With the Eichler Remodeling Faire (Mountain View, Calif., May 16, 2009), Keycon president Ron Key took a chance. He believed that a fun and informative event on a sunny afternoon would attract a modest number of Bay Area Eichler homeowners seeking remodeling advice and solutions. He was wrong. There was nothing modest about it. More than 400 hundred showed up (exact figure to come).
Several days before the Faire, event planner Judy Nakamura emailed me. “Dave, Can you give me an update on the registration numbers? We need to submit a final guarantee to the caterer today,” wrote Judy. We had 160 individual registrations, and knowing that many people who register for a free event don’t attend, I told her the truth: I had no idea how many would ultimately appear. So, we guaranteed BBQ for 125 adults and 25 children. Oops. Fortunately, Absolute Barbecue Company kept the burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and drinks coming. They were amazing.
The Eichler Remodeling Faire would not have happened without Ron Key’s vision and his relationships with construction and design partners who participated in the event. At the same time, it would not have been possible without two social media powerhouses, the Eichler Network and Eventbrite.
With the Eichler Network, Keycon was able to pinpoint event marketing to the 7,000 South Bay and Peninsula Eichler households. The promotions included ads in the Eichler Network annual Home Maintenance Directory, an ad/insert card combo in the Eichler Network’s CA-Modern Magazine, and a followup postcard mailed to the magazine’s recipients.
Eventbrite provided a complete event landing page and registration system, which allowed us to present all the event details, “sell” tickets (even though this event was free), collect customer data, and communicate with ticket “buyers” via scheduled email reminders. Perhaps more importantly, using Eventbrite rocketed the Eichler Remodeling Faire to Google’s top five results for “Eichler Remodeling.” Eventbrite also enabled attendees to share information about the event with friends and neighbors. I was pleasantly surprised to see that bloggers and other event sites took notice as well.
Here’s an event for Bay Area Eichler homeowners, with registration/ticketing services provided by EventBrite, a wonderful new service for promoting and managing your events. What impressed me most about EventBrite was how fast the event details were picked up by Google and featured among the top three to five search results.
A FREE event for Bay Area Eichler Homeowners (and friends and families)
It’s fun to be a crank… always grousing about marcomm directors who blow through good money to produce worthless nontent. But it’s even more fun to think happy thoughts, and happy thoughts are what I get when I receive my newsletter from Gibson USA, maker of the legendary eponymous guitar(s). I congratulate Gibson for delivering real customer-focused content: player profiles, lessons, gear, music news, music performances, contests, and more. Bravo.
Now you’re probably thinking that it’s much easier to get passionate about guitars than about mobile phones (see my earlier post on Sprint’s e-snoozer), but that’s not necessarily so. I know phone aficionados who love love love their gadgets. It’s just that Sprint doesn’t seem to employ those people, at least in marcomm.
Here’s my difficulty tonight. I could write 5,000 words about the Gibson newsletter and Web site. But it’s late, and I’m beat. So for now, here’s a raincheck in the form of the new Gibson Raw Power Les Paul, with a link to the Gibson USA Web Lifestyle section. Enjoy.
Sprint goes to the trouble of opting-in subscribers, managing an email list, writing copy, and laying out graphics and yet the company provides no compelling reason for me to read its monthly enewsletter.
The layout is fine. The design is brand-consistent and strong. The customer service links and product offerings are convenient. But the features lack grab. The newsletter includes a pitch for how Sprint is “Going Green,” a pitch for the Palm Pre, a battery-saving tip, another pitch for “the perks of being with Sprint” (a blurb for live NFL Draft content available in April), another pitch about Sprint 4G, and a link to the thinly populated Sprint blog Buzz About Wireless, which is mainly about…. Sprint. It also offers a few helpful links, helpfully labeled “Helpful Links.” They were helpful.
The fundamental problem with Sprint Connection is that it’s predominantly brand-focused as opposed to customer-focused. The battery-saving tip might be useful, and the live NFL content is appealing. But overall, if the intention was to engage me in an informative (if not uplifting) brand experience, then Sprint Connection falls short.
