SAS and aiMatch bring advanced analytics to digital advertising

Wilson Raj
Wilson Raj|February 22, 2012

In the digital advertising space publishers—large and small—are operating in a complicated, fragmented environment, affected by the impact of digital, the collapse of traditional advertising economics, and the pain of legacy technologies.  In this same environment, brands and ad buyers are demanding more accountability, effectiveness, and flexibility in their placements.

Against this backdrop, SAS announced exciting news: the acquisition of aiMatch, an ad-serving technology company. So, what’s the leading provider of customer analytics and integrated marketing management capabilities doing with an innovator in cloud-based, digital ad server solutions? Well, the answer, specifically, is our joint shared passion for the power of data and how it propels businesses. More broadly, however, the answer lies within the 3 C’s that are emblematic in our marketing and digital advertising domains: Convergence, Complexity, and Confusion.

The 3 C’s, much like Escher’s famous prints on “impossible structures,” are inextricably linked. There’s no linear sequencing of beginning cause and effect, or starting and ending points. Each C loops into itself and with the other two C’s simultaneously, producing a convoluted landscape that’s hard to decode. So, let’s look at specific examples or illustrations that typify each C and how analytics-powered digital advertising and marketing shifts the paradigm.

Convergence

The advertising industry, along with ever other media industry, is having to deal with the implications of convergence in the digital realm. Facebook is now a universal content and media platform. Mobile culture is becoming a global phenomenon. Content is immediate and intimate. Not only that, content is curated and co-created through peers and consumers in social platforms. Video advertising is growing at warp speed. And amidst all, this we have gamification and apps.

Convergence is about allowing one channel to take advantage of the features and benefits offered through other channels or outlets. The convergence of channels, platforms, ideas, content, revenue streams, and technologies necessitates that ad publishers, ad networks, ad-servers, and brands, each look at their respective environments in a more holistic manner.

The upshot: Analytic-driven advertising and marketing enables you to move from “connected” to “meaningful” experiences. In the digital sphere, getting it right at the onset gives businesses tremendous advantage. It makes every single message you send relevant to the people who want to hear from you. With deep analytics capabilities, ad servers can leverage the audience profile data in their workflow to allow publishers to sell highly targeted ads. From a marketer’s stance, behavioral segmentation derived from customer intelligence can help pinpoint and calibrate their digital ad buying for optimal effect.

Complexity

The ad technology landscape is constantly morphing. We have new technologies related to data management and analysis platforms, ad operations tools, sell-side platforms, yield optimizers, attribution management tools, ad-delivery engines, and more. Further, we are seeing emergence of new digital advertising assets such as mobile, digital out-of-home (DOOH), and digital interactive signage. For instance, consumers within a certain range (from three to 300 feet) of a retail store can receive relevant advertisements, offers or communications through their Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices. Today, more than 90% of mobile phones sport this capability.

Delivering content at the right moments of maximum influence, amidst current and emerging channels, certainly becomes a daunting endeavor. And it’s only going to get even more complicated.

The upshot: Amidst this complexity, there is a clarion call for “contextualized experiences” customized around user profiles, content preferences, timing, and location. Marketers want more relevant, real-time interactivity that celebrates the uniqueness of each medium—and that is integrated with other multi-channel customer touches. The digital ad community desires greater precision in targeting, providing real-time value, and extracting revenue from their assets and services.

Confusion

Confusion in the digital advertising arena typically expresses itself in making sense of “results” and orchestrating actions in a meaningful way. In a recent eMarketer report, 24% of marketing heads globally find online metrics hard to understand. Also, findings indicate that execs are most concerned with inability to quantify financial impact of their digital marketing programs. The same report shows that 32% are put off by the inability to generate customer insight from digital marketing campaigns, as many of the ad metrics pertain to ad performance but not bottom-line performance.

Another popular digital issue at ad conferences is the question of real-time bidding (RTB)—bidding individually on every single ad impression based on audience and cost, instead of bulk amounts of ad impressions. A recent report from the Rubicon Project (with Econsultancy and supported by trade groups such as AOP and IAB) suggest that publishers are seeing 20% lift in display ad revenue due to RTB. However, the report also highlights that one third of ad publishers do not work with ad network due to channel conflict (where publishers pitch direct) and data leakage (unknowing transfer of audience data from one party to another). This further amplifies the confusion of how to reconcile competing actions or objectives.

