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Marketing Channels: Direct Mail, Email or Telemarketing?

As an active member of the IDM B2B Council I get asked this question often. There are advantages and disadvantages to every channel of direct marketing because as a marketing manager you need to take into consideration a couple of crucial factors when deciding upon which path to take; cost, frequency, data, segment, desired results and timeline. All these factors can change the focus of any direct marketing campaign depending upon the weighting given to these six elements.

Direct mail can take many forms and in the large part is a cost effective channel to reach a target market but if you need to repeat the exercise or you send to a large and old database you are wasting your time and your budget. To gain maximum cut through DM needs to be highly targeted, segment your data, and I particularly like high end direct mail plus personalised direct mail. Like a mobile device that is set up with the targets details or a book printed with the targets name on the front, I think they are simple yet powerful DM pieces. I also believe that personalisation gives the recipient a greater desire to open the dm piece and read the contents, a) because it is nice to see your name in print and b) if they got my name right it might be worth reading their message. As a marketer that is what we are trying to achieve, to illicit a response from a target market that has the desire to purchase the product or service thus the call to action then needs to be strong enough to get us to the next level of response.

E-mail is a very cost effective and quick channel to market. With email you can achieve instant results, like opens and click through, which are great internal statistics to provide to support the launch of a campaign. Be aware of the relevant data protection laws and the opt in; opt out criteria that needs to be adhered to with email campaigns. Please ensure you work with an agency or database supplier that is regulated or a member of a recognised marketing body in the UK, like the DMA or IDM. Emails are easy to send but also easy to delete, where as a direct mail piece has a longer life in the hand of the target.

Telemarketing is an excellent marketing practise and can gain the best results as part of an integrated marketing campaign. It can also be used to clean data, invite people to register or confirmation participants for an event. I think the investment in TM will draw the best ROI when the campaign is planned and TM is used to follow up on the DM piece in the same language and message as the DM or Email piece, this providing both continuity and relevance to the target receiving the DM and the phone call. Plus you must think of the agent, make their job a little easier by trying to warm the target up for a call on the product or service in question. The call centre agent is a great testing ground but it also can be unforgiving, so plan the campaign and brief all the elements of the campaign to run like a smoothly greased wheel and then you should get the results you have promised the sales teams. 

Business Transformation: Social Media Planning

With Hollywood jumping on the bandwagon and creating such blockbuster films as ‘The Social Network’ and winning four Golden Globes including Best Film, there is no escape from the hype of Social Media. But like so many mediums and in fact so many technology mediums let’s face it, Social Media could be here one day and gone the next, just think back to Friends Reunited, MySpace or BEBO, so this begs the questions should you get involved and will this help you win business?

Like any new technology people either choose to jump straight in and see what happens or they wait, and watch and see how other are using and benefiting from using this technology. I think the former is fine when you are using the social element of the media to keep in touch with family and friends but I would err on the side of caution when thinking about using the tools for business. Just like a website this is another shop window to your business and anyone in the world can take a peek inside.

Creating a social media strategy should be classed as a Business Transformation function and I would urge any business owner that has say to their staff we must be on Twitter, Linked In and Facebook ASAP, just do it, to stop and read your sites and then you will see why you need to create a plan. Social media is instant and with the ease of a click an innocent message, picture or post can be shared with the world without the consent of the original author. When developing a Social Media Strategy take a look at your competitors, read what they are saying and see what they are posting and decide if this really is an area where you want your business to participate?

Once you decide that you want to get your business involved please remember the plan. Another very important point about developing a presence for your business via these sites is that content is king and even more importantly fresh content is king, so within the job roles of the business you will need to create a plan of content and publication and stick to it, otherwise your presence will diminish and potential customers will stop following and consider other options, maybe your competitor. Make the decision and treat it just like an investment, are you in or are you out and there is no harm in being out at this stage of the Social Media evolution.

I would like to share my social media story: It was late August 2010 and even though I had been in business since February I had not been using twitter for very long. I think I had about 9 followers and one of those was Tom Perry, EMEA Marketing Director, ShoreTel. Tom had been on my target list for a little while and I thought I really need to find a creative way to get a meeting. I was getting to know Twitter and its functionality and I thought I would try out a ‘direct message’. Given you have just 140 characters to get your message across it is a great tool for teaching you to be succinct. It worked and we had a brief exchange of direct messages resulting in a date in the diary. So there it was I had secured my first new business meeting via social media. I met with Tom we had a great conversation and understood how we could help each other and before we knew it, we had agreed two projects together. I am sure meetings of every kind are being set up all over the world via twitter but I just thought I would share my experience as it quite liberating and profitable. 

