in partnership with Aspatore Books

™ExecBlueprints

www.execblueprints.com

Copyright 2010 Books24x7®. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without the prior written permission of the publisher. This ExecBlueprints™ document was published as part of a subscription based service. ExecBlueprints, a Referenceware® collection from Books24x7, provides concise, easy to absorb, practical information to help organizations address pressing strategic issues. For more information about ExecBlueprints, please visit www.execblueprints.com.

Marketing leaders from Allscripts, Habitat for Humanity International, and the University of Delaware on:

Top Five Strategies for Effective Marketing in a

Multi-Channel EnvironmentDan Michelson

Chief Marketing Officer, Allscripts

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing Communications

Habitat for Humanity International

David BrondVice President, Communications and Marketing

University of Delaware

These days, thanks to the 24x7 interactive nature of social media, your company’s offerings are being discussed whether you choose to participate or not. What challenges and opportunities these new

online communications channels present for marketers! Now, for the first time, your messages can be heard around the world at practically no cost. You can share your customers’ stories and images. You can track responses to campaigns. But, you must be careful. This ExecBlueprint discusses some strategies for navigating the multi-channel environment that now connects you with customers, and customers with each other. As always, the authors stress the importance of knowing your audiences; now, especially, a one-sized strategy will not fit all. Take advantage of social media: develop a presence on Facebook, write blogs, Tweet. Redesign your Web site to give visitors a more customized experience. But don’t forget traditional media: people, after all, still watch TV and appreciate printed materials. The point, therefore, is not just, “How do we embrace the new?” but rather, “How do we stay fresh and relevant?” ■

Action Points

I. In a Multi-Channel Environment, What Are Key Marketing Concerns?The Internet, e-mail, and social media may offer new tools for the marketing arsenal but, unfortunately, they can also introduce new complications. For example, how can you create an integrated marketing campaign for audiences that use different media? For international audiences? And, what’s next after someone has checked out your Web site?

II. The Bottom LineTo assess the levels of audience engagement with your campaigns, you can use a combination of new (e.g., Web analytics) and traditional (e.g., customer surveys) tools. However, to truly determine if your efforts have yielded bottom-line results, you will need to calculate how many of your “qualified” leads actually converted into sales.

III. Must-Have Channels to Reach Your Target AudiencesThere is no doubt that the Web and social media provide your campaigns with opportunities for reaching hitherto inaccessible (e.g., international) audiences. However, “traditional” channels, such as TV/radio and conferences, still have their purpose as well, such as for airing PSAs to mass audiences, or meeting new prospects face to face.

IV. The Golden Rules for Identifying Your Target AudiencesBefore you can pick your mix of channels, you need to know whom you’re reaching out to: What type of person (or business) is attracted by — or needs — your offerings? While, of course, you should review the results of market research, you should also plan to ask those who know your company best: your customers and your employees.

V. Essential Take-AwaysFor one author, “multi-channel” is a fancy way of referring to the multiple strategies that today’s marketers need to employ. The top five in this report are: create sub-segments and allow your experts to manage them, seek content from your customers, adapt your campaigns for international audiences, and remain open to exploring new technologies.

Contents

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.2Dan Michelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.3Chris Clarke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.6David Brond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.9Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points . . . . . . . . p.11

© Books24x7, 2010 About the Authors ExecBlueprints 2

About the Authors

David L. Brond currently serves as the university’s vice president, communications and marketing.

Prior to this appointment in April 2008, Mr. Brond served as vice president of marketing and planning at the University of Maryland Medical System. His prior work experience also includes strategic marketing and management

roles in a variety of organizations includ-ing GBMC Healthcare, GE, Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, and The Levin Group.

Mr. Brond holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Geography from Bucknell University, and an M.B.A. and M.H.A. from Duke University. Mr. Brond is an active member of the Renaissance

Charitable Foundation Board of Directors and past vice-chair of the American Red Cross, Chesapeake LifeBoard.

