Not Clear on The Concept...

Before I tear into the marketing folks at Ruby Tuesday, I'll show you what I received in my email yesterday:


You can click on the pic to make it bigger, if you need to.

1st off: Thumbs up to Ruby Tuesday for the clickable links that surround the coupon. They all worked seamlessly.

Next: Read the legal mumbo jumbo.

Why is this offer not available in Hawaii, Manhattan or Airports?
and Why is a Credit Card Payment required to redeem?

But what really got me going was the whole Screen Shot This Coupon On Your Mobile Device And Use All Month Long concept.

Do they mean take a picture with my phone and then show it to my server?

Because there is a much better way to incorporate mobile couponing.

You can use QR codes that I scan and then you can track my visits and the details.

You can use LBS, (Location Based Services) to check in and see if I take advantage of the 15% offer.

You can do so much more, Ruby Tuesday.

(In the name of research, I'm going to have to try this and see what happens when I visit.)


The words of Scott Howard aka ScLoHo

Lost Your Mojo?

Last week I received a very important announcement from Yahoo!

Dear Scott Howard,

Thank you for being a Yahoo! Mail user for the past 7 year(s). We look forward to bringing you an even faster, safer, easier-to-use Yahoo! Mail very soon.

In the coming months, we will ask you to upgrade to the newest version of Yahoo! Mail for your account ABC@yahoo.com. All Yahoo! Mail customers will be asked to upgrade. But in the meantime, you don't have to wait, you can have the newest Yahoo! Mail today.



When I clicked on the link in the email, it went to a page that featured this video:

After watching the video, which told me nothing except using Yahoo Mail would be messier, I clicked on the links that would actually tell me what was new and improved.

I was disappointed.

Yahoo Mail was trying to be like Gmail. But they already lost their mojo with me.

About 5 years ago, I stopped using my Yahoo Mail account and switched over to Gmail from Google. The primary reason for my dumping Yahoo was the spam filtering that Gmail offered was so much further advanced from what Yahoo was doing.

I had given up on Yahoo Mail and only kept that email account alive by forwarding Yahoo emails to my Gmail account.

Now it appears that it has taken 5 years for Yahoo to catch up with where Google and Gmail was 5 years ago.

In the meantime, Gmail continues to offer improvements so Yahoo will always be behind.

What about your business?

Are you constantly playing catch-up or are you leap-frogging your competitors.

It isn't enough to say, "You know that service or product that they (insert competitors name) offer, we have it now too."

By the time you have caught up, you've lost your Mojo.

According to the Urban Dictionary:

Mojo:

The word originally means a charm or a spell. But now its more commonly said meaning sex appeal or talent.

and...

1. Self-confidence, Self-assuredness. As in basis for belief in ones self in a situation. Esp. I context of contest or display of skill such as sexual advances or going into battle.
2. Good luck fetish / charm to bolster confidence.
3. ability to bounce back from a debilitating trauma and negative attitude

In this ever changing world, you always risk being left behind. Especially if you wait 5 years.

Email Oops

It's Monday night, 8pm November 1st and I get home from a meeting and check my email.

There is an invitation from the local Volkswagen Dealer.

I don't own a VW, but I trust their service department for my 15 year old Mercedes, about 1 or 2 thousand $ a year.

There are several things that they could have done better.

First let's look at the email:

You are invited to Vorderman Volkswagen's 2011 Jetta Unveiling Gala! Saturday, Nov. 6th from 6-8pm. Must RSVP by Nov. 3 either online or in person. RSVP today!

Scott Howard, You are invited to our Jetta Unveiling Gala!

This email was sent by:Vorderman Volkswagen
5811 Cross Creek Blvd. Fort Wayne, IN,46818,USA

Now let's look at the TV commercial that VW has been airing the past few weeks...



Notice the big disconnect?

VW has been pushing the 2011 Jetta for only $15,995.

That is what I have been conditioned to seeing.

So why does the email talk about a 2.9% APR with no mention of the $15,995 price point?

I don't know, but this is a classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

But let's dig a little deeper.

One email that I was not expecting is not going to get my attention if I was the typical consumer. (I almost just deleted this, but decided to turn this into a marketing lesson).

Since I was not expecting this email, they should have sent more than one email over a period of a couple of weeks, leading up to the event.

But they didn't.

This was the one and only email I was sent.

Let's examine what they want from me.

They are asking me to decide whether or not I want to visit their showroom to see a new car with a 2.9 APR.

And I have to RSVP in the next 36 hours, or never mind.

