Engaging Marketing Minds
Vol. 4, Issue 6, November/December 2014
RISKY
BUSINESS Marketing’s place in the era of ROI
INSIDE Recasting Leadership expert Anne Graham Marketers aim to boost conversion rates
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publisher’s letter
Instigators L
ife is full of risks and we seem to spend a awful lot of time avoiding them. We worry about health, financial security and our relationships. We don’t want to jeopardize any one of these variables and will work feverishly to protect them. Being risk-averse is kind of, well, a risky move. In other words, many of us choose not to rock the boat for fear of repercussions to our job security. We have come to realize that if something goes amiss, heads will roll and it isn’t going to be ours. The corporate world can generate some pretty stale and uninspiring processes. Lots of red tape so that nobody is truly “on the hook” for mistakes. Lots of blaming and a general lack of accountability. However, we all know that progress comes from the disrupters and many of them exist in the marketing department.
Being risk-averse is kind of, well, a risky move. In other words, many of us choose not to rock the boat for fear of repercussions to our job security.
03 Publisher’s Letter Instigators
04 The Inbox
06 Risky business Marketing’s place in the era of ROI
10 Recasting Upgrading your tackle box
The people who are willing to invest in the market and challenge assumptions may rub the CFO the wrong way. But, they are the dreamers and the instigators that generate progress. They are the ones who stimulate new ideas and new hope. They are the risk-takers and we need to cultivate an environment that enables them. Speaking of enabling the dreamers, our cover story, “Risky Business: The Lifespan of a CMO,” highlights the unique challenges of being in marketing during the ROI era. It explains the risks of evolving with the industry, discusses the IT/CMO connection, and presents three things every CMO must do in order to enjoy sustainable growth. Our second feature, “Recasting,” discusses being the right user with the right message at the right time, highlights the problems of being the wrong user with the wrong message at the wrong time, and gives some insight into how to upgrade your tackle box. This article also provides eight questions to discuss with your retargeting vendor. We hope you enjoy the final issue of 2014. We are gearing up for a wonderful new year with a bunch of “must-read” material. Heck, maybe we’ll even take some risks along the way. Warmest regards,
CONTENTS
14 Trending with... Leadership expert Anne Graham
15 Blast off Marketers aim to boost conversion rates, improve leads
Publisher Michael Peluso, President - Shawmut
Managing Editor Michael Peluso, President - Shawmut
Stacy Peluso-Slaney, CMSO – Shawmut
Art Direction Brent Cashman tactics is published bimonthly by u-connect, copyright 2014. All rights reserved For more information contact www.shawmutprinting.com tactics – Shawmut • November/December 2014
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The
Inbox
How to be Money. Technology. Knowledge and resources. When people talk about what it takes to change the world, these are the components that come to mind. But bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell says there is one precondition that, above all else, makes disruptive change possible – attitude. What sets disrupters apart is not in their heads or pockets but in their hearts, Gladwell says. “Successful disrupters are people who are capable of an active imagination. They begin reimagining their world by reframing the problem in a way no one had framed it before.”
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Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future By Peter Thiel & Blake Masters
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What’s in your Big Data?
A
s the world of Big Data turns, marketers continue to weigh in on what to do with the research. According to Duke University’s “CMO Survey,” while spending on marketing analytics is expected to jump from 7 percent of marketing budgets to more than 12 percent in the next three years, CMOs report they only use about a third of the data that is available or requested. The study shows that 41 percent of companies use online data they collect about consumers to better target them, while nearly 82 percent say the use of such data is increasing. In addition, fewer than 9 percent of CMOs worry that the use of customer data could raise concerns about privacy.
The percent of CMOs that list “digital marketing makeover” as their No. 1 transformational project (platforms, programs and people) over the next 12 months, according to the CMO Council’s “State of Marketing” report. The data also shows that more than 70 percent of CMOs are allocating between 10 percent and 30 percent of their budgets to digital marketing in 2014.
f you’re looking for the one thing that stands between success and what lies behind door No. 2, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel has your answer. Thiel believes the key is learning to think for yourself. In Zero to One, Thiel and co-author Blake Masters begin with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. And while information technology has improved rapidly, they say there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique. In a time when innovation continues to be paramount to our industry’s success, Zero to One presents an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation.