The upshot: Ad vendors who can transparently process and manage inventory in real-time, sell in an automated fashion through the variety of business models (ad exchanges, ad networks, and direct), and provide unparalleled audience targeting is going to be best suited to meet market needs. For marketers, analytics becomes the glue of the digital marketing suite that helps coordinate, design and execute across ad-serving, bid management, content management, social, mobile, web, email, etc. Marketers will also more fully appreciate the financial and customer impacts of every digital advertising/marketing action taken.

Industry conversations on brand publishers diving into a data-driven world have been in the works and continue to gain momentum. Yes, the new combination of SAS and aiMatch will surely extend integrated marketing management capabilities and provide deeper analytic rigor for digital advertising. But more important, advanced analytics and intelligence will play a transformational role for businesses and advertisers who want to excel in a digital world that continues to converge, become more complex, and be confusing to navigate.

What are your thoughts around the convergence, complexity, and confusion in digital marketing and digital advertising? Let me know what you think.

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Neuromarketing - creepy relationship management...or just what the doctor ordered?

John Bastone
John Bastone|February 17, 2012

Wired had an interesting article recently, discussing how “Darpa,” the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) research agency, is requesting proposals for implantable biosensors. Darpa is interested in the application of this technology for “real-time, accurate measurements of ‘DoD-relevant biomarkers’ including stress hormones, like cortisol, and compounds that signal inflammation, like histamine.”

One need only think about how such information could be advantageous to a military overseeing the field of combat to realize why there’s serious money and intellect behind this.

Technology Innovation In The Public Sector

The marketer in me, immediately started thinking about the commercial applications of biosensor technologies that we could one day see.  “Blasphemy” you might say, “the government would never let such a technology propagate to commercial interests.” Well, let’s consider some of the technologies first pioneered by government interests, which were later commercialized:

  • The Internet - Kick started by Darpa mandate to interconnect the US DoD's main computers with the Pentagon
  • Global Positioning Systems - Created and realized by DoD
  • Mobile Phones -Has origins in ship-to-shore radio telephony pioneered in World War 2
  • Computer Chips - Texas Instruments pioneering work in the first integrated circuit was heavily influenced by a U.S. Army micromodule concept linking ceramic squares (precursor to silicon wafers)
  • Satellites - The Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 triggered the space race, and has led to our orbit being littered with thousands of satellites we interact with in communicating, consuming content, or seeing our houses on google maps.

Consumer Implications

It seems to at least this author that the public sector has a pretty terrific track record of fueling innovations that are eventually embraced by the private sector in ways we couldn’t have imagined. And in fact, there's already evidence of this bleeding into the private sector in a field aptly called neuromarketing, which is overlaying the science of  interpreting physiological responses to stimuli, with the practice of marketing.

So think about Darpa's work progressing far beyond reading stress levels in troops, and a future where our heart rate, hunger, blood sugar, stress level or weight, can be streamed in real-time. Think about that information flowing somewhere, an iPhone, an app, a social network.  Invasion of privacy? Not to consumers who demand it. Heart rate is invaluable to those training for a marathon. Understanding blood sugar levels can be critical to diabetics. Weight is something millions already monitor each day, especially this time of year.

Marketer Implications

As valuable as that could be to consumers, what do you suppose that information could be worth to a business? What’s it worth, to McDonalds, to know the exact moment you are hungry? Or to Weight Watchers, when your Body Mass Index spikes after eating that Big Mac? Or to Budweiser, when you are craving that beer to wash down that burger? Or to your doctor, who has told you to drink more water, and less beer?

Model of machine-brain interface allowing me to type this blog & order pizza by just thinking about it. Courtesy technologyreview.com (April 19, 2010)

Now, this is about the creepiest scenario I can think of, and may indeed be far-fetched. But we need only to reflect on how today, many of us willingly exchange information about ourselves about where we work, what we purchase , where we live , where we eat and who we are friends with. In each of the ways we willingly give a piece of our identities to the cloud, we expect value in return, such as easier professional networking, discounts on premium coffee, real-time appraisals of your home, good reviews on where to eat, or streamlined communications with your friends. That's the quid pro quo arrangement marketers must continually reconcile with consumers.

