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The marketing leaders from Ricoh, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Walkers, and Digitas on:

Consumer-Oriented Communication: Engaging

with Customers in an Era of Bite-Size Digital Consumption

Sandra Zoratti Vice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh

Arun Malkani Chief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

David Byrne Chief Marketing Officer, Walkers

Robert Guay Senior Vice President, Marketing, Digitas

Thanks to smartphones and tablets, your customers have more oppor-tunity than ever to cruise the Web, read e-mail, check Facebook and LinkedIn updates, read blogs, and write tweets. While this enhanced

connectivity may appear to offer marketers a stellar opportunity to get noticed, the net effect is that the average U.S. consumer is tuning out most of the 3,000 messages they receive every day. The authors of this ExecBlueprint address this dilemma as well as the opportunities new media provides. First, they affirm that, even in the midst of today’s online clutter, marketing basics still matter. Your content must be meaningful and relevant, and that personal touch is still key, whether it’s in the form of customized correspondence or face-to-face contact. However, your messages need to be distilled into compelling headlines or cryptic tweets — and they need to be accessible across multiple devices. Further, you must be prepared to address public feedback from your customers. Relax. While you should manage harsh messages tactfully, remember that quick and public responses to feedback build trust, and ultimately customer loyalty. n

Action Points

I. What Challenges Do Marketers Face Today in Communicating with Customers?You may have more ways to reach your customers, but unfortunately that does not mean your job is getting easier. If anything, it’s becoming more complex. As more messages compete for people’s attention, most are getting ignored. What’s more, your customers now expect to be able to make personal connections with companies over an increasing number of platforms.

II. The Bottom LineWhen evaluating campaign success, you still need to ask: What will you measure? How will you measure it? How will you interpret the results? In addition to financial returns, you can also look at lead generation and retention — and more accurately than ever before, thanks to new modeling methods that measure the impact of single factors.

III. Must-Have Strategies for Effective Digital Communication Even though mobile technologies and social media provide myriad opportunities to spread your content, you cannot simply transfer your Web campaigns to these platforms. Instead, you must decide: How can you establish a meaningful cross-channel presence? What’s the best way of interacting over social media? Do you need an app for that?

IV. The Golden Rules for Practicing Good Customer CareYou may never meet your customers, but building relationships is more important than ever because they now have plenty of options. To succeed, you must determine when and how to care for your customers. This means not only making it easy to do business, but also responding quickly to messages and complaints.

V. Essential Take-AwaysSome of today’s marketing messages may be bite-sized, but they still must be meaningful and relevant to their audience. Get the content right first, before you edit it into a tweet or headline. Using a consistent tone, share industry news, offer promotions, and simplify information when possible. And, by all means, encourage your customers to write back.

Contents

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.2

Sandra Zoratti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.3

Arun Malkani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.6

David Byrne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.10

Robert Guay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.13

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points . . . p.16

© Books24x7, 2012 About the Authors ExecBlueprints 2

About the AuthorsSandra ZorattiVice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

David ByrneChief Marketing Officer, Walkers

Robert GuaySenior Vice President, Marketing, Digitas

Sandra Zoratti is a published author and vice president, marketing, executive briefings and education, at Ricoh. She

also manages a business created from former IBM and Ricoh companies located in Boulder, CO. Ms. Zoratti built and launched a data-driven marketing approach and services prac-tice — called Precision Marketing — from the ground up and is recognized as a thought leader in this discipline. In 2012, she pub-lished a book on this topic, titled Precision Marketing: Maximizing Revenue Through Relevance.

Ms. Zoratti serves on several national and international boards and is a frequent speaker. In May 2012, Business Marketing Association (BMA), Colorado, honored her with its BMA Marketer of the Year distinction. She has also earned awards on her integrated, multi-channel marketing approaches and the results they have generated.

Additionally, Ms. Zoratti is driving co-branded initiatives with the Chief Marketing Officer Council to help senior mar-keters around the world optimize customer

engagement through the adoption of data-driven marketing practices. She has generated multiple in-market proof points using insight-driven targeting, content, and metrics with several companies which, as a result, pro-duced double digit revenue increases and significant upticks in ROI.

As the chief marketing officer of a lead-ing Indian life insurance company, Arun Malkani is responsible for deter-

mining and defining its marketing strategy and initiatives, with the objective of being the target customer’s preferred life insurance brand. The marketing function branches out into the sub-verticals of product marketing, channel marketing, digital marketing, cus-tomer experience, customer life cycle manage-ment, customer insights, and corporate communications.

Mr. Malkani has 18 years of work experi-ence with leading MNC and Indian private-sector organizations, primarily in the banking and financial services industry. Some of the organizations he has worked with in the past are GE, Citibank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank. He has also had stints in sales, relationship/progam management, and prod-uct management in the financial services/banking industry.

In addition, he has been a member of the jury for the Effies Awards of the Ad Club,

Mumbai, the Digiratti Awards for Digital Marketing Excellence, and of a number of marketing forums. He is an occasional guest lecturer at business schools on various aspects of marketing and communication.

David Byrne has been chief marketing officer at Walkers for over four years, bringing together a marketing func-

tion that spans all disciplines across five major practices and eight global offices.

Over the last two decades, Mr. Byrne has gained a wealth of business development experience that includes senior marketing roles at both “Magic Circle” law firms,

Clifford Chance and Linklaters. In his time at Clifford Chance he was global head of business development for the group’s finance and capital markets divisions.

