Step 1: Segment Out Your Inactive Subscribers

First, find your inactive subscribers. Depending on the type of emails and your frequency of sends, you might pull out people who haven’t engaged with your emails in the last 3-6 months, or perhaps you’ll want to go back a little further to 9-12 months.

Once you have your list, you’ll want to work on ways to encourage them to take action. Taking action could mean opening your email and clicking on an offer, clicking a link to confirm they’re still interested or even … unsubscribing.  What?  Encourage them to unsubscribe?  Yes. If they’re really not interested, but just haven’t opted out, why keep sending to them?

Step 2: Identify Ways to Re-Engage

One idea for a win-back campaign would be to send them a special offer. Make sure to let them know this is an offer just for them. You want them back and are willing to give them a discount, special deal or gift.

Or you could send them a survey. It could be a survey to learn more about what they’d like to see in future communications or it could be a survey masquerading as a preference center where they can choose the type of communications or the frequency they’d like to receive.  With this strategy it’s always a good idea to incentivize their interaction.

Finally there’s the good old “Please come back,” “We miss you” or “Where have you been” email.  Just letting them know you want to communicate with them just may do the trick. People like to believe they’re actually communicating with a real person, so an well-presented plea could make them take another look.

Step 3: Test Your Results

Now that you’ve sent some re-engagement campaigns, take a look at your pre-strategy results, your re-engagement results and then the results of your next few normal sends. Did you improve your overall engagement? Did your inactive subscribers re-engage just during the re-engagement campaign or have they continued to engage? Or did you lose a lot of your subscribers.

Final Step: Fix The Underlying Problem

Now that you’ve spent time encouraging your existing subscribers to re-engage with your emails, you should try taking a look at why subscribers become inactive. Are your emails not interesting enough? Perhaps you’re selling too hard, sending too often or not sending the right kind of content.

I also frequently see marketers collect emails, but not take advantage of the honeymoon period. The first few months of a subscription are very important. A strong onboarding campaign can prove to your new subscribers your emails are worth reading. The saying “it takes 21 days to form a habit” loosely applies to this theory. It’s actually more than 21 days in email, but the concept is the same. I’d say “it takes 3 months to form a habit.”  So create a strong onboarding program. Send them your best offers and your best articles during this period. If they stay engage during this period odds are they’ll make looking for your emails a habit.

Now put those pencils down and get moving on re-engaging the disengaged. Good luck.

Download audio file (Jim_Brian_December_2010_Webinar_Interview1.mp3)

Brian explained to me that he covered a lot of ground, but focused on:

• Examples and case studies showing how credit unions and banks are using social media on channels such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Foursquare
• Various social media tactics that could be employed depending on your bank or credit union’s social maturity level
• Recommendations for addressing compliance, ROI and budget questions from your C-suite or board of directors

He also highlighted a question about problems with examiners’ concerns of social media. One tip he provided attendees was to “write down all of the scenarios you believe could occur, then list who is responsible, what is a standard response and how long it should take to respond. If you can present that plan, you can show how you’re in control.” Consider preparing a table, such as what is provided in Brian’s post Example Social Media Engagement Model for Banks and Credit Unions.

If you’re interested in reviewing the slides, you can see them by viewing the presentation on Slideshare below.

If you’re interested in having this program or best practices on another interactive topic presented to your own team, contact Brian. I know he would enjoy presenting and handling any questions you and your colleagues may have.

We would love to hear your social media success stories and tips. Please feel free to leave your comments below.

This online protest (and others that occurred offline) had an impact. Both SOPA and PIPA were shelved indefinitely just two days later.

The legislation that was at the heart of this story is two-fold: in Congress, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and in the Senate, PIPA (PROTECT IP Act – Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Privacy Act). CNN’s MoneyBlog covered the ins and outs of SOPA and honed in on the main gist of the legislation, that being that SOPA would require U.S. search engines, payment services providers (think PayPal) and advertisers to cut off services to pirates in hopes that the sites couldn’t survive.

Who supported this legislation?

A number of media companies supported this legislation because it targeted Internet piracy of copyrighted works, primarily overseas. The Motion Picture Association of America was one key backer. Who could blame them? They lose billions of dollars to pirates and counterfeiters who sell or give away copies of or links to the movies they produce.

Content piracy is nothing new (think Napster) and many copyright infringements were addressed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The challenge comes when you try to control what’s happening overseas.