Customer Data Explosion

The challenge for marketers is that with each new channel, insights about their own customers are not ebbing in volume, they have been flowing. When Facebook was started, Mark Zuckerberg was thinking about easing the friction involved in making friends (and friends with benefits), not about enabling businesses to have "friends". When twitter started, it probably seemed ridiculous to think about an explosion of social media analytics software monitoring brief bursts of text as a means to better understand fast evolving consumer preferences.

But apparently, companies like Ford and Zappos, have seen beyond the intended use of these platforms, to profoundly change how they market to their customers. They see these new channels as another way to listen to, leverage insights from and engage with, their customers. These companies, and others like them, who establish foundations in culling customer insights beyond just who we are, and what we buy, to add value to their consumers, while better humanizing their brands serve as bellwethers on how businesses can restructure their operations around increased insights available in emerging technologies. Future successes in business are no doubt rooted in some of the imaginative marketing practices happening in immerging channels today. As long as they aren't creepy about it.

And who knows? It might not be so bad to be a consumer of the future. Hunger pain one minute, instant offer for pizza from my favorite restaurant the next. I could get used to that. As long as I “unfriend” my doctor first.

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Customer engagement: The new imperative for health care

Kelly Miller
Kelly Miller|February 9, 2012

Greetings! My name is Kelly Miller and I am a marketer at SAS, focused specifically on the health care industry for 8 years now.  And what an intriguing industry it is!  Technology and market demands have led to dramatic changes, and now that health care reform is driving innovation, it's become even more interesting (it’s also one of those industries that happens to affect every single American). My role at SAS is to manage field marketing campaigns and generate leads for the health care team, and I'm part of a larger group of marketers that cover multiple industries, personas and solutions.

Being part of that larger group enables me to borrow best practices from my peers in industries like retail, financial services, pharma, etc.; but until now, I didn’t realize just how much health care would need to start imitating the marketing practices of those other industries. As I look back at some of our marketing plans for health care from several years ago, the end goals really haven’t changed all that much. In addition to enabling customer retention and marketing optimization, SAS solutions still help health care organizations detect fraud, improve outcomes, gain efficiencies and cut medical costs. SAS’ top goal is still to help our customers provide better care at a lower cost. But until now, customer intelligence just didn’t play a big part. With health care reform, that may change - consumers will now play a far more significant role in the health insurance decision-making process…and insurers will need to embrace tools that help them understand and engage with individuals.

While the Affordable Care Act will expand access to coverage to millions of Americans, there several provisions that will go into effect simultaneously on January 1, 2014, creating the potential for disruption of insurance markets in many states. Along with this new layer of regulatory complexity, there’s a HUGE degree of uncertainty facing insurers. Millions of new individual purchasers will enter into the market. Some employers may consider “dumping” their health care plans. Consumers will demand tailored products and services, going against the former one-size-fits-all mentality of health care. With all the controversy and ambiguity surrounding reform, what health insurers should know is that to be successful in this unfamiliar retail environment, they must quickly develop the ability to connect in a way that drives value for the individual, rather than for the group purchaser.

Health plans will need to make better use of their data - but do they have the capabilities to join the masses of other consumer-centric companies that trust their data and use it to drive business decisions? First, many insurers just don’t have much experience with data-driven marketing efforts. The extent of their consumer-directed marketing activities is typically limited to initiatives that drive acquisition and program engagement, or are focused on just a few methods of outreach. Second, their business model was never built around what consumers want or what they are willing to pay for; instead, it has been structured around what employers and consultants think is best.

No matter the industry, customer-centric organizations all seem to have one thing in common: a commitment to using customer data and predictive analytics to power the complex decisions they make on a daily basis. While marketing departments are just one of many within health plans, they are quickly becoming very significant. The question is – are health plans ready to build a deeper understanding of their members? If other industries – like the airlines, financial services, and telecommunications – could undergo regulatory changes and transform into consumer-driven organizations, who says health insurers can’t? Besides, engaging consumers in their own health and influencing their choices will no doubt create lasting value and measurable outcomes.

My goal with engaging in this blog is not only to highlight the increasing importance of customer analytics for the health care industry, but also to learn! Over the next few months I’ll share updates on the industry and how SAS is helping address the challenges. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment, or sharing my posts with others. In case you can’t tell, I love being a marketer AND focusing on health care - it ranks right up there with my love for Tar Heel basketball and Chicago adult dodgeball leagues.

