
Push methods would be using Bluetooth or SMS alerts when consumers are near to a store or venue, though there is the downside that customers may find these tactics invasive, and would therefore be less receptive to marketing messages.
A pull strategy is a better approach, and this means using consumers’ locations and search habits to serve up information and offers that can entice them into local outlets.
Here are ten ways businesses can appeal to local consumers…
1 Mobile appsMobile apps are an obvious way to appeal to shoppers based on
their location, as they provide the ability to detect location automatically.
Also, users of smartphone apps may be the most receptive to location-based marketing. MMA stats reveal that 63% of iPhone owners use location services at least once a week.
Retailers can use apps to direct customers to their nearest store, provide promotions or allow them to check local stock and reserve items for pick up, as with the Argos app.
Apps could also be used by cinemas, theatres, and other venues to target consumers in the local area and provide them with last minute offers on tickets.
With so many apps out there, it can be a challenge to get yours onto a consumer’s smartphone, so you need to be innovative and offer compelling reasons for people to download and use your apps. Be creative. Be useful.
2 Mobile searchMobile search is currently growing at a much faster rate than desktop
search, as more people buy smartphones. In 2010, the use of mobile search in
the UK grew by 247%, and though it is still relatively small, at around 3% of total search, this is still a significant (and growing) audience for marketers to target.
Many mobile searches are likely to revolve around local specific phrases, marketers need to incorporate this into keyword research and SEO strategies.
This provides opportunities for businesses large and small, and can allow small businesses with a smart local search strategy to compete with larger competitors.
3 Mobile AdWordsBusinesses can pick a location and use Google’s Mobile AdWords
to target ads within a specified radius, and thus target potential customers in the local area.
Recent extensions to the service include click-to-call options, so that users can phone directly rather than heading for a website, especially if it hasn’t been optimised for mobiles.
The ads can also be expanded to show maps and directions to help drive customers into local stores and other services.
4 FoursquareFoursquare, as well as similar services such as Gowalla, are
location-based social networks driven by mobile access, especially apps.
It allows users to connect with friends and share their location by checking in then rewards them with ‘badges’.
This provides opportunities for marketers to build campaigns around user engagement, where check-ins to specially created locations are encouraged and rewarded.
Ten ways brands can use location-based marketingThe growth of the smartphone provides a number of opportunities for brands to engage with consumers based on their current location...
63% OF IPHONE OWNERS
USE LOCATION SERVICES AT LEAST
ONCE A WEEK
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It allows retailers and restaurants to drive footfall into their physical locations with the use of vouchers and special off ers.
For example, last year, Starbucks rolled out an off er across the US, through Foursquare. Becoming a ‘mayor’ of an individual shop enabled the user to redeem a $1-off coupon for coff ee.
5 Facebook DealsLaunched in the UK in January this year, Facebook Deals allows
users to check in to physical locations and receive rewards.
For example, Westfield Valley shopping mall in Silicon Valley off ered a $200 discount on jewellery if Facebook users checked in via ‘Places’.
When they did this, they received a unique code that could be presented in-store to redeem the discount. In an earlier Places promotion, the mall had also off ered a 15% discount on a fashion brand and the chance to win concert tickets.
Like Foursquare, it offers an opportunity for local businesses to drive footfall into local outlets, though since more people have Facebook accounts, it potentially off ers greater reach.
6 Directory apps and mobile sitesApps like Yelp, Qype Radar and
Yell off er directory information and user reviews on a variety of local businesses, and provide a useful, location-based resource for users.
For example, by using Yelp, you can fi nd a list of local restaurants, reviews from people who have eaten there, as well as contact details and directions.
Businesses should ensure that they are listed on apps and sites like this, and encourage customers to leave reviews. If they are good (and lucky) enough to have a few positive reviews, this is a great way to attract more trade.
Also, listings and reviews from site like Yelp and Qype will frequently turn up in search results, so this can also benefi t a brand’s local SEO strategy.
7 Google placesSince most smartphones come with Google Maps pre-installed,
then it’s fair to assume that this is the most widely used map tool for mobile users.
As well as fi nding directions, Google Maps also allows users to search for local services, while results from Maps while often appear in search results pages.
A free listing on Google Places means businesses can be seen on Google Maps, and within local search results, alongside information on opening hours, images, contact details and more.
A Google Places listing should be a staple part of any company’s online marketing presence.
8 Location based wi-fi adsThere are millions of wi-fi hotspots around the UK, in town centres,
cafes, restaurants and more. All of these locations offer an
opportunity to reach serve ads to mobile, tablet or laptop users based as they access the internet.
Ad networks such as JiWire allow advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person’s physical location, while taking the venue type and brand into account.
So, for example a customer using wi-fi in a shopping centre can be served up
ads by retailers about their new clothing range, or off ering a coupon or discount to lure them in store.
9 voucher appsVouchercloud has Android and iPhone apps which help users to
access discounts and off ers, based upon where they are. The app has been downloaded 1.3m times since it launched in January 2010.
The apps use the phone’s GPS system to show users off ers for businesses close to their location, depending on what they are looking for (e.g. restaurants, shopping, hotels and bars).
By seeking a listing on apps like this, retailers and local businesses can gain an edge over competitors, and attract more passing custom.
10 Create hyperlocal content Whether on your own blog or website, or on Facebook,
Twitter and other social media profi les, hyperlocal content can help you to appeal to consumers in their local areas.
The more local the content, the more relevant it is for people, while it can also benefi t your local search strategy, as this content will be indexed by the search engines.
For example, each branch of Majestic Wines has information about its staff , upcoming events and news on the main website, as well as individual Twitter accounts which local customers can follow.
… location-based marketing allows brands to adapt their marketing messages based on where consumers are geographically
1.3m THE NUMBER OF
TIMES THE VOUCHERCLOUD APP HAS BEEN
DOWNLOADED SINCE IT LAUNCHED IN JANUARy 2010
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The use of mobile phones for shopping has increased dramatically over the past few years, and even if consumers aren’t actually making a purchase with their
mobiles, they are often using them to research products and prices while shopping.