While opponents didn’t begrudge content creators – movie studios to song writers to authors – the right to be paid for their work, they believed the legislation would lead to censorship and drastically change the way content is handled on the Internet. They feared that SOPA would hold sites –  both foreign and domestic – liable for content uploaded by individual users, which would require sites like YouTube to review content uploaded by millions of users each week.

Hear what Priority’s Interactive Marketing Strategist Jason Douglas had to say last Wednesday about the impact on Twin Cities radio station K-TWIN.

Download audio file (KTWINJasonSOPA1.mp3)

Both sides had valid points. Listen to the two sides square off in a debate on Democracy Now between Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales and Sandra Aistars, Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance (members include the MPAA, NBC Universal, Time Warner, Viacom, ASCAP and BMI).

Thank you Wikipedia for standing up for the sharing of knowledge! (I missed you.)

The Olympic Ban

If you missed it, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have created social media rules (that effectively ban social media) for its 70,000 volunteers. Basically, Jason’s take is that there is an obvious security aspect to the ban. That is understandable. These volunteers will be close to athletes and dignitaries. They want to protect information about injuries and locations. They also likely want to retain the element of surprise for the opening and closing ceremonies.

However, Jason joined Tony Fly in wishing the LOCOG good luck policing 70,000 people. Jason went on to explain his thought that LOCOG is basically showing lack of a real strategy. They probably have a fear of the unknown.

The brief call ended with Jason, Eric Perkins and Tony Fly agreeing that it will be hard to police unpaid volunteers – and LOCOG is going to miss an opportunity with some of their biggest enthusiasts.

Listen to Jason’s call with K-TWIN’s Eric Perkins and Tony Fly:

Download audio file (K-TWIN-Interview-Jason-Douglas.mp3)

How Olympic Organizers Could Have Learned from Healthcare and Financial Services Marketers

Social media experts have been saying for years that as marketers, we no longer own the conversation. They are right. Ultimately, I believe volunteers are akin to customers. Really enthusiastic customers. And while we may sometimes wish we could ban people from saying bad things or sharing things we might not like, we cannot control that today.

LOCOG could have learned something by looking at the healthcare and financial services industries. These industries have to deal with extremely sensitive information and social media. Yet, our clients and prospects are no longer running away from social media by banning it for employees and ignoring its potential to engage their audiences.

They are embracing social media by creating rules of engagement that help them deal with unexpected or undesirable social media interactions. Today’s healthcare and financial services marketers are helping to guide the conversation in a way that allows their audience to feel engaged – and their C-suite or board to feel at ease.

What’s your take? Do you think Olympic organizers should revise their ban? Do you think this has an impact on the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Russia?

2012 Hospital Marketing Trends

Below are my two cents. What do you think?

• Mobile Marketing
  In 2010, social media was the buzz at conferences around the world, including SHSMD Connections. By 2011, my impression was that most of you had gotten social media policies in place, budgets approved and had a few successes under your belt. During that time, mobile marketing began to take some of the spotlight. I think hospitals will be looking to address the mobile boom by optimizing existing Web properties, developing native mobile apps and experimenting with mobile based social networks.
• CRM and PRM
  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Physician Relationship Management (PRM) systems are not new to healthcare. However, they seem to have recently become more attractive to marketing departments. Many of you have been collecting data on your marketing efforts for years and want to put it to use to as a strategic asset to improve your outreach efforts. (SHSMD has a great Webcast scheduled - From Tracking Tool to Strategic Asset: Getting the Most Out of Your CRM System.)
• Social Media (Again?)
  You might be wondering why I’m listing social media after saying it was hot in 2010. Well, it’s time to reflect on the successful and not-so-successful efforts of the past year – and grow from them. Expect to hear continued social media buzz.

So what’s your take? Please feel free to comment below or take the LinkedIn Poll.

The Contest

As part of their “people helping people” philosophy, Michigan Schools and Government Credit Union (MSGCU), created a grant submission program. Each year, they give away a series of “mini grants” to classrooms throughout their community, ranging from $200 to $1,000 in value. In May, MSGCU began looking for a way to simplify a very paper heavy and time consuming process. Our team was able to help automate the submission process and involve the community through a microsite with online voting.

