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Postmarketing - New principles for a new age

Soapbox time!  I've been thinking a lot about how the dramatic changes in the global economy might affect my job as a marketer, and I have had the privilege to speak to a number of companies about how they are rethinking marketing.  So, I thought I would share my ideas with you via a SlideShare preso.

Please check it out, send it to others who might like it, and rate it.  I would love to hear your comments and feedback here, or in SlideShare.

*Disclaimer:  this is a preso, meant to be presented, so it leaves a bit to the imagination.  I will delve deeper on some of the concepts in the coming days, in blog posts.  Enjoy!

Postmarketing - new principles for the postmarketing age

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Marketing vs. sales is so last year

I came across a biased, uninformed, largely inflammatory (but otherwise a great read!) BNET post today called How Technology Killed Marketing.  While Geoffrey James's description of how the Internet has changed marketing is largely on-point, the conclusion is dead-wrong.

James contends that the ability to track the effectiveness of every lead (closed-loop marketing) has exposed, and therefore killed, marketing.  Sorry Mr. James, but the opposite is true.  The ability to track the effectiveness of every lead ALL THE WAY through to every sales channel and person only make marketing both more effective and more strategic.  Now, good messaging, positioning, creative and programs can be more easily and more quickly distinguished from bad... and good sales channels and sales people can easily be distinguished from bad - based on the right metrics.

At a previous company that I worked for, sales continually pined for "more leads".  But once we had the right closed-loop marketing systems installed and integrated into SF.com, we began to uncover interesting truths, like: the good sales people indeed did need more leads, but the bad (and quiet) ones actually were sitting on leads that good people could have closed; some leads were going into "black holes" because of empty territories, cherry picking, or someone's assumption that "all trade-show leads are bad"; etc.

Armed with the right tools and data, marketers helped sales come up with better lead distribution (including pushing many to the channel), improve programs to improve lead quality, and actually expose under-performing sales resources.  Not exactly what Mr. James had in-mind, I think.

For smart companies, marketing vs. sales is not an issue any more.  As I have often said, marketing is just selling to many, while sales is marketing to one.  The skills might be different, but the goals are algined.  Let's bury the hatchet.

Moneyball and March Madness

Alternate title for this post: Mega Jinx. But, I just can't help myself. As you know, I'm a big fan of Moneyball. You might also know that I'm a huge UNC fan - and they happen to field a basketball squad. So I'm hearing all these so-called basketball prognosticators on every possible sports media outlet prognosticate about how Washington State vs. UNC on Thursday night is going to be this great game - that Washington State "slows games down", and that could give UNC's fast-paced offense problems - especially since UNC plays "spotty defense". HELLO - has anyone actually looked at the STATS!?

So, with the keen appreciation that anything can happen in any one game (*me hoping to avoid the jinx*), allow me to do some of my own prognosticating - and, in the spirit of Moneyball, I will back-up my claims with empirical evidence. Here goes: Washington State has scored more than 76 points in exactly ONE game this season, and that was back in early November. UNC has scored 76 points or under only SIX times this season (half of those in November), and they won ALL SIX of those games. So, Washington State will have to play its best offensive game of the season (and hope UNC plays "spotty defense" - more on that later) AND most likely hold UNC to its worst offensive output of the season in order to win. To be fair, Washington State actually did hand their 2nd and 3rd round opponents (Notre Dame and Winthrop) to their lowest point totals of the season, so it can be done (if lightning strikes 3 times in a row).

But total points isn't the most interesting statistic (neither is avg. number of possessions per game, where UNC has 28% more than Washington State). Both points and possessions are naturally going to be higher even for UNC's opponents, because UNC sets a fast pace. More comparative statistics are: what is the likelihood that each team will score on each possession, and what is the avg. points-per-possession? In both categories, UNC leads Washington State. So, even if Washington State "slows down" the game by limiting possessions, UNC is the likely winner because they score more often (meaning they are more balanced on offense) and, on avg., more points-per-possession.

