ROI Marketing

Social Media ROI

Monday, January 4, 2010 by Brian Clifford

A Happy New Year to all!

As 2010 brings promises of change to personal lives, it is important not to forget about business level changes.

For example, is your company using social media to the highest level possible? Do you know what the ROI for your efforts currently are?

As we continue to discuss in this blog, social media is not going anywhere. You can either use it to build solid online relationships with consumers or watch from the sidelines as your competitors do and take away market share.

Once you have your personal resolutions for 2010, make sure social media is part of your professional list.

True ROI for Your Marketing Dollars: Part III

Thursday, November 5, 2009 by Brian Clifford

True ROI for your marketing dollars is not always easy to find from the client point-of-view. So let’s look at Part II – measurement principles

Three Top Measurement Principles

The following three principles can drive true measurement-driven performance in marketing:

1. Measurement must be relevant

2. Measurement must be visible

3. Measurement must drive improvement

Let’s look at each of these principles in more detail.

Measurement Must Be Relevant

The most highly sought-after financial outcomes may include increased shareholder value, revenue, or profit growth. Marketing must target both immediate performance objectives in order to deliver on financial targets and link other factors, such as customer satisfaction, cross-selling, or campaign response rates and the financial results it seeks to produce.

Measurement Must Be Visible

Essential to the continuing success of today’s marketing organization is its ability to determine and clearly communicate the impact of its actions. While it is clear that most companies have important benefits to gain from smart marketing measurement, it is hardly certain what the most relevant metrics of marketing performance might be from one company to another.

The level of resources that must be devoted to the measurement task will, of course, vary too. It will depend on industry dynamics, the size of marketing budgets overall, and each organization’s existing proficiency in measurement. Marketers must put their best effort into measuring the outcomes of their current activities and investments. This is the critical foundation on which marketing improvement, and, perhaps innovation will emerge. Marketers must measure to determine where they should invest, and where performance improvements are necessary.

Measurement Must Drive Improvement

Measurement is not simply about accountability. True, measures should enable us to better determine how investments have played out and assess whether we are addressing our objectives. More importantly, however, marketing measurements should drive new improvements and performance gains. Such measures can help us generate growth in customer value and take the actions necessary to ensure that the marketing organization is performing at peak levels.

Measures represent a powerful lever for organizations that are struggling to drive performance gains. Actions can be taken not as a response to the hunches or whims of powerful people, but because the measurement system is indicating that a change must be taken.

On the foundation of measurement, marketing leaders can take action to ensure they are maximizing the return on their marketing investments.

True ROI for your marketing dollars only occurs with the commitment to track quantitative results smacks against a worthwhile measurement system and leadership with the willingness and ability to change marketing habits that do not work. If you can master these areas, marketing communications can truly drive real business to new heights.

True ROI for Your Marketing Dollars: Part II

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 by Brian Clifford

True ROI for your marketing dollars is not always easy to find from the client point-of-view. So let’s look at Part II – accountability

Marketing is a significant expense in many organizations and the implications of its actions are critical to performance overall.

Marketing can build credibility as both strategic and impactful. However, it’s more than just good accounting. The challenge in measuring marketing is settling on what to measure.

The functions of measurement go beyond explaining what has happened in the past; measurement also moves us forward toward appropriate actions and improvements.

Useful measurement requires appropriate reporting on the allocation of marketing resources and their investment return, but it also requires that we take action—and intervene— when key objectives are not being met. Measurement should guide us as we invest incrementally in programs that do meet or exceed their targets.

Marketers have all sorts of metrics and statistics available to them, of course; but too often, the data is useless or irrelevant and disconnected from the larger objectives of the enterprise.

Marketers tend to confuse measured data about specific campaigns, channels, media, events, and activities with a comprehensive analysis of marketing payoffs. Marketing tends to measure isolated silos of activity, but it fails to provide a wider and more rigorous perspective to guide marketing investment decisions. As a result, the most significant indicator of the size of one's annual marketing budget and the particulars of allocation is the previous year's budget. Rarely does a marketing organization rigorously reassess its investments.

It’s clear that, while we do have an array of sophisticated metrics, many companies still have no clear sense of whether their marketing dollars are being invested properly. Most companies do not even differentiate between necessary marketing expenditures that are a cost of doing business versus expenditures that are investments in the future with a longer term payoff.

It is not uncommon for companies to focus on the activities they can measure well. This piecemeal accumulation of metrics fails to provide a comprehensive picture that can drive smart management decisions.

