Scott Brinker (Chief Marketing Technologist – CTO of ion interactive) remarks that marketing automation has increased marketing management exponentially in complexity:
- Search marketing
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Inbound marketing
- Content marketing
- Mobile marketing
- Behavioral targeting
- Semantic web marketing
Next to all the exiting conventional marketing tools and methods.
Print marketing, display marketing, event marketing, broadcast marketing, …

All of them require attention.
All of them are managed or just distributed by different people:
- People from the company
- People related to the company: like resellers
- People not related to the company: journalists, bloggers, friends
All through possible different channels.
- Some channels can be controlled: Press releases, company website, …
- Some channels beyond the control of the company: Review websites, forums, blogs, …
All of these different marketing messages through different channels interact with the customer.
The interaction is at different times on different occasions beyond marketing management control.

The result: a cacophony
The customer can get easily confused as not all messages match or are in sync: not a symphony but a cacophony.

Managing marketing more complex than accordion playing

It is like playing the accordion (squeezebox) with little knowledge about playing music: cacophony.
An accordion is a very complex instrument with two groups of many buttons and requiring moving the two halves in an opposite direction.
Managing marketing has become even more complex: many more buttons, many more channel, many more streams.

By trying to implement a simple management system on a very complex system is a guarantee for disaster. This relates to the chaos theory.

Information Technology solution feasible?

Scott Brinker sees an opportunity in developing information systems that will try to control the complexity of interactions of marketing channels and messages: orchestrating the cacophony into a symphony by Enterprise Marketing Management software. This is the Holy Grail for him.

As the complexity of the problems is huge, the systems will be costly to develop, to implement and to operate. Many flows, many interactions, many parameters, many real-time data input feeds.
We believe this will take a long time to come into existence.

The quest for the “Kanban” to solve the increasing complex marketing

This complexity seems similar to the complexity that Enterprise Resource Planning systems are facing in many production factories requiring the biggest computers to crunch the numbers for all the forecasts, orders, bill of materials and parts.

However in the eighties the Toyota Production System used a simple two bin system called Kanban in order to know the reorder point. For every part the delivery time was expressed by the number of pieces in a bin. When one bin was empty, the reorder was send.

If we could have a “Kanban” collecting all the marketing related data feeds (RSS) from the Internet or any other electronic data source like email and the company website, we would be able know when the Kanban is empty or full generating the trigger to start or stop with distributing marketing messages.

Could we find a solution as simple as a Kanban system for managing marketing?

As markets shrink and demand is becoming less, your marketing budget need to be spend more carefully than ever.
Careful means you need to measure and deliver measurable results of your marketing efforts or spending.

If you can’t measure it, you cannot proof the effectiveness.
Thus you won’t get the required budgets.

- Measuring brings knowledge.
- Knowing is control.
- Number crunching will be required.
- Quantification is the method.
- ROI can be calculated.
- Budgets can be given based on quantitative reason.
- Budgets can be explained to Board of Directors.

Off-line marketing

Off-line media is hard to measure as there is no proof of link between the effort and the leads generated.

Printed: it is almost impossible to link a printed advertisement or a written publication with the leads generated.

Broadcast: The same applies to broadcast media like radio and television.

Direct mailing campaigns are difficult to collect exact data as there is no easy electronic link between the letter and the lead generated.

Trade shows can be measured thus they still have a chance, but the budgets and cost per lead are the highest.

Conferences: The result of participating or speaking at conferences is rather difficult to measure. If not impossible.

On-line marketing

Most online campaigns can be measured as the origin of the lead can be retrieved.

SEO: Improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will lead to more leads generated by the visitors on the website.

SEM: Spending on SEM (Search Engine Marketing) has the same effect as it draws more visitors to your website.

Email campaigns are easy measurable as people have to open the email, click on the link and sign-up for another step in the sales process or contact you by email.

Web conferences (webinars) are very measurable events, thus are likely to get approval for a budget.

Social media efforts are probably impossible to measure:
- How much effort is pored into from different and uncontrollable sources and influencers?
- Several diverse sources.
- Difficult to measure the outcome.
- Effectiveness or ROI is not to be quantified.
   The holy grail of online marketing doesn’t apply to social media.

Measurability for marketing budget

The power of data, the measurability and quantitative marketing will drive marketers towards online marketing away from print marketing, broadcast media or any other non measurable marketing campaigns.
At the same time social media will be considered as too uncertain as it is not measurable.

In the current times of recession, if you can’t measure outcome of the marketing spending, then forget about it.

What is the attitude in your company for marketing budgets?

Currently in business to business email marketing seems the best thing to do during this recession as it has a low cost to operate and can generate new leads.

Email marketing is about:
1. Writing an email with a catchy subject.
2. Sending out 10,000 emails to email addresses of people that you have collected over the years.
3. Bouncing: as people change jobs or leave companies many (10% -20%) emails will bounce.
4. Resulting in perhaps 400 replies, inquiries or clicks.
5. Qualifying only 250 as leads because you have emailed several people of the same company.
6. Selling: eventually the 250 leads can become 25 real sales.
Great!

Now you do need to find another 10,000 email addresses for the next 20 sales.
Where or how can you find another 10,000 email addresses?
This should be 10,000 email addresses of people in your target market.
How?
- By collecting:
   Probably not as this will take ages in B2B.
   Especially if you want them to opt-in.
- By stealing data bases:
   Not very honest.
   Not possible to sustain.
- By buying:
   Probably as you have no other choice.

The more email addresses you collect or buy the less effective and efficient your campaign will become.
This is due to the fact the population for your product gets exhausted. The group of emails obtained by collecting or buying will be less and less from your target market.
It is like fishing in the same pond over and over again: eventually you will be fishing other fish types from your pool that are not suited for your purposes.

