A 3-Step Blueprint for a Brilliant Blog Launch

Launching a brand-new blog is exciting. But it can also be awfully lonely for up to a year as you...

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Using AI Subject Line and Copywriting Tools Successfully

Brands are turning to AI and machine learning to answer extremely complex questions, including, “What words should I use to communicate most effectively?” Companies like Persado, Phrasee, Touchstone, and others have turned AI’s data-crunching and pattern-finding power onto email subject lines, as well as other marketing copy.

Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting has seen high interest in these tools among our clients. However, when our clients have tried them, the results have been mixed.

Among those brands that didn’t find enough success, the most common complaints that we’ve heard are that:

• The lift in email performance wasn’t sustainable beyond a few months,

• and that the results in general didn’t justify the expense.

If you’re considering these tools, we have some advice to get you on the path to success.

However, first we want to make it clear that these solutions are best suited for brands with large lists. If your list has fewer than 1 million active subscribers, you may not be a great candidate for AI subject line tools, according to Persado.

Scale is critical because these machine learning systems need to explore a ton of language to understand which particular words and patterns of words resonate with your unique audience. Having a large audience allows tests across more segments.

Sending at a high frequency is not required, according to Phrasee and Persado, although it absolutely helps the system learn more quickly. Higher send frequencies equal more test segments over time.

Understanding the importance of scale is key to our first piece of advice, which is...

Optimize for the Correct Metrics

It’s a common misperception that the goal of a subject line is to get opens. The truth is that the goal of a subject line is to get the subscribers who are most likely to convert to open the email. Unless you’re sending a reengagement email, opens are a secondary metric, at best.

So, optimize your subject lines to drive action as far down the funnel as possible. Ideally, that’s conversions—that is, whatever you’re asking your subscriber to do in a particular email, whether it’s buy a product, register for a webinar, read a blog post, or follow your brand on Instagram.

However, reaching statistical significance on conversions can often take too long, making it so you’re not nimble enough in your testing. Clicks are an acceptable compromise that gets you to statistical significance much more quickly with a metric that correlates to conversions far better than opens does.

The problem is that many brands using AI subject line writing tools are optimizing for opens. Sometimes they’re drawn to opens because they can reach statistical significance much more quickly. But being quickly certain about the influence of an uncertain indicator is not the path to becoming a data-driven marketer.  

Optimizing for opens is a contributing factor to the pattern of disappointing performance that many of our clients have reported to us: These tools often produce a boost of engagement for a few months and then results fall back down.

This is because optimizing for opens gears your subject lines toward attracting the curious instead of those who are most likely to convert. Overly clever and curiosity-peaking subject lines generally lead to fatigue and unsubscribes as subscribers are essentially tricked into opening emails that generally turn out to not be of interest to them. On the other hand, optimizing for clicks better aligns subject line content with email content, which better maintains trust and longer-lasting subscriber relationships.

Stay on Brand

These AI subject line writing tools do not understand your brand, so they will suggest things are off-brand—potentially wildly off-brand. As the protector of your brand, it’s up to you to recognize these off-brand suggestions and reject them.

“One of our travel brands ran their first test last month and the winning subject line started with ‘RE:’ like it was a reply to an email,” says Mark Sambor, Senior Director at Oracle Marketing Cloud. “ They obviously had a level of discomfort with this.”

Bradford Johnson, Senior Director of Strategic Services at Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting, advises marketers to involve your teammates who own and drive brand copy, messaging, and creative.

“If these tools are run in a silo, you’ll hear from those disgruntled teams about your copy soon enough,” says Johnson. “Work with your vendor and internal partners to find a balance between computer-driven optimizations and preserving your human, on-brand voice.”

Some of these tools give you the ability to add words to a do-not-use list. If offered, use that to steer the AI away from words and tactics you don’t want to use.

