DMA Atlanta Luncheon | The New Inbox & Other Email Marketing Innovations

Simms Jenkins – CEO BrightWave Marketing

Thursday, October 20, 2011 | 11:30-1:30 p.m

Where: Maggiano’s – Perimeter  |4400 Ashford Dunwoody Rd | Atlanta, GA 30346 | Phone: 770-804-3313

Description:

Email is the digital glue for most brands and plays a significant role in customer and prospect communications. As the original digital social network, Simms Jenkins (CEO of BrightWave Marketing, North America’s leading email focused digital agency and the author of “The Truth About Email Marketing”) will demonstrate how email plays a crucial role in emerging digital platforms, such as social and mobile. The questions of how email and social live together will not only be addressed but real examples of how to better leverage the channels for the sake of your brand and sales.

About the Speaker:

Jenkins has led BrightWave Marketing in establishing a top tier client list including Affiliated Computer Services (A Xerox Company), Chick-fil-A, Cox Business, O’Charley’s, RaceTrac Petroleum and Sports Illustrated.

Jenkins was awarded the prestigious AMY 2010 Marketer of the Year from the American Marketing Association for being the top agency marketer and the Email Marketer of the Year at the Technology Association of Georgia’s Tech Marketing Awards.

Jenkins is the author of The Truth About Email Marketing, which was published by Pearson’s Financial Times Press and is currently the Email Marketing Best Practices Columnist for Click, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off.

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DMA Atlanta Luncheon | Thursday March 17th | The Georgia Aquarium – Marketing Innovation Revealed

How the world’s largest aquarium utilized all marketing verticals to announce their biggest expansion yet.

Registration

When: Thursday March 17th | 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Location: Maggiano’s Perimeter  | 4400 Ashford Dunwoody Rd |  30346 Atlanta

Speakers:
Richard Warner, CEO What’s Up Interactive
Scott Higley, VP of Marketing and Communications at Georgia Aquarium

Overview:
Detached marketing campaigns are rarely effective. Scott Higley, VP of Marketing and Communications at Georgia Aquarium, sits down with What’s Up Interactive CEO Richard Warner to discuss keeping a global brand and messaging intact across all major channels. Scott will reveal how Georgia Aquarium plans and executes integrated offline and online strategies for all initiatives, including the recent announcement of its newest exhibit, AT&T Dolphin Tales.

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Multicultural Leadership Community – TOP 10 Reasons to Better Serve and Woo the Booming Hispanic Market

By Roberto Gomez Jr.*, Vertis Communications. He is the chairman of the Multicultural Leadership Group for the DMA-Atlanta

1- Hispanics represent a rapidly growing, yet underserved, consumer market.

2- Amidst a sluggish economy, Hispanics exhibit increasing affluence and sustainable growth in purchasing power.

3- The Hispanic market skews young, indicating a tremendous opportunity to win customers at their peak of consumption and secure customers for life.

4- Hispanics are moving to the online channel at a rapid pace.

5- Hispanics tend to be brand-loyal, indicating tremendous potential lifetime customer value.

6- Hispanics value and refer those companies that provide Spanish service.

7- Hispanics are cultural influencers with increasing trendsetting power.

8- Near shore outsourcing is an attractive option for serving U.S. Hispanics.

9- Smart companies are already wooing Hispanics.

10- Hispanics are the market of the future—continued under-service of Hispanics will relegate your company to sluggish sales and low returns.

 

*Roberto Gomez Jr. works at Vertis Communications (rgomez@vertisinc.com).

http://rgomezjr.blogspot.com/

 

New DMA Atlanta Vice President: Jane Prock

“It is a great pleasure that I accept the appointment as the Vice President of the DMA. I am looking forward to working with Aubyn Thomas and promoting the DMA to the next level.”

Jane Prock has over 25 years of staffing industry experience in the Atlanta market. She joined United Staffing Service, Inc. in January 2010 as the VP of Sales. United Staffing Service is a company that is committed to individualized staffing programs for their client companies and has a focus in the printing industry.
Having worked in the past with digital print companies she developed a pool of print professionals which assisted one company in servicing over 120 locations throughout the metro Atlanta area.
Throughout her career, she has worked with some of Atlanta’s top fortune 100 companies. With experience in sales, management, program development and client retention, she has secured the types of workforces that drive profits for her client companies. Jane also worked in the software industry with eEmpACT Software as Territory Sales Manager.

