Filed under: Optimisation, Web Analytics, Segmentation, Technology, Multivariate Testing, Email Marketing, Behavioural Targeting, Marketing Automation, Datarati, Retention, Software as a Service, Actionable Insights | Tags: Email Marketing, Marketing Automation, Traction, Exact Target, Strategy Mix, eServices, Epsilon, Returnity, Chimp Mail, Cheetah Mail, Dream Mail, Vertical Response, Vision 6, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Master, Constant Contact
Ok, so as a marketer or digital agency, I’m guessing you have one of the following email marketing tools or use one of the following vendors for you or your clients email marketing campaigns:
- Traction
- Exact Target
- Strategy Mix
- eServices
- Epsilon
- Returnity
- Chimp Mail
- Cheetah Mail
- Dream Mail
- Vertical Response
- Vision 6
- Campaign Monitor
- Campaign Master
- Constant Contact
Here is your problem: You blast out an email campaign and now you’re ask to measure its success. What you do is prepare an excel spreadsheet with metrics such as opens and clicks.
Then you go to either your Google Analytics, Omniture etc and pull your unique visitors for the day you sent that email out.
You then look at the number of click thrus and look at the increase of uniques on that day and attribute those email clicks to that increase in uniques.
So, what you have here is a fundamental break in the click stream data. You are trying to compare individualised data from your email marketing tool at a customer level with aggregate data from your web analytics tool. This simply does not work. Nor is it best practice.
What should you be doing?
Here is your solution.
You should be tracking each lead, contact, prospect or customer at an individual level. That is, if they open an email, click on any link in that email and come to either a landing page or website, their digital behavioural data i.e. what they do on that landing page or website (links they click, content they download etc) should be captured, scored and dropped into an email nurturing campaign.
Let me give you an example.
Holden sends out an email campaign to a list of their existing customers with the objective of getting each customer to open the email, click through to a landing page, check out the new Holden car model and register for a test drive at their nearest dealership.
So lets say that customer opens the email, clicks through to the landing page and plays around with the widget on the landing page which allows them to build the car of their choice. e.g. colours, interiors, sports edition etc.
However, this customer doesn’t register for a test drive, closes their browser and leaves the page. What do you do now. Well, you have a rich set of behavioural data now on what that consumer likes.
This is where you should have a marketing automation database. This rich behavioural data would be captured and stored against each individual customer record in the database. Then you would have a pre-built series of automated trigger based emails that would re-touch that customer over a certain period of time. e.g. 1 email per week for the next 4 weeks. Each email’s content would be targeted, relevant, anticipated and personalised based on the behavioural data captured in the initial campaign.
For years marketers and agencies have put this in the too hard basic because they had this DATA problem. Email data was seperate from the web analytics data.
Well no longer my fellow marketeers. The solution is a marketing automation database.
We have the world’s fastest growing marketing automation database solution here in Australia & New Zealand.
The smart data-driven marketers and agencies get this and are acheiving some outstanding and superior results. We recently had a customer acheive a 4000% ROI in their first email campaign.
Want to know more? Call me on 0400 828 866 or email me will.sp@datarati.com.au
Filed under: #mktgcloud, A/B Testing, Actionable Insights, Behavioural Targeting, Cloud Computing, CRM, Data, Datarati, Email Marketing, Forms, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Loyalty, Marketing Automation, Marketing Cloud, Multivariate Testing, Optimisation, Retention, Search, Segmentation, Software as a Service, Technology, Testing, Web Analytics | Tags: A/B Testing, Analytics, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, Optimisation, ROI, Web Analytics
Another open letter to all Australia, New Zealand & the wider Asia-Pacific digital, direct and data-driven marketers.
As we start 2010, I thought it is critical for all marketers to understand the basics of the term ‘Marketing Automation’, as there STILL seems to be confusion in the market as to what the term means, why’s marketers need it, how it works, and what will happen if they don’t start using it.
What does the term ‘Marketing Automation’ mean:
‘Marketing automation’ is the termed used in the industry to describe the use of a marketing automation database to manage and automate the process of converting prospective customers into actual buyers.
