Diary of a Marketing Insight Guy

Over coffee with a client’s VP of Marketing last month, we came up with an idea for customising (or customizing!) subject lines in email marketing. It’s well known that subject lines are a key determinant of open rates and every good campaign should involve the testing of different variations to establish which one  performs best. Considerations often revolve around personalisation or length (with regards to whether shorter or longer is better), but we got to thinking that quirky or straight might also have an effect.

Some people, we concluded, might quite enjoy an email subject like “Have lunch on us whilst we talk about our stuff!”, whereas others may prefer a more serious tone along the lines of “Learn the benefits of our products over lunch”. This could be tested over a sequence of campaign executions and the individual open rate for each recipient recorded to see whether they tended to respond better to one type of line or another. This implied preference could then be recorded within the email or marketing database and utilised as a customisation parameter in future activity.

Of course any number of other factors could influence an individual’s open rate so ongoing monitoring and adjustment would be needed to ensure peak effectiveness. Just an idea though, and I set it free here for your consideration. If you give it a go, let me know how you get on!

Commencing an engagement earlier in the summer with a company for which I had previously worked, I was issued with an Exchange account for internal communications whilst on-site. Not surprisingly, my external email address was the same as it had been when I was employed there, since it adopted a standard format comprising my first and surname together with the company’s domain. What did surprise me though, eighteen months after leaving the company, was the steady stream of emails I began to receive from lists to which I had been subscribed before I left.

Now perhaps I should have diligently ensured, before moving on, that I had unsubscribed from these lists or informed their senders of my change of address. The reality though is that this is often harder than it seems, between keeping track of the lists to which you have subscribed and knowing how to advise your new details. It’s usually not the highest priority when moving on either.

These emails sent to my old address would certainly have been bouncing back to the originator for quite some time. The failure, or conscious decision, by these senders not to process these bounces and use them as an opportunity to update their databases is astonishing. Across the entirety of their databases and subscriber lists, given the rate of decay of business data, these senders must experience significant volumes of email delivery failures.

Just as with spam, it’s tempting to dismiss such considerations on the grounds that the cost of continuing to send to dead addresses is minimal, the effort of doing something about it substantial and the overall impact negligible. This is not the case however, and persisting in sending to bounced addresses can lead to deliverability issues and represents a missed opportunity for database management.

Repeatedly sending to non-existent addresses and incurring the bounce back messages this generates gets noticed and can lead to being placed on spam offender lists. This could cause all email to be blocked by spam filters with obvious dire consequences for campaign effectiveness. You may not even know that here is a problem, except for the rather disappointing response rates.

Failing to update marketing databases with bounced addresses also means that the opportunity to track the fact that the record itself may be invalid is also lost. If other activity is being driven from the database, such as DM, then significant cost can be incurred sending to contacts who are no longer there. Acting on email bounces also offers the opportunity to proactively update the database. If an individual represented a high value contact (someone in a senior position or a frequent purchaser), perhaps it’s worth a call to establish where they’ve moved in order to re-establish contact or identify a replacement?

I’m not complaining that I’m receiving some of these emails again, and it may even be to some of the senders’ benefit in the end. But the likelihood of this situation arising is tiny and the potential negative impact significant. There’s no excuse for bad practice.

We’ve run many marketing automation projects over the years, both large and small. Here’s a simplified version of the methodology we use, and some hints around getting your project up and running!

1. Project Feasibility - an informal review to scope the potential project and set some expectations. This process might be no more than a short internal meeting, but at this stage you’ll not only be able to roughly size the project, but you’ll also have a good handle on the costs you’re currently incurring. Look at the organisation’s current levels of marketing activity, not only in departments carrying out marketing, but also Sales and other functions. Try and come up with some metrics such as spend (internal, number of activities, overall number of touches), and the programme objectives; customer acquisition, retention, up-sell/cross-sell. Don’t forget softer marketing activities such as newsletters sent by product or customer service groups.