If I’m just shouting at you the entire time, that’s not a relationship; you’re the audience. But if I say something and you respond to me and I respond to you, that’s a dialogue. – Jeremy Epstein, VP of marketing for Sprinklr, on the importance of creating an interactive platform with your customers
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RI$KY BUSINESS W
ith $110 million in global revenue, GiftCards.com is one of the No. 1 sites for all things gift cards. Add to it the company’s recent designation as one of Inc. magazine’s fastest growing private companies, and the brand practically markets itself, right?
Marketing’s place in the era of ROI
Nothing is ever that easy in marketing – nothing. CMOs like GiftCards.com’s Carlos Tribino know this. Tribino is part of the new breed of chief marketing officers – a position that is evolving more than any other time in the past. Today’s marketers are playing roles they have never played before. Their job descriptions are becoming more complex, which, in turn, is giving them more traction and influence. By Michael J. Pallerino There is no reading between the lines here – it’s a whole new world out there today. Times and technologies are changing and evolving. In the digital age, businesses are redesigning the way they work and collaborate. And that means your marketing. While you’d be hard pressed to find a CMO that says his job is less riskier than it was, say five minutes ago, he is a bit more optimistic. This is a profession that carries an average tenure of 45 months, according to a report by executive recruiting firm Spencer Stuart.
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Risky business
In fact, the CMO Council’s recent “State of Marketing” report shows that chief marketing officers are more optimistic about today’s current business environment and their place in it. According to the report, 81 percent of the surveyed CMOs believe they can achieve the goals senior management bestowed upon them this year. Interestingly, just 10 percent felt their jobs were at risk, a stark departure from those “here-today-gonetomorrow” CMO tenures. “Beyond the obvious pressure to perform, CMOs face challenges to balance short-term versus long-term objectives, as well as the balance between the tangible and the intangible,” Tribino says. “A new business opportunity may be good for the immediate bottom line, but bad for the brand’s longterm health. And this could have an immediate positive impact on the bottom line, but potentially damage the long-term business growth.” Tribino says that sometimes the numbers in A/B testing can prove a tangible gain, while experience and know-how may show the opposite. “It is challenging to find a happy medium or a solution not supported by numbers,” he says. “It is a difficult task to convince a boardroom or an executive team when ‘intuition’ contradicts the numbers and can be a risky proposition.”
“You have an observation, you test the hypothesis, and then you do what the data tells you to do,” Bhutani says in the Avanade report. “That has led to a huge acceleration in human progress in the last 200 years. As things become increasingly measurable, it is easier to apply this scientific method to a growing number of activities. Marketing is ripe for this because so much of it has now moved to what we call variable channels.” For example, 10 years ago, Bhutani says few believed that ad spend on the internet would make up such a huge portion of marketing spend for so many companies. Today, that is measurable at a level that was never thought possible. “Marketing leaders have to realize that creativity and content is always going to be important, but they really need to understand analytics and make decisions
“ The new breed of CMO is analytical and must possess a strong focus on results. It’s about understanding the market, customer segmentation, purchase drivers, competitive position, third party dependencies, etc.”
based on data,” he says. “If it doesn’t make sense, then continue to dig until it does.” Because today’s customers expect more, the way that businesses respond could be the new competitive differentiator. This is helping today’s CMO – Carlos Tribino, CMO, GiftCards.com and marketing teams evolve. The new breed of CMO is analytical and must possess a strong focus on While marketing has long been one of the most scrutinized departresults. “It’s about understanding the market, ments (take its “he said/she said” relationship with sales, for example), it is customer segmentation, purchase drivers, becoming more recognized for its ability to help filter the scores of data that competitive position, third party dependenis becoming so prevalent in identifying and understanding today’s consumcies, etc.,” Tribino says. “He must analyze, ers and their buying tendencies. test and address.” In Avanade’s “Finding the CIMO Perspective” report, the business Today’s CMOs also must be culturally technology solutions provider offers a succinct analysis of the shifting connected and understand what’s important priorities and responsibilities of today’s marketers. “The marketing to the brand and consumers in the current and IT leaders we spoke to recognize the increasing dominance of marketplace. “You have to constantly research data and the value that comes from improving platform integration and study the consumer, business and techand tracking capabilities,” says Stella Goulet, CMO of Avanade. “Minnology trends,” Tribino says. “You must be ing rich analytics and employing the right technology to ensure a innovative and willing to take calculated and comprehensive customer view is critical, as companies seek to optieducated risks, and allow yourself to fail on mize their marketing campaigns.” occasion in order to open up high-growth opportunities. Challenge the status quo.” A new breed of CMOs Aman Bhutani, senior VP of Expedia Worldwide Engineering at Expedia, is one of those CMOs that Avanade spoke with who believes marketing is The IT/CMO connection becoming more technical and data-oriented. He says that today’s marketThere is another trend helping to define the marers continue to adopt more scientific methodologies in their campaigns. keting world – the growing relationship between
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“As CMOs manage their brands, they also have to coordinate multiple interactions with today’s ‘always on’ customer.”
