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In this edition:
Consumers Don't Use Only One Form of Media - Neither Should You
Email Best Practices
Kansas Agencies Work Together to Enhance Their Marketing Capabilities
What's New at Ruf
Trivia Tidbits |
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Who uses and reacts to only one form of media? Quite simply, no one. We all use a variety of media to learn about the products and services that can meet our needs and wants. Most often, we use multiple mediums at the same time or in conjunction with each other.
You're watching television and a commercial appears for a product or service that appeals to you. Likely, they’ve included a web address in that commercial….
You receive an email with a product promotion. The product name is familiar - you've seen or heard something about it somewhere. Assuming you have an interest in this product, the brand recognition increases the likelihood that you'll click through the email to the website.
Not only can one media advertisement reinforce another, recent studies confirm that more than half of all people use multiple media types simultaneously.
Two out of three people will go online while watching television. Many others listen to the radio while reading magazines. Others read the newspaper while watching television. |
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We live in a multi-media world. As marketers, we need to connect our messages and targeting across these multiple media channels to maximize the bang for our marketing buck.
Many marketers see email marketing as the solution to beating the media clutter. Its customization and personalization capabilities along with its inexpensive delivery mode make it seem like the absolute answer for marketers facing tighter budgets. The problem is that your email messages could be lost in the email clutter that has quickly surpassed the postal mailbox clutter of days past.
The real answer is to integrate your marketing messages and your targeting across all the media channels you use, from television to postal mail to email to web. If your budget constraints won't allow you to use all of the appropriate media channels for your product or service, then make the most of the less expensive, electronic media options.
By integrating various electronic media options (such as email, Internet search, webinars and blogs), you can encourage your target audience to move from curiosity to purchasing.
Whether you use many forms of media or only electronic media, to succeed you need to:
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• Understand the buying behaviors and media preferences of your customers and prospects. |
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• Standardize your message and offer across multiple media channels for consistency. |
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• Customize your communications to fit your audience’s interests and preferences. |
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• Focus your efforts on the audience segment most valuable to you. |
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Consumers use multiple mediums to gain information, making media-channel integration more important than ever. The volume of offers they receive means the message must match their preferences to gain their interest. But, through coordinated multi-media marketing, marketers can turn a mouse click into a sales ka-ching! |
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Build a quality email list. Sending emails to large, unqualified lists wastes your recipients’ time and goodwill. If possible, augment your list with the contact's preferences. |
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Consider the timing of your email distribution. For business related offers, the best time for distribution is Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Consumers are more likely to purchase on weekends. |
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Carefully word subject lines to generate interest and get through spam filters. |
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Design your emails for impact. How your email looks is critical to motivating readers to take action. |
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Test, test, test. Track responses to see what works and what doesn't. |
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Background
The Kansas Travel & Tourism Division is responsible for attracting visitors to the state. The Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks manages licenses for hunting, fishing and entry to state parks.
Kansas Tourism has years of inquiry data from prospects who have expressed an interest in visiting while Kansas Wildlife & Parks has years of actual visitor data. |
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Challenges
The State of Kansas is always trying to draw more visitors to the state and increase revenue for the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, knowing exactly who is visiting the state and what attracts these consumers is difficult since Kansas Tourism only has data from individuals who requested information about travel to the state.
In contrast, the Wildlife & Parks Department owns a huge, untapped resource of true visitors' data including name and address, but wasn't utilizing the information for marketing purposes. |
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Another challenge facing the Wildlife & Parks Department was there was no data standardization from one park to another, as well as many disparate databases across the state.
Solution
Through consultation and creative thinking, Ruf Strategic Solutions saw that the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks (KDWP) could help Kansas Tourism by sharing their visitor data.
The study conducted by Ruf combined data from Kansas Tourism and the KDWP, revealing a disconnect between traveler inquiries and known visitors. After analyzing the data, Ruf was able to describe the demographic information, lifestyles and buying patterns of both the tourism inquiries and the Parks & Wildlife visitors.
Ruf also enriched the consumer information through data cleansing, standardization and enhancements. The state departments could then see similarities and differences between the groups, as well as understand their audiences and what motivates them.
In addition to data analysis, Ruf also consolidated the previously disparate data from Kansas Tourism and all Kansas state park and license information into a single, centralized data warehouse. |
Results
The study uncovered a segment of valuable visitors who were previously unknown to the Kansas Tourism Division. These visitors are out-of-state hunters and fishers, and spend an estimated $47 million a year in tourism dollars.