So far there is no reason for me to attend.

Look at the date and time for this "event".

Saturday night 6p--8pm.

This has to be one of the absolute worst times of the week to ask me to come out for Appetizers & Beverages.

I mean come on now. In the middle of my weekend, at a time when I'm planning on having dinner with my wife, you want me to visit you for this?!?

Okay, there has to be more to this than the email is telling me.

So I click on the RSVP in the email and go to their website and here's what I get:



That was the last straw. The RSVP Link was a link to their regular, standard website contact form.

Absolutely nothing related to the email, the "event", or the 2011 Jetta. Triple Fail.

So, I am planning on visiting the folks at my local VW Dealership and talk to them about this before their event Saturday, and then again next week.

We'll see if they are successful despite themselves or if they want some help and guidance.

I'm glad their service department works better than their marketing department.

The Wrong Way

to do email marketing.

It's called spray & pray.

It's why the "Direct Mail" piece that arrives in my mailbox delivered by the U.S.P.S. is commonly called "Junk Mail" by consumers.

Last month I received the following email in my inbox:

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Holly DeSouza, and I am the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Behave Media, Inc.

We are a digital media company specializing in behavioral advertising, search marketing and consumer panel research. We help develop, plan and execute profitable campaigns for Fortune 500 companies by utilizing real-time consumer data with our innovative targeting capabilities. Our clients have seen an increase of 7%-35% in their ROI by utilizing our knowledge and expertise online.

If you would like to discuss how our services can benefit your organization, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Best Regards,

Holly DeSouza
VP, Sales & Marketing
Behave Media, Inc
73 Lexington St.
Boston, MA 02464
P: 800.270.0442



Usually, I would simply delete this. But I thought I would use this as a lesson instead.

The first question that popped in to my mind is, "why didn't my spam filter catch this?" I get an average of 11 spam emails an hour 24/7 that are caught automatically. (Thanks Gmail!)

Then I remembered that Holly got my email from their mailing list since I actually registered at one time to receive emails from her company.

In case you're still wondering what is wrong with this email, think for a moment. She also has access to my name, and it's not Sir/Madam. It's Scott Howard.

Any decent email marketing program can insert a persons name automatically.

She losses credibility and diminishes her company reputation from this one glaring mistake.

Then the rest is just a bunch of crap. Sorry if this is the way you were told to sell yourself, but you've already proved that you are just fishing for a bite or two, or Spraying the in-boxes with your half-hearted attempt and Praying someone will respond to what you wrote.

Better to send out 10 personalized and targeted emails each day or each week, then to send out a few hundred like this one and lose your chance to ever work with the people who received this poorly written email.

But the problem is not entirely Holly's.

I decided to call the number.

I got an automated attendant that told me, among other things, that if I knew the extension of the person I was calling I could enter it and get connected.

Holly didn't include an extension in her email, so I had to wait a full 40 seconds to be told to press zero for the operator.

I pressed zero. Sappy on hold music came on the line followed by the automated attendant telling me that they were too busy to take my call, please leave my name and number and someone will get back to me.

Total time wasted on the phone: 90 seconds.

This company needs help. If you can reach them. If you see yourself or your company making any of these same mistakes, stop it or go out of business.

As always, your comments are welcome.

People and Technology

Technology can help your business communication, but you have to have the right people managing it.

Last month I used a trip to the dentist to illustrate how no matter what business you are in, you can use the technology tools of today to connect with your customers.

Click here to read it.

Today, I've got an update.

Last week I got an email from my dentist as part of their new email initiative:

(I replaced his name with "My Dentist" and am protecting his street address too)

My Dentist, DDS XXXX East State Blvd Fort Wayne, IN 46815

Dear Kathleen Howard,

Every day more exciting and important information is being communicated electronically via the Internet. In the future, My Dentist, DDS would like to communicate with you via email, which will enable you to receive teeth cleaning reminders, schedule your next appointment online, confirm your scheduled appointments online and receive money saving specials. My Dentist, DDS would like your permission for the privilege to serve you more efficiently and conveniently via email.

If you would like to be part of this convenient online program, you do not need to take any additional action. If you prefer not to have My Dentist, DDS contact you via email, please see instructions at the bottom of this message, and your name will then be deleted from our emailing lists immediately.

We appreciate your business and look forward to seeing you soon.

Sincerely,

Your friends at My Dentist, DDS


The first problem is they used my wife's name, not mine. They sent it to my email account, not my wife's.