Prior to that, he was the head of market-ing for the U.K. finance team at Linklaters, where he worked for three years.

Mr. Byrne also has a strong finance back-ground, having initially worked for 10 years

with the Barclays Group, including roles with investment banking arm Barclays Capital and its international wealth management division.

Robert Guay joined Digitas as senior vice president of marketing in 2011. He leads client relationships in the

Insurance and Transportation divisions.Formerly a group account director for the

General Motors account at Fallon Minneapolis, Mr. Guay led the digital team for Cadillac’s North American marketing. His focus was driving client business growth with effective and brand-sensitive digital marketing solutions. He was responsible for manage-ment of multi-agency and senior client rela-

tionships, while leading the internal agency team.

Previously partner and director of digital marketing at Connelly Partners, Mr. Guay developed the digital fluency of the agency as he built the interactive offering, expanding infrastructure and capability. In his role as partner, he was a key part of new business development and client relationship management.

Prior to joining Connelly, Mr. Guay co-founded and ran Red98, a 20-person digital

agency, and subsequently created Click Nineteen, an interactive marketing consul-tancy that was acquired by Connelly Partners in 2006. He has previously led account teams at Mullen, Ingalls, and Modem Media.

☛ Read Sandra’s insights on Page 3

☛ Read Arun’s insights on Page 6

☛ Read David’s insights on Page 10

☛ Read Robert’s insights on Page 13

© Books24x7, 2012 Sandra Zoratti ExecBlueprints 3

Sandra ZorattiVice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh

Epic EruptionWith the Internet, an epic explosion of content and communication channels is the new reality. Internet access via the omnipresent mobile device is fast becoming the primary access point to the Web and social media.

Goodbye laptop. Hello small smartphone or tab-

let screen. Enter bite-size messaging. Welcome dynamic digital content.As marketers, we are challenged

to create relevant, engaging, dynamic content that is communi-cated in 140 characters or less, or as the top three tips or in an insta-gram or via short video clip. Once we create that content, leveraging the abundant channels of commu-nication and cutting through the noisy clutter to reach and engage our audience is the next step. Let’s be honest, that is so not easy.

However, this is one opportunity you will want to grasp because in this case the following adage holds true: “It may not be easy, but it is worth it.”

Messaging Misses the MarkAccording to The Social Skinny,1

we are being assaulted on a daily basis with 294 billion e-mails, 2 million blog posts, and 532 million Facebook updates. On an individ-ual basis, we get bombarded with

an average of 3,000 messages each day. Overwhelming? That’s an understatement.

While us marketers rush to cre-ate heaps of content and publish it all through the prolific channels at our fingertips, our customer are revolting. Why? Because we are using too much messaging, the bulk of which is irrelevant to our audience. The result? Consumers are tuning us out, leaving us for the competition and very, very selec-tively listening.

In fact, according to a new con-sumer poll conducted by the CMO Council and InfoPrint Solutions Company, nearly 50 percent of consumers say that irrelevant con-tent (aka noise) is the reason they disengage with brands.2 At the same time, 60 percent of our mar-keting messages remain generic and not related to the recipient’s prefer-ences and priorities. Until this is resolved, our business results are at risk.

So, before we focus on getting our content into bite-size nuggets and onto a multitude of channels, first we need to focus on getting the content right. And right, in this case, means relevant.

Relevance Drives ResultsThe good news is that relevance delivers! Measurably. Multiple data points exist which indicate that in side-by-side comparisons, relevance outperforms generic messaging by

a minimum of two-digit percentage upticks in revenue and return on investment (ROI). In one case3 (Best Western International), when

1. http://thesocialskinny.com/100-social-media-mobile-and-internet-statistics-for-2012 2. http://www.infoprint.com/internet/ipww.nsf/vwWebPublished/ai_pr20091117_cmo_en 3. http://www.infoprint.com/sales/catalogs.nsf/vwImages/IPRF03018-USEN-00/$file/IPRF03018-USEN-00.pdf?OpenElement&site=xn

Sandra ZorattiVice President, Marketing,

Executive Briefings and Education Ricoh

“Delivering relevant content in the bite-size format and via customer channel choices is the icing on the cake that can produce the ever-elusive engagement and loyalty all of us marketers so longingly seek.”

• Launched Precision Marketing, a data-driven marketing approach

• Author, Precision Marketing: Maximizing Revenue Through Relevance

• Previous experience includes developing marketing initiatives for blue chip corporations including IBM, Avery Dennison, and Westinghouse

• Bachelor’s degree, Chemical Engineering; M.B.A.

Ms. Zoratti can be e-mailed at sandra.zoratti@execblueprint.com

Before we focus on getting our content into bite-size nuggets and onto a multitude of channels, first we need to focus on getting the content right.

Sandra Zoratti

Vice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh

© Books24x7, 2012 Sandra Zoratti ExecBlueprints 4

Sandra ZorattiVice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh (continued)

data was used to draw insights for targeting, messaging, and then measuring the results, revenue was 30 percent higher on the relevant campaign versus the generic cam-paign. Even better, when we com-pared the two Best Western campaigns, we almost doubled ROI with the relevant approach vs. the generic approach.

As marketers, we know the double-digit result described above is huge. When revenue generated is combined with the cost to imple-ment that result, we know that doubling ROI is a blockbuster. You can take that to the boardroom!

Even with the prolific generation of communication channels, content remains king. Content trumps chan-nel. And relevance trumps content. It’s now about the right mes-sage (relevance), not the message (content) or the medium (channel).

