Direct Marketing Magazine January 2017

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Engaging lapsed customers

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Data storage 2017 options marketing predictions

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vol. 30 • No. 1 • January 2017

The Authority on Data-Driven Engagement & Operations

Direct mail prospecting Unaddressed mail as point-of-first-contact tool ❱ 6 15 million households. 1.6 million businesses. 3 must-have databases.

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Vol. 30 | No. 1 | January 2017

The year ahead: Building customer centricity

EDITOR Sarah O’Connor - sarah@dmn.ca

Direct mail prospecting

PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - steve@dmn.ca

Engaging lapsed customers

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It’s not them, it’s you Tips for reengaging customers

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Winners, losers and customers

DESIGN / PRODUCTION Jennifer O’Neill - jennifer@dmn.ca

Data storage options

Advertising Sales Mark Henry - mark@dmn.ca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jim O’Reilly Jennifer Campbell Allison Penning Jason Davies Nesh Pillay Sean Howard Ashley Walsh Jan Kestle Dave Ward Cara Lau LLOYDMEDIA INC. HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS / PRODUCTION:

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302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Phone: 905.201.6600 Fax: 905.201.6601 Toll-free: 800.668.1838 home@dmn.ca www.dmn.ca EDITORIAL CONTACT: Direct Marketing is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. plus the annual DM Industry Guide. Direct Marketing may be obtained through paid subscription. Rates: Canada 1 year (12 issues $48) 2 years (24 issues $70) U.S. 1 year (12 issues $60) 2 years (24 issues $100) Direct Marketing is an independently-produced publication not affiliated in any way with any association or organized group nor with any publication produced either in Canada or the United States. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. However unused manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by sufficient postage. Occasionally Direct Marketing provides its subscriber mailing list to other companies whose product or service may be of value to readers. If you do not want to receive information this way simply send your subscriber mailing label with this notice to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada. POSTMASTER: Please send all address changes and return all undeliverable copies to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada Canada Post Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40050803

Storing marketing data in the cloud

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Unaddressed mail as point-of-firstcontact prospecting tool In the Mail

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For successful analytics, data quality is king

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Creating engaging user experiences in 2017 and beyond

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Top five marketing skills in demand in 2017

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Car dealer’s digital marketing campaign receives major boost from unaddressed direct mail

Twitter: @DMNewsCanada

Sector report

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The list business

January 2017

Features

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Updates from NAMMU Excellent Execution

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How digital wallets are transforming the payment experience DMN.ca ❰

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Customer Centricity

Direct mail

The year ahead: Building customer centricity

Direct mail

Direct mail

Direct mail Pre-Roll

Pre-Roll

Pre-Roll

Pre-Roll By Jan Kestle

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Jan Kestle is president and CEO of Environics Analytics.

ith a nod to the growing importance of knowing your customers, Direct Marketing has launched this “Customer Centricity” column for 2017. I’m pleased to kick off the new year with this inaugural piece and share my perspective on an orientation that I’ve always considered a key success factor for any organization. What is customer centricity anyway? It simply means putting the customer at the centre of everything a business does—strategy, operations and execution. From product and service design to customer experience, knowing the customer drives every step in the journey. Is this new? No. Marketers have been striving for this ideal forever. But what’s new is the power that marketers have to use detailed information about their customers’ needs, choices and preferences to better connect with and delight them. And what’s different is that marketers have better and more numerous ways to apply this knowledge at more touchpoints with the consumer. If you’ve read my columns before it shouldn’t surprise you that, for me, customer centricity all comes back to data. As marketers, we have access to authoritative data about so many aspects of our relationships with our customers—and more capability to use these data than ever before. But the landscape is always shifting. What’s different? What can we expect to see in 2017? Here are my top five trends as they relate to customer centricity:

Customer centricity isn’t new, but our unprecedented ability to embrace it and act on the insights it provides represents a momentous shift in the marketing landscape.

1. Post-hype reality is setting in. While the last five years of talking about how much data we have and how important analytics are to marketing has resulted in greater awareness, we have to admit that some data and analytics initiatives have been somewhat disappointing. But that’s changing. In the past few months, we’ve seen more enterprise focus on using—not just collecting—data to understand customers. And we’ve seen more sharing of real business results across an organization.

5. Our goal to get the right message to the right segment using the best medium is closer. And even more important, we understand it’s not quite so simple. Customers engage with us at multiple touchpoints—in store, online, mass media, customer service—and ensuring that all of our interactions are intelligent, data-driven and effective is within reach.

2. Big data are starting to enter the mix. Transaction and third-party data are being joined with real-time data collection from web and social sources to give a more robust and up-to-the-minute picture of consumer activities and preferences. And that trend is just beginning. 3. We finally understand that there is no “digital versus traditional” media or channel. Digital is pervasive, part of the mix and no longer a siloed marketing channel. It’s central and driving much more intimate, detailed customer knowledge. ❱ DMN.ca

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4. Not only do we have more insight into customers, we also have greater capability to get our messages to the best prospects in a way that works for them. Today’s consumers have put themselves at the centre of the marketing model, and they choose how they want us to interact with them. We win by following their lead—and ignore them at our peril.

The combination of business leaders embracing evidence-driven decisions and the new empowerment of consumers affords marketers an opportunity to engage and connect as never before. Data scientists and data users collaborating with business leaders and creative types will breed/produce/generate/result in more precise and effective messaging. And through it all, measurement enables us to test, learn and adjust in an agile way. Customer centricity isn’t new, but our unprecedented ability to embrace it and act on the insights it provides represents a momentous shift in the marketing landscape.

January 2017

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Direct mail prospecting

Unaddressed mail as point-of-first-contact prospecting tool By Dave Ward

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n this everchanging world, we continue to see new prospecting tools, but there is a staple that many marketers continue to rely on and that is direct mail. Of course, direct mail takes on different forms, ranging from targeted, unaddressed pieces to parcels that demand attention, simply based on size. Given that this article recommends unaddressed mail as a prospecting tool, I also want to provide a few guidelines, including some elements that have application for all types of marketing. Depending on the nature of your business, prospecting and sales can happen at different levels. A fast food franchise might use unaddressed mail to deliver sales flyers, with the objective of generating short-term sales to customers, be they current ❱ DMN.ca

or new patrons. On the other hand, many other businesses are looking at longer sales cycles, where the direct marketing piece is that all-important point of first contact from which they hope that a business relationship can be developed. This article will tend to focus more on the latter, under three main headings: benefits of mail, basis of an unaddressed strategy, and results and incentives Benefits of mail Still the best slice ever Before delving into the specific topic of using unaddressed mail as a prospecting tool, I want to point out that every piece of mail has a distinct advantage over other forms of advertising—that it must be handled and looked at. Why? Because promotional mail is usually intermingled with other mail such as bills, other administrative correspondence,

etc. This, in turn, gives every piece of mail a “time slice,” however brief that may be. Our job as marketers is to get noticed and deliver the right message to ensure that we engage the prospect. It is also important to note how recent studies have shown that this little “slice of mail” results in better comprehension, retention and response levels when compared to identical content in an online environment. Although we have expected this all along, it is nice to have the science to back it up. Effect of CASL limitations Before the implementation of CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation) we could rent email lists and target new prospects without incurring print, mail prep and postage costs. Properly executed, these types of campaigns did deliver results. Although a qualified email list is an extremely valuable asset,

today it is not as simple to target new prospects via email in order to build our in-house email lists. Of course with direct mail we can still target as we wish and with well-designed unaddressed mail campaigns we can seek the approvals that we need to expand our email lists. Print drives digital We have all heard that content is king, but most of us know that there is some great online content that is not being read! It is quite likely that if more of your potential prospects could find your content, they might be interested in signing up to receive your regular electronic communications or better yet sign up as customers. Unaddressed mail is often used to make that all-important first connection and to drive new prospects to your web content. Remember that when using unaddressed mail for prospecting January 2017

