The new face of Direct Marketing

Direct marketing refers to any marketing that has direct contact with a consumer. In a changing communication landscape, this means that social media can be defined as direct marketing activity, but, as Roger Warner of Content & Motion considers, the fundamentals remain the same: personalisation, privacy and relevance. 

Direct marketing should target the right people - the advent of sophisticated spam filters means many users won't even get a glimpse of your mail shot, so you've got to give users a reasons to focus their attention. Consider whether the recipient of the message will truly find it of value - investing time, money and effort into something that will only add to the mass 'noise' already dominating the Web is not cost-effective and means you run the risk of eroding your brand. Organisations that win are those that engage in positive and useful communications with their customers and prospects. We're all bombarded on a daily basis by marketing messages, but features like the Facebook News Feed force you as an organisation to provide likeable, relevant content, based on the principle that the more engagement you get - 'likes' - the more visibility you gain. 

Keep it relevant - if you've got a large database of customers, it's worth analysing what you already know about them. Use demographic tools, and personalise your mail so it resonates with your customer.

If you only remember one thing when utilising direct marketing, it's privacy: only stick to a mailing list where customers have provided their consent to receiving mail or updates from your organisation. NEVER forget the Golden Rule: it is a legal requirement to give recipients the option to 'opt-out'. Go the extra mile by making it clear how a user can unsubscribe - customer satisfaction, even of the customers you are losing, is paramount.

First, we had the website; then came email, and now we've got the Facebook Revolution. Whilst I've no doubt the communication landscape will continue to evolve, it's worth considering an analogy that Dave Kerpen (2011) provides, which nicely sums up using social media for direct marketing:

"With Facebook, you have the added advantage of performing [all of these processes] in a place where 600 million or so of your customers are hanging out. It's the idea of fishing where the fish are, rather than expecting fish to come to your boat, or in this case, your website" (p169)

Social media tools exploit man's desire to interact with his fellows, and so utilising these channels to directly market yourself to your audience - so long as you're engaging, relevant and timely - is a pretty smart move. 

Measurement and The Barcelona Principles

Values are required in all departments of an organisation, not just PR; measurement is an everyday tool, and a vital one at that.

At a conference I attended last summer on the strategic value of PR, Mike Daniels from the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) claimed that only 11% of clients asked for social media measurement. He went on to say that in the majority of cases this is mostly handled by marketing, product departments, R&D - any department except communications.

As organisations adapt to the radical change in the communication landscape - and with it, the realisation that social media is here to stay - measurement falls low on the agenda, as comms teams focus on integration and convincing the board to permanently direct resource to social media functions.

It's hardly surprising that measuring online channels is afforded little priority, given that the measurement of long-established traditional methods, such as print, are questionable. The crude debate of using advertising value equivalent (AVE's) is as prevalent as ever, with its supporters claiming it justifies the existence of the PR function to non-marketers, whilst those opposing it decry its failure to capture outcome, message delivery or presence on online channels. Furthermore, the multipliers used by organisations vary wildly, and are often random and therefore not credible - AMEC found multipliers ranging from 0.5 to 7 when it researched its use in organisations.

In response to this debacle, The Barcelona Principles were established in 2010 as a joint venture between AMEC, the CIPR, the PRSA and the Global Alliance for Public Relations, in order to agree a set of evaluation and measurement guidelines. The Principles are, in brief:

1. The importance of goal setting and measurement - goals should be as quantitative as possible and address the who, what, when and how much impact is expected from a PR campaign. Traditional and social media should both be measured as well as changes in stakeholder awareness, comprehension, attitude and behaviour.

2. Media measurement requires quality - this principles considers that taking a figure on the amount of coverage received, for example, is meaningless. Instead, media measurement should account for the tone, credibility of the source and media outlet in order to determine the value, and should also consider message delivery, prominence and visual dimension. Crucially, quality can positive, neutral or negative.

3. AVE's are not the value of PR - as discussed above

4. Social media can and should be measured - measurement must focus on communities and conversations, not coverage

5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results - shifts in awareness, comprehension, attitude and behaviour, relating to purchase, donations, brand equity, corporate reputation and employee engagement should be measured - outcomes, not results.