Smart marketers are adopting data-driven content marketing platforms and thought leadership strategies as the foundation of their marketing in order to build reach, credibility, engagement, and influence through highly relevant and targeted content.

Diminutive ContentBut, what to do about miniature content for social media and Web platforms? Consumers, it seems, are increasing attention-deficit and want everything in headlines. We live in a world of scanners who want to get the gist quickly and then decide if they want to dive in deeper to your content, your post, your tweet, your status update.

New skills are required.Today, we need to be masters of

a multitude of content capabilities.

Knowing how to grab an audience with a compelling headline is key. Understanding the power of lists and top tips is essential. Providing a cryptic tweet that is engaging and compelling is an amazing skill to have. Engaging blog posts are foun-dational. Best-selling books, in print or e-formats, are credibility generators. And, these are all now-necessary skills required to package up your content for our attention-deficit and messaging-fatigued world.

Some of my favorite role model examples are worth a look (see sidebar).

Proof Proof ProofNow let’s look at some companies who are role models in generating relevant content and proving its worth. For fun, I am going to select a restaurant business that was

Compelling headlines: Brian Clark and Sonia Simone at copyblogger.com Roger Dooley at neurosciencemarketing.com

The power of lists: Nick Kellet at list.ly

Engaging blogposts: Joe Pulizzi at contentmarketinginstitute.com

Books: Mark Schaefer, “Return on Influence” at businessgrow.com Speaking: David Meerman Scott at davidmeermanscott.com Marcus Sheridan at thesaleslion.com Guy Kawasaki at alltop.com

New Skills Required:A Few Favorite Role Model Examples

© Books24x7, 2012 Sandra Zoratti ExecBlueprints 5

Sandra ZorattiVice President, Marketing, Executive Briefings and Education, Ricoh (continued)

frequented by President Obama during his bachelor days (per his own admission) and also written up in my book, Precision Marketing: Maximizing Revenue Through Relevance.4 This business pursued the bite-sized messaging approach by using mobile marketing for SMS (Short Message Service) as a way to connect real-time with customers and prospects.

Let’s examine the interesting approach taken by Harold’s Chicken Shack based in Chicago, Illinois. These fried chicken con-noisseurs are also pretty creative marketers. The goal at Harold’s was to drive volume during the non-peak hours of the restaurant, the afternoon hours between lunch and dinner.

The first must-have was to get customers to sign up for text mes-saging. Harold’s utilized traditional, on-site marketing such as in-store signage (banners, counter flyers, table tents, and window posters),

door-to-door flyers, and advertising as their call-to-action.

Once a customer signed up for mobile marketing, two messages were sent right away: 1) “Thank you,” and 2) “Save 10 percent off your next meal Mon-Fri between 1-5 pm only. Bring a friend and save 20 percent each. Ends in 3 days. Exchangeable at local outlets.” After that, weekly promo-tional messages were sent to increase Harold’s business during non-peak hours.

Promotional messaging used a code tied to each individual offer so that Harold’s could track results and increase relevance and preci-sion for future SMS messaging. By continually improving the promo-tions, timing of the message delivery, and time limits on the

offers, Harold’s improved response rates.

The results? Overall, Harold’s generated an 11 percent uptick in sales. During the first seven months, Harold’s got 10,000 opt-ins with 53 percent redemption on the intro-ductory promotion and 32 percent on the friends offer. On-going pro-motions generated 37 percent redemption rates. Per Lawrence Nyong, a Harold’s owner, “Going with SMS coupons has given us an opportunity to connect with our customers anywhere and anytime, and increase our sales during slow periods.” n

4. http://www.amazon.com/Precision-Marketing-Maximizing-Revenue-Relevance/dp/0749465352/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335913224&sr=8-1

Marketers’ Call To Action

Consumers are overwhelmed and want bite-size, right-on, relevant messaging. Smart marketers leverage data to develop rich insights about what is most relevant and meaningful to customers and then develop a content marketing approach based on those insights. Cutting through the clutter requires a deep understand-ing of the customer that necessarily involves an iterative process that is focused on continuous improvement.

© Books24x7, 2012 Arun Malkani ExecBlueprints 6

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Methods of Communication with CustomersTo communicate with customers, we use mass media, e-mail, routine communication like account state-ments and policy documents, Short Message Service (SMS), our Web site and digital media, and events. In the past two years, the balance has shifted to a higher presence of digital and online media as well as direct customer contact initiatives. Our marketing communications currently consist of:

• Social media

• Mobile devices

• E-mail

• Face-to-face/phone calls

• Company Web site

• Other (routine customer communication like statements, newsletters, in-branch, print, etc.)

We strive to make our commu-nication tone and style as consistent as possible across communication types. We now spend a higher amount on online media including social media and customer activa-tion initiatives that directly impact lead generation.

The sheer number of customer reach-out communications has increased on all fronts: product, service, brand, updates, transac-tion-oriented, etc. Each category

has become more specific and detailed, hence the increase. To be more effective, we have also changed our focus.

The Role of Social MediaWe currently have a presence on Facebook that is campaign- oriented. We’re not on Twitter or Google+ yet. Through Facebook and other social media channels, customers expect to be able to pro-vide feedback, suggestions, com-plaints, service issues, endorsements, and recommendations. The digital marketing vertical in my team monitors these sites in coordination with our media and PR agencies. When we see negative feedback or complaints, we get to the bottom of the issue, execute a committed revert timeline-wise, and manage unduly harsh or undue feedback tactfully. We use apps to provide customers an easy way to access the net asset value of their policy and also as a mode for providing pre-mium reminders and communicat-ing updates. This also helps to engage users and encourage inter-activity with our brand.