At the same time, we recommend keeping a close eye on opportunities to use branded language that your AI isn’t likely to suggest, such as the names of your products, words from your jingle, and other words that have special brand meaning. So, it’s as much about leveraging your brand in your wording as avoiding words that go off brand.

Don’t Blindly Test

While all the major providers of AI subject line writing tools have accumulated enough real-world experience into their databases to be able to provide good suggestions, it won’t have any experience with your particular subscribers in the beginning. Building up that experience takes time.

Your vendor will likely encourage you to test at a high frequency—and across channels, if they offer that functionality. That’s fine. As we mentioned earlier, more tests equal faster learning.

However, we always recommend testing AI-created subject lines against a control subject line or two that your team creates. It’s probably best to think of these tools as suggesting marketing copy rather than being marketing copywriters themselves.

The Bottom Line

We firmly believe that AI copywriting tools have a bright future. In time, more competition, lower infrastructure costs, and perhaps different pricing models will change the return on investment calculus that have caused some of our clients to walk away from this technology.

In the meantime, you can maximize your chances of success by:

1. Optimizing your subject lines for clicks rather than opens

2. Rejecting off-brand subject lines that you wouldn’t accept from a human and staying true to your brand

3. Confirming the performance of AI-suggested subject lines by testing against human-created control subject lines

“Testing capabilities like this can drive value for your business,” says Peter Briggs, Director of Strategic Services, Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting. “You just need to have a plan, internal alignment, and clear understanding for what will equal success.”

Briggs adds, “Sometimes pushing the envelope on your typical UX comfort level is when you can see the biggest impact. Sometimes you have to take risks.”

                                   

Need help with AI and analytics tools? Oracle Marketing Cloud Consulting has more than 500 of the leading marketing minds ready to help you to achieve more with the leading marketing cloud, including a Strategic Services team that can help you get the most out of AI and analytics tools.

Learn more →

 

 

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Balancing Your Business Mind and Creative Brain with Chris Do

How do we continue to make a path for ourselves, learning, solving problems and making money on the internet? What are the ways in which we, as entrepreneurs, can add value, communicate it and help clients reach their full potential?

These questions and their answers continue evolve as the world orbits the sun and we need to grow with them, learning and teaching as we go. It is no good developing single sides of your skills or business, you need to balance your business mind and your creative brain!  

In this episode we are talking about communicating value, learning new and better ways to close deals and testing the waters before sharing your great contribution to the ocean of businesses out there.

Today on the show we are joined by Chris Do from Blind and the The Futur! Chris gives us a run down of his career path, the important lessons he has learned and even gives us his billboard message! As a self made and evolving entrepreneur, Chris has managed to carve out a niche in the online education field and continues to morph his work with the ebbs and flows of the seas.

We also talk about how to better close deals by using questions and getting your customers talking, the ideas of not letting schooling interfere with your education and why originality is in the delivery and not the message.

For all of the and more, you know what to do!

Listen to the episode:

Subscribe to The Fizzle Show in your favorite podcast player:

iTunes | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Soundcloud | RSS

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Key Points From This Chris Do Episode:

•    Some background to Chris’ work and where he is at currently. [0:04:49.4]

•    Chris’ family history and the legacy of bootstrapping success. [0:07:43.4]

•    The dearth of business acumen in creative education. [0:13:25.4]

•    Lessons that Aiden has learned from Fizzle and The Futur. [0:17:12.6]

•    Key concepts in marrying craft with commerce. [0:19:51.1]

•    What is good content? Filming real life interactions and learning situations. [0:26:21.6]

•    Switching from client work to content creation. [0:28:11.8]

•    Fire bullets, cannonballs and pirate ships! [0:30:49.3]

•    Originality and reimagining the same message for a different audience . [0:35:49.5]

•    Communicating your value and authentically passing on timeless lessons. [0:43:10.2]

•    Stop selling, ask questions and close some deals. [0:51:31.6]

•    Illuminating something deeper than branding for clients. [0:57:05.9]

