Earlier this year, IMN conducted several focus groups with marketing and communications professionals from both customer and prospect companies.  Almost all agreed that they have seen a significant shift in their responsibilities over the last couple of years, with measurable results and ROI in the forefront more than ever.  Here are the highlights of these studies. 

Sales = Success. 

No two ways about it – in today’s market place, success is driven by sales and sales alone.  This is certainly no surprise to anyone – it’s a trend that has been gathering strength for several years.  As a result, the key marching orders for marketers from their managers, according to those who participated in the IMN focus groups, are evaluate, justify, measure, and analyze.  As one IMN customer summarized, “people definitely want numbers, they want to see concrete evidence that…our efforts are producing results.”   The pressure to deliver programs with metrics has forced a new kind of strategy to evolve.

The traditional marketing programs of the past, while still part of a marketing mix, are being overshadowed by programs that are more measurable, particularly e-marketing programs.  Now, “interacting with their respective audiences,” not just “pumping out communication after communication” is a principal that is being embraced by many of the participants in our focus groups.  The end-game today is to be “sending out information that inspires folks to come back...”

Ultimately, what are kind of programs are marketers looking for?  Marketers are looking for looking for two-way forums that allow them to respond to specific needs, requests, or behavioral responses of their prospects and customers.  They want programs that readily help them understand the individual needs of their audiences so that they can truly “engage” prospects and customers and build relationships with them. 

How Are These Marketers Getting There? 

Marketing professionals are looking for programs that are “more strategic and responsive.”  As one manager stated, there’s no more “shooting in the dark.”  This kind of thinking is leading more managers to e-marketing services like IMN’s interactive newsletters.  Why?  Because we provide the analytics that are now a key part of every marketing program.

How Are Metrics Being Used? 

IMN’s customers that participated in our focus groups had this to say about IMN’s reporting and analytical capabilities that help them deliver when their management pushes for numbers and ROI.

• “One of the great things about this product is that I can go [into the system] and dig through and actually in one click get to the metrics.”
• "In order to justify the costs to our President…, I had to show that we were going to get some sort of feedback, so the metrics pretty much sold it for us.”
• “The metrics…are extremely helpful, not only in terms of helping us track and plan a strategy for what news and content should be included, but also in reporting back to management.”

Many of the customers commented that they had previously spent a lot of time attempting to understand (and guess) what was successful and what was not and that those days are now long gone.  They actually have access to the information they need immediately after a program is emailed.  

One of the participating prospects (who later became a customer) perhaps summarized it best: 

“What I find appealing is the metrics that [IMN] gives you.  They can tell you exactly who clicked on what, how long they looked at it, what was the lead in, what people liked.  You can target for different people on your mailing list.  You can have a wide range of products and you can have content for different people on the same newsletter.” 

Another prospect added, “….with [IMN], it would be very easy to see we’re traveling in the right direction or we’re traveling in the wrong direction.”

Beyond Number Crunching

The metrics and analytical capabilities of IMN services go beyond just providing pure measurements of program success to upper management, as we found out in these focus groups.   Time spent, multi-issue comparison, content validation, trending, and geographical comparisons are IMN tools that can provide immediate tactical benefits that will in turn help long-term strategies and ultimately, better performing metrics. Here are a few examples of how customers are using these tools: 

•  “We have recently begun to segment our newsletter.  We’ve changed content for different industries.”
• “We always look to see who our heaviest readers are to see if there are some consistencies in terms of who’s reading the highest number of articles from month to month.”