DM Magazine July 2022

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Charting a Do and Don’t in Path with Copy & Design Personalization

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VOL. 35 • NO. 7 • JULY 2022

THE AUTHORITY FOR THE DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS

The Future of B2B Commerce INTERVIEW: Professor V. Kumar

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Gain a fresh perspective on Canada’s distinct communities and markets

TORONTO BUSINESS DISTRIBUTION November 2022 Get your organization’s message in front of business leaders and potential donors and volunteers.

GTA Giving Guide 2022

G GUIDE

I

ardian Society

t’s been over 30 years since Kathy Asling old puppy on the street. She immediatelyfound an 8-weekpet owners in the possible link to called every Toronto and Durham the As an animal rescue in her local newspaper.pup’s owners and ran an advertiseme Region area. group we know A reporter who nt to microchip pets.

Kathy to write how important saw the ad called a cover You cannot predict it is the future so we what will happen Although no owner story. always was ever located, make an appointment advise responsible pet owners in 200 calls to adopt she received almost to the for this quick and less) procedure. prospective adopters puppy. She instinctively screened painless 5 minute It’s better to be (or safe than sorry. expensive options decided on a home and conducted home visits.

With other Kathy out there, we also but had names owners decide know that many families she felt and numbers of not to proceed would provide several pet with a loving home because of the next day she visited to a dog. The price. That is why micro-chipping their pets the local shelter TAGS initiated microchip, saving by contacting the and started ‘match a cheap way to a good people who had called her looking making’ $90 and up). The revenue amount of money (instead of paying to adopt. goes toward a dogs & cats in need through The Animal good cause – helping Guardian Society.

How We Use Your Money 100% of your donations goes to helping program as we the animals in have our far is the veterinary no paid staff. TAGS’s largest expense bills. We want by are healthy, and to be sure that all our dogs sometimes this means expensive or surgeries that medications cost hundreds or even thousands In addition, all TAGS dogs are of dollars. spayed and microchippe d prior to adoption. or neutered, vaccinated to receive some Identifying the donations of dog While TAGS is fortunate need for someone purchasing quality food, we also spend lives of good dogs to step up and dog save the money from being put care. Other expenses food to feed to our dogs to death, Kathy daughter created in foster and her the name The Animal include the production educational and (TAGS). In March Guardian Society of training, promotional material. of 1987 the first Durham Region To donate visit was formed. based rescue our website at www.animalguardian.org see our donation Kathy set out to information meet with individuals or https://www.canadahelps at Canada Helps guide her into who could mentor developing a program .org/en/dn/ and integrity and ethics that 13492 that would promote would operate with our community humane education and find homes to for displaced animals.

Vision Statemen Perhaps the most t relationships with difficult task in the early days ❯ To sustain the was creating operation of our Animal Controls. a foreign word, program and continue to serve and the constant Rescue in those days was and protect the struggle to save from death and our community. animal citizens animals research labs became of be emotionally ❯ To never see a task that proved and any animal abused, that this was not physical draining. It soon became to abandoned or unwanted. left the job for one person. Kathy neededevident ❯ To continue Now 30 years later to provide medical help. and thousands homed, she has care and training animals in our yet to stop! Kathy of dogs successfully recare. to work closely with and her corps of ❯ To construct a shelter that will volunteers animal shelters, community to humane societies, provide for animals safe housing improve the lives until permanent homes of canine citizens. and the ❯ To ensure that Today, TAGS is a charitable non-profi our shelter offers are found. not receive any a centre for learning and education government funding. t organization and does to public donations We are entirely ❯ To see no animal our community. reliant for put to death in TAGS needs other funds. Other than monetary donations, on municipally run shelters because pet care items like they are overlooked beds and blankets, good quality dog of space. or due to lack leashes and collars, food, dog We also need other ❯ To encourage winter coats, dog those items toys, The Animal Guardian like building materials and services. etc. dedication to animalswho profess their love and Society’s microchip to take a stand a popular tradition, participate in the to educate and clinics have become offering inexpensive ❯ To see the day cause of rescue. microchip services when rescue will for 14 no longer be necessary, as all 2021 GTA Giving Guide animals will have safe, loving homes.

2021 GTA GIVIN

G GUIDE

National Init of the Elderlyiative for Care (N.I.C.E 905-263 .) -TAGS (8247) I

We Please feel free welcome your feedback and your questions. to contact us with any questions General information or comments you have. about our program or volunteering : tagsinfo@an n an ageless society, imalguardian.org Telephone: we recognize and value and contribution nurture everyone's at every life stage.

We also are proud in 2005 under a NICE was of our grant from the Networks of Centresfounded initiative Canada Excellence — New HomeShare an Initiative Program. of intergenerational excellence, NICE Mobilizing research housing solution brings by the National the academic, private, together researchers and partners Initiative for the public and non-profi from Care of the Elderly (NICE). t sectors.

We work providers with Our Mission students to create to match older adult home mutually solutions. Find Improving care our more at www.canada beneficial living for all, not just the knowledge into elderly. Translating homeshare.com action. Hear more.

N.I.C.E. is a not-for-profi help close the NICE’s main goals gap between evidence-bas are to t charitable organization donation will help actual practice, ed research and . Your NICE continue improve the training to evidence-based geriatric educational of existing practitioners informational tools produce practical curricula, and interest , spectrum of issues addressing a wide in specializing in new students relating geriatric care, and www.nicenet.ca/donate to aging. changes for the effect positive policy care of older adults.

How Will You Leave Mark on the Comm Your You Called Home unity ?

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Each Ad includes equivalent space for editorial opposite your Ad, for all the details go to http://foundationmag.ca/gtagivingguide/

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Our most important new initiative you can learn is TALK2NICE more about here: which www.nicenet.ca/talk2ni

National Initiat

ce

NICE 246 Bloor Street West, Room 234, Donations of $25 Toronto, ON M5S or more 1V4 www.nicenet.ca/tools will receive a charitable tax receipt.

ive for the Care

NICE is an international network of researchers, practitioners , and students improving the dedicated to care of older Canada and adults, both abroad. in

of the Elderl

y (NICE)

246 Bloor Street Toronto, Ontario West, Room 234 M5S 1V4, Canada www.nicene t.ca nicenetadm in@utoronto .ca 2021 GTA Giving

The Riverwood Conse rvancy

T

he Riverwood Conservancy (TRC) is a member-based charity that provides volunteer and focused on environmenta programs and services l education, conservation, gardening, and horticulture. Founded Garden Council, today The Riverwoodin 1985 as the Mississauga like-minded groups Conservancy works and individuals with cultures, ages, and to enable people of all abilities to respectfully and learn about connect with nature the importance of protecting and the beauty of Riverwood. experiencing Our Vision: A community that lives in harmony Our Mission: The with nature.