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Banking segmentation and the Super Bowl

Felicia Ramsey
Felicia Ramsey|February 7, 2012

As a new contributor to SAS’ Customer Analytics blog, let me introduce myself. I’m a SAS field marketer focused on integrated campaigns, digital strategy and the marketing investment for Financial Services in the US. As a marketer, I always take an interest in the Super Bowl commercials.  The $3.5M spent per spot to reach such a broad cross-section of the population astounds me. Now, I am not denying the entertainment value, but is this approach the “magic bullet” of marketing? Whether you prefer the return of Ferris Bueller or the Clint Eastwood ad (or were partial to the David Beckham spot, like me) you have to wonder whether these advertisers see the ROI on these mega-millions. Can such a mass-marketing approach have the same kind of impact as using customer analytics for smart, targeted and customer-centered campaigns?

There has been tremendous progress in recent years in how we can segment and target customers using analytics.  The ability to accurately predict customer behavior in real-time is intriguing and happening today.  Analytics is the key to understanding customers. Using analytics, we can leverage customer data to create highly defined segments, and we can tailor offers that specifically cater to those individual needs.

While the concept of customer segmentation is not new to banking, there is a shift towards becoming more customer-centric. In the past, banks were far more concerned with products and offerings, and banking is now at a pivotal point where the priorities have shifted. An increased focus on the customer and the customer experience is becoming fundamental to the way banks operate. A new report from BAI Research highlights the importance of understanding customer needs and conveys ideas on how to address them.  Banks are using analytics to optimize their marketing investment so that they can do more with less, at the right time, in the right channel with the most appropriate customers.

To learn more on this topic, SAS is co-hosting a Webinar with BAI on February 14, 2012 at 2:00pm ET. This Webinar will highlight the banking segmentation research completed by BAI and will include the perspective of Leroy Abrahams, EVP of Suntrust Bank. The panelists will share the insights and practical information necessary to develop customer segmentation strategies, and will describe how analytics is the key to finding the best opportunities for exponential revenue growth and greater ROI -- and rather than $3.5M commercials, isn't that the real marketing “magic bullet”?

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Thoughts on the Forrester Wave and campaign management

John Bastone
John Bastone|February 6, 2012

In my view of things, as a (semi) professional in software product marketing focused on the needs of direct marketers, with the possible exception of “CRM”, there may be no term more abstract, than that of “campaign management”. Seriously.  I help market and sell campaign management software, yet very few know what that really means. Why is that? We all get mail, some of it actually targeted, some more of it unfortunately mistargeted, doesn’t anyone think about how that stuff makes it to our house?

Even Wikipedia, my go to source on all things abstract, has one entry on political campaigns, and a separate entry with only a few paragraphs on the term, mostly dealing with automated dialing systems (I'll be fixing that shortly).

So the experience of reading Forrester Research biennial gospel of what it calls, the “Forrester Wave: Cross-Channel Campaign Management (PDF),” is like experiencing a glass of water after months in the desert (or in my case, a cold beer before Super Bowl kickoff). Beyond Forrester and Gartner, few independent voices are really talking these days about campaign management in a substantitive way, what with all the chatter around “SOCIAL”, “CRM”, “INTEGRATED MARKETING” (OK, admittedly some of that is my own). For any of you, who like me, used to work in direct marketing, and actually, managed campaigns, do yourself a favor and read this report.

Forrester's process is actually pretty interesting. Imagine you are a software vendor, and have to do the following:

  • Explain in great detail, what it is that makes you exceedingly qualified to be in this space
  • Prove it with references who will talk about their experience using your software to solve real problems
  • Prove it with more references who will fill out surveys about how they use your software to solve real problems
  • Prove it by articulating a vision of the future of campaign management using your best “thought leader” voice
  • Prove it by showing real software, working through real marketing scenarios, delivering real results, in a live on-site session

It don't want to say its grueling, but I am currently lacking a synonym more apt than grueling. Regardless, by going through this process, Forrester simultaneously educates the greater marketing community on essentially the state of campaign management, while also delivering what is in essence, an evaluation of how each software company is doing relative to its peer group. Here’s an analogy: They are like the annual Consumer Reports car issue, but instead rating new cars, they are rating campaign management software.

