Measuring Honest Responses, Honestly

I was wallowing in the word use; “measureable marketing campaigns”, “customized engagement”, “tracking leads”.  These descriptors that you lavished in your job description all resonate with my beliefs and my competencies in defining your customer as key to business growth.  Then you mentioned an understanding of NPS scores.

I know about them.  I worked with GE and I own the stock.  So you are aware of the controversy over the “likely to recommend question” as an accurate predictor of business growth.  Also I’ve personally tested, granted a while ago in graduate school, the 11-pt variability scale used in this testing and didn’t find it as accurate as the 7-pt Likert scale.  But the list of other variables that impacts results goes well beyond 11-pts into self-report over oral report; individual environments over group and so forth.

At the end, I will give you that NPS scores are a generally acceptable method of translating human response into business action.  Key here is acceptable and business action.  (When I’m asked to recommend a strategy my preference is to develop a road map from research first.)  So yes, I could make that work.

An obstacle to your initiating dialog with me won’t be my research acumen, ability to engage the customer, or deep marketing experience.  But it may be that most of what I know about luxury goods comes from experience with this consumer segment in the financial services community and from hanging out with rich people, primarily a very few selected family members and friends.  If only my work experience included fabrics, fashion and design, I could drop a brand name here like Verace, Gucci, Chanel, Perry Ellis (Tom Ford).

Oh well, take a look at my resume, I’d love to speak with you about this very large and exciting opportunity.  Best to call me on my cell.  Chow!

It's About Content, not Advertising.

I have been thinking about your cost per lead.  One thing about "new marketing" that's apparent is that it isn't about TV advertising, it's about content and video. A lucrative focus for you might be to determine what your customers are interested in and create video around that topic. 

What's going to grab attention?  That's a question that deserves first a focus on who you want to pursue and some research.  But let's say you pick skateboarding to capture a young demographic and let's pick YouTube as the chosen marketing channel.  I'm not suggesting viral video because you're better off playing Powerball than waiting for your clip to take off (48 hours of video are loaded every minute).  So you'll want to buy some search ads which go for $0.50 per click. You don't have to sink a fortune.  Just be sure your content is relevant to the search term since Google bases the ad's position on that relevance.  

Being thrifty?  Instead of using your Madison Avenue ad agency to determine what's working (they're likely to use focus group testing), take advantage of the comments your viewers will write below the video.  Granted, many will be colorful (+/-), but some will have insights.  Also there's technology that lets you see when people are tuning in and out of your video.  A/B test by running two versions of your clip as an Unlisted Video backed by search ads and then see which clip gets the better response.  And, there's Google Analytics, one of my favorites. 

If you're spending money on YouTube ads, you'll want to track the ROI, which despite the fact the YouTube is 21st century digital and cutting edge, the tracking is a bit challenged. But there is a method and let's face it, there's no point in trying this if you can't gauge eyeballs.  

At the end of the day, you'll want to position yourself as an expert in your field.  This is where the skateboarding example comes in.  The Original Skateboards brand has been built largely on its YouTube presence (even over Facebook).  I've attached a video (below) which you may not find that entertaining, but the skateboarder-want-to-be's out there not only watch but study the moves.  Besides YouTube, other online more traditional "broadcast" alternatives include ABC, NBC, CBS, Comedy Central, and the Daily Show.  All places which deserve testing of your 30 second ad variety since if you're not there you're missing eyeballs.

The key rule to remember is that it's not about advertising.  It is about creating content that helps or intrigues people, that people connect with and then they connect with the source, and that's you.  

Video:  Original Skateboards
To Erika, competency is the thrill.