Integrating print, web and email

I believe that the key to success in any marketing campaign is integration of your look, feel and message across mediums, which constantly reinforces what you want your audience to get out of it. For example, a lot of people ask what day and time is best to send out email. It's the wrong question. Say you ask that at a conference and the speaker says "Tuesdays are the best day to send them out". Then everyone in the room starts sending them out on Tuesdays and it instantly becomes the worst day.  Specific time/day, in my opinion, just isn't that important.  What IS important is how you integrate it with every other part of that marketing campaign.

Here's an example of that. We just launched a fundraising challenge to get alumni to make their annual fund gift before the end of the fiscal year.  Below are some of the key marketing pieces: 

Print mail (Inside):



Home Page Promo:

(www.dartmouthcollegefund.org)

Challenge Landing Page:

(http://www.dartmouth.edu/~alfund/june_challenge/index.html)

The first (of many) segmented emails promoting the challenge:


Other lessons from this challenge:

1) When I was originally designing the landing page, I was REALLY worried that it would look too much like the print piece. The last thing I want is for a page to look like we just took a picture of the print piece and then slapped it up and called it a web page. At the same time though, I think consistency is very important. People may glance at the print piece or the promo or the landing page or the email, but if they all have the same look, feel and message, they'll still be mentally associating all of them and maybe gleaning a bit more each time they see one of the components.

2) A simple javascript ticker will make you look like a genius. I'm not kidding. When I first set it up, I was worried it would come across very cheesy...I still think its cheesy, but I also think its quirky and fun and works within the message (TIME IS RUNNING OUT!). If you're going to do it though, you have to go all out...when the idea was originally brought up, someone joked that it should be to the second but then consensus was that it should just be a countdown by day. I think expanding it and actually doing it to the second is what makes it cool.

3)Doing things like this requires you to be proactive. It's very difficult to pull it all together at the last minute. When you're relying on other people for content, this can be an extremely frustrating point. I'll admit, I about flipped out on a few people in trying to get all this stuff together.

Interactive is a meaningless word

"Customers don’t want interactivity from your website. They want results. They want to do what they came to do as quickly as possible."

This is out of a great piece from the Giraffe Forum that my pal Rob pointed me to this morning. Check it out: http://giraffeforum.com/wordpress/2008/05/25/interactive-is-a-meaningless-word/

My boss rules :-)

I swear this is not me sucking up! It's just so nice to work for someone that "gets it" and is appreciative of my efforts. Having seen the other side, I can say without a doubt that the grass is greener on this one.

(Maybe sometime I'll write about human resource theory....but the basic gist is that I'm a happy/loyal employee so they are getting much more bang for the buck they are paying me since I'm motivated to work for them. Managers take note! Treating your employees well is good for you too!)

Meg blogs at http://www.megmaker.com/ and http://www.engagingexperience.com/. She's a lot smarter than me so if you're on here, you should DEFINITELY be on her blog too.

Begin With the End in Mind: Implementing Technology with an Eye on ROI

Just finished writing up my presentation description for the Stamats Conference. I don't mind saying that I had a really hard time wrapping my head around this one - not that I feel uncomfortable discussing technology implementation or tracking for ROI. Rather, I think that fitting it all in one presentation and giving really practical, usable advice to your audience is difficult at best. However, I've come up with a framework that I think is going to make for a really good presentation....it may even be a bit more fun than people will expect (Let's be honest - ROI is not sexy. Hence why it's usually overlooked).

So here it is:

Begin With the End in Mind: Implementing Technology with an Eye on ROI

We've reached a point where most universities understand that interactive technologies are beneficial in marketing their institution to prospective students, alumni, the media and internal audiences. But many don't go beyond a year-end report in assessing the results of their strategies. The real potential of using technologies as a component of your marketing mix is in your ability to track ROI in real time and adjust your tactics as a result of that tracking.

