U n i v e r s i t y o f W i s c o n s i n M a d i s o n UW E-Business Consortium.

Transcription

1 U n i v e r s i t y o f W i s c o n s i n M a d i s o n UW E-Business Consortium Marketing Best Practices and Competitive Analysis Project Sponsor Flair4all.com Project Report Authors Terry Goeldner Pei-I Hsu Brad Moore Amanda Sandusky Heidi Vogel December UW E-Business Consortium PROJ For more information, contact raj@cae.wisc.edu (608)

2 Executive Summary Flair4all.com is a start-up online retailing company based in Madison, WI. The company designs and produces decorative wall decals that can be easily applied and removed to many different surfaces. The company s primary target market is year-old girls, with a secondary target market being the mothers of these teens. When this project was initiated in the Fall 2009, Flair4all was lacking an marketing strategy, and was seeking input from our group to help with the development and implementation of an marketing strategy. As an online retailer, Flair4all has the potential to benefit greatly from a robust marketing strategy, and as such, we sought to create a framework of research and analysis upon which the company could build its strategy. We used both primary and secondary research to collect data for our report. The primary research included gathering and analyzing s sent by Flair4all s direct and indirect competitors. In addition, we undertook a survey of five key UWEBC member company representatives who shared with us their varying levels of experience in marketing campaigns. Our secondary research consisted primarily of marketing literature, which included professional articles, academic journal articles, and other sources like online white papers, vendor websites, and blogs. As a framework for marketing strategy and implementations, we believe that our best practices key findings can be boiled down into the following process: Define your audience Design your campaigns for this audience Segment your audience based on relevant attributes Ensure deliverability Measure as much as possible Benchmark Target your s for effectiveness Compliance is crucial In addition, we found that although it s almost impossible to judge the effectiveness of competitor s simply by looking at them, there are certain key practices that hold consistent with our best practices research and our competitive benchmarking. Through this comparison, we were able to identify certain must haves in these marketing campaigns, a few of which are below: Subject lines should be short and descriptive, generally less than 60 characters. Content of should offer an incentive for the recipient to visit website Style and format should be consistent with previous s and website There should be a clear means of opting out of the subscription list on every . Encourage users to sign up for social media links, and to forward to a friend ii

3 And finally, when choosing an Service Provider (ESP) to help implement an marketing strategy, it is important to understand your company key strengths and also any limiting factors. An ESP can be chosen to fill in the gaps and offer the right mix of standard features and custom services and support. The process of ESP due diligence is likely to be most successful if it is entered into with an understanding of current industry best practices, competitive benchmarking, and Flair4all s internal resources and limitations. iii

4 Acknowledgements Our group would like to take this opportunity to thank several people who helped us along the way. We greatly appreciate their help and recognize that they are a big reason why we were able to complete this project successfully. Flair4all.com Blair Wilson for his valuable guidance, feedback, flexibility, and willingness to work with our team throughout this project. Thanks for a great learning experience! University of Wisconsin Professor Raj Veeramani for his consistent support and guidance, his willingness to share deep industry knowledge, and his dedication to helping our team succeed in crafting valuable deliverables for Flair4all. UWEBC Member Companies For their willingness to share their time, insights, knowledge, and valuable experience. Service Providers Representatives Silverpop Tamlyn Cobian, Regional Sales Manager ExactTarget James Pabst, Online Marketing Specialist, Skyline Tech Thank you for all of your help! iv

5 Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... IV TABLE OF CONTENTS... V TABLE OF FIGURES INTRODUCTION COMPANY OVERVIEW PROJECT MOTIVATION PROJECT DELIVERABLES PROJECT APPROACH BEST PRACTICES: MARKETING METHOD: BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH RESULTS: BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH Define goals and performance targets Be aware of relevant benchmarks Segmentation Design Frequency Metrics Testing CAN-SPAM Compliance CAN-SPAM Requirements and Relationship Management COPPA Compliance Deliverability Time of Day Delivery Timing Build a Targeted Mailing List Clean Database Regularly INDUSTRY PRACTICES: UWEBC MEMBER SURVEYS METHOD: UWEBC MEMBER SURVEYS RESULTS: UWEBC MEMBER SURVEYS Company A, Diversified Online Retailer Company B, Large Multi-channel Apparel Retailer Company C, Telecommunications Company Company D, Small Online Retailer Company E, Multi-Channel Retailer Key Takeaways BENCHMARKING AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS METHOD: BENCHMARKING AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS RESULTS: BENCHMARKING AND COMPETITOR ANALYSIS Signup Process Inbox content content Branding / Consistency Deliverability v

6 5.2.6 Frequency SERVICE PROVIDER ANALYSIS METHOD: SERVICE PROVIDER ANALYSIS RESULTS: SERVICE PROVIDER ANALYSIS Initial Assessment Features for Comparison Functional Analysis of ESP Demos Comparison of Targeted ESPs Industry Benchmarking RECOMMENDATIONS BEST PRACTICES/INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING ESP SELECTION WORKS CITED APPENDIX A UWEBC MEMBER SURVEY APPENDIX B SPAM FILTER TRIGGERS APPENDIX C COMPETITIVE SCORECARD (SEE ATTACHED) vi

7 Table of Figures FIGURE 1: SMALL BUSINESS BENCHMARKING... 3 FIGURE 2: VISIBLE SIGN-UP LINK FIGURE 3: COMPETITORS FROM LINES FIGURE 4: EXAMPLE OF A PROMOTIONAL FIGURE 5: EXAMPLE OF A NEWSLETTER FIGURE 6: EXAMPLE OF A NEW PRODUCT FIGURE 7: EXAMPLE OF NEW PRODUCT AND DIRECT LINK FIGURE 8: EXAMPLE OF FORWARD TO A FRIEND FIGURE 9: EXAMPLE OF HOW TO JOIN MAILING LIST IF FORWARDED FIGURE 10: EXAMPLE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING INCORPORATION IN FIGURE 11: EXAMPLE OF HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FIGURE 12: BRANDING AND CONSISTENCY EXAMPLE FIGURE 13: DELIVERABILITY RESULTS FIGURE 14: S PER WEEK FIGURE 15: DIRECT COMPETITORS S PER DAY OF WEEK FIGURE 16: INDIRECT COMPETITORS S PER DAY OF WEEK FIGURE 17: DIRECT COMPETITORS S PER TIME OF DAY FIGURE 18: INDIRECT COMPETITORS S PER TIME OF DAY FIGURE 19: YESMAIL HTML EDITING LAYOUT FIGURE 20: LIST IMPORT VERTICAL RESPONSE FIGURE 21: TEMPLATE OFFERED BY VERTICAL RESPONSE FIGURE 22: GRAPHIC UPLOAD OPTION FIGURE 23: VERTICAL RESPONSE CAMPAIGN DELIVERY FIGURE 24: CAMPAIGN MONITOR S TRACKING INTERFACE FIGURE 25: BASIC COMPANY INFORMATION COMPARISON FIGURE 26: INTEGRATION CAPABILITIES FIGURE 27: PLATFORM, INSTALLATION, AND LEARNING RESOURCES FIGURE 28: FEES AND PRICING FIGURE 29: UWEBC MEMBER ESPS FIGURE 30: TOP ESPS USED BY INTERNET 500 RETAILERS