In my many years in marketing I have built some brilliant campaigns and some that looked brilliant, but turned out not to be. Over time, like any good marketer I was compelled to analyze what I did right and what went wrong; in the hopes of understanding the anatomy of a really effective opt-in lead generation campaign.

I began riffling through old creative briefs, notes, and marketing campaigns analyzing every aspect – including the behavior of lead lifecycle, from prospect to loyal customer. Yeah, I know, there are better things to do with your time, but hay, I’m in marketing. Were else could an anal-retentive with a creative streak a mile long find work that satisfies both needs?

Back-to-the-analysis.

I concluded that the one common element shared by all of the really successful campaigns was the effectiveness of the Offer or also referred to as a “Lead Magnet”. You’re saying to yourself, no duh, of course, I always have a Call to Action or Offer in my lead generation programs. Of course you do, the question is not if you have one, but how good is it? Good campaign ideas and creative are often foiled by weak, or worse, non-relevant offers. Flip Cameras, iPods, GPSs and White Papers are all good Lead Magnets and have proven to be interesting to people, but is that what your audience really wants from you? And more importantly, is that what they need from you to become your customer?

So here is some food for thought that should get you to rethink your Offer:

While good design and clever copy are important, these elements are not essential when it comes time to closing the deal or get an individual to take action and ultimately buy. Blasphemy, I know. Don’t share this with the creative group, least you suffer a let down in their brilliance. You’d like to have both.

A great deal of thought should be given to what you are giving people in exchange for their opt-in.

This three-step filter can help you determine or re-determine whether your Lead Magnet is viable or not. In the end, it’s all about the conversion. Steps one and two, I’m sure you are well versed. It’s number three and its sub-parts that I think people forget about the most and are the keys to effectiveness.

1. Have you made it sound sexy? Yes, I said it. It’s not PC, but the truth often isn’t. It’s one thing to have a great piece of content, but does it sound great to your audience – and is it relevant. How you “sell it” is as important as what it is. (Basic advertising principle here). And if you are selling a house, make sure your Lead Magnet is related to owning or living in a home. Don’t offer a USB stick to potential home buyers; a discount on an appliance upgrade is more relevant.
2. Does it deliver? OK, now that it sounds sexy, can it deliver on the promise? Let’s say you are offering a report that let’s a campaign respondent predict, with 99% accuracy, the stock market for the next 3 months. When you promise the goods, you better darn well deliver or you will lose that person for good. The point here is you may get the opt-in, but they’ll never buy from you if the promise of the Lead Magnet does not deliver what you promised.
3. How does the Lead Magnet frame your desired end result? How does the Lead Magnet frame or push leads towards buying your product. The Lead Magnet has to be valuable or invaluable to your audience. Trinkets may have a “cool factor”, but are they generating interest from individuals that you want to do business with or is the Offer creating urgency to ultimately close the deal. This marketing concept is reinforced from renowned marketing guru and author, Seth Godin, who suggests using his best-selling book, Free Prize Inside, using “soft innovations” or product/service/solution improvements that don’t fundamentally change your product or service, but change the way people interact with it. The simple act of getting something they already find valuable, in a new way, is just the ticket to building a loyal relationship with your contact. Filling a void or solving a person’s challenge is the marketer’s basic building block to solving marketing problems. Let’s break this down further.

a. Create a void. In developing a great Lead Magnet, the opt-in offer should be something extremely useful, but the offer is not complete - yet. The best example that I can give comes from the virus/malware removal software industry. They offered a free diagnostic on your computer to tell you whether your computer was infected. Some even cleaned up the first 10 bugs. Of course, the only way to remove them all was to purchase the software package. The Lead Magnet creates voids and your products/services should fill them. This is a key element in getting the qualified lead as opposed to somebody who just wants the prize.

b. Build credibility. It is very important, if you are in a services business where your team of advisors are the product, that your Lead Magnet be services-centric – like: Special Reports, White Papers or How-To’s. These Lead Magnets should also leave the offer recipient, saying: “Wow, these guys really know what’s going on with my industry and my challenges. I want to do business with them!”

Attracting qualified leads, making a connection, establishing trust and creating a loyal working relationship -- what more could you want?

I’m sure the earth hasn’t shaken under you feet with this information. However, it should have, at the very least, shaken the sleep from your eyes the next time you are developing a Lead Magnet for your lead generation campaign.

Happy Relationship Marketing.

  Categoried under:  Relationship Marketing, Lead Magnet, Lead Generation Programs

Setting a company policy for mass emailing will also help support the success of protecting your Digital Reputation. 

We suggest that you:

• Distribute an email communications policy, picking up the points above, to all employees, partners, or individuals emailing on behalf of your organization. 
• Classify “mass email” as any email that is addressed to 10 or more contacts.
• Identify a single point of contact to manage your email distribution lists and distribute all mass emails.  This includes, but not limited to; press release distribution, promotional emails, service emails, etc.
• Educate employees and partners on these guidelines, as well as the CAN-SPAM rules and regulations.  Many people are just unaware of the CAN-SPAM rules.  For instance, they may not know that it is illegal to type in names and email addresses from an association directory to use for email purposes.
  