So, what does success look like and how do you measure it from the get-go? What is a blog view worth to your organization? A click through on a link in an email? A post on a message board? A visit to your site as a result of a Facebook ad? How do you calculate ROI for user actions that don't have a price tag attached? This presentation will seek to answer these questions and more. It will cover the following areas:

-Setting up tracking methods and measurable goals during implementation instead of after-the-fact
-Integrating Google Analytics with your technologies to taking tracking to the next level
-Assigning monetary value to metrics to take your success beyond anecdotal evidence to hard numbers
-Relating results back to the business goals of your organization to illustrate ROI to your higher ups

Good on the US Postal Service!

***This has nothing to do with higher ed....I just thought it was cool***

So I am moving. For the record, I HATE moving but I live an hour away from where I work and the commute is killing me so I finally broke down and did it. So today, I go online to set up mail forwarding and I get this confirmation email from the US Postal Service that just blew me away - not only did it confirm that my mail will be forwarded, but it also gave me other helpful links to get things ready for the big day:


(click on this to enlarge it)

Seriously, how cool is this! I have a newfound respect for the postal service :-)

An e-learning college will not accept an emailed letter of recommendation?

So you would think that an online graduate program would accept an e-mailed letter of recommendation for one of their applicants right? Clearly an ONLINE program understands the power of the web and harnessing it as a business function of their institution right? They would know that having an emailed letter of recommendation saves both time and paper....right? Wrong.

A friend of mine is applying to Drexel's Masters of Science in Higher Education program. It's a completely online program and apparently one that has a pretty good reputation behind it. She asked me to write her a letter of recommendation and of course I said yes. Now, this really was her first mistake as anyone that knows me knows I am a complete slacker when it comes to writing letters of recommendation. Not that I won't do it - you'll just have to bug me until I break down and get it done. So finally the other day, she emails me and said that I HAD to do it because it was the last thing missing from her file. I say OK and emailed Drexel to see if they would accept an e-mailed PDF of the letter to speed things up.

Their reply? Of course not. Why on EARTH would an online program accept an online letter of recommendation for one of their applicants???? (Ok, not really their reply: they said they would take it but it wouldn't count because it didn't have my real signature on it.)

Folks, this is RIDICULOUS. I have both worked in admissions and went through an online graduate program for my masters degree and neither would have turned away an emailed letter of recommendation that came across their desk. I have to wonder if Drexel accepts anything by fax, since obviously you don't have the original signature there either.

Please Drexel, I IMPLORE you to make better use of the web in dealing with your potential customers. Making people jump through hoops doesn't make for happy customers (or letter of recommendation writers that now have to make an unscheduled trip to the post office!).

Apparently when it rains conferences, it pours!

Yesterday I was asked to speak at the Stamats Integrated Marketing Conference: Technology, Collaboration, Results on how to implement interactive technologies and constantly track/monitor them to determine ROI. I'm really excited about this for a few reasons - I was asked to speak last year and unfortunately had to pull out when I left my last job so its great to have the opportunity again. I've worked with Stamats quite a bit over the last several years and have always been impressed with the quality of their work and their out of the box thinking.

Also, in talking to a friend of mine, the illustrious Matt Herzberger, it seems as though they're inviting a lot of younger, opinionated people to speak. This could make for a VERY interesting event, with lots of ideas being thrown around and debated. I love debate. I think it's extremely beneficial to civilly disagree with smart people because it helps you to really clarify your own position. I've written before that I find more higher ed conferences to be excessively boring - it's just the same presentation on the same subject over and over again, many times by vendors who haven't has "in the trenches" implementation experience in years. B O R I N G!

Lastly, I really like the topic. I think that higher ed does not go far enough in tracking the results of its efforts so establishing methods to determine ROI is something I'm really passionate about. It really baffles me - showing ROI through quantifiable numbers to the higher ups can oftentimes get you the funding you need for a particular initiative or the back for a strategy. Why WOULDN'T you want to do that?

Hope I'll see you in Florida November 5-8!

