The Scientific Method’s not just for school

Raise your hand if you thought you could retire the scientific method after you finished school.  I thought so too.  But then I thought about it.  So much of marketing is done by gut-feel and previous experience.  But as our technologies get better, testing is easier to execute and measure.

Here are some tips on applying the scientific method to your marketing campaign workflow:

1. Define the campaign
2. Determine success criteria  for the campaign responders
3. Choose the test  audience and segment: a, b, c, d, etc
4. Launch test campaign
5. Collect the data and analyze the results for tests
6. Interpret, draw conclusions and determine the winning test
7. Document the results
8. Retest or Launch

Consignment stores and targeted marketing

Over the weekend I indulged in a little bit of closet cleaning.  It was long overdue (like this blog post).

I decided to clear out my purse collection, and eliminate the bags I collected in my 20s.  And also try to sell off a few old favorites for maybe a bit of extra money.

After checking my storage, I had a few categories of bags:

• “designer” bags that should have decent resale value
• “good” bags that might be sell-able
• hit or miss bags with uncertain market value
• bags with zero resale potential

After that, it was time to do a little research.  The question: where could I sell these bags to, and how can I maximize the potential money I take home?

I realized I had a few choices:

1. label conscious consignment store
2. trendy “vintage” and resale store
3. other consignment and resale shops
4. donation to Goodwill or other charity

I set out to do a few errands, and made my first stop.  And my first sale.  I ended up selling a few bags to the friendly woman at the salon.  She ended up buying a few bags I had targeted for the trendy store, but I’d also rather help someone I like too.

I took the “designer” bags to the high-end accessories consignment boutique to consign.  And then I was left with my last 3 categories of bags.

I did my research ahead of time.  The store had a list of wants for the season.  And their target audience (contemporary and trendy young people).  I assumed I could get a little bit for a few bags in my stack, and then would send the rest to Goodwill.

As I waited for the clerk, I watched the other people looking to sell or exchange items for credit.  Many were unsuccessful.  Mostly because their items didn’t match up with the stores demographic.  There were retired gentlemen looking to resell their casual gear to a a store that skewed hipster, while they skewed more preppy/classic/all-american.  I guess they took “Thrift Shop” a little too closely to heart.  He would have had more success at the shop across the street that catered to an older demographic.

I fared pretty well.  My cheap and trendy bags acquired mostly at Target over the years yielded enough for lunch.  Not bad considering most of the bags came from the clearance racks 5 or more years ago.  All in all, I sold about 65% of the trendy and hit or miss bags. And as for the “designer” bags?  They were all accepted to consign, we’ll see how they fare.  Last on my list?  Finding a home for my trendy cheap jewelry.  Maybe I can fund another lunch.

A couple of key lessons for potential consigners (and campaign planners):

1. I can’t stress this enough, know your audience, and get to know them well.  What do they like, what do they dislike and what do they want.
2. When positioning your product, and if you realize your currently defined segment isn’t interested, determine if you have a product problem or an audience problem.  If the problem is your current audience, then find a way to reach them instead.
3. Don’t forget to do a test run.  If you are not sure if your message will resonate, test it on a friendly audience (like a friendly salon owner) and see if you have success in a small group before applying it to everyone

Buyers to Marketers: “I still don’t want you to call me”

This is definitely the stat of the day.  I was doing a little research on form questions and data accuracy, and I came across this report from Google and Tech Target on search behavior of IT buyers.

Here is a screenshot of some interesting stats on registration information:

Notice, 66% of people give you an accurate email address, 49% will tell you the budget and their role in the process, and only 21% give you the right phone number.

Moral of the story: buyers say “even though I have budget and need, I still don’t want to talk to you.”

Would you pay for better service?

It has been a weird summer for me and my checking accounts.  Both my primary and secondary accounts were breached over the past few weeks.   Nothing serious happened.  I didn’t lose any money, but each bank handled the ATM card replacement very differently.

I have a free checking account with Ally, and a regular account with Citibank where there is a minimum balance to avoid service charges.

Citibank Experience (primary account):

I received a call on a Friday evening, around 5:30 or 6pm.

• Agent: Hi, I am calling from Citibank. Unfortunately your credit card number has been breached.  We will need to get you a new ATM card and immediately deactivate your current one.
• Me: Do you know how it happened?
• Agent: No, I do not know the circumstances of the breach.  You should let us know if you see any strange charges.  Do I have your OK to cancel your card and send you a new one.  We’ll send out the replacement card immediately.
• Me:  When should it arrive, I am going on a trip on the following Tuesday and I will be gone for a week.
• Agent: I’ll process this request immediately. I think we are before the deadline to get this delivered on Monday.  Let me confirm with my colleagues that this is the case. …
• Agent:  I have confirmed this will be sent via priority mail for a Monday AM delivery.
• Me: What happens if it doesn’t arrive on time.
• Agent: You can always go into a branch and get a temporary card to use for a trip.  It won’t have a Visa logo, but you can use it to get cash.
• Me: Great thanks for your help.