Very few families have "Family Email Accounts".

We have individual email addresses. Email is not like regular mail. If you address something to my home address, whoever gets the mail sorts it and gives it to the appropriate person.

The next problem is the content of this email along with the subject line which read, "My Dentist requests your permission."

I already gave permission last month at the dentist office when I gave you my email address.

And the content is written in a non-friendly, almost legalese style that does not reflect the nature of my dentist and his staff, whom I characterize as fun and competent. Yeah, my dentist is fun!

So what went wrong?

They need to make sure the people using the technology understand how to use it instead of just filling in the blanks in the email template without considering the recipient.

At the radio stations where I work, we recently fired someone who did her job pretty good.

Not perfect, but it seemed okay.

Turns out pretty good wasn't good enough.

Problems started cropping up because she was in charge of inputting data into computers and following specific guidelines.

She had the "Google approach". Google is forgiving, it helps you with spelling errors, makes suggestions, etc.

Our computer systems require perfection.

I discovered 6 mistakes that were made in one day, and I'm not even trained to work in that area, I just know how to check for errors.

So, use technology, but make sure the folks you put in charge know how to use it, and care enough to do it right.

By the way, that is NOT a picture of my dentist!

Self Centered vs Customer Centered

Last week I visited my dentist for a cleaning and check-up. Everything was fine, as usual. Last year I had my first cavity in 20 years, which is pretty good.

As a kid, we had our cleanings every 6 months and at the conclusion of each appointment, they'd schedule my next visit and give me a reminder card to stick on the refrigerator along with a new toothbrush.

But as schedules have become busier, and working moms are the norm, my dentist has stepped up the reminder process.

A week before my appointment I got a post card, which jogged my memory to keep Tuesday afternoon open at 3:30. I don't recall getting a post card in the past. Usually the day before my appointment, I would get a phone call as a reminder, and sure enough, I got a message Monday in my voice mail about my cleaning the next day.

Now my dentist was doing something different. His office asked if I preferred Text Message or E-mail reminders too. They assured me that they were going to continue with the phone calls, because that works best for some folks, but they were expanding to these other reminder services too "as a service to our patients".

I know that it's also a service for themselves, because if someone forgets an appointment, it's money lost forever, since for a doctor, time is money.

So, are you asking the right questions about communication with your customers? Are you offering either enough choices or at least the choices that your customers want?

How NOT to use Email for Follow Up

I am on the board of directors for our local Advertising Federation. Last year I was the V-P of Communications which included the website and email campaigns.

As I prepared each of the emails, I learned early on to send a copy to myself to check the links and layout, before I sent it to the masses.

Email is an accepted form of communication for lots of business transactions and yet sometimes we get sloppy.

What follows is a poorly edited form letter I received recently when I told a website/email provider that we would not need his services since we were doing it ourselves.

If he had read what he wrote before hitting the send button, he would be spared the embarrassment of my placing his email on this site. Instead, his email became an example of how NOT to use email for follow up.

All of us should learn to proofread before pressing Send:

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your email and the update. Good luck with your new association management tools and website. If for whatever reason they don't meet your expectations in the future and you'd like to explore other options, please email/call at your convenience. Since AssociationMagnet is an off-the-shelf product, it's likely that we (1) have a better feature set (i.e., it's not just "the website," and people generally underestimate the cost/time required to really build all that they need for running an association chapter); (2) can launch for you within a few weeks; _and_ (3) can save you quite a bit of money on an ongoing basis. I'd welcome the opportunity to have a more detailed conversation with you about what you need and what we could do for you.

By the way, since AssociationMagnet is an off-the-shelf product, it's likely that we (1) have a better feature set; (2) can launch for you within a few weeks; _and_ (3) save chapters in normal situations quite a bit of money both on the launch and on an ongoing basis. If/when the time is appropriate, I'd welcome the opportunity to have a more detailed conversation with you about this and what we could do for you.

Best,

Jeff

It's up to You

Commit to your Success right now.

Or get out and do something different.

2009 is going to see more business turmoil than 2008.

And it is up to you to decide if you will ride the wave to a new level, or drown.

At least once a week, I am going to share with you tips and guidance on this site that will help you be among the successful.

You can subscribe to updates by using the links on the right side of this page. I am also going to take a limited number of clients that want individual attention. You can add comments, or send me an email, which I check at least once or twice a day. Use the email address Scott@ScLoHo.net.

Our first tip is to commit and plan.