I won’t spoil the story (OK a hint, I'd be writing about something else if we did poorly), but in reading through the research, here are some themes I observed:

  1. Campaign Management, ain’t just about managing campaigns anymore – The sheer breadth of capabilities they researched shows they weren't evaluating companies in their ability to pull lists of customers, they were evaluating how software could help run every aspect of a marketing organization's operations. Apparently, if you want to compete in today’s cross-channel campaign management marketplace, you need to account for setting up marketing plans, consolidating customer information, being able to analyze it, being able to manage offers, across channels, optimally, in real-time. No one in interested in hiring staff to glue a dozen different systems together to help a marketing department run. So helping a company pull a list of households from a postal code and orchestrating the blast of a catalog isn’t really going to cut it anymore to compete in this space.
  2. Conversations must be managed centrally, in a…you guessed it, Cross-Channel Campaign Management platform – I am paraphrasing that bit, but the point is the same. Many of the customers polled as the basis of this research, say that newer channels such as social and mobile, need to be centrally managed, to ensure consistent communications cross channel. And what all of that means, is that campaign offer can be a direct mail, or it can be a tweet, or it can be a text message, or it can be a call center representative soliciting with a specific offer. All must be accounted for in one system of record.
  3. Campaign Management is still not mainstream – One stat jumped out at me.  Only 40% of marketers surveyed by Forrester were using some sort of campaign management system. For all of talk about 360 view of the customer, enabling 1:1 dialogs, having personalized offers for your customers, the reality is, most marketers have no such system to pull this off.

These were some of my takeaways, but again, feel free to draw your own conclusions by reading the report.

To close, I’d be remiss in not mentioning how truly humbled and excited many of us at SAS are by the validation much of this research means to our own, nearly ancient history (in the technology world time) in this space. In many ways, tracing SAS’s advancement in this space, parallels the ever increasing importance of Customer Intelligence being the glue which binds the integrated marketing management processes of some of the best run marketing organizations on the planet. For those of us Customer Intelligence lifers who have been preaching the gospel of customer centricity, Forrester’s research reads like a solid “Amen”.

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New research papers: marketing strategies of banks and supermarkets

Charles Randall
Charles Randall|January 30, 2012

Whose mobile communications are hitting the spot?  Which broadcast strategy helps banks make an emotional connection with their customers? Who sends out such badly targeted e-mails that customers see them as less personally relevant than a TV advert? The answer to these questions may surprise you.

Our recent survey of customers multichannel experience, ‘Pleased to Meet You’, provides the answer to these and many other such questions.  We’ve just published two new research papers that specifically examine the marketing strategies of banks and supermarkets to find out what works for them, and where they need to try harder.  They are now available for download here:

Unfortunately we don’t have the space inside this blog to go into all the findings from these papers, but at least we can answer the three questions above.

Banks below the line channel performance

Whose mobile communications is hitting the spot?

The surprise hit channel for Banks is their uses of SMS messaging.  Many banks in the UK have started providing mobile alerts for everything from accounts approaching overdrafts, to checking against fraud.  And the customers love it. In fact it is the only direct channel that the banks use which lives up to the promise of personalised and relevant communications designed to engage with the customer and build brand satisfaction.  Sadly the same cannot be said of banks direct mail efforts which are generally somewhat less well received.

 

 

Which broadcast strategy helps banks make an emotional connection with their customers?

Banks broadcast media performance

Of all the broadcast channels that banks employ, only one really seems to hit home, and then only to a relatively small audience.  And that strategy is sports sponsorship.  At the time of the survey a major international rugby tournament was underway, and this registered a significant presence in our survey.  Whilst rugby was the event that showed through at the time of the survey, it would be quite reasonable to assume that fans of other sports would be equally likely to derive an emotional attachment to their banks, mobile phone companies etc as a result of sponsorship of other sporting events.  Interestingly, the segment of customers for whom sponsorship worked were also the segment most antagonistic to other channels, so for those customers this forms an important channel.

 

Which sector sends out such badly targeted e-mails that they are seen as less personally relevant to their customers than a TV advert?

E-mail vs Direct mail marketing by supermarkets

Shockingly supermarkets, the masters of direct mail, do not appear to apply the same disciplines of personalisation and targeting to their e-mail communications. The performance gap between these two theoretically similar channels is dramatic to say the least.  Whilst e-mails are seen to be a cheap form of marketing, it is doubtful that a strong incentive to improve performance in these areas.  But faced with declining open rates, and the raising of other e-mail barriers, maybe we need to understand that the cost of poorly targeted e-mails lies in the damage it does to our relationships with our customers, and that is too valuable an asset to so lightly disregard.

