Buzzword-Free One-to-One Marketing Strategies

It’s hard to pick just one favorite part of Connections—ExactTarget’s annual user conference. But this year, the Partner Hub tops my list.

We have a superb lineup of companies sponsoring Connections 2012—and I can’t think of a better opportunity for attendees to learn about our ExactTarget partners.  Hosted on the first floor of the JW Marriott, the Partner Hub promises to be a great mix of product and service partnerships that complement existing ExactTarget solutions, such as:

 

 

Be sure to check out the Partner Hub during Connections, and ask how these companies can help inspire the future of...

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They say that “two is better than one.” But when it comes to interactive marketing, I’d have to disagree.

I think that ONE is better than two.

We’ve all heard that siloed marketing is unsustainable and a thing of the past—if you keep your interactive marketing data separate from your social, website, point of sale, and other customer data,providing a cohesive brand experience for the end consumer seems further and further away. After all, your customers don’t silo their interactionswith your brand—why should you?

So, how can you unsilo your marketing and start functioning as ONE cohesive unit? 

Sta...

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Many organizations don’t fit squarely into a B2B or B2C bucket. More often, companies have multiple marketing teams, divisions or business units that focus on different marketing and sales objectives. One team may manage vendor or partner relationships; another drives online sales; while yet another supports a lengthy direct sales cycle.

We are in the midst of a transformational shift in the Revenue Performance Management market whereby:

• The buying process has changed; customers now touch dozens of online and offline information sources before they ever talk to a sales representative or buy...

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At Connections 2011, over 500 of the 3,000 attendees completed the Passport to Prizes by visiting the booths of the Platinum, Gold, and Silver sponsors in the expo hall. I’m happy to be the one who gets to announce the winners of all of the fabulous prizes including the grand prize of two tickets to Super Bowl XLVI being held in Indianapolis! So without further adieu, here are the winners: 

• Super Bowl Tickets: Alex Coleman, Zappos
• Microsoft Slate: Evan Modesto, Herff Jones
• HP Tablet: Heather Baker, Progressive Insurance
• $200 American Express Card: Jill Hartmann, Ohio National
• $100 Best Buy Gift...

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Today is an incredibly exciting day for me because we officially unveiled our new global partner ecosystem, Nexus! After a ridiculous amount of late nights, good ideas, bad ideas, and everything else under the sun it feels so good to have Nexus out in the wild for people to see and experience. When launching anything, for me there is always an enormous amount of anxiety in thinking about how others will react and respond and today's event isn't any different. What's different this time for me, is that the concept that sits behind Nexus is not new or something we're trying to create,...Read More »

Alaska Airlines is hands down my favorite airline because they have an award winning loyalty program, have a modern fleet of planes that all look and feel the same, and have employees who are extremely friendly and treat their customers like royalty. Alaska Airlines knows that air travel can often be a pretty stressful experience and they've brought a very human element to an industry that has admittedly lost most of the human touch.

What are your favorite brands and why are they tops on your list? My guess is that most of the brands that you like and are loyal to are the ones who value...Read More »

There is nothing like a new partnership announcement to help kick off the first day of Connections 2010, especially one that helps expand on our integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Today our newest partner, ClickDimensions, announced the launch of its Marketing Automation for Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. The solution, which is 100% Software-as-a-Service and developed on the Microsoft Windows Azure platform, is built natively into Microsoft Dynamics CRM and leverages ExactTarget’s market leading email marketing and interactive marketing platform.

This solution gives our 500+ clients...

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Last week I had the pleasure of presenting on a webinar with one of our partners, Baynote. Baynote helps companies dynamically serve up hyper-personalized online interactions by gauging website visitor intent and serving up dynamic content/product recommendations. By leveraging Baynote's technology together with ExactTarget, marketers can transfer the highly personalized online experience into their email campaigns to have a consistent experience across multiple channels. 

During the webinar, we asked the audience several questions about how they are doing this today, and in Boaz Ronkin's blog... Read More »

Ready to think about integrated digital marketing technologies but not sure where to start? Don't worry, you're not alone! So many organizations know that integration makes sense but for whatever reason haven't taken the first step. 

