Lake David Fanclub Blog - Marketing

Data in Marketing

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:55:00 -0400

The relationship between data and marketing success is undeniable. In today's world, neither works without the other. Further, the bidirectional link is growing stronger. Data drives superior work in communication, noted Ogilvy's COO in this article acclaiming the recent announcement that we were awarded BtoB's 2007 Direct Agency of the Year. In our loyalty division, data is paramount. It drives websites. It drives consumer behavior. It drives business reaction, forecasting, modeling, segmentation and more. Techniques such as promotions, discounts / coupons are best done when targeted to a carefully defined group of people with common characteristics. Offering me $25 off a weekday car rental won't do a thing if I only rent cars on the weekend. Are customers who visit frequently and spend less per visit are of equal value than those who seldom visit but spend the same in total? How do you measure their value? Part of the answer lies in the differing amount of service offered to these two customers. One can look at profile information, test different marketing approaches, and follow that by analyzing the data.

Fall Fun

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 14:54:00 -0400

Greetings fans. It's been nearly a month since my last entry and since I was cleaning house on my blogs reader, I thought it would be a good time to let you know that the once chronicles on trials and tribulations on non-profit internet marketing has taken a turn with the tides and shall heretofore profess learnings, musings, rants, ideologies, teasers and insights from my shifting current and future endeavors. For those that missed the bulletin, I departed my post in Little Canada and have since joined a 25 person team of database marketing gurus, with a branch of a top global marketing agency. As a senior database marketing analyst at The Lacek Group, the Loyalty Marketing Practice of OgilvyOne Worldwide my role encompasses a broad range of analytics services including customer segmentation, data analysis and reporting, in conjunction with strategic customer insight. The position is challenging me to expand my skills with exposure to new concepts and industries, the result of which is very rewarding. The feeling for me is it's a return to my roots in the consulting world, but in a place with a true small company culture and the warmth of 125 smart, creative and friendly colleagues. At the same time it's remarkably like my time at Watson Wyatt in terms of the benefits, resources and professionalism of parent owners, OgilvyOne (over 100 locations in 50 countries) and WPP Group (100,000 emp's worldwide). I'm now a regular metro transit rider with all of the privileges and responsibilities therein. Taking the bus downtown to work has been fun too! This is of course the biggest fall news I have to report. What other fall goings-on should you know about?

Monday is my 2nd anniversary. Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. It's truly the greatest thing. We're celebrating with a B&B getaway in Lake City.
Sunday is the kickoff event of my concert band's 25th ("silver anniversary") season, a Mississippi River boat cruise.
Lehigh Club Happy Hour planned at Lyon's Pub, Oct 25. Email me if you're local or interested.
Smallish Halloween Shindig planned for Oct 27. Email me if you're local or interested.
Lehigh-Lafayette telecast at Champps, downtown, Nov 17, 11:30AM.

Hope to hear from you all! All the best from your host. Cheers!

On internet marketing in 2007

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:13:00 -0400

Much like internet marketing in 2006 except with a score of new algorithms of which to keep track. Since I have only approximately 500 days of official experience in this business, I've seen at least one, if not two, major updates to the major search advertising engines -- and even more updates to the marketer's interface.

With this furious pace of change, it is no wonder there are so many internet blogs, newsgroups and email lists with expert advice. I've learned trial by fire on some instances, to use but not abuse my network of friends who are so much smarter than me, and to just try things and see what happens. The catastrophes I've read about with people taking their page rank into the graveyard, or losing all recognition by Google, seem to either be a thing of the past or a thing of the unenlightened, trying to attempt feats far beyond their mortal reach.

It is difficult to tell whether Google and its friends have given us non-profit internet marketers a true advantage in the rankings or just a head start. Clearly certain domains attain higher positions, but I keep coming back to the fact that, on average, they deserve it. It may not be solely an advantage entrusted by the domain extension. If positioning were determined by absolutely nothing other than the amount of high quality content (defined as relevant, useful information) a website offers to its visitors, dot-orgs and dot-gov and dot-edu's probably do beat out the average dot-com. While there are many good dot-coms, they get the recognition they deserve. Large corporate sites and the like always have good positioning; it is the small independents or small-medium sized businesses, it seems, that have a brutal fight for ranking without the benefit of a giant advertising budget.