I hope you found these snippets from the research interesting.  I would encourage you to download the two papers as there is much more insight contained within.

This research was carried out in partnership with Professor Hugh Wilson of Cranfield School of Management and MESH Planning.  The initial findings, including a fascinating behavioural segmentation of customer preferences, were published in ‘Pleased to Meet You: How different customers prefer very different channels.’

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Big SAS at Retail's Big Show

John Balla
John Balla|January 12, 2012
During January 15 - 18, 2012 in New York City, the National Retail Federation will conduct its 101st annual "Retail's BIG Show" and once again SAS will be there in a big way.  The retail industry is a big deal at SAS and SAS benefits retailers in a big way, with more than 600 of the world's leading retailers using SAS to stay competitive.
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Retailers use SAS to drive better results by addressing business issues, such as  integrated merchandise planning, price optimization, space planning, assortment planning and optimization, and customer issues, such as online customer experience analytics, contact policy, campaign management and social media analytics.
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Get more details when you visit SAS in Booth 1352, where you can hear firsthand about the important trends and technology shaping the future of retail and learn what you need to do to keep your business competitive.  There are several exciting opportunities during the conference that you won't want to miss:
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  • Three BIG !dea sessions in Room 3D09:
    -  Winn-Dixie Stores on Monday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m.
    -  DSW Inc. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 10:15 a.m.
    -  Sobeys Inc. and Liverpool on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 11 a.m.
  • Free book offer: Pick up Retail Analytics: The Secret Weapon in Booth 1352.
  • Book a meeting with a SAS specialist and see a plethora of product demos.
In addition to all that, you can charge your devices for no charge in the SAS booth charging station for smartphones, PDAs, cell phones and other gadgets.
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Marketers in all industries should always keep an eye on the retail industry because retailing is the essence of a market - the storefront / cash register / online shopping cart literally represents the intersection of the “supply” curve and the “demand” curve.   In addition, the interplay of customer issues and business issues in retail means that sound brand management, where communicatons are aligned with operations, is critical to success.  As a result, each of the SAS demos at the show are important, so don't miss any of them!
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In this blog, we discuss the issues marketers face in evolving relationships for business growth, so based on what SAS has planned for NRF 2012, I hope it’s clear that our focus is on being the company that companies turn to for business solutions.   So if you’re in New York next week, visit SAS at NRF 2012, otherwise please visit www.sas.com for more details.
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Five ways to evaluate influence without using Web site graders

Alison Bolen
Alison Bolen|January 9, 2012

Without fail, at every social media conference I attend, someone will approach the microphone during the Q&A portion of a presentation and ask the speaker or the panelsts, "How are you measuring influence for your blogger outreach programs?" Or, "How can we replicate what you're doing to decide whether certain online personalities are influential?"

The answer given is always the same. And that is: there is no easy answer. "We just know what we're looking for," is often the response. Or, "There's no formula that will work for everyone. You have to decide for yourselves what you're looking for and then find a way to identify those people."

They're not just dodging the question. The bottom line, frankly, is that there is no single place to plug in a name or a URL and get an answer to the influence question. Sites like Klout, Alexa, Hootsuite and Technorati have all attempted to become the go-to place to measure influence, but they're really just one piece of the puzzle.

I have at least five steps I like to take before I even look at those sites - if I look at them at all. In my world, the questions posed to me often sounds like this, "Is it worth my time to comment on this particular blog?" Or, "There are too many blogs out there. How do I decide if I should add this one to my rss reader?"

These are the first steps I take when answering that question:

  1. Evaluate the content first. If the content of the site fits your area of interest and you enjoy reading it or have a reaction to it, others might as well. If you would enjoy reading and commenting there regularly, and your extended audience would also find the content useful or engaing, that is the most important thing.
  2. Evaluate the site's community. Who else is commenting there? Who is the blogger linking to? Do you recognize names you know?
  3. Do a Google search for the blog author's name. This is basic research. Has the blogger written any books? Have they been quoted in the media? Are there other credentials that show up in a basic search?
  4. Do a Google blog search for the author's name and for the URL of the blog. This will reveal whether other bloggers are linking to the author's blog - and how often.
  5. Do a Twitter search for the author's name and the blog URL. This will reveal who is tweeting about the author and the author's blog.