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Direct mail prospecting Unique Sales Proposition, which is the reason or reasons why people should buy, specifically, from you. Uniqueness can sometimes be inherent in the products that businesses sell, especially if they have exclusive rights in certain markets. In other cases, it can take some real soul searching and perhaps even an outside perspective to identify these strategic reasons. The key is to look at what you have to offer that others do not. If you cannot identify advantages, you should look at developing something that sets you apart from “the other guys.” Even though you may have a competitive advantage to offer, your marketing materials should also focus on the benefits of your products or services. Some people confuse benefits and features. For example, focusing on the fancy name for a new coating on brake pads would mean very little to the consumer, unless we also tell them these brakes will allow them to stop faster and offer them longer brake pad life.

we are not always looking for a short-term sale, but an opportunity to establish new relationships that we can nurture. We will look at this further, below. Basis of an unaddressed strategy Why will the customer buy from you? There are different reasons why people might buy the products or services that you are offering, but it often comes down to three main questions: 1. Do your products or services solve a problem or satisfy a need? 2. Will the value of the benefits you provide outweigh the costs? 3. Is there a sense of urgency for people to respond? These points will all be taken into consideration by the buyer, but sometimes you also have to look at your Unique Value Proposition or January 2017

Single or two-tier offers Every marketer knows that a direct marketing piece should have a call to action. Interestingly though, we usually see a single offer, such as “Call before April 30 to take advantage of our 15% early bird discount.” That’s good and it can work; however, when we are using unaddressed mail as a prospecting tool one of our main goals is to gather new contact data, which we can also accomplish by using an integrated microsite (or landing page) to attract those that do not respond to the primary offer. The secondary offer usually has some form of incentive which should be consistent with the value you place on turning those in the targeted group into qualified prospects. These types of microsites usually include mandatory fields for gathering contact data, optional fields for gathering profiling data and a CASL-compliant email opt-in. Timing and repetition Common sense usually prevails when it comes to timing. For example, you would not promote tax preparation services one week after the tax filing deadline, nor would you promote wheat seed to farmers in

the middle of planting season. It is also important to note that repetition applies to direct mail, just as it does to other forms of marketing. If you have a highly attractive product or service with a stellar offer, one mailing may do the trick, but we have seen great success with campaigns that feature good creative and a good offer, delivered three times to the same audience at one month intervals. Targeting and direction instructions If we are using Canada Post’s Neighbourhood Mail, we can target apartments, houses, farms and businesses. On the consumer side, we have a broad range of criteria we can choose from within the Canada Post Precision Targeter system. For farms, we know they are farms, but do not know whether they might be dairy, livestock, cash crops etc.; however, knowledge of farming activity by region, combined with information from Statistics Canada can help in qualifying target markets for farms. Lastly, with the basic criteria available within Precision Targeter we cannot identify industry type, size etc. for businesses. As you can see, our ability to qualify target groups will vary by the types of markets that we want to target. As such, we sometimes have to become more creative to identify the Canada Post walks and routes that will give us the highest percentages of the type of prospects we are trying to reach. Direction instructions, such as “Attention: IT Manager” are also very important when targeting businesses with unaddressed mail. With smaller businesses, the unaddressed mail piece will often be seen by the owner or office manager, but with larger organizations the piece will go to reception or perhaps to a mail room, so it important to know to whom it should be directed. Results and incentives Response rates on white card testing People often ask us what response they should expect when using unaddressed mail. Well, that depends on what they are mailing

and if it clearly conveys the value of their products as well as their company. However, we did do some experimenting of our own, which produced some very interesting results. We were curious to know what the response rate to a plain white card with only a QR Code and URL would be in a B2B market. To ensure that no one recognized the domain, we simply registered the domain white-card.ca. The results were impressive, with response rates of roughly 6.7% in each of three business markets in different cities. Although this does not really help to quantify response rates when it comes to a printed card, featuring creative and an offer etc., it does demonstrate that curiosity can be a strong motivator. Canada Post incentives There is no doubt that our business mix has seen a resurgence in Neighbourhood Mail (formerly Unaddressed Admail) over the last couple of years. I think we can attribute this to the incentives that Canada Post has been offering, with some postage discounts as deep as almost 50% for qualified customers and that, with success, new users of this product have become repeat customers. The Canada Post incentives have been appreciated by everyone that we have worked with and, together with some good planning and execution, they have turned some skeptics into believers in these products. Conclusion Unaddressed mail does work as a prospecting tool, if planned and executed properly. It also affords unlimited opportunities to integrate with other components of our marketing programs, accommodating ongoing dialogue with new prospects as well as opportunities to drive new prospects to valuable web content. Dave Ward is president of Highland Marketing, a direct marketing company that offers a broad range of mail preparation, email and integrated web services, as well as design, data and consulting services. Email: dward@hiland.com Website: www.hiland.com

DMN.ca ❰

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In the mail This column sponsored by

To learn more about Canada Post’s integrated direct marketing solutions, please visit canadapost.ca/smartmailmarketing.

Car dealer’s digital marketing campaign receives major boost from unaddressed direct mail Sherwood Chevrolet increases new customer leads by 134% with direct mail complementing its digital marketing strategy By Jennifer Campbell

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askatoon’s Sherwood Chevrolet had been experiencing good growth since the economic crisis of 2008 but, like all car dealerships, it recognized that brand loyalty fades easily and competition is fierce. Especially since the quality and features in vehicles are often very similar. For its 45th anniversary, it wanted to get a jump on competition with an innovative multichannel marketing campaign. The idea was to sell 45 cars for just $45 over the wholesale cost of the vehicles to honour 45 years in business.

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90,000 Unaddressed Admail pieces

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900 new walk-in customers

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134% more new leads

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A record number of cars sold in the month

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Hands-on Unaddressed Admail drives customers to store and website The Canada Post Unaddressed Admail (now Neighbourhood Mail) piece was a large poster folded to wrap around a $25 gift card for services at the dealership. The dealer used the Canada Post Precision Targeter tool to smartly reach the Saskatoon market. The gift card led to 900 first-time visitors to the store. The dealership seized the opportunity to get their contact information, adding them to its database. There was also a 134% increase in new customer leads – people who called or emailed following receipt of the direct mail piece. “We wanted to show the value of direct mail and digital together,” said Linda Regier, a senior direct marketing advisor for Canada Post. “The website saw a 42% increase in new visitors the week the mail piece hit.”

Direct mail plays significant role in overall success of the campaign The results of the integrated campaign speak for themselves. The dealership saw a 100% increase in total traffic on the website on the week Canada Post Unaddressed Admail was delivered to homes, and a 90% increase in monthly traffic compared to last year. More importantly, Sherwood Chevrolet sold a record number of cars in the month the physical-digital mix campaign was launched. “I’m quite confident in saying that the direct mail was a big piece of those leads,” said Jay Brown, marketing manager for Sherwood Chevrolet and the man who ran the campaign. “There is a tremendous value in having direct mail as part of the integrated marketing plan.”

Integrating direct mail with digital marketing works magic for higher click-thru rates, and attracts more people to store. Jennifer Campbell is a freelance writer based in Ottawa. January 2017

The Internet has removed the barriers to shopping across borders. The data is clear

72%

of US consumers are open to purchasing from Canada.