David BrondVice President, Communications and Marketing , University of Delaware

Dan MichelsonChief Marketing Officer , Allscripts

As chief marketing officer at Allscripts, Dan Michelson is responsible for developing and

driving the company's “go-to-market” strategy. He joined the company in April 2000 and in this time he has led market-ing, solutions management, and sales in addition to general management of the company’s ePrescribing business unit.

Prior to Allscripts, Mr. Michelson served in leadership roles in strategic

planning, product management, market-ing, and sales for Baxter Healthcare, a leading medical supply company, and AstraZeneca, one the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. He has also provided strategy and process redesign consulting for many of the leading hos-pitals and integrated delivery networks. In all roles, his primary focus has been to drive meaningful change to improve health care.

Mr. Michelson was on the original work group for the Certification Commission for Healthcare Informa-tion Technology (CCHIT) and also was one of the founders of the EHR Vendor Trade Association. He is a contributing author of the book, The Electronic Physician.

Chris Clarke is the senior vice president of communications for Habitat for Humanity

International. Since being named to the position, Mr. Clarke has spearheaded efforts to share Habitat’s message of simple, decent, and affordable housing for all. He oversees the nonprofit-homebuilding organization’s worldwide communications including public rela-tions, marketing, special events, call center, and creative support services such as graphic design, Web site development, and creative content.

Mr. Clarke began his career as a graphic artist where he worked for Miss-issippi State Department of Health, Mississippi State University and as a freelance consultant. He later joined Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi in Jackson, where his career spanned more than 20 years. At Blue Cross, Mr. Clarke progressively advanced to senior executive-level management where he created, organized, and implemented large-scale plans that resulted in improved community and employee relations,

customer satisfaction, and corporate profitability.

Throughout his career, Mr. Clarke has been actively involved in his com-munity, helping to arrange fundraising events for Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi, as well as engaging Blue Cross & Blue Shield employees to par-ticipate in WalkAmerica and March of Dimes fund drives.

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing Communications , Habitat for Humanity International

☛ Read David’s insights on Page 9

☛ Read Chris’ insights on Page 6

☛ Read Dan’s insights on Page 3

Dan MichelsonChief Marketing Officer , Allscripts

© Books24x7, 2010 Dan Michelson ExecBlueprints 3

IntroductionAllscripts is a publicly traded health care information technology com-pany with over 2,500 employees, more than $700 million in revenue and a market cap over $3 billion, serving a client base of over 160,000 physicians and 800 hospitals across the U.S. The product portfolio includes software, connectivity, information and services, and the vision is to use “innovation tech-nology” to bring health to health care.

Tools and TollwaysWhen we are looking at marketing channels, our primary focus is to identify the target audience and then develop the tools (positioning) and tollways (channels) that are required to reach them.

We target on two levels. Level one is the segment itself — we mar-ket directly to physician practices, hospitals, and a variety of other health care organizations. Some-times we are broad in our reach, but more often we level down to a sub-segment. Level two involves targeting the multiple players in that segment. For example, in our physician practice segment, our tar-gets could be a physician, an office manager, or a nurse. The key is to give your team the tool (or posi-tioning) that can apply to all three of those audiences at the same time. While a more universal message

that reaches different stakeholders in a segment is more efficient, it can also get diluted. The way to sur-mount this issue is to create a mes-sage framework that can adapt to each setting.

With the right tools in place, we try to find the most efficient and effective way to get that message out — the toll way. The best way to capture this is in a single grid that prioritizes and assesses the channels across the segments.

Measuring ROI: Turning Leads into Closed DealsWe take our raw leads and break them down into what we call “qualified leads.” We examine this conversion very closely. Even if we are successful in bringing a ton of people through the door, we’ll find that only a small percentage of them are qualified once we talk to them. That percentage allows you to evaluate whether or not the campaign was effective. For exam-ple, if it generates 10,000 leads but only 20 of them are converted into something real, then you know that your conversion rate is way too low.

However, what matters the most is converting those qualified leads into closed deals, which we track and evaluate. In a high-growth market (like the one we are in), it is rare that the return wouldn’t

exceed the investment. The key question is opportunity cost and determining where to derive the greatest investment. The key take-away is that it is critical to deter-mine the conversion rate target up front versus debating it retrospec-tively. Then you can have an objec-tive discussion versus a subjective debate.

