The Marketing Conference Blog

Here’s the first of our conference speaker Q&A’s from Jeff James of Microsoft whose topic for the conference is going to be: Execution for ROI: Aligning the Sales/Marketing Planets.

I actually got to meet the chap this morning and he’s a lovely fella. As you can tell from his answers he’s most definitely someone who’s on the button. And I can assure you that he’s just as engaging as he is sharp. So, I reckon you might not only learn a thing or three but you might also have a decent little informal chat after he’s done.

Read Jeff’s full bio here.

1. With the advent of blogging and other ’speculative investments’ related to social media, how do you go about measuring things that don’t have a bottom line such as customer loyalty, relationship and brand?

I’m not sure I would agree that those things don’t have a bottom line. In some ways, the perception that things like “brand” aren’t very measurable are the reason there has been so much waste associated with advertising. It is not always easy to find a direct measurement from awareness or brand affinity to end sale, but there are effective methods for finding strong directional correlations.

The challenge today is that many smaller firms don’t – or feel like they can’t – set aside a portion of their limited marketing budgets to actually measure their efforts. Larger companies are finally beginning to mandate a testing phase of any major campaign so they can optimize their investment and test which sets of messages or media channels are working to drive financial results.

2. How can businesses on smaller budgets target their marketing more effectively?

It begins with understanding their customers better. It’s surprising that the smaller companies who have less to waste actually do less than bigger companies (who have more room for error in many cases) to deeply profile and target their customers. A small company or a company with a smaller budget should spend a significant amount more time thinking about their highest ROI customer scenario.

It begins very simply with documenting customer scenarios, or personas. Who are your most loyal customers? Who are your most profitable? Hopefully they are the same, but not always. Document what these profitable customers do, what they want, where they go. Document what they read, who influences them, what their future needs are. Learn everything you can about them via surveys, on-site visits or other low-cost tactics. Don’t just let an agency do it for you; have your executive team go out and meet customers, and they’ll be surprised by what they observe that is very actionable when it comes to targeting.

Once you have that level of customer knowledge and intimacy, targeting becomes a much easier task.

3. Which communication channels (web, TV, radio, direct mail, etc.) do you consider to provide the best ROI for smaller businesses?

That is probably a dangerous question, because it might lead someone to assume that one channel is better than the others in a general sense. In reality, it depends on a lot of things – the audience you’re targeting, the product/service you’re selling, etc. And more importantly, in most cases, research has demonstrated very clearly that a MIX of communication channels is more effective than using just one channel. Each media channel plays an important role in building a “sum is bigger than its parts” effect. For example, a direct mail campaign that is backed up by radio awareness sees higher results than just a DM piece by itself.

The Internet of course plays several different media roles – awareness, branding, direct response and search. So even within one media realm, you have to think of it very holistically in order to get the best results.

4. How do you see marketing in relation to the aforementioned communication channels developing in the near future?

Consumers have the power in today’s world. So marketing must shift to become an honest, responsive dialogue with customers vs. a one-way mass communication approach. Companies are struggling with the reality of losing this power, but the evidence is absolutely there. The most successful marketers today are the ones who use marketing to create a story that consumers want to hear and share, and one that they can contribute to. There will always be a place for quick hit announcement-style marketing (“big sale on Saturday”), but it is losing its relevance outside of a well-established customer relationship.

5. What do you think are the benefits of holding conferences such as Online Marketing: Innovations That Work in places such as Western PA, Eastern OH, and West Virginia?

I think it can only benefit companies in the region who may not have the benefit of hearing these insights in “big media” markets such as NY or San Francisco. The faster we can bring proven marketing innovations to the region, the faster companies can begin growing faster and more profitably. The opportunity to meet peers and begin sharing learning among local companies, the faster everyone will learn and be able to take advantage.