One of the challenges of being involved with an ambitious marketing organization is keeping information completely accurate while working on new online and offline marketing initiatives simultaneously. My current company is one of few I've worked with that is ambitious enough to try a lot of different things at once, and see what works. While the actual development may sometimes feel slow, it's nonetheless a very entrepreneurial spirit that is rare for a Company that's nearly 25 years old. It helps in part to explain our growth and sucess as a business. Now that I am positioned in a secondary role to work with our business development and affiliations team on marketing planning, it does expand the possibilities for what we can get done, and how quickly.

I have the opportunity now to work with several new strategic alliances and support them in furthering a new marketing strategy, plus providing online communications. The side-effect of good business development is going to be more web content than we've ever had, but it will be naturally segregated in a way that we drive more traffic and inquiry sources into our recruiting and operations divisions. At least, that's my theory on how this will take shape. This is a long-term view.

As a marketer in the evolving internet era, I need to remind myself from time to time that the mechanics and gritty work, while mundane, are a necessary step to move in a good direction. A direction of growth, and a scenario that makes volunteer vacations an opportunity of which everyone is at least aware.

What are YOU reading?

Wed, 16 May 2007 16:37:00 -0400

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/ http://www.clickz.com/ http://www.webpronews.com/ http://seoarticles.seoforgoogle.com/ http://www.seomoz.org/ http://www.highrankings.com/articles.htm http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ http://www.marketingexperimentsblog.com/ http://www.johnwinsor.com/my_weblog/ http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/ http://heehawmarketing.typepad.com/hee_haw_marketing/ http://www.mpdailyfix.com/ http://www.websitemarketingplan.com/strategy/ http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ http://www.wilsonweb.com/ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

Star Tribune / Media Downturn

Tue, 08 May 2007 10:09:00 -0400

It was announced last night that the Minneapolis Star Tribune is cutting between 100-150 staff, including many respected long-time writers. While the number is small compared to some of the local layoffs we've seen (e.g., Highland Park Ford Plant Shutdown), it is huge as a percent of professional staff, and it certainly a dramatic reflection of the impact of the internet on information distribution.

For non-profits like mine where media was traditionally a large source of sales leads, the internet has gradually grown and overtaken and grown some more. The question of how to approach media, knowing that this trend is irreversible, is salient. Should businesses discontinue ongoing efforts at pursuing coverage in traditional media outlets in favor of online editors, directories and listings? Or should we continue pounding the pavement with writers, knowing that much of what goes to press automatically winds up online as well?

Overdue marketing rant...will the value be diluted?

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 12:30:00 -0400

Well I suppose it's long overdue...I have not shared my marketing goings-on in forever it seems like, so here goes. Did I leave you hanging? We did in fact launch our new corporate website several weeks ago. Everything went off without a hitch, and by and large all reports are that people love the face lift. So, now what? That's the question we've been chewing on in the absence of aftermath, destruction or chaos. Things that were put off for so long can now again be a priority. Much touted interactive features. The changes to our online home allow people to find what they need much more easily, but they still fall short of creating an environment for two-way interaction. We're working on several new initiatives that make a medium for conversation with our constituents and to not by passed by in the social media - social marketing explosion. While the social internet has grown to encompass millions of cyberwalkers, it has yet to become the standard. I believe it's still on the cusp of the "mainstream" - wherein real fireworks happen. When every organization online figures out the enormous potential for this, and adopts it, then blogs will be as common as the 1998-inspired site with iframes. This begs the question, will the value be diluted? In keeping up with my internet marketing news I learned that the market for search advertising is well over $5bn. If it isn't already, it'll probably approach $9 or $10Bn very soon. So my question, again, is...will the value be diluted? If every company under the sun is spending a big chunk of their marketing budget on getting their impressions for Google searches, not only can Google up the ante but they have. If every company under the sun is in your search result, the competition drives prices up and dilutes or completely eradicates any advantage people found from this medium early on. Again, blogs are becoming a part of mainstream media- you'll notice that TV News personalities all have blogs online now where you can go to learn about the news or to find online resources they mentioned on air. Eventually we'll all have blogs, and then they will offer no real marketing advantage. The trick then is to be quick about implementing it. For those people who work in high tech companies, being agile and acting on the latest cutting edge phenomenon may be as obvious as getting your next Diet Coke from the company kitchen. For the rest of us, change happens slowly, and that is where the fight is. Any suggestions for making it happen faster? Or is it better to just let things happen as they happen.