Riverwood Conservancy provides programs is the charity that and urban nature preserve direction for Riverwood, a 150-acre situated on the in Mississauga, Ontario. Our mission shores of the Credit River cultures, ages, and is to abilities to respectfullyenable people of all and learn about connect with the importance of protecting, conservingnature restoring natural spaces for the well-being and while also experiencing of future generations the beauty of Riverwood’s With the support gardens. of donors and members community and of the business the local our work will continue volunteer and education community, to strengthen the youth and nature. connection between Please visit our website the history, activities and programs offeredto learn more about at our centre.

Chappell

Our members represent a broad spectrum disciplines and professions, of medicine, gerontologic including geriatric al nursing, gerontologic social work, gerontology, al rehabilitation sociology, psychology, policy, law and science, adults themselves older and their caregivers.

The best part about being a NICE member diverse network. is our The second is FREE! So best? Membership join today.

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n 1902, James Ross donated funds to build and equip much-needed hospital a Lakes. Five generations to care for people in the Kawartha later, with every continue to touch gift, our donors patients’ lives by needs that are not covered through supporting vital hospital Through their generous government funding. support for medical saving technology equipment, lifeand priority projects, Team provide 24/7 donors help the care, You can make a lasting and inspire brighter tomorrows. Ross impact on patient Ross is the heart care with a legacy of the gift. The care for our residents, community and ensures exceptional seasonal residents By naming the and regional Ross Memorial Hospital Foundation patients. you join generations in your Will, supports the entire of caring people in creating a legacy that community.

We are honoured are here to answer to be considered in your legacy plans and your questions. you want to play Let’s talk about the role in advancing health Kawartha Lakes.

How will you touch care for people in the the next generation?

Erin Coons, CFRE, CEO, RMH Foundation 705-328-6113 | ecoons@rmh. org | www.rmh.org /foundation

Guide

GUIDE

2021 GTA GIVIN

The Animal Gu

2021 GTA GIVING

Find your path to new major donors and sponsors. Get into the 2022 GTA Giving Guide and get your charity’s story and key mission statements, fundraising campaigns, major gift programs, sponsorship opportunities, accomplishments and donor stories into Toronto’s largest official guide to help major individual donors and corporate foundations find new ways to support your efforts. Reach more than 20,000 senior executives in marketing, finance and C-Suite leadership in the largest firms in the Toronto area. Headquarters of companies which allocate millions of dollars for donations, sponsorship, social programs, volunteering, governance, advice and insights. And whose leaders and proven individual donors.

House, 4300 Riverwood

905-279-5878 | foundationmag.ca foundationmag.ca

Park Lane,

Mississauga, ON, www.theriverw L5C 2S7 oodconservancy.org/donate /

Spending time in nature is essential for a child’s well being and But access to natural development. spaces can be limited for low-income, diverse and marginalized communities.

The Riverwood Conservancy’s Education Naturally program offers accessible nature connections for children and youth in Peel, helping to break down barriers and ensure nature is accessible for all members in our community.

Learn more and donate at theriverwoodc onservancy.or g/natureforkid s Registered Charity

No: BN889418034RR0001

2021 GTA Giving

FOUNDING PARTNER

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Vol. 35 | No. 7 | July 2022

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Four Key Reasons The Future of B2B Commerce is Collaborative

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ECOMMERCE Four Key Reasons The Future of B2B Commerce is Collaborative

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JULY 2022

An Interview with Professor V. Kumar, Ph.D Marketing at St. John’s University (NYC) and CEO of the IMC Institute

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Charting a Path to Customization With Data Science

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Amanda Fraga Nancy Sansom Dana Farber Billy Sharma Heidi Kimble Stephen Shaw Alexis Nightingale

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Dos and don’ts of copy and design How Data-Driven Businesses Adapt to that worked with amazing results.

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talking points

The AIIM Group Acquires Prime Data, a Provider Data-enriched Marketing Communication Solutions.

AIIM Holdings Inc., a leading provider of omnichannel marketing communications solutions, acquired Prime Data, a leading provider of sustainable marketing communication solutions.

Following the growth investment AIIM received in May 2022 from Vegvisir Capital, the Company continues its expansion by extending its service offering to include carbon-neutral solutions with data-enhanced personalization capabilities for direct mail.

Prime Data shares AIIM’s outstanding “client first” reputation by offering its clients high performing end-to-end marketing communications solutions including strategy, tactics, design, workflow automation, and production.

The Prime Data service offering will strengthen the integrated automated direct mail platform offered by AIIM as the growing demand of modern marketing technologies require integrated dataenrichment capabilities. Furthermore, Prime Data also leads the world in the research and development of sustainable direct mail with a carbon neutral footprint. Its reach spans customers across various industries including non-profits, financial services, eCommerce, real estate, and marketing agencies both domestically and internationally.

“This acquisition will enable AIIM to accelerate its omnichannel customer communication management platform vision ❱ DMN.CA

and further fuel the growth and success of our clients to attract new clients, grow, retain, and re-engage with existing ones,” said Patrick Masset, CEO of AIIM. “Prime Data instantaneously adds data and workflow management experts to our team, increases production capacity for our respective customers, Patrick Masset and enables us to leapfrog our efforts to provide our valued customers with sustainable carbon-neutral direct mail solutions.”

Together the companies will merge their efforts under one roof and continue to provide clients with exceptional service out of Aurora, ON. Steve Falk, the President of Prime Data, will join the AIIM leadership team as VP of Partnership & Sustainability. “This merger will greatly improve opportunities for our clients.

There is a shared focus on client satisfaction, sustainability, and cutting-edge, high-quality printing technology. It is a natural fit after many years of working together as partners,” said Steve Falk.

The Prime Data acquisition is AIIM’s first transaction since the growth investment made by Vegvisir Capital in May 2022, and the Company plans to aggressively pursue M&A moving forward.

Founded in 1990, AIIM has developed an outstanding “client first” reputation along with an extensive set of innovative digital solutions, highly personalized direct marketing offering, data-driven relationship marketing programs, and print management services. The platform helps create, automate, and deliver critical marketing communications. The company’s solutions enable hundreds of customers including leading financial services, insurance, retail, non-for-profit organizations, and government agencies to attract, acquire, and retain customers through a unified offering. For more information, please visit www.aiim.com Prime Data is a leading provider of expert direct mail and printing services. As one of the fastest-growing mailing companies in Canada, Prime Data has consistently demonstrated that direct mail helps clients achieve their revenue and ROI goals when mixed creatively as part of an overall marketing strategy. The company has made significant strides towards a more sustainable future by offering the planet’s first carbon-neutral direct mail program.

Visit www.primedata.ca to learn more.

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Last month Canadian entrepreneur and CEO of StrawberryFrog, Scott Goodson, hosted a one-day virtual conference where

he unveiled their annual report on the world’s leading purpose-driven brands.

From Clorox, LG and Zoom to first-timers like Burt’s Bees, Pfizer and Toyota, the 2022 Purpose Power 100 reveal that the Scott Goodson Conscious Consumer trend has become even more prevalent over the last few years.