By automating the various tasks and workflows involved in demand generation, lead management, and sales and marketing alignment, a marketing automation database contributes to shorter sales cycles, increased revenue, and better marketing ROI.
A Marketing Automation Database allows a marketer to execute and manage the following all in one centralised database:
- Lead nurturing
- Lead scoring
- Lead generation
- Website monitoring
- Email marketing
- Web Forms
- Landing page creation/optimisation
- A/B + Multivariate Testing
- Marketing asset management
- ROI/Analytics
What A Marketing Automation Database is Not:
A Marketing Automation Database is NOT a customer relationship management (CRM) database. A Marketing Automation Database is a SEPERATE marketing database that holds all of the above marketing and behavioural data and integrates with a customers CRM database which holds the customer’s sales and customer service and support data.
The term ‘Marketing Automation’ is designed to meet the specific needs of marketers and involves a holistic approach to generating, nurturing, and converting leads into customers by automating a variety of marketing techniques (e.g. email, Website\monitoring, landing page optimisation, and more) and ensuring marketing and sales alignment throughout the process.
(See previous post on Marketing Automation Database vs. Customer Relationship Management Database)
In the last 2 weeks here is a list of questions that I’ve heard from digital and direct marketers and their agencies:
1.)
Q. Why should I change? What will happen if I don’t?
Your email marketing, paid search, paid display and web analytics data is all sitting in disparate databases and typically in an aggregate data format. So how can you possible determine what a prospect or customer is doing down to an individual level.
For example, lets say you want to run an email campaign. You segment your data in your email marketing database, dump in your creative and then hit the send button. What comes back is metrics on opens and click-thrus. Where this fundamentally FAILS is that once that prospect or customer clicks from a link in your email to either a landing page or your website you lose complete visibility at the individual level. So now you look at the number of click-thrus from your email blast and compare that with the aggregate web analytics data of unique visitors and assume the spike in traffic is as a direct result of your email blast.
We as marketers should be embarrassed if this is the way we are still measuring the performance of our digital campaigns. Why? Because the technology to do this exists and there are many companies in Australia & New Zealand using it!! Its called a Marketing Automation Database!
So what happens if you don’t embrace it? The Marketer will eventually lose their job or the agency will lose the client as their level of measurement and analytics are not up to scratch with the industry’s best practice.
2.)
Q. How does the issue impact my industry? What are my peers and competitors doing?
A marketing automation database is a fundamental requirement for every digital marketer who want to effectively track, score, measure and optimise their campaigns. The companies who use this technology and the actionable data insight to optimise their campaigns will simple produce better conversions and campaign ROI.
A number of your peers and competitors are already using this technology here in Australia & New Zealand producing ROI numbers as high as 4000%.
3.)
Q. Are there best practices I can refer to? Which experts can help me think strategically?
Yes, we here at Datarati use our aggregate customer and campaign data insights across multiple industry verticals to provide our customers with industry best practices in Email marketing, Lead nurturing, Lead scoring, Lead generation, Website monitoring, Web Forms, Landing page creation/optimisation, A/B + Multivariate Testing, Marketing asset management and ROI/Analytics.
Remember THIS: Data drives Insight. Insight drives Strategy. Strategy drives Creative. Creative drives Response. Response drives Revenue. Revenue drives ROI.
4.)
Q. What are the options or alternatives? Who can add the most value to the project?
There are multiple options on the market today, but one clear winner in the marketing automation space here in Australia & New Zealand but also globally. The marketing automation database vendor leading this charge is Marketo. They added 110 new customers in Q4 2009 alone, dominating the marketing automation category globally. In fact, more companies choose and switch to Marketo than any other marketing automation vendor: http://www.marketo.com/about/news/marketo_adds_110_new_customers_in_q4_2009_dominates_marketing_automation_category.php
Success breeds success. So who is going to add the most value to your project. Quite simply, the stand out leaders in the space.
5.)