What could salvage this Sprint effort? How about content customized for ME? Sprint knows I use a Moto Q device. They even include a photo of it in the body of the newsletter. How about some insight into my inner Q-ness? How do I get more from my device? How do I make it do useful things I’ve never considered? How do others like me use it?
When we talk about brand community marketing, the first rule of engagement is to engage the customer first. When you earn the customer’s attention with interesting, useful, and/or entertaining content, the customer then pays attention to your message(s). Unfortunately, brand-centric marketing communication is a hard habit to break. Sprint could make a better Connection.
The Sprint Connection monthly enewsletter lacks customer-focus.
I‘m sorry to report that the WPA has cancelled its 2009 Publishing Conference. Executive Director Jane Silbering and many others worked very hard to draw attendees to the event. Unfortunately, the faltering economy is forcing publishing professionals to hang on for dear life, or at least hunker down until they see some daylight. NOTE THAT THE MAGGIE AWARDS DINNER ON FRIDAY, APRIL 24 WILL PROCEED AS PLANNED.
Here’s the official announcement from the WPA:
Los Angeles, CA – March 24, 2009 – Low registration has caused the Western Publishing Association to cancel its media publishing conference, April 23-24, at the Westin Hotel at Los Angeles Airport.
An annual event for the media publishing community in the western United States, the conference has, in prior years, drawn upwards of 230 people, offering more than two dozen educational sessions covering all areas of print, digital and event media. In addition, vendor tabletop exhibits were available as well as other vendor sponsorships.
“It was an extremely difficult decision to make,” said Jane Silbering, Executive Director. “We have a responsibility to our sponsors to deliver attendance worthy of their expectations and dollars spent, and to our speakers, to deliver an audience worthy of the time and effort spent in preparing their presentations.” Silbering went on to say, “The WPA Board felt the decision to move forward or cancel had to be made in a timely manner, to give attendees, speakers and sponsors appropriate notice.
“Our industry typically registers close to the event,” stated Peter Craig, WPA Conference Chairman. “But in this case, we had to make our decision sooner rather than later. Based on the current state of the publishing industry, we simply couldn’t wait any longer.”
The 58th Annual Maggie Awards Banquet will proceed as planned, scheduled for April 24th, at the Westin Hotel at Los Angeles Airport. The WPA will award 78 Maggies for excellence in editorial, design and promotion in both print and digital media publishing. Reservations are available online at www.wpa-online.org.
About WPA
The Western Publishing Association is a non-profit association dedicated to the advancement of the media publishing industry, providing continuing education, in the western United States.
Print, Digital, Events, or the intersection thereof. That’s the theme of the 2009 WPA Publishing Conference, April 22 to 24 at the Westin Hotel, Los Angeles Airport. Early Registration ends March 10, and there are other discounts available if you act soon.
If you were thinking of staying home because of the tough economy, you should reconsider. This is a time to learn new skills, connect with old friends and new colleagues, and uncover emerging opportunities. WPA promises a lineup of sessions focused on innovation with topics that include: Translating Print to Online, Building a Digital Platform, Selling Digital Products, Success in a Down Economy, Custom Media, Distribution and Postal Strategies, Hot Design Trends, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Events, Search-Engine Solutions, Intellectual Property, and more.
In addition to conference sessions and sponsor exhibits, you won’t want to miss the Wednesday evening opening reception, the afternoon keynotes, a Thursday reception, and the Maggie Awards event (optional) on Friday evening.
For more information see the WPA Web site or take a look at the complete conference brochure right here:
Dave Kalman serves on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Western Publishing Association.
The Custom Publishing Council has announced that earlybird rates have been extended indefinitely for its 2009 Custom Content Conference, March 22-24, in Miami. The theme of this event is “The Future of Branded Content: Building Custom Media Programs Across Platforms,” with industry leaders speaking on topics such as:
How to exploit new distribution channels
How to identify and understand trends and behavior in consumers
How to create and monetize a thriving social network
Get some fun in the sun, and hear about the future of branded content (or help create it!). Dave.