You also need to get a rough idea of the data available, again don’t forget to look out-side the main marketing teams as well as internally. This usually means Sales, Finance (if there is no data warehouse), Customer Services and product management teams.

Add into the mix your organisation’s future needs, growth strategies, new products, desired improvement in customer experiences, structural acquisitions, as well as any predictable internal factors around people or structural changes.

Activity + Costs + Data Resource + Business Objectives are the inputs you’ll need do outline the project scope.

2. Initiate Project - you might have an internal project initiation process or it might be a more informal set of actions. But any successful project will need most of these components in place:

• Business Buy-in - Your project is going to need or catalyse change in your business. Now is the time to get your directors or SVP’s on board. And don’t forget to keep up a dialogue with the guys in IT!
• Project Champion (Board) - Someone with a stake in the project’s success and with enough political weight to fight your corner for resource and support
• Project Manager - A good PM combines a detailed technical understanding with the oleaginous charm of a diplomat and the motivational skills of Madame Whiplash! They can be either from marketing or from IT or both! At times it’s going to be a full time job, so make sure they have the bandwidth.
• Success Definition - Develop meaningful indicators of success; these might include  reduction in costs, improvement in productivity or trends in conversion costs. Keep them simple (at least what you share with the business) and realistic.

3. 1st Stage Requirements Definition and Data Audit Documentation

• A high quality piece of work at this stage is vital to the success of the project; investment in time here will be repaid by a successful implementation many fold. When you start writing the cheques is too late to be finding  figure out that what is being delivered doesn’t meet your needs.
• Clearly prioritise all key features; essential/desirable/optional. On any requirements document the nice-to-haves tend to take up the same amount of space as the need-to-haves.
• Think about phasing; its likely any substantial project will be delivered (and paid for) in a number of stages; prioritise key deliverables, but you also need to work out the optimum structure to meet operational constraints.
• Identify any internal process changes needed, this is another area that is easy to overlook or underestimate. Does this need to be a vendor deliverable or can the business handle it themselves?
• The Data Aaudit doesn’t need to be exhaustive at this stage; but you need to have a very good handle on the inputs the system will need, files layouts where applicable, approximate record quantities, and source system dependencies. In any complex organisation it’s easy to underestimate the number of data sources needed for build and production. On one recent project the estimate was 18. The real number once an exhaustive process was complete? 61!

4. RFI/RFP to vendors (and internal Technology Group) - You may or may not have an internal IT resource who feel they can deliver a Marketing automation/CM project. One way to cut through the politics of this is to ask them to respond like the other vendors – make sure they price internal IT resources realistically.

5. Response evaluation and contract negotiation

• Allow plenty of time for this stage; there’s nothing like seeing the figures on the table to focus the mind, and the vendor will be looking to safeguard their position. A successful negotiation will allow both parties to apportion the risk
• Usually there will be a significant up-front cost for development. A guaranteed contract term will allow the vendor to amortise the development costs over the the period of the contract.

6. Project Plan and Timeline setting - Make this realistic but not too long. You need to be able to keep the momentum going, but its not great to forever be announcing delays. Try and structure the project to allow early wins; for example you may not need every single data feed to start gaining value from a single customer view.

7. Detailed Requirements and Data discovery

• This should be straightforward process if you’ve got a good requirements price, but the vendor should respond to your functional prioritisation, allowing you to make informed choices before agreeing the statement of work.
• Allow plenty of engagement time for Data discovery. You’ve probably lived with this data for a long period of time, but any external consultant or specialist is starting from scratch. You’ll also have to make knowledgeable internal data specialists available to the vendor; if you’ve got complete documentation on all internal systems and feeds, congratulations – that’s a first!

8. Development – Ensure configuration and customisation adhere to the agreed requirements and specification, without suffering from scope-creep (constant additions to the original functionality). Any such development should be minimised and every process or function scrutinised to gauge its real priority and whether “out of the box” functionality will suffice. Conduct regular review sessions with key stakeholders to demonstrate functionality and ensure it is on track.