Getting Back to Basics for e-marketing success

By Aubyn Thomas, President – DMA Atlanta

As marketing and communication practitioners in today’s digital era, we are all on the hunt for new methods and techniques that help us improve the performance of our campaigns. Our industry has progressed to a whole new, advanced stage of technical sophistication -  it’s no surprise that we structure marketing programs very differently from the way we did 5 years ago.
In an attempt to maintain focus on the data and quantifiable aspects of our programs, some marketers seem to lose focus on the very important aspect of building their brand. We all know that how we segment and target our audience (cadence and frequency) are highly critical components; these are not the only drivers of long-term relationship strength. We must ask ourselves: how much attention are we paying to the overall affinity that our customers have for our brand and how are e-marketing efforts affecting our brand’s health?
Now more than ever, we must realize and remember how important our brand is to our success. In today’s age of information overload, perceptions are formed in a split second and expectations are driven higher with each and every interaction. Are we holding ourselves to a higher standard that is reflective of what our brand stands for as digital marketers or are we consumed with impressions, repetition and reach?
I was reviewing a white paper recently that addressed the “checklist” for ensuring brand reputation and strength through digital marketing.  It called to my attention the importance of having process and guidelines in place so that the overall stewardship of your brand is upheld. Allow me to highlight my list of the aspects that we as “guardians of the brand” must practice:

• Content Relevance – do our emails contain content that is complimentary and consistent with our brand personality and promise?
• Creative Design – Are the messages articulated in a voice that is representative of your brand? Is the look and feel creating an appearance that is favorable and memorable? Although the information may only be experienced for 10-20 seconds, it still is creating a lasting impression!
• Destinations – What links and pathways do you provide that are sending your audience to sitelets or landing pages? What type of experience are you creating and what does it say about your brand?
• Permission Management – Do you have opt-out and opt-in processes that are integrated into your programs in a way that are true to your brand? Opt- in pages and messaging set the stage for how your brand is initiating the relationship. These pages are establishing an impression and need to help deliver on that expectation.
• Response Messaging – Are you utilizing forms of automated messaging? Do those messages feel canned, cold and impersonal? Bounce back confirmations and welcome messages should have a style, personality and a “brand right” engagement.

I like to think of this work as a way of remaining true to the basics of marketing and find it helpful to be reminded of how each and every interaction matters. With the proper attention to some of these basic brand imperatives, we can help deliver event stronger emarketing initiatives. We can create impressions today that correlate to lasting value. I welcome your thoughts and ideas on how you have achieved the elevation of your brand through digital programs!
About the president

The Email Welcome Message: An Opportunity you don’t want to Miss!

By Allen Nance, The Mansell Group Inc.

One of the cornerstones of a successful email marketing program is growing a healthy list. Your first interaction with a new subscriber is a pivotal point in the email relationship and can either ensure they’ll be an engaged subscriber for life, or ensure that they will unsubscribe right away. Obviously, the first scenario is ideal.

When someone takes enough interest in your company and trusts you enough to share their coveted email address, especially in today’s spam-filled world, that is a pretty big deal. By joining your list, the recipient has shown interest and you are still fresh on their mind. Because of this, the welcome message often sees the highest open rates as compared to other email messages.

Don’t waste this opportunity by sending out the initial welcome message hours or days later. The ideal time to send the welcome message is immediately after someone joins your list. With today’s email platform solutions, setting up an automated join or welcome message is simple.

Gone are the days of the plain text messages that only serve to confirm your subscriber’s opt-in. The most successful email marketers today use the welcome message as the first, and often best, opportunity to form a bond with the recipient by following some simple guidelines.

First and foremost, thank them, confirm that they have joined your list, and include which list they have joined. Share with them the benefit of being a part of this list—discounts, informative articles, breaking news, etc. Set expectations by letting them know how often they will hear from you—and stick to it! Use some personalization and a friendly tone. After all, this is a welcome message, not a thesis paper! Clearly state your privacy policy.

According to Marketing Sherpa, over 50% of consumers are much more likely to opt in to a list if they know that the company guarantees their information will not be shared with other companies. If it’s feasible, offer a freebie such as a coupon or whitepaper for joining the list.Even though this is the first message, be sure to still include an appropriate unsubscribe mechanism. Letting people know they can easily unsubscribe at any time will build trust and help keep a clean list.

Welcome messages are one of the most important tools for email marketers. They serve as your first impression, and just like all first impressions, can help make or break a relationship. By following some simple guidelines, you can make sure that your relationship with subscribers gets off on the right foot!