– the US is fertile ground for Canadian merchants looking to find new customers. How can you get your share of this pie? Focus on the reasons US consumers are interested in Canada’s products: unique merchandise and better prices. For more information, visit bronto.com.

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20% have done so.

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Sector Report

The list business By Sarah O’Connor

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he Canadian list business has experienced significant disruption since the beginning of the new millennium, both from economic and regulatory perspectives. The passing of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in 2000, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)’s introduction of the National Do Not Call List in 2004 and the 2007/2008 recession dealt a series of blows to the industry. At the same time, changing business models

and increased understanding of the importance of privacy and permission-based marketing have made organizations less inclined to make their databases available for rent. Indeed there are far fewer lists available for rent than there once were and certainly fewer list brokers. More recently, Canada Post’s mail volume declined 30% from 2007 to 2014 and this past summer’s labour uncertainly was an additional setback for the direct mail industry, which had been showing signs of a resurgence. It is difficult to overestimate the

impact of Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) on the email list business—this segment of the business has almost, but not completely, disappeared. All the while, competition has been increasing from other corners of the industry and marketers can chose from a variety of alternative prospecting strategies including demographic segmentation, location-based marketing, web marketing and so on. On the other hand, organizations are getting better at using data to understand their customers and are eager to apply

that knowledge to their acquisition tactics. Thus, the role of the list service provider is expanding into data hygiene and integration, while shrinking costs are making database marketing a viable option for a huge new segment of the market—small and mediumsize businesses. Traditional list customers such as fundraisers are leveraging them in new ways while rigorous permission standards offer hope for email list rentals. Rather than disappearing the list business is rapidly evolving, and we spoke to industry leaders to understand how.

Fundraisers embrace reciprocal lists Dan Danielson has been director of lists and data services at Stephen Thomas Ltd. for 20 years and says that in that time, while the list business has changed in terms of technology and volume, the fundamentals have not: “We try to get the best lists that we can for our clients’ acquisition mailings in order to find new donors and replace the ones that leave.” According to Danielson the biggest shift he’s seen in Dan Danielson the way fundraisers engage with lists is in the growing recognition of the effectiveness of reciprocal list exchanges versus rented lists. Conan MacLean, fundraising manager for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders Canada, confirms this change. “After exclusively using rental lists for years, MSF now relies primarily on reciprocal lists for our acquisition mailings,” MacLean explains. “In

our experience, it’s more cost efficient to use reciprocal lists and the results are better than rentals: if someone is giving to another charity, they are, by definition, charitable, and are more likely to support our cause than a person who doesn’t support any. “There are alternatives to reciprocal and trade lists that we’ve considered, including some Canada Post products, but we’re still waiting for evidence that they Conan MacLean work before testing them ourselves,” he concludes. Danielson explains that while most organizations engaged in fundraising do not allow any access to their list of donors, there is a growing appreciation for the effectiveness of exchanges. “Those lists of identifiable donors to causes that have some affinity to your cause are the lists that always work best,” says Danielson.

Reach marketers & financial executives Our magazines are must-reads for key executives in core corporate competencies.

To advertise or get more information and media kits:

905-201-6600 | 1-800-668-1838 | 302-137 Main Street North, Markham ON L3P 1Y2 ❱ DMN.ca

January 2017

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Sector Report

Market demand expanding to include SMBs “You can’t have direct marketing without a list of prospects,” says Jeff Bissett, founder of Cleanlist.ca. Lists have always been at the core of Bissett’s business, although the services offered have evolved to fulfill the changing needs of the market. Today more than half of the work Cleanlist.ca does for its clients involves working with the data they already have—with list rentals filling specific gaps rather than serving as Jeff Bissett the foundation for the high-volume, “spray and pray” approach of yesteryear. “I’ve seen a very distinct trend toward the mid- and small-business

(SMB) market becoming customers of ours,” he observes. “In the early days of this business we only worked for very large companies because they were the only ones who really could afford database marketing and direct marketing. Now this data, these tools, this technology has become mature enough and cost effective enough that it is easily within reach of SMBs and they are taking advantage of that in a big way. “In the past we had to focus on the top five percent of the market and now we can focus on the top 50%, so it’s a huge market for us to be able to address with innovative solutions. The technology and the automation have brought costs down so that its very affordable for them.”

Toward customer-centric, multichannel database marketing “While advanced, predictive analytics and smarter direct targeting is improving performance and ROI, applying insights to lists sources is not feasible in Canada and driving marketers away from traditional lists,” explains Tony Rizzuto, senior director, 1:1 marketing at Epsilon. “The fact that lists are still mostly based on basic demographics and a transactional purchase (e.g. a magazine) does not meet the desired Tony Rizzuto targeting precision that brands are now accustomed to.” Epsilon’s core business is data and 1:1 marketing solutions and they have made a commitment to evolving with the market in order to offer the breadth and depth of products and services that modern marketers require in order to deliver omnichannel communications based on a single view of the customer. “We have a long-standing heritage rooted in data, analytics and precision based targeting so one can say that we have been ahead of

A way forward for email lists PTM One Source has been a leading healthcare communications marketing company for over 30 years, and they have always understood the importance of quality over quantity. President and founder Joe Trager is a doctor who hasn’t practiced medicine in 30 years but was still licensed up until last year, so he often receives communication intended for practicing doctors for which he has been Joe Trager incorrectly targeted. It’s an ongoing lesson in the crucial importance of data quality over quantity. “Our audience is in the hundreds of thousands, whereas with B2C you’re into the millions,” explains Trager “That’s why every name is critical to us. There are only 600 oncologists in the country. It’s just a numbers game.” When Trager noticed a correlation between promotional emails being sent to doctors and unsubscribes, PTM One Source began sending out email marketing guidelines to its email list rental clients, which were very well received. “These are important people and so we need to be very mindful of the fact that we need to respect their needs and we have to be able to service them in the appropriate fashion,” says Trager. This stringent focus on both data quality and permission-based marketing has allowed PTM to maintain what they believe is the largest email marketing database of medical professionals in the country. January 2017

curve when it comes to meeting the demands for enhanced targeting,” Rizzuto continues. “Our consumer prospecting database today includes the opportunity to reach consumers across various offline and online channels—direct mail, email and social bringing true multi-channel potential to our clients and allowing brands to connect with consumers on their preferred channels. Complementary, our Conversant online media solution has evolved to allow marketers to target and re-target consumers based on actual devises and using data based on individual behaviors, providing marketers online with an opportunity for better targeting, improved engagement and ultimately higher conversion.”

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DMN.ca ❰

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Engaging lapsed customers

It’s not them,

it’s you Tips for reengaging customers

By Nesh Pillay

A

s the old bit of dating advice goes, “If you love someone, let them go. If they return, they’re yours; if they don’t, they never were.” Well, no offense to old sayings, but this advice should never, ever be applied to marketing—especially when it comes to reengaging lapsed customers. Even though dating insights don’t hold strong in this industry, losing or being ghosted by a customer can feel like romantic rejection. Didn’t he have a good time? Doesn’t she like the way we look? Has he gone over to a different brand? While a marketer may never learn exactly why a customer’s interest waivers, it is possible to reignite his or her initial enthusiasm for your brand.

strategy for a while, it’s one that almost all digital marketers have adopted, leading to a flood of marketing materials in consumers’ inboxes. Recent statistics now indicate that only about 14% of marketing emails are ever seen by consumers and this number is rapidly declining with the help of email filters. Marketers often come to EQ in search of a newer and more effective digital approach to re-engaging lapsed customers. The following tips will help you get ahead of competitors. Place pixels Placing pixels is more of a preventative measure than an active one and is a popular choice for brands pushing boundaries in the digital space. Pixels act as invisible cameras that can be placed on pages of your

Pixels allow you to capture valuable data and serve customized ads directly to individuals who haven’t touched base with your website in a predetermined length of time. The advent of the digital age of marketing has made this easier than it has ever been before— marketers simply send “we miss you, here’s a coupon” emails to lapsed customers and hope for a response. While this was an effective ❱ DMN.ca

website that capture information about who has shown interest in your product. This allows you to capture valuable data and serve customized ads directly to individuals who haven’t touched base with your website in a predetermined length of time.

