Have you ever created a campaign that generated truly outstanding
results ... only to see it cut or altered beyond recognition a
little while later? I'm pretty sure it's happened to a lot of
us.
For example, after I presented a Case Study on a high-responding
ecommerce campaign at trade show last year, a gentleman came up
to introduce himself. "I'm the marketer who did that campaign,
it's a pleasure to meet in person. Unfortunately, since we last
talked, the campaign's been discontinued," he said.
"Why?!" I asked. "The president didn't like it, so we just don't
do it anymore," he explained. "I know, I know, it doesn't make
any sense. Politics, I guess."
In my experience, the problem of canning or altering
campaigns-that-work comes down to one of three causes:
#1. Boredom -- the marketing department is bored of the creative,
the offer, whatever. They figure (often without any evidence)
the marketplace must be bored too. Anyway, newer is always
better, right?
#2. Ego/Salary justification -- a new marketer, agency, or
president has come on board and they want to put their personal
stamp on the campaign.
#3. Politics -- power have changed hands somewhere internally and
whoever now has it wants to pull a few strings or make changes
for pet projects/pet peeves, regardless of how it affects
marketing results.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm all for testing new tactics as well
as testing tweaks to already proven campaigns. But, the key word
is TESTING. Keep marketing campaigns that are already proven to
work as your control. Test new ideas against the control. Then
roll out the winner and then start testing again.
If you're from the traditional direct response world, you're
rolling your eyes and saying, "Duh" right now. You're no doubt
remembering such famous controls as the Wall Street Journal's two
young men package that ran for almost 20 years.
Boredom, ego, and politics weren't allowed to kill that campaign
before its time because all that mattered was:
- did it still reflect the brand accurately?
- was it still generating better response than anything tested against it?
What's causing this particular rant? Well, I had the flu pretty
bad last week (and in fact am still hovering on the exhausted
edge of recovery.) So, I took a breather from editing new
stories every day and re-published one of my all-time favorite
classic Case Studies. (It's the first Case Study below.)
It's about building a microsite that generates loads of leads.
I quickly clicked over to that site to check that it was still
live since we first published the story. It was. But it was
changed, to my mind horribly. Given what I know from
publishing more than 500 Case Studies on marketing, the changes
have reduced the microsite's effectiveness.
Why was the site changed? I'll bet one of the three reasons
came into play. One thing is for certain, I'll bet no one did a
split traffic test first to see if the tweaked format worked
better than the old one.
I feel pretty bad outing what I consider to be bad marketing
here. Our job at Sherpa is to be supportive and applaud great
marketing, not to diss marketers who, sometimes through no fault
of their own, are forced to do the wrong thing.
So, I apologize, and hope not to do it again. Rant over.
Anne
Anne Holland - Publisher
MarketingSherpa
P.S. As always, our Case Studies and articles are open access for
about 10 days. Then they go into SherpaLibrary where you can
research for a small fee. The links always remain the same.
#2. CLASSIC CASE STUDY: 5 Best Practices to Create a High-Impact Sales Lead Generation Web Site
If you think your Web site or landing page could
generate more sales leads than it currently does, you definitely
should check out this classic Sherpa Case Study.
Includes details on how a software company used these five Best
Practices...
- Home Hero spot Links for Both Kinds of Prospects
- Building Trust With Loads of Client-Peer Mentions
- Multiple Offer Options to Garner Leads
- Personal Touch with Zip Code Search & Rep Photos
- Watching Live Visits to Determine Final Tweaks
... to garner the highest possible conversion from visitor to
registered lead:
http://www.MarketingSherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2662
(Open access until April 9th)
#3. How to Supplement Your Regular Weekly Newsletter With Personalized Specials (Without Upsetting Your Sales Force)
88% of insurance brokers say Anthem Blue Cross & Blue
Shield's email is the best they get. Impressed? So were we.
In MarketingSherpa's exclusive new Case Study discover how
Anthem's marketing team created a segmented email program that
consistently gets far higher than average open and click rates.
Includes creative samples, results data, and our favorite part --
how to get your business development reps to trust you enough to
let you send personalized email offers to *their* accounts:
http://www.MarketingSherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3222
(Open access until April 9th)
#4. SPECIAL REPORT: Viral Marketing 2006 -- Benchmark Data, Practical Tips, & Biggest Change
Viral marketing online is a decade old this year and
it's getting hideously same-old, same-old boring. Which spells
trouble, because viral's all about not being boring.
Here's some help to fight your viral creative yawns, including
-> 8 data charts featuring results & budgets from 790 viral
marketers (thanks guys)
-> 3 practical tips to improve your viral results
Plus, the #1 biggest year-over-year change you should take
advantage of with your next campaign:
http://www.MarketingSherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3221
(Open access until April 8th)
#5. INTERVIEW: How to Convince Your Boss to Launch a Word of Mouth Marketing Campaign -- 4 Steps
Great! You're all excited about word-of-mouth (aka
evangelism) marketing. Now what?
If you're working for a Fortune 1000, you may find your biggest
word-of-mouth marketing challenge is building consensus that
word-of-mouth is worth doing at all. Your ideas could be shot
down by internal politics and naysayers.
In MarketingSherpa's interview with DuPont's eBusiness Manager,
discover four steps to help you win over what may be your
toughest market -- your boss and co-workers.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=3220
(Open access until April 6th)
#6. Fame Briefs: 3 Awards Deadlines + Boston Speaking Gig
Here's a quick listing of the latest marketing, ad, and PR awards
you can nominate yourself for.
http://www.MarketingSherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2632
(Open access = permanent)
#7. Help Wanteds: 27 New Jobs & 5 Seekers Available
The past week's new posts include positions from Vegas.com,
Motley Fool & Merrill Lynch learn how to post your own opening
complimentary service).
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2522
(Open access = permanent)
#8. New Giveaway: 'Branding Unbound: The Wireless Age'
America has come extremely late to the wireless marketing party.
As marketers in Europe and Asia will tell you, wireless campaigns
can work wonders.
And now author Rick Mathieson has written a book discussing the
baby steps brands such as Wal-Mart, Kellogg's, and Procter &
Gamble are taking in the US wireless world. Includes Q&As with
business thinkers such as Tom Peters and the President of OnStar,
and about a dozen campaign screenshots; but, not detailed
instructions or results data. It's more of a think-piece.
Rick's donated five copies for Sherpa to give out to our readers
-- toss your name in the hat to try for one of them:
http://sherpa.bookoffer.sgizmo.com
(Ends 04/09/06)
+ Winners of last week's giveaway are...
These five lucky marketers will get their own copies of 'Google
AdSense Secrets' by Joel Comm
- Belle Vridee, Voda Computer Systems, Kamloops, BC Canada
- Barb Arlrichs, McKesson, Dubuque, IA
- John Cope, Stratis Financial, Torrance, CA
- John Soroko, MAHE International, Nashville, TN
- Nina Jankovic, Primera Technology, Hopkins, MN
