Trying Something

Like many marketers, 2009 came to me bundled with a mandate to re-think about marketing spend. We want to be extremely pragmatic about where we spend. Think Stevens' Extreme Marketing.

So, I needed to figure out how to reach a very niche audience. People have been banging on my door to sell me lists of 5000-10000 contacts, but those cost thousands of dollars and about 85% of the contacts in those lists are not in our target audience. So, they wouldn't like hearing from us. Other efforts, like magazine or e-zine advertising reach 30000 viewers, most of which are again outside of my target. And they cost a huge portion of this small pragmatic company's desired marketing budget.

So, how do we get feedback from our target audience while putting our brand out there without spending a fortune? Well, we're trying something new. Not that someone else hasn't likely done it before, but it's new for us.

In short, we launched a viral contest. We are offering $1000 to the winner of our simple contest. Real money. No tricks. But those who enter need to encourage their peers (our intended audience) to also participate because we need 1000 entries to validate the contest for pay out.

In the end, everyone wins. We get some highly targeted feedback, which is critical for us. Some additional people learn who we are. And the participants get a real chance to win a decent prize while having a little fun (the contest is to provide the best caption for a cartoon). They also, by the way, should be interested in our solutions since they have matching job responsibilities. And nobody who absolutely shouldn't care will get bothered by unsolicited contact.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Email Marketing Tips

Some useful tips on email marketing from the folks at Pinpointe:

• 10 Best Performing Email Subject Lines
• 10 Worst Performing Email Subject Lines
• 9 Tips for Writing Email Subject Lines That Work
  (includes the 50/50 rule and the 80/20 rule)
• The Ideal Email Subject Line Length

Bottom line: keep subjects short, descriptive, and accurate.

The Right Audience

I got a marketer's email today (SPAM) announcing a new restaurant. I'm always interested in trying new dining experiences, so I opened the message. The first sentence roped me in:

Introducing Chenaab Restaurant which specializes in Indian & Chinese Cuisine.

I love Indian food. And I love what Indian chefs do with Chinese cuisine. So my first thought was, "excellent - a new place to try". Then, of course, I wondered "Where did they get my email address?" How did they know I'd be interested? Am I on some secret list of exotic food connoisseurs? And actually, "Good for them! They managed to deliver the right message to the right person."

Typically, the SPAM I get is for things that I have no interest in or are obvious Phishing or scam attacks. This one actually seemed on-target. The second line put me off a bit, but I figured it was just a language-use issue and I decided to overlook it:

We have been taking care of gastronomy needs of the corporate.

The lesson learned from that line? Have someone proofread your copy. Ideally, someone from the target audience. I know the definition of the word. Ironically, it has to do with culture and in this instance, I think it's clashing with my cultural bias. I know logically that the definition fits its use in this message, but when I see the word gastronomy, I can't help but think of a trip to the doctor's office. ...maybe that's my working class roots?

The rest looked great... watch the food being prepared, air conditioned, free Wi-fi, etc. Sounds great. Then, all the way at the bottom, I read something that told me I'd probably never eat at the new Chenaab restaurant. And I realized that they had, in fact, NOT reached the right audience. If I were them, I'd even ask for my money back from whoever they bought their list.

The restaurant is in Bangalore India.

So, the real lesson: Get the basics right about your target audience. The details (in this case, what kind of food they like) is less important than the basics (do they live within reasonable distance to the restaurant's location).

Smart People are Brand Insensitive

I was listening to an Information Security-related podcast and this came out as an off-topic anecdote, but it struck me as an important thought for marketers. An experienced ad-driven podcaster once asked his team why they were running car ads instead of ads for related (high-tech) products. The answer was that "most companies think smart people are brand insensitive" and that:

Brand is the Refuge of the Ignorant

The implication is that its not worth running brand ads in forums inhabited by smart people. I'd love to see the related research on that. I have seen examples of this in the real world, but brand advertising can be so powerful, its hard to think of it as ineffective just because an audience is smart.