It’s no secret that the pandemic has changed the face of how consumers relate to brands – and in turn, how they choose to spend their money. A recent survey reveals that nearly 60 percent of Canadian consumers would not do business with a brand that doesn’t align with their own personal values.

Scott’s passion is establishing a connection between a brand’s reputation and its purpose and his book’s unique insights make him a terrific interview. Scott’s been interviewed by the BBC World Service, NPR, CNN, and has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc. and Forbes. He’s a shining example of some of the great Canadian talent that is making waves on the world stage.

Scott has a new book out entitled Activate Brand Purpose which offers up to the minute insights for brands and businesses to succeed in the post-pandemic Canadian consumer climate. He’s uniquely poised to offer some very fresh insights on the brands that matter to consumers right now.

Recent statistics show that nearly 90 percent of consumers would purchase a product because a company advocated for an issue they cared about while more than two-thirds would refuse to make a purchase if the company supported an issue contrary to their beliefs. These statistics highlight why one of the greatest challenges facing business leaders today is how to ignite the purpose in their brands in ways that resonate with people both inside a company and out.

Goodson his colleague Chip Walker set out to confront the rise of the conscious consumer by mapping out a fresh framework to enable business leaders to spark companywide cultural movement from within to create and maintain a competitive market advantage. Goodson and Walker’s Activate Brand Purpose (Kogan Page, 2022) introduces their concept of Movement Thinking, which JULY 2022

// 5 applies the logic and principles form societal movements to offer clear, meaningful and easy to activate strategies to mobilize a brand.

Up to the minute examples from the business world and interviews with change agents and business innovators from around the globe, along with the authors own research, offer powerful insights into the value of having all the tools at a company’s disposal pointed towards the same goal.

Inspired by their research that proves conclusively that brands that activate purpose inside and outside their organizations fare better than those that do not, the authors put forth that by making hard moves, and activating purpose in a clear communicable fashion, the likelihood of an engaged employee base is sure to result in a more engaged and committed consumer base.

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Vendor of the Year Award recognizes a Vendasta Marketplace vendor for providing innovative products and solutions, showcasing a strong commitment to Vendasta and Vendasta’s partners.

Winner: marketgoo (Madrid, Spain) Client Success Award recognizes local experts who have provided exceptional service to an SMB client utilizing digital technology.

Winner: Spring Creative (Nelson, BC, Canada) Strategy Excellence Award is for developing or refining a scalable, repeatable strategy or process to drive growth and engagement.

Winner: Growth Lab (Kansas City, MO, USA) Innovation Award recognizes a forwardthinking company that harnesses the latest technologies’ power to achieve business success.

Winner: Quantum Agency (Raleigh, NC, USA) Conquer Local Ambassador Award recognizes an outstanding Community contributor and achiever in the Conquer Local Community and Academy.

Winner: Robert Davis, KOR Unlimited (New York, NY, USA) Conquer Local Connect returns with another virtual event in September 2022.

Saskatoon’s Vendasta Local Impact Awards winners announced.

The 2022 awards recognize innovators providing exceptional service to local business clients. Vendasta revealed the winners of its inaugural Local Impact Awards, honouring companies providing innovative digital technology solutions and services to small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The winners were revealed during Conquer Local Connect in July. The quarterly event brings together hundreds of companies who specialize in selling digital solutions to local businesses, including partners utilizing the Vendasta Platform.

“We’ve had the honor of providing technology to remarkable local experts around the world for more than a decade, and through that time, we’ve seen some truly inspiring creativity and dedication to SMB clients,” said Vendasta Chief Customer Officer George Leith. “The Vendasta Local Impact Awards winners are leaders in their industries, and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to celebrate their successes.”

The winners across six categories are:

Partner of the Year Award recognizes a Vendasta partner for the growth of their business.

Winner: The King Group (Tulsa, OK, USA) JULY 2022

Vendasta’s core purpose is to drive local economies by democratizing technology for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). They accomplish this by providing a robust platform to local experts around the world--their channel partners. Partners use Vendasta’s technology to market, sell, bill, fulfill, and deliver digital solutions to their SMB clients. The platform and marketplace are tightly integrated into an operating system delivered to SMBs, providing a single sign-on to digital products and analytics. Vendasta serves 65,000+ channel partners, who in turn work with more than six million SMBs worldwide.

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Entertainment and Media Will be the Leading Sector for Digital Out of Home (DOOH) Advertising Over the Next 12 Months.

TV and newspaper advertising will suffer the most from the expansion of DOOH, senior advertising executives believe 23rd June 2022/ New research* from Alfi, an AI enterprise SaaS advertising platform, shows the entertainment and media sector will see the biggest increase in the use of Digital Out of Home (DOOH) advertising over the next 12 months.

The global study among senior executives including CEOs, found 66 percent believe

entertainment and media will see rapid increases in the use of DOOH followed by 62 percent who point to the Government campaigns sector and 61 percent who highlight the retail industry.

The executives questioned in Canada, the UK, US, France, Germany, Australia, and the UAE believe the finance industry will also increasingly use DOOH advertising with 58 percent predicting it will see the biggest rise in DOOH use followed by 52 percent who pinpointed telecoms.

The switch to DOOH will however mean budgets being moved away from other areas of advertising with television and newspapers expected to be the hardest hit. Around 57 percent of executives believe TV advertising budgets will be reduced to fund DOOH and 53 percent say newspaper advertising spend will suffer because of this.

Just 15 percent of executives questioned believe Out of Home (OOH) budgets will be diverted to DOOH and only 21 percent believe online advertising will suffer as a result of the switch to DOOH. “Entertainment and media is ideally suited to DOOH as advertisers can make full use of the technology to provide additional content and the same applies to Government campaigns and the retail sector,” said Peter Bordes, Interim CEO, Alfi.

“Advertising budgets are increasing but the rise of DOOH does mean other areas will potentially suffer as money is moved to where advertising can be more effectively measured and analysed.”

Alfi, Inc. provides solutions that bring transparency and accountability to the digital out-of-home advertising marketplace.

Since 2018, Alfi, Inc. has been developing its artificial intelligence advertising platform to deliver targeted advertising in an ethical and privacy-conscious manner.

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Six & Flow launches new Digital Transformation offering and announces senior appointment to Canadian team.

Six & Flow, the Toronto-based growth agency, has launched a new suite of digital transformational services that are designed to complement its existing CRM, marketing and revenue operations offerings. It has also appointed a new Head of Sales as it gears up for future growth in North America.