However, true ROI can bridge this measurement gap.

This measurement must be central, not peripheral: it becomes part of one's role and set of responsibilities. It is an essential element of the marketing and management skill set.

Marketing is in a uniquely powerful position to drive innovation and improvement where it is most required, on the demand- side of business. But it can't accomplish this objective without facts, evidence, and actionable insight.

Okay, so how do you measure? There are three key measurement elements we’ll address in our next blog posting.

True ROI for Your Marketing Dollars

Tuesday, November 3, 2009 by Brian Clifford

True ROI for your marketing dollars is not always easy to find from the client point-of-view.

It is a common, even a necessary question when meeting with a current or potential marketing communications agency: what is going to be our return on investment? What are you going to do for us with the money we spend on you?

The answers clients receive are not always definitive. They often stop short of offering proof of value, instead focusing on feelings, innuendo and market perceptions.

Truthfully, any agency that cannot provide the quantitative is doing itself and clients/potential clients an enormous disservice. Good marketing can indeed measure customer value and the impact on growth, profit and shareholder wealth.

As our name suggest, R.O.Why! Marketing is principled on returns for marketing investments. We believe to drive real business, you need measurements and performance-based results that are valid, clear and definable and show a true increase of company revenues.

All marketing we do – and you should to – comes back to four main points: attract, cultivate, close and retain. Any and all marketing should support those four area, e.g. drive real business. If they don’t, then it’s not a good use of time, money and resources.

Not sure where to begin? Start with accountability.

More to come…

Search Engine Optimization vs. PPC

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by brian lecount

This little Cincinnati marketing firm has had an enjoyable set of meetings recently to talk about helping a client with their SEO, PPC marketing and a variety of other efforts. This particular company has been investing in PPC for some time and feels pretty strongly that it has made a positive difference in their business. However, after a look under the PPC hood, I found vague keywords, bid prices that weren't competitive enough and ad copy that could be greatly improved.

Those conversations led us to talk about search engine optimization ( SEO ), and I explained to the client my approach to search marketing.

The purpose of search marketing is to get found and CONVERT.
That's it. Traffic means nothing if it doesn't convert and buy. Blog readers, RSS subscribers and page views mean nothing if it doesn't lead to a conversion that you can measure. It's about online advertising ROI. Are you getting some?

Spending pay per click dollars to send traffic to a home page with no calls to action is a bad idea. So is spending pay per click dollars with no plan for achieving organic search rankings.

Here's the approach I will use with this client:

Restart the PPC program with an aggressive effort to determine once and for all if it can profitably create new business opportunities.
Revise search marketing keywords, ad groups, advertising copy, and bids to optimize the program's ability to drive clickthroughs. Test small changes & isolate the winners.
Build targeted marketing landing pages that lead visitors to take action.
Test landing page modifications to images, copy, forms and layout and again, isolate the winners.
Measure results in short timeframes and document the ROI.
Take the insights gained from the pay per click program and fold them into an organic search engine optimization effort (we will now know what keywords, copy and calls to action work)
Target key pages on the site, isolate search marketing keywords into groups for each page, modify page code and content appropriately, create new content and begin the link building effort.

What's going to happen over time is this:

We will execute the PPC effort with precision and measure new business leads and ROI.
The search engine optimization program will build momentum and organic rankings will improve measurably.
At the right time, organic search rankings will be high enough to warrant turning off the pay per click program - we just won't need it - unless it's just too profitable to ignore.

Why pay for clicks (and stop getting them when the budget dries up) when you can put in the work and get significantly more traffic and conversions with great organic search results?

This is one of the most enjoyable aspects of working in a Cincinnati marketing firm - leading a local client into territory that's unknown to them and showing them the results of exploring a better way.

Blogging for business works

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 by brian lecount

Great call just now with Doug and Sara over at Compendium. We were talking about the marketing ROI of blogging for business. It goes like this.

I blog about the things I think and do.
I try to blog a lot.
I use the search marketing keywords that I know people search on.
I use a platform that automatically positions my content for maximum search engine love.
I get ranked in Google for terms like Cincinnati Marketing (#3 in local results) Cincinnati Marketing Firm (#1), Cincinnati Advertising Agency (#10), Social Media Marketing Cincinnati (#10), and about 45 others.
People search using these search marketing keywords b/c that's what the research tells me.
They find my blog.
They read and click on a call to action.
They get some value, and we have a great marketing strategy conversation.
Some of those people choose to engage us and help them build their business.

