“Brand needs to be simple and clear.
Who I am, what I do and what I do it for.”
- John Morgan, Author “Brand Against The Machine”

This past Friday I attended a conference titled “Brand Against The Machine” presented by the St. Louis Chapter of American Marketing Association (@AMASTL).  Prior to attending, I invited my audience to follow along via Twitter (@inboxorange) as I knew the conference was a topic top-of-mind for many.

There was a common theme – branding integrates corporate culture, personality, customer experience, listening, brand recognition and quality.  Think of your brand as you read through the highlighted tweets below.

Speaker:  Mark Quinn, Vice President Marketing, Leggett and Platt 

• “Things are constantly changing.” All things happening before we ever do our job.
• Not easy to do the unexpected. Hard to break through. Got to do the Unexpected to compete.
• Need to lead the conversation. Not sit back and watch.
• Listen and teach the “guy on the ground.” Lesson – Take risks. Go out there and do more. Be innovative. Change the conversation.
• Consider the corporate culture when you take risk. Make sure you have buy-in.
• Help. Give. Learn. Create a community within your industry. “It’s a contribution.”
• Challenge: Do the unexpected. Wow someone. Great talk by Mark Quinn!

• @thenetimpact: @inboxorange so right, stay true to your brand. Can’t get past that.
• @thenetimpact agree. Culture is vital. Listening and continuously educating team members toward the goal grants success.

Speaker:  Brian Hall, Chief Marketing Officer, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission

• Appreciate the power of story telling. Find ways to emotionally engage audience through storytelling #amastlconf – Brian Hall, STCVB.
• What is your story? Tell a story to have customer connect with your brand.
• Embrace emotion – reference the type of experience your client will have.
• @AMASTL:  Non-traditional marketing campaigns from the STL-CVC. Doing the unexpected per @joplinquinn‘s advice.

Expert Panel Discussion:

• Not only consistency but relevancy is key to branding.
• Make the consumer want the product. Sell the value instead of the price.
• Need to combine survey research and social media analytic to get to the truth.

Keynote Speaker:  John Morgan – Author “Brand Against the Machine”

• “If you want better clients you have to build a better brand.”@johnmorgan “#1 asset is your brand”.
• Put your personality into your business. Your competitors can’t get in. You are your biggest advantage.
• “You can’t be one way online and another way offline. Those days are LONG gone.”
• Visibility is more important than ability. Visibility gets you in the door ability keeps you there. Don’t rely alone on your ability.
• People buy based on emotion but justify based on facts.
• Be a trusted resource, not a service provider. Focus on adding value and educating first. People feel obligated to support.
• Create content to solve problems – lead to the next step. Tell good stories. A creation story invests clients.
• Clients should be your best brand advocate. Self promotion is not about you. It’s about the value you provide.
• Excellent presentations today at #amastlconf. Looking forward to reading the book “Brand against the Machine”

Read more on Twitter at #amastlconf.

The theme of the conference was titled after the third best-selling book on Amazon on the topic of branding, “Brand Against the Machine.”  I’m reading this book now and recommend you do as well.  So far, it’s a fast and engaging read! Learn more at http://brandagainstthemachine.com/.

Look for more discussion on this topic in an upcoming Inbox Orange Ingage Event.

We are all marketing experts. Aren’t we? We are pitched and sold to in almost every way possible. We can discern a good ad from a bad one. My wife actually paid attention to football (Super Bowl) a couple of weeks ago because she was wanting to see the commercials.

Why is it that no one will admit to being affected by an ad to make a purchase decision? Very few people admit to being ‘sold’ by an ad or marketing message. But the fact is, marketing does make a difference.

Traditionally, ad campaigns have been used to craft a feeling about a brand. Companies want you to trust them. They create familiarity by using relatable messaging to their target demographic and hire spokespeople hoping you will assign some of the positive feeling from that spokesperson to their brand. It can work, but it takes money. And if you have enough money you could usually do it quickly (with big budget commercials and media buys). That is until people stopped using traditional media as their primary source for news and entertainment.