Long lines and flight cancellations in Chicago… That’s part of the ritual of traveling the conference circuit. Sometimes travel is necessary and desirable (I met my wife at a tradeshow), but for many events a technological and logistical solution would be preferable, such as the one offered by Cnxtd Media Corp. I recently (re)connected with Bill Rutledge, Cnxtd’s Managing Director (and a former Miller Freeman colleague). Bill told me about his company’s Connected Events service, which enables virtual nationwide conferences and tradeshows. Gatherings take place simultaneously in metropolitan areas around the country. In each city, a hotel ballroom is equipped with studios and linked by live audio and video, with Webcasting and interactive technologies. Conference speakers have face-to-face contact with the audience. Exhibitors can present on a broadcast schedule. Event producers can expand their reach while reducing cost. Attendees get the benefit of human contact plus the ability to learn and interact at a distance. That looks like a win for both. (Somebody invite me to a Connected Event so I can try one out. DMK)
I wrote a draft of this article in mid-2003. Then I chickened out. When it came to the topic of spam, I feared ridicule. With the continuing deluge of spam, I would have had more confidence in an article titled “Achieving World Peace in Three Easy Steps.” For me, it was the proverbial no-win situation. Even the Anti-spam Research Group of the Internet Research Task Force specifically warns off what it calls “anti-spam kooks” who believe they’ve discovered the FUSSP (“Final Ultimate Solution to the Spam Problem”).
Yet four years later, despite attempts at legislative relief, a patchwork of technical solutions, and the formation of the messaging industry’s Message Anti-Abuse Working Group, spam continues to grow. So what have I got to lose? In this article I suggest not a Final Ultimate Solution, but a different way to think of spam that in turn invites solutions.
Why include this article in a marketing/publishing blog? The concepts in this article flow directly from origins of the “BrandMagnet” concept, i.e., that marketers must earn a consumer’s attention with an exchange of value. The marketer offers entertaining or enlightening content, and the consumer pays attention. With that mantra in mind, I started to work on the problem of email marketing and why it has produced such an epic disaster. Some watchers have estimated that up to 90 percent of all email is spam.
The economics of spam
Spam thrives for a reason, and that reason is to make money. A study indicated that in 2004 four percent of online adults made a purchase as a result of unsolicited commercial email. That study, the 2004 National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS) from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Rockbridge Associates, put the total number of spam responders at five million.
In the economics of spam we find parallels in traditional direct marketing and advertising. A broadcast television viewer understands that every hour of programming includes as many as 20 minutes of commercials. Likewise, postal mailboxes are stuffed with offers, catalogs, and samples. The economics that drive this communication are fundamental to our consumer society. The right to produce this kind of commercial speech has its roots in the First Amendment, yet the courts have acknowledged that there are limits. Despite the annoyance they cause, commercial messages and junk mail are accepted facts of economic life. They strain the public’s tolerance, but for various reasons they stop just short of driving us mad.
The simple yet monumental difference between spam and traditional commercial speech is that the spammer can send 100,000 emails for essentially the same cost (almost nothing) as sending one. The lack of economic inhibition propels spam across the threshold of consumer tolerance. Yet spammers still spam and buyers still buy. This is the context in which we should discuss spam and anti-spam. While the topic is inflammatory, there may be rational solutions that create new economic opportunities for both marketers and email users. The question is whether we can have our spam, and eat it too.
Irresistible economics
At its root, spam is a socio-economic phenomenon. The combination of an irresistible incentive and minimal investment with an inappropriate technical infrastructure offers incentives for bad behavior. As a consequence, U.S. businesses lose more than $70 billion annually in lost productivity, as indicated by a 2007 survey by Nucleus Research, Inc.
The technical enablers include the spammer’s ability to 1) remain anonymous; 2) send mail from any jurisdiction on the planet; and 3) send massive volumes of email without regard for the receivers’ convenience.
The “socio-” part of the problem is the power imbalance in the relationship between the spammer and the receiver. The spammer has the power to tax the receiver’s patience and resources. At the same time, the spammer makes money from the infinitesimal number of willing and/or naive recipients who respond.
Assume that a spammer sells a $100 product and expects a response rate of 1/20th of 1 percent or .0005. A bulk emailing of 500,000 would produce 250 responses or $25,000. Notably, 499,750 recipients are inconvenienced for the presumed benefit of the 250. It’s not a fair system, yet the willing buyers fuel this economic engine.