While a more universal message that reaches different stakeholders in a segment is more efficient, it can also get diluted.

Dan Michelson

Chief Marketing Officer

Allscripts

Dan MichelsonChief Marketing Officer

Allscripts

“In the past, our process was no differ-ent than anyone else’s; we relied more on homemade spreadsheets and gut instinct to measure our efforts and make decisions. Now we measure our return on investment as a pre-programmed by-product of all our campaigns by tracking all of our efforts in Salesforce.com.”

• With company since 2000

• Has led Allscripts’ marketing, solu-tions management, and sales

• Previously served in marketing and sales leadership roles at Baxter Healthcare

• B.S., Finance, Indiana University

• M.B.A., Marketing and Management, DePaul University

Mr. Michelson can be e-mailed at dan.michelson@execblueprints.com

Dan MichelsonChief Marketing Officer , Allscripts (continued)

© Books24x7, 2010 Dan Michelson ExecBlueprints 4

Creating Context for Multi-Channel CampaignsWhen it comes to our multi- channel campaigns, we arm our segment leaders with an objective, a corpo-rate message platform, and a basic template that they can follow from a design perspective. But then we give them the autonomy to shape the message for their individual audiences. In terms of content, they own it; in terms of design, there is very little that they have to do because we have a top-tier, in-house design team that handles that aspect for them.

The time investment in a cam-paign can vary. For example, we recently launched a campaign called “Go” (see graphic). It was in response to a program the federal government had recently developed as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that pro-vides physicians with $44,000 if they utilize an electronic health record, our primary product. Clearly this was a stunning move and our message to the market was that physicians need to move now in order to take advantage of the opportunity.

While our message in the end was pretty simple, we spent the bet-ter part of six weeks trying to come up with it. We did not use an exter-nal agency and we did not do any test marketing — but we did inter-nal evaluations and received input from the folks on our team. In this instance we did not think the mes-sage needed to be tested with an external audience since it was an extension and simplification of a message that we had already put into the market. The key was that we moved this message effectively across all the segments we were targeting.

When you’re competing for attention with heavyweight compa-nies like Google, Microsoft, Cisco, HP, Dell, and GE (which have heavyweight budgets), you may think that a company that spends roughly one-fifth of what those companies do and has less presence in terms of square feet on the floor would not attract more attention.

Expert Advice

We take a “less is more” approach with our Web site and ensure that we bring the information to the user in their context. As an example, rather than asking an interested party to go to the “Contact” section and fill out a form, we have had better success with presenting options and actions within the context of an individual page. This is a simple concept but, until recently, we did not think that way. And it has been effective. Our Web analytics have tracked our traffic at three times greater than our competition.

Abandon premise

Develop go-to-market

strategy

Thumbs up Thumbs down

Evaluating Channel Potential Through the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Process

Develop the premise Test Pitch M2 gate

Team gives input

Dan MichelsonChief Marketing Officer , Allscripts (continued)

© Books24x7, 2010 Dan Michelson ExecBlueprints 5

But we did. As one data point, three equity analyst reports state that the Allscripts booth was, once again, the busiest of over 1,000 companies.

The takeaway is that this type of buzz can be created, but only with careful thought and a ton of effort.

Exploring New ChannelsOver the next 12 months, we will continue to explore new channels. A great example is the conference I just outlined above. To support our efforts we created a Web site called “Go” and uploaded client stories in real time from the confer-ence floor, sending videos via You-Tube and pictures via Flickr. We launched a PR strategy, sending stories via Twitter throughout the conference. All of this wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago — and all of this was free.

As a company, we will also con-tinue to explore new markets. When evaluating a channel’s poten-tial, we use a formal product life-cycle management (PLM) process. This approach takes you through a number of stages and gates to determine if a market is viable and worth going after. Initially, you develop, test, and pitch a premise. That premise ultimately comes to the “M2 gate,” where the team gives you the thumbs-up or thumbs-down. If it makes it through the gate, you begin to develop a go-to-market strategy.

