Image courtesy of Twine

Over the course of the past few months, I’ve been getting asked about all the “weird” stuff I post to Facebook.  I know what you’re thinking, but no, I haven’t been using the web’s most popular social networking site to announce my quest to determine the speed of darkness.  Instead, I’ve been using URL shortening services like ow.ly and bit.ly to post content to Twitter and automatically update my other networks.  URL shorteners assign a shorter address to a website and redirect to another destination page, adding analytics along the way.

Like many other results-minded social media professionals, I use the shortening services to track clicks and mask Google analytics tags to gauge user engagement.  If you want to measure results of your marketing campaigns then these services are a necessity, but one may wonder if they are beneficial when the everyday social network user says “what the heck is that?!” every time you use them.

As if to answer this question and solve the problem once and for all, Facebook and Google announced last week the limited release of fb.me and goo.gl, respectively.  Not to be outdone, YouTube announced yesterday the development of YouTu.be, a URL service specific to videos uploaded to the world’s most popular video sharing site.  Each of the three services now pose a significant threat to bit.ly, arguably the most popular external shortening service, because of their strong user community and household brand recognition. The promotion of a service by a popular icon creates an awareness that cannot be matched by even the largest marketing campaign.  Remember Ashton Kutcher challenging CNN on getting to 1 million followers on Twitter?  You can ask around, but I doubt you will find anyone that disagrees with the notion that Ashton Kutcher played a role in Twitter’s 2009 popularity boom.

Mainstream use of URL shorteners will help online marketers by providing credibility to their online identities and positively impact the results of their campaigns.  If these services see mainstream use and users know what they are, then they will begin trusting links and make our content, products and services easier to market.  Widespread use of social networks focusing on short form communication is bringing forth innovative new ways to increase leads, sales and customer engagement in an era where fewer people are clicking on display ads.  Embracing these trends will not only help you stay afloat in a down economy, but also help you stay on top of the competition.

When all is said and done, will the popularity of Facebook, Google and YouTube make URL shorteners mainstream in 2010?  Only time will tell, but my guess is absolute.ly!

	twitter.com/apiwarun
	linkedin.com/in/apiwarun
	anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

Kids and great copywriters have something in common: they both understand the power of clear and simple communication. Getting their point across loud and clear is a definite skill that kids possess when they want something “right now!” For a more effective message, apply some of these same principles to your next marketing campaign.

I recall a family vacation in Florida where I listened as my two eldest children were bickering. My oldest child, Morgan, kept telling my second oldest, Mason, “Stop copying everything I say!” (You know how kids play this “game” to annoy each other.)

Mason chimed back, “Stop mimicking everything I say.”

Morgan responded back, “Huh, mimicking is not the same as copying.”

I interrupted, “Yes, in this case it is.”

Upon which Mason said, “See Morgan, it IS the same. ‘Mimicking’ is just an adult word that they say instead of ‘copying.’”

Selecting Just the Right Words
Which brings me to the subject at hand, the power of words, specifically, the right words and how they can profoundly impact your marketing success.

For instance, there is a big difference in the following phrases:

Learn how to become wealthy beyond your dreams.

Or…

Discover how to become wealthy beyond your dreams.

Learning implies work and a degree of difficulty. To discover is to come upon something by accident, to be lucky, and implies ease and no work at all.

And that’s just a single word. Great communicators understand and know that even changing one word can strengthen your prose dramatically, and have a positive impact on results. They understand the power of compelling, benefit driven headlines and how to craft copy that stops you and gets you to read on and—more importantly—respond and act quickly. This is especially critical with e-communications where attention spans are short at best.

A great writer understands that today, more than ever, you sell the offer, not the product or service while simultaneously building credibility and asking for the order. They understand that their job is to sell and understand the psychology of human behavior.

Consider the following headlines:

Protect your family for $25 yearly.
(This is not a mistake, read on to find out how.)

Or…

Protect your family for $25 yearly.

While both are compelling, the first headline addresses the question in our prospects mind “This sounds too good to be true,” eliminating doubt and reinforcing that it is indeed true, establishing credibility and subconsciously getting the reader to read on further for more information.

More readers will want to know “how can I protect my family for such a small amount of money.” In this case, adding a simple phrase makes a big difference. A logolept (word maniac) knows the power of clear and simple communication.

They do not tire of words like “free”, “new”, “now” or “you.” They wield this clout in each piece of mail they write to grab new leads…every site they help build to get hits on the Web…each ad they send to pull in new sales. Read these words over, and you should know what we mean when we say that they like to put their skill to the test.

In fact, the paragraph you just read is created from single syllable words. (Is that cool or what?). Clear communication should not be complex.

