Seth Rosenblatt's Blog

As Vice President of Product Marketing for Autonomy Interwoven, Seth leads the team responsible for understanding the intersection between technology solutions and the need for modern businesses to transform and grow their online presence, build and strengthen customer engagement, and drive a truly global business. Seth’s blog provides best practices for executives, interactive marketers and business professionals charged with managing business online, including how to set priorities, avoid common mistakes, and use data to your advantage. Seth is also a local politician, and was elected as a school board member for the San Carlos School District in November 2007. Connect with Seth on LinkedIn.

Selling Value and Not Price

February 24, 2009 @ 2:42 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

In these difficult economic times, it is tempting for businesses to degrade to that lowest form of marketing and sales – competing on price.  Now certainly, there are some products that are essentially “commodities” that require low-cost leadership to sell (and there are businesses – such as Wal-Mart – based on the notion of low price leadership).  But for most of us, we are selling something that isn’t a commodity – something that we think will add substantial value to our customers.

Yet, tough economic times promote desperation and marketing laziness.  This is based on the false notion that in tough economic times, customers are only focused on price.  The most egregious example of this was from a radio advertisement I heard last week.  Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor and presidential candidate, was selling a leadership seminar that he was speaking at, along with other luminaries such as Colin Powell, Steve Forbes, Zig Ziglar, and even Michael Phelps (presumably without the pipe).  Sounds interesting and valuable, right?  Rudy told me that I could attend this session – which could change my whole life – for only $19!  Wait, not $19 per person, but $19 for my whole office!  Incredible – how could I pass up on such a deal?  Well, you’re now probably thinking the same thing I did, which is how valuable can Rudy really think it is if my whole office can attend for less than $1 per person?  (See their website which promotes the same offer).

Rudy blew his credibility with me.  His advertisement smacks of desperation, and he inadvertently created what economists call a Giffen Good, a product which is actually consumed LESS as the price goes down.  There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon, but in Rudy’s case, it is all about credibility.  When shopping, we’ve all considered that a higher priced item may equate to better quality, whether it is true or not (particularly when shopping for things such as electronics or fine wine).  We’ve also thought that something so cheap can’t be that good, because if it were, why weren’t they selling it for more?  The price of a product or service must have some relationship to its perceived value, or it has no credibility.

I previously wrote a series of blog entries on evaluating software ROI, and this is based on the principle that most products and services are purchased because of the value they bring to the customer, not their cost alone.  It’s a little too easy to forget this when times get tough.  But now more than ever, selling that value is paramount.

Rudy would have served me better by telling me that in this economy, everyone needs to hone their leadership skills, broaden their functional expertise, and grow their career. I suspect more people would have paid quite a bit more to do that.

No Comments | Category: Marketing Leadership

Achieving an ROI Touchdown, Part 4

February 20, 2009 @ 3:11 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

Both “above the line” and “below the line” contributions could add millions of dollars to the bottom line of your company. However, all may not apply, and they certainly don’t apply equally. Look at the “big rocks” that affect your organization, and concentrate on those – don’t sweat the small stuff. Focus on the magnitude, not the exact amount, of your ROI – you shouldn’t worry about having a large potential range in your ROI calculation if even the low end of that range is still a great return. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What large areas of revenue increase and/or cost savings will I be able to realize?
• What is the magnitude of this number in comparison to what I’m spending?
• Are there areas I haven’t thought of that offer the potential for revenue or savings (e.g., other vendors that can be used only minimally – if at all, etc.)
• Could my decision positively impact other budgets within my company, even if those budgets are not under my direct control? (If this is true, you should be able to find an ally in the organization to make the internal case for investment).

Secondly, ensure you follow through. Returns calculated on paper require coordination and organizational buy-in to make it a reality. Often there are organizational or cultural changes required to get the maximum benefit out of any technology. If you agree that you need to test a certain number of Web pages before pushing them live, then make sure testing is part of your launch process. If you can now launch landing pages and microsites on your own instead of paying your outside agency, make sure your internal folks are trained to use the tool to its fullest extent and therefore reduce the use of costly outside agencies for landing pages and microsites.