Social media communications may not really require a separate job function. Branding and Direct Marketing could support the Digi-tal Marketing team as and when required. The tone, look, and feel should ideally flow from the main-line mass media communications with tweaks based on the medium

and innovations that the online space makes possible.

We have a formal training department that meets marketing training needs, including training on social media and marketing tools on an ongoing basis. Needs are identified on an annual or quarterly basis. Team members are also encouraged to attend relevant programs.

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer

Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

“We want to give customers the ability to interact with us at their convenience. We are interested in technology’s targeting capabilities and now prefer directly measurable lead-generation initiatives.”

• 18 years of experience in the banking and financial services industries

• Past associations include GE and Citibank

• Member, Effies Awards for the Ad Club, Mumbai

• Masters in Management Studies (specializing in Marketing), Mumbai University

Mr. Malkani can be e-mailed at arun.malkani@execblueprint.com

We strive to make our communication tone and style as consistent as possible across communication types.

Arun Malkani

Chief Marketing Officer Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

© Books24x7, 2012 Arun Malkani ExecBlueprints 7

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co Ltd (continued)

Trends That Will Impact Marketing and Communication Strategy1. Broader brand presence across

channels. With the range of available marketing channels growing all the time, businesses will start to recognize the value of connecting their marketing approach across the Web, social media, and other channels. This will be inspired by the need to better manage business resources in more

challenging times, and to create a more streamlined brand presence.

2. The rise of user-generated content. Whether it is a YouTube video showing a customer using a product or customers sharing their experiences within a selective online community, content that comes directly from the potential or existing customer is likely to grow in value.

3. Mobile marketing is reaching critical mass. Mobile is going center stage. A third of smartphone owners have used their device to buy a product online (Source: EPiServer) and this number is growing. The companies that fully prepare their marketing approach for mobile are the ones that will benefit from a potential customer-base that browses — and shops — on the move.

6 Top Digital-Based Influencers of Marketing and Communication Strategy

© Books24x7, 2012 Arun Malkani ExecBlueprints 8

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co Ltd (continued)

4. The gap is closing between business brands and social media. We all know social media is big news for business. But in the next year, it will be even bigger — and even slicker. Companies will start taking social media more seriously as a professional marketing tool, but it won’t just be the big companies using it to actively connect with customers. Many more companies will start to interact using social media, meaning customer service and customer interaction via social media will evolve even further. The gap between social media and the business brand will get smaller.

5. A clearer vision on the value of analytics. Companies will seek to improve their understanding of marketing analytics this year and beyond. With increased channels and brand presence, businesses will look to clarify and streamline their marketing data. Companies will recognize the value of analytics that allow them to maximize the flexibility of social media marketing by adapting their content according to live viewer response.

6. Customized content. Tailored content that is customized to the needs and interests of a specific market or audience will grow in value and popularity. This is for a number of reasons — the increasing growth of content’s role within online marketing and the growing presence of online, niche communities, for example. As people become

more and more accustomed to selecting which brands and businesses can join them within their own online community, the value of personalized marketing approaches and content will continue to grow.

Online content will comprise a much larger share of customer communications due to its target-ing and tracking capabilities as well as the fact that it gives the customer the opportunity to access the mes-saging at his convenience. We plan to substantially increase our online presence — and the ratio of the budget used for online initiatives.

The Top Three Challenges to Engaging Customers Through Changing Digital Consumption1. Data explosion. The increasing

volume, variety, and velocity of data available from new digital sources like social networks, in addition to traditional sources such as sales data and market research, tops the list of challenges. It is difficult to analyze these vast quantities of data to extract meaningful

insights that can be used effectively to improve products, services, and the customer experience.

2. Social media enables anyone to become a publisher, broadcaster, and critic. Facebook has more than 750 million active users, with the average user posting 90 pieces of content a month. Twitter users send about 140 million tweets a day. Marketers use social platforms to communicate, but it is a struggle to capture valuable customer insight from the unstructured data that customers and potential customers produce. (Source: IBM Study 2011)

3. Channel and gadget choices. The growing number of new marketing channels and devices, from smartphones to tablets, is quickly becoming a priority. Mobile commerce is expected to reach $31 billion by 2016, which is a compounded annual growth rate of 39 percent from 2011 to 2016. (Source: IBM Study 2011)

Expert Advice

Customers now use the Internet extensively to research purchases and window shop. However, for complex products like insurance, they still prefer to interact with an agent. We have a strong presence on aggregator Web sites and online media, as well as a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

While customers have similar behavior across the life insurance space, this is not so much the case in the general insurance area where end-to-end online purchases are far more widespread. Our communications have become more simplified, and we keep in mind that one has to start with the customer issue/problem in mind. Insurance is a relatively complex category for the not-so-financially oriented, so complete simplicity based on the customer’s objectives is a key hook.

© Books24x7, 2012 Arun Malkani ExecBlueprints 9

Arun MalkaniChief Marketing Officer, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co Ltd (continued)

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness Through Benchmarks When measuring marketing effec-tiveness, there are three broad top-ics to consider:1. What to measure

2. How to measure (methodology)

3. How to interpret

What to measureWhat do you want to achieve? Setting clear objectives for your campaign or activity will make it much easier to measure later on. Campaigns that set clear campaign objectives are more effective than those that don’t. Campaign objec-tives should include a long-term element. Many articles and surveys on this subject mistakenly use the

immediate effect of traditional mar-keting and social media as the effect that should be measured, whether it is through traditional measurements for TV, radio or print, or number of likes, friends, or followers in social media.