The new Digital Transformation division is available to the agency’s global roster of clients which spans North America, Europe and South Africa. Six & Flow is one of only two Elite HubSpot Partners with offices in Canada and has a regional client base that includes Medavie Blue Cross, Sprout at Work, Ndsupplies, AlayaCare, Bolt Logistics (Go Bolt) and Dehumidifier Air Services DMN.CA ❰

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ECOMMERCE

BY NANCY SANSOM

F

or too long, the B2B invoice to cash cycle has been a transactional and poor customer experience. An invoice is entered in a system and a payment is made on the other side, if you’re lucky. Throw in disputes, lost invoices, daily distractions, and more, and there is a series of ships passing in the dark moments that drag on for far too long. Both you and your customers are frustrated, and vital cash is tied up.

COVID exposed the flaws of the B2B payments cycle and perhaps accelerated the digitization of the AR department by a decade or more.

Necessity is the mother of invention, after all. However, for most businesses, digitization has boiled down to sending electronic invoices and automating existing systems.

What hasn’t been fixed is the disconnect between the buyer and the supplier. At Versapay, we refer to that as the AR disconnect. The canyon of broken communication, misunderstanding, and frustration that your customers face when trying to do something as “simple” as pay you.

So, while a digitized AR department might be more efficient, the experience for customers has ❱ DMN.CA

gotten arguably less human and more frustrating. Clearly there is a need to solve both for the automation and digitization of AR, as well as for a better and more collaborative customer experience.

At Versapay, a leading accounts receivable (AR) automation company, we’ve witnessed firsthand several trends illustrating this fact.

Business transactions TREND happen from anywhere While paper cheques have long been a primary target for digital transformation, they have remained stubbornly in the business payment lifecycle. In fact, many clients have told us that prior to working with Versapay they found it easier to process a cheque than to receive an electronic payment.

Why is that? It’s much easier to match the remittance data of a paper invoice stub mailed in with a check, where all the data is on hand, than a naked sum of electronic money with no data.

Yet, COVID tapped into latent demand for digital payments in businesses with more complicated business and payment transactions. Many companies have

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told employees, “You never need to go back to the office if you don’t want to. You can conduct business wherever you feel comfortable.”

Faced with the alternative, stacks of checks in empty offices, businesses have no choice but to make the digital move to B2B payments.

To make this shift as efficient as possible, you need technology that not only automates your processes but also fosters collaboration between you and your customer in order to make the process seamless and delightful.

The old way of doing B2B payments is quickly being replaced by a collaborative AR network that enables your employees to manage business transactions from anywhere—accessing real-time account information, accepting all forms of payment (including digital), tracking history, and completing all the accounting work their companies require.

Customers and employees expect TREND tools that make collaboration easier In nearly every area of the enterprise, cloud-based tools such as Salesforce, Google Docs and Slack have made it easier than ever

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for teams to collaborate internally and with customers. However, the AR department lags behind.

As more businesses introduce technologies into their accounting processes, the temptation is to simply automate the way things have always been done — what we call traditional AR automation. But while transformation is the hot word of the day, the truth is that companies have a clear opportunity to empower the genius of their AR team by making it easier than ever for them to do their jobs and serve your customers.

When your customers get an invoice, often they’re simply not ready to pay it. They may not understand the details. They may see that a promised discount was not properly applied, or something in the invoice was never delivered.

Bottom line: they have questions.

Traditionally, this would be the start of a painful and drawn-out exchange with accountsrecievable@ we_will_never_reply.com.

This was always a problem, but COVID massively accelerated the pain. Suddenly businesses were forced to pay attention to both sides of the B2B transaction to streamline experiences between customers and the business. There JULY 2022

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ECOMMERCE

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hasn’t been an AR automation solution that reimagines the buyer and seller experience with all the of collaboration features we’ve come to expect from modern cloudbased apps, until recently.

What we seek to do with the Versapay Collaborative AR Network is to enable both buyers and suppliers to work together in a user interface that’s as easy to use as the leading cloud-based apps out there — such as Google Docs.

Questions get asked and answered, almost as if you were in the room together. Ask about a discount, and the sales team can pipe in and confirm that it was missed on the invoice and get it corrected. Issues get resolved faster and easier, and relationships are built, not broken.

The result is increases in efficiency and acceleration of your cash flow, certainly, but also much happier customers. And let’s face it, that’s the backbone of a healthy company.

The era of cheap capital and low TREND inflation is ending In today’s constrained landscape — high inflation, rising interest rates, constricted supply chains — cash flow is king and businesses need to get paid faster.

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JULY 2022

We believe wholeheartedly that increased collaboration between suppliers and buyers enables this.

We’re already seeing the first step towards this — CRM vendors like Salesforce and their partners have done an excellent job of helping companies recognize the importance of collaborating beyond their four walls to accelerate the sales cycle.

As more widespread adoption of collaboration tools takes AR automation a step further, this will facilitate true collaborative commerce by allowing businesses to connect with partners both inside and outside their companies to swiftly resolve disputes, answer questions, and move the payment cycle along in a crisp manner.

As more buyers and sellers work together across this network, their collaboration will strengthen and expand the value of the network with more efficiency and robust information. This will be a major strength in the constrained global economy especially as it will accelerate cash flow.

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TREND

The birth of the network of networks There have always been

marketplaces where buyers and sellers come together to do business offline. Pre-pandemic, we called them trade shows, but as commerce has moved online, the trade show environment has too. There are also many consumer examples, such as Facebook Marketplace, which connect individual buyers and sellers with each other.

Collaborative commerce is similar, only with businesses rather than individuals, and over time I think it’s going to become more common. Rather than a single marketplace, however, I expect we’ll start seeing a network of marketplaces (a network of networks if you will) that allows buyers and sellers to log in and transact with each other using their system of choice. Individuals in the sales, customer service, or AP and AR departments will be able to collaborate and see what their peers have said and done for a given buyer or seller – features that we’re used to seeing as consumers on social or cloud-based apps, translated to the B2B environment.

Businesses will benefit from this network effect with streamlined communication where suppliers can register and maintain their information within the portal

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Four Key Reasons The Future of B2B Commerce is Collaborative

and compete for business without any heavy administration by a finance team. This will make it easier to connect with suppliers every time there is an item that requires action e.g. a questionnaire, contract etc. It will also help businesses lower costs and create greater loyalty across the buyers and other suppliers in the network.

All of this will, again, be enabled by technology that allows real-time collaboration — between buyers, suppliers, and partners. That will mean open and robust APIs and strong relationships between vendors and developers.

It’s not too late to prepare Given the collaborative trajectory of B2B commerce, the simple question is how prepared are you for this future? The good news is you’re not the only one asking this question. Most finance leaders are at the front end of their digitization journey, and now is the perfect time to shift the focus from traditional automation to true transformation that sets you and your customers up for success in the era of collaborative commerce.

NANCY SANSOM is the Chief Marketing Officer of Versapay.

DMN.CA ❰

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INTERVIEW

Transformative Marketing: An Interview with Professor V. Kumar, Ph.D Marketing at St. John’s University (NYC) and CEO of the IMC Institute

BY STEPHEN SHAW

I STEPHEN SHAW is the Chief Strategy Officer of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering a more unified customer experience. Stephen can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca

❱ DMN.CA

n 1960 the American Marketing Association’s Journal of Marketing published a landmark article by a Pillsbury executive named Robert Keith titled The Marketing Revolution. In a succinct 4-pages Keith chronicled the evolution of marketing at Pillsbury from the founding of the company in 1869.