According to a recent Toluna / Econsultancy survey of UK consumers, 13% of respondents had made a purchase on their mobiles, and 19% had used them to compare prices and look at product reviews while out shopping.
A recent Motorola survey in the US found that customers have good reason to compare prices on their mobiles. 43% of respondents said the mobile improved their offline shopping experience, while 87% of retailers said that customers would be able to find a better deal by using their phones.
This may be a relatively small proportion of consumers, but it is growing, and retailers should also consider that, given the costs of smartphones, this is likely to be a group with more disposable income.
The problem for retailers is that, whatever the quality of service in store and the range of products on offer, shoppers always have the option of checking prices on their mobile phones and heading elsewhere to make the purchase.
There are a number of mobile apps and websites that enable in store shoppers to check and compare product prices, but Amazon’s mobile products represent possibly the biggest single threat to offline retailers.
Using the barcode scanner on the Amazon app, or entering a search term, customers can easily check the products they are looking at in a store on Amazon’s site.
Since so many people have accounts with the retailer and therefore have their
How can retailers appeal to mobile users in store?Mobile price comparison habits represent a potential threat to high street retailers. We look at ways in which they can adapt to mobile use in stores...
13% OF RESPONDENTS HAD MADE A PURCHASE ON
THEIR MOBILES*
* Toluna/Econsultancy UK survey ** Motorola US survey
19% HAD USED MOBILES TO COMPARE PRICES AND
LOOK AT PRODUCT REVIEWS WHILE OUT
SHOPPING*
43% SAID THE MOBILE IMPROVED THEIR
OFFLINE SHOPPING ExPERIENCE**
87% OF RETAILERS SAID THAT CUSTOMERS
WOULD BE ABLE TO FIND A BETTER DEAL
By USING THEIR PHONES**
jump magaz INE 37
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payment details saved, added to the fact that Amazon is very competitive on price, a sale can easily be lost to the online retail giant.
As well as this online competition, customers using price comparison apps could also find that a competitor across the street has the same product at a slightly lower price.
As more shoppers use this kind of technology, offline and multichannel retailers face increasing competition from various angles.
What weapons do offline retailers have to respond to mobile comparison habits? Or, in other words, how can they stop them using the Amazon mobile app?
price match promisesIf customers see a better deal elsewhere for a particular product, then retailers could promise to match the price offered by a competitor. This may be enough to keep the customer in store, and if you can sell them a few accessories and other products at the same time, the discount offered may have been worth it.
When the number of people using mobile for price comparison is relatively low, this discounting tactic may be worth it, but it isn’t a sustainable model in the long term.
The ‘want it now’ mentality Sure, an online competitor may have the TV that a customer wants for £40 less, but can they deliver it today, in time for the big match?
Same day delivery services such as those provided by Amazon and Shutl (for retailers like Argos) mean that the answer to this question is sometimes yes, but at the moment these delivery options are only available in the London area.
At the moment, this want it now mentality gives the offline retailer an advantage over online competitors.
voucher codesFor retailers that offer voucher codes online, allowing these codes to be redeemed in-store by mobile users is one-way to appeal to this group of shoppers.
Apps such as Voucher Cloud allow mobile users to find stores offering discounts in their current location, and therefore offer a method of tempting more customers into stores.
In addition, many consumers will
simply type ‘brand name + voucher code’ into Google on their mobiles.
Embrace mobileThere are plenty of compelling reasons for retailers to launch mobile sites and apps, and appealing to offline shoppers is certainly one.
If customers are going to use mobile for product and price research, then why not give them the option of doing this on your site or app?
Debenhams recently launched iPhone and Android apps which include a barcode scanner. Not only does this help the retailer to pick up more mobile sales – it had reached the £1m mark after just five months – but the scanner also makes it easy for customers to compare prices.
Thanks to the barcode scanner, when users of the Debenhams app are in rival stores, they can easily check and compare prices, which effectively widens the retailers’ reach.
Get your store listed on mobile comparison appsThere are a number of price comparison apps and mobile sites, such as Sccope and PriceRunner.
For retailers, these apps offer the opportunity to make up for lost in store sales by picking up more via mobile.
This also gives retailers a chance to pick up sales from mobile users shopping in competitors’ stores.
Recreate some of the online experience in storeOne of the main reasons for customers to use their mobiles is to find reviews of products they have seen in store.
If I’m in an electrical store wondering which digital camera to buy, online reviews provide a great resource to help me make a decision. The problem for the retailer is, though I may only have gone online to look for some user reviews, I may also find the same camera at a lower price.
I like the recommendations that can often be found in bookshops and wine merchants, which have been written by staff. They can help customers decide what to buy, and also have a personal touch that can appear more trustworthy.
In the same vein, retailers could take the product reviews that have been left online by customers (or those from reviews providers) and make use of them
in stores. If shoppers can see genuine reviews
of products that have been left by other customers, then they don’t have to head for Amazon to find them.
QR codesQR codes can be scanned by mobile users, provided they have the necessary code reader app installed.
Awareness of QR codes may not be widespread just yet, but they do offer retailers a ways to appeal to smartphone users in store.
Debenhams used QR codes in its windows to entice mobile users into the store with the offer of a free coffee, where hopefully they would decide to buy something, but there are other potential uses.
For example, QR codes could be used at point of sale to send mobile users to a landing page where they can find out more product information and read reviews, or they could be used to offer discounts and special offers.
use mobile to enhance the in store experienceFrench supermarket chain Casino provides a great example of how retailers can link mobile with the in store experience.
Its mCasino iPhone app allows users to access the shopping list they have prepared online and helps them to plan their route around the supermarket, making their weekly shop that little easier.
The app will alert customers of items they need to get from their list as they approach the related aisle in the store, and the same technology can be used to target customers with product suggestions and special offers.
APPS SUCH AS VOUCHER CLOUD ALLOW MOBILE USERS TO FIND
STORES OFFERING DISCOUNTS IN THEIR CURRENT LOCATION,
AND THEREFORE OFFER A METHOD OF
TEMPTING MORE CUSTOMERS INTO
STORES.