If you are investing millions of dollars, you want to have this type of process to evaluate a potential product or channel. On the other hand, if you are a marketing man-ager and just trying to determine if you should market something a

little bit more aggressively to an individual segment, this process would be overkill and is not required.

Best Practices for Keeping Up to DateOur best practice for keeping up to date is to constantly benchmark in two ways: against our competition and against best-in-class companies outside of our market.

Relative to competitive bench-marking, we monitor a number of metrics such as the number of PR placements and Web traffic, but we also closely watch how they posi-tion themselves and the strategic moves they are making in the market.

With that said, we learn more by looking outside our market. One of the companies that we admire in that light and benchmark ourselves against is Intuit, which drives $4 billion in online sales between the months of January and April, with TurboTax® leading the way. Their perspective and insight is further down the path than anyone else I have spoken with. An example is their idea that there should be no such thing as a homepage. Rather, each page on your Web site can serve as an entry point and, there-fore, a home page. A simple idea, but one that can drive you to think very differently about the client experience and produce better yield. ■

Allscripts’ “Go” Campaign

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing Communications , Habitat for Humanity International

© Books24x7, 2010 Chris Clarke ExecBlueprints 6

Important Marketing ChannelsCurrently the marketing channels that are most important to Habitat for Humanity are earned media (or public relations), the Web, televi-sion (including public-service announcements [PSAs]), and social media. Earned media continues to top our list, building on the strength of the powerful stories that affili-ates around the country tell every

day at the local level. The Web, on the other hand, has been an impor-tant channel for helping the Habi-tat brand grow as both a national and international brand. For instance, a Google News search for our organization may turn up hundreds of local stories every day. A few years ago, the story of a home owner family in Naples, Flor-ida, might not have come to the attention of a reader in Los Ange-les, but today the Web effectively multiplies our visibility. We con-tinue to run annual PSA campaigns on television and cable, and these are designed specifically to support local marketing efforts. In recent years, adding Spanish-language spots and PSA versions that have been adapted for broadcast outside the U.S. has helped drive traffic to habitat.org, thereby raising both

awareness and funds for our work.

Newest to this multi-channel list is social media, which is a growing area for Habitat and a natural fit for an organization like ours, as we have a strong volunteer base. Long-time volunteers are fond of saying they caught “Habititis” on their first build — a contagious enthusi-asm for Habitat’s work. Volunteers are often the best ambassadors for

Habitat’s work, whether by bring-ing a friend to a build site, raising funds for a project through our “Friends Asking Friends” online fundraising tool, or posting images of a recent Habitat Global Village trip on their Facebook page. Social media helps volunteers share their stories and connects current and future volunteers with each other, building a network of committed, creative, and compassionate sup-porters eager to make a difference with Habitat in their communities and around the world.

When it comes to determining how we can best utilize the different channels available to us, we work with our internal creative team and program leadership to identify key target audiences and seek out oppor-tunities to reach those markets most effectively. We also gather informa-tion from available market research,

and we frequently get valuable input from the more than 1,500 Habitat affiliates in communities around the country.

Managing New and Traditional ChannelsWhen we look at how exactly we balance new with traditional mar-keting channels, we try to think of the lifecycle of Habitat donors and

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing

CommunicationsHabitat for Humanity International

“One size doesn’t fit all — we take care to craft campaigns that can be adapted easily to the many areas where we work, and seek close collaboration and coordination with our communica-tions team in the field throughout the production process.”

• Oversees organization’s worldwide communications

• Over 20 years of experience in progressively more senior manage-ment positions at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi

• Responsible for BCBS’s campaigns to improve community relations, customer satisfaction, and corporate profitability

Mr. Clarke can be e-mailed at chris.clarke@execblueprints.com

More and more donors are choosing to research organizations and make donations online, and that is one reason why we anticipate that an online, multi-channel approach will increase donor engagement.