Q. What if? What if end users won’t adopt the new process?
With any new technology comes the adoption issue. Historically, this issue was very big a few years ago because the marketing automation software vendors that existed back then had developed user interfaces that were very difficult for a marketer to navigate through, thus creating an adoption problem.
What we’ve seen change dramatically in the last 12 months is new marketing automation databases on the market like Marketo who’s user interface is by far the leader in usability as well as functionality.
Lastly, with any new implementation change management is critical. Therefore, regardless of what type of solution you end up selecting it is critical for the vendor or their partner to provide you with a change management plan and approach to ensure success.
6.)
Q. Why should I trust your company? How long will it take me to get an ROI?
You should trust the company and the team that has the most experience and successful track record in this space.
Results will always speak for themselves.
Your ROI can be acheived within 1 email campaign as we recently saw with a customers first email campaign. There first campaign generated such a high ROI that they were able to pay for the marketing automation database for the next two years.
Are you ready to get started?
These types of results are awaiting you…
Give us a call to arrange a meeting!
Other resources to check out: www.mktgcloud.com & www.datarati.tv
Will Scully-Power
Managing Director
Datarati Pty Ltd
Level 1, 111 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
m: +61 400 828 866
p: +61 (2) 8003 7343
e: will.sp@datarati.com.au
w: datarati.com.au
t: twitter.com/willscullypower
b: willscullypower.wordpress.com
——————————————————-
Michael Loop
Marketing Automation & CRM Director
Datarati Pty Ltd.
Level 1, 111 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
m: +61 410 159 085
p: +61 (2) 8003-7343
e: michael.loop@datarati.com.au
w: datarati.com.au
t: twitter.com/michaelloop
Filed under: #mktgcloud, A/B Testing, Actionable Insights, Analytics, Behavioural Targeting, CRM, Data, Datarati, Datarati.TV, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, Marketing Cloud, Multivariate Testing, Optimisation, Retention, Search, Segmentation, Technology, Testing, Web Analytics | Tags: Datarati.TV, Youtube
Stay tuned throughout 2010 for the latest best practices in:
- Database marketing
- Marketing automation
- Email marketing
- Lead management
- Lead scoring
- Lead nurturing
- Testing
- Analytics
- Optimisation
- Triggers
- Web Analytics
Check it out: www.youtube.com/datarati
Filed under: Actionable Insights, Algorithms, Datarati, Research, Search, Segmentation, Surveys, Web Analytics | Tags: Bill Tancer, Click, Hitwise
A warm welcome back to all my loyal blog readers and twitter followers.
Over the Xmas and New Year break, I had the chance to catch up on some good old fashioned reading, sitting beach side in northern New South Wales Australia.
A book that was given to me by a good friend of mine over at Footfall/Experian, (thanks Chinny) had been sitting on my bed side table for the last 6 months. It was called Click, written by Bill Tancer the GM, Research over at Hitwise.
A great and easy read that delves into the data insights of consumers globally, using Hitwise’s search and panel data.
Bottom Line: Actions speak louder than words. What consumers might tell us in a survey for example is completely different to how they actual behave online.
Worth a read.
Filed under: Ad Exchange, Ad Network, Analytics, Datarati, Segmentation, Technology | Tags: DART, Doubleclick, Google
DFA Analytics is the new reporting and visualisation tool for viewing advertising performance data. It shares similar technology with Google Analytics; if you’ve used Google Analytics before, you can quickly come up to speed with the easy-to-use graphical reporting tools that are now part of DFA.
With DFA Analytics, you can:
- Get frequent updates–about every three hours–of your campaign performance data.
- See account performance at a glance, in easy-to-understand charts and graphs.
- Drill down through reports at the advertiser, campaign, site, ad, and creative levels.
You can also review performance by:
- Country, designated market area (DMA), state, city, area code, or zip code.
- Hour, day, week, month, and one or more date ranges.
- Browser, operating system, and connection speed.
Filed under: A/B Testing, Actionable Insights, Cloud Computing, CRM, Data, Datarati, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Loyalty, Marketing Automation, Optimisation, Predicitive Modelling, Retention, Segmentation, SMS, Software as a Service, Statistics, Surveys, Technology, Testing, Web Analytics | Tags: Breakfast Briefing, Database Marketing, Datarati, Marketing Automation Database, Marketo
Join Australia’s leading digital marketers for the DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING EVENT OF THE YEAR!