Field Marketing Contracts

A ‘Field Marketing Contract’ (FMC) is a business development service that is designed to provide an experienced marketing professional to join a vendor or partner for a fixed period of time to complete either a single or a number of projects with agreed KPI’s and deliverables. This type of contract could be anything from a one off project to 1 day per month or even 4 days per week depending upon the nature of the timeline and deliverables of the project.

Increasingly across many industries marketing departments or individuals are being asked to deliver more by their business leaders but with no increase in headcount or budget. In this type of scenario this FMC solution works best as the vendor or partner can benefit from employing a third party to deliver the required project or projects to a date and within a specified budget. They do not have to waste time and budget with recruitment.  All they have to do is spend the relevant amount of time, ideally face to face but in some cases over the phone briefing the consultant on the project deliverables.

I have delivered on a contract with Brocade as part of their EMEA Marketing team from February 2010 through to July 2011. I started working in the field marketing team focussed upon the Tier 3 countries Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and South Africa. I then managed the EMEA Demand Generation function from June through to November delivering both ‘Brocade is Now’ and ‘Brocade One’ campaigns into UK, German, France and Middle East. My current project is to manage the Field Marketing Function within EBG North region, Benelux & Nordics. 

The value of partner roundtables

I personally think roundtables are a great way of conducting meetings whether it be in the purest sense of a roundtable being there is no head of the table, so those assembled are all equal. Internal business planning meetings or as a mechanism for partners to give vendors feedback, to raise issues and be heard face to face by the vendor. With this last scenario I genuinely believe that if vendors are willing to take the time to first organise and then listen to their partners it will build trust and a better relationship moving forward with their partners. The program must have an internal commitment of at least 12 months to make a difference. Also a vendor needs to show real, tangible improvements that have been made during the time between these meetings for the partners to hold the meetings and vendor in higher regard than when the process began.

A roundtable can be as basic as conducting a meeting around a table. There is also those that are facilitated either usually by an independent party like a journalist or marketing consultant. Many marketing event and publishing companies offer them as part of an editorial package or they can be organised with the help of more independent parties who can be employed by the vendor to ensure the session flows on time, everyone gets a say and all the relevant covers points are covered. There is nothing worth than a partner taking time out of their business to come and sit around a table and either be preached at by the vendor for the most part or be beaten to the punch by louder and more obnoxious partner.

There are many different formats that a roundtable can take and it is really up to the organiser to choose what is most appropriate for the desired outcome. There is the ‘Simple Agenda’ approach whereby the facilitator moderates the conversation to ensure the group keeps to the agenda and time to ensure all points and covered, minuted and action assigned. ‘Game of Two Halves’ whereby the facilitator will spend one or two hours with the partners only, to understand any grievances, issues plus examples of both. After a break the vendor representatives are invited back into the room to face a series of the partners questions, guided by the facilitator and also listen to the horror stories and then hopefully offer a response or action to the get those issues fixed for the next meeting. I must point out these sessions also offer up the opportunity for the partners to provide positive feedback to the vendors, especially about account management or other heroes within the business, it is not just a bloodletting session for the partner to walk away feeling a sense of release. The other format is ‘Open Season’ whereby the facilitator has both the partners and the vendor in the room with an outline of possible discussion items. The advantage of this format is that the partners can get an instant face to face answers to their points as opposed to the previous format whereby they have to wait until the second half of the session to get answers and explanations from the vendor.

Currently I facilitate partner roundtables for Avaya in the UK for Platinum & Medal Partners in London, Manchester & Edinburgh. The sessions have ranged from audiences of 40 to 10 Avayians and Partners depending on the time or location. Already both Avaya and the partners have seen improvements from these sessions.

Tweeting for Business

It was late August and even though I had been in business since February I had not been using twitter for very long. I think I had about 9 followers and one of those was Tom Perry, EMEA Marketing Director, ShoreTel. ShoreTel had been on my target list for a little while and I thought I really need to find a creative way to get a meeting with Tom. I was getting to know Twitter and its functionality and I thought I would try out a ‘direct message’. I sent the following message:

channelman

Tom, I thought it was time to get in touch to see if I could come & meet with you to understand if ShoreTel could benefit from my services?

23 Aug at 15:41 Delete

tomjperry

Andy - I agree - how's you diary fixed for 9th September at 1400 in Maidenhead ? Kind regards Tom

24 Aug at 08:11 Delete

channelman

Tom thanks for the quick reply, I can make that date andygrant@bowanarrow.com if your ea needs to send an appointment to block your diary

24 Aug at 08:43 Delete

And there it was I had secured my first new business meeting via social media. I met with Tom we had a great conversation and understood how we could help each other and before we knew it, we had agreed two projects together. I am sure meetings of every kind are being set up all over the world via twitter but I just thought I would share my experience as it was quite liberating.