Now that people are not using traditional channels to spend their time and get their news, how can businesses reach this ever-elusive market? How can they ‘sell’ you on their brand?

Well, large brands can shift resources and staff to new media tools, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and create a “brand voice” to talk with their customers. Large brands with ‘unlimited’ resources at their disposal used to be able to buy ads quickly and see sales numbers increase; not anymore.

The problem is now it costs more than dollars–it takes time. This levels the playing field a bit. Proctor and Gamble may have fancier teams, tools, and more money, but they have the same amount of time as every other small business.

No time–so what now?

Using new media to build relationships–with your vendors, customers, prospective customers and even employees–means investing your time. Use the latest tools to help you do this smartly and have a dialogue with your target audience.

Don’t waste your customers’ valuable time by just pasting up the same traditional mass media campaign, using the latest new media tools. Don’t just try to collect followers on Facebook or subscribers on email lists. That is applying traditional media methods to new media tools, and it won’t work. New media means using a new strategy–one that involves conversations with your audience.

To gain the attention of today’s customers, use traditional media as one of the tools to acquire customers and then invest the time to build the relationship from there by interacting and engaging them with useful and meaningful conversations through new media.

Take a look at this example of what we mean by “Ask your audience”:

The Opportunity

Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky (PCAKY) is currently sending out emails to a single mailing list which consists of more than one target audience. With a rate of around 70% of their audience currently unengaged, PCAKY realizes that much of their information is missing the target and needs to be tailored toward the interests of their subscribers.

“When we first started with email marketing, about 4 years ago, we had it in our mind that email marketing would be our parent outreach tool. But we’ve learned that we have a lot of professionals coming to us and saying, what resources do you have? What training materials do you have?” explains Becky Hake, PCAKY.

With such distinct segmentation among their audience, PCAKY is working with Inbox Orange to create a re-engagement campaign to differentiate their audiences.

The Solution

An initial email will explain that PCAKY is looking to provide more relevant information to subscribers and encourage recipients to choose their correct category for engagement. Recipients will be prompted to select an option:

• continue receiving updates about parenting education and resources
• continue receiving updates about events and training opportunities
• opt out of receiving any further emails from PCAKY

The re-engagement plan will include a second email, approximately one week later, reminding recipients to define their level of engagement by choosing to opt in to one of the categories. Finally, a third email, approximately a week after the second, will issue a “last chance” to opt in or be removed from the email list.

The desired result is a clean mailing list that will supply targeted information to the PCAKY audience, increasing the open rates and overall engagement. Over the coming weeks, we will keep you posted on the results of the PCAKY re-engagement campaign. Follow along and let us know if you have any questions or need help with a re-engagement campaign of your own.

If you’d like to learn more about PCAKY, visit www.pcaky.org.

Emily Sandford, social media and marketing consultant with Authentically Social, says, “not necessarily.” Whether you’ve already started a blog, or plan to start a blog, it’s important to have a strategy in place. “Companies need to think the goal of a blog before they begin. And then once they start a blog, they need to think about how they will engage the audience.” That’s the toughest part, Emily explains, because companies want to see a return right away, and unfortunately a corporate blog is not going to draw in a wide audience right away.

“What I’ve found a blog works best for in business is creating content in a let your hair down sort of way, that helps tell stories about your business, behind your business or has relatable items to your clients or to your prospects.” As the Marketing Manager for Office Suites Plus, Emily started a corporate blog in order to extend content beyond the company website. “For example, a blog post will feature business tips, and because the Office Suites Plus audience is mostly business owners, they find that information valuable.” The company can then filter the blog content out through their social media and lead the audience back to their website for further engagement.

An expert on blogging for multiple audiences, Emily offers these tips for making the most of a corporate blog:

1)    There is no reason to have a company blog just for the sake of having a blog. First, ask what are the goals of the blog?

2)    Strategize: What are you going to talk about and who’s going to create the content?

3)    Think about frequency and consistency: start a calendar and schedule posts for particular dates and times.

4)    Create dynamic content: What your blog says matters more than what your blog looks like. If you’re trying to build an audience, you have to write for them. What are they looking for and what will they read?