•    A little bit about Chris’ CORE framework and Fizzle’s new Jumpstart Bundle. [1:00:48.2]

•    And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Chris Do Episode:

•    Fizzle — https://fizzle.co/320

•    Fizzle “Jumpstart” Package Promotion: https://fizzle.co/jumpstart

•    Teachable — https://teachable.com/fizzle

•    Discover.bot — https://discover.bot/fizzle/

•    Your Guide to Bot-Building Frameworks – https://bit.ly/2KfdIiS

•    The Fizzle Jump Start Bundle — https://fizzle.co/jumpstart

•    Chris Do — https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechrisdo

•    The Futur — https://www.thefutur.com/

•    Blind — https://blind.com/

•    Xbox — https://www.xbox.com

•    League of Legends — https://play.oce.leagueoflegends.com

•    Stanford — https://www.stanford.edu/

•    ArtCenter — http://www.artcenter.edu/

•    Incase — https://www.incase.com

•    A Star is Born — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1517451/

•    Tony Robbins — https://www.tonyrobbins.com/

•    Grant Cardone — https://grantcardone.com/

•    Gary Vaynerchuk — https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/

•    Jim Rohn — https://www.jimrohn.com/

•    Melyssa Griffin — https://www.melyssagriffin.com/

•    Pat Flynn — https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/

•    Amazon Registry — https://www.amazonregistry.com/

•    Zig Ziglar — https://www.ziglar.com/

•    Joe Rogan — https://www.joerogan.com

•    Socrates — https://www.biography.com/scholar/socrates

•    CORE Strategy Kit — https://academy.thefutur.com/p/core

•    Courage & Clarity — https://www.courageandclarity.com/

•    Steph Crowder on Twitter — https://twitter.com/stephcrowder_?lang=en

•    Corbett Barr on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CorbettBarr

•    Aiden Fishbein — https://twitter.com/megafishbein?ref_src

•    Chase Reeves on Twitter — https://twitter.com/chase_reeves

•    Fizzle Try 5 — http://fizzle.co/try5

•    Fizzle Roadmap — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/small-business-roadmap-1-clarity

•    Fizzle Define Your Audience Course — https://fizzle.co/guides/defining-your-audience

•    Fizzle Goals Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/goals

•    Fizzle on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fizzle

•    Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://app.fizzle.co/just-ship-it-challenge

•    Fizzle Sparkline — https://fizzle.co/sparkline

•    Fizzle Journaling Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/journal

•    Fizzle Essentials of Web Design Course — https://fizzle.co/library/essentials-of-website-design-for-business-builders

•    Fizzle Website Tune Up Curse — https://fizzle.co/courses/tuneup

•    Start A Blog That Matters Course — https://fizzle.co/start-a-blog-that-matters

•    Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web

•    Fizzle Toolkit — https://fizzle.co/toolkit

•    Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/craft-commerce

•    Fizzle Project Management for Entrepreneurs — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs

•    Fizzle Hosting — https://fizzle.co/hosting

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Photo by Ronald Cuyan on Unsplash

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Remembering and Reflecting on Memorial Day

It’s Memorial Day in the United States — a day to remember the men and women who have died in...

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Here’s How CMOs Can Position SaaS for Maximum Profitability and Customer Retention

Digital diversity is a powerful tool for converting a broader spectrum of consumers online. Once a CMO has mastered how to communicate value, the next question is how to price their products or services effectively.

Different sectors of the market have unique challenges associated with pricing—the competitive landscape and the maturity of the industry being two major factors. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the SaaS (Software as a Service) market—a market that has grown exponentially but appears to be entering a more mature phase as growth begins to level off.

The SaaS Market Is Showing Signs of Maturity with Slower Growth

In 2008, the SaaS market was a $5.56 billion industry. Today it’s worth over $120 billion, with the same study forecasting less dramatic growth to $132.57 billion by 2020.