The recent results?

10 new leads
4 well-qualified opportunities
2 new clients
566% ROI

Not bad.

If your Cincinnati marketing firm delivered $5.66 for every $1 you handed over, wouldn't you go find as many singles as you could? Blogging for business really works.

So, what do you do?

Friday, June 5, 2009 by brian lecount

As a Cincinnati marketing firm, I'm often asked for an explanation of how we help clients. Here's a quick view of how we help grow your business:

Marketing strategy & communications plans
We take the brand strategy (we work with brand development experts - no, we're not a 'branding' firm,) & make it real across marketing communications. At this Cincinnati marketing firm, our efforts focus on 4 key areas:

Attract: - Generating demand, qualified traffic and new business leads.
Cultivate: Building relationships with prospects via personalized marketing communications that resonate with their needs.
Close: Focusing on conversion strategies - leading prospects down the path to buying decisions.
Retain: Keeping customers around by developing deeper understandings of their lifecycle of needs and how the company can continue to serve them over time.

Execution

From the above, we generally focus in on core areas of need and we deliver the following, either as a one-off project or several of these combined into an annual marketing engagement:

Brand Identity Design - imagery, ligature, logo, stationary
Sales Support Collateral - brochures, whitepapers, case studies, etc. - design & copywriting
Email Marketing - design, copywriting, implementation & the needed software
Search Engine Optimization - keyword research & site optimization
Blogging for Business - strategy development, blog software, training, content development & measurement
Social Media Marketing - strategy, messaging, training & monitoring
Public Relations - corp. communications strategies, news releases, media database development & on-target pitching
Website Development - soup to nuts creative strategy, design, writing & programming or in some cases, maybe you just need a great strategy to help your programmer along.
ROI Measurement - call to action design, program measurement & reporting

We help you define your strategy, plan and execute marketing communications that grow your business, and then we measure the efforts to make sure we're delivering powerful ROI.

Need more customers? Get in touch! We'd be happy to buy you a cup of coffee, discuss your goals and share our approaches. It'll cost you nothing and you're guaranteed to walk away energized. (The caffeine will help with that too!)

Email Marketing Tips: The Subscriber Mentality

Friday, April 24, 2009 by brian lecount

Despite our overflowing inboxes, email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing programs available. As I'm sure you've seen by now, the Direct Marketing Association's 2009 estimate of email ROI is over $45 for every dollar spent. That's huge, and while it's down just a bit from 2008, it demonstrates that email marketing, perhaps the original online social network, isn't going anywhere.

What's critical to the success in any email marketing program is of course, clear goals, effective strategy and flawless execution. To that, I would add applying the right expectations. When you consider the primary goals of any business - to attract, cultivate, close and retain, and ideally, use them as a filter for choosing marketing programs, it's much easier to focus your email marketing program.

Let's get something straight. Email marketing is NOT an acquisition tool. Although spammers try to use email marketing for that purpose, successful email marketers know that email is a CULTIVATION strategy. Effective email marketing begins after acquisition; with permission - the opt in. You've attracted the interest of a probable purchaser, and now your job turns to cultivating a mutually beneficial relationship. That's where email can excel.

Placing your email marketing program into a relationship cultivation role changes everything. This philosophy transforms your program from the scheduled monthly broadcast to a 1-to-1 communication with individual subscribers. From static newsletters full of generalized information to highly-personalized content based on what you know about your subscriber. A subscriber mentality dictates that you communicate via email in much the same way you would in person or on the phone. You address the individuals challenges, questions, concerns and needs. You deliver exactly what they want, what they've asked for at the time and through the channel they've asked to receive it.

To deliver on this, your customer data becomes critically important. Email address and first name are no longer enough. We now need to mine for preferences, purchase history, and even demonstrated behaviors. Today's web and email marketing analytics tools can give you this information and keep it fresh. Your email campaign can be just as automated as before, but when driven by customer data and behaviors, your email marketing communications become highly personal, much more valuable, and welcomed. And that drives results like you've never seen before.

Start by understanding the role of your email marketing program and adopting a subscriber mentality. Watch how fast your approach and your results start to change.

3 Things You Just Can't Cut Right Now - Part 3 - Email Marketing

Monday, March 16, 2009 by brian lecount

Perhaps the original (electronic) social network, email marketing is by far the most effective (relatively automated) mechanism for cultivating relationships with large groups of people. Of course, we all have too much SPAM, but every one of us pays close attention to the select few email marketers that we value. It might be our favorite automaker, sports apparel manufacturer, consumer electronics company, or membership site, but we all pay attention to those brands that we identify with.