5)    Ask for engagement: If you leave a leading question that wraps up what you talked about and asks for readers to explain how the topic applies to them, they will comment.

6)    Don’t forget the links: Have a plan in place to build up your SEO through key words and links

7)    Subscribe to other blogs. Comment on the posts you find interesting and it will lead the audience back to you. Get engaged with other readers or even ask for a link back from another blog to drive new readers to your site.

Subject Line √, Design √, Content √, Test √, Success – no clue!  Does this sound familiar?  Many of our clients ask if their open and unique click through rates are where they should be.

The answer is different for each industry, as published in this post by Marketing Profs titled “Email Metrics: Open, Click Rates Highest in the Morning.”  Once you determine where you are and where you should be, it’s best to take some time to evaluate your campaigns.

While we highly recommend conducting an A/B split test to a small segment of your audience prior to your launch, we understand this is not always the case. Many times only testing within various email providers is done to ensure proper rendering is conducted.   Either way, here are a few steps I take to evaluate each campaign:

The first thing I ask is “did I reach my goal?”  Did my subscribers take the action I directed them to take?   Most subscribers make an initiative within the first 24 hours of receiving a campaign.

Secondly, whether I reached my goal or not,  I jot down notes assessing the following, then test these improvements in my next campaign:

• Audience – was the message relevant to the audience
• How did they engage – click on image or text
• Where did they engage - placement of call to action within the campaign
• Subject line – thoughts after send
• What change would enhance the campaign?
• Content – was it too long, did my audience engage to read more?

Thirdly, I have created a dashboard to evaluate trends of important metrics over time.  This dashboard shows a visual to growth / decline of a list, unique open and click through rates, the best time of day and best day of the week to send, as well as insight into my unsubscribe rate.  For instance, if my unsubscribe rate shows a consistent increase, I probably want to re-evaluate send frequency or look at how my audience is segmented for relevancy.  My personal preference is to use an online dashboard vendor such as Stats Mix or Good Data which can integrate your email marketing service provider and online metrics such as Google Analytics and social media fans and followers.  However to save on costs and familiarity, many people utilize Excel.  Whichever you prefer, a dashboard is invaluable in keeping a pulse on your email marketing program.

How do you evaluate your email marketing program?  What works for you?

I talked to Jeff Bishop, Partner Relationship Manager at ExactTarget, about what it means to “Be Orange” and how a strong internal company culture leads to good things externally.

“ExactTarget adopted the Orange Culture about 2 ½ years ago as kind of a rallying cry to bring everyone together under one unified front,” explains Jeff. “Being Orange is what we do, and we embrace this through customer support, sales efforts and throughout the marketplace.”

Looking at all the success ExactTarget has experienced as of late, the Orange philosophy certainly shows.

In 2011, ExactTarget experienced 50% annual revenue growth and opened new offices in the UK, Melbourne and will soon open another in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc. named ExactTarget a leader among email marketing service providers in its January 2012 report, “The Forrester Wave™: Email Marketing Vendors, Q1 2012.” Forrester credited ExactTarget with the strongest current product offering of all vendors evaluated with top scores in Executive Vision, Development Strategy, Functionality and Global Strategy.

It’s all due to the Orange philosophy and embracing the idea that the customer comes first. “It’s all about the people, and the approach to relationships, how we get our clients involved,” says Jeff. “ExactTarget has 3000 clients, but we make all of them feel like family. We work closely together, and we work hard to find answers.”

At Inbox Orange, we can personally attest to this commitment to client success. We are constantly wowed by our partner in orange and the lengths they will go to in order to help us provide solutions for our own clients.

The ExactTarget website echos this personal sentiment and lists 8 core values that embrace the spirit of Orange:

• Treat people well
• Be easy to do business with
• Stay true to permission
• Make clients look like heroes
• Empower marketers through software
• Make decisions like an owner
• Have an entrepreneurial spirit
• Pursue our goals as a team

Tell us:  What is your company culture? What are your core values? What inspires you? 