6. Organisational results can and should be measured

7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement - we already know how social media is driving the changes in transparency, but this highlights the need for it to be replicable, also

In summary, what the Principles suggest is that we must move from evaluating outputs to evaluating outcomes, and create a culture where continuous improvement is at the core. Good communication makes the difference - good communication is not a money return in the bank and can't be seen on the balance sheet.

Organisations must also budget for measurement from the outset, not as an afterthought when the kitty is almost dry; experts suggest 5% of your total PR spend, which might sound a lot, but not if we consider that this 5% provides you with an honest assessment of how you're performing.

Augmented Reality: it's like real life...but better

Augmented Reality - it might sound a little like an oxymoron, considering you can rarely amplify reality itself. But with augment meaning 'to add more of the same thing', it indicates exactly that - a heightened real-time experience of a brand, of which we can learn more about the World around us.

Mashable describe it as "a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics, or GPS data."  Educase provide a simpler definition, and proclaim that Augmented Reality - or AR - "takes a real object or space as the foundation and incorporates technologies that add contextual data to deepen a person's understanding of the subject."  Both Common Craft and Econsultancy.com heap praise on the concept, and posit that it is "an engaging way of combining live video with computer-generated data and visualisations." 

In essence, your vital ingredients are a smartphone with an internet connection - such as an iPhone, Blackberry or Android-powered device - and the relevant software, usually in the form of an app. Experts agree that whilst AR using smartphones is just catching on, the future will see AR utilising infrastructures as small as a pair of spectacles - meaning the naked eye will directly experience augmented reality, leading to a more engaging experience.

Two recent examples I located of AR in action are from different sides of the Atlantic, but are great examples of technology enhancing one's brand experience. American's leading board sport apparel maker, Airwalk, invited customers to download the GoldRun app, before visiting one of 2 sites, one in Los Angeles and one in New York, where the AR experience would take place. Using the smartphone's camera function, users would locate 'virtual shoes' that were GPS-linked to each location. On doing so, users were then taken to an exclusive Airwalk e-commerce site and given a passcode to purchase a limited edition pair of shoes.

The effect was "basically a store that didn't exist. It only existed on your phone through augmented reality." (Source: clickz.com)

Meanwhile, North London premier league outfit Tottenham Hotspur unveiled the world's first ever Aurasma-enabled team shirt, a technology that "seamlessly blends real-world images and objects with interactive multimedia content such as videos and animations, called 'auras'". Fans must first download the Official Spurs News app to their smartphone - at £1.49 a pop - and then point their Aurasma-enabled iPhones and iPads at the front of this season's Premier League t-shirt to see footage of this season's goals. Videos are updated throughout the season and will include exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, player interviews and news. Photos of the players wearing the shirts when reproduced in newspapers will also trigger video content, so long as they feature the Aurasma logo. Furthermore, the official team photo will 'come to life' when viewed through Aurasma.

With all this in mind, what does AR spell for the future of PR? Firstly, we'll see a cultural shift from consumers being recipients of content to taking an active role in gathering and processing information - an extension of man's desire to connect with others and be part of a community.

There'll be rapid uptake as smartphone device have become ubiquitous and accessible to most.

Organisations will see ROI, as using AR means you can demonstrate more than one product in a range, driving traffic to your website where you can show consumers even more.

Finally, the arrival of AR heralds faster learning with fewer resources - it's cost-effective for organisations, but PR practitioners must stay one step ahead as consumers become knowledge-rich.

PR for PR

It would seem slightly ironic that the PR industry needs, essentially, a PR overhaul. But it's true. Many a seasoned practitioner would be quick to admit at times, PR has had an image problem, regularly being confused with its cousin 'spin', which is characterised by tacky red tops and a certain Mr Clifford.

But it's not just spin that has caused confusion around the industry; it would seem that PR's very own practitioners, those who have cut their teeth at a time when newspapers were still big business and posting a press release first class equaled 'hot off the press', have become unsure as to what modern day public relations is. For those 'old school' PR's who are yet to embrace stakeholder activism - social media - and continue to be alienated by blogs, Twitter and the online universe, then the industry is facing an identity crisis.