Now, let's address the "UNC plays spotty defense" claim. Again, like straight batting average in baseball, total points per game is a low value statistic. A much better defensive statistic is defensive points-per-possession allowed. In that category, Washington State bests UNC by (drum-roll please): .014 points-per-possession. For you liberal arts majors (myself included), that's about 1 point per 72 possessions - almost meaningless. So, effectively, UNC's defense is just as effective as Washington State's, statistically. Not to mention that UNC creates more steals-per-game, more blocks-per-game and has the best rebounding margin over its opponents in the nation.

Just to test my hypothesis, I looked at Notre Dame and Winthrop. Both of those teams have lower offensive points-per-possession and Notre Dame has a higher defensive points-per-possession (Winthrop on avg. plays a little better defense than Washington State, but in a much weaker conference). So, no matter the number of possessions, Washington State is the likely winner, statistically, of both those games.

So, based on this astute analysis, what say you? I say even the oddsmakers are sand-bagging at an 8-point spread: UNC 85, Washington State 68, in a not-close game.

CREDIT: For those of you who are as offended as I am by the fact-free prognosticators, I got all of these stats from an awesome website called Basketball State. You should check it out, and tell them I sent you!

Moneyball marketing... in the funnel

My friend David Burney (design guru and rockabilly lead singer) and I have a common affection for Michael Lewis's Moneyball - a story of how Billy Beane of the Oakland A's used Sabermetrics to compete effectively against much bigger competitors.  Turns out we aren't the only marketers who like this book - I saw this blog on BNET, which refers to Steve Rubel's original post.

Steve makes some great points, but he's largely staying in the realm of what marketers can control (targeting, media, etc.).  I think true insight comes from digging deep into the sales funnel and getting your hands dirty with the data you find there... this is the "sabermetrics", or objective evidence, that marketers had a hard time getting their hands on before on-demand CRM and closed-loop marketing technologies.  Just like Bill James figured out that batting average is of limited statistical use in baseball, marketers might find that click-through rates are of limited use when you can get your hands on metrics like "convert-to-opportunity" percentage, "days-in-sales-cycle by tactic", or "avg. deal size by marketing vehicle (or by keyword, or by website)".  The possibilities that unfettered access to sales funnel data gives to marketers are endless... and marketers who understand and use that data will be able to outflank much bigger competitors just like Billy Beane does.

AppExchange Bling: Omniture Closed-Loop Marketing

As you might have guessed, I truly believe that sf.com is a killer app for marketers.  But if sf.com is the iPhone, Omniture's Closed-Loop Marketing is the multi-touch interface.  If you've ever tried to slop together campaign or lead-related reports in sf.com, you understand what I mean - it's downright clunky.  But Omniture's Closed-Loop Marketing was designed from the ground up by marketers, so it quickly gets at the information and reports that a marketer wants.

You can slice and dice campaigns by pretty much any angle you can think of:  by marketing vehicle, by channel, by lead quality, by deal size, by spend - even by sales rep.  Want to see how a campaign  played out in the east region vs. the west region - you got it!  Want to compare your Google keywords to your webinars - no problem!  Want to see how deal size was affected by marketing tactic - Yahtzee!  Seriously, Omniture's reporting prowess and expertise in web analytics, applied to the whole marketing lifecycle, is a powerful combination.

And I'm not just saying all of this because Omniture paid for my trip to Dreamforce (the fruit basket was a nice touch, btw).

Measuring marketing's suckage (or lack thereof)

In a previous post, I referred to the oft-heard "marketing sucks" claim from sales.  Okay, that might be true sometimes.  It's no secret - marketing struggles with proving its value to the organization.  But that's not a reason to wilt in the face of opposition.

Quite the contrary.  Because of technology and customer buying habits, marketing has never been in a better position to both NOT suck, but also to PROVE it.  The confluence of web tracking technologies, e-mail marketing, search marketing, and, most importantly, on-demand CRM provides the first real opportunity to get this right.  I have a lot more to say on this front... stay tuned.   

Proving Marketing's ROI from Dreamforce 07

Keep those votes coming!  We've made the first page of the most popular Dreamforce 07 presos - I presented with Mike Chertudi and Chad Sollis from Omniture on closed-loop marketing, on behalf of Red Hat.  Check it out.