You too get emails in your mailbox everyday for all kinds of solutions.
How many are really concerning your problems and business?

Email marketing is not a sustainable model as companies will run out on email addresses.
There is however a different solution.

Is your company using email marketing?
Where do they get their email addresses?
What is the score of closing sales on average for 10,000 emails send?

Market research is important in order to know what people want, desire or believe needing.
Market research can be done in many ways like: questionnaires, surveys with multiple choice answers.

The famous 80/20 rule fails for Market Research:
- Your survey or poll covers 80% of your market:
   Covering all segments of your market is almost impossible?
   Thus addressing 80% of your market is already an achievement.
   People who define the questions and multiple choice answers can be biased.

- Your customers express 80% of their thinking in the survey:
   Your questions are wrongly interpreted thus wrong answer.
   Your multiple choice answers aren’t matching completely with the idea of the customer.

- Your conclusions are converted into actions for 80%.
   Your Product Manager needs to interpret the received answers and data: error is possible.
   Your Product Manager can be biased towards a certain solution.

A coin flip has an accuracy of 50%
The total conclusion is only:
80% times 80% times 80% = 51% correct of what your market wants!

This means your new product will only cover 51% of the market needs.
Your new product will only respond to 51% of the market requirements.
The result makes you wonder why you have done the survey or poll in the first place.
Any lucky draw has a 50% chance too.

If you want to do better than a coin flip, you need to obtain higher values.
That seems impossible, even how much care you take as we deal with:
- People defining the questions
- People answering the questions
- People interpreting the answers and making the conclusions

Still the percentages used in the example are already on the high side.
Suppose:
75% times 75% times 75% = 42%
70% times 70% times 70% = 34%
Gambling has an even better outcome.

People with market experience and knowledge will score better – without doubt.

How good was your last product defined by market research?

Nurturing using newsletters

Nearly all marketing guru’s and bloggers praise nurturing your customers and leads with newsletters. It should be the best and most useful method for keeping contact with them.
This idea is to have customers and potential customers signing up for your newsletter and then nurture them by sending on regular time intervals a newsletter.

However sending a newsletter is a one way communication: you or your company are sending out messages about matters concerning the company.
- However your company might not be that interesting.
- Using news concerning the market will expose the achievements of your competitors.

Although you can measure the amount of opened newsletter emails, it is unclear if the content is really being read and appreciated.
How can you tell the newsletters are really making any impact on the customers or potential customers?
A newsletter doesn’t engage people to communicate or participate.

Only those people who find receiving a newsletter really annoying will unsubscribe as this requires an effort from the receiver. Thus most people don’t unsubscribe.

Use a poll for input

Getting information from your customers or potential customers is more important than to dump your achievements on them.
It is very hard to get information, questions or remarks from your customers or leads.
Normally people will only take the initiative to send a comment, a remark or a complaint if they really have a good reason, a serious issue or a problem.
Thus you will only get information and personal views from the worst cases in your market or from those who always complain.

It would be better and more effective if you could collect information from your market. The easiest way is to set-up a poll.
In order to have people completing the poll form, offer them the results: immediately and a second time including the conclusions when the poll has collected enough responses.

Thus instead of sending out email newsletters, send them a poll about the market, problems, products or solutions.
From the data differences between customers and possible customers, demographics can be analyzed and conclusions can be made.

Generating buzz

- If the replies to your poll are large enough, the results will generate even more interest.
- If the conclusions of the poll are unexpected, the results will generate interest and spark a discussion.
Thus generating a buzz about your company.

The sole problem is finding and creating new and interesting polls for your customers and leads concerning your market in order to keep them engaged.

Do you send newsletters or do you poll?

Discounting: not!
Giving a discount is not the best tactic for generating sales.
For a start a discount decreases the value and the perceived value of your product or service.
Once you have started with a discount, the next time the customer expects the discount to be at least at the same level or higher. This leads only to lower sales prices and thus less revenue.

Limited package deal: perceived value
By adding on a minor feature, function or an additional device or service the perceived value of the entire package increases.
It is important to specify the pricing with and without the added item.
The pricing difference doesn’t need to be significant: depending on the additional offering a 4 to 6% price difference can be enough.
Enough value for money to become a bargain.

The missing opportunity fear: hot deals
In order to sell the fear of missing the opportunity, this package deal should be a limited offer:
- Limited in time
or
- Limited by quantity: as long as the inventory lasts.
Then the potential customer has the fear of missing the opportunity if he doesn’t decide fast.
Although this is a method used for consumers, it works as well for business purchases.

8 Reasons: Multiple effects and benefits
The method of offering a package deal has several effects and benefits:
1. People are more likely to buy the package deal that has just a slightly higher price tag.
2. People will be inclined to take the decision faster due to the limited offer pressure. 
3. People will talk about their purchase (even brag about it) to colleagues: Word of mouth.
4. People will like your solution and possibly buy again: recurring revenue.
5. People get the good bargain empowered feeling.
6. Your total revenue increases.
7. As the customers are used to the additional item, they probably will order and pay for it the next time.
8. Perceived value is high compared the depreciated perceived value for a discounted product or service.

The method of offering an additional item, can be even more interesting if the additional item generates a recurrent revenue stream as it requires to buy consumables from your company.
Examples: a printer consumes cartridges, a staple machine consumes staples, a call answering service consumes calls, …

So don’t try to sell or close a deal by giving a discount as they will decrease your revenue also in the long run.
Give an additional function, feature or an additional device or service at a higher price: your revenue will increase immediately and also in the long run.

How much discount do you give?
How wrong does giving a discount feel now?
Will you be able to offer a bargain package deal?