At this FREE Breakfast Briefing, hosted by Brad Howarth, the ex-Technology & Marketing Editor of Business Review Weekly (BRW) Magazine, you will be briefed by the industry’s leading data-driven marketers on how to use digital behavioural data in both acquisition and retention campaigns to generate more revenue faster for your organisation!
To REGISTER for this event, please contact:
Will Scully-Power
E: will.sp@datarati.com.au
M: 0400 828 866
Filed under: A/B Testing, Actionable Insights, Algorithms, Analytics, Behavioural Targeting, Business Intelligence, Call Centre Data, Cloud Computing, CRM, Data, Datarati, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Loyalty, Marketing Automation, Multivariate Testing, Optimisation, Predicitive Modelling, Segmentation, Software as a Service, Statistics, Surveys, Technology, Testing, Web Analytics | Tags: Behavioural Data, Datarati, Elevator Pitch
I got asked this morning at an Ad-tech event in Sydney what our company ‘Datarati’ does in 30 seconds or less so here goes the elevator pitch:
Datarati helps smart marketers unlock the value of digital behavioral data, by allowing them to execute more personalised and effective email marketing and web personalisation through the use of a marketing automation database (MAD).
Today’s smart data-driven marketers use a MAD to leverage the wealth of demographic/profile data and implicit/behavioural data that online visitors and customers generate as they react to a company’s digital marketing campaigns and interact with its landing pages, microsites and websites.
By centralising all this data into a MAD, marketers can now access and have full visibility into all multi-channel campaign data including:
- Email Marketing data
- Paid Search data
- Paid Display data
- Landing Page, Microsite, Website data
- Social Media data (twitter, facebook, linkedin)
- Telemarketing data (customer service + support)
Why is this so exciting for marketers?
Well today, marketers are living in Excel Hell! They try to collect and collate multiple data sets in Microsoft Excel which are delivered to them by their multiple rostered agencies and or vendors.
With all of these data silios created how can marketers know which channels are most effective in driving leads, opportunities and ultimate conversions/revenue for their organisations?
With a MAD all of this data is centralised into one database where the marketer can execute digital campaigns from end-to-end including:
- Data Segmentation aka List building (Demographic + Behavioural) data
- Email, Form + Landing page creation & execution
- Data Scoring
- Data Nurturing (Drip based Acquisition, Retention, Loyalty Campaigns Campaigns)
- Data Testing / Optimisation
- Reporting & Analytics
- Integration into their CRM database for closed loop ROI reporting & analysis e.g. Salesforce.com, Netsuite, Microsoft, Oracle, Siebel, SAP, etc.
Oh and P.S you need no IT involvement or support as the MAD is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS) over a web browser 
and payable by the number of records you have in your database.
I speak quickly, so there goes my 30 seconds
Also, we are holding the “DATA”‘ event of the year for all Digital Marketers and their Digital Agencies in Sydney in a few weeks time.
Email me if you’re interested in attending!
More: http://www.datarati.com.au
Filed under: Data, Segmentation, Web Analytics | Tags: Comscore, Omniture, Panel Data
Omniture and Commscore have announced a strategic partner relationship to deliver a unified digital audience measurement system. Specifically designed to meet the unique demands of the digital advertising world, the offering will combine the power of Omniture’s Web analytics with comScore’s new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement to help provide publishers and advertisers with a unified and comprehensive view of online audiences.
Two of the keys to implementing a successful digital marketing initiative are the ability to measure and analyse online marketing performance and to capture accurate views of audience reach across multiple information sources.
To date, publishers and advertisers use two primary sources for measuring the impact of digital advertising – Web analytics and panel-based audience measurement.
Because the two measurement methodologies have disparate objectives and employ different data collection technologies, the resulting dissimilar metrics can cause confusion and uncertainty among publishers and advertisers.