harness the combined power of marketing and IT to CMOs and CIOs. According deliver better digitally enabled experiences for their to the “IT Without Boundarcustomers and other key audiences.” ies” study by Avanade, techKarrie Forbes, executive VP of Marketing of nology budgets and control Mattress Firm, told Avanade that she believes all are moving outside of the departments should be in regular communication, traditional IT department, and that specific teams come together for more colwith 37 percent of technollaboration based on the business need. At Mattress ogy spending now controlled Firm, its online, marketing, e-commerce and ITS by departments other than teams work closely together to round out different IT, including marketing. areas. This type of relationship will continue to drive Trends like these are and define the new marketing executive. bringing the worlds of tech“Almost every interaction with a consumer pronology and marketing closer vides an opportunity for data mining and deriving together, and changing the – Stella Goulet, CMO, Avanade valuable insights,” Forbes says in Avanade’s report. role of IT and marketing “Whether it’s an online campaign or data mining of leaders. “As CMOs manage our customers who buy in-store, it’s a cross-functional effort.” their brands, they also have to coordinate mulAt the end of the day, a CMO’s job is to drive results at every tiple interactions with today’s ‘always on’ cusend of the spectrum. “I don’t think ROI is overrated, because it’s all tomer,” Goulet says. “At the same time, CIOs
must manage technology that is capable of significant innovation. But whose role is it to drive customer-centric innovation?” The answer is both the CMO and CIO. To succeed in the new digital landscape, marketing and IT must partner and find a common point of view, what Avanade calls the Chief Information Marketing Officer (CIMO) Perspective. “CMOs and CIOs have individual expertise and experience,” Goulet says. “But to adopt the CIMO Perspective, they must share a unified digital vision. This allows their organization to
about results,” Tribino says. “The challenge with ROI is the balancing act between short-term and long-term ROI. On occasion, the two may come into conflict, and that is when immediate ROI may be overrated. A brand needs to reach the proper balance in price point, scale, distribution strategy, etc.” The focus, as any marketer will tell you, is on long-term results. “Tangibles are easier to manage; intangibles not so much,” Tribino says. “Achieving long-term growth through smart decisions on both makes a good marketing executive. But as for the bottom line, the emphasis needs to be in results. Amazing PR coverage that does not deliver on short-term or long-term goals does little benefit to the company or brand.”
THINGS EVERY CMO MUST DO Position and manage the brand with cultural relevance and salience, so that it is relevant and resonates both internally and externally. Champion the brand proposition and defend and enforce it to ensure it doesn’t get diluted along the value chain. Maintain an almost obsessive consistency across touch points.
Drive profitable and sustainable growth. Leverage the latest technologies and media to deliver results, measuring, testing, optimizing, and eventually increasing growth. Manage your marketing team with a strong focus on results. Motivate them to deliver.
Source – Carlos Tribino, CMO, GiftCards.com
Be a good communicator – Be as transparent as possible in all communications (customers, employees, partners, the press, investors, distributors, etc.). There is confidential information and public information, understand what, when and how to share information, news and announcements at the proper time with the appropriate audiences.
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D
Upgrading your tackle box
evoted anglers often say that the worst day fishing is better than the best day working. But if they hope to catch at least a few bluegills or tommycods, they aren’t likely to waste a day sitting around with no bait in the water, especially if they have had a few bites and know the fish are there. They are going to assess the situation and fish with the most appropriate bait and tackle. And, if after awhile they don’t get any bites, they might be inclined to reassess, put on a different lure, try different bait, adjust the weight or fiddle with the bobber…and cast again, retargeting their prospective dinner.
Marketers have long used the term retargeting when referencing the practice of engaging customers and prospects from new angles (new bait). A few years ago, automation software helped marketers retarget customers and prospects with timely emails. Today, savvy marketers are starting to retarget customers and prospects by delivering customized online ads across the internet based on their target’s recent browsing history – and the practice is growing. Anglers often consult the tide charts, note the phases of the moon, and chat up the locals in an attempt to determine optimal fishing opportunities – the right fish with the right bait at the right time. In recent years, anglers have realized that the proper use of a sonar fish finder takes a lot of the guesswork out of locating fish. With this technology, an angler can learn to distinguish between fish, vegetation, schools of baitfish, or forage fish and debris – and fish or not fish, accordingly.