The Great Obsession – Return on Marketing Investment

by Chad Mitchell, Principal Analyst, Marketing & Strategy, Forrester Research

“Do less with more.” How’s that for a marching order from your CEO? Well, it’s a common phrase we hear every day from CMOs and marketing leaders. The Great Recession has created The Great Obsession with return on marketing investment.

My next report, “Owning Up To The Marketing Mix, focuses on marketing effectiveness and the increased accountability facing CMOs. The report guides CMOs on the value and limitations of marketing mix optimization. A former colleague and Forrester analyst, Julie Katz, who served Customer Intelligence managers, defined marketing mix modeling as:

The process of using statistical analysis to estimate, optimize, and predict the impact of
multichannel promotional tactics on future business revenue.

That is a great definition and highlights the scope (multichannel) and value (optimize and predict) of data-driven marketing allocation. During my interviews for this report, it is evident that marketing and media mix modeling have evolved as CMOs search for a more strategic tool to manage marketing as investment versus an expense.

Today, CMOs are more focused on what will work tomorrow versus what worked in the past. The idea of continuous improvement is a critical dimension of marketing effectiveness, as CMOs leverage more data, more channels (mobile and social) and new measurement techniques to understand marketing effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, CMOs must understand how marketing impacts growth of the entire business beyond tactical promotional efforts. Vendors now offer technology-enabled services guiding CMOs on future marketing investment versus a point-in-time econometric analysis. This gives CMOs insight into broader variables like market development, product development and competitive strategies.

I would like to push the definition further by getting your thoughts on Strategic Marketing Allocation:

A technology-enabled service incorporating vast amounts of data; complex statistical
modeling; and business intelligence software helping marketing leaders optimize, simulate and measure the impact of integrated marketing on a firm’s growth and strategic position in a continuous learning environment.

Too long, but it’s a start.

How do you define it?

Strategic Marketing Allocation isn’t a crystal ball. CMOs and vendors talk candidly about its limitations. You can’t measure everything – it’s a directional tool. And you don’t want to have efficiency remove all creativity or instinct from good marketers. But, we could all use a little friendly advice on “what might happen in the future.” Especially, when the future becomes your boss’ Great Obsession!

DMA ATLANTA LUNCHEON | Thursday August 26th | Ted’s Montana Grill’s Digital Targeted Messaging Delivers ROI & Customer Loyalty

Description:
Ted’s Montana Grill’s Digital Targeted Messaging Delivers ROI & Customer Loyalty

The Atlanta based restaurant company has leveraged a sophisticated digital strategy encompassing multiple communication platforms while sharing one common theme – delivering relevant and valuable content to their loyal customers. Simms Jenkins, CEO of Ted’s digital partner BrightWave Marketing, award-winning Atlanta agency and Director of Marketing Jessica Smith of Ted’s Montana Grill will present an overview of how this unique digital strategy has delivered significant ROI during one of the most challenging periods ever for restaurants. They will discuss their approach to email marketing, social media and mobile marketing and why their customers stay connected to Ted’s. It’s a must attend event for anyone looking to build deeper relationships with their customers.

Join: Simms Jenkins, CEO of BrightWave Marketing

To register: http://www.dma-atlanta.com/
Details:
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
11:30am-1:30pm
Maggiano’s Perimeter – 4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, GA 3034

More information
Registration

About the Speaker: Simms Jenkins

Simms Jenkins is CEO of BrightWave Marketing, an award-winning agency specializing in email marketing and digital targeted messaging programs. BrightWave Marketing partners with clients in the development, management and strategic optimization of digital messaging programs that drive revenue, cut costs and build relationships. Jenkins has led BrightWave Marketing in establishing a top tier client list including Affiliated Computer Services, Chick-fil-A, Cox Business, O’Charley’s, RaceTrac Petroleum and Ted’s Montana Grill as well as leading advertising and marketing firms.

In 2010, Jenkins was awarded the prestigious AMY 2010 Marketer of the Year from the American Marketing Association’s Atlanta Chapter for being the top agency marketer. Jenkins is regarded as one of the leading experts in the email marketing industry and is the author of The Truth About Email Marketing, which was published by Pearson’s Financial Times Press.

Jenkins is currently the Email Marketing Best Practices Columnist for ClickZ, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. His industry articles have been called one of the top 21 information sources for email marketers.

Additionally, Jenkins is the creator of EmailStatCenter.com, the leading authority on email marketing metrics. Prior to founding BrightWave Marketing, Jenkins headed the CRM group at Cox Interactive Media.

Jenkins serves on the eMarketing Association’s Board of Advisors and recently completed his tenure as a Board Member of Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA). Jenkins is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio and resides in Atlanta’s Brookwood Hills neighborhood with his wife and three children.