While the email addresses of lapsed customers can be used to fill their inboxes, they can also be used to serve social media ads. This way, you won’t just reconnect with lapsed customers, but also lapsed potential customers. It’s that simple—no email sign-ups, no previous purchases and no pushy call-toaction required. Choose cross-device As this century progresses, so does the surfaces on which we are able to market and advertise. Now, we are constantly looking at a screen—whether it’s our phones, televisions, laptops or wearables. Almost everything is a computer, which means almost everything is a marketing opportunity. In order to benefit from this upward trend, marketers should learn how to properly advertise across a single consumer’s devices without being redundant. A few of EQ’s clients have been concerned about customers who have downloaded their app, but never use it. Technology now allows us to target these customers with a browser ad, on any of their devices, that will reengage them with the forgotten app. This has proven to be a successful, inconspicuous method of reminding lapsed consumers about your brand.

Steer toward social More than anything else, consumers are spending their online time on social media. These platforms are great tools for interactivity and engagement. While the email addresses of lapsed customers can be used to fill their inboxes, they can also be used to serve social media ads. Recently, an EQ client that sells large appliances wasn’t sure how to take advantage of this process as appliances are rarely needed more than once a decade. We found that the best strategy was to serve former customers with ads offering a warranty and add-ons to already-purchased products. This campaign proved to be very successful in allowing the client to continue the relationship with the client. After obtaining a Master’s degree from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, Nesh Pillay begun her career as a writer in New York where she covered all things marketing and advertising. Currently, she resides in Toronto and leads EQ Works’ marketing team, spreading the good word of cutting-edge marketing strategies.

January 2017

2017

January Issue theme: Direct mail prospecting Engaging lapsed customers Data storage options

ISSUES & EDITORIAL THEMES

Supplement: Sector report: The list business Editorial deadline: December 23, 2016

February Issue theme: Location-based marketing Email marketing Supplement: Sector report: Fundraisers Editorial deadline: January 16, 2017

March Issue theme: Mobile direct marketing Marketing automation Supplement: Contact Management Editorial deadline: February 15

May

June

Issue theme: Disruptive technology Applied artificial intelligence Supplement: Regional report: Montreal Editorial deadline: April 14

October Issue theme: Demographic segmentation Data-driven, customercentric organizations Supplement: Sector report: Printers Editorial deadline: September 15

Issue theme: Mass mail Flyers Catalogues Supplement: Contact Management Editorial deadline: May 15

November Issue theme: Fundraising Payment processing Supplement: Regional report: Halifax Editorial deadline: October 13

July/August Issue theme: Holiday marketing CRM

April Issue theme: DRTV Customer personas Fulfillment Supplement: Sector report: Lettershops Editorial deadline: March 15

September Issue theme: Dimensional/high-value direct mail

Supplement: Regional report: Vancouver

Supplement: Contact Management

Editorial deadline: June 15

Editorial deadline: August 14

December

2017

Issue theme: Segmentation based on spending patterns Loyalty Supplement: Contact Management Editorial deadline: November 15

Canada’s supplier guide to vendors and partners for Marketers Material deadline: June 30

Direct Marketing is your partner in leveraging editorial opportunities. We can facilitate your advertising needs, as well as developing online campaigns, editorial roundtables and more. For advertising opportunities contact

For editorial opportunities contact

Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca

Sarah O’Connor, sarah@dmn.ca

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Engaging lapsed customers

Winners, losers and customers By Cara Lau

P

eter Drucker, the inventor of modern management, said, “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.” It’s fair to say that many business leaders agree with that statement. And yet, it’s easy to forget that staying competitive comes down to understanding what the customer wants, as well as who you are and why you exist. The importance of these questions depends on the product or service. Do you have something that’s unique or that needs to be unique? Is your company more like Apple, who focuses on innovation? Or like Nike, who relies on marketing? Either way, you need both. Apple wouldn’t be Apple without compelling ads. And Nike would slowly be forgotten without its trendsetting designs.

Like friends who’ve drifted apart, consumers who haven’t made purchases in a while always know why. Your company needs to build brand trust and that comes from having a compelling marketing strategy as well as an innovative product or service. When customers, lapsed or otherwise, agree with, feel enthusiastic about and gain interest in your brand, that’s when you know you’re onto something. At which point, it might even be possible to achieve loyalty. It’s not enough to focus on just one thing, and the reason for ❱ DMN.ca

that is simple. We’re all fighting in highly competitive markets, meaning every transaction and every decision has one winner and lots of, well, non-winners. The right combination of marketing and innovation that works for your brand, and its lapsed customers, comes from good insights and ideas. Here are several things to consider, with thoughts from Clever Samurai’s VP and Creative Director Joe Amaral and Leigh-Ann Clarke, director of sales at sales lead generation company, 360 Leads: 1. Never leave a question unanswered. Everything happens for a reason, an adage that’s particularly true when it comes to customer relationships. Like friends who’ve drifted apart, consumers who haven’t made purchases in a while always know why. And it’s important to find out if they’ve been let down or taken for granted, bombarded to the point of burn out or tempted by something new. Leigh-Ann Clarke, whose clients at 360 Leads include Toshiba and Shell, says, “do your research, look at the data, pay attention to patterns, listen to a consultant— and make sure you truly understand your audience. Keeping up with trends, knowing your stats, building new systems, focusing on a strategy—that’s where success begins.” 2. Be different in a way that makes a difference. Determine your unique value proposition and run with it. What is it about your company that makes it worthy of attention? Why should they buy from you and not the competition? Most importantly, have you updated or upgraded the products and services that prompted customers to lapse in the first place? Nothing will matter if you don’t. Joe Amaral, who has built and marketed many major Canadian brands like Bell and McDonald’s, says “Customers don’t mind being persuaded, rewarded or wined and dined, as long as disappointment isn’t right around the corner.”

3. Let the product or service speak for itself. Clarke says, “People pay attention when it’s genuine. It pays to be real, to tell it like it is, and, this is the crucial part, to be an effective use of time.” Customers are more like “prosumers.” They’ve got product reviews and competitive information in their pocket. Buying into anything is influenced by a million voices at all times. Their decision path is typically more than halfway set before they even click on or step foot in your store. Whether you choose social, email, notifications, partner pages or direct mail, treat the availability of these channels as an open invitation. When they need you, they’ll find you and when they do make sure it’s a great experience. 4. Don’t assume you should start from scratch. Habit is the primary driver of human behaviour (including consumer behaviour). These routines and unconscious decisions fuel our way of life. Consider whether you have removed a trigger, made an action harder or caused a negative experience. Maybe it’s a change in packaging that prompts customers to assume their go-to product is out of stock. Or a slowdown in service that encourages them to switch temporarily. Amaral suggests that whatever the reason, they’ve only fallen out of habit. So rather than lapsed or lost, it might be more useful to think of these customers as latent. All you need to do is find out how to get them back into the routine again. 5. Change can be good if you’re aware of what your product represents to your customers. Ask yourself, how does the product impact culture? Or does culture influence the product? What associations do your customers have with it? Clarke stresses the importance of this question, “Did they lapse because of a trend you overlooked or were you so busy chasing trends you didn’t notice the customers who liked you the way you were?”