Chris Clarke

Senior Vice President, Marketing Communications

Habitat for Humanity International

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing Communications , Habitat for Humanity International (continued)

© Books24x7, 2010 Chris Clarke ExecBlueprints 7

supporters. We want to provide opportunities to move them through deeper levels of engagement with our work and create multiple ways for them to stay active. Similar to a common scenario on a Habitat build site (where a first-time volun-teer who has never picked up a hammer works side-by-side with a long-term construction leader with years of experience), our mar-keting programs need to speak to a range of demographic groups and comfort levels with different types of media.

For instance, in 2008, we reor-ganized our communications divi-sion to better capitalize on new media opportunities by creating a multidisciplinary department of public relations and new media. The purpose of that new area is to leverage internal leadership in pub-lic relations and Web communica-tions, which has allowed us to engage audiences more deeply by creating more opportunities for a two-way conversation with donors and supporters, rather than simply offering a one-way stream of information.

Traditional channels, however, continue to be an important part of the marketing mix as well. For example, our annual PSA campaign on radio and television helps raise awareness for our work with a mass audience. The 2009 cam-paign, for example, resulted in more than one billion viewer and listener impressions around the world.

Managing an International Marketing MixAs an international organization, the input from area communica-tions directors in the regions where

we work helps us determine the mix of channels that is most effec-tive for us. While direct mail, Web communications, television, and print are all pieces of the market-ing mix in every area where we work, they are used in differing degrees based upon our target audi-ence and, to some degree, the level of Habitat’s brand awareness in each area.

Social media is just beginning to emerge as a valuable tool in many areas where Habitat works. We coordinate with area offices on the development of social media sites — like a Spanish-language Face-book presence for Latin America and the Caribbean — to ensure that the core content and messaging are consistent.

Habitat’s Web site is also con-stantly evolving to adapt to new opportunities in interactive media. In the past five years, we have undergone major overhauls in look and feel that have been based on usability testing and research. We have added links to social media sites and will soon have an RSS feed and blogging capability. This has all been done in an effort to make the Web experience more interactive. Furthermore, because we are finding that online dona-tions are rapidly outpacing direct-mail donations (which were once the backbone of most nonprofits),

a key objective is now to make our Web site user-friendly for donors.

Multi-Channel Strategies Over the Coming YearOver the next 12 months, we will continue our annual PSA campaign for television and radio, but we plan to integrate stronger Web and social media components in the call to action. We hope this emphasis will help us migrate the curious vis-itor to our Web or social media sites into becoming an actively engaged volunteer, donor, or advo-cate. More and more donors are choosing to research organizations and make donations online, and that is one reason why we antici-pate that an online, multi-channel approach will increase donor engagement.

We will also continue to develop our social media capabilities over the coming year, with an increased emphasis placed on user-generated content, and to explore new appli-cations for existing channels. For example, immediately following the earthquakes that struck Haiti and Chile in January and February 2010, the mobile phone offered another means by which people could donate and engage. There are many opportunities to reach out to these donors — such as via text messaging, Twitter, or smart phone technology — and allow us to

Expert Advice

One way that we manage our regionalized communications is by customizing our Web site by region. Visitors to habitat.org may select which “edition” of the site they wish to subscribe to: Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Europe/Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and United States/Canada. The edition for Latin America/Caribbean is in Spanish; the others use English as the primary language. Local marketing messages, however, are developed by national offices in each area and they are customized with local languages.

Chris ClarkeSenior Vice President, Marketing Communications , Habitat for Humanity International (continued)

© Books24x7, 2010 Chris Clarke ExecBlueprints 8

better communicate to and with our supporters.

Top ChallengesAs a nonprofit organization, our top challenge is always funding. Stewardship of our donor dollars is our primary concern, and so our budget for paid advertising is very small. We therefore look for oppor-tunities that provide the greatest number of impressions at the low-est cost (or in many cases, at no cost). Radio and television PSAs are one example. Top-of-mind awareness is critical for nonprofits, and television remains one of the best means of reaching a mass mar-ket. We continue to be extremely

grateful for the broadcast networks and local radio and television sta-tions that air Habitat PSAs through-out the year. Our 2009 campaign resulted in more than one billion viewer and listener impressions, which helped us maintain a steady presence in the media and reinforce the market-specific efforts of our local affiliates. The campaign also includes treatments for print, Web, and outdoor advertising, allowing us to capitalize quickly when media partners have the opportunity to donate remnant ad space.