We've also heard what the DMA has to say about the ROI of email marketing - that it's expected to return north of $45 for every $1 spent. Wow! That is by far the highest return marketing vehicle out there. I'll add to that that I believe that only the BEST email marketers will see that return, but email marketing that is worthy of being in the 'best practices' category is within everyone's reach.

With all of the available communication channels, email remains to be the 'glue' that keeps us connected. More importantly, it is an extremely effective cultivation tool for building and sustaining relationships. If your email effort is stuck in "spray and pray" mode, it's time to work on better segmentation, personalizing content, and developing a "Subscribers Rule" mentality.

Develop an integrated approach the leverages each of the 3 marketing programs you hopefully haven't cut - search, website and email. Tie them all together. Get found in the search engines, engage them on the site, cultivate relationships with them via email, and convert like crazy. It's a system that has been proven to work and in an environment like this one, these three fundamental marketing programs, if executed well, can change the game for your company and squash the competition.

4 Marketing Goals & a New ROI Yardstick?

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 by brian lecount

In this business, companies like R.O.Why! Marketing are put into a lot of categories. We're a Cincinnati advertising agency, a marketing firm, small business marketing consultants, etc, etc, but at the core we're in the business of helping you grow yours. I talk with a lot of people that work at this Cincinnati advertising agency, that Cincinnati marketing firm, an agency of marketing consultants, etc. and what's interesting to me is the wide variety of "solutions" that are being pitched today in this market.

Web development, SEO, direct mail, email marketing, social media, branding, you name it. Now's the time to do it all. Don't cut your budget, invest in the future!

It's kind of tiring and I can imagine that it's even more exhausting for everyone from the small business owner to the CMO of a regional or national firm.

What I hear a lot is this: "Look, we're cutting our budget. It's a given. I need to know what we must do now to come out of this recession strong.

So here's my take and it's the basis of what I'm sharing with every business I speak with:

Every business in every industry has only 4 things to do.

Attract - build a following, create interest, get people coming to you.
Cultivate - build relationships, engage them, address needs, make compelling offers.
Close - strike when it's hot and seal the deal
Retain - keep them around & decrease what you need to spend on new customer acquisition

It really is that simple. Every facet of the business, every marketing decision, every employee has to be focused in the direction of achieving one of these 4 things right now. (Just right now?)

For the marketing executive challenged with their Cincinnati advertising agencies that are pushing more media, discounted media, SEO, huge interactive marketing projects, blogging, social media and other things as THE answer to the current problem, maybe this can serve as a new barometer.

Which of these 4 things is my company most challenged with right now? Does what your pitching me help me do that better, faster, ? If so, show me precisely how.

Simplify the decision making and streamline the metrics. Go out and accomplish these 4 things, or maybe just one. Budget decisions become easier. ROI marketing measurement becomes easier. As a result, I think we'll find that marketing efforts become more aligned with the business needs. Focusing on the fundamentals will help you grow the fundamentals. The water shouldn't be muddy. If your Cincinnati advertising agency or marketing firm is pitching something that doesn't clearly fit in one of these 4 objectives, and there's a process in place to tell you how it performed, question it and consider making it better or doing something else entirely.

Stop worrying about Twitter and get better at attracting, cultivating, closing & retaining. Your world will change for the better when you master these 4 basics.

Then if you'd like, follow me on Twitter. :-)

Embrace the "Small" in Business Marketing

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by brian lecount

As companies clamor for the latest marketing idea in an economy that has new business at a premium in many industries, often calling our small Cincinnati Advertising Agency looking for the best approaches, we are finding renewed success in keeping it small. Even our large clients, while looking for ways to maximize the spend and the marketing ROI, are more interested today in small business marketing strategies. When revenue and cash flow are tight, everything has to count.

Here are some of the small business marketing tips I'm sharing with them:

Niche, baby - As salespeople pound the pavement for new business, finding the market a bit tougher to crack, a natural temptation is to expand the service offering, and sometimes to characterize it as broader than it may truly be. "If they won't buy this, I'll try to sell it to them another way." Fair enough, but there's a tremendous amount of value in focusing on the niche. If you product or service solves a specific problem, sing that song repeatedly. Avoid the temptation to repackage it 10 different ways to make it appealing to a broader market. You don't have time to educate new markets - sell to the people that have the problem and know it.