THE NEXT BIG JUMP IS COMING
www.cometojump.com
Offline and online marketing come together at JUMP 2011
12 October 2011, Old Billingsgate, London
Joined-up marketing can go places that offline or online could never go on their own.
That’s what JUMP is all about. It’s Econsultancy’s one-day,content-packed conference for experienced, progressive, results-obsessed marketers from both sides of the digital divide.
The debut JUMP event clearly hit the trend. Offline and online marketers jumped at the chance to share ideas, compare notes and learn from the best. So much so that we had to turn people away at the door. We really hate doing that, so this year, we’ve taken up the entire Old Billingsgate venue for more sessions, more hands-on demos and more networking.
THE IDEATo unite online and offline marketers to learn new tricks, hear about the best integrated campaigns and start collaborating more effectively.
THE FORMATOne day, four content streams, packed lunch (yes, with fancy crisps), a demo floor and plenty of space for yakking with your peers, swapping business cards and discovering the secrets of successful multi-channel marketing.
THE STREAMSLeadThe big picture for CMOs: culture, skills, vision, strategy…AnalyseMaths, science, metrics and the new analytics of convergence
OptimiseA fresh look at your multi-channel marketing mix
EngageThe customer experience across all touchpoints
PLUS WHITEPAPERS LIVEFast, case-driven vendor talks (with minimal sales slideware).
THE AUDIENCEIf you’re reading this: you. And any other senior marketer looking to transcend the boundaries between digital and meatspace. From retail, travel, FMCG, B2B, financial services, media, government… any market looking for the next big leap.
THE BENEFITS• Discover the latest strategies
in integrated marketing.
• Meet the people behind the most innovative work.
• Look behind the scenes at successful joined-up campaigns.
• Learn how to boost response, conversions and revenues.
• Be inspired to put it all into action back at the office.
THE MOVIETo bring the JUMP idea to life, we asked two of our parkour friends (you mean you don’t have parkour friends?) to leap around London as a demonstration of the JUMP premise: that we can do things together we could never do on our own. Check it out here:
econsultancy.com/hello/jumpmovie
Don’t’ just read about it, book it.Jump 2011 will sell out again this year.Don’t say we didn’t warn you.Book your place today on www.cometojump.com Or call 0207 269 1450
Diamond SponsorsLead Event Partner Recruitment Partner
Powered by
THE NEXT BIG JUMP IS COMING
www.cometojump.com
Offline and online marketing come together at JUMP 2011
12 October 2011, Old Billingsgate, London
Joined-up marketing can go places that offline or online could never go on their own.
That’s what JUMP is all about. It’s Econsultancy’s one-day,content-packed conference for experienced, progressive, results-obsessed marketers from both sides of the digital divide.
The debut JUMP event clearly hit the trend. Offline and online marketers jumped at the chance to share ideas, compare notes and learn from the best. So much so that we had to turn people away at the door. We really hate doing that, so this year, we’ve taken up the entire Old Billingsgate venue for more sessions, more hands-on demos and more networking.
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Econsultancy’s joined-up marketing campaign for jump 2010A case study from Clare Laurie, Econsultancy’s Head of Marketing
JuMp magazineEverything we do at Econsultancy begins with great content, so the magazine was an obvious starting point for us. We needed a hub of original, relevant content aimed squarely at multichannel marketers.
We also think it’s really important to try things for ourselves – no harm in a little experimentation! – and as a primarily digital publisher it made sense for us to venture into print, and see how we could make it work.
Luckily, a few of the Econsultancy team had offline experience, and were able to help us engage with some great magazine designers and printers, meaning we could produce something that looked great and stood out from the crowd. We’re a great believer in content marketing (just do a search on our blog) so we wanted to produce something that would be a physical embodiment of an event that was yet to launch. A tangible object that told the recipient exactly what JUMP – the concept and the event – was about, without being purely promotional. In fact, the first issue contained just two pages covering the event itself.
We also decided to experiment with new marketing techniques within the magazine, which is why we decided to feature Stickybits and QR codes on the cover. While this was an interesting experiment, it was very early days for code use, so we didn’t see many people using these, but it was all part of the experimentation and with QR codes becoming more recognisable and commonplace we’ll be featuring them again as a way of integrating the wider web experience into our offline media.
Direct MailReally, no truly integrated campaign would be complete without good old DM. The key to getting this right is the targeting, and we spent days honing our lists so we were sending the right messages to the right segments.
One of the first pieces went out with the JUMP Magazine. And like the magazine, we wanted it to have desk impact so it didn’t get lost amongst the piles of paper on the desk. We also wanted to make sure it captured the Econsultancy brand, as not every recipient has an existing relationship with us, so this was our chance to make a lasting first impression.
Rather than a simple mail out, we decided to make something a little bit special, that would stand out in the piles of letters stacked in your inbox – the JUMP box:
Packed full of shaped promo material, stickers and even some branded salt and pepper shakers, the box created a mini sensation on Twitter, a viral element that meant invitations also went to people who were initially beyond our reach.
This wasn’t the only piece to go out. There were more standard event brochures that went to a wider audience, and of course registered delegates received information about attendance. This included a second JUMP Magazine in the lead-up to the event, which had people contacting us asking how to subscribe to it.
videoOf course, the other important thing about DM is that it really doesn’t work in isolation. We were driving online registrations, so we needed a way to attract people who had
Here at Econsultancy we like to practice what we preach, so when the idea for JUMP came about back in 2009 we knew we’d need to come up with a fully integrated multichannel campaign to support it. Over the course of a year we planned and produced campaign elements covering print, video, direct mail, social and many more, all designed to create a holistic, integrated experience that would clearly convey exactly what JUMP is all about. Along the way we learned some important lessons and have been duly tweaking things to make sure this year’s event even better, but we believe that marketing is a continually evolving, learning experience.
With this in mind, we decided to review our own marketing for JUMP 2010. Here we’ll be taking you through the various elements of the campaign in order to show you exactly what worked and why.