The success of our PSA cam-paigns presented a secondary chal-lenge in producing and scripting the PSAs themselves. As the cam-paigns began to be picked up by a

growing list of international media, it was not uncommon for a mes-sage developed for a U.S. audience to be broadcast by an international cable network in Dubai or Hong Kong. In addition, translating a PSA into Spanish for Spanish- language networks meant that it was as likely to be viewed in Miami as it was in Costa Rica. Also, while Habitat’s core message and mission is always the same — building sim-ple, decent houses in partner-ship with low-income families — cultural and social standards dictate that the type of house we build in the U.S. looks quite differ-ent from the type of house we build in Latin America, the Middle East, or Asia. ■

Other social media tools,

including text

messages and Twitter

Volunteers’ Facebook

pages

“Friends Asking

Friends” online

fundraising tool

Customized Web sites

Direct mailTelevision and radio

public service

announce-ments (PSAs)

Different Channels, Same Goal: Spreading the Word About Habitat

Different Demographic Groups Are Reached Using a Mix of Traditional and New Media

David BrondVice President, Communications and Marketing , University of Delaware

© Books24x7, 2010 David Brond ExecBlueprints 9

Multi-Channel CommunicationsFor me, “multi-channel” is a fancy way of saying multiple strategies, and we try to build customer loy-alty by being responsive to the strategies that work for them. In other words, in marketing I believe that you cannot follow just one tac-tic; you cannot just send out a memo and expect people to change their habits or behavior. So we try a multi-channel approach.

As a general rule, we have tried to become the one-stop resource for the university — the university community can come to us and we assist them in achieving their goals. We are a pretty diverse organiza-tion with 4,000 employees, includ-ing 1,200 faculty, and over 20,000 students, distributed through seven colleges and other organizational units. For that reason, I established a marketing council, which has public relations, communications, or marketing representatives from all these diverse units. We meet on a monthly basis to share ideas and strategies, communicate our plans and tactics, as well as participate in continuing education discussions. This council has enabled us to col-laborate and coordinate activities, and it has been beneficial in terms of communicating across the university.

When people want to make an announcement or ask us to assist with marketing their program, we have various ways to get that mes-sage out. We can use electronic communications, produce posters, develop management presentations, and post items on UDaily, our internal news service that we main-tain on our Web site. People do not even have to visit our Web site to learn news and “what’s happen-ing”; they can subscribe to UDaily and receive daily feeds of our top news stories and event information.

Using New TechnologiesIn almost any marketing organiza-tion, when you look at overall dol-lars you will see expenditures on

print going down while growth in Internet-related spending is going up. We are currently working on a Web page that is like an iGoogle page, where people can create their own homepage — what do they want to see when they come to udel.edu? They might be interested in athletics, so they can choose to put an emphasis on that. Our Web site needed to evolve, and now it has become the first place people go to find out about us. We spend a lot of time and effort on primary pages for udel.edu, bluehens.com (our athletic Web site), and udcon-nection.com (our alumni Web site). Through Google analytics we

David BrondVice President, Communications

and MarketingUniversity of Delaware

“Employees need to be aware of our marketing initiatives so that they can provide word-of-mouth marketing.”

• With university since 2008

• Previously vide president of mar-keting and planning, University of Maryland Medical System

• B.A., Economics and Geography, Bucknell University

• M.B.A.; M.H.A., Duke University

Mr. Brond can be e-mailed at david.brond@execblueprints.com

We are currently working on a Web page that is like an iGoogle page, where people can create their own homepage — what do they want to see when they come to udel.edu?

David Brond

Vice President, Communications and Marketing

University of Delaware

Expert Advice

We are getting close to signing a partnership for a new digital signage system that will involve installing digital TVs across our campus and allow us to better communicate to people who are walking around the university. It has been an interesting exercise to convince people why we want to be an early adopter of this new technology. While other campuses have similar systems, the way we are planning to implement it — with some paid advertising to support our costs — is something new.