Customers first - New business is sexy and gets the attention of senior management, but what about current customers? It still hurts, and probably more, if one of them leaves. In an economy when everyone is going to be looking for it cheaper, now is the time to make sure your customers know exactly why they chose you and why they should stick around. Spend 80% of your time and budget on turning your customer base into a raving fan base.

Don't swing for the fences - Home run leaders are popular, but they never remain on top for long. Define your sales process (or better yet, the customer's buying process,) and focus on moving to each next step. Your small business marketing approach should add critical value - what the customer needs - along the way. Become a resource to your customers and hit lots of singles. It's easier to score with the bases loaded.

Simple blocking & tackling - If your website isn't doing more than offering an online brochure, perhaps you don't need an event marketing plan, or a social media effort, a big media buy or a postcard campaign to 10,000 people that don't want to get your stuff anyway. If your small business marketing plan could get great at three things (web, email & search,) you'd find you need less marketing than you think right now:

Get found - no matter what anyone says, if people can't find you when they look for what you do, that's a problem. A short search engine optimization effort can change that for you.

Create action - your website has to do more in this market. Focus it on the problems you solve - visitors will hunt for all of the information about you if they're interested. You probably don't need more internet marketing consulting. Instead, ask your Cincinnati advertising agency to help you do 3 things: Solve a visitor's problems first, create a clear path for them to get more, and trigger an action.

Build relationships - You're probably not in the business of trying to generate impulse buys. Your customers need to be educated, and you can't rush them through that. Find out what they need, when they need it, and how they generally go about finding it. Then do a better job of delivering that than anyone else. Sure, there are lots of different email marketing tips I could share, but bottom line: you'll win if you understand the buying cycle better than your competitors and use email to engage your subscribers - yes, people who WANT to get what you send.

The markets will be tough for a while, but the only economy that matters is your economy - and that's the one that you can protect and grow now. Small business marketing works in any size business. Keep it small. Focus on your niches, put your current customers first, and learn how to hit singles before worrying about clearing the center field wall.

Email Marketing Tests

Monday, January 26, 2009 by brian lecount

I recently wrapped up an end of year ROI marketing report for a client. The report showed the obvious 'here's where we started, here's where we are now' data, but the insight in looking at the year in numbers was really valuable.

Throughout the year we delivered a variety of different programs: Email marketing, brand development, search engine optimization, blogging for business, event marketing support, etc. While the reporting showed great progress on these initiatives, I really dug into the email marketing portion.

We conducted a variety of tests designed to help us understand what influences open rates, clickthrough rates, and conversions on multiple calls to action (CTAs). Everyone wants to send a single email out and see sales jump, but the power truly is in closely watching the trends and being careful to test variables one at a time.

We saw open rates jump for different types of subject lines, clickthrough rates changed when we treated content differently. Less content in the email, as long as the intro piece was strong, helped the clickthrough rate considerably. We also learned quite a bit about link placement within the email.

Here is a (not necessarily definitive) but quick list of my key takeaways (Email Marketing Tips?):

Use seasonality of the business to your advantage. Learn when the peaks & valleys begin and end, and time your email for the right moment.
Open rate is about more than just the subject line. It's critical in email marketing, but don't ignore the preview pane. Test the email in multiple clients and get pertinent information up top.
A table of contents at the top of the email can work well, particularly if the email contains a lot of information and you want the bottom of the email to be just as visible.
Focus on the ONE THING you want this email to accomplish. If it doesn't do that, is it a failure? If so, remove anything that doesn't support that goal. Too many options = confusion = poor results. Focus your reader on the one thing.
Check your vanity at the door. People don't care about you. Perhaps obvious, but it's interesting to see it in the numbers. Solve their problems.
Avoid the temptation to include information that your email marketing subscribers haven't opted in to receive. Treat your opt in list as gold and don't violate the permission you've worked so hard to gain.
Get personal. Still sending emails from info@? Give your organization a name, a face, and a voice. Then pull back the curtain & let them in. Email was the original social network. People want to talk with people.
Quit treating email as a one-way communication channel for spouting corporate approved jargon. Subscribers rule these days.
Use email to gather & share customer feedback. How can your email program become a forum for sharing? Your customers want to help you make your product or service better. You could be letting them!
Measure! It takes just a little more effort and paying attention to the numbers your email marketing program delivers is as important as whether that picture is 100px wide or 125px.

