What are the business concerns keeping today’s direct response marketers up at night? ER Online is reaching out to industry thought leaders for answers. This month, we go one-on-one with Jeff Campbell, president of UFC Fit. This seasoned marketing professional discusses what he believes is a key challenge facing DR marketers, the importance of maintaining strong communication across your organization, and why you shouldn’t dive too quickly into the next big marketing trend.
What are the biggest issues facing the direct response marketing industry today?
JC: The big issue is the concern about is the efficacy of television, and the challenge everyone has is quantifying if television is still the right channel to be in. Everyone still continues to spend money in that channel because that’s what [they] know. What that leads into is the larger issue of attribution. It has to take into account a number of other things. [Attribution is] how we measure not only television, but also all of the media channels together to get a better sense of the productivity of an overall campaign. How do I know if I’m spending my money in the right places?
As a company, how are you addressing attribution?
JC: As a company, we understand that nothing is ever permanent. Through a very close communication between the marketing and technology teams we’re able to continually modify what attribution [reveals] in a campaign. Let’s say, for example, we buy online media, start running television, and our search traffic goes up. What percentage of that search traffic should be attributed to our online media, and what percentage should be attributed to our television media? At the beginning of the campaign, that number was very different than the number at the end of the campaign in terms of how we’re splitting up the verticals because consumer behavior changed and instead of having 40-50 percent of the people buying online, we probably had 80 percent of the people buying online. In our case, suddenly we began to see that with smartphones and [tablet devices] search behavior was changing and a larger percentage had to be attributed back to TV. Part of that goes back to your communication with your marketing team and the group that’s running analytics along with the collective group’s willingness to confidently evolve in terms of that number. The issue is that there could be a resistance to doing that because different department heads that are responsible for media budgets and P&L are not hitting their targets. You have to make sure everyone on the team is very aligned in terms of their responsibilities and targets so that [everyone] works together to reach the same goal.
What’s the biggest challenge that you have when trying to converge traditional direct response with digital media best practices?
JC: I think the main challenge is reconciling the analytics between different media channels and getting those managers to understand that there’s a difference in how these various channels operate. With television media, you don’t get to reconcile what ran until the following week versus online media, which is going to be immediate. At our company, we work together to coordinate those efforts.
Where do you see the most growth potential happening in digital marketing?
JC: While mobile is big, mobile video has the potential to grow even bigger. In terms of untapped potential, that’s a huge growth market. New channels are developing so quickly that it’s challenging to know what’s coming next. You hear people say, “Facebook is really working; we need to jump into Facebook marketing” or “Mobile video is working; we need to get into mobile video,” and then they put everything behind one particular channel. I think the only constant in digital marketing is change and what really matters is marketers’ willingness to test new channels as they emerge and as they mature. Three years ago if you were to ask me, “How is Facebook?” I would have said it would never work. However, that’s totally different today because of Facebook’s ability to adapt to mobile. It’s important to have the mindset that you’ll always be continually testing, rather than trying to divine what the “next big thing” will be.
What advice would you give traditional DR marketers who want to become more versed in digital media?
JC: My advice would be: don’t get stuck in your old routine or methods. There isn’t one magic formula—every product is different and every vertical works differently. Don’t be afraid of the fact that what you’ve been doing may not work, but be willing to challenge the old norms.
Vi Paynich is content manager at the Electronic Retailing Association (ERA).