This strategic partner relationship blends these two methodologies in a highly automated way to create a unified approach for audience measurement designed to enable publishers to represent themselves in a more comprehensive manner to advertisers, and for advertisers to better optimise their media planning with the benefit of more extensive media reach data.
More: http://www.omniture.com/press/779?s_cid=3445
Filed under: A/B Testing, CRM, Data, Datarati, Email Marketing, Forms, Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring, Marketing Automation, Optimisation, Segmentation, Technology, Testing, Web Analytics | Tags: Cloud Computing, CRM, CRM database, Customer relationship management database, Marketing Automation, Marketing Automation Database, Marketo, SaaS, Salesforce.com, Software as a Service
An open letter to all Australian & New Zealand marketers:
After many years selling both Marketing Automation databases and CRM databases, services and solutions in the Australian / New Zealand marketplace, I have decided to clearly explain the difference between a Marketing Automation database and a Customer Relationship Managment or CRM database.
It seems that there is still some confusion in the local market as to how these two databases differ, how they work together and the value of integrating these two databases together.
The objective of this post is to simplify the jargon, clearly explain the key differences and empower you as a marketer to make smart data-driven decisions.
What is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Database:
Simply, this is a database designed to allow an organisation to do three core things:
1.) Sales teams to input, manage and track their leads that are generated by their marketing team
2.) Customer service teams to input, manage and track customer service and support quieries
3.) Marketing teams to segment customer/sales data e.g. which customers bought an iPhone in the last 6 months.
Examples of CRM databases which are stored (on-premise) i.e. database physically stored inside an organisation on their own servers are: Siebel, Oracle, Microsoft etc.
Example of a CRM database which is stored (off-premise) i.e. database physically stored outside an organisation on the vendors servers is: Salesforce http://www.salesforce.com
In today’s enviorment, most organisations across Australia & New Zealand and globally have or are in the process of moving to (off-premise) CRM databases like Salesforce.com for the costs savings and ease of use.
To access the database all a user needs is a username, password and a web-browser, as the data from the database is delivered within a users web-browser.
These types of CRM databases are referred to as any of the following: Software as a Service, SaaS, On-Demand, Cloud-based and Cloud Computing.
Ok, so as a marketer if you have a CRM database in your organisation, FANTASTIC!
It’s a start, but it only allows you to segment customer/sales data.
Today’s marketers are using multi-channels for both inbound and outbound marketing.
These channels include:
- Email (Inbound, Outbound)
- SMS (Inbound, Outbound)
- Paid Search (Inbound e.g. Google Adwords)
- Paid Display (Inbound e.g. Banner Ads)
- Landing Pages (Inbound e.g. Email, Google Adwords, Banner Ads)
- Telemarketing (Inbound, Outbound)
- Social Media (Inbound, Outbound e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Widgits)
So does your CRM database allow you to set-up, build, manage, track and optimise all of the data that is generated from the above channels?
The answer is NO! Regardless of which CRM database you are using, it does not allow you to do this, nor were they designed to.
Now, the problem that you as a marketer face is simple. When you look to execute any inbound or outbound campaigns, your data is siloed, often stored in multiple databases in multiple locations, often managed by multiple rostered agencies and/or vendors – leaving you as a marketer with little to no visibility of four of the most important things within marketing:
1.) A 360 degree view of how marketing have touched the customer or prospect i.e. which campaigns were they sent
2.) The behaviour of the customer or prospect i.e. how did they or didn’t they respond to those campaigns (conversions)
3.) What variables performed better within those campaigns i.e. creative, call to action etc
4.) Where the customer or prospect is within the customer lifecycle or buying lifecycle
Q. So how does a marketer solve this problem?
A. A Marketing Automation Database
The objective of implementing a marketing automation database is to get all the information marketing needs to acquire leads in one place. Marketers implement a marketing automation database to see all of marketing’s interactions with each prospect and customer. They also use it to keep data clean by automating the de-duplication of records within the database.
A marketing automation database is a SEPERATE database, designed to allow an organisation to do 7 core things:
1.) Lead Generation
- Objective: Make sales happy with more qualified leads.