What have you learned about your email marketing last year? Have any email marketing tips? I hope you share them.

How to Advertise Now

Monday, January 26, 2009 by brian lecount

Thanks to the Twitterspere, I just saw a Tweet pointing to this article, instructing us how to advertise now, and honestly, I'm floored.

With all of the how to information that's supposed to get us through this rough economy, I was a bit shocked to find the best recommendation that Entrepreneur.com can come up with for how to run our advertising in this environment was to follow this checklist:

Advertise where prospects look first
Use media that touch prospects often
Put your ads in context
Advertise for maximum memorability

So when did this become the fool proof, 'survive the recession' advertising strategy? For a site that is supposed to offer great advice on small business marketing, among other things, I'm surprised by the lack of creativity in this article's recommendation. While these might be relevant (and I might say rather elementary) to include in a marketing strategy, and while following them could help with your brand development efforts, in my view, they're hardly THE 4 tips I would say we all need to follow right now, in this market.

How about doing what works? If these lean times are going to require that marketers reevaluate their marketing budget allocations, shouldn't we focus on what we know to be ringing the registers? If we're focusing more now on ROI marketing, where's the accountability? Where's the challenge for all marketers to get better at what we do? Be memorable? Sure. Touch them often? OK, but c'mon.

Here's my list of what marketers should be focusing on right now:

Focus on those looking for you & get found.
Stop being cute. Change someone's life. Be relevant & make a difference.
Get permission. Real permission, and don't violate it.
Solve their problems faster, better and cheaper than anyone else can.
Focus 90% of your budget on keeping who you've got & give them an experience they've never had before.
Test & evaluate constantly.

Or said another way:

Attract
Cultivate
Close
Retain
Measure, measure, measure.

Short, sweet, simple goals for the year. Lather, rinse, repeat.

A bit of an unintended rant, but small business marketing has to pay off. I wonder which list most Ohio ad agencies are following?

How about we make 2009 the year that advertisers answer this question:

"Which half works?"

Social Media vs. Blogs

Thursday, January 15, 2009 by brian lecount

As a follow up to this post on a talk I'll give with Chris Baggott on February 20th, I'll share some updates on how the content for the program is developing.

Social media marketing gurus tell you that you can’t ignore the chatter about your business, your brand and your industry. Social media may have caught your Cincinnati Advertising Agency somewhat off guard, but it also has corporate marketers feeling the pressure to participate in and steer the conversation. We need to build credibility and become a thought leader, right?

But what’s so genuine, noteworthy, or even social about social media marketing? Status updates to people you hardly know? Networking via 140-character opinions? How many relationships can you truly manage before you’re just adding to the noise?

Now, I'm a big fan of social media. You can find me on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and a few others. Our Cincinnati marketing firm is increasingly being asked by clients for help in getting them started, and the business is now coming in. But I'm also willing to be proven wrong, and I definitely don't shy away from a good debate.

Businesses need to get found, engage and convert, and while growing in popularity, can social media marketing match a business blog when it comes to creating leads and customers?

In our talk, Chris and I will debate both social media marketing and blogging for business and try to help attendees prioritize their efforts for the best return on investment (ROI). That is what it's about, right?

Is blogging for business all it’s cracked up to be? Is social media marketing the best of what’s next? If you had to pick one, which would grow your business faster? Please share your thoughts and I'll incorporate them into my talk, and I hope to see you there.

R.O. Why! Marketing client KeenHire launches software product

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 by brian lecount

One of our newest clients, KeenHire, has just launched a new software solution to aid hiring authorities, executive recruiters and search firms in conducting behavioral interviewing and selection that helps to dramatically reduce the negative impacts of a bad hire.

The release just hit the wires today. As someone focused on ROI marketing, I'm interested not only in measuring the marketing results of a campaign, but also in using that data to predict future performance. That's what the study of marketing analytics is all about - using what you know about the past to make more informed future decisions.

As an employer, I find it fascinating there are proven solutions and tools out there that help companies predict the future performance of a candidate before they are hired. I've always understood that a person's skills and experience are truly only part of the determination of whether someone is qualified for the job. However, by working with KeenHire, I've learned that the candidate's values, motivations, likely reactions to business scenarios, and ability to learn new skills - what many consider to be the most important hiring criteria - can actually be measured and predicted with a great degree of accuracy. Suddenly the concept of 'the right fit' takes on a whole new meaning.