9. Implementation and migration – Develop data migration and cut-over alongside functional development. Ensuring the right data is available in the new system from day one is critical and users will be unforgiving if it is not. Many CRM implementations fail due to data issues, including data quality. Will you migrate all data from legacy systems, or apply rules and filters? What is the data model of the new system compared to previous ones, will there need to be a mapping process.

10. Training ‘Go-Live’ – Don’t overlook training and plan well in advance of go-live. Avoid the temptation to just let users loose on a new system and learn it for themselves, but develop a proper training programme, with hands-on usage (even if it’s a late beta version) and plenty of exercises and review sessions. Aim to have training deliverables available (documentation, process guides or screen tutorials). Run post go-live sessions to re-cap key functions and answer any questions on general functionality arising as users start utilising the system.

11. Evaluation and On-going development – Conduct reviews to ensure the system is delivering the required functionality. Survey users for their opinion on usability, how much they’re using the system and any key missing functions. Does it make their job easier? Put aside resources to make enhancements post go-live – don’t expect the job t complete at this stage.

I wanted to briefly mention a great new resource for anyone involved in online data collection, brought to us by international data quality and addressing guru, Graham Rhind. “Better data quality from your web form” is a free download ebook in pdf format that is designed to help achieve effective international name and address Internet data collection. In the spirit of full disclosure I should mention that Graham asked me to take a look at the book before he published it and as such I can say it’s an invaluable source of information.

Exhibiting Graham’s customary thorough and comprehensive coverage of the topic, the book includes guidance on name and address capture, use of pick-lists and other form elements, usability and data validation. Longe-standing readers of my blog will know that web forms are something of a hot topic for me and I hope this book will help curb some of the worst examples of bad practice out there!

The book is available for download from Graham’s site, and whilst you’re there you should take a look at the wealth of additional information he makes available.

Previously, (see The secret to CRM & Marketing data management?) I’ve written about the benefits and hazards of creating independent marketing databases, and in particular the questions that need to be asked before taking such an approach. I’m currently involved in a debate over the long term approach that should be taken to the management of marketing data, and where it should reside, which raises some of these issues.

Take the real life example of a campaign automation system that is synchronised with a sales force automation (SFA) solution via a real time data adapter. Changes made to customer and prospect contact data in either system are exchanged almost immediately, together with leads and status updates. When it works, it’s fabulous, providing a real time view of data in either system, ensuring Sales and Marketing are seeing the same picture, whilst enabling them to use the best-of-breed system most appropriate to their respective requirements.

A new CMO and the prevailing economic conditions though have lead to questioning whether marketing data should continue to be managed in-house, rather than outsourcing to a marketing service provider. In reviewing the options for outsourcing however, one of the first issues (of many) that arises is how, if at all, should sales and marketing data integration be maintained?

Most out-sourced or hosted solutions tend to rely on much less sophisticated and timely batch data transfers, via ftp or similar mechanism, which are a long way from the real time synchronisation currently enjoyed. Is moving to such a mechanism and the attendant loss of immediacy important? “This is a really worrying trend,” says Shane Redding of business to business digital and data marketing consultancy Cyance. “It is disappointing to see companies make a backward step of this kind, which in my opinion is usually the result of not making the next step of really using the real time data in anger which then demonstrates the return on investment.”

Shane and I are very much in agreement, and here’s why.

