Boring is Beautiful

Stop reading if you are looking for information on the latest, hip marketing strategy. This article isn’t for you. But if you are interested in boring things like growing your customer base and customer lifetime value (CLV), keep reading.

Marketers who don’t beat the Social Media drum are often viewed as dinosaurs in the industry. Perhaps these dinosaurs have something to teach us.  In A Sober Approach to Social Media, I explained how social media is not a leader in new customer acquisition or customer lifetime value. . .  And the “hip” crowd jeered.

More objective observers that dig into the data discover something as ancient as the internet is rocking new customer acquisition and customer lifetime value. A few facts to back this up:

• Email – not Social – is the fastest growing customer acquisition channel.[1]
• Email is 40 times more effective than Facebook & Twitter combined for acquiring new customers.
• The average email order price is 17% higher than social channels.[2]

Contrary to popular opinion, social media has not been growing. Multiple studies show that social media is flat at 2% of total sales. Not 2% growth – just a flat 2%.[3]  It is so flat that if social media growth showed up on an EKG, the doctor would call the priest at this point.

Time to dust off the old playbook

At 11:16 am, an email pops up in my Inbox from Iron Cactus Mexican Grill:  25% off sizzling fajitas to-go on Super Bowl Sunday. Gazing at the email, mouth starting to water, I began to wonder if I could get that 70” TV before Sunday so I could have a TV worthy of these delicious, highly discounted fajitas.

No poetic license taken. These were the real thoughts streaming through my mind. This email campaign managed to interrupt my busy day and engage my fantasy world. My Super Bowl Sunday could be the best ever. This fantasy began in email, not Facebook – not even the previous evening dining with my wife at The Iron Cactus.

It starts becoming clear why email is growing so rapidly as a customer acquisition channel when you look at the execution by the marketing team at Iron Cactus. In a double-stroke of brilliance, they sent the email about Super Bowl Sunday about 20 minutes before the average person decides their lunch plans for the day. Hmmm… maybe the fajita taco lunch special would be good today.

So simple a monkey can do it

Brilliant email campaigns are carefully planned, tested and refined. True marketing savants don’t have a crystal ball. They test and measure everything they do. Mail Chimp is an excellent platform for honing and refining your email marketing campaign. Some of the key features include:

• Integrates with Google Analytics (for tracking effectiveness)
• Mail Chimp analytics
• Subject line coaching to improve open rates
• Signup form integration with your website
• A/B testing

You don’t know whether something will work until you test it. And you cannot predict test results based on past experience.” – Eugene Schwartz, author of Break-through Advertising

A/B testing is a powerful tool for improving any digital marketing campaign. Recognizing the inability to perfectly predict human behavior, you create 2 versions (A & B) and run them against each other.  Pick the better-performing of 2 and execute another A/B test.

A/B testing is random distribution, but if your A/B test planning is also random, your results will be disappointing. Every series of A/B tests should start with a carefully considered list of hypotheses. Then the hypotheses are prioritized and tested. The “B” version should clearly prove or disprove the hypothesis. Tests are continued throughout the length of the campaign.

You too can be un-hip & highly effective

If you can endure the scorn of being called a dinosaur, marketing excellence is at your fingertips.  You won’t get to brag about how many impressions you’ve made or your “Social Sentiment” score. You will have settle for reporting the ho-hum metrics of how many sales your email campaign drove. If you think this un-hip path is for you, here are smart steps to take:

• Select a campaign you want to run
• Work with your IT / Analytics / SEO team to plan tracking website activity originating from your email campaign
• Select an email platform. Make sure it includes analytics and A/B testing
• Carefully construct a list of hypotheses about the recipients of your email campaign
• Plan a series of tests to prove your hypotheses right or wrong
• Execute your campaign: Design, test, measure, analyze & optimize

Executed properly, email will deliver high new customer growth rate and high lifetime value per customer.

If your organization values measurable results, email campaigns should have a prominent place in your marketing. If your organization values being hip and cool, then hopefully you can draw a sense of satisfaction from numbers of “Likes” and “Followers.”

PS:  If you were wondering, yes, I bought the fajitas, and they were good!