LINK NL - vol 56

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 15:58:00 -0400

Click to read the latest newsletter, hot off the presses (and including one very exciting announcement about our website!)
LINK.

Online Strategy Workshop

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:23:00 -0400

After attending a terrific online strategy lunch meeting today, hosted by Austin-based Convio, an online marketing company which recently acquired GetActive, here are some of the insights and learnings.

Keys to success in online fund-raising and internet marketing:

A documented strategy with measurable goals
Software. Whether custom built or 3rd party, we all need tools to accomplish the task. Obviously the more you can spend, the better the tools you can employ.
Internal resources. In order to successfully execute 1 & 2 above, having the right people with good skills is a must.

Some simple tips or tricks for building that all important email house list:

Simple surveys or polls on your site (ask for their email address!)
ECard : e.g., National Wildlife Federation
Offer something tangible in exchange for registration : e.g., free sticker, bumper sticker, button, etc.

Turns out we already had made eCards for every country...but the mechanism doesn't work on our current web server. Great news! We can hopefully just find a new back end to send and resuscitate the graphics that my peer spent a lot of time on way back when. This is like the tell-a-friend feature, only far more handsome. Too good to pass up, if I can get my voice heard.

How to Make a Difference on Vacation

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:00:00 -0400

How to Make a Difference on Vacation Imagine: This year, your volunteer vacation could be teaching basic math to students in a rural African community struggling to modernize. Next year, you could volunteer abroad to help research scientists save endangered sea turtles from extinction. On your volunteer vacation the following year, you could assist nurses at a children's clinic .... http://digg.com/world_news/How_to_Make_a_Difference_on_Vacation A gift for themselves is a gift to others For a small but growing cadre, 'service trips' to help others locally or abroad are the best way to celebrate the holidays. Tim Farrell and a growing number of fellow traveling volunteers, a service trip has become the holiday season's big-ticket item. In response to growing demand, Global Volunteers of St. Paul, MN, has grown its list ... http://digg.com/world_news/A_gift_for_themselves_is_a_gift_to_others Students Collaborate on Book: Orphans in Peru will benefit from imagination Third-graders take part in a student book project at Greece, NY's West Ridge Elementary School and Olympia High School to raise money for the Puericultorio Perez Aranibar children's home in Lima, Peru, through Global Volunteers, an international volunteer group. http://digg.com/world_news/Students_Collaborate_on_Book_Orphans_in_Peru_will_benefit_from_imagination

Marketing Sherpa Wisdom for 2007

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 15:01:00 -0400

See my comments in the just-published marketing wisdom report by marketing sherpa!

This is a great site to read the insights on internet marketing with an experimental research approach to learning.

http://wisdom.marketingsherpa.com/store/downloads/wisdom2007.pdf

TLT wrap

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:05:00 -0400

Turkey lettuce and tomato wrap? No, it's Global Volunteers' annual Team Leader Training!

After 3 weeks of visitors from 18 countries, I am glad to report I survived my first TLT. They were long days held at a remote site far, far away from the land of Lake David. But, it was heart warming to be a host to these international visitors, and to learn from their many years of experiences leading volunteer teams in their own communities.

It was obvious to me that this course had evolved over many years to become something that was impressive both for its educational value as well as for the effort of staff involved in the undertaking.

Now seems to be a calm 'after' the storm. As many people begin taking holiday vacation, and the international staff have dispersed to their home countries, we are left with relative quiet in the office...but a LONG list of things we'd like to accomplish next.

New business development and partnerships
Finish development on the new website and begin to roll out CMS components
Finish collateral materials for 2 new campaigns (Country Newsletters, Replace Yourself)
Update search engine advertising that has been idle.

I will never be bored if I always have a wish list of priorities to be tackled next. My manager could probably write a list of 50 things she'd like us to do but in reality, most initiatives take months. Those large undertakings involve other departments and should follow some sort of project plan or process outline. To focus in the present, I need to know what comes first-- lest I find myself jumping from one to another of the 50 wish-list projects. I do love multitasking, but more than 5 things would just be unrealistic. After all, we can only do so many things in a day.

What works best for you?

Post-thanksgiving

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:09:00 -0400

4 days after Thanksgiving and I can still feel the turkey gobbling and the dressing dripping with rich, savory gravy. It was a great relaxing weekend of exercise (walking around the lake, hitting the Y, raking leaves, hopefully for the last time) and eating. In my ideal world, the former offsets the guilt quotient for the latter making it possible to further enjoy the family festivities and overstuffed meals, of which there are at least 3 more to come in the next month.