They know and understand that we need to tell the prospects/customers what to do:

Respond by June 13th
by completing the enclosed reply card
or dialing, toll-free, 1-800-YOU-RULE
to receive your 10% discount.

Professional communicators also know the power of testing and analyzing results. Make no mistake, you can be a great writer, but that does not make you a great direct response writer. And today, those who can get results are in even higher demand. By combining the right offer, with the right words, adding some psychological principles, and understanding selling and the sales process, you can help your clients and companies succeed.

So, the next time you’re out and about town, listen to the kids as they talk to each other.

We’d be wise to copy – that is, mimic the way they interact from time to time.

You can read the full article by clicking here.

Integrate Social Media to Grow Your Online Presence

It seems that everywhere you go today companies are implementing social media campaigns to reach out to customers and increase name recognition.  Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube have all become household names, and even the Oxford dictionary added “unfriend”, a popular term for removing someone from your social network contact list, as the 2009 word of the year.  With all the hype and emergence of social media “gurus”, it is important to take a step back and stick with what matters the most: achieving measurable results.

Social media success can come in many forms. Whether it’s achieving greater brand awareness, improving marks on your customer relations scorecard or even increasing sales, social media provides a cost effective way to broaden your online presence.  While most social media networks are free to use, creating a winning strategy takes time, personnel and resources that you might otherwise allocate to another area of operations.  To justify the shift to social media, Johnson Direct works with clients to define and implement strategy using the below model to achieve a return on investment and ensure future success.

Identify Target Audience

The first step to creating your social media campaign is to define your target audience.  Who are you trying to reach?  Going through this process allows us to match target demographics to their most commonly used network.  For example, you might have a son or daughter that spends most of their time on Facebook leading you to believe that only teens use the site.  A July 2009 study by iStrategyLabs showed a 190% growth rate in the age bracket of 35-54 and a 513% increase in 55+ compared to a nominal 4.8% growth rate for users between 18 and 24 since the beginning of the year.  What does this mean for your brand?  Facebook isn’t just for kids anymore.

Define “Success”

In new media, success can mean positive feedback on goods and services, a higher amount of online sales or even a higher volume of “buzz” on your brand.  Social media services like Twitter and Facebook can be used to engage your customer and support them for the duration of the relationship.  An increasing number of companies are employing social networks as a method of client relationship management for sales or technical support.  A case in point is back in September I was looking for a car at a local dealership and felt uncomfortable with the amount of pressure I was receiving from the sales force.  I turned to my social network of choice, Twitter, and warned anyone that would listen of my experience.  Within three hours, I received a direct message from the car dealership apologizing for their actions and requesting a sit down to smooth things over.  At the time I vowed never again to go to that place, but after their unique (at the time) use of social media, I gave them another shot.

Launch, Integrate and Adapt

Planning is the key to success not only in social media but in your interactive strategy as a whole.  All of your research and analysis has led to the launch of your campaign- how will you announce it to your audience?  Johnson Direct recommends a “two way” relationship between your social media and traditional interactive campaigns.  Use your current interactive channels (web site, newsletter, email list, etc.) to launch the social campaign and use the social campaign to support your interactive efforts.    Integrating the various online channels is key to the success of both – social media cannot be used as a replacement to a traditional online presence.  We hear way too often about the company that cuts their interactive budget and opts to go the “free” social media route and ends up losing a big part of their customer base.

When your campaign is officially off the ground, it’s time to take a look at how you are performing week to week.  One thing to keep in mind is that seeing success, however you define it, takes time and patience.  With that being said, monitoring your campaign and adapting to current trends can make or break its success.  If you notice, for example, that the vast majority of your fans, followers or friends are in the 35-54 demographic, consider tailoring your content to the younger generation and testing the results.

Analysis

A campaign cannot be deemed a failure or success if there is no logical form of reasoning behind your analysis.  Traditional interactive channels have a large selection of analytical resources to measure your results, including Google Analytics for websites and ExactTarget for email distribution lists.  Since social media is still a relatively new phenomenon, and there is no current “industry standard” of measurement.  At Johnson Direct, we suggest not relying on just one analytics suite to measure, but utilizing a vast array of network specific features relevant to the medium most used by your target audience.  Blog platforms like WordPress and Blogger have “plug-ins” you can use that link to Google Analytics, and micro blogging platforms like Twitter have both third party enterprise software and link services.

