Personalized Marketing Campaigns

The elves at Webinar Resources are busting their buttons as the MyChristmasBook Trailer on MyBrainshark is now the most viewed and most popular Brainshark presentation.  Says Santa, who just read this latest update in the Webinar Newsletter from Webinar Resources, "We are very proud that this on demand presentation has received such wide appeal.   Rudolph told me that "rich media" was the way to reach the masses so I thought I would give it a try."


The MyChristmasBook Trailer has been viewed across the country and across the world.  Webinar Resources launched this campaign to drive lead generation for North Pole IndustryCo.   Every MyChristmasBook online Christmas Photo Story Book contains personalized text, images and audio using a good little boy or girl's name and is delivered on a unique personalized North Pole web page.   Says Jack Frost, CMO in charge of North Pole's lead generation and personalized marketing campaigns, "We hired Webinar Resources to produce the story of Santa Claus and the Lost Dog as they are the experts in demand generation marketing and the theme song has the reindeer tapping their hoofs."

The success of the campaign can be summed up by Mrs. Claus, "Things have gotten a lot more jolly around here now that the old man is coming home from the shop at a decent hour. Thanks to Webinar Resources launching MyChristmasBook.com with their partners ExactTarget, Brainshark, Vontoo and Compendium, Santa is much more productive and best of all, there are no more cold calls which is important in the frozen North.

Everyday we are encountering more social media tools that allow you to quickly share information with others.   Today we launched an email campaign for one of our customers that contained a personalized video for the recipients.   Each customer received a PURL, a personalized URL, that embedded the customer's name in the video.   It was a pretty slick application.

Using ExactTarget, we launched the email movie clips through personalization strings that contained the PURLs.   This was an effective lead generation process for driving customer acquisition.   Through personalized marketing campaigns, you can capture your reader's interest and move them to take an action.

We are using Brainshark presentations to personalize on demand presentation content and further honing our abilities to deliver a Webinar for ONE.
 

Like everyone, we have some customers who come and go across our desks a couple times a year, and then we have some who are there a couple times a day to drive lead generation.

Recently we drove customer acquisition for one of our frequent customers for an event through a personalized marketing campaign.  Through a lot of work, the event sold out in two weeks and our customer was thrilled.

Because we work with this customer on an almost daily basis, we decided to go the extra mile and support the event locally, though there's nothing in our contract that defines our work in that way.  I found myself pulling what props I could from my children's closets so that I could dress like a pirate and take pictures at the event.

My thoughts were, "OK, just give me a salad at the customer dinner in exchange for these services, and we'll call it a draw."  What our team got in return was much more than a salad.

Yes, I dressed like a pirate and managed to draw enough smiles from our client's customers to create a spiffy memory book for the occasion.  We also managed to meet with no less than 9 cricital contacts in the span of 2 business days.  As a result of these meetings- some scheduled, some by chance, we are better positioned across our client's corporation, and we were able to schedule new business.

So - while the salad and the meal were really good, what was even better was the unexpected developments with existing and new contacts.  It's definitely worth it to partner with your clients in ways you might not consider "your area"- - it was well worth our while!


 

I just had the great opportunity this past week to attend one of my customer's events onsite in NY.   My events team spent a great deal of time setting up online tools to support customer acquisition including the use of a Brainshark presentation for customers.

Through specially designed personalized marketing campaigns, we were able to draw a record crowd of customers in less than three weeks.   The event also had a "pirate-theme" and we produced personalized pirate maps with the customer's names on them.

I attended the event and was able to participate in the festivities which included wine, grog, spirited networking and the opportunity to meet my customers and their customers.   I also repurposed one of my old pirate tunes from college and added new lyrics to fit the event.   I will share the song in a future post.

What I didn't expect was that I would run into other contacts from my customer's account that I have been trying to meet for over two years.   The success of the customer event established my company's credibility for building lead generation conferences like this one and our dialogue was both positive and productive.

So next time you put a lot of effort into setting up an event or campaign for your customer. make sure you participate in the event as well.   You will learn more about your customer's business, their customer's business and you may just meet that key contact/decision maker that will influence additional business in your customer's account.   You also will be considered more of a partner than a vendor and your business relationship will continue to grow.