PACKED FULL OF SHAPED PROMO MATERIAL, STICKERS AND EVEN SOME BRANDED SALT AND PEPPER SHAKERS, THE JUMP BOx CREATED A MINI SENSATION ON TWITTER, A VIRAL ELEMENT THAT MEANT INVITATIONS ALSO WENT TO PEOPLE WHO WERE INITIALLy BEyOND OUR REACH.
jump magaz INE 41
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it’s a preferred communication channel may even be the first way someone hears about what you’re doing. Email was integrated into every phase of the campaign and used to support every channel. But frequency needs to be appropriate. We used careful scheduling and segmenting to cap email numbers, and made sure we asked ourselves a simple question in each case: ‘Is this going to be useful/interesting/enlightening/welcomed by the recipient?’
promotional CodesVoucher codes, coupons, promo codes. Whatever their name, these need careful handling. Yes, they can bring in short-term sales, but there’s also the danger of longer-term damage to your brand. To a large extent this depends on what you’re marketing and whether codes are part of your wider pricing strategy.
For JUMP, we had three levels in place up front, and made sure there were clear rules as to how they could be applied, making it much easier to ensure they were used in a way that was consistent with our overall marketing approach.
Perhaps their biggest advantage is that they can make people act promptly – put a short deadline in place and you’ll get people speeding up their decision making and taking action.
partner marketingNext we head back in the heartland of events marketing and take a look at our partners. In different industries, this might be affiliates, media partners or commercial partners. However, for JUMP we felt that we really wanted this to be an event that had strong industry backing.
The reason we launched the event was because we recognised the increasing integration of online and offline channels. So we wanted the event to reflect this and worked with a range of industry bodies from across the marketing spectrum to demonstrate the unified approach we have. We worked on partnership arrangements that enabled them to get equal benefit from being involved with JUMP and are grateful for the support they gave us in return, both through awareness of the idea of ‘joined-up marketing’ as well as inviting their own members to the event. We’re looking forward to working with a range of partners from many industries again this year.
Website and Landing pagesIt goes without saying that JUMP needed its own branded web presence, but although JUMP is an Econsultancy event we wanted people to realise that it went beyond our core digital territory which meant setting up a separate URL at cometojump.com. By hosting separately we were really able to focus exclusively on the event and multichannel marketing, rather than on Econsultancy.
We also focused the site content on the event itself, covering who was involved, what was on the agenda and of course how to register. This gave JUMP a strong individual brand presence, rather than being overshadowed by Econsultancy’s ‘big red dot’. Of course, the principle of solid content still applied, so we drove the site’s news section using relevant content from the Econsultancy blog, which also really helped with the natural search rankings for the JUMP website.
already browsed the box’s contents. Time for a targeted video:
Playing on the online/offline theme of JUMP, we made two versions of the video. Firstly, one for people who thought they were more ‘offline’ and another for people who described themselves as primarily online marketers, with content and message tailored appropriately. As the picture shows, we also found a way to include our condiment-containing friends from the JUMP box.
paid searchWe’ve already mentioned targeted lists, and this was very closely tied to the JUMP box VIP campaign. We ran paid search campaigns around the names of every person who received the box, adding a very personal touch. Of course, not everyone spends time googling themselves on a regular basis, so an email prompt was also sent to pique their curiosity. Those who took the bait were greeted with our campaign video, displayed on a personalised landing page. And speaking of email...
EmailWhere would we be without email? Yes, we all get too many, but for driving response, a well-targeted, well-written email can hardly be beaten, especially in B2B. It can often act as that little reminder to respond to something the recipient has been meaning to do, or if
Over the course of a year we planned and produced campaign elements covering print, video, direct mail, social and many more, all designed to create a holistic, integrated experience…
FOR DRIVING RESPONSE, A
WELL-TARGETED, WELL-WRITTEN
EMAIL CAN HARDLy BE BEATEN,
ESPECIALLy IN B2B.
Supported by
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What’s next?The JUMP event proved almost too successful
for its own good, with tickets selling out and a very hectic start to the day itself! But we attracted exactly the
right people to the event so everyone was in great company, and we were delighted with the overall feedback we received. The JUMP
marketing campaign has been shortlisted for an AOP Award in the Cross-Media Project category.
Having reviewed what worked and what can be improved for 2011, we’re all set to do something even better (though probably not bigger!) again this year.
Now we’re focusing on creating an engaging campaign for this year’s event, trying out some new things, which we hope will capture people’s imagination and attention, as well as encouraging you to join us for a day at JUMP that will be both enlightening and inspiring for all marketers interested in making online and offl ine channels work together.
We’re always keen to know what you think too, so contact us @cometojump or by email [email protected] or give us
a ring on 020 7269 1450 (Natalie’s your woman).
To view this year’s agenda and to register visit
http://cometojump.com.
In addition, we used a number of landing pages to provide relevant follow-ups to other marketing activity – email, video and paid search that targeted particular segments or promotional off ers. Really, these are an invaluable part of any campaign, allowing you to use short teasers or offl ine promotions as an initial communication, with the full detail or next phase of the communication provided separately.
Online pR and Social MediaSending out press releases is a given – it simply has to be done. We don’t expect them all to get front page coverage on the national press, but it’s defi nitely ‘good housekeeping’ to ensure that key bits of news about the event are in the public domain.
Go beyond this however, and you really get to the interesting and engaging stuff . We really wanted to get people enthused about the subject, so there was of course a Twitter account, @cometojump, the blog on our site, and plenty of activity taking place in LinkedIn groups and elsewhere.
One of the most fun and engaging parts of the PR side of things was the JUMP Challenge (#JUMPchallenge) where we asked bloggers to write about how to achieve excellence in joined-up marketing, or why it’s worth trying. Perhaps they were incentivised by the lure of winning a JUMP hamper (which included everything from an iPad to shortbread biscuits!), but we got an excellent number of responses with varied reasons which stimulated debate on our blog and beyond. The challenge also gave us a good insight into what was going on in this fi eld, provided additional content and got people talking.
Do we invest in multichannel or get the basics right?