I compare the exercise to the same thought processes you use when hiring event speakers. It's not all about the the numbers. The most expensive speaker is not always the best speaker for you. The one with the most books or the best reviews is not necessarily the best pick for your event. You want to hire the speaker who will resonate with your audience and align with the messaging of your event. It's the same when evaluating a blog. Become a regular reader and commenter at the blogs that align with your own goals and those that will resonate with you and your audience.

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SAS uses its own solutions to boost conversion rates

Justin Huntsman
Justin Huntsman|January 2, 2012

Happy New Year!

As we begin 2012, I think we can all agree there is no question that the explosion of digital technology over the past few years has redefined the relationship between vendor and customer. With so much product and vendor information just a click or a tap away, customers are more informed – and empowered – than ever.

Buyers have instant access to every piece of marketing material about a company and its competitors. And social media allows them to solicit and receive real-time opinions from peers, colleagues and complete strangers across the company, across the industry and across the world.

Recognizing this, we now engage prospects in meaningful two-way conversations online, using SAS Customer Intelligence, including SAS Marketing Automation for effective, efficient campaigns and SAS Digital Marketing for relevant e-mail messaging.

Using SAS to manage lead processes, we've seen a 10 percent jump in conversion rates. Click-through rates have soared more than four-fold, and campaign response rates have improved more than 100 percent.

Using SAS Marketing Optimization, we've slashed targeted blast lists by an average of 48 percent, thus lowering opt-out rates by 43.75 percent and increasing click-through rates by 15.56 percent.

Curious how we did it?

You can read the full success story, SAS marketing team boosts lead-to-sales-opportunity conversion rates by double digits, to learn how we:

  • Implemented a lead-nurturing strategy (read Trust a skinny cook? for details on our lead nurturing strategy).
  • Used a scoring method to separate casual browsers from active buyers.
  • Automated email communications to visitors according to next-best-offer in the nurturing cycle.

 

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The holiday jingle marketing mashup

John Balla
John Balla|December 23, 2011

According to Wikipedia, marketing with music can roughly be traced back to 1923 with the dawn of commercial radio broadcasting.  What we now know as a "jingle" first aired on Christmas Eve in 1926, touting the merits of General Mills' Wheaties cereal.  As we all know, musical messages have since become a staple for advertisements on broadcast and other electronic media because they are very effective.  There's no denying that the catchy tunes stick with you, so the intended messages stick with you, too.

As many of us may be aware, holiday music also stays with you- they are often catchy, upbeat tunes that you hear repeatedly and they end up stuck in your head.  For me, it rings especially true because, as I mentioned in my 2010 holiday message, a holiday music soundtrack runs an ongoing loop in my head this time of year.

In that context, I offer this opportunity to hear a few holiday music staples mashed up with key themes explored in this blog during 2011.  THe list below has links to the related tags embedded in the titles.  For best results, please read/sing these out loud with the corresponding holiday tunes in your voice:

Do You Search What I Search?
"Said the analyst to the website's tags:
Tell me who has surfed here!
What terms struck a chord ev'ry time?
Tell me where they surfed next!"

Rockin' Around the Nurtured Leads
"...adding value to the funnel!
Customer interest at all time highs,
Tells me campaigns 're meaningful."

Hark! The Cust'mer Database Sings!
"...Meaningful segmen-ta-tion!
Fewer bad inter-actio-ons,
cust'mers hear our messages."

Feliz Sentiments!
"Feliz Sentiments! Feliz Sentiments!
Feliz Sentiments picked up with social media analytics!
I wanna know what people 're sayin'!
I wanna know how to respo-ond!
I want to know about the viral storm before it starts to fo-orm!"

Grandma Got Run Over in Realtime
"...chatting live with contact center reps!
Without access to the correct profile,
we lost the chance to meet her needs right then!"

Walking in Retention Wonderland
"eMails work - but if you're list'ning!
If you're not - they're just annoying!
A beautiful sight, an opt-in tonight!
Walking in retention wonderland!"

And for continued excellent results in the coming new year, let's end by bringing you back to the best first step in any data-driven marketing plan:

Auld Lang Data
Should data quality be forgot,
Your decision making suffers!
The first step in good marketing
Is to get your data clean!"

As always, I'd love to hear your suggestions for other topics you'd like to see explored in 2012.  You can also propose any of your own holiday music - marketing mashups.  Either way, I appreciate your following and look forward to another great year in 2012.  Happy Holidays!  JB

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