The point of the history lesson was that Keith had concluded that business was undergoing a radical change in philosophy that would transform marketing from a peripheral role to become a “dominant function”. He stated that “Companies revolve around the customer, not the other way around”, and that “As the concept gains ever greater acceptance, marketing is emerging as the most important single function in business”.

Pillsbury’s new purpose, he announced, was no longer to simply make and sell baking products but to “satisfy the needs and desires, both actual and potential, of our customers”. The Marketing Department, up until then limited to managing advertising, would “direct and control” all of the processes that took its products from the assembly line to market. Newly created brand managers would have full accountability for the P&L of each product.

Keith’s prediction was not inherently revolutionary — the legendary management consultant Pete Drucker had said much the same thing six years before, declaring that “There is only valid definition of business purpose: to create a satisfied customer”,

and that “the business enterprise has two — and only these two — basic functions: marketing and innovation”. But for most businesses, marketing was still largely associated with “pushing” products into stores so they could be sold. The idea that marketing, as a central controlling function, could become a business driver was farfetched given its narrow mandate at the time.

Soon after Keith’s article appeared, many prominent marketing academics came forward to make a similar case — most notably, the renowned Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt who that same year wrote his famous HBR article titled “Marketing Myopia”, saying that “to continue growing, companies must ascertain and act on their customers’ needs and desires, not bank on the presumptive longevity of their products.”

Keith’s so-called revolution turned out, in the end, to be short-lived.

For a while, marketing did rise to prominence as a strategic function, involved in every aspect of product development and commercialization. But that is certainly not the case today. Marketing’s role has shrunk in importance, reduced to JULY 2022

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INTERVIEW

“Let’s look at your customers, what they buy, and how much it costs to get them to what they do, and analyze that data.”

JULY 2022

what it started out doing, looking after advertising and promotion.

That’s how most CEOs think of marketers, as the ad department.

But the other irony is that for businesses to succeed today, they must actually follow Keith’s prophetic advice: switch from selling products to as many people as possible, at the highest price possible, to creating valuable customers by anticipating and meeting their needs.

Professor V Kumar calls this “transformative marketing”: placing customers at the centre of the organization. And making it happen will indeed require a revolution in how business operates.

Because today marketers are still expected to push products, driven by an insideout, rather than an outside-in, orientation. And that “myopia” makes businesses vulnerable to being blind-sided by events.

Professor Kumar was an early champion of customer relationship management and engagement.

A former editor of the Journal of Marketing himself, he has published hundreds of scholarly articles and is acknowledged as one of the top marketing academics in the world. His latest book, Intelligent Marketing, explores the implications for marketing as new-age technologies like AI and IOT begin to transform society.

Shaw: CEOs today have little confidence in their CMOs. We also know the average tenure of a CMO keeps dropping.

Even the title of CMO has been jettisoned by some companies.

Is marketing in a state of crisis?

Kumar: I would say it’s in a transformative stage. Thirty years or so ago, you had traditional advertising: TV advertising, print advertising, billboard advertising.

None of that spending could be easily tied to business outcomes.

That’s because the primary purpose of advertising then was to inform, persuade, and remind — nothing directly contributed to generating sales. But with the rise of CRM and data-driven marketing in the 1990s, we could

track what individual customers were buying, how much they were buying, when they were buying.

The transformative shift began at that point in time. And today, the majority of marketing spending is on digital media and very little on traditional advertising. Customers can now control when and what they see. And that trend toward personalization and customization is going to prevail in this coming era of transformative marketing.

Shaw: How can marketing connect it’s spending more closely to business outcomes than it does today?

Kumar: What we want to measure is revenue contribution to the company. And to do that we have much more precise measurement and modeling tools now. We are also able to precisely say what message should be given to which customer, for how long, and the effect of that. There are really just 10 marketing metrics that matter.

They are customer lifetime value; customer brand value; customer referral value; customer influence value; customer knowledge value; customer engagement value; salesperson lifetime value; donor lifetime value; employee engagement value; and business reference value.

Shaw: What you’re suggesting is that we can actually model the ideal spend to achieve specific outcomes. But isn’t the other challenge that we don’t really know what customers would have bought anyway? Are you suggesting that there is a way to model your way around some of these unknowns?

Kumar: You raise a beautiful point. So many companies have a pre-set marketing budget. But we tell them: Let’s look at your customer base, let’s look at your customer acquisition rate, and then let’s profile the high customer lifetime value customers to know which prospects to go after. Let’s look at your customers to see how much they are likely to buy. And so, to make them buy that much, how much do we have to spend on them, looking at historical data patterns? And so we come up with a number for all the customers CONTINUED ON page 12 DMN.CA ❰

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INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM page 9

plus the yet-to-be acquired customers and say what the marketing budget should be.

Shaw: Let’s say you’re the newly appointed CMO of a major enterprise, and you probably have no more than three years to make your mark. The CEO is expecting you to drive revenue growth. As that new CMO, what approach would you take?

Kumar: First we would need to understand what consumers want and plan to deliver it. Not every customer has the same wants: some are price-conscious, some are quality conscious, some are convenience conscious. So we have to know the size of those segments, and where we can compete. Next is defining the experience we want to provide.

And then we need to define the desired market to go after: Is my target audience just the domestic market or is it a global market?

And then if it’s a global market, I need to make decisions in terms of a branding strategy: Do I keep the same brand or a different brand? Is the product the same?

Is the pricing strategy the same?

But most importantly, what am I accountable for, the top line or the bottom line? If the company CEO says to the CMO you need to deliver me the top line and bottom line, and the market is saturated, what can the CMO do?

They can go after global markets.

So how do they pick the market?

Should they follow a waterfall strategy or a sprinkler strategy?

A waterfall strategy involves sequentially entering foreign markets. A sprinkler strategy is simultaneously entering multiple markets. If you go sequentially, you need to show that there is a gain from one market to the other — what we call a lead-lag country effect. And then once I go to market, how many markets do we enter?

Shaw: To win a seat at the corporate strategy table, marketing has to offer business solutions that the CEO and CFO will recognize. And that’s not the case today. Is that because marketing itself is drawn to all of the things that the CEO and CFO doesn’t care about? ❱ DMN.CA

Kumar: As I said at the start, we are in a transformative phase, so marketing has not been given the respect it deserves. For every problem that the CEO or the CFO faces, marketing needs to come up with a strategic business solution.

Why is that not happening today?

My daughter is head of marketing for one of the leading fitness clubs in New York — late 20s, already head of marketing. If I explain these general marketing strategies to her, she says, “I’m in the digital world, I know exactly what to do.”