David BrondVice President, Communications and Marketing , University of Delaware (continued)

© Books24x7, 2010 David Brond ExecBlueprints 10

measure page views and unique visitors, where people have come from, where they go, and how much time they spend on our site.

Additionally, we have RSS feeds and social networking capabili-ties, and are in the process of devel-oping a policy on the use of blogs. We are also continuing to hire peo-ple with practical skills in these areas, which has been interesting in itself.

Using Employees and Market Research EffectivelyMy view is that we have 4,000 marketers who work here — our employees. To that end, we contin-ually try to first let our employees know what we are doing, so that they can go out and tell others about new programs, the latest speaker coming, or new faculty.

Along with this support from our employees, our market research plays a key role by constantly ask-ing our customers what they think about our programs and services. On almost every page of our Web site there is a link to a customer contact page where people can give input. In our print publications we include a customer readership sur-vey so readers can tell us what they like and what they don’t like. On an individual product level our senior art directors (who are close to our customers) provide market intelligence based on what they are seeing in the marketplace through the eyes of their clients.

Evaluating New Marketing ChannelsIn evaluating new channels, we try to think about the potential for new partnerships and relationships.

Being an early adopter means being one of the organizations that helps to shape the technology.

In a sense, evaluating the poten-tial of a new channel is really based on whether anybody else out in the marketplace is using it. You have to look at risk versus reward. Will it be a high risk? What exposure does the university assume by becoming an early adopter? In mar-keting and communications there is some value in being first because you can set the standard for future performance.

Over the next 12 months we will continue to be focused on Web site activities, but print publications will still be part of our portfolio. When we surveyed our readership we found that people like to have a hard copy of a magazine or a

brochure, so one form of media does not completely replace another. I also anticipate that we will use more video in the future. Today news media are not looking for a paper press release; they want video to accompany the electronic press release.

The challenge in this is how to cross-promote things — how can we push a public relations message that also points people to a video? How can we make sure that every brochure has a Web site on it (that complements the brochure copy)? How can we encourage people to go to a Web site and then print off a PDF to share with others or save for future reference? Marketing in the future will not involve any one tactic by itself, but rather about how we keep things fresh and relevant. ■

Social networking

RSS feeds

Management presentations

News posted on internal TV station, UDaily

Posters

Internal e-mails

How Does Marketing Get The Message Out?No Tactic Works in Isolation

User-customizable Web site

© Books24x7, 2010 Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points ExecBlueprints 11

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points I. In a Multi-Channel Environment, What Are Key Marketing Concerns?With the advent of the Web, and now social media, marketing has more tools than ever for disseminating messages. However, the choice of which to utilize will never be strictly up to you; your audiences will, prob-ably always, clearly prefer certain channels over others — and these preferences will vary depending on their age, region, and other factors. Areas, therefore, to consider when choosing your channels include:

• How can you make the biggest impact for the lowest possible cost?

• How can you attract more attention than your competition, even if they have larger marketing budgets?

• How can your campaigns speak to a range of demographic groups that have different comfort levels with different types of media?

• How are you addressing recent con-sumer trends to do more business online?

• How can your campaigns leverage the latest Twitter and smart-phone technologies?

• What is the most effective way to bring your audiences closer to your offerings once they have checked out your Web site?

• How can you design campaigns that drive audience engagement across media?

• Who else is using these channels? What does your organization have to risk and gain from being an early adopter?

• How can your messages (and media) be retooled for international audiences?

