Marketing Logic

I had a very interesting conversation with Charles Prescott, the VP of Global Education for the Direct Marketing Association. Charles comes from a direct mail background, whereas I am a child of the internet. We like to joke with each other about which is the better medium, but ultimately we know that there is a lot that we can learn from each other.

Direct Marketing Success
One of the things that he told me was that the most critical part of a direct mail/marketing campaign was the selection and refinement of a list. While most research is anecdotal, most accounts put the importance of list selection up to 70% of the success of a direct mail campaign (don’t quote me on this exact number, but it’s high).

However, the creative, which accounts for a smaller percentage of the success of a campaign, gets much more attention. Most of the attention comes from the owners or principles of a company, the art directors, the staff, the creatives, etc. Everyone wants to be involved in developing the right mood, the right message, and an attractive message.

Basically, getting the list together is not as glorifying as coming up with killer creative. But it is the most critical part of campaign success.

What about the web?
This applies so wonderfully to the web. I have been a part of so many projects where the design is the focal point of creating the website. Everyone is involved in color selection, graphics, fonts, and all of the “pretty stuff.” Everyone is so concerned with the design of the homepage and the impression that it makes, that they forget two very important factors:

1. Most visitors do not enter at the homepage.
2. Content is what engages the visitor and persuades them to take action.

It is a shame that so much effort is put into the design of a website, yet the content tends to be the last thing that most businesses consider when creating that new website. Content tends to get shuffled to the bottom of the pile until someone is tasked with the overwhelming job of gathering, organizing, and writing content at the last minute so that the website can go live.

In reality, it is the content that persuades people to take action. While a good presentation can help establish the credibility of a website, the content is what creates the connection and ultimately makes your case. It is the content that positions your company, creates confidence, sells your business, and persuades the visitor to take action.

Here again is the dilemma. In a study by the Stanford Persuasive Technology lab, they found that design helps to create credibility for a website, however, the particular elements of design were not the pretty pictures or the flashy graphics. It was the elements of the content, presented in context of the design: fonts, colors, typography, layout, organization. These are all elements of readability and layout! When content was designed in a consistent pattern that allowed people to easily find the information they needed - it was perceived as being more credible.

What’s Popular
Interestingly, looking at most visited sites online; Google, Amazon, Yahoo, eBay, MySpace, AOl, and Mapquest, none of these sites are known for their stellar designs. Instead they are known for their content, which is a powerful draw. These sites have valuable content, and they are used because of that. Looking at each of these sites, the content is primary and the design follows the content.

Back to the main point.
Until web managers focus on the content and the navigation of the website as the primary means of communicating their message, the design of the website will not matter. Everything has to work together, but the content is the ultimate reason for people to be on the website. The design gets the glory, but the content is the engine that drives the results.

Seth Godin recently commented in his blog that “Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”

You can only do that when the plan for the site is well-thought out. Not only the presentation of the content, but the soul of the content.

• How will you persuade visitors to take action?
• What actions are you persuading them to take?
• Is your call to action a focus of the content and the design?
• Does your design reflect these goals?

In reality, the design has to follow the message and the purpose of the site. Otherwise, the design will conflict with the primary message and distract the visitor from the stated goal. Put the time and attention where it counts, in developing a persuasive message for your site.

In the Most Obvious Headline of the Year, eMarketer tells us that “Poor Content Makes Viral Marketing Fizzle.”

Really.

Jupiter Research reports that only 15% of viral campaigns get passed along. The reason viral marketing rates are so low? Poor Content. (What a surprise)

Jennifer Laycock and I do many viral planning campaigns throughout the year, and we’ve heard more than our share of lame pitches. We have companies tell us that they want to do a viral campaign, but have no idea how or why it should happen. The worst thing, according to Jennifer, is when companies tell us, “”I have this (fill in the blank) I just built and I need you to make it go viral”.

Make it go viral. Really? You know how viral works, right?