Below you’ll find a list of resources to help you create engaging content more quickly and more easily for emails, blog posts, social media and more.  In case you missed the webinar, we’ve also included a recorded version for your review.

As always, please let us know if we can assist you with any questions!  And don’t miss our next webinar: Data Driven Messages on February 28, 2012. Look for the webinar invite in your inbox soon.

Join us Tuesday for Writing to the Point

JANUARY 24 :: 11:00 – 11:30 EST

Email, Social and Blog.  If it’s content, we’ll cover it — all in 30 minutes. Get inside tips on creating stand-out content customers will want to read and share, including:

• The Creative Process
• Email Subject Lines
• Social Media Profile Pages
• Call-to-Action Directives

REGISTER NOW »

Questions about content? 

Submit them below and we’ll address them during Insight in 30 on Tuesday.

I have to admit, I log on and off all day long, mainly for business reasons. Every time we write a blog post, or come across something we think our clients will find interesting–it’s worth sharing on our Inbox Orange Facebook page. The same is true for your business.

I ran across an article from pagemodo.com, talking about how important it is to update a Facebook business page frequently.  Based on their recommendations, here are five ways to keep visitors interested and coming back to your Facebook page:

1. Design: Just like your website, your business Facebook page should reflect who you are and have visual appeal. The most important element, of course, is your company logo.
2. Update: Frequent updates will keep your visitors coming back and interesting news will more likely get shared with other Facebook users.
3. Interact: Respond to comments on your page. Just like all good customer service, the personal touch is key to loyalty.
4. Brand: Incorporate your branding into your Facebook business page  for consistency and increased effectiveness.
5. Customize: Stand out from the crowd with a sophisticated Facebook page with features your customers are looking for, such as description of services, directions, contact info, and relevant content.

Follow these guidelines to increase engagement and achieve success!

Bluegrass Hospitality Group, is one company doing it right. “It’s really an avenue we’re excited to go down,” says Elise Menold, Marketing Director at BHG. “Our customers are opting-in and specifically telling us: ‘we want to hear from you.’ It’s so much easier for us because we can interact one on one.”

Elise Menold, Marketing Director at BHG

And continuing to develop one to one marketing is a major goal for BHG in 2012. “We want to be: ‘what can we do for you?’ and ‘talk to me.’  Now that we have our email look down, that’s where we’re headed,” says Elise.

In the past year, BHG has concentrated more on email marketing and reduced their print and billboard advertising. They currently email customers once per week.  Using an alogorithm set up by Inbox Orange, BHG is able to target emails very specifically to customers, based on which restaurant in the group they visit most frequently, among other factors.

“We want to cross promote all our restaurants,” explains Elise. “So we focus on sending you the email from the restaurant you frequent the most, but banners within the email cross promote the other restaurants.”

Elise spends a great deal of time customizing the emails specific to each restaurant’s market. And the results have been huge. “The feedback has been wonderful. We’re sitting on a goldmine of information from the feedback and we’re really trying to use it more,” says Elise.

A key component of BHG’s success has been differentiating themselves from other restaurants using email marketing. One way BHG does this well is by putting in the extra effort to use alt tags on all images. The big, colorful images in the BHG emails entice the reader to open, but they wouldn’t be useful at all if the images didn’t load correctly. Many restaurants don’t take the time to do it.

For example, another restaurant using the same template as BHG, without the alt tags, will produce an email that comes through, especially on a smart phone, as just lines and no images. This is especially problematic if the text was part of the image, and not a separate component. “Pretty pictures can hurt you if you don’t get those alt tags in there,” says Elise.

It’s all in the details. See the difference in the examples below:

This recent email from BHG shows how spectacular images can look, increasing the open rate.

The same email, as seen above, without images still guides the reader to the call to action.

This email from Wings is an example of what customers see when alt tags are not filled in correctly.

Another example, this time from Kohls, demonstrates how important alt tags are to making sure your email comes across as you desire.

What is your one to one marketing plan for 2012? How do you plan to better utilize email marketing tools to help you achieve your goals? Let us know how we can help make 2012 a success!