Don’t worry, we didn’t down tools and congregate around burning dustbins yelling SCAB at anyone in ear shot due to someone forgetting to buy tea bags, again! We were on a works night out bowling, and to also say goodbye to one of our esteemed colleagues, Tony Suri, leaving the nest for pastures new. Everyone had a great night and we want to take this time to say that we will miss Tony’s laid back, web genius around the place. Have a look on our flickr account to see a few of us being silly.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcdagency/

As published on Brand Republic & Mad.co.uk

http://dmweekly.mad.co.uk/Main/IndepthSection/IndepthAnalysis/Articlex/0ac98de3385c48d2af4675e9cd43ad9d/One-to-one-marteting-goes-3D.html?uiArticleID=0ac98de3-385c-48d2-af46-75e9cd43ad9d&uiNavigationItemID=653b2c35-8590-4cff-a11f-c9fee5d1106b

http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/commentcentral/archive/2009/11/05/one-to-one-marketing-goes-3d.aspx

Lord Leverhulme famously said that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half”.  In a downturn it is vital that none of the marketing pound is wasted and as planning director at Leeds-based direct response agency PCD, I can reveal how to be smarter with your marketing spend.

Whether you call it direct marketing or one-to-one marketing, the all important goal is to promote your message to your customers in a more targeted way. Achieving this goal becomes ever more vital as company boardrooms insist marketing teams justify their budgets and as such decisions, strategies and plans will become more customer data insight driven.

Digital opportunities and channels provide marketers with never before seen levels of interactions with customers and prospects. Integrating in a single process, for example via direct mail, sms, web or email, with levels of personalisation that are no longer restricted to simple variables but include imagery, product messages and copy to fit an individual customer’s particular purchasing habit and lifestyle, help to engage with target audiences.

Yes, this comes at a higher cost, however experience has shown that cost per pack whilst increasing is countered by an overall increase in conversion, lowering overall acquisition costs.”

To reflect this explosion in alternative on and offline media platforms, we at PCD have refocused the business and developed a 3D approach – data, digital and direct.

• Data means knowledge and provides insight, information and understanding which results in targeted planning, segmentation and a well defined strategy
• Digital means one-to-one dialogue, delivering relevant and personalised comms. This means that the right message is being delivered the right way at the right time, both on and offline
• Direct means accountable and results in brand building, generating response, measuring, learning and improving.

I believe that we needed to develop this unique 3D approach in order to provide clients with targeted methods to reach their consumers and increase customer value.

What’s different about our 3D approach is that you will realise it’s not just about sending complex mailing packs, building the biggest websites, sending the most emails or developing ‘flashy’ online campaigns. It’s about taking data and using it to understand your customers. It’s about understanding a customer’s journey with your brand, the touchpoints and conversations you’ll have and those you should have. It’s about segmenting data to target creative more effectively and then delivering campaigns that embrace and engage the customers.

This is all before a creative concept is hatched and means that clients fully understand their customers, allowing them to embrace and engage with them in a way they have not been able to do before.

I believe that our approach begins by understanding our clients data, the segments they form, the impact these segments can have on your business and then the creative message we can deliver, ultimately ensuring the right customer receives the right message by the right channel.

For more information on our 3D thinking, please contact Steve Moncrieff on 01943 872505 or email meet@pcdagency.com

Graph showing changes in marketing spend by category

Marketing spend fell for the eighth consecutive quarter but nearly half of companies surveyed are seeing improved prospects, says the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether report.

The Bellwether report says that while budgets dropped once more in Quarter 3 it was the smallest reduction in more than a year. The proportion of respondents reporting a decline in budgets eased to 28% while the number reporting a rise moved up to 13%.

The report finds that business confidence is on the rise with respondents saying that the degree of optimism in regard to financial prospects for their own companies was at its strongest since the final quarter of 2006, with 47% seeing improved prospects.

As excepted, among companies surveyed, only internet advertising was the only category to see an increase in spend with marketing budgets rising for the first time since Q2, 2008. The steepest cut in spend came for the “all other” category, which embraces PR, events and sponsorship.

Cuts in main media advertising were the smallest for six consecutive quarters. Spend was also cut for direct marketing and sales promotion, though both saw only modest falls.

The research found that the retail, travel and entertainment sectors saw increases in spend, with the steepest falls seen in financial services, IT and computing, and industrial sectors.

After a period of dramatic falls across virtually all sectors, it has meant a rude awakening to both marketing departments and agencies alike, what long term impact this will have on the industry is anyone’s guess.

The most important issue and that which will make the most difference are the strong rise business confidence, and the suggestion that we may see a rising GDP in Q3.

Steve

New media will not go away and indeed it already accounts for about 30% of PCD’s revenues, but like television in the 60’s it shouldn’t been seen as the holy grail, it’s a channel that is appropriate for some and inappropriate for others, it’s about delivering choice.

To say that television is dead is clearly wrong, its share of the market will fall, but consumers will still engage with television, just in a different way, instead of the magic box in the corner of the lounge it will become mobile, with consumers already consuming their favourite programmes online – is this still television yes, just with a new prefix.

Steve

Never underestimate the power of the default option when persuading somebody to do something. That’s the message of a controversial new book called ‘Nudge’ which has been influencing politicians and policy makers up and down the country.

It’s a common sense concept but also a very powerful one. When you give someone a choice, and then you suggest an option for them to take, most of the time people will go along with the first choice.

And this is the philosophy that is powering businesses to invest in SEO or ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, the concept of getting your website to the top of the Google rankings. If you are looking for a vacancy in Leeds, chances are the first thing you will do is put the term “jobs Leeds” into Google.

The company at the top of this index will have huge competitive advantage over all the rest, even those in second place. It’s the reason why Google has become the world’s most powerful advertising force.
So how do search engines work, and more importantly, how do you get yourself to those rankings?
Well broadly it operates in two different ways:

Firstly it searches the appearances of keywords. The more a search term appears, the higher it will be up the rankings. A huge sprawling site with more pages is likely to have more occurrences of certain keywords.
However what makes Google clever, and the reason it has become so popular, is that it uses links as a form of recommendation. The more people that link to your page, the higher up the rankings you will be. The theory goes that if someone takes the time to add a link to your website, it must be good.

The search engine has taken the concept further though. If a higher ranked site links to you then it will carry more weight than if a lower ranked place does. In essence the more authoritative the approval, the better you will do.

All of that then can be very depressing if you’re a new company trying to compete against the big boys on the web. Google gives the advantage heavily to larger players in the industry, and naturally offers little to help smaller companies remain competitive. SEO is a concept of essentially trying to beat the system, to get your site higher up the index.

PCD offers clients real solutions to help boost your web traffic and sales.
For more information contact Steve Moncrieff at steve@pcdagency.com