Be proactive or die

A few months ago, I had to take a Peoplemap workshop. I was skeptical at first, but it was really one of the most beneficial things I've done because it completely explains everything. According to Peoplemap, there are four personality types: Leader, Task, People and Free Spirit.

-Leaders are, well, leaders. They are the big picture people and thrive on accomplishment. They also like to be in charge and can tend to get a bit bossy.
-Task people are all about structure. They like lists and being on time and are extremely detail oriented. They tend to get annoyed when people don't see the world like they do because its all about rules and procedure to them.
-People people are great at communicating and relating to others. They want everyone to like them and avoid confrontation like the plague.
-Free Spirits are independent and creative. They tend not to sweat the small stuff and are flexible in almost any situation. However, they have a hard time focusing on a task or a routine.

I bring this up because (as you might suspect), I am a very strong Free Spirit. Task was last on my list of types. I suspect the same is true of many people in this type of job, since jobs are often very good predictors of which type you are. Because of that, what I'm going to advocate for in this blog is going to take us out of our comfort zone and into task territory - taking a proactive approach to the web.

I would say that 90% of the problems I've witnessed throughout my professional career arise from two things:
1) Someone thinking they understand a situation more than they actually do (usually someone in a managerial position)
2) A lack of planning prior to the implementation of a strategy.

Now, you have no control over a manager thinking they are smarter than they are, but you do have control over how you organize your strategy. Most of the work that we do comes in cycles and is pretty easy to predict a decent amount of time in advance. I use to plan things out a year ahead of time and would have a master calendar that I would carry with me all the time to make notes if things needed to be changed. It included everything - email dates, web updates, print mail dates, important events on campus that the web had a hand in supporting. Everything was laid out in front of me so that I always knew what was going on and what role I had to play in it. Since moving to Dartmouth, I've been rather lost in that respect. Strategies are created and modified at the very last minute on a consistent basis and it's really been an eye-opener to me about the vast differences in working-styling and the benefits of a proactive approach.

A major benefit of pro-activity is the ability to define roles, responsibilities and expectations ahead of time. This is particularly important when you're working in a very collaborative environment, where a project doesn't come together until you have assets from 3-4 different people. If Johnny knows he has to produce a web template and Susie knows she has produce copy for the page a month ahead of the due date, then you're probably going to get a better template and better copy than you would have if it was sprung on them the day before it was due. Plus Johnny and Susie will like you more (very important to People people, which is my close-second personality type). Set expectations and treat people like adults and professionals and most of the time, they'll come through.

Another key benefit of being proactive is the ability to get really detail oriented and fix mistakes before they are made. If you've got the basic gist of what you're going to do worked out a month ahead of time, you can really to into the inner workings and make sure all your bases are covered. This prevents stupid errors, such as dropping your request info link off your page entirely or using photographs of your counseling staff so large that they push their actual contact info ridiculously below the fold. We've all made mistakes like this, but they are almost completely avoidable by thinking ahead and looking at the big picture.

Beyond error prevention, planning things in advance allow you to get super detail oriented with your communications. This is particularly useful in incorporating excessively segmented and customized email for your users. Coming up within the next month, we are going to be doing a massive mailing to our alumni to support a fundraising challenge where there will literally be a customized template for every class. Anyone who does email marketing knows campaigns like this tend to be far more effective than the generic variety.

Finally, being proactive frees up time. Yes, that's right. By doing more planning you save yourself all those last minute scrambles and time you spend fixing all the stupid mistakes you made. Then you can spend more time working on the fun projects. You also have less headaches and will probably end up with more hair as the years go by.

Ultimately, it should all be about the user. If they can't navigate your site or find the information they are looking for or don't understand how to take the call to action you've asked them to, then you've lost the game. Really looking at things ahead of time helps you to help the user. You also help yourself - less stress (=more hair), less headaches, more time to do fun project. Everybody wins!

Playing it Safe is a Trap: Five Syndromes in Online Marketing

Here is a great article from Nonprofit Online News about online marketing that is more than a little applicable to higher ed.