The hierarchy of objectives should be:1. Business objectives

2. Behavioral objectives

3. Attitude objectives

Hard measures should always come first, and the harder the bet-ter. Financial return is the ultimate evaluation measure for all commer-cial campaigns.

How to measureThere are the normal ways to mea-sure, like the sales lift in the month post-campaign compared to the

previous month, as well as the same month in the previous year. However, the only viable way (that will have management group buy-in) is sales modeling or econometric modeling. Econometric modeling will isolate the actual contribution of a factor (in this case, marketing) to sales, adjusted for all other drivers.

How to interpretIt is critical to correctly analyze the delivery of the initiative after con-sidering all the normal factors, as well as external ones that are beyond the control of oneself or one’s organization like the environ-ment, ups and downs in the econ-omy, and the presence or absence of strong competition. n

© Books24x7, 2012 David Byrne ExecBlueprints 10

David ByrneChief Marketing Officer, Walkers

Communicating with ClientsLaw firms have a number of chan-nels with which to communicate with their clients. They are inher-ently lucky enough to be in a sector where the work they do actually necessitates regular client contact. On any deal, a lawyer will be regu-larly sharing views, thoughts, and documents with their client, either across e-mail, phone, or in person.

Of course, one of the challenges for any marketing function at a law firm is to encourage the lawyers to speak to their clients in between transactions. Clients regularly moan that lawyers simply disap-pear once the bill has been paid, only surfacing again when the next deal materializes. Having such a close relationship with clients over potentially quite long transactions gives a lawyer more credence and relevance than they might other-wise have, which means that a client wouldn’t be outraged by a call every once in a while to see how things have been progressing since they last worked together; in fact they would probably welcome a sensible amount of contact.

CRM and Mailing SystemsLaw firms are also common dis-tributors of legal expertise, opin-ion, and theory. Most firms will regularly e-mail their clients and

market commentators with adviso-ries and memos that their practices create. Marketing often plays an important role in tailoring these for non-lawyer consumption. One of the challenges is balance; clients certainly want to know and be informed as to how potential law changes might affect them, but they only want to know about them when they specifically relate to their area of business. They don’t want to be spammed unnecessarily. This is where a strong CRM/ mailing system comes in. It is vital to track the unsubscribe trends and click-through rates. Try to ensure that you give your clients options about what they receive.

At our firm, we use InterAction and mail our advisories through Tikit. Designed for law firms, this system works solidly and gives us a good reporting portfolio. You can also either send information from the law firm central address, or any of the individual partners. Its graphic design and HTML capa-bilities are also very effective. This implementation of InterAction and Tikit has been one of the major changes in the last two years, as we used to have to distribute either through third parties or manually using a base spreadsheet, which was costly in terms of dollars and time.

We use our Web site and e-mail for approximately 70 percent of our generic marketing communica-tions, but are growing in the use of our social media channels. We have been tweeting for quite some time now, which I am a big fan of, as it allows (and even encourages) slightly less formal messaging styles.

App DevelopmentThe phenomenal rise of tablets and smartphones over the last three years has caught many firms by surprise and caused them to swiftly

David ByrneChief Marketing Officer

Walkers

“Success will be determined by how effectively we balance our time between mastering the challenge of social media and continuing to cultivate our mainstream media relationships.”

• With firm for four years

• Leads marketing across five major practices and eight global offices

• 20 years’ experience in business development

• Previously head of marketing, Linklater’s U.K. finance team

Mr. Byrne can be e-mailed at david.byrne@execblueprint.com

One of the challenges is balance; clients certainly want to know and be informed as to how potential law changes might affect them, but they only want to know about them when they specifically relate to their area of business.

David Byrne

Chief Marketing Officer Walkers

© Books24x7, 2012 David Byrne ExecBlueprints 11

David ByrneChief Marketing Officer, Walkers (continued)

examine and adapt their communi-cation strategies. For me the most striking difference between three to four years ago and now is that people can get online more cheaply, more quickly, and in more places than ever before. That means they have the ability to see your content and messaging a lot more. They are also looking at your content on different platforms, not all of which bring your brand to life particularly well if you just have one version of your Web site.

In addition to understanding why people come to your site and what information they are looking for, it is now a key tenet of a mar-keting strategy to understand:

• How much viewing of your site is done on the move and what kind of download capabilities your visitors have

• The most frequent tools people are using to view your site (or not view your site, as the case may be)

• How your site looks, downloads, and simply engages across all the various viewing platforms

This information should pro-duce a clearer picture as to whether you need a number of versions of your Web site. I would hazard a guess that most major law firms are moving toward a mobile solution at the current time, especially as many have a very busy feel to them which simply does not translate well to the small screen.

To App or Not?If you listen to the cognoscenti, you may feel that a Web site is simply not enough; you actually need an app of some description to reach your desired client base. However, when it comes to simply marketing

to (or even sharing basic informa-tion with) potential clients, I have yet to see a really effective law firm app that does something different than a mobile or standard Web site. Most tablets and smart phones can bring up a Web site fairly quickly and if a firm has created a mobile version, there are few differentia-tors that an app can truly bring.