I’ve found myself studying subscription-based pricing models after finding myself woefully unprepared for a debate between a CEO and a CFO at a SaaS startup’s office.

One of the most challenging aspects of providing a Software as a Service (SaaS) is positioning the product so that it adds maximum value for the client (lower upfront cost), while protecting your company’s huge upfront investment (get dollars in the door quickly).

CMOs Need to Balance the Need to Generate Capital Quickly with the Need to Entice New Customers with Lower Upfront Costs

In many instances, a CMO will find themselves pitted between a CFO that wants to leverage every possible promotion to quickly refill the coffers, while the CEO is more focused on user-acquisition, hang the expense.

There are clear merits to both arguments. Offering a substantial upfront savings to customers in return for a long-term commitment is common. But some companies are finding themselves in a race to the bottom, offering lower month-to-month pricing in order to supercharge new user acquisition.

If you’re a CMO that’s struggling to define your fee structure, that is also worried about long-term customer churn, or find yourself debating about strategies to convince new customers to sign-up, this article is for you. Hopefully I can provide a few takeaways to help you sound a lot smarter than I did.

Is It Better to Compete on Monthly Pricing or Annual Pricing?

If you look at strategic pricing within the SaaS market, you’ll see pricing structures ranging from month-to-month to one and even three-year commitments. Most CMOs are choosing to offer steep discounts on multi-year plans in return for the upfront cash and a longer-term commitment.

It appears that the real price competition comes into play on the longer-term contracts. Although some CMOs have decided to flank their competitors by offering aggressive month-to-month pricing, I’ve found significantly more companies getting aggressive on their multi-year plans, remaining closer to the pack on monthly costs.  

Let’s Look at a Real-World Example

If we look at market-leading SaaS applications in the VPN industry, we see that long-term pricing is where user growth is happening. We know this because it’s where price competition gets the most aggressive.

In this comprehensive analysis comparing ExpressVPN and NordVPN—two heavyweights in a $23.6 billion industry—it’s easy to see where the pricing war is taking place.

The Price War Heats Up as the Contract Terms Increase in Duration

There is just a 10% spread in pricing on their month-to-month commitments. But the pricing delta jumps up dramatically to 55.17% once customers agree to a three-year commitment.

Of course, this is multi-dimensional chess. Pricing is just one factor. ExpressVPN achieved slightly higher performance scores in the head-to-head analysis, which may account for their ability to command a higher price from consumers. Yet NordVPN proved to be more P2P friendly—technology usually leveraged by torrenters, which are a major market segment for consumer VPN services—while offering more aggressive pricing.

CMOs Can also Get Creative in Terms of Contract Length

The other takeaway from the report is that the CMO at ExpressVPN chose to deviate from traditional contract terms. While their competitors offer the traditional monthly and annual plans, they chose to segment their fees based on monthly, 6-month and 15-month commitments.

By choosing different contract lengths from their closest competitor, they are able to further muddy the waters and distract from their higher cost.

So, if you find yourself in a meeting with a SaaS firm that needs help marketing their products, here are your talking points:

• Low monthly pricing does not necessarily guarantee an increase in new user acquisition.
• Large SaaS enterprises are willing to get most aggressive on pricing when they can secure long-term contracts with upfront payments.
• It’s not just price that matters, but how you present your package options. Using different terms from the competition can help camouflage fatter margins.

                                                                 

Need help with marketing? Consider marketing automation to help drive efficiency, streamline engagement, and derive real-time insights to improve ROI. How do you rank up against your peers in how prepared you are for the future of marketing automation?

Find out by taking this brief, two-minute assessment.

 

 

 

 

 

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How to Make Exceptional Communication Your Winning Difference

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote this tagline: “Remarkable business begins with remarkable communication.”...

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What Customers Expect with Cross-Channel Marketing

Cross-channel marketing may be a buzzword, but it’s always been a best practice. Even when a product clearly lends itself to a certain channel, customers are — and always have been — cross-channel.