Note: I use to have the article here, but removed it on request from the author and will now go on a short rant as to why I think this is lame.

1) This blog is not for profit in any way - it is a way for me to keep track of things I find interesting and to sort out my thoughts.
2) I gave him full credit and provided a link back to his website, as I would do with any post I received from anywhere.
3) He was snitty in his email.

To me, the web is great for information sharing and stuff like this really just annoys me. I feel particularly annoyed with people who RUN BLOGS do stuff like this because I think it goes against everything I like about blogging. So take this as my declaration - if anyone ever finds my rantings interesting and wants to post them on your blog or whatever (and goodness knows I don't know why you would LOL), then feel free. Give me credit and send a link back here and I'm good.

So, visit the article if you want. It's good info, but now my respect for the author has gone down several notches because, ironically, he doesn't seem to get it as much as I originally thought. What did he say about giving up control again? Hmmmmm....

New Mac Vs. PC Ad on USA Today

I can't help it - I love these things!

Chicago here I come!

Yesterday I was invited to speak at the American Marketing Association's Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. I'm psyched! This is one conference I've always been interested in but there was always something that kept me from attending it.

I'll be speaking on the subject of building an integrated email program from the ground up. It's all about practical advice from a 40,000 foot view. I really want people to be able to go home and IMPLEMENT something rather than contemplate their launch strategy from no one giving them a "how to" guide.

The Symposium is in Chicago from November 16-19. (As an aside, a few days after this I'll be running the Philadelphia Marathon...yes, I'm insane). Here is my abstract that was submitted for the call for papers. I hope to see you there!


Taking Email to the Next Level: Practical Advice for Creating a Integrated Email Marketing Strategy That Will Get Results

Email marketing is not new to higher education. However, many colleges and universities have struggled to grasp its potential impact on the overall goals of the institution and have relegated it to a second-class status in relation to print communications. This session will seek to change that mindset and offer practical advice for the creation of an email marketing strategy or taking an existing program to the next level of effectiveness. It is based on my direct experience with implementing integrated email marketing strategies as the former Interactive Recruitment Manager at Norwich University Admissions and as the current Web Producer at Dartmouth College Development.

Justifying email as a valuable business component: Many senior administrators still view email as a throwaway: they’re fine with doing it as long as they don’t have to invest a lot of time or money in it because they don’t expect it to return results. This is an out-dated point of view, as email as proven to return a significant ROI to the organization that uses it wisely. Consider the following example from a recent fundraising challenge at Dartmouth: We sent out a number of email campaigns costing the College just over $1,100. Those emails directly resulted in over $129,000 worth of gifts (at an average of $158 per gift) to the institution. Using the AMA’s online ROI calculator, we calculated a return on investment of over 11,600 percent.

Selecting an external service provider: Having a quality email service provider is a vital component to a successful program. Sending email is not a task that a college should be taking on in-house, as external providers offer the benefits of advanced email creation features, spam testing and ensured deliverability. There are dozens of well-qualified providers out there at all price ranges and based on the ROI your campaigns will achieve through increased applications or donations, the cost is easily justifiable. In selecting a provider, make sure you have a solid requirements document in place that takes the following into consideration: list control, message creation, quality control, reporting, deliverability, pricing model and level of support from the provider.

Integrating email and print communications strategy: The key to success in email marketing is not to think of it as separate from your traditional marketing plan. Your email templates should be branded with the same imagery as the print pieces they are complimenting, use similar language and be timed to follow-up to your audience’s receipt of the mailing with an online call-to-action.

Segmenting, customizing and targeting for maximum effectiveness: To really take advantage email marketing, you must build your campaigns to appeal to your user on a personal basis, beyond “Dear FirstName”. This could mean segmenting your mailing and modifying each version slightly to appeal to the distinct audiences, timing the mailing to compliment a specific event or creating email templates with multiple customized fields. During this presidential election year, a great place to look for inspiration for a solid email strategy are emails sent from the different political campaigns, which will be covered in greater detail in the session.

