Websand's School of Thought

Hello

Unless you avoided the news for the past few days, then you'll be aware that Rory McIlroy won the Open Championship yesterday. 

Here are some notes from his success.

1. Planning

Rory's plan for the Open championship was simple.  Attack the Par 5's.  This was a strategy that was successfully applied in the past by Tiger Woods.  Everyone knew his plan, it was mentioned pretty regularly in the commentary.

  2. Application

The first round went to plan and he raced into the lead.  However in Golf it is a marathon not a sprint and it is pretty rare for the first round leader to win at the end.  In the last few tournaments, Rory has started really well and then had a shocker the next day.

His solution, focus on small targets and keep to the plan.  So if his score was 6 under, his immediate target was 7 under.  And wait for the par 5's.

3. Measurement

Despite massive LED scoreboards all over the course, his measurement of success was based purely on his score and not the field.   This kept him focused on performing to the plan.

Applying these principles to email marketing

The same principles applied by Rory in his success can be applied successfully by you when applying email marketing.

1. Planning

What is the outcome you want from your email marketing?  Is it long term, is it short term? 

Creating a measure of success before you start will really help you understand the outcomes later.

Also - remember to make sure that you can collecting the data you need to measure success.

2. Application

You know what you want as the outcome.  He is a check list to make sure you get as close as possible to achieving the plan.

a) Who is the audience you need to connect with? 

Are they existing customers?  Should they have certain behaviour or meet a certain criteria?

b) When do you need to connect with them? 

Is it after they have done a certain activity?  Is it before a specific date? 

c) What do you want them to do?

You've got the right audience, at the right time - what do you want them to do next.   Make sure this is as easy as possible to do. 

d) How do you need to connect with them? 

What do you need to say or offer to the target audience to get them to do what you want them to do?

Make sure the context of your message is as relevant as possible.  Which is a technical way of saying use your common sense.

3. Measure

Testing is a key part of measurement.  Wherever possible use tests and A/B testing to define what is working and what is not.  Use these tests against small samples of your target audience (10%) to make sure you are on the right track. 

Golden rule is Test. Measure. Refine.

Remember Rory didn't just walk off the street and start smashing it down the fairway.  He had an awful lot of practice, to help him figure out how to get the best result.

Finally, even Champions can get it wrong, mentioning Man Utd In your victory speech when the Championship was held at Royal Hoylake Liverpool. An ideal example of the wrong message, to the wrong people, at the wrong time.   Not that it mattered, after all he was holding the world famous Open trophy the Claret Jug at the time.

Think about what little changes could make your email marketing really successful. Set a measure of success and give it a try.

Saul

Founder, Websand.co.uk

Boyhood is being raved about as the film of the year.  It's got a load of five star reviews, 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and will be a contender at the Oscars.  Now that it's been labelled as a great thing, it has social proof.  People will go and see it. 

I haven't seen it (yet), so at the moment for me, the most compelling thing about Boyhood is how it was made. 

It was made over 39 days, however these days were spread out across 13 years.  So the Actors are growing with the story, and met over 39 days across 13 years.  From what I read the script evolved through the 39 days of shooting, I guess that is the only way they could do it?

It's usually the little things that make significant differences, I'd imagine that will be the underlying message of 'Boyhood'.

In our business, Websand, we provide a marketing platform that allows users to find and label the key touch points between them and their customers.  Then used those points in time to communicate marketing messages to strengthen the customer relationship.

Have a think about which 'moments' you could influence customer behaviour, set a measure of success and give it a try.  Let me know how you get on. 

Saul

Founder, Websand.co.uk

Last Friday we registered for #pitch10, as a result on Tuesday we ended up in the Tsunami of noise that followed as a result of the now infamous email to all entrants that didn't make it.

My email inbox was flooded with noise at the rate of around 100 emails per hour for the remainder of the day.  We were catapulted into a new community of 600.  The majority of which were excited start-ups and entrepreneurs who immediately took to 'that' email to pitch their wares.  

It was an opportunity, we grabbed it too.  Who knows perhaps we will be helping No10 with future email marketing strategies?  

Overall, some decent things have come out from this experience, we are now in a few more 'founder' groups, we will increase our network as a result and we are busy sifting through the noise to identify potential leads.

However, the email excitement became a rolling SPAM attack and the subject line soon became an email that would be avoided.  I have one email from someone begging for everyone else to STOP.  Very few people changed behavoiur as a result as everyone was using the email rather than reading anything.

It was another lesson in the importance of relevance when applying email communication.  

When using email marketing, consider the relevance of the message to the audience.  You will have created the message of the email with someone in mind.  So make sure you manage your customer data before you hit the send button.  You will find your results will improve...quickly.

If you don't have the tools, we can provide them so get in touch at [email protected]

Alright here are some resolutions to try 

Focus on people not page views - no customers = no revenue

Engagement - but driven around relevance

Support your team - at work or at play

Don't give up - keep looking, twisting and experimenting and you will find a way

FYI - borrowed/inspired from Ryan Foster's Hyper Island MVP deck (sort of)

Saul 

Noticed loads of clever stuff around today.  This is clever, but could it distinguish between a Maya Jane Cole vs a Julio Bashmore?  That is music worth checking out if you don't already know that.