Shaw: Marketing is the brand custodian. Yet it seems to me that performance marketing, much as you’re describing with your daughter, is winning the day over long-term brandbuilding. What do organizations need to do to bridge that divide?

Kumar: I’ll answer with an example. Harley Davidson used to be a great brand: they would sell 265,000 motorcycles on average a decade ago. But if you look at today’s younger customers, they don’t want big bikes — they’re gas guzzlers, they pollute the environment. So how did this company reinvent itself? It took them years of losing money, but finally: electric scooters, electric motorcycles, that’s what they’re turning to. And because emission is something today’s Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z, care about, they’re now transforming. Today’s brand leaders are a younger generation who are going to transform businesses by meeting the needs of their cohort.

Shaw: Marketing is still a grabbag of copycat tactics. Maybe one of the ways to become more strategic is for marketing to own the corporate vision and purpose.

Kumar: As far as it affects the value proposition for the company, the answer is positively yes. Because today we are moving from maximizing the firm’s profit to maximizing the wellbeing of stakeholders: Employees, customers, suppliers, distributors, the environment, and the community. And of course, the firm’s investors. So the question is, how should the stakeholders be prioritized? For example, is engaging employees

more important than engaging customers? Better to go with engaging customers first, and then employees second, because not every company is willing to empower their employees. Then who is the third stakeholder?

The purpose has to be tied to the community, and to the customers in that community.

Shaw: Marketing should be driving that discussion, I expect.

Kumar: Yes, marketing should be driving it. There is no question about marketing not driving it.

Shaw: There’s a general acceptance now that the classical marketing planning model is too slow-moving.

We’ve recently seen the adoption of “digital pods” to speed up market execution, made up of multi-disciplinary teams. For marketing to become more of a strategic lead in business, what else needs to change?

Kumar: First, we have to educate the C-suite. Even today, there is a tug of war between marketing and finance. The CFO always wants to maximize ROI. But marketing says: “We live in a non-contractual selling world. If I don’t satisfy all the needs of the customer, I will lose them to the competition, even if my ROI is maximized.”

The CFO does not get this — still insists on maximizing ROI. So we have to educate the C-suite as to what is important from a customer perspective. That’s one.

Second, the marketing executives themselves should be armed with this knowledge. And the third most important thing is to give marketing more power, more operational discretion. If you keep demeaning marketing, nothing is going to change. And the reason there is hesitation in the C-suite is the CEOs, the CFOs, are old schoolers, old-timers. There needs to be a generational shift in leadership.

Shaw: Marketing is still a collection of silos organized around channels. Is the option to reorganize marketing around the customer journey?

Kumar: Agreed, that’s exactly right. Specifically, the three stages of the customer journey: pre-

purchase, purchase, and postpurchase. Let me give you an example of a study we’re doing.

A consumer-packaged goods company has a nice new consumer product that they want people to sample. What is the best strategy for them? Should they go to the store and distribute it as an instore sample? Or should they send it via direct mail to households? Or they should just send a postcard to invite consumers to register and ask for the sample? Which channel — online request, direct mail, or in-store — is going to generate higher sample usage?

And given the sample usage, which one is going to generate a better experience? And which one is going to result in a higher level of purchase? And then once the purchase occurs, which one is going to drive repeat purchase?

Managing that customer journey is the biggest issue we need to resolve today.

Shaw: Your latest book is called “Intelligent Marketing,” which some people would argue is an oxymoron. How do you see new-age technologies impacting marketing?

Kumar: Our lives will be transformed. As consumers, we want this transformation, therefore marketing has to transform, and if not, the company won’t transform. Marketing transformation is the bridge between consumer transformation and company transformation.

Shaw: Given the next generation coming along, what’s your advice to the aspiring marketer today, to your students, in terms of their future in marketing?

Kumar: This is what I tell them, that every 20 years there is transformation coming. And the next 20 years is a transformative era. You’re not at the tail end of a transformation; you are at the beginning of a new transformation. You’re here not just to shake up business, but the whole world.

Shaw: In other words, if I can synopsize, it’s the best of times for marketers, not the worst of times.

Kumar: Exactly, I would say that.

JULY 2022

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PERSONALIZATION

Charting a Path to Customization With Data Science F

or marketers and customers alike, personalization is a win-win — customers receive more relevant materials from a business, and are therefore more likely to remain loyal to that business moving forward. Sounds great…but how do we get there?

Personalized marketing is kind of like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: a glorious ideal, yet tricky to chart a path towards.

And don’t fall for fool’s gold — inserting a customer’s first name into an email template is not personalization, it’s just common courtesy. You’ll need to dig a little deeper to start delivering relevant content to customers at the right time and on the right channel, the true measure of personalization.

So…how do we do that? No leprechaun magic necessary for this; data science has you covered.

If I started to lose some of you when uttering “data” and “science” in one sentence, let me assuage your worries. Data science isn’t as complicated as it sounds. Below I’ve outlined ways your team can embark on a data science project to achieve true marketing personalization.

Set achievable goals Many marketers, when they hear “data science,” they think of AI-driven predictive models, rapid testing platforms, and more — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

These fancy models can generate strong, actionable insights, but not until your customer data is in decent shape. Start by framing your marketing science project with simple questions, like “When do my customers actually want to hear from me?” or, “How frequently do they want to hear from me?” or, JULY 2022

“On which channels do they want to hear from me?”

These key questions, which should always be customer-centric, enable you to hone in on your data science project so it’s manageable, and so its results provide clear next steps your team can use to enhance marketing personalization efforts. Then, you can move onto the next customer friction point, then the next. For example, once you’ve determined how often customers want to hear from your brand, you can look into which channels they want to hear from you on, and so on.

Simplicity is key Whatever your motivation to embark on a data science journey is, let me take a wild guess at what you, your team and your boss all want: results. You want that 360 degree view of your customers, so you can send them more relevant, personalized content at the right times and on the right channels (that’s true personalization, by the way — “insert name here” won’t cut it anymore). I want all that for you, too, but don’t expect instant gratification. You have to start small.

If your business is brand new to data science, starting with a narrow scope will enable you to build a strong foundation for more sophisticated models down the road. So, once you’ve decided on a straightforward, customeroriented question to guide your project, start with simple A/B tests to unearth initial results.

Let’s say you’re trying to figure out when your customers want to receive messages from you.

Pick a couple different options for times, and send a message to a randomized segment of your

ISTOCK/ COFFEEKAI

BY HEIDI KIMBLE

No matter how you personalize or use science-backed analytics, you’re still just after results.

customer base at one of the times, and the other randomized segment gets a message at the other time.

You can then determine which option drove higher engagement with customers, and there’s your winner…for now. Simplicity is key, yes, but consider my alternative to the salesman’s mantra: ABT, or Always Be Testing.

Now, sometimes the results of these simple A/B tests will be narrow, but don’t let small margins fool you. If you have thousands or hundreds of thousands of customers, a proportionately small increase in conversions is a big deal for your bottom line.