** The card delivery was attempted on Monday, but that’s another story.  I ended up getting the card on Tuesday after the delivery issues.

Ally Experience (secondary account):

I got a call on a Saturday afternoon from Ally’s fraud service.

• Agent: Hi, I am calling on behalf of Ally on a potential fraud issue.  We have some suspected charges.
• Me: OK, what are the details?
• Agent: Charge A in PEnsylvania, Charge B in Deleware, Charge C in California.
• Me: Charges A and B are not mine, C is valid.
• Agent: Do you have the card in your possession?
• Me: Yes, it has never been out of my possession.
• Agent: We can put a block on your card, but you will need to call Ally in order to get a new card issued.
• Me: OK
• Me: Hi, I am calling because it looks like my ATM card number has been stolen.  I have also noticed suspicious activity on my account.
• Agent: We can issue a provisional credit for the suscpicious activity while we will conduct an investigation.
• Me: I thought my card had been blocked, so I am puzzled this new charge appeared.
• Agent: Yes, your card has been blocked.  No more charges will go through.
• Me: Can I get a replacement card?
• Agent: Yes.  It will take 7-10 business days in order to receive the card.  The PIN will arrive a few days after that.
• Me: Is there a way to get the card sooner, that seems like a really long time.
• Agent: Yes, the rush fee is $15, and the card will be delivered in 2-3 business days.
• Me: Even though the reason to replace the card is fraud?
• Agent: Yes, unfortunately the fee to rush is $15.  Do you want to do the rush?
• Me: No thanks.  Can you process the replacement request?
• Agent: You should receive your card in 7-10 days.  Thank you for banking with Ally.

A few days later I received a letter from Ally to dispute the charges with the typical dispute reasons. IT asked me to attach an affidavit on why the charges were invalid etc.

Customer Service Comparison:

Citibank: The entire process happened in one phone call and a replacement card was received one business day after the initial contact (even though things started on a weekend).

• Incoming Phone Calls: 1
• Outgoing Phone Calls: 0
• Total Days: 4 (including the weekend, and delivery delay)

Ally: After the issue was reported, I needed to make a phone call in order to get a new card.  At this point, I am not sure if my claim has been approved, although the money has been credited to my account.

• Incoming Phone Calls: 1
• Outgoing Phone Calls: 1
• Total Days: 2 weeks and counting

I have banked with Ally for about a year, and it has been a good experience.  The phone lines are open 24/7 and the agents are friendly.  I love the live chat.  The online banking UI is pretty good.  I have been testing them out to see if I’d want to ditch my mainstream bank for an online only bank.  After this experience, I am not sure I am ready to ditch the branch.  If Ally was my only account, I’d have no way to access my accounts or money while waiting the 7 or 3 business days for a new card to arrive.  I also needed to be proactive to get the replacement.  Since the bank had outsourced the fraud monitoring, the phone agents didn’t have access to the systems to generate new ATM cards.  I needed to make an additional call to get a new card issued.  This is a lot of work for something that wasn’t my fault.

With my Citi account the entire process was completed within one phone call.  I also had the opportunity to go to the branch for cash or a temporary card.

A couple of years ago, my Washington Mutual account was impacted by a similar breach where ATM card numbers were stolen.  Wamu was much less proactive than Citibank.  I received a letter in the mail to the affect of: your card number was possibly stolen, we are sending you a new card in the next couple of days.  Please activate it immediately, your existing card will be cancelled on XXX (a few days after the new card was due to arrive).

Honestly, if I hadn’t had the Ally experience, I wouldn’t have bothered to write about this experience.  But Citi is offers superior service and proactive customer support here.  Washington Mutual did not handle a similar situation with the same sense or urgency.

For the average consumer, all banks are the same.  You only differentiate the banks on convenience, price, and services. When everyone looks pretty equivalent on paper, how do you choose?

You tell me, how much is better service worth for you?  Are you willing to pay a premium for premium service?  Do you appreciate premium service when you get it?

A/B Testing Roundup

Looking for some ideas on best practices in landing pages and emails?  I turn to Which Test Won and ABTests.com to check out the daily tests.  The results may surprise you.

• ABTests.com
• Which Test Won

Here is a great story from the 37Signals blog.  They started testing conversions on the signup page.