I launched this idea as part of a talk at a Lean North East on Monday night.  This also included historic footage of Lisa Simpson creating the Lean Start Up - but that is for another post.

The idea for the 4c's is to suggest a framework to apply for the creation of marketing processes with any business. 

The rationale around that in my experience few smaller businesses create a marketing process. The 4cs also helps move a mindset away from Lean methodologies simply being applied to software, after all it emerged from a smash up between Japanese processes commonly applied in manufacturing.

  So the four C's....

CUSTOMER

Targeting the audience of your marketing message, and the behaviour change you want to influence (aka your marketing objective).

This sets your hypothesis

  CODE

I recall Doug Richard's referring to 'marketing as code' in one of his marketing themed school for start ups.

So which code relates to your target audience.  This can be existing data, webpages or social media. Anything that needs help from a techie fits here.

  CALIBRATION

Here is your core brief. What elements with your control are you going to change.

Here at Websand HQ we believe that time is a key factor in finding the sweet spot on marketing messages. The emotion involved in buying decisions make timing really important. 

This can also be the basis for your A/B test so remember to test one change at a time wherever possible.

  CONSISTENCY

A lot of Lean methodology is considered to be common sense.

If it ain't broken don't try and fix it.

This is your measurement and consideration step.

If the results work, then look to apply the process consistently if that is relevant.

If not then make sure you document your learning for future reference,  then (if relevant) pivot within the earlier process and repeat.

  We are big believers in this stuff and at Websand we are helping ecommerce businesses to create, measure and learn the results from marketing processes for their businesses.

Hope this makes sense to you and is useful.  Any questions or feedback please get in touch.

We are due to meet a lot of mentors over the coming weeks.  Let's hope we find a Shankly amongst them. Let's start with leadership and the power of natural enthusiasm.

The holidays end today, it's back to School and the beginning of the 'business season' tomorrow.  So make sure your pens are working and your pencils sharpened.  

For us at Websand HQ that means the beginning of our involvement in the Ignite 100 programme.  Something we are super excited about and will have a lot more to shout about over the coming weeks as a lot of changes are planned at a business and software level - it's all good.

Have a great first day back at school tomorrow.

Odd Fox News Interview Lifts Reza Aslan’s Biography on Jesus - NYTimes.com

Shaky ground here as this is the second religious related post this week.  That is purely co-incidental. Just so happens both are interesting to me and are current.

The now infamous 'Embarrasing Fox News interview' is really about three things.

1. Do your homework - the interview was 10 minutes of the same question based around the same position, how can a 'Muslim' write a book about Jesus.  Reza Aslan deflected that with the first answer....

2. LISTEN - the interview could have been much more interesting if the interviewer actually listened to the answers and moved to a different point.  Maybe she needed to get through a list of 10 questions asking the same thing?  (see point 1)

3. PR - if this interview hadn't been so stupid then it wouldn't have been remarkable, and that is what makes it special.  It is a what the f*%& piece of TV, and hence has been pushed all over the web.  It is no surprise the book sales have rocketed as a result. It is also worth mentioning the performance of Reza Aslan on this interview. I am no PR expert - far from it - however he is controlled, precise and clear. A PR dream.  Not a flicker of frustration. He'd make one heck of a politician. 

So in summary, do your homework, listen and try to get involved in 'remarkable' things.  They don't have to be stupid, just have to have that 'OMG' (sorry) thing that makes you want to share.

Feel free to share this post to your friends and have a lovely day, whoever you are and whatever your thing is.

Saul, sultan of Websand.

Ramadan Kareem, Howay the lads and Amen

For some, football is a religion, for others religion can get in the way of football.

Recently, the religious beliefs from our No9 Papiss Cisse seemed bumped into the financial beliefs of his employer when they signed a whopping sponsorship deal with a payday loan company.

The result of this pickle potentially was going preventing him from practicing our Religious beliefs, namely smashing in goals on over a weekend for Newcastle United (if you are from Newcastle then it is likely you have some involvement with the Toon Army sect).

Being allegedly spotted in a casino, or/and a positive club meeting featuring a local Iman has resolved the situation.

This has been big news here in the UK, especially in Newcastle, and its brought the payday lender focus back into the news.  

Now the Church of England are looking at creating a 'social' loan type business based on a credit union model.  

The end result looks like a win win win to me.  Cisse's back in training (hooray), Wonga (loads of PR - hooray for them), Church looks progressive and has a great idea (double hooray for them).

About time SIC codes had a refresh for the 21st century. Then we could get some decent insights about the true structure of the digital sector in the UK.

Open data platform reveals complex corporate structures of banks (Wired UK)

Fair comment from OpenCorporate.  Check out the rather nifty global view infographics of Goldman Sachs 4,000 corporate entities.

Saul

This is the best thing (apart from Chic at Glastonbury) I have seen over the weekend.

If you have bought music from Amazon (in a non mp3 format) and it qualifies for Autorip - so you'll have a copy in an online locker for access.

Jeff Bezos, the site’s founder, said the scheme offered a new lease of life for music purchased 14 years ago. “Starting today, it's available to all of our Amazon.co.uk customers – past, present, and future – at no cost,” he said.

Now you could end up with a load of copies of gifts you have bought for friends and family - if you secretly wanted a copy now you have one!

(if you have qualified) Enjoy

Saul