Where an app really begins to make a difference is if it starts to become something resembling an extranet that gives a client a slick interface by which to manage their relationship with their law firm. In other words, an app can make a difference when it is part of a service that is offered to a client. They go to the app because they need something done. You can then market off the back of that, not the other way around.

In the long term, this offers some really exciting options to firms who have been restricted by the rather clunky way current extranets have

Imagine being stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and being able to: • Ask questions of lawyers within your deal team "live," without needing to pick up the phone and defeat a myriad of gatekeepers. • Pay bills, check balances, and manage lawyer time. • Quickly reference and read bound volume and deal manuals. • Use online calculators for considerations such as alimony or compensation claims. • Generate basic term sheets or contracts.

This is barely scratching the surface.

The Myriad Uses of a Well-Designed App…

© Books24x7, 2012 David Byrne ExecBlueprints 12

David ByrneChief Marketing Officer, Walkers (continued)

worked. It brings the world of app innovation to this field, and should start to reap rewards for firms large and small if they embrace it prop-erly. An effective on-the-go deal would have vast appeal for busy bankers and CFOs.

Marketing Communications Trends for the Next 12 MonthsIn the legal world, clients will con-tinue to become savvier about how they rate and rank firms. They can now get reviews about a firm’s credentials, capabilities, and repu-tation with a few clicks in a search engine, and from people they trust. How much this will impact the traditional legal directories will be interesting to see. Clients will also find it much easier to get relevant access to the articles, stories, and media they need to help make informed business and buying decisions.

We need to make sure that we are associated with and comment-ing on the leading stories and developments in our industry as appropriately as we can. Every firm will still want to be the firm that gets the call from the Financial Times when they want an expert’s view on a particular story.

To meet the rising demand from clients for value-added information delivery, the firm and its lawyers

must continue to produce meaning-ful, punchy, and (where possible) groundbreaking content. Encour-aging our lawyers to make that time investment is one of our key roles. Once we have that, it is up to the marketing function to deliver it to clients in a targeted and slick manner.

I am absolutely certain that innovation within the social media sphere will continue to happen over the next year, as will many other things that I am sure no CMO can anticipate. It is vital to keep your mind and budget open to such opportunities when they arise. I think we will see more business-focused social media gaining prevalence, such as potential rivals to Twitter, for example.

In the legal world, blogging will continue to evolve and become slicker. More and more lawyers will turn to video to get their message across. This can be an expensive route for small firms. You may start see economies of scale with new

organizations/suppliers offering out-of-the box solutions for the production of this type of media.

Finally, I suspect there will be more study and efforts focused on measuring the effectiveness of social media in the legal world. At the moment it is a bit of a black box, which is hampering efforts by CMOs to really integrate it into their overall marketing strategy. Once this happens, you may see a change in attitudes toward its use.

To sum up, maintaining and growing the strength of the firm’s reputation, combined with con-tinuously demonstrating thought leadership among our target media and commentators, will be at the forefront of most CMOs’ commu-nication strategies in the coming year. Ours is no exception. n

Training and Seminars

The other major way we communicate with our clients is through tailored training and seminar programs. These are offered in several formats, from our large annual hedge fund seminar in New York, which is typically attended by over 300 of our clients, to smaller training sessions tailored for our major law firm relationships. These are probably our most effective forms of communication as they usually give you the chance to ask what content the client wants to see in advance, and then tailor the delivery and message appropriately. They also usually give you the opportunity to network after the event.

© Books24x7, 2012 Robert Guay ExecBlueprints 13

Robert GuaySenior Vice President, Marketing, Digitas

Communicating with CustomersOur clients use a variety of ways to connect. Often, the most common and effective way is through elec-tronic communications like e-mail. To a lesser extent they use tele-phone, customer care support, and occasionally traditional direct mail. The move to electronic communi-cation has changed business drasti-cally and has provided benefits, including the saving of postage and print production costs. However, e-mail can create challenges in keeping messages personal and meaningful. Making e-mail matter is one of the biggest challenges of modern marketers.

It has become easy for both mar-keters and people who practice customer care to use electronic media, and it also has become easier to think about solving prob-lems with a handful of design templates. The only thing worse than not communicating with a cli-ent is communicating via a canned response that does not fulfill their needs and leaves them asking questions.

These changes are reflected across most industries, and I find it interesting that electronic commu-nication planning has become such a critical part of business planning.

Communicating and Managing Customer Relationships Through Social Media While consumer marketers moved rather quickly to adopt social media practices into their market-ing mixes, many B2B marketers have moved at a slower pace because they wanted to under-stand the role it can play. Understanding the places people go to deal with their personal life (like Facebook) and their profes-sional life (like LinkedIn) is a critical step to success.

For our clients we use an approach called BrandLive where our marketers and strategists engage in constant social monitor-ing so that they will know what people are saying about client brands and when they are saying it. It has proven instrumental in empowering people within the organization to respond quickly. Like e-mail, when customers tweet a brand-oriented comment, there is an expectation that those brands will respond personally and quickly. Quick and relevant responses require strong partnerships with clients. Clients must trust that we will speak with the voice of the brand and elevate critical issues to them without hesitation.

Customer care needs to be inte-grated in a business’s set of key performance indicators. Successful

modern customer care is centered around knowing whom to care for, when to care for them, and how they want to be cared for. Good care is as important to a brand as sales, retention, or consideration.

With our clients, we generally use a team approach. This involves coordination between the chief marketing officer and corporate communications departments. We often encourage our clients to ded-icate full-time employees to customer care via social or digital channels. We also encourage our clients to develop a personal brand in these spaces to help people feel like they are talking with real humans. Staffing and training are critical to this effort.