6. Use data to predict the point at which your consumers are most vulnerable to leave. For example, when Amaral was working on the Petro-Canada business, he found that when gas hit a certain price point, customer loyalty disappeared. Once you can recognize that data point in the consumer relationship, you can form a tactic. 7. Make it simple. In other words, make it easy for customers to interact with your business. Whether you decide to optimize operations, rethink a layout or add technology, look at it from their perspective. Make it make sense to them, not you. Keeping it simple sounds like advice that goes without saying. But sometimes a thorough re-evaluation is what your company needs, especially when you’re talking to customers who might be willing to give you a second chance. We are all customers. Every single one of us has at one point thought, “I wish company XYZ had this service,” or “If they did this I’d probably shop there more.” We’ve all played that game, where we imagine how much better the company would be if we were the ones in charge. Well, your lapsed customers are thinking just that. These are the people who’ve already decided whether your company is worth their time. Who’ve already experienced your outages, tasted your products, shopped at your stores, spoken with your customer service representatives, interacted with and bought your products. The ones who used to believe in the brand but decided to back out. If you talk to them the way they want to be spoken to and show them something they want, you’re guaranteed a second chance. Because as they say, the customer is always… Cara Lau is a copywriter at Clever Samurai (cleversamurai.com), world traveller, environmentalist and aspiring it-girl. #foodie #hipster #feminist #millennial

January 2017

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Advertorial

Capitalizing on US Shoppers’ Eagerness for Unique Canadian Goods By Susan Wall, Vice President of Marketing, Bronto Software One of the pillars of ecommerce is the ability to extend your sales beyond geographical restrictions. Of course, standard business principles still apply, such as market segmentation and market opportunity. Canadian retailers should keep those concepts in mind as they consider the numbers 72 and 20.

Cost fears can be overcome with clear shipping costs and strategic pricing. Making shoppers comfortable with other issues requires transparency, good messaging and proof points to alleviate the fears.

72: 20:

One advantage Canadian retailers have over brands in China and Britain (two other top shopping destinations for US consumers) is proximity, which can help with shipping and support concerns. In fact, Canadian stalwarts Big Al’s and Silver Jeans have not only created a US revenue stream, they have built a loyal US customer base and become sizeable players in the US market.

The percentage of American consumers who say they would be comfortable shopping online from Canadian sites. The percentage of American consumers who have actually made a purchase from a Canadian company.

Whether you look at the opportunity created by the difference between these numbers as a multiplier (possible 3 – 4x expansion) or in terms of raw numbers (52% of American consumers), it’s clear that there’s ecommerce gold south of the border. But while all that extra market is available, it isn’t necessarilyThe easy Internet to get. All the challenges of ecommerce hasregular removed the barriers to still exist, and you must also deal with the specific challenges of cross-border commerce.across borders. The data is clear shopping Why Shoppers Cross Borders – the US is fertile ground for Canadian First, consider what drives shoppers to cross international borders formerchants purchases. The biggest to reason that they’re looking looking findisnew customers. for unique items that are unavailable domestically. A close second reason is to find better pricing.

How can you get your share of this pie?

If you’re selling your own line of merchandise, you’ve got USopportunity consumers are uniquenessFocus built in, on but the that’sreasons not the only for unique offerings. Golda’s Kitchen carries lower-volume items that larger interested in Canada’s unique sites (both US and Canadian) don’t carry.products: When one of those items showed up on a popular cooking show, Golda’s Kitchen merchandise better prices. was the only North Americanand option. Pricing is a more complicated question – taking costs and For more information, visit business returns into account. Don’t just lookbronto.com. at price in a vacuum. Consider total costs in your pricing decisions. And to look at costs, you should consider why consumers avoid crossborder shopping. Why Shoppers Don’t Cross Borders To put yourself in the best position to succeed, be aware of what drives consumers away from international purchases. While there are a number of different reasons, there is one common factor – FEAR: fear of shipping costs and problems; fear of payment risk; fear of support issues.

January 2017

Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC) Delivering great service and providing cost-effective shipping is a good start. But you must get potential buyers over their concerns (whether imagined or real). Independent voices work better. User-generated content (reviews and ratings) is an easy way to develop that independent authority shoppers crave.

72%

of US consumers are open to

It’s critical to get user feedback to build thatCanada. UGC at each step purchasing from of the buying process: checkout, payment processing, shipping costs, timeliness, customer service, support and returns. It’s also important that you use the ratings and UGC in your email communications. Communication Strategies Borders create an implied distance, and the US-Canada border is no exception. But US consumers aren’t bothered by distance. They buy from large and small retailers across the continent and across oceans. The key is to use email to create a sense of familiarity, loyalty and service. Everything should be part of your plan: Welcome Series, Postpurchase follow-up, newsletters, Loyalty programs, Browse and Cart Recovery – all personalized to create familiarity. Use your UGC whenever possible. Finally, don’t be afraid to tout those Only They are your unique items that drive cross-border shopping. secret weapons.

20%

Global Commerce: Selling Across Borders have south done of so.the As you build and execute your plans for selling border, download the Bronto report Where We Buy: Consumer Attitudes on Global Ecommerce that details the specifics of cross-border shopping. It’s a great reference as you build your plans and expand to that vast untapped market.

DMN.ca ❰

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Data storage options

Storing marketing data in the cloud By Jim O’Reilly

W

e’ve all heard Big Data is coming. The raw marketing information from mouse-overs, key-clicks and in-store activities constitutes a potentially huge increase in total data flow, all of which has to be temporarily stored, processed and the results saved. One of the challenges of the next wave of IT systems and software is the efficient and economical handling of this data. Big Data is so-called “unstructured” data, typically small records consisting of an identifying key and a data field, which can vary in content type from record to record. This contrasts with records in typical applications and especially traditional databases, where the data is formally structured into a set of fields, which in aggregate constitute a record. Generally, analysis of Big Data concentrates on large files that aggregate many key/data pairs. These are processed by parallel computer nodes or massively parallel GPU chips. Over the last two or three years, the capability to parallel process has become a standard offering in public clouds, ❱ DMN.ca

allowing the data centre broad choices between in-house and public cloud work flows, including a hybrid approach where excess workload is “cloud bursted” to a public cloud. These approach choices underline the need for a good data strategy in a modern data centre. The old view of data as primary or secondary isn’t adequate for the complexity of a hybrid cloud, providing neither agility nor optimal economics. This is especially true of Big Data. We need additional characterizations for data, adding hot/cold, transient or long-term, or high/low security to our view. Let’s look at a couple of examples. Mouse-over data is intrinsically somewhat valuable, since it indicates potential customer interest in a product or supplier, but that value diminishes rapidly over time. In fact, the derived analysis that a customer is interested in gas grills is much more valuable and longer lasting. Thus the raw data goes from hot/ transient/low security to cold/ disposable/ low-security right after it is processed, while the processed results may be hot/

medium-term/medium-security. All the while, the customer ID data is hot/long-term/high-security. Deciding how and where to store this data is thus a bit complex. What follows should shed some light on how best to approach this. Let’s assume that the chosen architecture for the solution is a hybrid cloud. Over 70% of enterprises have made that choice. This choice runs immediately into a major data positioning issue. Work that is processed across both a public and private cloud needs movement and, with our woefully slow WANs, that is a critical issue in cost and efficiency. The most feasible current solutions are to either parse the data, much like the “map” process of Hadoop, so that part of the data is in the public cloud and the rest in the private space; or, alternatively, to keep all raw data in the cloud and use in-house cache controllers to hide the latency questions this creates. The first of these, mapping the data, actually makes sense for Big Data itself, since a good vehicle for sharing that data is to store it up in the cloud from its point of origin, so making it available for a variety of analytics including