II. The Bottom LineWhen it comes to measuring the ROI of your campaigns, you no longer have to rely exclusively on homemade spreadsheets and gut instincts; with new channels have come new methods (e.g., Salesforce.com) for tracking levels of engagement and results. While strategies will necessarily vary depend-ing on the size and objectives of your cam-paign, you can assess effectiveness by:

• Conducting test marketing using external audiences for larger cam-paigns or new directions

• Utilizing product lifecycle manage-ment (PLM) processes that evaluate channel potential by stages

• Calculating the percentage of “quali-fied” (versus “raw”) leads that are converted into sales

• Measuring viewer and listener impres-sions (for broadcast media)

• Tracking page views, unique visitors, visitor origination and destination, and time spent on your Web site(s)

• Eliciting customer feedback on your company’s offerings via Web contact pages, surveys, and direct contact

• Benchmarking results (e.g., PR placements, Web traffic) against the competition

III. Must-Have Channels to Reach Your Target AudiencesWhile the Web may give your company and its offerings exciting international exposure, you will probably find that it has not com-pletely supplanted print materials; some of your customers will still want that hard copy of your company publication, or respond to a direct-mail piece. That’s why the best cam-paigns will still incorporate a mix of “tra-ditional” and new media, such as:

Traditional:

• Direct mail

• Outdoor advertising

• Conference booths

• Management presentations

• Print brochures, newsletters, and magazines

• Radio and television

New:

• Company Web sites

• E-mail blasts

• News services available via the orga-nization’s Web site

• Facebook

• Videos and photographs that can be posted to public Web sites (e.g., YouTube, Flickr)

• Tweets

• RSS feeds and blogs

IV. The Golden Rules for Identifying Your Target AudiencesIn this era of global communications, you may have prospective customers halfway across the world who are following you on the Web, or you could be overlooking a segment that is just across town. The point is, you need to find those people (or busi-nesses) who are most interested in your offerings. How? Key approaches include:

• Utilizing market research

• Seeking input from company employ-ees and customers

• Analyzing your Web site traffic for regional trends

• Establishing a marketing council that includes representatives from different sectors of your organization to share ideas and strategies

V. Essential Take-AwaysIn marketing, it’s always been true that you cannot follow just one tactic. However, now that different generations have grown up with a different mix of media, the mar-keter’s job to find strategies that work for each audience has become more complex. In fact, you will probably need to expand your efforts into new areas, such as social media and wireless communications. The top five strategies for marketing effectively in a multi-channel environment are:

• Breaking down your main segments into sub-segments (that may respond to different messages — and media)

• Giving your segment leaders sufficient autonomy to shape messages for their particular audiences

• Using interactive media (e.g., videos, blogs, and social media) to enable your customers to contribute content about your products and services

• Adapting the languages and offerings of campaigns to fit multicultural and multinational audiences while retain-ing core content and messaging

• Continuously exploring opportunities to form new partnerships and try new technology ■

© Books24x7, 2010 Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points ExecBlueprints 12

Ideas to Build Upon & Action Points (continued)

ExecBlueprints is a subscription-based offering from Books24x7, a SkillSoft Company. For more information on subscribing, please visit www.books24x7.com.

10 KEY QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION POINTS

1 Which marketing channels are currently important to your industry and your company? Why are these particular channels important?

2 In the past five years, which channels has your company used? Why were they chosen? What new strategies and approaches have these channels enabled? What have they accomplished for your campaigns?

3 What are your department’s best practices for taking advantage of the opportunities that the various marketing channels present? How do you balance use of new versus traditional channels? How have these practices transformed your marketing strategies?

4 When creating content for your multi-channel campaigns, what steps do you take? What role do your employees play? What role does market research play? IT? How do you monitor customer-supplied content that you receive through your social media channels?

5 What is a typical response rate to your multi-channel campaigns? How much does this vary by product or service line? What is measured?

6 In the next 12 months, what changes do you plan in your multi-channel marketing strategies? What factors are driving these changes? What results do you hope to yield?

7 Which channels have been essential for staying in touch with your customers? How is the effectiveness of these channels in connecting with customers tested? What role do channels that your company does not control (such as YouTube) play in your strategies to connect with customers?

8 When it comes to multi-channel marketing, what are the top three challenges your company faces? Why have these been especially prominent? How have you addressed them?

9 What are the top five criteria you use to evaluate the potential of a new channel? When selecting new channels, what input do you seek from senior management? IT? Vendors and others who might already be familiar with the channel?

10 How do you measure the ROI for multi-channel marketing strategies? How can you isolate the effect of each channel? How does this ROI compare with that attained by campaigns that used a more traditional mix of channels?

?