Let’s imagine a world where a combination of technical and legal means makes it impossible for the spammer to send 500,000 emails. The cost in economic terms is the $25,000 in commerce, plus the cost of regulation, enforcement, and technology. Now let’s re-imagine the business model, where recipients have tools for participating in and profiting from this economic activity.
An economic email model
The concept of enticing customers to volunteer or opt-in to receive marketing messages has been around almost as long as marketing itself. (You’ve probably dropped your business card in a fishbowl to win a free meal.) In the Internet context, this idea has been promoted relentlessly by gurus such as Seth Godin, whose book “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers,” described the economic advantages of getting permission to engage customers in deeper, more profitable relationships. The premise that it’s good to get permission is axiomatic. But let’s take this idea a step further.
There’s an implicit cost to an email receiver – mainly in productivity – for each email received. Spam would certainly not be considered a nuisance if its cost could be recouped by the receiver. Instead of blocking or prohibiting the spam, let’s share the value produced with those individuals who bear the cost. This would require an email infrastructure that can transmit funds, but more importantly, an email system that can frame the transmission of email within the context of a monetary transaction. This would allow an email receiver to set a threshold price for permitting receipt of an email message from an unknown sender. The sending and receiving systems would use a transaction processing protocol to mediate, first negotiating the transaction (the acceptance or rejection of the email) and then updating the bank accounts.
In this scenario, the receiver may reject email from an unknown sender unless the threshold price is met. (The sender could define the acceptable price range for the confirmed delivery.) For an email from a new friend, the receiver could optionally click a button to refund the sender’s fee and add the sender to the white list.
Update: A question recently came up in a discussion of economic email. The question was how to ensure that a recipient actually reads an email. The best answer I can provide is some sort of challenge/response mechanism embedded directly in the email body. It could be a “captcha” or other kind of challenge questions.
This system guarantees that no email can be delivered without the receiver’s permission. Unlike existing white list approaches, this economic email approach doesn’t require the receiver to define “friends” in advance and it permits anonymous email transactions, as long as the transmitted funds are validated by the bank. The economic email model can be thought of as a form of peer-to-peer postage. By putting control in the hands of email receivers, it rebalances the economic system without requiring significant effort on the receiver’s part.
A simple transaction model
Here’s what an entire economic email transaction might look like (with basic transaction processing terminology appearing in caps). In fact, it looks just like any typical bank transaction, such as a funds transfer or automatic teller machine withdrawal.
First, the sender would query the receiver for the terms of acceptance (Step 1). If the sender meets the threshold demand, the offer is immediately accepted (Step 2). If the threshold is not met, the receiver may counter-offer and the sender may upgrade the offer.
When the acceptance arrives, the sender STARTs a TRANSACTION at the bank at the agreed price (Step 3). At this point, the bank transmits a TRANSACTION ID back to the sender (Step 4) who in turn relays it to the receiver (Step 5). At this point, the transfer of funds is pending to ensure that funds are available until the transaction is COMMITed or ROLLed BACK. After both parties have a copy of the TRANSACTION ID, the receiver asks the bank to validate the TRANSACTION ID (is it a legitimate transaction with funds available?) (Step 6). The bank matches the TRANSACTION ID with the pending transaction (Step 7).
At this point, the funds are in escrow. The sender cannot renege except upon failure of the delivery. In Step 8, the receiver tells the sender that the pending transaction is validated and to proceed with transmission. In Step 9, the sender transmits the email and upon receipt, the recipient sends the instruction to the bank to COMMIT the transaction (Step 10). As far as the sender is concerned, the transaction is irrevocable in Step 7.
The implications of economic email
Let’s look at a simple direct marketing case in which a marketer seeks 5,000 new customers. Assuming a 5 percent response, the marketer would have to mail 100,000 pieces to achieve the goal. With traditional direct mail, production and postage per piece could easily cost one dollar (USD). That’s a lot of money. Translate this program to email, where the cost might reach $200 in list handling fees, and it becomes obvious why marketers love email.
Now assume that the marketer must offer recipients ten cents each to accept an email. That “postage” would total $10,000 – still only 1/10th the cost of the postal mail delivery. Moreover, paying a fee to each recipient would change the nature of the mailer-recipient relationship. As only willing recipients would accept unsolicited commercial email, it’s possible that response rates would increase accordingly.