SaaS-based solutions. Caching works best for data that must be shared between the clouds and for structured data that has multiple hits on the same records within a short time frame. Likely, caching is the choice for analytic results and for other quasi-static data, including databases of customer information. Moving customer information into the public cloud raises security questions. Generally, opinions now hold the cloud to be more secure than local private storage. Cloud service providers can afford to spend a lot more on security issues than a typical large company. Storing Big Data is usually done with object storage, simply because the storage paradigm maps well to large files. Some have suggested Hadoop file storage, but, while the key/data filing scheme fits both data and processing, it isn’t very efficient or fast in the cloud. It’s generally better here to convert from object format to key/data in-memory. Structured data from apps or databases should use traditional formats, mostly residing in old-school block-IO or filer structures. With gateway software January 2017

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Data storage options from companies such as Zadara or Velostrata, this can be located in the cloud, with the gateway caching the datasets to obviate latency. The cloud-based storage solution allows cloud bursting to be started up very quickly and also brings clear benefits in disaster recovery and data sharing with SaaS applications. Data protection in the cloud should come from zone-crossing replication. Zones are different geographical areas in the public clouds. This is common sense disaster insurance, though there might be some associated cost for transferring replicas. The new erasure code approach may reduce the cost of this considerably. While your use case will likely differ on details, most Big Data is a use-once item. Once it’s ground its way through the analytics process, it is all used up and can be discarded. This points to one copy in each of two zones being adequate, rather than the normal two local copies plus one in another zone. The analytic results deserve a normal data protection level, with the ability to take multiple hits across the zones. For block-IO data, RAID parity is marginal these days, since large drives take a long time to rebuild. Erasure coded protection is a better choice. More advanced protection of results data involves snapshots and copying data to an incremental backup system. These could reside in the cloud or in-house. Realistically, though, not all businesses will feel confident about committing master data to the public cloud. For these, the issue is building an economic and highperformance repository in-house that can be available to the public cloud as needed. In a sense, this is turning the discussion 180 degrees around. Caching will be needed in virtual instances in the public cloud and software to access those caches is also essential. With cloud instances today, this will probably mean more copies of cache instances than would be seen in the first, reverse, scenario, but the model still should work. Those instances should be largememory, high network bandwidth instances. The local cloud’s storage now is an issue. Object storage could be whitebox appliance based, January 2017

with object storage from Red Hat (Ceph), Scality or Caringo. With the private cloud segment based on OpenStack, other storage is probably from that source. An alternative to the whitebox appliance is to use hyper-converged gear, which shares server storage across the whole cloud. We haven’t dealt with hot, warm and cold data. Data’s value over time tends to drop rapidly. Moving data automatically (auto-tiering) from expensive ultra-fast solidstate drives to slower storage is a sensible imperative for any configuration. As anyone looking at all-flash arrays learns, these units typically outperform the servers they connect to, allowing the arrays’ excess bandwidth to be use to compress data before moving it to slower secondary storage. With a reduction of around 80% being typical, and sometimes much more, compression can save a fortune both on capacity costs and retrieval costs in the cloud, while being much faster in-house and reducing capital expense drastically. Cold data should end up in the cloud as an archive. Long-term, low access storage is very cheap and is now disk-based to allow relatively fast retrieval. All of these compression and auto-tiering approaches should be software based and fully automated. A policy system can ensure the data is treated appropriately. The cloud is still evolving and new approaches to these issues are bound to arise. This should make future configurations much more capable of getting alpha from those nuggets of Big Data. Jim O’Reilly has been an executive at a number of corporations and startup companies. Recently, he was vice president of engineering at Germane Systems, creating ruggedized servers and storage for the U.S. submarine fleet. He has also held senior management positions at SGI/Rackable and Verari; was CEO at startups Scalant and CDS; headed operations at PC Brand and Metalithic; and led major divisions of Memorex-Telex and NCR, where his team developed the first SCSI ASIC in the industry, now in the Smithsonian. Jim is currently a consultant and writer, focusing on storage, infrastructure and software issues. His book on the future of storage, Network Storage, has just been published.

Check us out online dmn.ca

For online advertising opportunities contact

Mark Henry, mark@dmn.ca For online editorial opportunities contact

Sarah O’Connor, sarah@dmn.ca DMN.ca ❰

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Feature

For successful analytics, data quality is king By Sean Howard

Q

uality analytics depends on an understanding of the business problem to be analyzed and an experienced, knowledgeable team of data pros with the right tools and techniques to conduct the analysis. But the single most important ingredient is quality data. Essentially, data quality comes down to three factors: input data, methodology in creating these data and quality control. Understanding input data When it comes to input data, the old saying applies: garbage in, garbage out. High-quality input data are fundamental to producing reliable models and datasets. Regardless of how good your models are, if the input data used to build and implement them are bad—incomplete, outdated, biased or otherwise inaccurate— the resulting predictions or datasets have little chance of being reliable. Now, data are never perfect, which you don’t often hear a data provider admit. But the reality is data are subject to how, where, when and from whom they were captured. Any of these aspects can be a source of bias or error. So it is imperative to understand the pedigree of input data and determine how “clean” the data are before embarking on any analytics effort. No matter how “up-to-date,” data always ❱ DMN.ca

present a snapshot in time, and that time is, by necessity, in the past. Knowing when (recency and frequency) and how (process) the data were collected helps in determining the degree of data “cleanliness” and also assists researchers choose the right methodology and the types of analysis that may or may not be appropriate. The recency of input data determines how well they reflect the current state of affairs. Data that are five years old are bound to be less representative of the present than data that are five minutes old. Further, the frequency of data collection

is also important because this influences the types of models that a researcher can use and how often those models can be calibrated and their predictions tested. As researchers and marketers, we have to use history to predict the future. There is no changing this fact. But it is our job to determine how well historical data reflect the present or predict the future—and make adjustments where necessary. The second critical aspect of input data is knowing how the data were collected. The data collection process is often flawed, which leads to errors, outliers and biases in the resulting data. For example, data on purchase behaviour collected

via a survey will be quite different than data collected at the point of sale. What people say they did is typically quite different from what they actually did. Applying the right methodology “Methodology” here refers to the techniques Environics Analytics (EA) uses to build our data products, such as DemoStats and DaytimePop. These techniques range from simple rule-based algorithms to machine learning methods. In large part, the type, amount, reliability and recency of data available affect the method we use. The methods and models focused on here relate to those