NIN & the iPhone

Trent Reznor lives on the cutting edge of technology, which makes perfect sense when you look at his creative process and the music of Nine Inch Nails. His latest foray - the NIN iPhone app - is one example of how willing he is to experiment with technology while making his music, and more importantly his brand, that much more accessible to fans.

The iPhone application has some great features. The community building via Google Earth is a great idea - showing forum posts, uploaded photos, and concert chatter in real time, whether the poster is at the concert or half-way around the world. Viewable on the iPhone app of course, but also within a web browser for those at home or using some other type of smart phone. But the best part - it's free.

Free for the taking.

Like the fan-created remixes of his music, submitted by anyone with an internet connection who visits the NIN website and registers to get started. Here, we'll give you the software and the MP3 files of original songs. Go ahead, show us what you've got!

Some artists embrace this kind of openness and sharing with their fan base (see also: Moby), while others struggle to reconcile copyrights and revenue with an internet-fueled market where users continually expect higher levels of access. Rather than strain against the tide of file sharing, remixes, and mash-ups, these creatives have figured out a way to harness that power to become more ingrained in fans' lives. And their brand cache gets a bump in the process.

How Lovely to Be a Woman?

Last night while viewing a rerun of The King of Queens, I caught a glimpse of the new Walmart cosmetics commercial.

Women in various states of beautifying themselves with cosmetic products as "How Lovely to Be a Woman" from Bye Bye Birdie chirps brightly over the action. This continues for much of the commercial until the selling message - Walmart has loads of well-known cosmetic brands at low prices! - is revealed at the conclusion.

What confused me was the ad's tone, which came off - to this viewer - as completely tongue-in-cheek. Poking fun at the level of effort women go through to 'make themselves beautiful.' I'm not sure if it was the video footage itself (a couple women looked to be preparing for clown auditions). Or the soundtrack. Or both.

I'll readily admit I'm not their target audience. My beauty regimen, if we can even call it that, normally consists of face lotion and chapstick. Maybe a tinted lip gloss if I'm feeling particularly sassy that morning. Was I being overly cynical? Too sensitive to the level of pressure already placed on women's physical appearances? Maybe.

But after the ad finished, I turned to my husband and asked what he thought - without leading the witness in any way. His reaction: it's making fun of cosmetics.

I doubt that's what Walmart is hoping for.

New, Easy Open Cap!

Some product improvements are just bad business.

If you've ever opened a jar of Hellman's mayonnaise, you might have had to struggle through the shrink-wrapped tamper-evidence seal. I usually have to grab a knife out of a nearby drawer to slice open the plastic. Some products use a perforated vertical strip to make it easier. Others use a hard plastic tear-strip that pulls right to left. The Hellman's jar I opened today had a better experience.

There was a big sticker on top exclaiming New, Easy Open Cap! ...something I didn't notice as I grabbed it off the shelf. There was no plastic shrink-wrap and no tear-strip. All I had to do was spin the cap open just like I do normally and listen for the snapping sound as it opened for the first time. Better? Sure. But do I really care? No.

Although I regularly felt the inconvenience of the tamper-evidence seal, it NEVER occurred to me that I should switch brands to make it easier to open. Or that I should use less mayo. ...which leads me to the point. Hellman's no doubt went through focus groups, re-engineering, changes to the manufacturing process, and lots of other costs to make this simple change. If it doesn't cause someone to buy who wouldn't have already bought, then all of that cost was unjustified.

I see the same type of moves in technology product sales. Vendors spend time and money building and delivering features that won't influence sales. I know that a group of useless features could be bundled into some category like "innovative" that makes people buy, but that misses the point.

My point is simple. Prioritize the road map based on what will deliver real value to buyers. And don't waste money on improving the tamper-evidence seal – even if the new seal is considered super cool by everyone in the industry. Increased value for customers is the only clear indicator of money well spent.