1. Sales and Marketing users don’t, and shouldn’t need to, understand the intricacies of data integration. They just want to know that data in one system is available in the other; a Sales rep entering a new contact in the SFA system wants to know their prospect is available for marketing activity. It invokes much greater confidence if this transfer is immediate, without having to know about or understand overnight batch updates. Once control is lost, users feel disconnected and reduce their ownership of the process, leading to a rapid deterioration in data quality.
2. The sooner changes made to a record in either system are replicated, the less chance there is of subsequent changes to the same record in the other system being made before the data is transferred, leading to potential anomalies or corruption. This is particularly the case where records are merged or changes are made to many fields at the same time.
3. Marketing-generated leads need to be transferred to Sales promptly. Research shows that timely lead follow-up is one of the biggest determinants of successful lead conversion. If a lead or response relates to an existing contact or customer, Sales should be made aware as soon as possible, allowing a rep to handle their account in the most appropriate way
4. Best-of-breed marketing practices, such as trigger marketing based on response or other events, require good data integration. Explaining such requirements away saying “we don’t need to do that” won’t cut it. Your competitors are doing it.
5. Business is moving ever faster. It is expected that data changes are available immediately, especially between Sales and Marketing systems. Reverting to a batch system is a backwards step that fails to lay the foundations for modern and forward-thinking marketing capability.
6. System development and testing are substantially quicker and easier if changes in one system are reflected in the other almost straight away, rather than having to wait to see if configuration changes are working as intended.
7. Much of the complexity in data synchronisation lies in the business rules for handling updates, conflicts, mappings and referential integrity. Once these rules are in place, why not transfer data more frequently, reducing the volume and complexity of batch updates when they occur?

Marketing shouldn’t be ashamed to stand up for genuine business requirements, with demonstrable benefits. Don’t let internal politics or external suppliers tell you otherwise!

With thanks to Shane Redding for contributing to this post.

Just about this time last year, I outlined a fairly personal set of 6 crucial marketing automation system requirements that it was particularly important to us were incorporated into the system we were about to deploy. Business 2 Business Marketing magazine’s online companion site has just published an alternative take on marketing technology requirements which I thought complimented mine. Rather broader in scope, point four “Pilot your technology” particularly resonated with me, given its message of testing and phased roll-out, rather than taking an all-or-nothing approach (see “Testing, testing, testing” for my thoughts in this area.)

After the problems we’ve been experiencing this year, having rushed into production with key elements untested, this sentiment is particularly pertinent. Don’t let yourself think “I’m sure it’ll be alright” - if it can go wrong, it probably will!

I’ve written a lot about integrating sales and marketing databases (posts too numerous to provide links – search on “integration” in the sidebar), but so far I haven’t mentioned the third source in the marketing data ecosystem – order processing systems. Order processing systems are where the sales orders that leads and opportunities (hopefully!) eventually turn into are captured, invoices created and ultimately customer status converted. It may also be known as an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, and also handle financials, human resources and other functions (possibly even CRM).

The reason these systems are important within a marketing operations context is because they are generally the system of record regarding whether an organisation is a customer or not, and what their purchase history is if so. Although the sales and marketing systems should have a view of completed opportunities and closed deals, there is inevitably a disconnect from what was supposed to have been sold and what was actually booked. Put starkly, once the deal is clinched, Sales’ enthusiasm for making sure it is accurately reflected in the SFA system wanes considerably; commissions are likely to be calculated based on what the order processing system says.

Care needs to be given to designing order processing links though. Here are some considerations:

• Is the feed uni or bi-directional? In other words does the marketing database just receive updates of customer status and possibly purchase history. Such feeds are often one-way, as the owner of the order system will jealously guard their data integrity – not unreasonably, as it represents the “real” customer database for the company. However, if there is no feedback mechanism, then it may not be possible to correct issues with the data, such as missing address elements, inconsistent country values or duplicates.
• How does the order system handle accounts and organisations. As a result of the different imperatives of ordering systems (delivery, invoicing, credit accounts), data is frequently held in a way that is inconsistent with that of the marketing database. If different departments of the same organisation, for instance, have made separate purchases, the order system may create separate records which will be perceived by the marketing database as duplicates. Take care in removing these duplicates from the marketing database however; not only might they simply turn up again with the next order system update, but you will loose the account number reference in the marketing database which might be a crucial external reference.
• What purchase history data is available? If the feed is at “account” level (which may not be the same as unique organisations) it may include most recent order, invoice or contract date. That might be enough to derive a “customer” status, such as having ordered within a specified time frame or are within a maintenance contract, but may not include any information on what was ordered. On the other hand, you might be faced with a feed of every order or invoice, which is considerably more challenging to integrate.