Tracking results and managing expectations: Follow-up tracking provides a wealth of information that will allow you to fine tune future campaigns to your audience. You should be careful, however, not to expect the same results from all your audiences. For example:
• In admissions you can’t expect the same open, click through or conversion rates from your applicants as you can from juniors or seniors (that have not applied) in high school. They are at different stages and have different interest levels.
• In development, you will find different reactions by age. Older alums may open and click through at a higher rate, but are not as likely to make their gift online as they are to mail in a check. Younger classes are more likely to click through from a campaign and complete their gift on that visit to your website.

Shamelessly stealing from Obama's emails

So throughout the 2008 election cycle, I've been raving about how great Obama's emails are and how we can steal concepts from them and apply them to our own email marketing campaigns. To show I'm not all talk, here is an example that I just did today.

Obama sends out emails all the time with a simple screenshot of a video embedded in it and I think it's an extremely effective tactic to get people to launch the webpage you want them too. We're so use to seeing images like this now with YouTube and Google Video. Here is one example of this from the campaign:



And my blatant knockoff:



When the user clicks on the gallery image, the landing page will launch with a simple flash gallery created with Simpleviewer. Alumni absolutely eat these things up, spending an average of 8 minutes on gallery pages we've built in the past.

Key Takeaways: 

1) Blatantly stealing other people's ideas is fair game

2) Politics is a great arena to look for inspiration in

3) Alumni love simple flash galleries :-)

Getting what you need from people who don't view the web as important.

There is not a single web person out there who hasn't had to deal with the harsh reality of people not seeing the power or value of the web. Whether they be upper administration or colleagues on your level, there will always be those who don't understand why the web should get any of their time. Unless you have a full blown web team with writers and designer and producers, chances are that you're going to have to work with other, non-web, professionals at your university....which can often lead to headaches. Your expertise is ignored. They don't deliver content on time. When they do deliver content, it is half-assed. Ultimately, this reflects on you since you are delivering the final product and you will perpetually feel like punching a wall.

But you have to work with them anyway. Since very few of us have a full-blown web team to work with, here are some strategies to get what you need out of your colleagues who may not see it as a good use of their time to provide material for the web:

1) Be proactive: Plan things in advance, instead of on the fly. You'll have a lot more ammo if you go to someone saying "You know three months ago that we were going to need this" rather than "You knew three days ago that we were going to need this." Involve them in the process of creating your master calendar so that they feel like they have buy-in.

2) Talk to people like they are human: All too often in higher education, people get very territorial and treat every other person they work with like they don't know what they are doing. We all get hired for a reason (seemingly because we are viewed as an expert on the day of our job interview) but those reasons tend to get tossed out the door as soon as we start the actual job part. Don't buy into this. Treat the people you work with like they are the experts that people saw in them on their interview. Make them feel like you respect them and their opinions and they will be much more open about having a dialogue with you regarding what you need from them. It also doesn't hurt if you ask them leading questions so that they feel like they came up with the ideas themselves (this tends to work more with men ;-) )

3) If all else fails, babysit: No one likes to babysit but it is sometimes necessary. Make sure that everyone knows their deadlines well in advance and that you have notified them in writing (preferably email). Remind them of the deadline EVERY TIME you have a conversation (in person or electronically) on the topic. Send last minute reminders before deadlines to check on progress. If they miss the deadline, send follow-up reminders. If missed deadlines are still a problem, make sure your (and their) supervisor knows of the issue and has the documentation.

Finally, make sure you use positive re-enforcement when people do what you need them to do. Thank them. Show them the results of their efforts. Make them feel like you value your contribution. I find that the words "thank you" or "great work" are so often ignored in our business and when you're having a bad or stressful day, knowing that people value your efforts can make all the difference. So be nice - but only AFTER you get your stuff. Being nice before then just makes you a pushover.