The Play-by-Play

• Sept. 1 through Oct. 28 - 76 submissions were received from schools across the region.
• Oct. 31 - Voting was opened to the public and promoted through branches and direct communications with teachers and schools.
• November 1st – Voting sky rocketed and a handful of grant proposals rose to the top. It was determined that students at certain school districts were using school networks to vote in mass.
• November 2nd – Voting peaked with over 11,000 visitors. The remaining two weeks of voting saw an average of 3,000 visitors each day. Teachers set up evening and weekend computer lab time for students without Internet access at home to vote.
• November 4th – Other students caught on and began using school networks and coffee shops to vote in mass. Contest rules were updated to discourage mass and fraudulent votes before the weekend.
• November 7th – Kids returned to school with Internet access and the site continued to average 3,000 visitors each day.
• November 17th – Voting ended and winners were selected.

The Results

• Of the 76 submissions, 20 elementary schools, 7 middle schools, 16 high schools and 3 MISD (special education) schools received grants.
• 53,405 visits came from 33,734 unique visitors resulting in over 258,835 page views.
• The average visitor browsed 4.85 pages and spent 2:13 minutes on the site.
• 773 people clicked on ‘Share This Event’. Over 678 of those shared via Facebook and drove over 7,265 clicks and 17,502 page views in two weeks.
• Sharing occurred via all major social channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ (in that order).
• Interestingly, 8,069 of the unique visits were from a mobile device.

Lessons Learned

• Every contest and system can be “gamed”. Plan for it and consider it a compliment when your audience collectively dedicates over 2,000 hours to interacting with your brand.
• Don’t assume that everyone has access to the Internet at home.
• Mobile should be a consideration for EVERY online campaign.

Have you had success with contests? Please share any lessons learned below.

What is Gamma Knife technology, what does it treat and how does it fit into the mission of the Valley Health System?

Gamma Knife technology is nonsurgical treatment for brain and neurological conditions. At Valley, we’ve purchased a piece of equipment that has received worldwide praise from doctors and patients. As far as what it treats and our mission, it gives us the opportunity to underscore the technology and the innovation in both our cancer center and our neuroscience center of excellence.

When did marketing become involved and what role did your team play?

Our planning department let us know that Valley was interested in purchasing the technology. As marketers, we immediately began thinking about how to distinguish it and how to make people interested in this niche equipment. Shortly after we found out that the purchase was finalized, we heard a main competitor was also acquiring the technology.

That complicated matters a bit, but made us move faster to make sure that we grabbed mind share before anyone else had chance to take it. The Gamma Knife marketing group—myself, my vice president, the two physician directors of the center, radiation oncology staff, as well as members of the planning and physician relations teams—held monthly meetings to talk about strategy, execution and messaging.

Every month, we presented ad concepts, reviewed copy, previewed the microsite design and discussed the Google AdWords we were purchasing. We kept the whole project on track by involving stakeholders throughout the process. For example, we ensured referring physicians were equipped to understand the technology by engaging our fairly large physician relations department.

What was your messaging strategy?

• Gain Mindshare.
  I came up with the phrase, “First in the region. First for you.” Our first ads really focused on that piece as part of our mission to gain mindshare.
• Make Gamma Knife Radiosurgery Sound Less Scary.
  One of the first copy points in our ads was that “It’s not a knife at all.” We wanted to make the procedure sound less scary than it sounds. Despite the fact that it’s called radiosurgery, there’s no incision, no anesthesia and no overnight hospital stay.
• Answer the Question: What is Gamma Knife Radiosurgery?
  We had not only a marketing challenge, but a communications challenge in terms of getting people to understand what it is, how it works and the different conditions it treats.

One of our medical directors consistently pushed us to avoid the technical aspects of how it looks and works. He wanted us to focus on the healing environment of the facility, the nonsurgical/outpatient aspect and that it works very well, very quickly—typically in just one treatment.

We opted to employ a microsite (which can be found at www.ValleyGammaKnife.com and by searching on www.ValleyHealth.com), which helped us differentiate our service and promote the healing environment with a different look and feel vs. the valleyhealth.com site. The microsite also helped us address the complexity of the technology with a short video presentation.

That’s basically the strategy behind it. Get out there before anyone else. Do the best we can to make the technology not seem as scary as it sounds. Explain what it is—without getting too scientific.

It sounds like you were very busy! Was this similar or radically different from past roles marketing has played in other Valley Health initiatives?

I think this was different. There is a lot on the line with a big, expensive, complex piece of technology. In this instance, we were blessed with two physician medical directors who are very interested in marketing and understand the value of it.

What were the initial goals for launching the center?

Gain mindshare. Drive volume. Make sure the technology is used. Before the center even opened, we had roughly 40 inquiries and 10 consultations. 8 patients ended up in the queue when we went live on November 1.