Unlike the third rail of an electric railway, which you shouldn’t ever touch in order to avoid electric shock, the order processing systems is generally avoided even though they’re a crucial source of marketing data. Which isn’t to say you won’t get a shock if you try and integrate it!

I’ve written before (see Using reference sources in data quality maintenance) about the benefits of matching marketing data, particularly organisations, to external reference data with regards to data quality improvement. We’ve just signed an agreement with Dun and Bradstreet to match a core subset of our database with their global database and enhance it with key attributes, such as industry, size and enterprise relationship. The plan is to refresh the matched data on a monthly basis so that we always have the most up to date view.

The data we’re enhancing consists of customers from the last few years together with Sales’ key prospects. By developing a better understanding of these organisations, we can not only target them more effectively, for instance by undertaking industry selections, but also better understand the interrelationships between organisations. We may have received a lead or have an existing relationship with a subsidiary that could be leveraged into the parent organisation, for instance. Our marketing activity can become more advanced, in terms of targeting and segmentation, as a result of this intelligence.

De-duplication is also a key benefit, as I’ve said before, as D&B are able to match using previous names and alternative trade styles together with other sophisticated techniques, that highlight duplicates that were otherwise not evident. Again, this can bring together otherwise hidden relationships and opportunities.

The drawback with D&B is that they’re quite expensive, and matching/enhancing hundreds of thousands of records is prohibitive. Although we’re enhancing our core data, some of the benefits I’ve outlined are lost when working with a subset; we don’t know if the records we’ve chosen are duplicated or have a relationship with others in the database. I’m hoping to discuss with D&B the idea of matching our entire database (an inexpensive activity at a few cents a record) and then enhance only those in which we’re interested, specifically those related to our core dataset. This isn’t a standard service D&B offer, and it can be a challenge to have them move outside their usual modus operandi, but hopefully they can be persuaded! I’ll let you know how I get on.

When you’re mired in the day-to-day challenges of managing marketing operations and insight activity, it’s easy to let yourself believe that you are alone in facing the difficulties with which you are presented. This is not the case, as two recent experiences have highlighted to me. At the beginning of the IDM Business to Business Conference panel session in which I took part recently (see Executional excellence and Institute of Direct Marketing Business-to-Business Marketing Conference 2008), I asked for a show of hands as to how many marketing data sources existed in delegates’ organisations. As I counted up from one, two, three systems, quite a number of hands stayed in the air, and indeed one of my fellow panellists admitted to probably being in double figures! If you’re juggling multiple data sources, you are not alone.

Another example, along similar lines, is dealing with disjointed sales and marketing systems. Last week I delivered the database marketing module of the IDM Certificate in Business to Business Marketing to a group of marketing professionals keen to show their mettle. The issue was brought up of how to ensure that data in the sales force automation solution at one organisation could be kept up-to-date with the marketing database, held at a service provider. I made a few suggestions, but reassured the individual asking the question that this is not an uncommon problem. If you’re struggling with disconnected data repositories, you are not alone.

A nice little piece on collecting email addresses featured recently in Netherlands-based data provider Computer Profile’s email newsletter. Some of the suggestions are fairly obvious or easier said than done, but I liked the point on making sure that registration/sign-up forms are as simple as possible. The point they make, that you can always learn more about contacts in the future, is entirely true, and it’s something I’m hoping we’re going to start doing soon. In addition, form auto-completion techniques, as we recently implemented (see previous post Address to impress – smart web form data collection), also help speed up the form completion experience, together with data quality improvements.