How do we allocate the scarce marketing resources to each customer?

by V. Kumar* | Georgia State University

The Wheel of Fortune Strategy@ identifies a dozen ways to maximize CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) where a firm can choose any one or more of the suggested strategies at any given time and realize the benefits of improving the bottom-line. In this column, we will focus on resource allocation strategies to customers in each of the four segments we described last time.

As discussed before, firms need to manage the loyalty and profitability of their customers simultaneously. Typically, managers segmented customers based on their loyalty (e.g., short or long term/tenure) to the firm. We suggest that customers be segmented based on their loyalty as well as their profitability potential (e.g., low or high). We therefore created a 4-cell segmentation — Strangers, Butterflies, True Friends and Barnacles. The resource allocation strategy should be such that the Barnacles get less marketing resources, profit from every transaction from the Strangers, maintain or increase the marketing contacts with the True Friends, and intelligently allocated the resources to certain Butterflies who are likely to give more business to the firm. This is the way the reallocation of resources happens. The savings from the cost control measures on the “BARNACLES” can be re-allocated to convert some “BUTTERFLIES” to become “TRUE-FRIENDS”. However, not all “BUTTERFLIES” may be worthy candidates for this re-allocation. Firms should identify those “BUTTERFLIES” who have – a higher level of spending, a high degree of purchases from multiple product categories, a low level of purchase limited to a single product category, an intermediate level of time between two purchases, an intermediate level of product returns, a membership to the firm’s loyalty program (for a B2C company) or a premium service member status (for a B2B company), been exposed to an intermediate level of marketing contacts between two purchases, and a higher degree of bi-directional communication with the firm – to be targeted for such re-allocation programs. These resource allocation approaches will cultivate and reward profitable loyalty, which will in turn maximize profitability of the firm and convert more customers to be True Friends of the firm.

*V. Kumar (VK) is the Richard and Susan Lenny Distinguished Chair Professor in Marketing, Executive Director of the Center for Excellence in Brand & Customer Management, and the Director of the Ph.D. program, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. HYPERLINK “mailto:vk@gsu.edu”vk@gsu.edu

@ Managing Customers For Profit (Wharton School Publishing) - V. Kumar

DMA Atlanta Luncheon June 17th | Subscribers, Fans & Followers: Optimizing for Digital Direct Marketing Channels

Description:

Subscribers, Fans & Followers: Optimizing for Digital Direct Marketing Channels.
From Email to Facebook to Twitter, it has never been more important for marketers to establish direct relationships with consumers. In this session, we’ll share research on how the rules of one-to-one marketing vary by channel, and how you can learn from the successes (and mistakes) of others as you look to develop profitable consumer relationships.

Speaker:

Join: Jeff Rohrs
VP Marketing Research & Education
ExactTarget

To register: http://www.dma-atlanta.com/
Details:
Thursday, June 17th 2010
11:30am-1:30pm
Maggiano’s Perimeter – 4400 Ashford Dunwoody Road
Atlanta, GA 3034

More information -  Registration

About the Speaker: Jeff Rohrs

As Vice President of Marketing for ExactTarget, the leading provider of on-demand software for permission-based email, mobile, social media marketing, Jeff spearheads ExactTarget’s research and thought-leadership initiatives.  A driving force behind the company’s SUBSCRIBERS RULE! philosophy and “Email Plus” vision, Jeff is a passionate advocate for consumer-first marketing principles.  For the past few years, Jeff has programmed ExactTarget’s Connections User Conference, and he has spoken at a wide variety of industry events including Argyle’s CMO Leadership Forum, The CMO Club, ad:tech, the eec’s Email Evolution Conference, MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit, MediaPost’s Email Insider Summit, Search Engine Strategies, and SMX.  Prior to joining ExactTarget, Jeff was President and Chief Interactive Strategist for Optiem, a digital marketing agency based in Cleveland, Ohio.  Jeff has also served as a National Applications Consultant for LexisNexis and as an attorney with Baker & Hostelter.  Jeff received his J.D. and Masters in Mass Communication from Boston University, and he holds his B.S. in Mass Communications from Miami University where he currently serves on the Advisory Board for the school’s Armstrong Center for Interactive Media StudiesFrom Email to Facebook to Twitter, it has never been more important for marketers to establish direct relationships with consumers. In this session, we’ll share research on how the rules of one-to-one marketing vary by channel, and how you can learn from the successes (and mistakes) of others as you look to develop profitable consumer relationships.