Lastly, demand that your vendors partner with you to calculate your ROI. Sure, they’re biased – they want to sell you something (now more than ever) – but they do have experience with many customers and probably have some good insights that you do not. Their role should be to help walk you through this ROI discussion, understand your company’s requirements, and uncover areas of value specific to your organization. If they’re doing their job right, they’ll bring up areas of business value that you may have overlooked. Ultimately this will arm you to have the conversation with your management to justify your decision. And in 2009, this will be essential.

The best news here is that your business has the equivalent of an unlimited football field – your goal is not just trying to get the First Down, or even the Touchdown. Often your true ROI – although difficult to precisely measure – may be more than enough to win the game handily.

No Comments | Category: Online Marketing | Web Content Management

Achieving an ROI Touchdown, Part 3

February 18, 2009 @ 1:14 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

We often throw around the terms “Return on Investment” and “Total Cost of Ownership” as though they’re easy figures to estimate. The truth is that these are difficult and imprecise measurements, unlike the First Down (see Part 1).

So, after you’ve completed the exercise of determining all the ways your investment contributes to revenue and lifetime customer value (see Part2 ), you need to look at the other half of the equation: How your investment will help the organization recognize greater efficiencies and cost savings.

• - Decentralized Publishing and Streamlining Page Development Process: It is crucial to allow multiple people throughout an organization to “author” content, and having a streamlined development and approval process will minimize time required by both the line-of-business and IT personnel, potentially saving thousands of hours of work. This same principle applies to the modification of existing page content, layout changes of existing pages, or creation of new pages. (Tip: try to calculate the total hours spent by EVERY member of your organization – and perhaps outside agencies – in each of these processes. “Whiteboarding” the whole flow and seeing how many hands touch your content is often an eye-opening experience).

 

• - Landing Page and Microsite Creation: Often companies rely on outside agencies to create landing pages and microsites. The ability to bring those in-house, integrated into an existing WCM system, could yield a significant reduction in these outside costs.

 

• - Managing Digital Assets: Rich media assets very often take longer to create (and are often done by an outside agency), and then such assets usually need to be re-formatted or “transcoded” for different purposes and channels. The ability to automatically manage the entire process of organizing, formatting, and distributing these assets significantly cuts down on wasted time within an organization, leverages re-use of existing assets, and can significantly cut down on outside expenses required to retrieve, reformat, or recreate assets.

 

• - Content Analysis and Meta Tagging: Even if your content is SEO-ready, it is often a manual process. The ability to automatically analyze content and tag pages can also yield savings (either from an internal team or an outside agency) of thousands of hours per week.

 

• - Hardware Costs, Maintenance and IT Costs: The right software also helps you optimize both the amount of hardware required to run it, as well as the maintenance costs for its up-keep. Often the savings in hardware or IT personnel alone (which also could include an outside hosting/management company) exceeds the costs of the software itself.

 

• - Customer Care Center Costs: Improved content, whether it is just more timely, more targeted, or completely optimized, will most certainly reduce inquiries into a call center. Most of your customers prefer Web self-service, and you just need to make sure they have the content and applications to do it well. Therefore, in addition to the increased revenue that more relevant and engaging content will bring, there is often a significant reduction in the burden to the call center. Although this may not benefit your specific budget, it is certainly relevant to the company’s overall ROI calculation.

 

At the end of the week, I’ll give some final thoughts on how to integrate the ROI analysis and approach into your organization.

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No Comments | Category: Digital Asset Management | Online Marketing | Targeting & Engagement | Web Content Management

Achieving an ROI Touchdown, Part 2

February 12, 2009 @ 2:33 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

Yesterday, I compared the way we “measure” software ROI to football First Downs, a precise measurement of an imprecise process. Don’t worry, no more apples to oranges comparisons today. Instead, today’s post focuses on the elements of this ROI.

Often our clients ask us to help them uncover the specific areas of ROI around our suite of Web Solutions software. Solutions that help customers transform and grow their online presence by both increasing business agility and speed and by building and strengthening customer engagement have a particularly broad application with ROI relevance in a number of different areas of the business. Today I will focus on a few applications in the category of “above the line” ROI – the ability increase revenue and lifetime customer value:

• - Targeting Relevant Content – Instead of providing a “one size fits all experience” for each visitor, providing a targeted and relevant experience for individual audience segments, either based on “known” criteria (demographic information, buying history, etc.) or “inferred” criteria (referral URL, time, day, geo-location, behavior, etc.). Providing a more targeted customer experience could easily have double-digit increases on sales and Website conversions. Relevant content also increases up sell, loyalty, and the value of existing customers.