January 2017

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Feature used for creating quality data sets. It is helpful to think about methodology as a spectrum, with model accuracy on one end and model generalization at the other. While there is not a direct trade-off between accuracy and generalization, modelling techniques tend to start at one end of the spectrum. And through model training, calibration and testing, an analyst can work models toward the other end of the spectrum. The best models have high levels of accuracy and generalization. The Modelling Methodology Spectrum illustrates where along the accuracy-generalization continuum various modelling techniques starts. When deciding which techniques to use to build a standard dataset, analysts should compare the advantages and disadvantages of techniques focused on accuracy versus those focused on generalization (as illustrated in the Accuracy vs. Generalization table). At EA, we work hard to balance prediction accuracy and model generalization when building our datasets. We test different modelling frameworks for nearly every type of data set we develop, and for every level of geography and collection of variables we produce. Where the data are available at a high frequency and are reliable, we apply techniques that are more focused on the accuracy of prediction. Where data are less frequent and less reliable or we have to predict far into the future, we focus on building models that generalize well and do our best to capture causation rather than correlation. When it comes to creating analytical methods and models for dataset creation, one size does not fit all. Modelling techniques are designed to solve particular types of problems with specific types of data based on a set of assumptions. It is possible to adapt most modelling techniques to a wide January 2017

range of applications and input data types, within limits. When choosing the right methodology, it is very important to be aware of the limitations of different modelling techniques, as well as the limitations imposed by the input data. Ensuring quality control Quality control or assurance for data boils down to two key elements: comparisons against authoritative data sources and judgment. In cases where authoritative data are available, it is straightforward to calibrate some models, test their results and assess the prediction accuracy. This is a highly valuable step in any modelling exercise. In essence it is an expansion of cross-validation techniques used in statistics and machine learning. All good modellers build models, make predictions, measure the accuracy of those predictions and then refine their models as a result. The second element, judgment, is much more challenging and tends to be somewhat subjective. In our business, there can be a relatively long time period between when we make our predictions and when authoritative data

are available to validate those predictions. Fundamentally, when you produce a prediction for 10 years into the future, how can that be quality controlled? Use your best judgment and wait 10 years to see how you did. At EA, we spend just as much time doing quality control as we do building models. We use our experience, domain knowledge and best judgment to test the reliability of our data and models. One way we do that is by building competing approaches that we can use to test our core methodologies against. This process typically leads to some very important questions: How many predictions are comparable? Why and where are predictions different? Which prediction is more believable? Are there systematic differences between the two predictions that we can leverage? Also, when new authoritative data become available, we compare the various methods that we have used to determine if it is necessary to change the core methodology. QA is an integral part of building datasets and ensuring their quality and it requires continually improving methodologies and datasets. It also means that

researchers cannot become complacent. Without a thorough QA process it is easy for researchers to fall into the trap of using the same methodologies and data sources simply because they were used in the past. And the last thing any research business wants is complacent researchers. There are many challenges to creating quality data. Without exception, no data are perfect and determining how clean the input data are is vital. When it comes to methodology, one size does not fit all and there are trade-offs that must be intelligently considered based on the nature of the data and how the data are going to be used. Finally, creating quality data requires that models be tested and assessed as frequently as possible and then adjusted based on that assessment. The quality of your business decisions rests on the quality of the analysis that drives your decisions, and the quality of the analysis rests on the quality of the data. In the marketing analytics business, we can never forget that fundamental relationship. Sean Howard is vice president, demographic data at Environics Analytics. DMN.ca â?°

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Feature

domain main

Creating engaging user experiences in 2017 and beyond By Ashley Walsh

U

ser engagement is crucial to building strong relationships with employees and customers. So as 2017 begins, marketers everywhere are considering new technologies and tactics for creating captivating experiences. Which tools and strategies will lead to higher engagement this year and beyond? I believe those that promote interactivity, personalization and automation will be key. First prediction: Marketers (and businesses as a whole) will look to simplify their technology stacks. It’s no secret that the marketing technology landscape—with its 3800+ technology solutions—can be overwhelming. In 2017, there will be a focus on finding versatile tools that can accomplish multiple tasks or be used by multiple departments across a business. For marketers, it will be about securing a lightweight, customizable data management solution that can be used for a range of data collection needs, including lead capture, campaign analysis and automatic data routing to email marketing platforms or a customer relationship manager (CRM). Second prediction: Analytics will continue to be important for ❱ DMN.ca

Users increasingly expect some level of entertainment when interacting with brands on the web, so marketers will be tasked with creating content and experiences that are not only relevant and informative, but also fun. marketers, particularly when it comes to creating personalized marketing experiences. Understanding where customers are coming from, which experiences (new and old) are resonating and which content is falling flat is crucial to creating high-performing, tailored campaigns that really connect with potential customers. In 2017, marketers will focus on calculated data collection and campaign measurement so they can gather the powerful insights they need to personalize their marketing efforts and improve their strategies. Third prediction: Accountbased marketing (ABM) will continue to rise as an important marketing strategy. More and more businesses have been exploring ABM in recent years as a way to target larger company accounts rather than individual leads. In 2017, ABM will fully take off as a recognizable

strategy for business growth. More business will recognize the power of marketing to a group rather than an individual since most technology purchase decisions are made by more than one person. And the percentage of marketers who have implemented an ABM strategy will rise drastically from the current 20%. Fourth prediction: In 2017, more businesses will produce interactive marketing campaigns. This means we will see more videos, gamification and virtual reality experiences coming out of the marketing world. Users increasingly expect some level of entertainment when interacting with brands on the web, so marketers will be tasked with creating content and experiences that are not only relevant and informative, but also fun. Newer technologies like virtual reality will be explored and older

technologies like video will no longer be seen as optional (one third of all online time is spent watching video, after all). The user experience will drive engagement in 2017 and beyond. Interactive experiences will increasingly provide incredible opportunities to make a unique impression on customers and employees alike. Data collection, management and analysis will provide the information marketing teams need to tailor their campaigns to the appropriate targets, maximize their impact and boost results for the entire business. Ashley Walsh has worked in multiple areas of the B2B marketing sector and is currently the VP of marketing for Formstack (www. formstack.com), an online form building solution based in Indianapolis.

January 2017

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FEATURE

Top five

marketing skills in demand in 2017

By ALLISON PENNING

H

ere is a look at the top five jobs and skills that will be in high demand in the ever-evolving marketing industry in 2017: Paid social Mobile browsing is on the rise. Most consumers are using their smartphones for messaging, email and social media; therefore, a lot of companies are starting to put their marketing dollars towards paid social advertisements. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook have quickly become an outlet for people to get their news and online shopping and, for that reason, paid social positions are and will continue to be in high demand. These positions require individuals to have a combination of analytical and creative marketing experience in order to put together highly targeted and visually appealing campaigns that align with the company’s business goals and targeted customer. The analytical skills come into play when measuring the success of each campaign and using the data to optimize the company’s next campaign. Most Paid Social professionals look at cost-perthousand-impression (CPM), cost per acquisition (CPA), cost-per-click January 2017

(CPC) and audience growth rate. Marketing operations and automation In mostly B2B environments, many companies are adding marketing automation and operations positions to their teams. Demand generation has been a buzzword these days, but what happens with all of the leads delivered by the demand generation team? That’s where marketing automation and operations comes in. Many companies are investing in marketing automation platforms such as Marketo, Eloqua, Pardot or Hubspot to nurture leads through the sales funnel. These platforms have many different functions and allow for users to establish automated drip campaigns based on action and lead scoring. Event marketing Event planning has always been a function of the marketing team, but rather than just coordinating logistics of an event and passing leads off to sales, these positions have recently shifted to a more strategic function and now have a responsibility for hitting revenue goals. Many companies are lowering the number of events

they participate in and shifting to a high quality versus quantity strategy. Whether it’s a local lunch and learn or a large global conference, event marketing professionals are responsible for managing a budget and ensuring that the goal of the event lines up with the company’s overall marketing goals. These individuals are also expected to create and execute pre- and post-event marketing strategies to ensure there is proper follow up on leads and, as a result, that every event delivers a strong ROI. Digital marketing The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry historically has had more traditional marketing teams focused on brand management, new product innovation and consumer insights. You very rarely see CPG companies with a strong digital presence; however more CPG companies are adding digital marketers to their teams to improve their corporate website, microsites for individual brands, social media presence and online promotions and sweepstakes. Many consumer packaged goods companies are realizing that they have to shift to cater to consumer behavior. E-commerce and

mobile shopping are increasingly becoming more popular, so many companies are starting to sell more of their products on e-commerce sites such as Amazon Pantry or Instacart. As a result, we are seeing an increase in demand SEO, SEM, analytics and other digital functions to join CPG marketing teams. Mobile marketing The world is going mobile, which means less consumers are watching and listening to broadcast ads or browsing on their desktops. Browsing through social media, mobile apps and e-commerce sites is becoming a blended experience and brands need to shift to meet consumer expectations. Many positions are requiring experience in both desktop and mobile app marketing making in-app advertising very popular. Also when you search Google, mobile apps are now popping up as advertised search results, which means companies need to shift their search strategy to stay competitive. Allison Penning is branch manager of LaSalle Network’s San Francisco office. LaSalle Network is a national staffing and recruiting firm. DMN.ca ❰