One of the conditions Gamma Knife is effective in treating is trigeminal neuralgia, which is severe facial pain. Typically trigeminal neuralgia patients have suffered with it a long time because they can’t get treatment or because they thought it was dental pain. One reason we had so many people lined up was that trigeminal neuralgia patients are typically content with waiting a bit longer for a treatment they have waited so long for.

Gamma Knife is a rare piece of technology that has legs in terms of its marketing value. It allows us to drop it into two buckets and use it to promote two different service lines (oncology and neuroscience). It was exciting to work on and we are very proud of the role marketing played in launching the center.

Valley Gamma Knife Ads

The Gamma Knife microsite and print ads were designed and developed by Dowden Custom Media and eCrossings Media.

For starters … Location, location, location.

When searching for a location for your event ALWAYS tour the site and specific room you might reserve prior to confirming the date and signing any contracts. Many locations will put the room on hold without a down payment until they have the availability to show you the exact room.
Here are some questions to ask the on-site planner:

• What different ways can the room be set up and what would they suggest for your event?
• Does the room have a microphone and projector with screen?
• Can you pipe in your own music and control the volume?
• What color tablecloths are available?
• Will the facility provide any type of signage promoting or announcing your event?
• Do they have center pieces or do you need to supply your own? If they have center pieces, do they charge for them?
• Will they (the planner) be onsite for the event?

Here are some additional areas that often get overlooked in planning an event.

• Provide a little extra space. You want people to be comfortable after all. If you think you will have 75 people, get a room that will hold 100.
• Give yourself ample time. Arrive at least 1 hour prior to your event to make sure everything is set-up as requested, put out any decorations, test the audio system and speak with your servers so they are aware of your expectations. If you are planning an event in your office, give yourself a deadline that you will be ready 1 hour prior to when the guests are to arrive.
  • Speaking of decorations … Plan ahead for floral expenses. Do you need flowers for your event? A client of ours mentioned to me once that she orders all of her flowers from a company called Growers Box. She said she has saved a ton of money doing it that way.
• Address seating. No one wants to sit in the front of the room, so put out reserved signs on the last rows or back tables to fill front seats first. If it is a smaller event and you know who is coming, you can assign seats with name tags.
• Create a comprehensive, but not overwhelming agenda. Plan enough time for each agenda item and be sure to schedule short breaks. Schedule an extra 5-10 minutes for each item as a cushion. If you are having a hard time fitting everything onto the agenda, you have too much to cover. Cramming too much in will only make for a long drawn out event.
• Tackle boxes aren’t just for fishing. If you plan a lot of events, it can be helpful to put together what I call a first aid kit to hold miscellaneous items such as pens, scissors, name tags, paperclips, etc. A tackle box is a inexpensive way to organize and contain such items.
• Schedule time for entertainment. If you are having entertainment, be sure to schedule enough time. You don’t want to be the Grinch and end the fun like in this video.
The Teppanyaki Chef – watch more funny videos

Do you have some pointers or lessons learned to share? Please comment below. Good luck with your event planning in 2012!

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]]> http://priorityresults.com/blog/pointers-for-planning-an-event/feed/ 0 http://priorityresults.com/blog/thank-you-to-the-thank-you-economy/ http://priorityresults.com/blog/thank-you-to-the-thank-you-economy/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:32:46 +0000 Jen Joly, Marketing Director http://priorityresults.com/blog/?p=3780 In the spirit of the holidays, I want to send a big thank you out to Gary Vaynerchuk. I just finished The Thank You Economy, Vaynerchuk’s latest book (released earlier this year). I really enjoyed the read. Yet, the book surprised me because it wasn’t really all about marketing (at least in a traditional sense), nor was it all about social media.

Surprise #1: It’s not really about marketing.

I hesitate to say it’s not about marketing … actually, it’s what marketing should have always been about. It’s something that we lost somewhere along the way as companies grew larger and CEOs flying corporate jets replaced owners who knew their customers by name. It’s about customer relationships. I wouldn’t say this is a completely novel concept, but I think talking about putting all (or even most) of your marketing eggs in this basket is still pretty innovative.

“In the end, no matter what obstacles a company faces in the Thank You Economy, the solution will always be the same. Competitors are bigger? Outcare them. They’re cheaper? Outcare them. They’ve got celebrity status and you don’t? Outcare them. Social media gives you the tools to touch your consumer and create an emotion where before there might not have been one.”

One of my favorite parts of the book was a story from Joie de Vivre Hotels. One way the California-based hotel chain builds incredible customer relationships is through their DreamMaker program. Each employee is encouraged to get information about each visitor when they make a reservation. The company then encourages employees to use that info to provide an amazing guest experience.