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By Lorrie Bryan
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not collecting sufficient data to see how the campaign is performing so that they can make the necessary adjustments. – Arjun Dev Arora, Chairman & Founder, ReTargeter
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Recasting
A strategic retargeting program – executed with a smart strategy, audience segmentation and dynamic creative – is one of the best ways to deliver that experience for your customer. – Jackie Lamping, Senior Director of Marketing, AdRoll
Right user, right message, right time Likewise, marketers now have access to technology that can eliminate the guesswork and help them target the right user with the right message at the right time. “A strategic retargeting program executed with a smart strategy, audience segmentation and dynamic creative is one of the best ways to deliver that experience for your customer,” says Jackie Lamping, senior director of marketing at AdRoll, the global leader in retargeting with more than 15,000 clients worldwide. “It just makes sense to invest marketing dollars engaging people who express interest in your product or service, and the response rates are incredible.” Generally, 2 percent of shoppers make a purchase on the first visit to an online store. Retargeting helps bring back the other 98 percent by tracking visitors (by placing a cookie) and displaying your ads to them as they visit other sites online. The strategy of delivering repeated messages to this highly targeted visitor is getting strong results for businesses. And the strategy is improving as the technology evolves. “Based on our research, more than 50 percent of performance marketers have started using mobile retargeting as part of their integrated advertising strategy,” Lamping says. “Over the next year, we'll see mobile
and cross-platform retargeting play a bigger role in ad campaigns throughout the industry.” Retargeting is getting a marketing foothold by effectively converting website visitors that didn’t initially complete an action (for example, make a purchase) online – and the strategy is rapidly expanding. It is no longer just about trying to reel in the elusive one that got away. “Retargeting has taken many forms and is no longer limited to that definition,” says Ben Plomion, VP of marketing at Chango, a programmatic advertising company that uses live-profile technology and is one of the top new growth companies in the country. “In essence, marketers can leverage more intent data points and leverage different sources of inventory – display, Facebook and Twitter – to achieve their branding, acquisition or repeat purchases goals.” Retargeting especially makes sense for strategic marketers looking to improve ROI and save money. First, it allows you to tap into demonstrated customer intent and target ads to very specific people who have already raised their hand to say they’re interested in a particular product or service. “With retargeting, no impression is wasted on audiences who will never buy what you’re selling,” Lamping says. Second, it connects your ad campaign across platforms and devices – desktop, mobile, tablet, Facebook, Twitter, Google – by targeting individual users and dynamically optimizing your bids and creative based on
QUESTIONS TO DISCUSS WITH YOUR RETARGETING VENDOR
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What is your reach?
Do you have enough intent data to be effective?
How transparent is your reporting?
Are you agile enough to make the right adjustments?
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the actions and behaviors taken. “Retargeting holds the key to delivering highly personalized ad experiences at scale across a multi-screen landscape,” Lamping says.
Wrong user, wrong message, too many times For a more effective campaign, it is essential to identify media waste typically associated with running standard retargeting campaigns. “Do you really need to retarget every consumer equally?” Plomion asks. “Some consumers have expressed the highest form of intent, and should be served ads in better placement and with higher frequency. On the other hand, other consumers may not be as valuable to you. Perhaps they already converted. Or perhaps they will never convert.” Arjun Dev Arora, chairman and founder of ReTargeter, a top 100 in Inc.’s “Fastest Growing Companies” report, says one of the biggest concerns most brands have before starting a retargeting campaign is the fear of annoying, creeping out or otherwise overwhelming their prospects. “The concern here is a valid one, and fortunately one that is easy to avoid,” Dev Arora says. “You have to set frequency caps in a retargeting campaign. Although one of the goals of retargeting is to create brand ubiquity and be top-of-mind when your targets are ready to buy, you have to limit impressions and continually assess the effectiveness of your campaign. Just like with other marketing channels and programs, you should avoid over-saturating your message with any individual user.”
Dev Arora says it’s also important to continually evaluate your creative and optimize your campaign by adding layers of data to further refine your retargeting. “One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not collecting sufficient data to see how the campaign is performing so that they can make the necessary adjustments.”