It can be argued that the first step to giving the PR industry an image overhaul is to redefine what public relations in the 21st century is. For those working in the industry, it is vital that they understand how consumer generated content has radically changed the communication landscape, and what this now means for the day-to-day running of organisations. Adam Lavelle, from the board of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WMMA) says: "Before the rise of social media, public relations was about trying to manage the message an entity was sharing with its different audiences. Now, PR has to be more about facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world."

Dan Tisch, chairman of the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management, adds to this: "The role of public relations and corporate communications has shifted from creating content to attempting to influence the content created by others."

Indeed, the rise of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, MySpace and YouTube have not only brought down the geographical and social barriers in place pre-Internet, but as a medium it has facilitated participatory information sharing, and in doing so, it has been "the enabling mechanism for a communications revolution that is driving significant changes in the dynamics of society." (Phillips and Young, 2009, p3). Thus, it is changing the landscape of PR and marketing as we know it at an astonishing rate - organisations "once had the impression that they had control of what was said and believed about their activities." 'Digital natives', or those who have grown up with and are familiar with the online world, have become accustomed to a new level of transparency, and "operate under the assumption that everything they do will eventually be known online." (Brogan and Smith, 2010)

In the past, when passive consumption through watching TV was the norm, there was no alternative to dealing with PR and marketing. PRO's and marketing executives were able to execute campaigns relatively unchallenged because the channels didn't exist to say otherwise. Now, individuals not only contribute to these conversations, but they run them too, a phenomenon known as commons-based peer production.

For decades, communication has been one-way, top-down, but now the tools exist for many to many, two-way communication, and the PRO's of yesteryear must accept this change and incorporate it into their PR toolkit with gusto, no matter how daunting the prospect may be. Only with this change can PR's image begin to be salvaged.

Conducting a Social Media Audit

Tapscott and Williams posit that "the new mass collaboration is changing how companies and societies harness knowledge and capability to innovate and create value" (2006, p20). Whilst audits have been common practice in companies for the past 30 years, now, with the increasing expansion and fragmentation of the communication landscape and where "mass collaboration can reshape an industry overnight" (p31), organisations have no choice but to audit their online presence in addition to their offline activities. In doing so, brands can avoid oversharing, project a consistent voice and be best placed for dealing with crises.

The following is a rough guide to auditing an organisation's - or even an individuals' - presence online.

- First, list all online profiles where your brand has a presence, even if its an inactive presence: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Tumblr et al.

- Next, secure domain names on all sites (remembering to remain consistent - don't drastically vary usernames unless your are forced to). Some websites will do this for you, such as Know'Em.

- Check the levels of completion on each site - by this, I mean you should complete the very basic information, in particular contact details. That way, even if your brand isn't active on that site (yet), users can be directed to somewhere that is active.

- Branding - check that all logos, slogans and colour schemes are up to date. Consistency, consistency, consistency - the root of all successful branding, be it for companies or personal use.

- Style Guide - are all contributors sticking to the house style? Is the 'voice' consistent across all channels? In a socially connected age where the corporate voice is becoming irrelevant, its okay to be informal and engage with your audience, but remember that online content exists forever and one slip up can be to the detriment of the whole brand. If in doubt, don't post it.

- Content and Regularity - striking the balance between posting too little and posting too much is a fine art. You want users to know they can contact you via that channel should they have a query, but you don't want them to be checking your Twitter feed for the last time you were active. If in doubt, draw up a communications calendar, whereby you schedule posts/tweets, and respond to queries in a structured way.

- Sharing - vital for driving more traffic to your channels and increasing visibility is the option to share tweets or posts with other users. Have reshare options clearly set out at the end of each post. Similarly, you may choose to share interesting articles from other brands or opinion leaders too, but consider that you are not embellishing false or controversial viewpoints before you post.

This list is by no means exhaustive, and may vary from industry to industry. Such audits should typically take place once a month, or more frequently in digital industries where change lurks round every corner.