Building on your foundation Eventually, through simple testing, your team will have stockpiled a decent amount of data on your customers. Clues that you’re nearing this point include that you’re all running out of questions to answer via these tests. Or you can no longer comprehend the next ten or twenty data points about a customer segment. Or that you’re all starting to cash in on your vacation days. Using your accumulated data, you can now leverage some more sophisticated methodologies to move toward marketing personalization: ❯ Look alike models clue you into which customer attributes correlate with desired customer behaviors. You can use these

❯

insights to lean into those attributes, tailoring content and timing, and testing out different versions of a particular message to see which is more impactful at driving those behaviors.

Triggers are automated campaigns that are, well, triggered when a customer is highly likely to be reaching a certain point in the buyer’s journey. In your initial data collection, you’ll probably start to see trends in the points in time when customers are most likely to convert, ask questions, and so on. Trigger campaigns use AI-driven predictive models to automatically engage with customers at these crucial points in time, when your marketing messages will be most impactful.

At the end of the day, the customer should be the end-all-be-all of any marketing science project. The more value you provide to them via relevant, personalized marketing campaigns, the more loyal they’ll be to your business. If they’ve given up some data voluntarily, use that — as well as purchase or inquiry history — to send them useful information and offers at the right time, on their favorite channels. For marketers, data science is the way toward the end of the rainbow.

HEIDI KIMBLE is director of Analytics and Insight at Sinch for Marketing.

DMN.CA ❰

How Data-Driven Businesses Adapt to New Streams from Open Banking

COURTESY MASTERCARD | NAM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

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ECOMMERCE

BY AMANDA FRAGA, DANA FARBER AND ALEXIS NIGHTINGALE

F

or small business owners, today’s business is anything but usual. Markets, consumers, and realities are everchanging, meaning that small business owners have to react quickly, sometimes changing their business models at the core. And those reactions come with a cost.

Inflation, the rising cost of goods and PPE (personal protective equipment) purchases represent the largest challenges facing small business owners’ bottom lines today. As they navigate this changing world, many are seeking solutions for agility and resilience powered by technology.

Open banking represents one such opportunity space. It is a huge paradigm shift for small business owners, empowering them to be smarter both when making business decisions and when managing their finances.

Rather than going it alone, small business owners view open ❱ DMN.CA

banking as an opportunity for partnership in their ventures as they continue to grow.

With growth comes new challenges for small business owners; almost all of them digital. A successful business now represents a cybersecurity target, an overwhelming amount of data with little knowledge of how to protect it and more inventory to manage. For small business owners, digital problems call for digital solutions, especially when it comes to protecting their business.

The buzz around the proverbial, digital water cooler is about finding solutions, and small business owners are all ears right now.

Today represents a unique time for small business owners with a society still unsure of “normal.” However, rising costs and cybersecurity threats are here to stay. As small business owners look toward the future, their path forward is open to partners that

can help with obvious hurdles and pragmatic solutions.

Navigating cost uncertainty Small business owners are getting used to a new paradigm where business is anything but usual.

Most have had to significantly pivot their businesses in some way or another–and those shifts come with costs. Whether it’s the rising cost of goods, the infrastructure needed to implement new business models or simply purchasing mass quantities of PPE, small business owners across all industries and geographies are feeling the squeeze.

Inflation is their number one pain point, especially for those who work in high-volume, consumer-facing industries like restaurants and retail. Customer acquisition is also a pain point, especially for those who work in professional services. On the other hand, talent acquisition stands out as a challenge for sectors like

medicine and agriculture.

Funding is an ongoing issue as a majority of small business owners have received a business loan (62 percent) and are looking for faster and easier access to capital for their business (85 percent).

All small business owners face common challenges, but our research revealed unique needs and mindsets across six key groups.

Based on a variety of factors ranging from tenure to industry to company size, the data shows that reliance on technology and need for funding are core defining factors as one way to group small business owners.

In addition to mindset, industry is a strong indicator of unique small business owner needs.

While restaurant owners cite business tenure as a primary reason for loan rejection, retailers are facing capital-intensive pivots and rising cybersecurity threats, creating greater funding need.

JULY 2022

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ECOMMERCE Rising costs especially plague farmers, manufacturers and those in professional services who are reliant on networking and struggle with customer acquisition with less face-to-face time available.

solutions. More than 8 in 10 small business owners told us they are looking for “faster and easier access to capital” (85 percent) and “loans that are tailored to their business’ specific needs” (81 percent).

Whether it’s with low interest loans, credit card options or micro-loans that allow them to adjust or expand their business, small business owners are hungry

for solutions to navigate a shifting landscape. In fact, demand for such solutions has never been higher.

SME seeking allies to drive growth From e-commerce to remote team meetings, the pandemic has created a new army of digital experts when it comes to business operations. For many small

COURTESY MASTERCARD | NAM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

COURTESY MASTERCARD | NAM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

Challenges vary by industry Despite these challenges, small business owners remain optimistic and ready to grow. Nearly half (47 percent) say they are in growth mode with the remainder (42 percent) indicating they are in maintenance mode.

As small business owners scale, there are clear opportunities to become a partner for them with customized, agile funding

Data shows that the number one reason they lean into open banking is to improve their decision-making processes.

JULY 2022

business owners, this time has raised their financial IQ as 95 percent consider themselves heavy FinTech users for both business and personal needs.

Small business owners now rely on technology for a variety of tasks to keep their businesses on track. Everyday tasks like banking, payments and budgeting are already taking place on digital platforms with interest in expanding to more sophisticated applications like loans and crowdfunding. The growing use of FinTech among small business owners is now giving rise to a new generation of business owners who are more inclined to embrace open banking for business.

Similar to FinTech overall, open banking is making headway across a variety of financial needs, with more than 7 in 10 small business owners linking financial accounts for banking, invoicing, paying bills, accounting and receiving payments.

Small business owners are embracing open banking as a member of their team, with many viewing this linkage as a way to build strategic advantage.

Eighty-five percent are looking for customized financial recommendations for their business from the use of their data. The data also shows that the number one reason they lean into open banking is to improve their decision-making process, followed by saving time and effort.

This adoption goes beyond their business operations; many are leveraging open banking for their customers as well. Payments are a driving use case as nearly 9 in 10 accept some form of digital payment from their customers, and a similar percentage use open banking-backed methods to accept payments.

The top benefit of offering open banking for customers is the ability to accept payment more quickly.

In addition to speeding up cash flow, small business owners lean into open banking to verify, secure DMN.CA ❰

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COURTESY MASTERCARD | NAM RESEARCH & INSIGHTS

ECOMMERCE

and personalize transactions while meeting customer expectations in today’s digital world.

Overall, open banking is seen as a driver of intelligence, insights and convenience for small business owners looking for a streamlined way to tackle critical business tasks.

Despite rising FinTech use, 94 percent of small business owners still encounter financial pain points and stress. Many report that access to capital, financial management and rising costs are stressful aspects of running a small business.