Vaynerchuk details the story of one employee at the Hotel Durant in Berkeley. The employee found out that one guest, Mrs. Z, was making regular trips to Berkeley to stay with her son. Her son was a 20-year-old UC Berkeley student trying to continue his studies while dying of cancer. During one stay, the employee bought Mrs. Z a ceramic mug with a built-in strainer and steeper, along with a tin of fresh chamomile tea and sunflowers to brighten up her room. With the gifts, she included a card that said “For a loving mother who deserves to relax. Your family is in our thoughts and prayers.” Mrs. Z continued staying at Joie de Vivre until her son graduated. The story literally brought me to tears (I’m not a big crier either!).

Vaynerchuk is talking about a strategic shift, not just in marketing, but in the culture of a company as a whole. The “Thank You Economy” is about wowing your customers – by creating a ‘culture of wow’ from the top down.

Surprise #2: It’s not all about social media.

As mentioned in the quote about ‘outcaring’ above, Vaynerchuk spends a lot of time talking about how social media plays a role in the “Thank You Economy”. That said, Vaynerchuck admits that social media isn’t the ‘be all, end all’ of marketing as some social media advocates have touted.

“There are some brands that might be able to get away with marketing themselves exclusively on social media, but there is not a single company out there that cannot benefit from adding social media to its marketing strategy.”

I think that was surprising to me because Vaynerchuk has been extremely successful at promoting his own businesses through social platforms. I couldn’t agree with Vaynerchuk more that every company can benefit from social media. The part I really love though is that he points out there are a limited number of companies who can ‘get away with’ relying on social media alone.

I believe many marketers in the financial services and healthcare industries will appreciate this perspective. After all, you need to communicate and market some of the most complex products and services available to consumers. You cannot easily ignore the other tactics available because they have value, too!

In the last quote I’ll share with you, Vaynerchuk mentions a point he brings up throughout the book that I find especially insightful.

“If marketers commit to Thank You Economy principles, wholeheartedly, reallocate their marketing resources properly, and find ways not only to take advantage of the best that social media and traditional media have to offer but also to actually play them off each other, they will see and incredible return on any investment they make.”

In 2012, we’ll be giving away copies of The Thank You Economy at various industry conferences. We’re hoping to compile some of the innovative changes that are made by people inspired by its principles … stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to share some of your best efforts in wowing your customers below.

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]]> http://priorityresults.com/blog/thank-you-to-the-thank-you-economy/feed/ 0 http://priorityresults.com/blog/the-struggle-of-branding-in-a-digital-world/ http://priorityresults.com/blog/the-struggle-of-branding-in-a-digital-world/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:17:22 +0000 Jim Larranaga, Executive Vice President http://priorityresults.com/blog/?p=3813 If you’ve been on a ‘branding committee’, you know how challenging it can be to create a new corporate brand or name for a product. It’s more than thinking of creative names and URLs, it’s also likely you need to protect your name with a trademark. More often than not, you’ll discover many names have been snatched up … long before your branding committee thought of them.

In a digital world, every brand has the potential to be a global brand because every company is a click away. Our own branding team often finds itself counseling clients on this process. Great brands are not developed in a single weekend. And if collective consciousness or swarm intelligence really exists, (related reading: “The Wisdom of Bees”) you can bet somebody is also thinking of the same brand name at the same time.

Apple vs. Apple

Creating a great brand name is a form of invention that requires trial and error. In the end, it comes down to how good the new product or service is. Apple is one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, but when Steve Jobs thought of it, even he was not the first.

Despite the fact that nobody associated apples with technology, innovation or creativity. And the fact that Jobs knew that he’d face trouble with his trademark if his company became big or offered more than just desktop computers … Apple Computers was born. Jobs was right that he would face trouble. In 1981, Apple Computer was sued by Apple Corps., the record label of the Beatles. The two companies came to an agreement, but Apple Computer and Apple Corps. have continued to fight court battles, including one in 2003 over iTunes.

Obviously Apple Computer has held onto its name, but not without a fight. So when you meet with your branding committee, remember that your new brand has the potential to go global and the product line extensions will inevitably push your brand up against a competing brand. Then you have a choice: fight for your brand or simply create a new one.

If you’re getting ready to tackle a branding/re-branding initiative, our own Kirsten Rhody has put together 5 items you should include in your project.

What challenges have you faced in branding companies and products? Please share below.

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