You make all kinds of commitments in your life. Your cellphone plan is probably two years, your commitment to your mate is for life, if you have a lease on a building it might be for 5, 10 or more years. In a few days, I'm going to challenge you to make a commitment to your advertising in a way that you may have not considered before. Stay Tuned!

E-mail Marketing No-No's

This morning I turned on my computer, opened up email, looking for urgent or important messages that needed my attention then after started looking at the rest of the email that arrived in the past 9 hours.

One email got my attention because of the name of the sender, Steve Martin. Now I do not know Steve Martin, except for as a fan on his acting, writing, and comedy. This however was from a different Steve Martin.

Here's the email:

Hello S, I'm Steve W. Martin and I've participated in more than one hundred sales kickoffs as a keynote speaker, salesperson interview panel moderator, and win-loss analysis study presenter. Here’s a few of the companies I have worked with:

Acxiom Akamai Applied Materials Automotive Resources Intl BEA Systems Best Manufacturing DHL

Eaton Vance Investments Edgar Online Experian Global Healthcare Exchange Graybar Heartland Payment Systems Honeywell

IBM Konecranes LSI Logic Maytag Metavante McAfee Metavante

Nuance Communications Riverbed Technology Sungard Financial Systems Tech Data Triquint Semiconductors USI Insurance UTI Worldwide Logistics

My sales kickoff keynotes provide real-world sales strategies, proven tactics, and helpful advice with a healthy dose of humor. On my web site you will find keynote topics, video clips, and pricing information at www.hiswebsite.com. Here are some customer comments:

"For a keynote speaker to impress a sales force composed of experienced professionals he must have credibility, in-depth knowledge of selling in the real-world, and an entertaining presentation style. Steve Martin hits the mark on all three of these requirements."
Steven Beekhuizen, Senior Vice President Commercial Sales, Dawn Food Products

“Steve’s participation at our sales conference was invaluable. He closed our meeting with an uplifting, motivational presentation. He interviewed our top salespeople in his Tales from the Field panel. And, he conducted several hands-on break-out sessions on advanced sales strategy, sales psychology, and customer communication.”Jim Brown, Vice President Strategic Sales, Wonderware Software

“Steve’s kickoff session provided the perfect mix of enterprise sales strategy, advanced sales psychology, and light-hearted humor. The Tales from the Field salesperson interview panel he conducted was a conference highlight.” Lisa Pope, Vice President Global Sales Strategy, QAD Software

"Steve Martin’s approach replaces the tired traditional sales methodologies that we have seen in one version or another in our career. He will motivate you with his provocative knowledge of the sales process. His style is personal, entertaining, and will dazzle your sales organization." Peter Riccio, Vice President Sales, SuccessFactors

Every sales kickoff attendee receives a copy of my critically acclaimed book Heavy Hitter Sales Wisdom: Proven Sales Warfare Strategies, Secrets of Persuasion, and Common-Sense Tips for Success. Thanks for reviewing this e-mail and I respect your online time. If you have received this e-mail in error, please accept my apologies and respond with "leave" in the subject line.

Steve W. Martin

Mr. Martin sent this to an old email address that I have not used in about 3 years. As a matter of fact, it was an email address that I was using to screen some of the junk that I wanted to filter.

But, he accomplished the first step, he got me to open his email. The rest is worthless. Actually the rest is worse than worthless, it creats a negative impression.

First of all, all he talks about is himself. A brag list of who he has worked with. As I scan the list, I am mentally saying, "who cares?" I almost delete, but then I decide to use this as an example of how not to handle your email marketing, or any of your advertising.

Mr. Martin has no idea who I am, what my role is in my company, or any of the organizations that I have a position of influence with.

This is one step above spam, because his email program personalized the email, "Hello S," although I never refer to myself by my first initial.

Is it better to send 1000 emails blindly like Mr. Martin did, or 100 personalized, relevant emails that might result in developing business relationships?

Go for Quality over Quantity.

For the past few months, I have been involved with email marketing for our local advertising federation and have been applying basic relationship marketing principles and it is working.

Your thoughts, comments, and questions are always welcome.

Email Marketing Update

A couple of weeks ago, I shared with you my experience with email marketing.

Click here to read those lessons learned for Email and Websites.

This time I have another inside look at an email campaign that I designed for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne, of which I serve as the Vice-President of Communications.

September 18th is our next monthly meeting and the purpose of this email campaign is to get RSVP's by next Monday, so we can have an accurate count for lunch, etc....

Today I sent an email to a list of 300 and the picture you see is the response after 3 hours. (Click on the picture to make it bigger.)