 

• - Optimizing Web Pages – Testing multiple forms of content and layout to determine which combination provides the best experience for visitors and maximizes conversions. This is another technique, especially when combined with targeting, which could easily provide double-digit percentage lifts in Website performance.

 

• - Faster Time To Market For Web Applications – When you launch new applications and features on your site, every lost day (or minute) can mean significant revenue lost. Just getting these applications live faster can have a significant impact on revenue.

 

• - Reduction Of Lost Revenue From Downtime – Similarly, the ability to manage the “versioning” of sites, including rollbacks if necessary, will also maximize the uptime of the most current content and applications, reducing any potential lost revenue.

 

• - Improved SEO Performance – the ability to (a) identify the most relevant search keywords for any particular piece of content, (b) tag pages with the appropriate keywords, (c) manage a taxonomy of “metatags” throughout your site, and (d) integrate SEO review within your Web content management workflow will maximize your organic search rankings, ultimately increasing the number of visitors to your site. By the way, improved SEO performance could also allow you to cut back on pay-per-click costs, so there are potential savings are here as well.

 

Admittedly, there are more ways to achieve and measure greater ROI. Tomorrow, I’ll take a look at some of the other ways to harvest greater ROI.

My question for you is:  Are you getting the most return out of your marketing software investments? Are you even measuring it? If not, now is the time to start.

1 comment | Category: Multivariable Optimization | Online Marketing | Targeting & Engagement | Web Content Management

Achieving an ROI Touchdown, Part 1

February 10, 2009 @ 2:44 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

With another Super Bowl behind us, many of us are feeling football withdrawal. Like many Americans, I love football. However, since I was a kid, there was always something about the game that bothered me: Getting a First Down. They measure the First Down with a very precise tool – the First Down Chains – orange vertical markers connected by a chain exactly 10 yards long. When a ball is close to a first down, they “bring out the chains.” If the ball is beyond the marker, it’s a First Down. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

But here’s the flaw: How does the ball get to the spot where it is measured in the first place? Well, the referee just places it there based on his best judgment of how far the ball got in the player’s hands. It’s just a guess. So, in a game that can be decided literally on inches, it’s all up to human eyesight – not exactly a reliable tool. The First Down is a precise measurement of an imprecise process.

Most of time, this actually works. Football has been around for a century, and I’m probably the only one complaining about this. Because despite the imprecise nature of the measurement, we know the team moved the ball forward, and only when the call is “on the line” do we generally care.

So, what does this have to do with marketing? Well, lately, discussing Return on Investment (ROI) has been all the rage, and with obvious reason. In these difficult economic times, you want to be very certain your investments – software or otherwise – are going to pay off. Yet, the nature of measuring ROI requires a similarly precise tool to measure an imprecise process. Unlike our gridiron counterparts, we’re not necessarily looking for that singular objective (the First Down), but rather looking to maximize our return (our total yardage, if you will). But how can we possibly know our yardage if the referee just gets to place the ball down wherever he likes? Fortunately for us, we don’t need to be as precise as the NFL, because we’re not playing a zero-sum game. If we win (or get he First Down), it doesn’t mean someone else loses. We can be comfortable with the “scale” of our drive rather than the precise number of yards achieved. Whereas the difference between a 9 yard run and an 11 yard run in football can mean the difference between winning or losing, we can relish the fact that we gained significant yardage either way. Our goal line is not fixed. We just need to be directionally correct and understand the magnitude of our gain.

Similarly, do you really care if – based on a $1 million software purchase – you make $10 million or $10.5 million as your return? Well, of course you “care”, but that difference doesn’t affect your decision as to whether to make the purchase in the first place. You understand the direction and magnitude of your return, and any effort to get to such exact precision is an effort in futility. For example, our client Delta Air Lines has long reported that after working with us for only a few months, they increased revenue by over $30 million. Depending on how they calculate it, that number could be as low as $25 million or as high as $40 million. Do you think the “truth” of where that number actually lies changes their view on how they look at the piece of software that enabled it? It’s a fair bet that they are happy with their ROI, even if they can’t measure it so precisely.

Over the next few days, I’ll be blogging about various ways to evaluate software ROI. I encourage you to chime in with your thoughts – or football cheers and jeers – about how your organization measures (or should be measuring) the value of technology investments.