It is amazing to witness how quickly blogging can drive activity.   One of my team recently blogged about the Discovery Light project that we supported at a recent trade show.   Using our webinar service, we posted a Brainshark presentation about how we marketed the show and our lead generation conference exhibit.

As we were using a combination of email and personalized landing pages to drive customer acquisition, our reference to the words "landing page" triggered a Google Alert for another company, ExactTarget.   Within one week of posting our blog, ExactTarget contacted us after visiting our post.   They had set up a Google alert for the words "landing page".   ExactTarget recently released their Landing Page feature and we have been putting it to good use for our demand generation marketing programs.   Make sure you opt-in to receive our next newsletter to see a great example of a personalized image marketing campaign.

Quite often we receive a Google alert after posting a blog as we also monitor keywords.    We have heard Chris Baggott, of Compendium Blogware, a number of times comment on how Google likes old content, recent content and frequent content.   We produce Webinar for ONE replays of their webinars and we hear these words in every presentaiton.  

Chris is right on target.   You can drive effective lead generation through frequent and relevant blogging.    We are witnesses to the process and we are becoming evangelists for compended blogging.    The combination of blogging and Google Alerts is another step to helping you achieve that "virtual knock" on the door and another step away from no more cold calls. 

Other people are watching and waiting for their Google Alerts to trigger a message about keywords they monitor.   The more you blog about a particular subject, the more chances you have of driving effective lead generation.

While I refused to fight the crowds to be on of the first through the door to pick up a brand new Blackberry Storm, I will be going this afternoon to make my purchase.

My boss, Mark, and I have a very un-official, un-scientific experiment (aka competition) we're conducting.  He has the new G1 (Google) phone from T-Mobile.  I'm getting the Blackberry Storm from Verizon Wireless.  We're putting the networks aside, and comparing the phones for how well they enhance our ability to conduct business.

Mark got his G1 about a month ago, and has been bragging ever since.  He L-O-V-E-S it.  Just for fun on the weekend, he creates a brainshark presentation from his phone, records the voice, and then sends a vontoo message over to us just to gloat.

I'm hoping that I will be able to return the favor with the Blackberry storm.  I know I won't have Windows mobile, but what will I be able to do?  At a minimum, I should be able to enjoy the latest and greatest in screen resolution and display options to view what our custoemrs view.  At most, will I be able to operate the Blackberry Storm as a miniature laptop, of sorts, the way that Mark has been able to do with his G1? 

Our whole business centers around effective lead generation and customer acquisition through managed services and internet marketing.  We drive personalized marketing campaigns through interactive technologies that may include any or all of the following:
  --Video Web Conferencing
  --Email Movie Clips
  --Variable Data embedded in html emails
  --Web Conferencing
  --On Demand Presentations

We are also heavy users of many interactive programs including but not limited to online calendars.

Over the next few weeks, we will be testing out these technologies with the G1 and Blackberry Storm.  Maybe we'll even keep a scorecard.  For now, I have to sign off to go place my order.

Stay tuned, and if YOU have a G1 or a piping hot new Blackberry Storm--please post and tell us about the SMS feats you've conquered.

• "Relationships with customers are one thing that competitors can't copy."
• "79% of customers buy from companies that they are in a relationship with, rather than just on price."
• "About 30% of email addresses go bad every year."
• "22% of Internet users are using social media instead of email."
• "Facebook - must be on it to understand what is going on."

We have launched personalized marketing campaigns before but last week we had the opportunity to announce an event and related website using personalized landing pages. Using ExactTarget and their new landing page feature, we were able to create a customized landing page for each of our customers attending this week's Graph Expo Printing show in Chicago.  

The invitation was used to increase customer acquisition for attendance at the booth where we are showcasing a book and invention  - the Discovery Light and Discovery Light educational materials 

The author/inventor, Louis Donovan, is here with us in Chicago and is talking to customers about the product.   We are getting rave reviews on the book and the concept.

The Discovery Gang book contains hidden text that can only be revealed with the Discovery Light.   The book combined with the Discovery Light add a new dimension to learning to read while making reading fun.