Optimal fishing
ld o it ng e a oth g ar ting g fo ly site t Re get etin ive eb ’t is ark fect g w idn e m ef ertin at d plet – by nv s th om line co sitor ly c on egy vi itial tion trat in ac he s an d t idly g. an rap ndin is pa ex
If your aim is optimal fishing, consider upgrading your tackle box by adding a well-managed retargeting program. It is proving to be a valuable component in an integrated marketing strategy. In the epic fishing tale Jaws, when Chief Brody gets an up-close look at the size of the shark that’s circling their small fishing boat and realizes the magnitude of their task, he tells Quint, the grizzled sharkhunting captain, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” And, if you’re going to engage prospects and land them – get your marketing message heard above all the noise in the digital world and convert prospects to customers – you’re going to need a bigger boat. Or perhaps a boat equipped with the right gear and the right tools to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time.
Source – Ben Plomion, VP of Marketing, Chango
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How recent is your data?
How granular are your audiences?
Is your retargeting efficient?
What are the true costs of acquiring a customer?
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Q&A:
Interview with Jill Salzman
Trending with ... Leadership expert Anne Graham
A
nne Graham is all about those “ah ha” moments. In her work as an author, speaker and director of The Legendary Value Institute, she finds that when business leaders allow themselves to think outside the box, good things happen. Graham perfected her transformational leadership approach over a 25-year career that saw her create business growth strategies, build high value organizations and achieve rapid turnarounds in industries as diverse as high-tech, pharmaceuticals, financial services, professional services, wireless telecommunications, academia, and non-profit and membership-based organizations. Here is her advice on being different.
Why is important to set yourself apart from the pack?
How important is it to keep yourself relevant? Relevance relates to being proactive about fully understanding all of your clients’ communication needs and not just relying on the solutions you’ve provided to date. And it’s not all on your sales team. They are responsible for selling what your company can
What are the best ways to get to know your customers? Data that speaks to gaps in the experience that your customers may not even be aware of. The best way to get this is to stay in “hightouch” despite being in a high-tech world. Get face to face, executive to executive, and have what I call a “value creation conversation,” where the only thing you’re selling is trust and confidence, and the only probing you’re doing
Providing value in unexpected ways by staying ahead of your competition is the only way to remain viable as a printer.
One of my favorite sayings is, “Run like the rest and you too will be road kill.” The printing industry, like many others, has become highly commoditized and, in that situation, decisionmaking defaults to price. Relying on price for competitive advantage is not a sustainable advantage in an industry where everyone has access to the same knowledge and technology. Providing value in unexpected ways by staying ahead of your competition is the only way to remain viable as a printer.
What’s the best way to do that? One of the best is to look sideways at noncompeting industries to see what factors are impacting their businesses. In the printing industry, it’s quite common to belong to a vertical industry association, i.e., all printers. But it has never been more important to belong to a horizontal industry association – a chamber of commerce, for example – and to have in-depth conversations with peers that go well beyond networking. In many cases, belonging to a peer-mentoring group can be highly beneficial. I’ve often been able to use examples from one industry to spark new thinking in another.
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deliver today. As a leader, you’re responsible for determining what they’ll be selling tomorrow. There is no question that if you’re not relevant in a highly commoditized industry, you’re not in business.
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is about their experiences. A ride-along sales call won’t work, because the focus is on selling more today. A meet-and-greet won’t work, because that’s purely relationship building without the required depth.
What strategies work here? Most executives spend at least 90 minutes per day doing email. If they spent just 90 minutes once a week having value creation conversations with their customers, they’d get a wealth of insights that would drive every future strategy in their business in a way that was aligned with their customers’ needs and wants, rather than simply guessing. This can’t be outsourced; it must be personal. When I speak with leaders and ask them if they’d make time to speak with a consultant who was preparing a report for one of their suppliers, they all say no. But when I ask them if they’d meet with a member of their senior leadership team who asked them for input so that they could create more value for them now and in the future, they unanimously say yes. Ninety minutes, once a week – that’s all it takes.
Before You
Go
Blast off
Marketers aim to boost conversion rates, improve leads
T
he strategies have been set. The plans are in motion. According to the “Inbound Marketing Report” from Ascend2, 49 percent of CMOs plan to bolster conversion rates, while 48 percent aim to improve lead quality. Here are the most effective tactics used by today’s marketers:
59
%
g Marketinnt conte creation
54
%
38
SEO
27
3 3 %
esign Websiteizdation m opti
Social ial c d e m ia/srkoing o tw ne
%
/Guest Blogging blogging
21
%
tactic Inbound on integrati
%
8
%
15
%
lic Press/Pub relations
Mobile g marketin
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