HVDMA Gathers for 6th Annual Roundtable Event

April 21, 2011 — On April 6, the Hudson Valley Direct Marketing Association (HVDMA) membership convened for their annual Roundtable lunch at the Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, CT. This year, three experts informed, entertained, and challenged attendees with their takes on important direct marketing topics.

Roundtables and facilitated discussions on three subjects:

Mobile Marketing: moderated by Vince Traylor, Direct of Sales, comScore, Mobile Business Unit

Online v. Offline Creative: moderated by Steven Froehlich, Vice President, Membership Development, ASPCA

Online v. Offline Metrics: moderated by Susan Isley, Senior Consultant of Strategic Services at Belardi/Ostroy.

As always, the format allowed for two rotations among the three Roundtables during the course of the luncheon. Among the items of particular interest revealed during the sessions were the following:

Mobile Marketing

Vince Traylor stressed the importance of using Mobile as part of an integrated marketing plan and educated the table participants about the data that can be collected on mobile users today. The participants discussed online v. mobile channels. He applied traditional direct marketing concepts to mobile, including identifying and understanding your audience and adapting the message to the media.

The Roundtable addressed the various sources and uses of mobile media, including surveys, tracking (mobile behavior and methodology), ad displays and metrics. Traylor provided an informative handout with data points on mobile users. He talked about a “Nielsen” system dedicated exclusively to mobile behavior and tracking.

Vince gave some practical advice for those looking to get into the mobile market, including the need to pick a good vendor and familiarize yourself with the mobile marketplace. He recommended resources such as the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and Mobile Marketer as excellent sources of information for the table participants to investigate for guidelines on best practices in establishing a mobile marketing strategy.

He emphasized that mobile was a synergistic media, not a standalone one.

Online v. Offline Creative

Steve Froehlich described how his career as a canvasser for the Clean Water Act prepared him for his career as a fundraising marketer. Regardless of the medium, he said, the approach is the same: identify the problem: find the solution, implement a strategy, and make the ask. Also, he added, the data does not lie!

The difference in online v. offline medium affects lead time differential, Froehlich explained. The timing and the frequency of the message which in turn drives changes in creative. The key, he said, is syncing the offline and online messages. Online messages such as twitter, Facebook and email are limited in characters and work well with headlines and updates (adapting message to frequency). With offline messages (direct mail) you can tell a story.

Froehlich emphasized that it is the frequency and immediacy of the touch point from the channel that drives changes in creative more than the demographics of those receiving the message through that channel. He confirmed that, although direct mail is still king (ASPCE drops 70MM pieces a year), it is imperative to use multiple channels to achieve lift.

The Roundtable participants discussed the differences in creative necessary for acquiring a donor v. “buying” a Facebook friend. They also discussed the frequency of online messages (multiple touch points are imperative).

Online v. Offline Metrics

Susan Isley facilitated a lively discussion of online v. offline metrics. The group discussed the measurement of ROI and its importance as an indicator of where to spend DM time and money. Online metrics addressed included those involving email, pay per click, affiliate programs, SEO and online remarketing.

Isley stressed the importance of analyzing match back information and determining the incremental revenue from each of the online programs (by comparing fully loaded costs v. returns). The group discussed match back rationale: fractional allocation of sales according to active marketing sources v. 100 percent match back to a single source. Often the allocation is dependent on DM data being maintained in a single place as opposed to being “silo-ed.” In any case, data tells the story.

Isley suggested that visitors to the site are a good measure of SEO more than anything else. The group discussed the importance of holdout panels to determine multi-channel effectiveness, contact testing (how many contacts do they really need to make a purchase) and accurate analytical data (Google v. third-party software).

About the Hudson Valley Direct Marketing Association (HVDMA)

The HVDMA is an information and networking club for Direct Marketing professionals from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Its goal is to support the Direct Marketing industry by creating opportunities for professionals to network, to learn, and to contribute to the DM community through fundraising and by sharing resources and expertise. A non-profit organization, the HVDMA provides a showcase for the Hudson Valley DM industry’s best practices, and provides quality education through its programming and its affiliation with the Pace University Direct Marketing Program. This affiliation enables the HVDMA to support newcomers to the industry through a formal scholarship program and exposure to industry leaders.

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