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Feature

Updates from the National Association of Major Mail Users (NAMMU)

Canada Post announces Q3 results Canada Post released its third quarter results on Friday, November 25 and lost $60 million for the quarter

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❯❯

The labour uncertainty had a negative impact of $100 million

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In the third quarter, direct marketing revenue decreased by $45 million or 15.2%, while volumes decreased by 210 million pieces or 17.5%, compared to the third quarter of 2015. They indicated that this was a result of the labour along with higher volumes in 2015 because of the election

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In the third quarter, direct marketing revenue decreased by $45 million or 15.2%, while volumes decreased by 210 million pieces or 17.5%, compared to the third quarter of 2015. These results were also affected by the labour uncertainty, and by stronger results from the same period of 2015

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For the first three quarters, Direct Marketing revenue decreased by $64 million or 6.7% while volumes fell by 295 million pieces or 7.5%, compared to the same period in 2015

Postal Code Targeting (PCT) ❯❯ First new mail product release from Canada Post in 30 years ❯❯

Acquisition mail product positioned between Neighbourhood and Personalized Mail

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Target to the postal code level or blockface, allowing marketers to target the neighbours of their best customers while allowing for the removal of existing customers

Key highlights and recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee Report on Canada Post: ❯❯ Continue CMB conversion and rural moratoriums

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The product has been in beta for over a year as many NAMMU members and Canada Post have worked together on new processes to support the product

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Roll back CMB conversions completed after the writ for the federal election was dropped August 3, 2015

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Increase oversight of Canada Post through the establishment of a tripartite advisory board of government, unions and management and explore options of a regulator

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Leverage core competencies for growth in areas such as e-commerce

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In retail seek synergistic partnerships, explore post offices as community hubs, partnering with government departments to deliver services and use rural post offices to house servers to improve broadband and cellular networks in rural Canada to grow revenue

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Canada Post to work more closely with stakeholder groups including employees, unIons, municipalities, indigenous groups, seniors, disabled and reduced mobility people and small- and medium-size businesses

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Characterized the financial information provided by Canada Post and the Task Force as weak. Did not make any significant cost reduction initiatives

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Conservatives submitted a dissenting report suggested majority report didn’t address the financial situation of Canada Post and recommended Canada Post pursue the sustainable operation measures proposed in the Task Force report

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NDP also submitted a dissenting report disappointed that the other parties were not in favour of postal banking

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❯❯

NAMMU is working closely with Canada Post to streamline the approval and testing processes and tweaking the product design to ensure a successful launch of this important new product in February At the next chapter meeting on February 9th NAMMU and Canada Post will provide an update on the progress made as well as future enhancements

Best practices from Canada Post ❯❯ NAMMU continues to work with Canada Post to remove the friction points in the mail stream to make the mail channel more competitive ❯❯

NAMMU has worked with Canada Post to identify and promote best practices

❯❯

Good news: Effective January 17th, a new section will be added to the “Best Practices” section in the “Designing” module (personalized mail). This section will list known working Script fonts; we will continue to update this section as new script fonts are tested and found to read (e.g.: “Lucinda” in an upcoming release)

❯❯

The best practices section can be found on the Canada Post website https://www.canadapost.ca/pca/support/guides/ bestpractices

❱ DMN.ca

The next Toronto Chapter meeting will take place on February 9, 2017. If you are interested in learning more or attending please contact executive@nammu.ca. January 2017

// 23

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// 24

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// 25

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// 26

How digital wallets are transforming the payment experience

By Jason Davies

T Jason Davies is vice president and head of digital payments at Mastercard Canada.

❱ DMN.ca

he way Canadians shop is changing. Now, more than ever, Canadians are choosing their phones and tablets to go online rather than their computers and the scales are tipping toward a higher volume of online transactions in the retail space. According to a Moneris prediction, by 2030 only 10% of money spent in Canada will be made via cash purchases. This shift is thanks in part to the growing popularity of digital wallets that allow customers to complete payments with ease. Not only are digital wallets bridging the gap between the physical and digital world, they are transforming the entire customer experience because of their convenience and security. A recent study from Mastercard Canada revealed 92% of Canadian parents indicated they are looking to get time back in their day. The old-fashioned way of movie-going is rushing to the theatre to line up for tickets. Or meal delivery: Ordering pizza over the phone and rummaging through wallets for enough cash to pay the driver when the food arrives. These experiences highlight the challenge of older payment methods. They eat up time that could be better spent. Modern solutions like Mastercard’s Masterpass help to give precious time back to parents so they can make the family trip to the movies or ordering food a less frenzied experience. Because digital wallets store debit, credit, prepaid cards and shipping information, they offer the ability to turn checkout into a one-step process. Payment information is stored digitally through the process of tokenization so shoppers experience the same level of security validation they experience with a POS transaction. As digital wallets gain traction, the one-step payment process will become ubiquitous. Customers will pay the same way each time because it’s predictable and secure, opening up new shopping experiences and leading to new behaviours for Canadians in the marketplace. Digital wallets combined with quality apps have the power to cross over and make the in-store shopping experience better, offering enhanced experiences consumers previously didn’t even think were possible.

Take eating out at a restaurant for example. Most people sit patiently for the server to bring the bill, perhaps waving or pretending to sign a cheque in the air before the server catches on. What if customers could see their bill in real time and pay when they’re ready, instead of waiting on their server? Even splitting the bill with a friend becomes much easier when customers are in the driver’s seat through apps and digital wallets. This is a reality for guests of The Cheesecake Factory restaurants south of the border through the mobile payment app CakePay. Digital payment solutions like CakePay are an extension of the dining experience. Not to mention, this also opens up time for servers to cater to customer’s unique dining needs. And it’s very simple to use. Guests check in at a given location and the app generates a four-digit code they can track from their phone. When ready to leave, customers have the option to split the bill before checking out without any waiting. The same goes for the UK’s Wagamama restaurant. The Qkr! by Mastercard app allows guests to pay whenever they choose. Not only does this make the dining experience better for customers, it cuts out more than 10 minutes of a non-value-add activity for servers who could better use their time in other ways. Another example that’s changing the way Canadians are making payments is Honk Mobile, an app that allows users to pay for parking through their mobile phones. Within seconds, users have the ability to add time to the parking meter and pay. Parking enforcement is able to see a list of license plates from users who have paid, helping people to avoid the cost and inconvenience of parking tickets. Retail shopping is also improved. Imagine a shopper finds a dress in-store that is perfect but the colour isn’t right. In many cases, store staff would probably offer to hold it at another location, prompting customers to either venture across the city, buy a colour that isn’t right or simply give up. This new era allows shoppers to use the retailer’s app to scan the item, select the correct colour, pay for it and have it shipped to their address. When they’re done right, new apps combined with the power and security of digital wallets can fulfill the promise of a transformed shopping experience. January 2017

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