Today’s BizTimes Milwaukee had an interesting story on a local non-profit leveraging social media networks to push it’s annual donation drive to younger donors.  The article, “Use Social Media to Build Your Tribe”, reports that the campaign was successful, bringing in $12,460 of new donations.  While the quantitative results of the campaign were positive, some organizations may look at the “small” number and think it’s not enough to cover the investment of time and resources.  Those companies are wrong…

Social media isn’t just about quantity.  It’s about starting the dialog with your audience.  My strong belief is that the true measure of ROI in social media isn’t quantitative in nature, its qualitative.  Engagement may very well be an overused, ill-defined buzzword, but the truth is that the number of followers you have, links you post or dollars you earn mean little unless you develop an ongoing relationship with those that show interest in your brand.  Conversing with your audience and providing useful, relevant information so it can be shared with others will benefit you more in the long run.

Fortunately, the United Way of Greater Milwaukee got it right.  The spokeswoman for the organization didn’t define success as the number of dollars raised, but said “the relationships we managed to build will be worth exponentially more in the future”.  Bravo!

Anthony Piwarun
eMarketing
anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

How will marketing shape up in 2010?  Grant Johnson’s predictions were published in The Big Fat Marketing Blog this morning and we invite you to take a look.

Anthony Piwarun
eMarketing
anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Bad copy is bad copy; great copy is great copy. What’s the secret? Relevance. Regardless of old or new media, if the copy, offer and messaging resonate with the intended segment(s), success will be yours.

What’s the key to relevancy? Usually it’s the offers/messaging you make/use.

My experience in not either/or, it’s using the right channel with the right message and usually involves adjusting such to each segment based on THEIR channel preference, not mine as a marketer.

Both old and new media need to apply correct testing — sadly that’s still done infrequently.

Grant A. Johnson

Sagging sales and weak response rates amid economic gloom means the time to deploy tests is now. Here are the new rules to live by. During rough economic times, it’s easy for those who control the budget to say that if response rates are down, they don’t want to invest in testing-”You can’t spend money if you’re not making money.” To certain executives, this actually makes sense. But others, the wise ones, know that the time to spend more marketing dollars is when sales are down.

FIND OUT WHAT TO TEST. 

While Flash (a vector-based graphic presentation that can present things in a continuous movie format) isn’t a search engine friendly web design choice, it is a method for drawing attention to information. Our web designers recognize strategic opportunities for Flash use, when its use will purposefully persuade the audience to act and get us closer to meeting the site’s objectives.

Milwaukee Electric Tool uses Flash in the same way …
… drawing attention to new products, offers or content that is fresh and meaningful to its serious tool users. Johnson Direct recently partnered with Milwaukee Electric Tool to launch a number of new Flash components:

1. Sawzall.com
A new micro site launched October 28 to promote its Sawzall-branded tools, blades and Test Team.  The “walk around” Flash piece features 8 Sawzall products. Whether you choose to have the entire piece auto-play or you decide to interact with it, you’ll find information, photos and videos that promote the benefits for each product’s key features.

See it at www.sawzall.com.

2. New Products & Offers
About twice a month, Milwaukee Electric Tool updates its special promotions. Johnson Direct calls attention to these attractive offers with a Flash piece that enables the visitor to navigate through the promo selections (3 to 6 tabs) and click through to see a bit more detail. To redeem an offer, the visitor simply downloads the offer’s PDF form.

Check out the latest promo: http://www.milwaukeetool.com/NewProductsAndOffers.aspx

3. Test & Measurement
Milwaukee Electric Tool’s website is undergoing constant enhancements including the launch of an entire category for its Test & Measurement products. Launched November 1, the T&M category features a Flash piece that highlights 10 of its hottest products.

Give it a look: http://www.milwaukeetool.com/SubCategorySpotlight.aspx?CategoryName=Test+And+Measurement

Measure Visitor Usage of Flash
Each of these Flash components is tied directly to a web analytics system. We can see how visitors interact with the Flash presentations, where they click and much more. Because these Flash pieces are supplementing HTML content, Flash-haters and no-nonsense visitors aren’t put-off  because they can simply choose to bypass them. However, what Milwaukee Tool has found is that even its practical, all-business website users enjoy interacting with the benefit-driven, user-friendly Flash pieces.

You can partner with Johnson Direct, too!
We’ll help you integrate interactivity into your website strategically and sensibly. Our web team creates websites that achieve serious business and marketing objectives. These sites perform beyond expectations, and look great. Contact the Johnson Direct eMarketing Team today!

Denise B. Hearden
800.710.2750, x139
denise.hearden@johnsondirect.com

CHIEF MARKETER Feature Story: October/November 2009 (DMA 09 Issue)
Author: Grant A. Johnson, Johnson Direct

We’re a good half-decade into the age of advertising accountability and most marketers are still struggling to quantify their spends.

The ever-evolving media landscape, from billboard and brand advertising to trade shows and web/podcast events, social media and even traditional media like direct mail, ads and mass media have made both media buys and accurate measurement about as easy as running a 4-minute mile.

Marketer’s increased workload, combined with tighter budget constraints, a plethora of media options and generally shrinking marketing departments, makes “accountability” a seemingly impossible feat. Especially since marketing credibility has become an issue among many upper executives, the task of making your advertising/marketing more ROI-centric has become even more difficult.

The shift in marketing dollars to social media adds fuel to the firestorm, as social media outlets are very hard, sometimes nearly impossible, to quantify and measure. Yes, they are often inexpensive, but money spent without a ROMI payback model is money wasted.

Read Make the C-Suite BELIEVE. Written by Grant A. Johnson; published by Chief Marketer.

Your friends at Johnson Direct