Actually the response is not much different than it was after 90 minutes.

Here's the numbers:

300 sent, 3 bounced. (I worked hard at having a clean list.)

120 were opened in the first 90 minutes, out of that number, 20 clicked through to the website and registered.

The email was sent at 10am local time, one of the best times to send an email to local business people.

We now have nearly 50% of the list viewing the email.

Now what else did I do to enhance this campaign?

On August 21st, about 50 people that attended that month's meeting recieved a small Save The Date card at the meeting.

Also on August 21st, the website was updated to people could register online from the home page.

A few days later, the Save The Date postcard was sent as a direct mail piece.

All of this I call "seeding".

Yesterday we sent out the official direct mail invite, a big post card, it should arrive today and tomorrow.

Also yesterday, I updated the front page of the website with the same artwork and design as the direct mail piece and the email blast.

I will be sending one more email blast Monday morning.

Here's the lessons to learn:

Multiple messages to the same person will increase the response rate. If someone attended our August meeting, they would have received a Save The Date card, followed by a Save The Date direct mail piece, and two emails, plus a visit to the website adds up to 5 opportunities to invite them to this months meeting.

E-mail Marketing & Website Tips

At my Collective Wisdom Blog I have featured tips on websites and email from other experts.

Recently I learned a few lessons first hand.

This summer I became the Vice-President of Communications for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne.

Among the duties that I have assumed were the website and email blasts that we send to members and guests for upcoming events.

Email:

We use a professional service that allows me to create, customize and track the response rate. When I took over as V-P, there were 125 names and email addresses. About 30 were old, I discovered. I asked for some additional contacts from my fellow board members and added a few of my own and ended up with a list of 300 email addresses that we will be adding to in the months ahead.

That's 300 good email addresses that didn't bounce or unsubscribe. It took a number of hours to scrub the old database, and compare one list with another, but it payed off.

First email blast was sent at 6:15pm on a Monday night. I discovered this was not the best time as I was able to track if the recipients even opened the email and so I changed my strategy for the next one a week later.

The second email was similar to the first but had an update of an extra guest speaker, so there was a relevant reason for people to open the second email, even if they opened the first.

The second email was sent at 10am on a Monday. Response was triple compared to the one sent after business hours. One last email was sent the following day at 3pm. Again, the open rate was very good.

Here's the email sending tips that I learned.

1. Middle of the morning or Middle of the afternoon during a business day works best for business related emails because the recipient has cleared out all the emails that received overnight or during lunch.
   
2. Also, you have to give them a compelling reason to open the email, the curiosity factor.
   
3. And if you are sending the same basic email more than once, you better have a good reason to do so. Better yet, make some adjustments to the content.

These are some of the same strategies I use in building a radio campaign that's focused on an upcoming event. And it works.

Now for the Website tips.
Make sure your site loads correctly in all the popular web browsers. Internet Explorer still is number one. However many people like myself prefer to use an alternative such as Firefox, or Opera. Apple users are most likely to view your website on Safari.

I spent a few hours trying to figure out why a page on our membership list did not load correctly in Internet Explorer and finally after trying to decipher the HTML code, found the answer and now it loads properly.

The last website tip is make sure everything is current and working. You wouldn't run an ad campaign that featured an old disconnected phone number or address, so clean up your website too.

Business Cycles and what to do about them

I recently attended a seminar that showed some of the business cycles that our country has been going through for the past 80 years.

The example they used as a guide was the Dow Jones. Every 16 to 18 years we have gone through cycles of growth followed by stagnation.

According to this analysis, we are in the middle of a stagnation period, which means in the next 5 to 7 years, we should be in a growth period.

This is good news because if you've been wondering what you have been doing wrong all of a sudden, the answer is probably nothing.

But the answer is not to stay the course of the 1990's.

No, the answer is you need to apply principles of the last period of stagnation, the 1970's.

Except you need to look at them through the eyes of 2008.

Either this sounds simple or complicated. It's sort of both.

Start by looking around and noticing trends.

I have another blog that you can subscribe to free and get nightly updates, at least 3 each day.

It's called Collective Wisdom, because it is from a variety of sources.

You can go there, by clicking here.

A New Feature

This week, a friend requested the availability for subscribing to this site via email.
So, with a few minutes between meetings today, I added that feature.
Since this site is updated once or twice a week, you won't get bombarded with lots of email.
As a matter of fact, you will only get a new one when there is an update.

The link is on the right side of this page!