The Digital Imaging Association (DIA) featured an inspiring workshop at neXus, The Xerox Research Centre of Canada on Wednesday April 16, 2008.
Attendees were privileged to participate with presenter Rick Littrell, President and Chief Magic Officer of Magicomm, an integrated direct-to-customer solutions provider. Magicomm lives the experience of the new frontier that is direct marketing. The objective of the complex services Littrell and his team provide is to enable increased revenue opportunities, reduced costs, and improved brand awareness.
Littrell’s lively and passionate presentation delivered hard-hitting information from a person who has traveled uncharted territory and has both the scars and the successes to prove it. It was peppered with participation from the floor asking provocative questions and sharing insights from their own experiences and observations.
The Digital Imaging Association’s objective in selecting Littrell to lead this workshop was to assist attendees in overcoming the hurdles of developing and implementing strategic marketing plans that leverage digital technology – for themselves and for their customers.
Magicomm is a success model. Littrell advises companies to be their own case studies in developing a data driven multimedia campaign to market their own services. Why multimedia? Littrell exemplified the 3 seconds you have to gain someone’s attention. In today’s communications world people are quickly filtering out perceived extraneous information and are very particular about which media deliverable they are most comfortable with. So, says Littrell, communicators must use their 3 seconds wisely. Walk before delivering the talk. Magicomm does and it has helped them develop and evolve the robust recommendations they make to their clients.
And you can be a magician too. Variable data driven communications delivery is bigger than print. It is a media string, a mix of all the vectors of cross media, sometimes called integrated marketing or Transpromo. Regardless of the label, Littrell believes this is where we’re all headed. You’ll do it now or do it later, he said. We’re at the pioneer stage now of the new world of multi-touch campaigns.
An example of this was the development and implementation of Littrell’s presentation in concert with the DIA. Those who registered – and who had provided email addresses – received an invitation to the Magicomm Experience. A personalized URL (PURL) connected recipients to a landing page which enabled them to quickly enter information that generated a personalized newspaper. The demonstration of a database-driven document was, in very short order, delivered via another email with a link to each person’s unique document. The campaign was fun AND informative. The deliverable was fun, but what Magicomm received in return via the customized fields was a collection of data that defined individual hot issues. During the presentation Littrell demonstrated how organizations can use this type of campaign to self-qualify business prospects, thus shortening the sales cycle and improving customer satisfaction. Those who completed the form and received their personalized newspaper also received a follow up email of thanks with a “Refer a Friend” option. In the background, Magicomm was able to tabulate and quantify the number of hits to the landing page, the number of people who completed the exercise, the insight the personal information provided, the number of people who referred a friend, and who that friend was. Powerful!
The presentation and discussions that ensued explored some of the roadblocks and some suggested strategies to overcome them. Littrell clearly demonstrated that the skills for selling and delivering VDP are very different from those that successfully sell static print. Some salespeople and selling organizations can evolve and adapt, but more can’t. So, what should you try to do?
• package up a single-solutions offering?
• setup a different department within your existing structure?
• establish a separate company?
• train or hire specialists?
• partner with a service provider who can backfill?
Continuing discussion delivered the following additional insights:
• how to identify opportunities
• how to introduce your client to 1:1
• how to develop a marketing strategy and creative that will result in a campaign that has the best chance of achieving customer objectives
• dealing with less than ideal data bases
• estimating the project
• defining the ROI, project analysis and reporting
• technical deployment
You are invited to visit DIA’s web site, www.digitalimagingassociation.ca, where you will find a link to Rick Littrell’s magic. It will show you the message, but not the depth of experience that can only be achieved by attending and participating in our dynamic workshops.