In this new paper: 10 Ideas to Turn Data Into Results, we collaborated with top industry experts like Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, ATG, Web Analytics Demystified and others to discuss how companies of every size and industry are integrating their marketing technologies. I couldn’t be more excited about their insights into email, customer relationship management (CRM),...Read More »

At 10:00 a.m. pacific on Wednesday, September 1st, I get the great pleasure of presenting on a live webinar with two guru's in one to one marketing, Don Peppers from the Peppers & Rogers Group and Vinay Iyer, Vice President of CRM Marketing for SAP. Hopefully you can join us for the discussion (you can register at this web page), here's a quick overview of what we'll be covering:

Don: Delivering customer value by building trust and loyalty
Vinay: Creating the "wow" customer experience every time
Scott: Tactics for driving engagement through Email (ExactTarget) and CRM (SAP)

Having read a ton...Read More »

Earlier this week I was having lunch with one of my co-workers who asked me a question - "if you were an online retailer and a new ExactTarget client, which one of our Extensions Network integrations would you use first, and why?"

Really good question I thought, there a ton of different options that you can start with, but which would be the best to do first and which would make the biggest impact? Unfortunately, I don't believe there's a one-size fits all answer because not all companies are made the same and have the same priorities, but I do think that there are two smart areas to take a...Read More »

At ExactTarget, we often talk about honoring subscriber preferences in regards to permission, frequency, content and channel. In my last post on Email + Web Analytics I wrote about the value that web analytics brings to the table by allowing you to sense behavior and then respond with appropriate offers.

Here's my buzz-word free advice for today. Instead of just observing behavior and reacting, why not also ask your subscribers what they are looking for? It may seem like a no-brainer, but not that many people do it, or do it well. This is where preference centers, lead capture forms, and...Read More »

On Friday, September 18th I'll be presenting at the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver, BC on the topic of Email + Web Analytics. In particular, I'll be focusing in on how leveraging Email together with Web Analytics can help your one-to-one marketing strategy in three main areas:

1. Understanding and optimizing the performance of campaigns
2. Improving the timing and targeting of campaigns
3. Increasing the relevance of content and offers delivered through campaigns

The full description is below, and if you are going to be in the area or are already planning on attending the event, I...Read More »

Today there was a great article in Clickz by Bryan Eisenberg called Social Media is not the Message that I couldn't agree with more. Bryan doesn't bash the importance of Social Media, rather he embraces it and says that it shouldn't take our focus away from making our overall communications better. Here's my favorite quote:

"Every status update, tweet, and inbox message is nothing more than a communication between a sender and a reader. What you say and how you say it matters. Be relevant."

Leveraging Social Media as a part of your overall marketing communications strategy shouldn't come as a...Read More »

Curious how to take your email marketing efforts to the next level? One suggestion that might help is getting a seat at the web analytics and optimization table within your organization. It was Jason Burby's latest ClickZ article titled Integrating Web Analytics and Optimization Into Your Business, that reminded me of this fact, but the premise is simple: what's happening on the web can definitely impact what can or will happen within your email marketing programs. Whether it is better understanding your web audience overall, at a segment level, or down to the individual - by understanding how...Read More »

Looking for innovative ways to take your 1-to-1 marketing strategies to the next level and put new technologies to work for you? On Wednesday, June 3rd at 2:00 EDT I'm hosting a webinar on how to leverage email marketing and social media together.

Joining me will be Emily Riley, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research and Lauren Kufta, New Media Coordinator from Roadrunner Records. Emily from Forrester will share some valuable research on the topic as well as some examples of companies that are on the cutting-edge. Lauren from Roadrunner will talk about their social media strategy overall and...Read More »

Today is a very fun day for us at ExactTarget as we start to see two worlds (email marketing and social media) coming together. If you didn't see it, we just announced a strategic partnership and forthcoming integration with ShareThis - one of the leaders in the realm of social media sharing.

One reason why we’re particularly interested in having a partnership with ShareThis to jointly provide this capability is because they allow for sharing across not only social networks (they already support over 40), but also blogs and email. So, in short, no matter where or how you want to share or post...

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OK, how is this for a buzzword-free thought around the practice of Email Append?

Derek Harding from Clickz today summed it up pretty simply with two words: "It sucks."

In his article he goes on to very clearly explain the short term and longer term dangers of this practice. All concepts that line up directly with what our very own email marketing deliverability and strategy gurus Al Iverson and Chip House have recently had to say.

Nice work Derek, and thanks for keeping it buzzword free!

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OK, here's the deal. I'm a marketer that markets to marketers. So, that means chances are pretty likely that if you're reading this, you are also a marketer. Which means in theory, we should be speaking the same language for the most part. So here's my promise to you - and the reason why I think you'll enjoy the contents that you find here: 2009 is going to be the year that I attempt to go completely buzzword-free in my communications. I know, buzzwords are everywhere so it's going to be hard to do, but here are two reasons why I think it's important.

1. Too many times, especially in the...

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