Industry or Bespoke Events?

I am not sure about your business but I am still getting a large and increasing volume of cold calls from event organisers and even very well known research companies that promise to connect my clients to for example, 25 senior IT decision makers that are ready to purchase for a simple one off fee. There seems to be a marked increase of players in this form of the face to face meeting or event sector, and they all promise guaranteed meetings with an excellent level of decision makers. So how are companies supposed to make the decision of which company to trust and which company to give their £20K? Bearing in mind that 2010 is the year of budget justification (just listen to the news on a daily basis). So the budget holder will need to create a business and ROI justification that is attached to the purchase request before it gets agreed and hopefully signed off.   

Painful yes, but when businesses want to attract new customers or even protect their existing customers face to face still is extremely valuable medium given that people still buy from people. Here I must ask the question instead of spending £20K getting 25 meetings with senior IT decision makers would it be easier just to set up simple 10 – 15 customer or prospect events? Hire a local hotel room or sporting venue. In this environment you then can control every aspect of the event from invitations to registration to presentations and even the trash & trinkets (freebies). On another tact is it just easier to invite your customers to the Rugby, Grand Prix or even the races?

The advice I would give businesses of any size is that you need to decide what is right for your business and the perception that will be created by the customer or prospect when they are invited and accept and invitation to your event. Obviously there is a business element attached and they understand this but I feel it is very important to mention because some people may think it is an excuse just to get a little merry on the house.

When planning a bespoke event the invitation list is the most crucial element, this needs to be correct, accurate and the recipient really should be aware of your company to get a positive reaction and registration. The message needs to be crisp and to the point and the backend process might be amazing but if your message does hit the right audience all that other hard work has been wasted. Refine the message to suit the target market, select the method of communication i.e. Email or Direct Mail and then have the appropriate call to action with the addition of quick follow up like outbound telemarketing for confirmations. The key to success is to have a seamless flow when you get a response as this is the area where most business fail to capitalise on the enquiry, otherwise no-one will turn up to your event.  

Finally re confirm your attendees the day before the event as the dropout rate in the UK can be as high as 50% depending upon weather, location or lack of confirmation. Happy entertaining!

Partner Loyalty

I have heard so much talk and read comments in the channel press from a variety of business leaders in our industry, IT & Telecommunications, about  vendors, whom they represent, being and wanting to become more channel centric and focussing more on the needs of their most valued and trusted partners. So why are so many of the big name vendors undertaking partner recruitment programs in the vain attempt to maintain and even increase revenues developed via their channel partners.

Surely we have all heard of ‘Paretos Law’ whereby 20% of customer brings in 80% of the revenues. We can easily adapt this statement to be relevant for vendors and partners i.e. 20% of partners will bring in 80% of the revenues. So why is there a need to look beyond the contents of the company Partner Relationship Management (PRM) system or partner database or excel list in the partner response teams. Vendors have the information at their fingertips, or more than likely, within a finance database system that will help any business to identify their top 20% who contribute to most of their business. 

Armed with this information I would be willing to predict that some vendor sales leaders will be surprised partner names that is produced by finance, on the actual list of commonly referred to as a point of sale report. I will go a step further too again predict that within this list would be a good number of loyal partners. So what do I mean by a loyal partner.

A loyal partner is a channel partner that only sells one vendor solutions, with a given market such as ‘voice’. They are a company that is actively promoting the brand of one supplier in order to make the sales cycle quicker and create a more streamlined experience for the customer. They should also see benefit from the accrued marketing funds, increased in points towards certification and in theory a better all level relationship with the vendor.

So why do truly loyal partner usually get so badly treated by their chosen vendor? Why is there this inevitable roundabout of the search for channel nirvana for the $10 million partner within 12 months? What is a loyal partner worth to a vendor and can that worth be truly identified within a global channel partner program? Imagine if this loyal partner only contributes $1m year on year, will they receive all the vendors’ attention that they deserve? I would back 5 to 6 loyal partners to deliver the $10 - $12 million required rather than back a newcomer to deliver $10 million from a standing start, but vendors still choose to chase the big money partner.  

I don’t understand why some vendors are looking outside their own channel to solve the problem of …how can we get more revenue?  I will give you the answer go and work with your loyal partners, that will immediately give you increased revenues and the only cost is time and energy…oh and maybe a few drinks once you get the P/O from the customer to celebrate the deal. Reward loyalty!