OpINION
44 jump magaz INE
Some thoughts about today’s multichannel service landscape from Guy Stephens
The order and structure that has been built within the service ecosystem of today has become its very undoing. Customers rail against control and a lack of transparency, not because these are fundamentally wrong, but simply because we have all experienced something a little bit better. We know ‘better’ exists.
The democratisation of the tools of self-expression has made us powerful. We have become participants, where once we were bystanders. We tread a fine line, balancing between the weight of our industrialised heritage while looking ahead at the possibility that the future might bring.
We have at our disposal, literally at the end of our fingertips, access to increasingly powerful and agile technology that forces a blurring of the line between online and offline, London and New York, text or Twitter, one and a thousand…
This is a world that is far more accessible, immediate, convenient, self-regulating and determining. The Cluetrain Manifesto written in 1999 points to this and its 95 theses are prescient of a time that had yet to come:“ A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.” (The Cluetrain Manifesto)
Companies that still seek solace and refuge in the safety of their walled gardens are seeing it being gradually eroded away Tweet by Tweet. It is time for them to ‘get down off that camel!’ (Thesis 73).
The ubiquitous smartphone empowers us to participate in a state of ‘always on’, which only serves to further undermine and challenge accepted norms.
The smartphone connects us not only to each other but to the physical environment around us. It allows us to participate in, share and celebrate the mundane minutiae of each other’s lives. In a social media survey conducted by the IAB UK (December 2010), 28% of people have uploaded a picture of a meal they were eating to a social site, this increased to 47% for 18 – 34 year olds.
Like the Aboriginal songlines that criss-cross Australia, our online world – our other half – is likewise increasingly criss-crossed with the events of our lives and our thoughts of the moment.
The difference now is that for those who take part in this ‘online social other’, we have all willingly removed the blackout curtains. ‘Voyeurism’ in this ‘social’ context is acceptable. Our individual ‘songlines’ are displayed for all to see, to comment on, to participate in, to share with others. And through Augmented Reality we can physically embed ourselves into the landscape around us.
And then we remonstrate companies on Twitter or on their Facebook Wall for not being where we are! For not answering my email, Tweet, comment or call at my hour of greatest need: now.
I was having a conversation with John Bernier (@bernierjohn) of Best Buy a couple of years ago and I remember him saying something along the lines of: “Give a customer ten channels and they’ll use all ten channels. The first channel to respond wins.” This got me thinking about customer touchpoints and how they had evolved over time. I played around with some ideas and my colleague at Foviance @PdeRobert came up with the idea for the following visual...
The emerging service ecosystem is far more disjointed, fragmented and fluid than ever before. Commun ica t i on i s asynchronous and open,
information is freely exchanged, and knowledge in the form of links is bartered freely. Connections between people are made and reinforced in real time.
I was recently asked a question: Do we invest in multichannel or get the basics right? It got me thinking that all too often we think in ‘exclusive absolutes’ – one or the other – multichannel or the basics, Twitter or Facebook, social or traditional, chat or email, call deflection, or everything else.
And yet the answer is far more complex. Complex because ultimately what companies are trying to decipher is the panoply of human behaviour. Customers are unpredictable. The challenge for companies is not in understanding that, but rather where to draw the line...
Guy STEpHENS is a Social Customer Care Consultant exploring how social media is changing the way we communicate with each other. At Foviance, he helps organisations understand how they might engage with customers in an increasingly fragmented service ecosystem.
He also contributes to various customer service blogs, avid Tweeter (@guy1067) and writes on his own blog about the use of social within customer service - beingguy1067.com.
28% OF PEOPLE HAVE
UPLOADED A PICTURE OF A MEAL THEy WERE
EATING TO A SOCIAL SITE.
THIS INCREASED TO
47%FOR 18 – 34 yEAR OLDS.
OpIN ION
jump magaz INE 45
A number of thoughts struck me:•Theoptionsbywhichacustomercan
communicate with companies has increased from an entirely personal and physically proximate one at one end of a spectrum to a wholly virtual and impersonal one at the other.
•Bothamultichannel(ie.phone,online,store) and a multiplatform (ie. blog, microblog, video) world now exist.
•Communication channels do notdisappear, they continue to sit alongside each other. This results in the rich variety of options that exist, some of which are literally at the end of our fi ngertips now.
•Communicationhasbeenfreedupinboth time and space. It is not fi xed to a physical object that sits in one location. I can communicate at any time and from anywhere. I do not need to be standing in front of you to ask a question or to complain.
•Communication is shared andparticipatory. Anyone can be involved in a conversation if they have the inclination and the time.
•Technology has resulted in thepossibility of more complex types of communication. Even at a still
rudimentary level, Augmented Reality, QR Codes, NFC (near field communication), show all of us the possibility of something new and different. As we become more sophisticated in ‘mashing’ these diff erent platforms together, so will we move to another level of communication and interaction.
•Aswemoveoutwards,sotheroleofthe company fundamentally changes from creator to participant. Historically, the company has created the means by which its customers communicated with them. Without a postal address, telephone number, fax number, email address a customer could not communicate with a company.
•As we move outwards, socommunication moves from a closed transaction between company and customer to an open interaction between people, of which the company is just one part of the conversation (if at all).
•Aswemoveoutwards, furthertotheright the company no longer has the same degree of control or ownership as it once did. In today’s multichannel world, a company’s ‘help’ homepage from a customer perspective is just as
likely to be Google, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook as it is their corporate help homepage.
•Communicationisnolongerasinglelinear action. It is asynchronous. Apps empower me to distribute my query or my complaint to a multitude of destinations at the same time. While the #hashtag helps to unite the disparate strands of the story together.
•Thetimebetweenthecauseof thecomplaint and the complaint being made has condensed from weeks or days to minutes and seconds.
However, regardless of the increasing complexity of our multichannel/multiplatform world, some things remain the same.
As a customer I simply want to be heard, my question answered, my complaint acknowledged regardless of which channel I use. Oh and by the way, I want my answer ‘NOW!’
And from a company perspective, predicting and responding to customers’ behaviour remains the same impossible, implausible challenge it always did.