Small business owners are seeking allies that can help them with financial management to address these pain points.

Majorities are looking for better ways to harness their business’ data to get a holistic view, optimize financial management and inform business strategy.

They are open to receiving help as the majority say they trust others to help with financial planning for their business (63 percent) and are looking for custom recommendations for how to optimize financial management based on their business’ data (85 percent). ❱ DMN.CA

There is an opportunity to help them become more proactive experts.

Unleash the power of data to drive innovation Open banking is a platform for innovators to develop new and improved financial services and to deliver valuable intelligence and customized insights for small business owners. It puts small business owners in control and allows them to benefit from their financial data in order to tackle critical business tasks.

Addressing key pain points, like access to capital Small business owners are looking for financial solutions customized to their needs and to ease the financial pain points of operating a small business. With this data, lenders can get a better picture of the small business in order to make better credit decisions through Mastercard’s open banking platform.

Innovative FinTech solutions are being embraced by small businesses. The growing use of FinTech among small business owners is now giving rise to a new generation who are more inclined to share their data through open banking. More than 9 in 10 are heavy users of FinTech for both personal and business finances.

Account-based payments are an emerging area Open banking technology offers more ways to pay with greater speed, convenience and confidence. With better quality data and insights about the small business, the non-card payments journey can be smoother.

There is an opportunity to connect with small business owners over tools that protect and support their businesses more broadly beyond financial needs.

Our research shows that the top areas where small business owners are open to exploring new options are cybersecurity, data analytics and inventory management.

Digital security is particularly top-of-mind, as two-thirds of small business owners have experienced at least one threat, with phishing and malware being the most common.

Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) currently have digital security solutions implemented, but many are deploying only basic solutions like antivirus software and firewalls.

Expertise also appears to be reactive, as those who have experienced a threat express both greater prioritization and greater expertise when it comes to digital security.

Digital security is on the radar, but still surfacelevel Small business owners are interested in exploring new options for security, but most don’t know what they don’t know. There is an opportunity to help them become more proactive experts with knowledge and education. This can help them discover blind spots and become more informed on niche topics.

Small business owners are seeking not only the functional benefits of protection, but also the emotional peace of mind and fulfillment that comes from checking the box on security diligence. Lean into solutions that clearly deliver these benefits to onboard new customers, build trust and grow the relationship long-term.

This group is seeking more holistic tools, such as subscriptions and bundles that can streamline the process. One trusted source of information is other small business owners and organizations, indicating there is an opportunity to socialize security solutions through those channels.

THE AUTHORS are members of the marketing, communications and data team at Mastercard.

This feature is based on research conducted by them on the state of data-driven, open-banking implications and concepts.

JULY 2022

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CREATIVE

Dos and don’ts of copy and design that worked with amazing results. And why.

BY BILLY SHARMA

N

ick Horne, creative director at True Digital said, “The value of creativity has always been about investment.

Creativity is the ultimate embodiment of ROI. Creativity should be the multiplier of value, how we unlock untapped potential value. Anyone can go to Fiverr or ‘pick up the copy, themselves but it shouldn’t be about what you can get it for, but what it can do for you.”

So, the question is: what is good copy or design?

Here are eight examples of creative copy and design that work.

EXAMPLE 1: The iPod revolutionized how we listen to music when it launched back in 2001 — and the way it was advertised was amazing!

Why? Because it answered the critical question that the consumer has, which is: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME? Remember, emotion not logic sells.

DON’T Headline: Introducing a revolutionary portable musical device: The iPod.

DO Headline: iPod. 1,000 songs, in your pocket.

The release of the first iPod in October of 2001 was a huge milestone for Apple, and for quite a few people, especially a younger crowd. Earlier that year, Apple had released iTunes, and now with an iPod at their disposal, people could manage their entire music library and take it with them all the time.

This was their first TV spot.

Video link: https://youtu.be/mE_bDNaYAr8 Subsequent commercials even dropped that line and just focused on the target audience.

Video link: https://youtu.be/DjFgMyDtKSU ❱ DMN.CA

EXAMPLE 2: FINDING THE RIGHT VOICE.

DON’T A passive voice is not only indirect but it’s also awkward.

longer haul pails of water multiple times a day, it also helps avoid contaminated disease-causing viruses and bacteria. You’ll be giving them fresh, healthy water that hydrates and nourishes their bodies.

For example - Passive Voice: On April 19, 1775, arms were seized by British soldiers at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.

EXAMPLE 5: READER’S SCAN THEY DON’T READ. Include more periods and shorter sentences, fewer commas.

DO

DON’T

An active voice is simple and straightforward.

Don’t write copy that says: Join an ever-growing community of people that helps the homeless every month.

Commas mean long, painful sentences, like this one: Before your brain reads anything your eyes first scan it. Your eyes then signal to the brain and either it says “Hey, this looks interesting” or it says, “Don’t go there Comrade, because when your eyes see a lot of words that turn into one megalong paragraph, it’s an immediate turn off, and your eyes say, “Stay away, stay away.” And your brain replies, “Roger that.” And so, no matter how good the copy, it just won’t get read.

DO

DO

EXAMPLE 4: MAKING IT PERSONAL. The word ‘YOU’ is Glue.

So, keep it simple.

Add subheads. Write short sentences. This will suck them in.

DON’T

EXAMPLE 6: YOUR OPENING SENTENCE IS CRUCIAL. If people are not captivated by it, what are the chances they will read the rest?

For example - Active Voice: On April 19, 1775, British soldiers seized arms at Concord, precipitating the American Revolution.

EXAMPLE 3: BEING SPECIFIC.

DON’T

Write copy that says: Join 2,000 donors to help ease homelessness every month.

For example: One way we can make sure we get donations is by asking you for monthly gifts. This way, Unity Farm Sanctuary can rely on steady funding and really focus on our needs.

Will you become a donor today and show us we matter?

DO

For example: When you donate you bring fresh, clean water to those who don’t have access to it.

Your $20 gift helps families to no

DO

Your face has 43 muscles! Don’t neglect them.

Just 5 minutes per day with our exercise plan will do wonders.

EXAMPLE 7: DON’T EXAGGERATE. An honest line always works best.

DON’T THINK BIG? NO Way.

DO

BE HONEST

We all scan!

You see, we all scan before we commit to reading any copy.

DON’T For example: We seem to focus on nearly every other part of our body, and yet neglect the one crucial area that we value most, our face. Our exercise plan will help you firm up this part of your body in just five minutes every day.

EXAMPLE 8: EVERY LINE OF COPY SHOULD LEAD TO THE NEXT. Watch this video and you’ll understand why storytelling works.

Video link: https://youtu.be/ eXL2YukS6Sc NOW, IF YOU got something out of this article, then subscribe to my monthly newsletter: Direct Forum It’s free, email me at: billy@designersinc.ca

JULY 2022

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