3 comments | Category: Online Marketing

The Conventional Wisdom is Neither

December 3, 2008 @ 11:52 am by Seth Rosenblatt

When I was a kid, my father liked to play mind puzzles with me.  One of his favorites was to find contradictory common sayings.  In other words, it always fascinated him that for almost every statement of “common wisdom”, there would be another one which would contradict it.  My job – as a twelve year old – would be to find them.  For example, “The More the Merrier” seems to conflict with “Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth.”  “The Early Bird Gets the Worm” battles with “Look Before You Leap.”  “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” vs. “Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder.”  You get the point…

The same problem exists in business.  Sometimes I’m not sure whether I need to Cross the Chasm, make something Built To Last, or just Think Outside the Box.  Do I have the Innovator’s Dilemma or do I just need to Win Friends and Influence People?  Frankly, this is why I have given up reading business books…sometimes it feels like I’m in just one big Dilbert cartoon.  It’s way too easy to make any point of view sound credible (including those in this blog!)  And many of them conflict anyway. 

And anyone who’s had a holiday dinner with relatives and dared to bring up topics like politics or religion, you know that everyone has an opinion!  There is a seemingly relentless pursuit of the “truth” when so such thing exists.  Such is the paradox of life, I guess. 

On the web, however, there is at least something that approximates the truth.  And that’s what your visitor does on your site based on what you present to them.  Yet, we still fall into old habits.  We debate the “truth,” we consult experts, and we go to conferences for epiphanies.  However, often all we get is selected, potentially irrelevant, and often conflicting advice!  For every person that says red is better, another will say green.  Within companies, this often manifests itself in the HiPPO problem.  Yet the online world brings us the freedom and luxury that no marketer has ever had before – you can run a truly controlled experiment with your customers!  You can learn, in real time, what they are responding to and you can react accordingly.

So, the next time you’re looking for answers, don’t go to the latest craze of business books.  Sure, we can all benefit by going Good to Great, but the way to truly be great is to bring your customer into your decision making process.  Target content to them, test what works, respond, and repeat.  It’s a journey, not a destination.  A full solution here includes both a website optimization tool as well as a robust web content management and targeting solution.  These tools will likely not help you with those political debates around the holiday dinner table, but you’ll certainly come closest to finding the truth online – the most relevant, targeted, and engaging content delivered to each of your visitors to maximize conversion rates and revenue.

1 comment | Category: Marketing Leadership | Multivariable Optimization | Online Marketing | Targeting & Engagement

The Seven Deadly Sins of Site Design

October 24, 2008 @ 12:44 pm by Seth Rosenblatt

A few weeks back I spoke on a panel at the Online Market World conference session entitled “The Seven Deadly Sins of Site Design.”  The notion of this session was to highlight common mistakes that companies make when designing their website. Although the conference came up with the title, I thought it would be fun to tie the actual Seven Deadly Sins to what companies do online (metaphorically, of course).  If you’re not up on your theology, the Seven Deadly Sins are: Gluttony, Envy, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Anger, and Greed.  We had a fun dialog among the panelists and the audience, a few of whom even volunteered to show their website to let us critique what they are doing.  In addition, I wrote a more comprehensive article on the topic for iMediaConnection.  However, some of the interesting “sins” that the panel brought up included:

Gluttony

This was all about the tendency for companies to put too much content on their site – a cluttered site with too many links, and a site that looks like it was designed by committee.  Very often, less is more – identify the most important value statements you can make, and then “layer” additional content so that visitors who want further information can click further to get there.

Envy

This was all about the temptation to imitate both your competitors as well as other sites you may “admire.”  Certainly you should always seek out best practices (and experimenting is a good thing), but resist the feeling that you must incorporate all of the other “cool stuff” that others are doing on their site.  Remember the fundamentals – who are your visitors, what are they looking for, and what content and technology adds value to helping them walk down a certain path.  Also, keep in mind that what works for other companies (including your competitors), may not work for your audience – very often winning designs and elements are counterintuitive.

Lust

Similar to Envy, we talked about Lust in the context of being too flashy – or sexy – on your website.  Although there is certainly a place for Rich Internet Applications (and one can argue that RIAs are the wave of the future), the panelists found that most sites tend to overuse, or inappropriately use, technologies like Flash on their website.  Often these “rich” applications tend to just distract visitors from the true goal of the site.  Also, video has value in certain contexts, but you need to ensure that its presence does not distract visitors away from the critical path of doing business with you.