We also are launching http://www.discoverylight.com which contains more information about the Discovery Light.   One of the pages of the site contains an embedded Brainshark presentation that includes a YouTube video that Louise produced.

Stay tuned for more information on this exciting product.

Dale Carnegie's famous quote "Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language" is still a valid lesson when approaching people.   Everyone likes to be called by their name and have their name remembered.

Mr. Carnegie didn't realize the impact that today's technology could have in influencing people to take an action, especially when personalization is involved. 
We have all seen the personalized approach marketing campaigns have taken in addressing the recipient by their first name and including variable data in the communication that is related to the recipient.  Personalized communications are an open door to a conversation with a prospect, a partner or an existing customer.
The latest breakthrough technology for personalization is the ability to convert text into personalized images.  A recipient's name can now be an image emblazoned across a label on a wine bottle or carved into a piece of fine wood.   This approach takes personalization to a new level.

Imagine seeing your name embossed on a director's chair?   Would you be more likely to learn more about the message behind the link or in this case, your personal name on an image?

We recently modified a webinar replay follow up email and inserted a personalized director's chair in the body of the email.  We predicted that the personalized image would increase click-throughs to the Brainshark presentation (webinar replay) that was linked to the recipient's personalized chair.  The results of the campaign were significant with dramatic increases in:

It is almost 4:00 am and I have realized that I have not posted a blog lately.   The wonderful thing about blogging is that you can do it at anytime of the day.   It is best to blog when it quiet.

Now that I can get my thoughts together, I can start thnking about how I am going to put the presentation together on customer acquisition for my customer this week.   We just created a great HTML email with an embedded Brainshark presentation that was recorded by a guest speaker for our customer's event.   With this interactive web presentation we can quickly gain viewer's interest and launch a call to action for the viewer to register.   We have many types of examples we have created for the customer to create effective lead generation.   As I think more about it, the applications we have created are my presentation.

I will blog more as I travel this week and will be posting some interesting new technology that you might want to see and hear as you develop your marketing campaigns.   Is the pen mighter than the keyboard for blogging?  Stay tuned for the answer.

Two decades ago we used to let our fingers do the walking to find people, fast.  Now the power of the web offers many effective processes for lead generation and the telephone still plays a major role in customer acquisition.

We have customers who run a series of live training events.  The classes fill up fast, and always have a wait list, so every "no show" represents multiple lost opportunities.  In addition to the standard email reminders, we began sending Vontoo reminder calls to all class registrants the day before the training, and the customers love it.

The participants in the classes provide a preferred phone number for the reminder when they register for the class.  The director of the training series records her reminder, and through the beauty of Vontoo, we send her reminder to those specified numbers.  These calls provide another layer to your personalized marketing campaign.

So, while yes, the days of the 4-inch thick "yellow pages" are quietly slipping by, you can still ensure none of your participants have a chance to forget to attend your carefully planned event or even a web presentation by putting a ring in that ping using a Vontoo reminder call.

Every touch point with a customer or prospect should include a "call to action".   A Call to Action or CTA, as some call it, invites interaction from your visitor and promotes lead generation.  A CTA can be as simple as a form posted on your website, in a blog, and email or in an on demand presentation like a Webinar for ONE.

We always include a call to action in our Webinar newsletters.  The simplest example is to invite your reader to subscribe to your newsletter by completing a simple online form.  You are more likely to have a customer or prospect return to your cross-media communications if you invite them to take an action.  Every customer acquisition program should promote interactivity.

A common error by many who produce web conferences is to post a webcast or webinar replay that does not contain some form of a call to action.   Many web conferencing marketeers do not realize that there are tracking tools that can inform them when a viewer is watching a presentation.  Views of your presentations can take place at any time of the day and in almost any location where online content is available - which is about anywhere in the world.

The goal of any effective customer acquisition process is to connect with your customer or prospect and move them to an action where conversion takes place.  Conversion can be as simple as the completion of a subscription form or as in-depth as completing a live poll embedded in a Webinar for ONE. 

As you create your personalized marketing campaigns, make sure you include several types of call to action best practices and techniques   People like to give their input and like to be involved.  Give your customers, prospects and partners an opportunity to interact with you online and you will produce effective lead generation results.

Feel free to post your comments and/or complete our live online poll

.