Twitter Chatter

In the 90's, we had chat rooms. You might have assigned a time, a date, and users would congregate, virtually, to discuss a topic of their choosing. To this end, we still have forums and message boards, the best example demonstrated on Martin Lewis' Money Saving Expert website.

Now, through Twitter chats, Twitter has taken this desire for finding like-minded people who share a passion or similar interest, and consolidated it onto one platform. And so we have the simplest of concepts, which allows Joe Public to converse with industry experts and opinion leaders, to exchange engaging content, whilst at the same time increasing their professional network and establishing brand expertise.

One of the earliest examples that I can remember of a Twitter chat is the Beauty Bloggers chat, run every Sunday evening at 8pm GMT under the hashtag #bbloggers. The chat was set up by established beauty blogger Fee, who blogs at www.makeupsavvy.co.uk, and brings together other bloggers from both the fashion and beauty worlds to discuss topics they find interesting; often, the topics are subject-specific, such as favourite mascaras or Autumn trends, but occasionally the chats focus on the blogosphere and allows users to exchange tips on making their blog successful or best practice in dealing with PR's who often approach bloggers to review their products.

Each Twitter chat has its own personality and core group of participants, and as you might expect, there are a range of chats that happen daily that would be useful for any practitioner to take heed of. #CommsChat is the home of Europe's most popular communications conversation which takes place twice weekly, and looks at all aspects of communications including PR, marketing, digital and reputation management. The website publishes a brief prior to the chat, outlining the main discussion points, and transcripts of previous broadcasts are available should you need to catch up on any missed content.

For aspiring practitioners, playing voyeur and observing a Twitter chat is a great way of building knowledge on a brand or simply understanding who the big movers and shakers are; but by participating, practitioners are able to create equity and credibility for themselves within their industry, building on their own personal brand (which we all know is vital in the current media landscape). It's useful for making contacts, and whilst the virtual nature of the chat means you can't have post-discussion coffee and biscuits, there's no reason why you can't go on to have a thoughtful, informal discussion with a key journalist now they know who you are (and you've got some credibility).

Twitter chats are just beginning, and soon we will see businesses leveraging the benefits for sales and ROI.

The New Challenges of Segmentation

Understanding your publics is key to any campaign, and through segmentation, a practitioner can further understand who their messages will reach and how they will react.

Geodemographic segmentation assumes that the differences within any group are significantly less than differences between groups; individuals are grouped according to where they live and display characteristics to those within their neighbourhood or locality.

In the UK, there are, in particular, two popular tools used for geodemographic segmentation, ACORN and MOSAIC.

ACORN

ACORN stands for A Classification of Residential Neighbourhoods, and is the leading tool for identifying the UK population's demand for products and services. It categorises postcodes using over 125 demographic statistics.

MOSAIC

Mosaic is owned by Experian, the credit report agency, and classifies the UK population into 15 main socio-economic groups; it bases its results on the predication that the world's cities share common patterns of residential segregation.

Through understanding consumer behaviour and segmenting customers accordingly, a practitioner can target and manage profitable relationships, ensuring a successful campaign and ROI. Such segmentation will also allow practitioners to identify and manage risk, an important consideration for any 21st century company. The tools will also identify investment opportunities for strategically responsible investors.

A rise in stakeholder activism and consumer generated content - social media - means a practitioner must also consider another form of segmentation - self-selecting publics. This is based on uses and gratification theory which assumes that people make highly intelligent choices about which messages require their attention and fulfil their needs. When passive consumption through watching TV was the norm, there was no alternative to dealing with PR and marketing; practitioners and marketers were able to execute campaigns relatively unchallenged because the channels didn't exist for individuals to say otherwise. The situation has reversed irrevocably, and as a result, consumers not only contribute to conversations but quite often run them. Today's consumer can choose what to be influenced by and, through online mediums, can have a range of different 'selves'. This provides a challenge for the practitioner, as segments 'cross-over' and the consumer ultimately chooses in which segment they belong. Practitioners must respond by remembering that humans are deeply social beings, and the corporate voice is no longer enough. Building and sustaining relationships is key, and that's where tools such as MOSAIC and ACORN come in handy.