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January-February 2008 Issue
> Return to Archives Index
Database Screams! In This Issue: 
The Professor's Corner: Social Networking -- Not
Your Daughter's Facebook!
I Coulda Been Somebody...How E-Commerce Small Businesses are Turning to
Database Marketing
Announcing eWise Marketing Software
Database Marketing Position Listings for 2008
How
Desktop Marketing Solutions, Inc. Can Help You!
Dear Friends,
Social Networking has become "the buzz" - certainly since last October, when Microsoft paid $250 million dollars for a tiny share of Facebook. Again, this month we feature an article from one of our Johns Hopkins grads that gives a fresh perspective on this phenomenon. We also discuss the continuing trend of pure play e-commerce organizations who are turning to multi-channel approaches. Continuing the multi-channel thread, you will want to see our announcement of eWise, a new version of our WiseGuys software. Lastly, in what has become a regular feature, we include Database Marketing position listings to provide career options for 2008! As always, please let us know how DMSI can fit into your database marketing plans!
Adjunct Professor, Marketing Information Systems The Professor's Corner: Social Networking -- Not Your Daughters Facebook!
Here is this month's contribution from Katie Weishaar, VP, Marketing & Strategy, Community Analytics: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "When I joined Community Analytics three years ago the term social network was unfamiliar to many. Now the buzz of social networks has permeated our lives. What is the purpose of networks? Whether an individual taps into a network of trusted sources or the masses to gain information, the action is grounded in the desire to seek information and make informed decisions. Different decisions merit different weights on trusted and popular information. The quadrant below illustrates a sample of 'networks' that span a wide spectrum. In the Unverifiable/Celebrity quadrant, consider the George Washington University student who holds the school's title of "most Facebook friends" with 3,456 and counting - an impressive social network. When asked where he would turn for help in finding an apartment, this avid user responded, "The furthest I'd go with Facebook would be to ask someone to borrow a textbook. I'd want to actually trust the person."1 The Verifiable/Trusted Advisor quadrant is where we believe authentic customer engagement takes place.
Integrating a brand into the existing communities among a target audience is a four-stage process: (1) identify opportunities; (2) build partnerships; (3) promote connectivity; and (4) monitor and sustain. To successfully identify communities, the key is to construct a research methodology that places emphasis on the relationships that matter most to customers, from their perspective. With an empirical knowledge of the communities within the market, one can chart a clear roadmap to partnership-building. This does not require dramatic changes to marketing activities. Rather, the influx of 'network' data combined with existing strategies can inform and improve marketing initiatives. Partnership empowers an organization to become a meaningful part of the conversations. By providing Trusted Advisors with a sense of ownership in the development and success of your brand, you build advocacy among their communities in a genuine, organic way. Once partnership has been established, an organization is empowered to promote connectivity among the broader audience. For example, the University of Virginia wanted to better understand social networks that exist between alumni. The results were alarming to the University in that many of the Trusted Advisors were not engaged by the school. Network analysis gave university officials a detailed plan of action, resulting in greater participation and four new Trustees within two months. In the end, it is all about finding the relationships that already matter to your audience. First, take a look at your own life. How many personal relationships do you have? Are you maintaining them as well as you would like? Next, realize that your customers will not change their behavior for you - you must meet them where they are." M. Hesse, "An Unmanageable Circle of Friends", August 26, 2007, Washington Post
B efore we go further, we should explain that the select group we are describing in this article is small to medium size organizations (SME's). Certainly, their larger counterparts have used multi-channel approaches for some time. But the first movers that we now see coming our way were originally dot coms that found their niche in the late 1990s. With the early search engine technology, this select group had new customers coming to their web site regularly. With a stream of inbound customers, they had no need for doing outbound direct marketing. Later, those that survived the dot com crash turned to pay-per-click advertising, and largely continued to avoid building relationships with their customers.
Rude awakenings for first movers 1. Natural search rankings have dropped. Web site placement is no longer rising to the top as in the good old days. One client reported that their URL strings have changed over time. This has disturbed the search algorithms that Google and others use, resulting in a lower position ranking. 2. Competition has forced pay-per-click charges up. Again, when only a select few were bidding on keywords, our heroes could keep their bid price low. Now that the phenomenon of pay-per-click has become mainstream, the bid charges have become more expensive - and in some cases, prohibitive. Basically, they are finding they have lots of transactional data, but no customer relationships. And without customer relationships, their customer loyalty (and customer lifetime value) is diminished. Some of the early notions about selling exclusively with e-commerce have now evolved into plans for multi-channel approaches. Hooray for us!
Example challenges
Challenge:
Low online customer loyalty.
Challenge:
No lasting customer relationships.
Challenge:
Slowing economy requires an outbound customer care sales program.
Conclusion: Multi-channel approaches increasingly appeal to SME business executives. This is a significant opportunity for Direct/Database Marketers, but we need to help these individuals by meeting them where they are at. In many cases, they have only a general understanding or our practices, and want to be guided. With patience and solid approaches, we can prove how Direct Marketing and e-commerce can work together, "hand in glove"
Pricing:
a desktop or server version of eWise is offered at $1,990 for 2
concurrent users; unlimited non-concurrent users.
Qualifications
Barry Pasqualini How do you prepare yourself for career advancement? Don't lose the database or direct marketing skills that probably got you into this business, keep up with the techniques, products and services that are being developed in the industry, and learn as much as you can about the company you work for - its strategic direction, its competitive position, and how marketing can be most effective.
And now, pick up the phone! One call gets you 15 minutes of Free Database Advice Feedback from our readers: "The newsletter is terrific. The content was valuable and
interesting. Thanks for sending it, and we are looking forward to the
next issue already.
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