Whether it’s on the phone, via email, Twitter or chat, really shouldn’t make any diff erence. A complaint is a complaint is a complaint…
STORES
LETTERS
FAXES
REAL-LIFE FRIENDS
CALL CENTRE
IvR
COMpANy WEb SITE(FAQ/HELp)
LIvE CHAT
SpECIALIST FORuMS
vIDEO
AuDIO
GEO-LOCATION
COMMuNITIES (INCL. FACEbOOK)
AuGMENTED REALITy
SOCIAL NETWORKS & vIRTuAL FRIENDS
MICRObLOGS
REvIEWS & RATINGS SITES
bLOGS
AppS
bRIcKS & MoRtAR REALIty E-ENAbLED vIRtUALIty M-ENAbLED UbIQUIty
© Foviance
WE HAVE AT OUR DISPOSAL, LITERALLy AT THE END OF OUR
FINGERTIPS, ACCESS TO INCREASINGLy
POWERFUL AND AGILE TECHNOLOGy THAT
FORCES A BLURRING OF THE LINE BETWEEN
ONLINE AND OFFLINE, LONDON AND NEW
yORK, TExT OR TWITTER, ONE AND A
THOUSAND…
“ Give a customer ten channels and they’ll use all ten channels. the fi rst channel to respond wins.”
OpIN ION
46 jump magaz INE
The challenges of gathering and using multichannel dataRichard Lees, Chairman of data and marketing services company dbg, looks at the challenges of gathering and using data across channels.
to be treated in much the same way as the existing channels.
All of the evidence points to customers wanting to experience multichannel interactions with brands at a time and place of their choice. Earlier this year, we undertook some research to get a deeper understanding of this and asked consumers via an online survey how they preferred to be contacted.
Not surprisingly, email was the most favoured channel for communication across the board, with 86% preferring it for offers, 80% for product and service updates, 76% for feedback and 60% for customer service.
Mobile stood out as potentially the most intrusive channel, with 95% saying they find it intrusive for push messages. And when it comes to reaching out to new customers, nearly half thought email was appropriate, 43% liked direct mail and 17% social media.
We also know that the quality of the data we collect and how it is stored is key to delivering meaningful insight into customer behaviour and developing those hugely useful but challenging, multichannel single customer views.
Shortly before JUMP 2010, we asked 100 marketing professionals about their multichannel marketing and the results were enlightening. While 51% were using five or more channels and 98% were using at least three to get their messages across, at that time only 35% were storing the information gathered from those channels in a single database.
Even more surprising was the lack of empirical evidence used by marketers to drive decisions when choosing their channels: 49% were using available budget to guide their choices; nearly half were being guided by gut feeling and one in two said the expertise and experience available within the company guided their choices.
So why are so many decision makers relying on gut feeling rather than
customer data? The clear majority of marketers cited data quality (71%) and data compliance as the primary barriers, with over half the marketers surveyed declaring a lack of knowledge regarding the legalities around the use of multichannel data.
It’s clear that data is at the heart of both the challenges and opportunities that multichannel marketing offers.
For marketers, the volumes of data that can be gathered across all of these channels (in store, call centre, direct mail, mobile, clicks, social media, etc) is genuinely daunting.
Global digital data stats are mind-blowing. Today, there are close to 2000 million internet users, over 250 million websites, 65 million pages on Wikipedia, 65 million tweets a day and over 500 million Facebook users. And by 2020, it’s estimated the digital universe will be 44 times larger than it was in 2009!
This data can be collected, scrutinised and manipulated, but how do we decide what is useful and how do we translate it into something meaningful so as not to lose sight of that which is practically usable versus theoretically possible?
It’s not just the volume, it’s the speed. The communications world is truly in real-time now, moving at warp speed. Not only do we have more channels to feed our customer profiles, making the data deeper and richer than it has ever been before, but we also need to understand this data quickly because customer behaviour changes so rapidly and they expect immediate responses.
Brands are often having to react instantly to maximise positive sentiment and twice as quickly to minimise the negative! And if we aren’t careful, by the time we’ve figured out a trend, the consumer will have moved on.
Then there’s the ethical debate over what data from which channels we should use. A good example of the wrong call here was The Labour Party’s decision in
RICHARD LEES is Chairman at dbg, which specialises in data management and email marketing services. Richard also contributes to a range of business publications, including guest blogging on Econsultancy.
I n the run up to JUMP 2011, the challenge of gathering and using data across all channels remains a key
issue for marketers. Last year, social and mobile were the
new kids on the block and now it’s fair to say they are now serious contenders for fully established marketing channels. Although these new channels present new challenges, when it comes to data gathering and gleaning intelligence to manage a customer’s journey, they are ultimately just new channels that need
86%PREFERRED EMAIL AS
THE FAVOURED CHANNEL FOR
COMMUNICATING OFFERS,
80%
FOR PRODUCT AND SERVICE UPDATES
76%FOR FEEDBACK AND
60%FOR CUSTOMER
SERVICE.
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the run up to last year’s election, to send cancer patients alarmist mailshots saying their lives could be at risk under a Conservative Government.
Clearly it’s a challenge to create and manage a multichannel single customer view, but it’s a challenge most businesses can’t afford to overlook. Brands that fail to get joined-up are likely to neglect the expectations of their customers.
Customers are not concerned with our multichannel challenges; they expect us to have a full picture of their interactions, and to use this information to inform our communication strategies, making their buying process easier.
An integrated view of a single customer’s responses and interactions across multiple channels reveals how to communicate with them to improve customer experience and maximise return.
Feeding information gathered from all channels into a single database will allow marketers to move from a ‘gut feel’ approach to informed decision-making based on actual customer behaviour.
So how can this be achieved?
Ensure consistency of data collectionAs a starting point, marketers must make collection of data consistent across channels to smooth the passage of data into a single database. Good practice in this area will not only make data integration easier, it will also make compliance simpler.
Focus on what you want to achieveI believe, when devising data strategies, we need to think about what’s important and what will really make a difference. Don’t just collect data for the sake of it. Look at the data you have, the data you need and how best to use it.