From the post:

Over 42,000 visitors were presented either the original page or the long form page. The results were completely surprising. The long form page had a 37.5% increase in net signups compared to the original. Amazing right?

Sometimes telling a long story is better than the short list.  Check out the full post here.

The “New” New Thing is Over Before It Starts?

Are you on Google+? I joined a few weeks ago after receiving a slew of invites from friends, Google Buzz connections, Google Wave connections and everyone else.  So far we like the UI, the circles and the privacy, but usage is trickling down.  I know it is for me, because frankly, I don’t have time to update Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or my blogs (hence the 6 month hiatus).  How on earth can anyone keep up with status updates and have time for friendships in real life?

There are lots of opinions are mixed in the industry as well:

• Facebook is Toast
• Google+ is Over (Site Traffic Down)
• Choosing a Social Network Winner One Year from Now

So what gives:  is Google+ the new black?  Or is it the new taupe?  Or is it just out?

 

Who owned it at Dreamforce 2010?

This week has been a blur, after attending the 8th annual Dreamforce.  It was nearly twice as big as last year with 30,000 registrants.  Wow!  I thought I’d recap with the winners and losers for this year’s event.

Let’s start with the losers:

Paper Show Guides
I am sure somewhere, someone had a physical booth map.  And a show guide.  But there definitely weren’t many floating around.  Especially compared with the number of registrants.  From the Dreamforce mobile app, and the full web portal, there was no need for paper.  The final test, the amount of trash floating around Moscone, was pretty minimal.  I only saw business cards and other card sized handouts.

Ineffective Booth Staff
Vendors who did not use every opportunity to maximize booth traffic.  I visited a few booths in hopes for prizes, sag or party invites.  Only about 10% of the time did anyone elevator pitch and scan me.  I found that puzzling, for 2 reasons.  One, no one should get something for nothing.  And two, you never know which contact will help you out in the future.  Too bad for one vendor since I had just finished chatting with someone looking for recommendations in their space.  They could have been on the list, if they bothered to tell me what they did.

PCs
Between Marc Benioff’s praise of mobile devices and iPads through out the show and poor wifi performance.  It looks like computers were the losers this time around.  Wifi was sporadic, and all of the attention was on Chatter Mobile.  Oddly, all of my Mac toting colleagues seemed to be able connect to the wifi more reliably than me and the PC toters.  Looks like I might need to add a prepaid 3g or 4g broadband stick to my conference esssentials kit.

Winners:

Salesforce
Well, of course SFDC should win at its own event.  But considering the huge turnout and the big social medial splash, things are pretty sunny in the cloud.  So sunny, SFDC has upped the levels of sponsorship to include Titanium.  At this rate, 2012 will have a Stratospheric level.

Actors, Performers, and DJs
There were a lot of actors in attendance this year.  Siverpop had an old Hollywood themed party on Monday, with people dressed up as Marilyn Monroe and other screen stars.  The Bill Clinton keynote had a George Bush impersonator.  There was a troupe of cloud contortionists, or something like that.  And as you entered each hall you were greeted with a DJ spinning dance and pop favorites or 70s style dance/funk/jazz.  Fun times for sure.  An unlikely gig, but great for non-card carrying actors.

Apple
Apple won big time this year.  With the new iPad apps and Benioff’s ringing endorsement of the product things started off pretty well for Apple.  But As I walked around the event, many people had iPad contests.  Many attendees were toting iPAds to the sessions and navigating SF, iPad in hand.  For some organizations, iPads were portable demo stations and sign up sheets.  It looks like 2011 will be the year of iOS.  Oh, and Benioff plugged iTunes to pick up the theme song of the event.

Dreamforce Attendees and Stevie Wonder
Dreamforce attendees got a double dose of Stevie Wonder at a Saasy concert and during the Day 2 keynote.  After an amazing concert at the Global Gala, the candid Q&A at the Bill Clinton keynote, made attending Dreamforce was a treat.  It was also refreshing to see Benioff’s candid conversation with Stevie, as the event was mostly staged and planned.

The biggest winner at Dreamforce 2010 is ……

Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas
BEP was the soundtrack of the show with “Own it” playing a prominent role in the opening keynote and Will.i.am appearances everywhere.  Snippets of “Own it” played no less than 10 times throughout the opening keynote.   Other BEP from the album played between keynote speakers, sessions and more.  Considering the album dropped last week, this was the ultimate promotional appearance.  Although I don’t want to “own it” and I am sure plenty of other people did and they added at least 10000 digital downloads by the show attendees.

Who were your winners and losers?