When Ruf compared the 179,322 KDWP out-of-state licensees with the 260,290 individuals in the Kansas Tourism inquiry database, only 9,436 records matched. By combining databases, they found 169,886 new out-of-state visitors, increasing the Kansas Tourism database by over 65 percent with known visitors. |
"We now have a greater ability to promote the natural assets of the state, both the consumptive and nonconsumptive markets, with highly targeted messages, cost-effectively."
— Richard Smalley
Marketing Manager
Kansas Department of Commerce
Travel and Tourism Division |
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When Ruf compared email addresses, Kansas Tourism had 89,547 emails and KDWP had 55,727 emails. Only 289 emails matched. Now, Kansas Tourism has 55,438 new email addresses (a 62 percent increase) to send targeted electronic messages to known visitors.
Another outcome of this project was removing the separated data silos. This new level of interagency cooperation resulted in consolidating all data into one data warehouse, which has opened the door for improved visitor insight.
Both departments benefit from the results of this study. Not only does Kansas Tourism have a new segment to target, but also the money earned from licenses and permits goes back into preserving the parks and wildlife and managing the ecosystems.
Preservation of Kansas' natural wildlife will ensure that hunters and fishers will continue to bring their business to Kansas. |
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Andrea Cekovsky is our new administrative assistant at Ruf. Andrea is pursuing a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from the College of Architecture at Kansas State University.
Andrea's unique wedding gift to her recently married sister was arranging for the Kansas University marching band to perform at the wedding reception! This took three months of daily calls and emails to the Director of Bands. Andrea's tenacity and persistence make her a great addition to the Ruf family. |
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A big welcome to Margarita Kolyada, Ruf's new database marketing analyst. Born and raised in Russia, Margarita immigrated to the United States in the 90's to earn her degree in Computer Information Science at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. She has seven years experience in computer programming. She also has many hobbies and interests including Japanese Anime, Tai Chi, shopping and traveling.
With her high personal standards, impressive work ethic and great attitude, Margarita is working hard to learn the technology behind NAVIGATOR.
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Jason Chronister, our new software engineer, comes to Ruf with ten years of software development experience, six of which were for marketing agencies. His time working with marketing and technology firms, as well as his web application and client server skills, make him a great asset to the Ruf NAVIGATOR team.
Jason is an avid motorcyclist, riding year-round. Rain or snow, his bike will be parked outside Ruf headquarters. In addition to his interest in bikes, Jason is an artist working in multiple mediums, such as ink, digital and photography. He is also the 2007 State Champion in American Poolplayers Association billiards. If you choose to challenge him to a game, my money is on Jason!
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| Trivia Tidbits |
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About two in five (37%) employed U.S. adults report regularly working more than 40 hours per week. |
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About one in five (18%) employed adults reported they have cancelled or postponed vacation plans because of work. |
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As of 2007, nearly one-quarter (24%) of employed adults check work email or voicemail while vacationing. |
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About one-third (31%) of employed U.S. adults usually do not take all of the vacation days they receive each year. |
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Nearly two in five (39%) employed U.S. adults reported feeling better about their job and feeling more productive upon returning from vacation. |
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Each U.S. household would pay $995 more in taxes without the tax revenue generated by the travel and tourism industry. |
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Travel and tourism generates $110 billion in tax revenue for local, state and federal governments. |
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One out of every eight U.S. non-farm jobs is created directly, indirectly or is induced by travel and tourism. |
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More than one in three travelers, while on a trip, engaged in an active outdoor activity in the past two years, such as snow skiing, canoeing or rock climbing. |
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Leisure trip spending averages $360 per trip, which trumps average spending of $286 on business trips. |
| sources: the Travel Industry Association and expedia.com |
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Questions or comments regarding the newsletter should be directed to Lin Dearing or call 800-829-8544. |
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The Marketing Compass |
| Published to provide news, innovative ideas, practical tips, and tools to enhance the strategic advantage of our clients and friends. |
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| Ruf Strategic Solutions delivers a full suite of marketing and business intelligence solutions designed to help organizations acquire new customers, retain existing customers, and develop one-to-one relationships to maximize profitability. Founded in 1976, Ruf Strategic Solutions has been helping organizations maximize the return on their marketing investment through superior customer intelligence. Ruf's unique ability to integrate vast arrays of data, technology tools, and over 32 years of expertise empowers organizations with truly actionable and measurable intelligence. |
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© 2008 Ruf Strategic Solutions |
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