Friday, April 27, 2007

how much is customer worth to you? - Drayton Bird

I'm on a mailing list for Drayton Bird's Helpful Ideas. He's sending out 51 helpful ideas each day. Today's was number 35. Today's helpful idea is - how much is a customer worth? Not many people think about long term customer value. Drayton helps to explain why you should.
Remember, the currency of your business is customers - and act accordingly.

So the big marketing question is, "how much is customer worth to you?" If you've been in business for a while you can measure how long customers stay with you, and how much profit they provide in that time.

Then you discount the sum to determine what you can afford to recruit and retain a customer, allowing for a profit.It is true that some sales are not repetitive, but in those cases you can often, if not always, cross-sell other things.

The importance of customer value came home to a client who sold what they call an fmcg (fast moving consumer goods) product here - and packaged goods in the U.S. He asked me, "If the gross margin on one sale is 80 pence, how can I afford to send out direct mail at 100 pence a time?" I asked him if he knew the average value of a customer over time - not just one sale. He said he'd never given it a thought. And I said, "You can easily afford it if you know your average customer buys 200 packs a year and stays with you for five years - and you think not about making an immediate sale, but making and keeping a customer". He became my largest client. The same principle applies if you work out how many cars you can sell a customer over a lifetime. You can afford a series of very expensive direct communications - DVDs, books, lavish mailing packs and so forth.

But it all starts by thinking in terms not of expenditure, but return on investment, and taking a lot of trouble to try and assess what a customer is worth.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Hendersons has it's own myspace

Hendersons update

Just done a bit more surfing for Hendersons Relish. It's so popular in Sheffield it's got its own Myspace page. Its got loads of friends including Jarvis from Pulp.

the art of marketing without marketing - the ultimate viral campaign


I'm from Sheffield in the UK. Now Sheffield isn't famous for many things it a northern town which used to have a lot of industry mainly steel, you'll have heard of Sheffield Steel. It has a few famous rock stars too, Def Leopard (I can't stand them), Pulp, The Human League and recently the Arctic Monkeys.

But if you're from Sheffield there's one thing which connects you to everyone else in what's know as Yorkshire's biggest village.

Hendersons Relish

Hendersons Relish, is like black gold. It looks like Worcester sauce but is nothing like it, it's kind of sweet and sour and has a curious aftertaste too. There truly is nothing that compares to Hendersons Relish.

The strange thing about Hendersons is that, as far as I'm aware and I've lived Sheffield for 34 years, they have never, ever advertised. Nothing, not a sausage, not even sponsorship. Even the bottles are simplicity itself, they still have the same orange label they always have. In stores it is displayed in plain brown boxes, no point of sale.

Yet I guarantee that every house in Sheffield has a bottle and cherishes it. There is shouting if it's stew for tea that there's no Hendersons.

I put it all down to mystique marketing, the building for Hendersons has always been the same, you never see anyone enter or leave and there are no Hendersons delivery trucks. I've never heard anyone say they work there. Its as if the stuff just appears from thin air.

You can now order it on line as they've finally relented and built a very understated (what do you expect) website. Even that builds on the mystique.

Hendersons is truly the art of marketing without marketing.

Order some online now I guarantee you'll be hooked, just don't tell anyone just think it.

Friday, April 20, 2007

BEST Website Ever - WORST Product Ever

This website is almost too slick, the timing and pretence are amazing. It's just infulfilling at the end, a real shame



read more | digg story

Nude women and beer - the ultimate offer!

The Portman Group in the UK who look after the drinks industry have just banned Rubbel Sexy Lager from the UK. The ins and outs are that in the UK you can't say that drinking will enhance your sexual prowess.

The bottle has a picture of a Bikini Clad lady on the bottle. The fabric of the bikini is made from scratch able foil, underneath she's naked. Some older UK readers may remember when peanuts used to be sold in English pubs in much the same way. Each time a packet was bought it revealed more and more of a naked lady on the card holding the packets.

Search engines through the looking glass

I just found this great article on Search Engine Optimisation on a site I'd not come across before Stuntduble.com

It's a great article full of amazing information, take a look now.

Email campaigns the easy way

If you're working on a small budget, or maybe no budget email campaigns are very effective. The problem is that if you have a tight budget, you'll probably end up using Outlook or another email system to send your emails.

This is fine up to a limit. Once you get pass about 10 recipients it makes a real mess because you'd have to send them individually. Don't even think about using BCC or god forbid sending them as one mass email with all the addresses in.

The best think I've found to send out Email campaigns is Campaign Monitor. All you need to do is create your email. Load your list into their system and then click send. Campaign monitor has great in depth reporting, handles bouncebacks (sou don't get loads of undeliverable messages) and unsubscribes.

Added to all this the cost is fantastic. They charge a $5 set up charge per campaign and then $0.01 per email. I'm in the UK so an email campaign to 10,000 customers will only cost me £52.50.

The Return on Investment is a doddle at that cost to output.

Give it a go you won't be disappointed!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Getting things right when you write!

If you write any thing like me you probably have so many ideas to get onto your word document that they get mixed up. This happens especially when editing, you get half way through and decide to change tack in a sentence. In the creative haze it's easy to read what you want to read and over look errors. There are a couple of ways to help this.

  1. Use your spellcheck function, and make sure it's set to the correct language! Microsoft think that all English is US English. If you're audience is in the UK they won't appreciate z's in specialise and Americans want a z.
  2. Always, always have another person proofread your copy (maybe two or three).
  3. Listen to what they say.
  4. Use the 30 minute rule. Pretty much every thing can wait 30 minutes. Put your copy to one side for half an hour and then re-read it. Your spot a lot of thing you didn't before.
I just realised this is my 101st blog entry. When I started I didn't think I'd ever get this far - well done me!

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Where does all the jargon come from?

I'm sure you've sat in meetings where people come out with so-called "business speak".

'Run it up the flag pole and see who salutes' is my all time favourite.

Well I've found if not The source, a bloody good source of new business gibberish. Have a go at the Web Economy Bullshit Generator. It brings a whole new least of life to crap!

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Google tighten their grip

Google are tightening up the webmarketing world again with their purchase of DoubleClick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6554595.stm

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Top ranking factors for Google

Over on SEOMoz, they've just published a great report on the top ranking factors for Google. This is invaluable for anyone involved in web marketing and is a must read.

I just wish someone at Google would confirm or deny these. Still that would just ruin the fun of it.

Hotmail users miss out of great deals

Like most marketers I use email as one of my main routes to market. It's obvious why, it's cheap, quick, easy to test and gives instant results.

The hardest bit of doing email marketing though is the fact that some people are so afraid of email that they hide away and won't let you talk to them even when they've given you permission.

I'm taking mainly about Hotmail users, but plenty of other people are guilty as well.

Hotmail users feel more than happy to come and register on my site and ask for services. I'm grateful for that because without them I'd have no custom. The problem comes when I email them about offers which are relevant to them. Your average Hotmail user just hits the mark as spam button. (Sorry to tar all Hotmail users with the same brush). That's fine but there are more sensible ways to get out of receiving email.

On all my emails I include an unsubscribe link, click it and you're off the list no questions. I'm not a spammer and I really don't want to send emails to people who don't want to read them.

What am I doing about this? Easy Before I send any emails I remove Hotmail and a lot of other similar services from the list. That way I guarantee I won't get marked for Spam.

The sad bit is that due to a few users running loose with the mark as spam button no Hotmail etc customers ever get my emails, this probably means they don't get any others either. They must be missing out on some great deals and services, still it's their loss.

The lesson is, if you signed up for something by mistake of if the service isn't relevant any more just unsubscribe. Please!