So in the future if we interview you for a job with this Cincinnati marketing firm, don't be surprised if we spend less time on your resume and much more on figuring out who your favorite Little Rascals, Looney Tunes, Sponge Bob or Family Guy characters are.

In the words of the great Stewie Griffin:

"Come, ice cream. Come to my mouth. How dare you disobey me!"

First time on my new feet

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Kaitlyn Kurtz

Since graduation I have spent a majority of my time this summer focusing on horseback riding and my tan...not so much on my business skills. However, in the last two days I have been reminded of how the real world actually works.

While in class at Miami University, I sat through many lectures in which i came out thinking: "That was useless." I never thought I would actually have to use a majority of the small bits and pieces of information I learned from the classroom. Boy, was I wrong! Coming out of college I had every intention of joining a smaller, more entrepreneurial work atmosphere--preferably one that focused on marketing tools that help other small businesses get on their feet and get their name out to the public.

Upon my arrival here at R.O.Why! Marketing, I have had to not only learn the ropes of working in a marketing consulting firm that specializes in internet marketing consulting and search engine optimization, but I have had to reach far into my memory for those small skills I obtained within the classroom. I used to joke with a buddy of mine about his over abundance of knowledge in IT and computers, but now I am envious!

These first few days on my new feet have been a lot of fun, yet extremely tiring! The amount of knowledge I have acquired within the last three days has been nothing short of monstrous. yet the amount and the different levels of difficulty have only left me wanting to come to work and learn more about ROI marketing and internet marketing. I have a feeling this will be a fun and long journey here in the office!

What if the client is wrong?

Thursday, July 3, 2008 by brian lecount

I was inspired today by a great blog post by Seth Godin. In it, he compares marketers to lawyers, charged not necessarily with telling the truth, but with arguing for the client, their product, their practices, etc. We're paid to claim that our client's products are the best, even if they are not. Clients hire us to build email marketing campaigns, event marketing programs, interactive marketing strategies, and other marketing strategy efforts to sell the product or the service, even if it's not the best; even if the customer would be better off with nothing at all, or heaven forbid, a competitor's product.

What about when a client hires a Cincinnati advertising agency like R.O.Why! Marketing? They want email marketing tips and ROI marketing programs that grow their business. They need a newsletter and they know that what they need is a newsletter. But what if they don't? What if they're wrong? What if they really need something else? What if R.O.Why! Marketing isn't right for them?

It's happened before, on each end of the spectrum. Just this week we landed a client who felt that email marketing was what they needed. While email marketing does need to be a part of the mix, we believed it was not the right time. After we considered the ultimate marketing results they were looking for, their culture, the budgets and timeframes, we felt strongly that blogging for business was best for them. We could have just sold them an email marketing program for more money and more profit. It would have been easier, but it wasn't right. Their audience expects more and while we were hired to serve the client, I believe we were really hired to serve their customer.

We've also had to walk away from business because the product couldn't live up to the marketing claims. The company needed to make dramatic changes to the product itself in order to make it competitive, and good for customers, and worth buying.

As Seth says "...marketers still have the chance to be believed. But trust belongs to statesmen, not lawyers."

Focusing on the important stuff

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 by brian lecount

Ever have one of those moments when all of the clutter seemed to just fade away and you became laser focused on what was truly important? I am enjoying a morning full of that type of focus today.

As I prepare for an upcoming vacation in a couple weeks, I spent some time this morning working through my list of priorities. Client needs come first.

What ROI marketing projects need to be completed before I leave and/or return?
What loose ends can we handle now?
What email marketing campaigns are scheduled for that week?
Does each client understand what our next steps are and are the deliverables abundantly clear?
What items do I NOT want to see on my list when I return?
What search engine optimization, pay-per-click, email marketing performance, interactive marketing and blog analytics reports need to be delivered?

Then came the business development and administration side.

Are the bills paid?
Are invoices current?
What reports do I need?
How many proposals are still out for companies looking for a Cincinnati advertising agency?
Are any proposals due before I return?
How many can be closed before I leave? Wow - at least 3 can!
Can we decide on the new hire before I leave?
What about the office location search?

If you're like me, you often wish you could work like it's your last week (or day!) before vacation. Isn't it amazing how quickly the clutter falls to the side and you focus all of your talents and efforts on those things that are the most important?

All of these things I'll be working on for the next 10 days or so are focused on what matters - RESULTS. Marketing results and ROI for clients, meeting deadlines, keeping promises, delivering, delivering, delivering.