Customer FeedbackWe receive all kinds of customer feedback today. Some people still write letters while most e-mail or use social media. As these behav-iors evolve, so too must the practice of customer service. Customers are quick to use social channels to talk about good and bad experiences.

Robert GuaySenior Vice President, Marketing

Digitas

“It is becoming increasingly important to understand how to use technology in a way that reflects customer needs.”

• With company since 2011

• Clients included General Motors, Red Bull Energy Drink, and ConEdison

• Previously partner and director of digital marketing, Connelly Partners

• Founder, Red98, a digital agency since acquired by Connelly Partners

Mr. Guay can be e-mailed at robert.guay@execblueprint.com

The only thing worse than not communicating with a client is communicating via a canned response that does not fulfill their needs and leaves them asking questions.

Robert Guay

Senior Vice President, Marketing Digitas

© Books24x7, 2012 Robert Guay ExecBlueprints 14

Robert GuaySenior Vice President, Marketing, Digitas (continued)

This content is critical to improve business practice and also can feed content aspects of the marketing strategy. It’s also invaluable to be able to quickly assess the quality of the feedback. Brands should look to maximize the quality of feed-back by encouraging customers to communicate with them through these channels. This increased amount of quality content then becomes a fountain of material that other consumers will likely find valuable.

Clients should use standard communication channels, like mail, statements, or TV, to encourage communication through more immediate channels like Facebook or Twitter. We also help clients navigate ways to use real-time feed-back and response through Web site assets using tools like live chat or click to call.

Trends in Marketing CommunicationAddressing customer-driven needs is the most important trend to keep track of. As we see efforts moving more and more into social and digital channels, there will be increasing value in automating care in a way that provides specific, transparent, and customized per-sonal care. This movement is about developing more comprehensive customer relationship management programs. Instead of employing a tool that simply predicts when and how to send an e-mail, these tools need to be driven by business rules that are tuned to customer needs.

This trend has already impacted consumer habits in a big way. Con-sumers use social channels with an expectation of a response equiva-lent to what inbound telemarketing

has always been. Customers believe that a public and social complaint requires an equal or better response. Want to test a company for their level of customer care? Tweet at them and see what happens next. Today’s brands need to be pre-pared. Ignoring a tweet is ignoring

a potential new customer or account.

By recognizing that earned assets are as valuable and important as paid placements, one starts to understand that customer care and marketing are overlapping in a sig-nificant way. Some of the best marketing efforts conducted by our

Important as Sales, Retention, and Consideration:

“Customer Care” Means…

Knowing…• Whom to care for• When to care for them• How they want to be cared for

Making people feel like they are talking with real humans when online

Providing specific, transparent, and customized personal care

Handling complaints communicated via social media as rapidly as inbound telemarketing requests

Sharing knowledge and solutions

© Books24x7, 2012 Robert Guay ExecBlueprints 15

Robert GuaySenior Vice President, Marketing, Digitas (continued)

customers are customer care efforts done in public places. Brands must use the swell of public opinion to understand and guide their busi-ness direction.

The biggest upcoming change will likely be a continuing increase in spending on communicating to customers through more specific channels, including e-mail, direct mail, telephone, or social channels, with a focus on understanding con-sumer needs and personal response. This increased spend goes beyond paid media. It will include invest-ments in strategy, software, staff, and intellectual property. Mass-market advertising will remain critical but will only see success if equal investments are made below the line.

Benchmarking CommunicationsThe traditional sales funnels are aging, and real-time, accurate, and adaptive metrics that drive business objectives are becoming a com-petitive necessity. Understanding more complex methodologies to track the likely success and value of customers is important, as is moving away from one-way adver-tising. Brands need to find ways to communicate that engage customers.

Strategic benchmarks are an expected component of digital and direct marketing. Typical key met-rics include lead generation, sales, retention, and customer lifetime value. Comprehensive attribution is changing the simple math and analytics of the game. For example, when brands are able to credit a TV ad to a long-term acquisition of a customer, it helps marketers under-stand the role that every marketing component plays. Real attribution tied to sales or retention will shape media behaviors and marketing practices forever.

Our best practices are to make sure that we employ measurable methods with proven value for demonstrating the ROI of acquir-ing or retaining customers. We measure success by recognizing that customers do not fit one gen-eral profile, but fit hundreds or even thousands of mixed profiles. This understanding shapes the ways we market using customized assets,

personalized messages, and ever-evolving offers and promotions.

The Challenges of CommunicationOne trend that is slowly changing for the better is the relaxation of brand concerns related to negative feedback. A client recently said to me, “Shouldn’t we avoid any refer-ence or mention of anything nega-tive in our communication?” I can understand the gut reaction to keep everything positive. However, doing so presumes that the brand is somehow perfect or can’t ever learn or evolve. Recognizing mis-takes and solving the issues created by them is as important to a busi-ness today as any other aspect. Additionally, we encourage clients to work transparently and to share knowledge, solutions, and com-munication wherever possible. n

Deciding When to Deploy Content

Understanding the importance of editorial content and how it is distributed over the course of the calendar year is becoming increasingly important to clients. Additionally, coordination between multiple client constituents is critical to telling a single story in a single voice. Clients need content strategies that identify the business goals that good content can help achieve. We also look to employ tools like content management systems, social publishing platforms, and integrated marketing workflow solutions.