Can You Make Viral?
Viral marketing is a strange thing. While a viral campaign can be planned and launched, the best viral campaigns are usually accidental. In fact, viral movements are often sparked by pop-culture events rather than funded advertising campaigns. While it’s possible to engineer a viral campaign, companies need to work to carefully research their target audience. Trying to push standard advertising or site offerings into going viral generally results in backlash. Customers have to WANT to promote something, and not feel pushed into doing so.

The Dove campaign is a perfect illustration of this. By showing what goes into a model shoot, Dove was able to communicate a very revealing message about our perceptions of beauty. This message got people’s attention, and they forwarded it to friends by the thousands.

The Pitch
You can usually spot a poorly planned viral campaign in the pitch. Bloggers are usually the targets of viral campaigns, as they provide the perfect means to influence a niche audience. The pitch to a blogger is a draw for them to talk about your company or campaign. You can’t be lazy when pitching a blogger – you have to maker the blogger the center of your universe. Otherwise, you aren’t worth their time.

Some of the best viral campaigns are the ones that you will never hear about. They target a specific niche, they grow naturally, and they won’t make headlines. They are quietly successful, and very specific.

Do Thy Research
One very smart business retained us to study their website and their “hook.” After a few group tests and user observation sessions, we were able to conclude that the website was not targeted to the intended audience. The intended audience disliked the site and some even found it offensive. Rather than pressing ahead, they used the research and decided to re-brand the website for a younger audience. They knew they had to change the message in order to meet the older audience they wanted.

This is one case where the expense of pre-campaign research probably saved the company more money than pushing through with a misdirected viral campaign. Campaigns go viral because they resonate with people, not because they appeal to marketing execs or creative directors. The consumers are the ultimate judges of content.

Most viral campaigns are well-planned for execution, but fail miserably on follow-up or Word-of-mouth tracking. There is not a thorough knowledge of how to track the buzz on or off a target site. Without metrics for the campaign established from the planning stage, there is no definition of success. However, even with some metrics established, there is no clear benchmarking data, formal measurement, or standardized methodology.

Mostly, what we have to rely on is the word of the marketer, who proclaims the campaign a smashing success, but has little data to back up the claim.

What’s it take?
For viral to be successful, it has to give up control to the user. It has to be a message, an application, a widget, a video; anything; but is has to resonate with a social participant at some level. Viral marketing is only as successful as you are willing to take the steps necessary to know your audience and speak their language.

Related Posts:
Are You Creating a Customer Experience?
Social Traffic: Useless Gossip or Powerful Word of Mouth
The Three C’s of Marketing: Revisited - Content, Context, Community

There are a some people that I highly respect in this industry, so when a few of them got together and started a company - it got my attention. When they said that they were starting a training company, I got very interested. The combination of John Marshall, Michael Stebbins (both formally of ClickTracks) and Avinash Kaushik (author of Web Analytics an Hour a Day) joined forces because of their passion to teach. Thus, MarketMotive was officially introduced.

In August, I had dinner with John and Michael to discuss their new venture. I was fascinated by the business model and the passion that they had to train businesses to “do it themselves” and to offer help when needed. Needless to say, I jumped when they offered me the opportunity to join their faculty. The interesting thing is that they asked me to be their Social Media expert. As a self-described Social Media Scrooge, I found some humor in this. It’s not that I don;t like social media, it;s that a lot of people do not properly define social media, nor do they approach it properly. I liked this opportunity to be the social media expert with Market Motive, because it gives me a platform to educate businesses on how to approach social media and be a part of the conversation.

Other faculty members of Market Motive include Greg Jarboe and Jamie O’Donnell of SEO-PR covering Online PR and Todd Malicoat of StuntDubl covering SEO. This is a very impressive list of faculty for any training program, and I am humbled to be a part of it and share in the same organization.

If you are a business owner or marketing manager looking for ongoing training covering a variety of subjects, Market Motive is definitely worth the cost. Market motive offers a monthly training program with new content being added each week and direct access to faculty. How else will you be able to get up-to-the minute instruction on the latest news and techniques in online marketing? and from noted experts in each field?

I highly recommend getting your information from some of the best in the businesses. Plus, I know that John, Michael, and Avinash will always strive to deliver a quality product.

Michael Stebbins and I at the SearchBash in San Jose.