i-News: August 2006 Edition

“Legendary strategist Jack Trout has said, ‘Differentiate or die,’ but I’d like to amend that to a less elegant phrase, but no less accurate observation, ‘Differentiate or run the risk of having consumers die of boredom. Oh, and by the way, this whole movement is contagious, and new media aren’t the remedy if you don’t mean anything to the consumer.’”

- Robert Passikoff, President, Brand Keys

Marketers See Huge Payback in Database Investments

In a survey conducted by Prism Business Media Marketing Research for Direct Magazine, direct marketers indicated their intent to spend an average of $250,000 on upgrades and enhancements to marketing databases this year. About 43% believe those investments will be fully returned within 6-12 months; another 37% anticipate a 1-2 year payback. Only 7% think it will require more than two years. Other survey findings:

• About 86% of respondents indicated that their budgets would increase or stay the same this year; 1% plan to scale back.
• Of those investing, 70% plan to introduce or enhance data mining capabilities; 40% want to expand storage capacity.
• Nearly two in three use databases to personalize products, services or communications.

Six Dimensions of High-Performance Marketing

Consultant Lane Michel has outlined six elements that are critical to improving marketing performance and efficiency. These factors include:

Actionable strategies: These strategies are aligned with corporate goals but heavily weigh marketplace realities and the financial and execution capabilities.

Organizational alignment: According to Michel, “Marketing must span boundaries and orchestrate the alignment of multiple functional groups. It must bring the voice of the customer to enterprise operations and ensure that the company is always building customer value.

Appropriate measures: It is only through proper metrics – response, channels, value, segment performance, etc. – that the company can assess its marketing ROI and optimize its investment in marketing performance.

Effective processes: The activities that offer the highest return must be defined. By following those processes, greater predictability and repeatability of marketing results can be achieved and risk can be minimized.

Client support: What training is available? How complete is the documentation? What types of user group meetings, conferences, etc. are available?

Strategic fit: How compatible are the tool requirements with current and future standards? How will the system scale to accommodate growth? What are the development plans for the product?

Finally, Schultz notes that investment in campaign management tools are not inexpensive or risk-free. His advice: “Maintain a disciplined selection process, and create an implementation plan that addresses both technical setup and management challenges.”

Related link: http://www.astech-intermedia.com/resources/articles/Selecting_a_Marketing_Solutions_Provider.pdf

Need People to Support Your Database Initiatives? Here’s What to Look For

Industry consultant Niall Budds offers some solid guidance as you look to build your analytics and database team:

“The best analytics people possess a ‘hard-to-find’ skills mix. It combines the advanced technical skills they need to do good work, combined with curiosity, business savvy and a consulting mind-set. That mix enables them to proactively anticipate future needs as well as to constructively probe and re-shape the thinking around what they may initially be asked to focus on. Finding such people is tough, but not impossible.”

Budds shares three key criteria to look for when hiring:

Direct marketing experience – Find someone with a track record on consistently delivering value to the business through their analytics work.

A commercial mindset and accompanying work ethic – Because time is money, it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice what might be an interesting intellectual methodology to problem-solving in favor of a more grounded, pragmatic approach that is more easily applied in the real world.

Results orientation and communication – There must be a sensitivity to deadlines and dependencies. Analytics work is a means to and end. Work should judged in the context of what it enables business partners to accomplish.

MAAX Demo Now Available Online

If you have never seen MAAX up close and personal, now is your chance. ASTECH has just made a brief online demonstration available of the industry’s top marketing database solution. See why McClatchy, Cox, Morris, MediaNews, Copley, etc have made MAAX the backbone of their data-driven marketing automation initiatives.

To see the demo, click HERE.

Vail Roundtable Update – More Highlights

Here are some recent additions to the program at The Roundtable on Strategic Marketing on August 27-30 in Vail, CO:

• One year into its marketing automation effort, Wendy Hurwitz shares both the successes and battle scars of Gannett’s Automated Direct Marketing program. Topics will include multi-channel marketing, data hygiene, campaign management and systems integration.

• Uniserve Communications Corporation began in 1988 as a computer retail store and dialup bulletin board system in Aldergrove, BC. Today, it is one of Western Canada’s largest independent communications companies delivering voice and data services. John Vickerstaff, Uniserve’s director of marketing and former circulation director at The Vancouver Sun/Province, will share his thoughts as to what communications firms and newspapers can learn from one another in terms of subscriber acquisition and retention.

• John Murray, NAA’s vice president/circulation, will update participants on the organization’s Data Management Project, the specific objective of which is to help the industry better position itself for the future.

For more information on The Roundtable, click HERE or contact Tom Ratkovich at ter@astech-intermedia.com.

i-News is brought to you by ASTECH InterMedia, the leading provider of data-driven, revenue-focused marketing automation solutions to the publishing industry. If you like what you read here, we invite you to learn more about our company at www.astech-intermedia.com!

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