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Collateral and the Website - Maria Lopez-Knowles |
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Similar to last issue's article regarding advertising and direct mail
integration, it's imperative that the look & feel (and sound) be
consistent between your printed collateral and your company website.
In the past, an organization's look and feel was typically established
with a company's corporate brochure - which sits at the head of a
collateral tree. Since the dawn of the Internet some organizations have
driven their look and feel from their website first, then developed their
sales tools (reinforcing the website's look & feel).
As long as the look and feel and sound are consistent between both mediums
- website and corporate brochure or printed collateral - you should be in
good shape. Remember, the look and feel of your collateral does not
have to match the look and feel of your advertising and direct mail. The latter is a separate
entity of the MarCom mix.
Why is it imperative that the look and feel between web and print
materials be consistent? Your prospect's first real encounter (longer than
ad exposure) with your organization can today come via the website or
through a brochure, depending on the prospect's location and access to
technology. In pre-web days, this encounter or point of contact more often
than not occurred with the corporate brochure - via a sales rep or a
'request for additional information'. In today's web society, many times
the initial encounter occurs at the corporate website.
Regardless of the original contact or point of information, the second
communication needs to reinforce the first, creating a sense of stability
and consistency in the prospect's eyes. This uniformity builds brand
awareness - the first step towards mind share that then leads to market
share.
So again, just as your advertising and direct mail campaigns need to be
interconnected and look & feel the same, so do your collateral and
website.
(Review the
MarCom Acumen Guidebook for more detailed information on
Collateral and Website Development.)
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Word of the Day |
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Gateway Page:
This term is commonly used to mean three
very different things.
Splash Page: the entry page on a website that displays
briefly before transferring to the site's home page. The page can enhance your
site but if it takes too long to download you may lose prospects before
they hit the home page.
Landing Page: a page in a website that focuses on a
particular topic or product that may also be the entry page for ad
campaigns or certain keyword searches. It is a normal part of the
website's content that "makes sense" whether entered directly or through
the site's normal menu navigation.
Doorway Page: a discredited search engine optimization (SEO) technique
in which a special page is crammed full of keywords, with little
additional content. Often these pages will simply be a list of links to
real pages within the website. SEO firms who use this technique often host
the doorway pages themselves, and link to your site. If you stop using
their service, they simply switch the pages (and the search engine
listings) to point to a new client! (Note: "Doorway Page" is also
sometimes used to refer to the very different "Landing Page" technique
described above.)
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Planning a Direct Marketing Campaign 2: Setting Goals - Steve Knowles |
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Setting goals
Why are we doing this in the first place?
There are many reasons to execute a DM campaign, for example:
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to sell products directly from the
campaign |
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to bring new prospects into the sales
funnel; |
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to sign up subscribers for a newsletter; |
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to get attendees at a sales seminar; or |
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to bring people to your booth at a trade
show. |
Your goals will determine the type of campaign you run - who you target,
what you offer them, and what you ask them to do (your call to action) -
and form the basis for measuring your results. Setting clear goals is your
first step to a successful campaign.
One campaign - one goal
Don't make the mistake of mixing goals - you'll dilute your response.
Mixed objectives will force you to continually make compromises - in your
list selection, your creative, your offer and your call to action - that
will weaken your campaign.
Goals are numbers
State your goals numerically - e.g., "30 attendees at each of 3 seminars".
In direct marketing, everything is driven by numbers - from how many
pieces you send, to how you measure your results.
Sometimes it's easy to state numeric goals, like the example above.
Usually it's more difficult. Say you want to sell 100 products. Then the
goal of your DM campaign is to bring in enough leads to sell 100 products.
How many leads is that? You need to factor in your conversion rate:
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Leads |
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Sales / Conversion Rate |
Ideally, you (or your VP of Sales) will know your actual conversion rate.
If you don't have real data, start measuring now. In the meantime, you can
estimate your results based on industry averages: typical conversion rates
run between 5 and 10%. So, to generate 100 sales, you'd need
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Leads |
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Sales / Conversion Rate |
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100 sales / .05 |
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2000 leads. |
Factor in your sales cycle
How long does it take to close a sale? It generally takes six to eight
contacts before a prospect will make a purchase over the Web; for
enterprise software sales, a six- to nine-month sales cycle isn't unusual.
So today's campaign generates leads for sales two or three quarters away.
Now that we've set the goals for our campaign, we're ready to look at
selecting our list - the topic of our next issue.
(Review the
MarCom Acumen Guidebook for more detailed information on
Direct Marketing.)
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Dear mAc |
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Q: Why
is a creative brief or platform important?
A: This
document provides guidelines and direction that the creative folks can
then use to develop innovative solutions that meet your objectives. It's
the document from which the creative springs (thus the term platform).
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About this
newsletter
Marketing Acumen
delivers marketing tips and insights twice each month to our subscription
readership, helping you turn x into 2x in all your marketing
efforts.
Contact Us
You can reach us at
+1-510-547-6191 or info@marketingacumen.com
About
Marketing Acumen, LLC
Marketing Acumen,
LLC provides marketing products and consulting based on over 30 years
experience in Product Marketing, Marketing Communications and executive
management. We apply a scientific method to the art of Marketing, to get
more than the response you expected. We'll change your business and
show you how to do it again and again - to turn x into 2x.
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