Pride

Pride manifests itself in websites that talk about their own business and not about their customers’ issues.  It’s not about you – speak from your visitors’ perspective.  If you have a mission statement that starts with something like: “We strive to be the best at….”, then you’re off base.  Don’t be in love with what you already have, and don’t assume your customers know what you know.  You’d be surprised how often customers claim it is difficult to find crucial information on your site, information you always thought was in an “obvious” location.  Last but not least, I referenced experiments where removing a CEO’s photo from the web site actually increased conversion rates!  Make sure that photos are relevant – people who are recognizable, somehow associated with your product, or maybe just at least attractive. 

 Sloth

The panelists took a few different approaches to Sloth in website design.  I focused on the notion of being lazy by treating your visitors as if they’re all alike – not targeting content to specific audience segments based on what you know about them (how they got to your site, their demographics, location, time, day, etc.).  Another panelist focused on the sites that load too slowly – technical Sloth, if you will.  Another person commented that Sloth manifested itself in slow customer service – e-mails sent to you through your web site which do not elicit a quick response from your company.

Anger

Anger also elicited two different perspectives – both your company’s anger toward its customers, as well as inciting the anger of your customers toward you.  In the former case, we talked about being too pushy or too “salesy” on your site.  Also, I brought up the fact that very often negative assurance language (such as “No Spam” or “No Spyware”) often decreases conversion rates (by the way, positive assurance language like “Satisfaction Guaranteed” tends to work).  The latter perspective brought up sins that incite the wrath of your visitors, such as making your contact info hard to find or having a difficult or broken checkout process.

Greed

“Greed is good” according to Gordon Gekko.  Well, sometimes.  Often, it’s very bad on the web.  Very often, websites ask the customer for too much information – we’ve seen so many examples of website forms asking for someone’s fax number – do you really need a visitor’s fax number?  If you can cut down on the information you require the visitor to give you, conversion rates will almost always go up.  In general, do you require visitors to commit too much before being allowed to work with you (for example, do they really need to register before viewing some of your content)?  Another example of Greed was a website that loads up its site with content for SEO purposes – Greed for the Google spider, but creating a bad experience for the humans visiting your site. 

From the audience reaction, it looks like we hit a chord with this topic.  Most attendees discovered that they were bigger sinners than they had realized.  As you may expect, website testing and optimization came up often as redemption for these sins.  So whether you’re a religious person or not, it became fairly clear that walking the righteous road and avoiding these common sins is the road to website design salvation.

No Comments | Category: Multivariable Optimization | Online Marketing

Don’t Just Watch the HIPPO Swim Faster

September 15, 2008 @ 11:41 am by Seth Rosenblatt

We’ve all been in that meeting.  You gather a large group – maybe 6-12 people – tasked to decide the layout and content for some parts of your Website.  Maybe you also invited your agency or designer there as well.  It’s an emotional meeting, as everyone has their opinion on everything from the layout and color scheme to the most important message/promotion to put on the top of the page.  Should the hero image be of a businessman using our product or close-ups of the product itself?  How much text should we put on the page?  You spend many hours over many meetings – maybe over many weeks – debating and debating.  Then, someone has to break the impasse.  And guess who that is?  Well, the boss of course!  That’s the privilege (and burden) of being the boss – you get to make the tough decisions.  Read more

No Comments | Category: Multivariable Optimization | Online Marketing | Targeting & Engagement

Measuring Something Doesn’t Make it Taller

August 26, 2008 @ 5:00 am by Seth Rosenblatt

There was a great Dilbert cartoon earlier this year about the misplaced focus from bosses on the importance of measurement.  Don’t get me wrong, good data and insights are crucial for making the correct decisions in your business, including everything from software development to marketing to human resources.  However, we often forget that measuring, in and of itself, does nothing.  It’s what you do with that information that matters.  My favorite line in that comic strip from our hero Dilbert: “In many cases, the cost of measuring incorrectly is low compared to the time wasted doing two measurements before every action.”  Measuring something clearly doesn’t make it better. Read more

1 comment | Category: Multivariable Optimization | Online Marketing | Web Content Management