© Books24x7, 2012 Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points ExecBlueprints 16

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points I. What Challenges Do Marketers Face Today in Communicating with Customers?Now that the ways to reach customers have exponentially grown from what was available only a few short years ago, the marketer’s job should be getting easier, right? Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, the myriad channels now available can serve to complicate messaging efforts, especially given that some limit content to 140 characters or less and others might bury your announcements below those of your competitors. Other common barriers to creating engaging campaigns cited in this report are:

• Ensuring that messages stay personal, relevant, and meaningful to your media-fatigued (and cynical) audience

• Being noticed in the midst of the sheer volume of e-mails, Facebook updates, tweets, etc., that customers receive

• Addressing potentially negative, indifferent, or inaccurate user-generated content about your brand(s)

• Structuring content so that it can be easily accessed and viewed across platforms including computers, smartphones, and tablets

• Extracting meaningful insights from the vast quantities of data that are now available over social networks

• Budgeting for increased spending in the areas of strategy, software, staff, and intellectual property required to stay abreast of emerging technological trends

II. The Bottom LineFinancial return is the ultimate evaluation measure for all marketing campaigns, and today’s digital technologies are enabling marketers to measure more indicators than ever before. However, even though you may now be able to employ more complex methodologies to evaluate success, you should still ground them in the basics: determine what to measure, how to measure, and how to interpret. Useful questions that can guide this inquiry include:

• What are the campaign’s long-term business, behavioral, and attitude objectives?

• Which campaigns are associated with the highest upticks in revenue, when compared with previous quarters and/or years?

• How many leads or other responses are your campaigns generating?

• What is your customer retention rate and average customer lifetime value?

• How can you determine (such as through econometric modeling) that any observed changes were actually due to the influence of marketing efforts, and not some other factor?

III. Must-Have Strategies for Effective Digital CommunicationThanks to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, your customers can now get online more cheaply, more quickly, and in more places than ever before. This means they have more opportunities to view your content (along with everyone else’s). And, thanks to social media, blogs, and Web sites, they also have access to other people’s opinions of your offerings, which will influence their purchasing decisions — and can post their own. This is why, in order to maximize the ROI of your online campaigns, key areas to explore are:

• What messages will be most meaningful and relevant to each segment of your target audience?

• Where (and on what devices) are customers viewing your content?

• How can you design Web pages that will also display effectively on smartphones and tablets?

• How can you establish a broader cross-channel brand presence that includes the Web, social media, blogs, etc.?

• How can you leverage the power of social media to interact with customers and promote your brand(s)?

• How would an app improve your customers’ ability to manage their relationship with your company and products/services?

• How will you respond to user-generated content about your brand(s)?

• How will you use the plethora of marketing data that is currently available to evaluate response and improve your campaigns?

IV. The Golden Rules for Practicing Good Customer CareEven in today’s digital age, taking care of your customer is still as important to a brand as sales or retention and, as such, needs to remain integrated into your company’s set of key performance indicators. This personal dimension must be deliberately built into online marketing strategies. Effective

approaches to providing specific, transparent, and customized customer care are:

• Knowing whom to care for, when to care for them, and how they want to be cared for

• Dedicating sufficient staff to monitor online activity and provide that “real human” feel to your social media messaging

• Letting customers interact with you at their convenience

• Responding immediately and personally to any feedback or complaints

• Demonstrating a willingness to recognize mistakes and promptly, satisfactorily solve (and share) issues associated with them

• As appropriate, complementing digital content with face-to-face trainings, seminars, or other events

V. Essential Take-AwaysYou may think your customers’ attention spans are steadily decreasing because they seem to want everything in headlines or 140-character messages. But, before you focus on drilling your content down into bite-size nuggets that will fit across multiple channels, you first still need to get this content right — it must be relevant and meaningful to your audience. Proven strategies for engaging customers in digital channels are:

• Tailor your content to the needs and interests of each segment of your audience.

• Strive for consistency in communication tone and style across channels.

• Grab audiences with compelling headlines.

• Generate lists and “top tips.”

• Compose cryptic (and intriguing) tweets.

• Encourage customers to communicate with you via social media, and disseminate their quality feedback to other customers and prospects.

• Offer promotional deals, and employ multiple channels to broadcast them, including point-of-purchase displays and texts.

• Share and comment on breaking news in your industry in blogs and videos.

• Simplify, as much as possible, information about your offerings that customers may not immediately understand. n

© Books24x7, 2012 Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points ExecBlueprints 17

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points (continued)

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10 Key Questions and discussion Points

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How have your marketing communication strategies changed in the past two years? What factors contributed to these changes?

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What role does social media play in your marketing communication strategies? To what extent are you present on various platforms? What type of communication and interactivity do your customers expect from you through these channels?

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How is marketing currently using apps to reach customers on mobile devices? What is their function? How has your use of mobile marketing changed in the past two years?

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What are the demographic characteristics of your customers? What percentage of your customers do you reach through social media marketing? What percentage do you reach through mobile apps?

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What type of feedback do you generally receive from your customers based on your communication efforts? Has the nature of this feedback changed in the past three years? How do you encourage customer feedback?

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In the next 12 months, what changes do you plan to make to your communication strategies? What factors are driving these changes? What do you hope to achieve?

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How are marketing communications benchmarked at your company? How do benchmarks for online communications compare to more traditional channels?

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What are the top three challenges you face in engaging with your customers in an era of bite-size digital consumption? How have you addressed them?

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How do you measure the ROI for your marketing communications? How do you measure ROI for online-related communications versus more traditional means?

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