- How: Convert website traffic into leads, automate lead development, identify when prospects are ‘sales ready’, automate sales tasks and track follow up.
2.) Lead Nurturing
- Objective: Drive revenue by nurturing raw inquiries into ‘sales ready’ leads.
- How: Nurture relationships with qualified prospects, educate leads before passing them to sales, trigger relevant responses to prospect behaviours and automate repetitive marketing tasks.
3.) Lead Scoring
- Objective: Improve sales effectiveness by passing only qualified leads to sales.
- How: Automate lead qualification processes, measure prospect interest and engagement, score leads using demographic data and behavioural data and focus sales resources on the best opportunities.
4.) Website Tracking
- Objective: Know exactly who is visiting your website and where they go.
- How: Track all prospect interactions online, identify which companies are visiting your website, monitor known and anonymous visitors and automatically alert sales reps of new prospect activity on the website
5.) Email Marketing
- Objective: Don’t just email prospects, engage them in a dialogue.
- How: Deepen realationships with triggered, multi-step campaigns, get to the inbox using the latest deliverability technology, raise and open click rates by targeting segments and track and score who opens and clicks on each email.
6.) Landing Page Optimisation
- Objective: Create, publish and test targeted landing pages.
- How: Launch new landing pages in minutes, use your own branding and subdomain, maximise conversion rates through A/B testing and capture leads with smart forms that recognise know customers and prospects.
7.) Marketing Asset Management
- Objective: Store, distribute and track content and other marketing assets.
- How: Upload and manage documents and image files, publish customised URLs for each asset, track which piece gets viewed by prospects and notify sales reps whenever key marketing assets are viewed by a customer or prospect.
Now, to get the true value out of all of the above – organisations should integrate their CRM database (which holds sales data) with their Marketing Automation database (which holds marketing data).
Why? Three simple reasons.
1.) Instead of manually exporting ‘sales ready’ leads from a marketing automation database in excel and then having your sales team manually upload the list into their CRM database, this integration automates the transfer of the marketing data from the marketing automation database into the CRM database.
2.) Sales teams are now empowered as they now have all the marketing history of how a prospect or customer has been communicated to by marketing, how they have or havn’t responded and most importantly the prospect or customers behaviour. So what that means is that the sales or telemarketing team have all of this rich actionable insight about what they prospect or customer is interested in before they make an outbound call.
3.) Closed Loop Return on Investment (ROI) reporting – by integrating your marketing automation database (marketing data) with your CRM database (sales data), you can now attribute which campaign(s) drove not only conversions but repeat purchases.
An example of a Marketing Automation database which is stored (off-premise) i.e. database physically stored outside an organisation on the vendors own servers is: Marketo http://pages2.marketo.com/demoFull.html
In today’s enviorment, most organisations across Australia & New Zealand and globally have or are in the process of moving from basic email engines like Traction, Exact Target, Strategy Mix, eServices, Epsilon, Returnity, Chimp Mail, Cheetah Mail, Dream Mail, Vertical Response, Vision 6, Campaign Monitor, Campaign Master, Constant Contact etc. to (off-premise) Marketing Automation databases like Marketo for the costs savings, ease of use, rich functionality and a far superior time to value.
To access the database all a user needs is a username, password and a web-browser, as the data from the database is delivered within a users web-browser.
These types of Marketing Automation databases are referred to as any of the following: Software as a Service, SaaS, On-Demand, Cloud-based and Cloud Computing.
Hope this post helps to explain to all marketers across Australia & New Zealand the difference between a Marketing Automation database and a CRM database, and the power of integrating the two for full closed loop ROI analysis.
PLUG: At Datarati, we help marketing and sales teams and their digital agencies with Marketing Automation database and CRM database Strategies and Best Practices. We assist and support them in their demand generation activties, lead and contact management, campaign optimisation and actionable data analysis in the pursuit of revenue and customer loyalty.
Through this, we shorten revenue cycles, demonstrate marketing ROI and ignite revenue growth across our customer’s organisations.