Email under pressure
Email marketing has created a short-term opportunity to reduce marketing costs, but this savings is not sustainable. The email system is at risk of collapsing under the pressure of unrestrained spam, while businesses and individual users bear the burden. An economic approach to email suggests an alternative that gives control to recipients and compensates them for their efforts, while ensuring the viability of email as a serious business tool. The idea of simply charging postage for email isn’t new; however, the idea of paying it to email recipients changes completely the way we think about postage and about email. Whether an economic email model could be implemented with today’s infrastructure is another question altogether. I’ll leave that to the anti-spam kooks searching for FUSSP.
David M. Kalman provides management consulting and services to publishers and marketers. Before that he was founder of Intelligent Enterprise magazine, and prior to that, the Editor-in-Chief of DBMS Magazine and Data Based Advisor.
Terrella Media’s David M. Kalman has announced he is now partnering with Minnick Web Services LLC as Product Manager/ePublishing. In this role, Kalman will direct new business development for Minnick’s eBook/eMag services. He will also contribute to Minnick’s ePublishing product strategy.
Designed for prominent sponsor and/or producer branding.
While publishing Intelligent Enterprise Magazine at Miller Freeman a decade ago, Kalman was one of Minnick’s first eBook customers. Since then, Minnick has produced more than 500 eBooks and eMags for several publishers.
Kalman says, “A Minnick eBook or eMag provides a Flash-based page-turning interface that supports a variety of media. While it may look similar to other ‘flip-book’ readers, there are critical differences behind the scenes. First, Minnick provides turn-key service. A publisher simply provides source documents (HTML files, Word docs, or PDFs) and Minnick designs, builds, and hosts the eBook. Second, a Minnick eBook provides integrated audience management including registration, tracking, and reporting.”
eBooks can be customized easily to match your brand.
Because a publisher can include qualifying questions in the registration process, a Minnick eBook serves as an ideal lead-generating tool. Publishers can aggregate a few articles on a specific topic, sell a sponsorship around the topic, deploy and promote the eBook, and then share the registration data (qualified leads) with the sponsor. With low overhead and fast turnaround, sponsors see immediate ROI. Minnick eBooks have generated from hundreds to thousands of leads.
Minnick Web Services is now offering a no-risk eBook trial. Contact David M. Kalman, 650-270-6712 or email dkalman@terrella.com.
As a long-time Costco member, I’m well-acquainted with The Costco Connection, Costco’s brand community publication with print distribution of more than 5 million (and a website).
Positioned as “a lifestyle magazine” for Costco’s business and executive members, The Costco Connection features a delightful goody bag of features and departments. The July 2005 issue featured wine, remodeling tips, popular books and more, along with monthly fixtures such as David Horowitz’s “Consumer Connection” and Suze Orman’s “Financial Connection.”
With a colorful, jam-packed format, The Costco Connection engages members with lively content while at the same time it unleashes a barrage of product placements, advertisements, and customer service pages (such as listings of Costco gas station locations). This approach certainly reflects the Costco brand, which exudes an enthusiastic but utilitarian consumerism that shouts: “Do NOT leave the warehouse without spending at least $200!”
The Costco Connection goes a long way in achieving the potential of brand community media. It’s a fine publication. But in the continuum from brand-focused to consumer-focused content, it falls somewhere in the middle and as such it leaves some marketing value on the table. Considering the vast number of copies it distributes, Costco selects its editorial content for broad appeal and easy reading. This makes it a quick read, and for me personally, less engaging than it could be. Still, I wouldn’t change a thing about The Costco Connection! As a flagship promotional vehicle, it works.
Instead of changing The Costco Connection, to engage members at a deeper level I would design new publications crafted for specific segments of the Costco “audience.” A Costco Small Business magazine could focus on productivity and office technology. A Costco Enterprise magazine could focus on management training and global commerce. Customer surveys may reveal other interests, such as health and fitness, environmental issues, and travel. For each of these topics, there’s a potential Costco-branded publication not to replace the Connection, but to supplement it. With greater consumer focus in the content, Costco could engage its members in deeper relationships. This would reinforce its brand image and provide opportunities to customize offers for higher value/higher margin sales.
