wednesday, January 9th, 2008
FIRST MADMA LUNCHEON OF 2008
A SMORGASBORD ON E-MARKETING
By Bill Roberts
Direct marketers kicked off the new year with a look at the exciting, perilous, baffling and innovative world of e-marketing as the Mid-America Direct Marketing Association staged a panel discussion for the Jan. 9 luncheon meeting at Regency Lodge in Omaha.
“Know your market, and know who you’re trying to target,” said Mary Chase, assistant vice president of enrollment management at Creighton University, giving advice welcomed by marketers both young and old.
Chase joined a panel of e-marketing experts: Mike Losee of Snitily Carr in Lincoln, who directs business development for the agency; Kim Mickelsen of Bozell in Omaha, who started the interactive unit at the agency; and Dan Wroblewski, senior interactive designer for Ervin & Smith Advertising in Omaha.
They began by defining some common e-marketing terms, like Web 2.0., which describes the Internet-fueled, worldwide conversations that can take place among Web users – sometimes with you as the topic. Mickelsen called it “word of mouth on steroids.”
Some examples are Amazon’s ratings of books as provided by consumers. Other examples are MySpace, Facebook and various blogs.
Those conversations can mean a bonanza of publicity. Wroblewski warned they also can be scary: “It’s consumers talking to consumers about you.”
Every marketing company should have an identity on the Web, the panelists said. Even if your target audience is older and more traditional, your customers expect to find you online.
Remember that your online identity contributes to your brand identity, Losee said. E-marketing makes it even more important that your brand identity be genuine.
“If you’re trying to fake it, people are going to notice it right away,” Losee said. “They’re going to smell it out and they’re going to fight back.”
Individuals have an online identity too, they noted, and it’s important to protect your reputation. Some college students, Chase said, don’t realize that as they use Facebook or MySpace to exchange comments ranging from the casual to the incriminating.
“What you put out there is there forever,” Mickelsen said, and reminded the group that most prospective employers will use the Internet to research job applicants. “As a professional, you do need to Google yourself.”
DIFFERENT GUIDELINES
E-marketing guidelines aren’t always the same as direct-marketing guidelines.
Traditional direct mailers have learned that long copy in a letter can persuade a prospect, but e-marketers have learned to keep it short and sweet.
“People don’t read much online,” Wroblewski said, advising marketers to deliver information in short, chunked bits. “Compel them right away, then maybe link them to further information.”
In e-mail marketing, Mickelsen said, subject lines should avoid the use of one of the direct marketer’s favorite words: “free.” Spam filters keep out e-mails with that word and other promotional favorites.
“Subject lines should almost be somewhat bland,” Mickelsen said, almost apologetically. “It often is very different than on the print side.”
Chase, who often e-mails to a teenage demographic for Creighton University, said she has been surprised to find that she gets a higher response to her seventh, eighth and ninth appeals than to her third, fourth or fifth. She didn’t know why, but she’d seen it happen again and again.
E-marketing is entering new frontiers with podcasts and vodcasts (an audio or video segment that can be downloaded) and other materials that appeal to customers without trying to make a sale.
Podcasts by Nike are an example, Mickelsen said: “They are graying the line between advertising and content.”
Asked for resources that could help marketers keep up with the rapidly changing e-marketing landscape, panelists suggested Pew Interactive, E-marketing e-newsletter, MarketingVox, Forrester, JupiterResearch and del.icio.us.
All the panelists appeared to agree with Losee when he said it’s vital to keep learning and issued this caution: “Anybody that says they’re an expert in the field is not going to be an expert the next day.”