Is Direct Marketing Relevant 2?

David Carr, in the Monday December 5, 2011 edition of the New York Times (Business Section), wrote an article entitled, "Print Empire Embraces a New Order."   Mr. Carr discussed Time Inc. selection of Laura Lang as their new CEO.  What's compelling about Ms. Lang's selection is that she does not come from a print background, but instead the former CEO of Digitas.

In an earlier blog, I posed the following question, Is Direct Marketing Still Relevant because their seemed to be the perception that "Direct Marketing" was "different" than digital.  I have maintained that digital IS direct marketing.  The principles and metrics found online comes right out of the playbook of any other direct marketing program.  They include:

• CTR=leads
• CPA-conversions
• CPC=short for per inquiry

Ms. Lang stated in the article that as far back as 5 years ago, "We're seeing clients shift dollars into channels that can get a direct engagement, that can get a direct, accountable experience..."  This mind set runs counter to the historical run of press advertising spend in the print industry.  The article stated, "Traditional media has historically done well by selling inefficiency.  In order to reach those among People magazine's 3.5 million readers who were interested in buying a car or coffee pot, you had to buy an ad that everyone else flipped past." 

Magazines have not been able to calculate the return on ad spend or return on investment because run of press ads were not (and not designed to be) data driven.  Digital Direct Marketing, (as I call it) eliminates this. Accordingly, Ms. Lang will "help magazine publishers be part of a media age built on metrics" just like digital direct marketing has been doing for years.

So the next time someone says is is direct marketing relevant, you have the information to explain their misconception.

Twitter Introduces Analytic Tool...What's the ROI?

Twitter announced they are introducing an official analytic tool.  This was reported on Social Media Today, dated September 15, 2011.  According to post, Twitter stated, the analytic "tool will help website owners  understand how much traffic they receive from Twitter and the effectiveness of Twitter on their sites..."
Some of the metrics include:

• "See how Twitter content is being shared around the web"
• "Track the amount of Traffic to a company website-including clicks per tweet"
• Measure the "effectiveness" of the "official" Twitter buttons"
• "An API allowing third party analytic tools to incorporate the data"

While it is premature to come to conclusions, it seems to me that the analytic tools does not provide insight into a quantifiable return on investment.  My earlier blog "Use Social Media for Retention, Not Acquisition" discussed an October 2010 Gallup Poll survey of 17,000 social media users.  Their findings concluded in part that the general social media metrics do not convey engagement.  Therefore, the effectiveness of Twitter buttons or the level of shared content are the type of metrics Gallup's analyst believed didn't measure true engagement.

In my mind true "engagement" occurs when there is a positive financial impact or an action that can lead to a positive financial impact.  While too numerous to name all, some can include:

• Building an opt-in list for future communication (and sales) such as:
• Mobile
• Email
• Postal
• Referral marketing that is direct attributed to a customer "telling a friend" that buys your product or service(s).
• Leveraging your existing customers onto your social media platform(s) to talk (sell) your product or service.RATHER than advertising on the platform(s) to acquire a new "like", "follower" (you choose).
• Generating sales directly attributed to the social media campaign.

True analytic measurement will occur when we can follow the path of each social media engagement when it crosses over from social to a transaction.  Only in this way can we really measure an "engagement". I realize social media practitioners will probably disagree.  Social media, like all other advertising has costs associated with it.  If we have assigned staff to handle our social media, companies want to see a return for their dollar.  Without financial metrics to support the staff assigned, it becomes problematic viewing a "download" or a "like" to support continued financial outlays.