  Categoried under:  Digital Reputation

#1 -- Brand and Organization Reputation Leakage

The number of organization departments, divisions, subsidiaries, or third-parties can and are affecting your email deliverability. This can include your accounts receivable department, sales teams, support staff, distribution dispatch group, channel partners, vendors – the list of reputation influencers can go on and one.  Who else is sending email at or on behalf of your company? Any message, regardless of IP address (the origin of the email – your SMTP server, an email service provider server – like Constant Contact, or a partner’s email server), which includes your company name, your website URL, office address, phone or any other identifiable attribute of your organization, is factored in determining your Digital Reputation.

 #2 -- Poor List Hygiene

An email distribution list sent to a lot of undeliverable addresses will adversely affect your reputation. Be sure to remove them immediately after each send.  And, if you repeatedly send email to the same undeliverable email address, it can be a negative mark on your Digital Reputation.

#3 -- Skipping a Double Opt-In Procedure

Sending new subscribers a confirmation email will prevent erroneous sign-ups and complaints.  Captavi QixDatabase auto manages opt-ins and opt-outs with a subscribe/unsubscribe option in the email footer from QixCampaign, your website inquiry form, online event registration, new user subscription, and profile updates.

# 4 -- Incorrect Use of Rented or Third-Party Lists

Never send email to a recipient who has not personally opted-in to receive email from YOUR organization no matter how tempting it may be. Even having a media source send a message to their subscribers on your behalf can have a damaging affect on your Digital Reputation.  If you pay to send an email blast to trade publication subscribers, always have that media source send messages to their subscribers, in their own names, from their own servers or through their own email service provider relationship (e.g., their own Constant Contact account – not your organization’s Constant Contact account).

 #5 -- SPAM Complaints

Even recipients who, at one time, opted-in to your subscriber list may later register you as SPAMMER or simply use the “SPAM” button on their email system, instead of unsubscribing or blocking your emails, because it is easier.  But, no matter how the SPAM is reported, it still degrades your Digital Reputation.

 #6 -- Using Non-Optimized Images and Rich Media in Your Emails

By default, over 75% of most email clients (like Outlook, Yahoo Mail, etc.), open messages without images (this is represented by the “X-Box” you see in an email that requires a right-click to download the image). If you send emails not optimized for image suppression your target could receive a blank or partial email from you.  Also, if your email images take too long to download your recipients are more likely to opt-out of your subscriber list.   In addition, using rich media or scripting language in a message is likely to get blocked.

#7 -- Using Multiple “To”, “From” or “CC” Names

Using a variety or multiple “To”, “From”, or “CC” email addresses when sending different messages may confuse your audience and cause them to unsubscribe or flag you as SPAMMER.  In addition, one of the individuals that you are sending to or copying on the email may not want their email address exposed to the other individuals that you are sending the email.  And, there is one more problem.  If one of those email addresses is blacklisted, your Digital Reputation is compromised by using their email address.

#8 - Email Content is Not Valuable to Recipient or Contains Word or Phrase Triggers

Sending your audience messages, without relevance or is solely self-promotional will hurt your reputation.  There are also words that flag Spam Filters to block your email from delivering including: “Free”, “Limited Time Offer”, “Urgent Matter” or words in all caps – among many others.

#9 -- Too Many Emails

Senders can quickly wear out their welcome with too many emails in a short period of time.  Consolidate your messaging and profile the recipients need for information using the Captavi QixDatabase query tool and your messages will be more closely aligned to their interests.

.

  Categoried under:  Digital Reputation

Every time an email is sent on or in your behalf, a new type of “electronic fingerprinting” is created that identifies your organization’s reputation for sending email-based communications.  There have been some good practices by organization, but there have been many infractions as well.  We most commonly refer to those who break best email practices as “Spammers”.  Through the advent of the FTC CAN-SPAM Act, federal requirements are in place for commercial emailers.  The primary goal of this act to is protect individuals from the “assault” of non-solicited marketing (e.g., email blasts).   Not following these rules will result in a poor Digital Reputation and can lead to significant fines (up to $11,000) and even jail.   If your Digital Reputation is damaged, not only will your email be blocked by Spam filters, but your IP address can be blacklisted and blocked by ISPs.

Click here to review the rules => http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm.

  Categoried under:  Digital Reputation

The new Captavi brand has now been officially rolled out.  The first phase of our website is now live and we have rebranded most of our public-facing communications channels.

Rebranding a company is never an easy task.  We view branding as a complete 360 degree view of a company.  Our brand is represented in everything we do.  Some representations may not be that obvious -- the way we answer the phone, how we treat a client's challenge, or the way we package our solutions.  Other, more obvious efforts; include our website, our business card, and our outbound marketing efforts. 

Our new name, Captavi, is a Latin word that means "Go Hunt and Capture", which we thought captured the essence of relationship marketing.  We strive everyday to help our clients practice relationship marketing with ease -- which is the reason we crafted "Relationship Marketing Made Easy" as our tagline.

And, our logo, expertly created by our highly-talented design partner -- Andre Leeder (thank you Andre!) represents the different marketing channels that can be leveraged for personalized dialogue with an individual.  Check it out:

  Categoried under:  Relationship Marketing, Branding