While all this is going on, we are busy finishing our new corporate site. It has been a mad dash for the past two months, but if all goes OK, this thing will launch by New Years. After centuries of delays, it may be better to reserve excitement until after the fact.

Other big goings on: TLT06, aka Team leader training, a form of mass chaos whereby all of Global Volunteers' international staff converge upon St Paul for 2-3 weeks for annual training and working meetings. The first of our guests arrived today. Coordinating the lodging, transportation, meals, and daily schedule logistics for over 20 visitors is a big (and expensive) task. Thankfully, I am not in charge. Although I have 14 hours of meetings scheduled with our country managers on marketing strategy. It will be a busy few weeks followed by the rush of a hundred items that have been tabled until after it's all over.

Launch Announcement

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:16:00 -0400

The Tradeshow this week was a terrific success. . . here is the press release:

http://www.traveldailynews.com/new.asp?newid=32294&subcategory_id=96

ASTA - Marketing Communications

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:00:00 -0400

We knew this was coming. We just didn't know how fast it would all go down. Global Volunteers was selected as ASTA's (American Society of Travel Agents) 'Travel Agents Care' partner. Not only that, but we were selected the charity of choice by the organization. The new partnership as the premier volunteer vacations organization will be launched in conjunction with The Tradeshow - Travel Retailing and Destination Expo in Orlando, FL.

This all sounds super peachy, doesn't it?! This is a tremendous opportunity for our organization. What was the impact on marketing? Don't suspend work on your new website, but we need you to turn around in under 4 weeks, a trade show booth display or banner stands to fill a 10'x20' space, 4 different brochures, new travel agent-specific catalogs, a sell sheet, a 95pg travel agent handbook, and a video slide show to be shown on a 503 plasma monitor.

When you find yourself in this situation, you hope you have one creative and talented designer helping you. You also hope that you have a staff that will focus on a successful outcome, because there is no alternative. We are just sending items into production with 2 weeks to go, and I can say with confidence that it all will be pulled off seamlessly. But not without some challenges.

Deciding on the printing vendors. How many should you get quotes from? Do you choose based on price, past experience, location or service? Do you give all your work to one printer, even if you know they're terrific? Or do you pick 8 printers for 8 jobs. It's all a balancing act. We have 4 working with us on these pieces, but all companies we have worked with in the past. Arguably, it's 1 too many. Pick people you trust and then you will sleep better at night.
Deciding on the message. Who is the audience? In this case, most of the material will be consumed by travel agents but you don't want to sink thousands of dollars into display materials and marketing collateral that can only be used once a year for a particular event. They need to be more general yet still boast our unique relationship which we are launching.

Think hybrid. Three banner stands will showcase our company, feature strong testimonials, colorful photos, and display our brand. A table-top or easel display will be right in front of passers-by, touting the charity of choice message and our respective logos.
Can we get it done in time? The first decision is scope. My team had little input into the scope other than the display booth... because much of what we went with was what was recommended by a respected travel agent. Second, can some of it be carried or must it all be shipped. Work backwards, ask several printers immediately how fast they can turn it around. They might say 10 days, but that includes buffer. The actual print time may be 2 days + labor. If you know this, you know your drop dead dates for getting final products out the door.
Have confidence in your team and try not to step on one another's way. We have 5 or 6 different people involved. A simple grid was sent out showing who was responsible for what, who is the designer, editor, quantity, and so forth. That way we can help one another without throwing things off track. Printers don't really like it with 3 people call them about the same job and have conflicting instructions, just as we wouldn't like it if 3 different people at the vendor sent us 3 different quotes.

Breathe deeply, a sigh of relief. The rewards will come!

Final Stages for Catalog

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 10:25:00 -0400

The catalog is printed! After 4 press checks and an awe-inspiring up close and personal look at the amazing Heidelberg offset printing machine, now I wait for cutting and stitching. The final product will be delivered by the end of the week. If you want to see this amazing compilation of months of sweat and toil and the brain-follies of at least 5 people, you can email me but it would be best to request your own through official means, the Request Information Form.

There will be a big party when we finally get to admire the end-result of so much effort from so many people. It's deserved, right?