As marketers, we can learn from this and apply the same rigor to the campaigns we're running and the work we do each day. How many of the things that are on your plate today, this week or next are truly focused on delivering results? How many of these 'projects' are truly necessary? How many meetings don't you need to have?

What would happen if you got rid of all the junk that doesn't matter for just 2 weeks?

If you reduced everything you spend your time on to a bulleted list of the most important things, how much of your daily work would survive the cut?

Marketers, get focused! Improve your email marketing campaign now. Stop himming and hawing about the brand development efforts and the strategy. Make a decision, act, and make some progress this week. Cut the fluff from the ad campaign, focus on why the reader/viewer/recipient should care and create some results.

You know what's great about this? Except for client requests, if it's not on the list, I won't be spending time on it for the next two weeks. Like the boxes that have been in my basement since we built the house 5 years ago, if it won't get my attention in the near term, will it ever really make it back on my priority list? Was it really important at all to begin with?

Can you send me a quote?

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 by brian lecount

Here at R.O.Why! Marketing, we've had quite the new business development push going, and it's really starting to pay off. We are very fortunate to have been recently chosen as the Cincinnati marketing firm by two area companies: DocuStar and also by Star Base Consulting. We will be delivering a variety of solutions including marketing strategy, email marketing, direct mail, interactive marketing, and a corporate blogging platform.

The other story behind our new business push is the flurry of requests we're receiving for quotes. It seems that many firms are talking with Ohio marketing agencies and shopping price. We are being asked for quotes on search engine optimization, quotes on ROI marketing measurement, quotes for email marketing programs, etc.

While we certainly appreciate the interest, we will not reduce what we do to a commodity. At R.O.Why! Marketing we sell marketing solutions that grow businesses. Period. Have a problem like too few leads? Not enough sales? Customers not fully engaged? We can help you solve that, but it starts with a relationship. We need to build one together in order to properly address your challenge.

How much to send emails to my database?
In one example, a company asked us for a quote for an email marketing program. Well, anyone can provide email software. Anyone can deliver a tool at a price, but it's what you get for that price, the expertise in email marketing, the best practices, knowing what to avoid, the support, the on call status, etc. that makes all the difference in the world. I just can't communicate all of that without meeting the company. or without writing a ridiculously long proposal that no one would read. You need to hear it in my voice, read it in my face, shake my hand and know that you're talking to the company that CAN make it happen.

We sell the solution to the problem, the expertise. The tool is just the tool, and if it's just quoted like that, it will be compared to other tools without an appropriate appreciation for the differences in features/functionality, and the company and people behind it.

Everything can be obtained cheaper. Are you sure that's what you want?

ROWhy! Client Site Goes Live

Friday, May 2, 2008 by brian lecount

We went live on some major back end upgrades to a client website

today at www.MDIMedical.com. While we were not engaged to work much on the site's design, we rewrote and organized all of the content in a much more intuitive way. Here, we're all about delivering ROI marketing strategies, so we built some strong calls to action into a common sidebar that should help drive qualified sales and marketing leads for the company, and work to help us monetize the entire marketing strategy.

R.O.Why! Marketing has also delivered a corporate blogging platform consisting of 5 company bloggers and a little over a dozen targeted keyword blogs. As bloggers post new content on the specific keyword topics, they'll begin to rank much more effectively in the search engines, helping out the overall search engine optimization effort significantly.

Overall, we completed the following:

1) Organized and architecture files into bookmark / search engine optimization-friendly folder structures
2) Modified layout to polish the overall look and feel without changing the brand
3) Improved the page aesthetics to deliver a cleaner appearance
4) Use general include files so future updates, redesigns and new modules can be "plugged-in" much more efficiently (header, footer, sidebar, etc.)
5) Improve child menus within the navigation to be css-driven & easier to manage
6) Replace most inline javascript into modular included .js files, and use asp to replace javascript code bloat where applicable.
7) Created page-level meta keywords and descriptions support which was not previously present
8) Applied the new page template code to the ExactTarget email marketing signup confirmation pages
9) Crafted new, discipline-specific pages of content for each the clients 3 primary audiences

We have many more big plans for the site, but this was just a first attempt to clean things up a bit, give users clear calls to action, launch the blogging platform, and prepare for future upgrades. We're looking forward to the redesign of the overall brand in the future.

So, what's this Atlanta-based company doing with an Ohio marketing agency? They sought out a firm with specific healthcare staffing expertise and found us.

We love when that happens!