Newsletter Article August: Herding Cats! 4 Steps to Successful Opt-In Marketing

Herding Cats! 4 Steps to Successful Opt-In Marketing in a VAR/Channel Environment

By: Wrich Printz

Herding Cats… it’s a funny concept, though a bit over-used. Everyone has their own vision of what this mythical “Cat Herd” would look like, but the concept is nearly universal. Why? Everyone knows that getting cats to go in the same direction, eat the same thing, and behave the same way is nearly impossible. Well, the only critter I know to be as finicky as a cat would have to be the VAR (Value Added Resellers).

That independent minded reseller of goods and services often knows the product as well, or better, than the manufacturer. They have tried to get corporate marketing to help market to the end customer for years, and have been universally underwhelmed at the results. Not for a lack of trying on anyone’s part, but for a lack of effect.

Yes, it might be a bit cliché, but when you consider the bigger picture where most marketing teams are getting torn in different directions by customer segments/ distributors/ channel partners and VARs, the idea of sending out OPT-IN marketing campaigns in that environment is, in fact, best described as…Herding Cats.

The solution, clearly evident at this year’s On-Demand show, is to complement traditional marketing efforts with emerging marketing technology that will provide value to the company, the VARs, and the customers as well.

Here are the four steps that will help you take this from Cat Herding to practical reality.

#1 “Get those critters rolling” -Help your customers sell and manage programs out to the channel.

Increasingly, commercial printers are finding out that building trust and value for your clients require more than just managing print production. In this economic climate, it requires that you be both the technology provider and sales resource for integrated campaigns online, offline and in print.

This transformation to a ‘Marketing Service Provider’ means that instead of providing a design template for your clients to sell to the channel, you need to provide applications that integrate multiple channels.

Instead of selling them a high-priced box and leaving them to fend for themselves, you need to provide support to help them sell applications to the channel.

Instead of sitting back and waiting for print jobs to come in, you are enhancing marketing initiatives and making print more cost-effective for your clients as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Adopt this ‘we make money when you make money’ strategy and you will build trust with your valued clients and stay economically viable while making money for you and your clients.

#2 “Tie, rope and BRAND them!” - Help corporate build campaigns that drive customers to their VARs.

We’ve seen large enterprises bypassing customers and VARs in an attempt to boost sales/ open up new (often competing) channels. We saw it with the Adobe/ Fedex Kinkos partnership and again with HP’s Marketsplash.

Enterprises that do this often meet with firm opposition creating an uneasy balance of business relationships... quite frankly, they get looked on as Rustlers, and that is one sure way to get your VAR’s dander up. Your enterprise customers are also facing the same dilemma. They too want to communicate directly with their customers without bypassing agents/ franchisees and branch managers.

This is an opportunity for you to step in and manage an opt-in program with their VARs that meets corporate’s goals to boost sales while providing business to their channels. We’ve successfully launched programs like this to our channel partners and the results are re-sounding.

Creating a system that keeps your client’s VARs in the loop makes campaigns more effective! VARs/ agents can provide you with unique information about each customer, opt-in or opt-out clients based on relevance and help you practice good list hygiene.

Providing a service like this streamlines marketing initiatives for your client and their VARs while giving you the rewards that come with managing campaigns that run in the millions.

#3 “Move ‘em up, move ‘em out” Show and communicate results back to your client’s channel.

Make it easy for your client to convince each channel to continue to participate in marketing campaigns with readily accessible results. An email open rate of 45% might sound phenomenal, but it is not helpful until you allow your clients and VARs to track response and activity down to the individual.

When you present such detailed reports, your clients gain a better understanding of each prospect/customer and will also be able to single out the ‘stray cats’, that might need more follow-up or need to be removed from campaigns.

The key to success then is to ensure that your system makes it easy for each channel to view results, download updates of their data list and allow for real-time notification when a prospect/ customer responds to the campaign. Involving your client’s channel in the campaign and including timely sales calls from their account manager will boost the campaign results by more than 30%.

#4 “Waiting at the end of your ride” Repeating the program by getting back in the saddle right away.

This is one lesson most commercial printers are familiar with. You get a huge order from a corporation with a large list of prospects they’ll like to reach. You fulfil their print order, in high quality and without any downtime or mistakes but don’t hear back from them again after the campaign.

You have taken your herd to market, got paid, and then kicked off the ranch for doing a good job. That, partner, makes no sense at all.

The good news is that preventing this from recurring is easy! It involves you positioning yourself as the expert in 1:1 communication.

This requires you to demonstrate a keen understanding of each stage of the campaign process:
Stage 1: Targeting and segmenting the data list
Stage 2: Using data for persuasive (not creepy) personalization
Stage 3: Planning a multi-touch campaign with different follow-up messaging based on how each individual responded
Stage 4: Lead scoring and analysis of campaign statistics
Stage 5: Using data gathered for the next campaign

Partner with a technology provider that can provide the support and resources you need to deliver campaigns on-time. Marketers are catching on to personalization, targeted 1:1 campaigns, geo-targeting, multi-channel, transpromo and marketing automation and you and your vendor need to be able to keep up with these emerging marketing services.

Remember, move fast or get left back at the ranch.

Increasingly in the marketing world, it is just as important to be the “Ranch Hand” as it is the “City Slicker”. Selling an advanced campaign concept is just as important as providing that sleek and sexy design.

Understanding how technology can improve the delivery and results of marketing campaigns is undoubtedly the key to your success. Doing so would require a unique understanding of how you can create applications that help your clients sell campaigns to their VARs and providing marketing technology that complements print.

If you needed one more reason to keep up, selling personalized 1:1 multi-touch, cross-media campaigns will make you, and your client more money, and that is what turned us into cat-herders in the first place.

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Wrich Printz is President and CEO of L2, Inc. The company is known as “The campaign technology people” for highly personalized 1:1 multi-channel communications, primarily serving agencies, digital printers and marketing service providers in the United States since 2001.