Take cars. Yes, there’s a reason you hear so many radio ads about automobiles: You usually listen while you’re driving one. That’s probably not the only time, though, that your mind turns to cars. Don’t you feel at least a little jealous when your friends show off their new wheels on social media? If the hero of your favorite show drives a Camaro, aren’t you tempted to get one, too?

Cross-channel marketing is the key to keeping your product top of mind among an increasingly busy customer base. But with so many moving parts, cross-channel campaigns can confuse even the most experienced of marketers.

Non-Negotiables in Cross-Channel Marketing

Before rolling out your next multi-channel marketing campaign, be sure it has:

- Authenticity

Ask your customers what they mean by authentic marketing, and they’ll likely tell you that it is content created by people like them — in other words, user-generated content. By a three-to-one ratio, consumers consider UCG more authentic than that created by brands. In fact, 57 percent of them think less than half of brands create content that comes across as authentic. But even if some of your consumers see your brand as part of the other 43 percent, authenticity is so subjective that you can bet many don’t.

That doesn’t mean, however, that brands can’t guide UCG. To promote its iPhone 6 release, Apple asked consumers to photograph everyday moments and share them on social media with the hashtag #ShotOniPhone6. The tech company then turned its favorite submissions into print and television ads, which earned it a whopping 6.5 billion media impressions. By making the lives of its marketers easier, Apple also made its campaign more authentic and effective.

- Cross-channel consistency 

When you create a cross-channel marketing campaign, you want each channel’s messaging to reinforce the others without copying them directly. If a consumer watches a branded YouTube video that promotes travel experiences with the hashtag #GetOutThere, they should see tweets using that same hashtag. If they pull up Instagram, they should see vacation photos tagged with it, too.

That might sound like overkill, but rarely are a company’s users on only one platform, influencer marketing agency Mediakix points out. Although no marketing agency is good at everything, a partner should take into account the other channels that the campaign will cover. If they can’t share examples of their own cross-channel campaigns, ask to see assets created through external collaborations.

- Diverse voices

Don’t let the term “cross-channel” give you the wrong impression: Multiple channels are required, but so are multiple voices. When people of different backgrounds show that they’re on board with a product or service, it creates credibility that’s greater than the sum of its parts. In fact, the bandwagon effect is so powerful that merely viewing opinion polls can change voters’ choices.

With that said, brand-influencer alignment is a must. David Goldsmith, WEGO Health’s chief strategy officer, suggests that too many marketers fall for influencers who are merely passionate about their product or service. Even if a white supremacist is crazy for a certain soft drink, for instance, the beverage brand probably doesn’t want to be associated with his racist views. That’s why Goldsmith recommends digging into influencers’ past posts and checking sites like indaHash and HYPR. Use them to confirm an influencer’s tone, reach, demographics, and audience.

- Online and offline components

Yes, it’s true that marketing is more digital than ever — but it’s also true that audiences want to hear from brands through offline channels. Although 82 percent of marketers decided to increase their digital spending by nearly half last year, 74 percent of consumers say meaningful experiences make them more likely to buy. What’s more, consumers trust television, radio, and print ads more than they do those on social media or elsewhere online.

If you’re not sure which channels to choose, try this: Each time you plan an online campaign — be it an influencer campaign, a series of banner ads, or a content marketing push — pair it with an offline channel. If you’re trying to drum up buzz for a product release via social media influencers, for instance, why not add an experiential element? You might fly out a few lucky followers and influencers to a central location for a meet-and-greet.

Choose Wisely

Cross-channel marketing has always been challenging, but the explosion of digital media has made it more so. Choose your channels wisely, get customers themselves to help with the content, and make sure your messaging is consistent. That’s a tall order, but customers won’t accept anything less. Would you?

                                                         

Find out how you can guide your customers across every touchpoint in their journey and drive positive results with “Multichannel Fluidity.”

 

 

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