Focus on customer behaviourYou need to know your customer and where they are in the customer journey, regardless of what channel they come through.
Use customer interactions, combined with analysis to produce what we call “addressable data”. This information will expand our understanding of our customers and allow us to influence their behaviour and buying patterns. For example, if we want to encourage a customer to buy more often, we need to work out what the conversion points are for this.
We also need to be clear at a segment level who we believe is able to exhibit this type of changed behaviour. Not all customers have the same potential and again, their full data repertoire can be used to understand this.
Graze, the company that delivers healthy snacks to your desk, seems to have this idea at the forefront of their agenda. They email after each delivery asking customers to rate the foods received and allow them to edit their preferences all the time. These simple bits of data are key to a customer’s future behaviour and purchases with the brand.
be relevant and personalIf you can glean information about your customer’s preferences, your marketing can be very specific to their wants and needs. We’ve been helping one travel brand to gather data and then act on customer search preferences, allowing them to market relevant offers.
So for example, only people who have previously shown interest in a trip to Dubai will be sent a particular offer for that destination. This kind of simple segmentation, combined with multichannel communication testing, has in some cases doubled click-throughs and telephone enquiries.
Close the loop Allow customers to begin shopping on one channel and finish on another. For
example, French Connection offers style guidance through YouTube videos and converted customers can then buy online or in store.
be responsibleRecent Direct Marketing Association (DMA) research revealed 42% of marketers are uncertain of what data is morally acceptable. And remember there’s sometimes a fine line between a clever legal use of data and an unethical or intrusive use.
In summary, with the rapid increase in the capability for customer interactions, the use of multichannel
marketing looks set to continue to increase. Digital media gives us the opportunity to mine a massive amount of data but in terms analysis, we should focus on business objectives and only incorporate cherry-picked “useful” data.
Once this information is consolidated, it can be used to develop profiles and segments to understand customers and their behaviours, and following that, to inform clever and rewarding marketing communications which deliver the right message, to the right customer, through the right channel, at the right time.
It is only by embracing this fully integrated approach, that we will better understand our customers and be better informed on where to direct marketing spend.
toDAy’S DIGItAL
UNIvERSE:
2000mINTERNET USERS
>250m WEBSITES
65mPAGES ON WIKIPEDIA
65mTWEETS A DAy
>500mFACEBOOK USERS
OpIN ION
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pETER O’NEILL is the founder of L3 Analytics, a London-based business consultancy that makes use of web analytics data to improve the performance of online organisations.
This article was chosen as the winner of last year’s JuMp Challenge, where bloggers and practitioners were invited to provide insight and ideas on joined-up business.
as a web analyst, my focus on this subject is related to measuring and understanding the performance of marketing campaigns – based on the idea that the more that you
understand about the performance of past campaigns, the more you can improve your future campaigns.
The approach that I am developing towards evaluating marketing performance can be used across both online and offline marketing. It is intended to be used to optimise the financial return that is gained from investing in marketing via multiple channels, taking into account the performance of individual channels and their combined impact on business performance.
The future is campaign attribution?Working with online businesses, the common approach is to use campaign attribution to allocate revenue to the different marketing channels that are being used. (I am going to keep it simple here by only referring to e-commerce websites that have revenue as their goal although the same principles can be applied to non e-commerce websites using alternative conversion actions).
Whichever campaign attribute technique is used (first touch, last touch, weighted attribution, etc), it provides a revenue figure that each marketing channel can claim credit for earning. With this data, the business owner or marketer can calculate the ROI against marketing spend by channel and to understand what the impact would be if marketing spend for a particular channel was increased or cut.
There are known issues right now with this approach due to limitations in the various models. However, web analytics and other marketing management tools are developing more sophisticated techniques for attributing revenue to the different touch points.
This is naturally incredibly valuable information as long as it reflects reality and I just don’t think it does. It can only be based on known online touch points prior to a purchase being made online and this leaves out so many factors:
Offline marketing influences are not captured as these cannot be tracked online (except in the use of vanity URLs or similarly identifying features).
Non-marketing influences such as a friend’s recommendation or product reviews are not captured.
Only online touch points on the same computer used to make the purchase are captured, when people could easily have researched the purchase on a different computer.
Purchases made offline are not captured but these could also have been impacted by online marketing and should also be used in any ROI calculations.
Beyond all this, marketing campaign attribution relies on being able to convert a person’s buying decision into simple numbers, to calculate the weighting each touch point had on that decision.
I don’t believe this is actually possible as people would not be able to accurately say themselves what motivated them to make a purchase – did you book that holiday 15% due to an email, 25% due to a link on an affiliate marketing site and 60% due to a paid search link?
This is further complicated by the interaction between different information sources and the requirement to develop a model that works with all people (maybe some people are impacted by the first touch point and others by the last touch point).
What are business owners and marketers really trying to achieve?My philosophy about all this is still in development (and I totally reserve the right to change my mind based on feedback from others) but my current recommendation is to lose the belief that
measuring multichannel marketing campaignsAn opinion piece by peter O’Neill of L3 Analytics
“THE MORE THAT yOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT
THE PERFORMANCE OF PAST CAMPAIGNS, THE
MORE yOU CAN IMPROVE yOUR FUTURE CAMPAIGNS.
”
jump magaz INE 49
OpIN ION
you can accurately or usefully attribute revenue between different marketing channels. Instead I think you should evaluate the performance of marketing at two levels:
•Overallbusinessperformance.
•Individualmarketingchannelsbasedon success actions.
The real question that business owners and marketers need the answer to is what to do for the next campaign, not how much revenue did each marketing channel make in the last campaign.
While that information would be great to have in order to plan future campaigns, I don’t believe it is possible to calculate. Instead the focus should be on gathering useful information that is accurate and that will allow for the optimisation of future marketing campaigns.
Evaluate overall business performanceAs a web analyst, I could list off several pages of potential metrics for understanding performance across different marketing sources and several might even be valid KPIs. But at the end of the day, only one number is going to matter and that is profit.