Cornering your market online has changed in the last couple of years.  Simply throwing together a low budget website and expecting customers to find you is no longer common practice.  A multi-channel strategy is needed for the long term success of your brand or organization and Johnson Directs method of campaign creation and analysis will take you to the next level.  To read more about how Johnson Direct can help you deliver measurable results, visit johnsondirect.com today.

	twitter.com/apiwarun
	linkedin.com/in/apiwarun
	anthony.piwarun@johnsondirect.com

This month’s issue of Inside Direct Mail features Grant Johnson, founder and CEO of Johnson Direct, a multichannel direct marketing agency based in Brookfield, WI.  The article asks an “all star round-table” of direct mail experts what their take is on the future of direct mail.  To see what Grant had to say, read the article here.  For more information on how Johnson Direct can help you deliver measurable results, visit our website at JohnsonDirect.com.

-Anthony Piwarun

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

“Disorder in the house
The tub runneth over
Plaster’s falling down in pieces by the couch of pain.”

Thus starts the song “Disorder in the House”, a song written and recorded by Warren Zevon on his last studio album before his death.  It may be an appropriate anthem for this year’s DMA Conference in San Diego.

Prologue

The ruckus started months before the conference when Executive Committee member Gerry Pike questioned the leadership of the DMA.  He alleged that “DMA’s relevancy is fading, its membership is falling and its events failing as budget-buster dues and conference fees are sending long-time DMA members heading for the exits.”  It didn’t help that it was reported that executive director John Greco is raking in a salary of $838,500 a year…twice the industry average for national nonprofits! This news came on the heels of Greco laying off half the DMA staff over the past year …

Mr. Pike makes very valid points.  I will also add that for the price the DMA charges for the conference, it may be a good idea to change up the speaker docket every once in awhile.  I’ve been going to the DMA for 14 years and there are a good dozen headliners that are giving the same presentation over and over again!  Perhaps they should call in fresh perspectives and lively interactive presentations from new blood — guys like Grant Johnson who are well respected and are highly active within today’s diverse marketing environment.

Chapter 1 – crescendos and criminals

Grant and I walked into the San Diego conference center on a beautiful October day. It was eerie to notice that there were no lines at the registration area.  After registration we headed to the keynote address.  We entered to the sounds of a Benny Goodman swing quartet … relevant, you ask? Yes, we asked ourselves the same thing, wondering what the social media crowd of 20 and 30-somethings were thinking. Soon we were hearing Mr. Greco spout about the “great things” the DMA was doing for the industry … like fighting the “Do Not Mail” legislation and increased postage rates. Thought bubbles of “give me a break!” raced through my head.

Headlining the keynote was Martha Stewart. Doesn’t the direct marketing industry have a better representative to trot up there?  I suppose they could have brought Kenneth Cole back. They should have brought in the former CEO of AIG. I guess that wouldn’t have been a good choice either.  There was a technical glitch in Martha’s multi-media presentation.  She wasn’t too pleased about it.  I’m sure that’s the last DMA gig she will do.

Chapter 2 – quality over quantity

Talking to industry leaders, the projected attendance and the number of exhibitors were down 30% to 40% from last year.  The exhibit hall could be compared to walking through a ghost town.  I’ve never seen traffic so light.  The DMA did a good job spreading the exhibits out so it appeared like there were more exhibits than there actually were. Exhibitors put a positive spin on things saying the “quantity isn’t here but the quality is!”

Chapter 3 – the good news

The annual DMA conference is still a meeting point for direct marketers internationally.  It is a good venue to have companies showcase their products and highlight the newest trends.  Social media has bubbled to the surface in conversations as a highly effective means to reach customers.  DMers are currently exploring ways to both exploit the medium and quantify its effectiveness.  Quantifying its effectiveness is the difficult part of the equation.

Chapter 4 – a happy ending

What you get out of attending a DMA show now-a-days is really dependent on what you put into it. Grant and I had a very productive two days at the show.  With proactive pre-show planning, we had 10 really good appointments with clients and prospects.  I’m sure we will be heading to DMA 2010 in San Francisco next fall.  To save money, we guerrilla market, and just have one of our vendor partners provide us with exhibit hall passes.

Speak up!

I’d love to hear from you about whether you went to the show (why or why not) and what you thought of it. Send me a note at rob.trecek@johnsondirect.com. You can also reach me on LinkedIn.

Rob Trecek

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. 

Right now is THE best time to step up your e-mail testing.

Why? Because many of your competitors are pulling back – both on their marketing budgets in aggregate and on testing specifically. You can gain the advantage and determine what’s working and what is not post haste today because your competition has likely buried their test plans and are afraid to spend.

Yes, testing takes an investment in time and resources, often including additional funds. However, the outcome is often worth the risk, especially now.  Grant A. Johnson explains…

GET THE POINTERS NOW.

Denise B. Hearden
eMarketing Director
Johnson Direct

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