The measure of success of a marketing campaign is quite simply whether the incremental profit generated was greater than the incremental marketing spend (including salary costs for people working on the campaigns) during the defined time period. A simple way of looking at things maybe but it is what the CEO is going to do.
This simplistic approach to evaluating the performance of marketing covers both online and offline marketing and also purchases made through websites or in store. As the public is using multiple channels to research your products and then makes the purchase via whichever method is most convenient (or offers best value), this approach covers all angles and most importantly covers all customer behaviour.
Note that it does rely on a decent forecast being made of what revenue would be if nothing changed, whether this means no marketing at all or no extra investment in additional marketing channels.
This approach may also just be the best way of evaluating how different combinations of marketing channels
perform. While there are numerous statistical and econometrical approaches that can be used, the business bottom line is the one true test. Different combinations of marketing investment across multiple marketing channels can be compared between regions or different date ranges in order to determine the optimal combination.
Evaluate individual marketing channels based on success actionsBeing unable to attribute revenue to marketing channels does not mean that their performance should not be measured or evaluated as successful or not. Instead of linking performance purely to purchases and thus revenue/profit, each channel should be evaluated based on predefined success actions.
These are specific to each marketing channel based on what you are trying to achieve with the investment in that channel. This applies to both online and offline marketing channels.
The success actions can be linked to website behaviour, other online behaviour or any offline behaviour. Examples of potential success actions include:
•Websitevisitsfromaparticulartrafficsource.
•Websiteentriesonaparticularlandingpage.
•Alevelofengagementwiththewebsite(e.g. view at least two product pages) for traffic from a particular traffic source.
•Instorevoucherredemptions.
•UseofaparticularhashtagonTwitter.
•Increased brand awareness asmeasured by a survey.
•Increasedsalesofaparticularproduct,either online or in store.
• Increasedsaleswithinaparticularstore.
These success actions need to be defined in advance as part of the marketing planning process, both what the actions are and at what level can the performance of that marketing channel be considered a success given the investment in it. It is this information that is used to review the performance by marketing channel and to decide on future investment in it.
Learn from experienceSo if you want to achieve excellence in using multiple marketing channels, my advice is to measure performance, compare against forecasts and use what you have learnt to improve future marketing campaigns.
Do not try and split your revenue between marketing channels, it is just not possible to do accurately. Instead evaluate individual marketing channels against success actions relevant to what you are trying to achieve with that marketing channel.
Be prepared to experiment with different channels, all the old ones and the new ones. But look to the bottom line to understand which combinations work best. Use the data gained from previous marketing campaigns to improve and optimise your future marketing campaigns.
“THE FOCUS SHOULD BE ON GATHERING USEFUL INFORMATION THAT IS ACCURATE AND THAT WILL ALLOW FOR THE
OPTIMISATION OF FUTURE MARKETING
CAMPAIGNS.
”
INs IgHT
50 jump magaz INE
seven ways to effectively track offl ine salesHow can you track customers once they’re off the grid?
If you have a series of campaigns running, ask customers to tell you more about where and when they purchased.
5 uNIQuE uRLSIf you want to accurately track conversion from offline promotions, then it’s worth
considering setting up campaign specifi c sites and landing pages.
Not only will this provide consumers with an easily remembered phrase or URL to search for, but you can use it as a redirect to your main site and more easily isolate the fi gures your offl ine campaign is generating.
6 pHONE NuMbERSBy allocating unique telephone numbers to diff erent online advertising campaigns and
promotions, retailers can track sales calls from customers back to their point of origin, and see which piece of marketing, was responsible for the call.
7 buZZAgain, search queries can really pay off here so make sure you are tracking phrases related to
your offl ine campaign in addition to your regular keywords.
For example, you may be running a TV ad that has a great soundtrack. Keep an eye on searches for that song, and for related searches like ‘product X ad tune’.
While these may not be transferring directly into sales they do show that you are having impact offl ine.
In addition, check your usual web channels. Is there an increase in blog posts about your product or about a specifi c campaign or are you receiving an increase in links from new sources?
While we often debate how eff ectively we can track ROI online, it’s occasionally worth stepping back and remembering that the ability to track transactions and engagement points online is actually a luxury.
In the offl ine domain the ability to eff ectively track ads and eff ectiveness can be severely limited. How do you know if your billboard campaign is eff ective?
Here’s a few ways to track what customers are up to when they’re off the grid.
1 TRAFFICThe most basic of metrics but one of the most revealing for offl ine campaigns.
If you experience a sudden rush to your site as an offl ine campaign launches or even as a specifi c ad airs, you can be reasonably sure that it’s aff ecting web traffi c. While this won’t account for everyone it is a reasonable indicator of interest.
If you have several campaigns running at once then you may wish to use this to
track brand awareness rather than specifi c campaign success.
You can also hone in on this by localising your offl ine eff orts. Track localised traffi c bursts for maximum accuracy.
2 CODESHaving a specifi c code or phrase related to a campaign is an old tactic but it’s still useful,
especially if you have a wide range of products available.
By allocating exact codes you can track touch points easily, both through direct response and by tracking searches for your specifi c code or phrase.
Remember to match SEO around key phrases before launching in order to generate solid results here.
3 SALESThis might sound obvious but many businesses still funnel their tracking. If you experience
an increase in online sales, then remember to attribute it to all campaigns.
It’s easy to say “sales are up 14%, our new Facebook campaign is really paying off ” while forgetting about the impact your print ads had on this.
Make sure you include web branding and URLs on all your offl ine literature to increase cross-channel effect, and consistently track searches for specifi c products by volume for more accurate metrics.
4 OpINIONIncreasingly consumers are putting their trust in word of mouth, so add space on your
site for reviews, questions and comments about specifi c products.
Most customers who leave an opinion will have already bought the product so others will feel confi dent that they’re getting an accurate and trustworthy look at your product.
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@jamesdeer Consistently excellent content, events and particularly networking, they’ve been at the forefront for 10 years or so.@GrahamRuddick
011235_v1_thinking-digital_260x210.indd 1 21/04/2011 16:14
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