The competition, which ran for 12 weeks and closed on 15 May 2010, smashed its targets and delivered huge results for our client. Engineers Australia has set a new precedent when it comes to using a CRM and the digital channel to connect with their audience.

Make it so. Animated Re-cap:

A quick re-cap on the campaign

A benchmarking study conducted in May 2009 found that, despite high levels of advocacy (at 59%, engineering came in second behind medicine as one of the most respected professions), engineering was poorly understood by the broader public (only 37% of people knew what engineers actually do).

So Engineers Australia devised Make it so, a national publicity campaign with the tag, “If you can imagine it, engineers can make it so.” The campaign sought to change the face of engineering in Australia and attract more students to the profession.

To do this, a national competition was launched in February, inviting Australians to share their dreams and ideas – with the winning idea being turned into reality by a team of engineers.

Before this, Engineers Australia spent six months recruiting its members and asking them to get them on board as advocates. These advocates would essentially become the ‘worker bees’ of the public campaign.

We shared how successful this phase was in a previous blog post.

Make it so the public loves engineering

Phase two – in operation since February – has involved driving traffic to www.makeitso.org.au and encouraging the general public to submit their ideas. Following on from the success of phase one’s purely digital approach to recruitment, we implemented a similar digital strategy to spread the word about the competition.

Make it so was promoted in a range of cost-effective and memorable ways via the digital channel, such as via social networks, EDMs, blog posts and online advertising.

Some of the highlights of the campaign results are outlined below:

• Engaging with members: Of the 85,000 members, 52,000 had opted-in to receive communications from Engineers Australia. Of those who had opted in, 8,000 people signed up as advocates. This represents 16% mobilisation of members.
• Cleaning up the database: Before the campaign, the bounce rate on the Engineers Australia database was high. Following the campaign, 6000 permanent bounces – or 7% of the database – were cleared. The database now holds 52 fields per contact (many of which represent new data such as graduation dates), so campaign managers are more responsive in using the data to shape strategies on an ongoing basis.
• Facebook: there were very strong results through Facebook. Entrants could promote their ideas on their Facebook site, and encourage friends to visit the site and vote. This proved a highly effective channel.

We kept a monitor on the results using Google Analytics. “We were particularly impressed with the traffic graph. It peaked when we launched, then we witnessed another peak with our ‘Make it so towel give-away’. Then, as soon as we bumped up online advertising – through cost-effective channels like Facebook – it grew massively again,” said Charlie Graves-Morris, Campaign Manager, Bienalto.

Long-term outcomes for Engineers Australia

In addition to these great results, Engineers Australia has also laid the foundations for future success – by engaging with its members like never before.
This deep level of engagement will have positive repercussions for some time to come. For example, Engineers Australia has achieved:

• An up-to-date database, with richer information about members to enable more targeted marketing in the future
• Identification of active members through the “Make it so Champions” micro-campaign
• Activation of new, cost-effective channels of communication like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

For an organisation that exists for its members, relationship marketing is critical. The professional association has demonstrated a new and incredibly effective way of engaging with members – via a CRM – and building a bridge between engineers and the wider community.

The Make it so campaign exemplifies new and successful ways that an organisation can engage with its membership and the broader community – cultivating lasting relationships that will reap mutually beneficial rewards into the long term.

Competition update

Engineers Australia is now busy selecting a winning idea, which will be announced on 7 June 2010.

This idea will be made a reality by an engineering team, and regular updates about their progress will be posted at www.makeitso.org.au.

The www.makeitso.org.au website will now be used by Engineers Australia as a public interface – a place where engineering news, stories, events and forums can be promoted. It will build upon the organisation’s original goal to change the face of engineering in Australia.

Visit www.makeitso.org.au.

From our observations, most users will only click on one link in your newsletter or EDM. Put simply, they’ll read only one article or news item, and then they’re gone.

This sobering statistic sheds light on the criticality of content. What will the outcome of that all-important, solitary “click” be? Will it deliver the user deep into the appropriate section of your website, where they will find exactly what they are looking for?

Strong calls to action that relate to the “click” must be clearly available, to convert the lead and get return on the EDM investment. At every step of the customer journey, every content element must work in collaboration to achieve your desired business results.

The solitary nature of the “click” also sheds light on the value of content. Online marketers must strike the right balance between creating their own content – which can be a costly and time consuming exercise – and repurposing other people’s content for their own use, while being mindful of copyright and branding issues.

An often neglected area of website development

Content is king. Long live content. This is the mantra which all online marketers should live by. From the labels on your links, to instructional copy and calls to action, to the all-important body copy of your site – content speaks volumes about your brand and can make or break the customer journey through your site.

Yet too often, content is a hodge-podge accumulation of different content editors’ contributions. From a lack of consistency in the way your products are proselytised, to conflicting calls to action, your customers are guaranteed to get frustrated if their journey is not predictable enough.

So it is important to invest in well-produced, thoughtful content. But herein lies the rub. You could spend vast amounts of marketing dollars on producing highly engaging case studies, whitepapers, glossy product brochures and more. But how proportional are these investments on the customer’s eventual purchasing decision? In an era where consumers value their friends’ and blog evangelists’ opinions over your marketing statements – and when they can find these opinions at the click of a Google link – is it worth producing any of this content in the first place?

Reconsider your content creation strategy

For some organisations – IT companies come to mind – the production of whitepapers and case studies will still reap value and aid the sales process. The purchase of a multi-million dollar server environment will not be swayed as much by social commentary as by hard-hitting facts and figures.

But for many others, particularly retail companies, content creation is undergoing a marked shift. Smart marketers are recognising the value of investing in new media to fill the content gaps. For example, search engine positioning, the efficacy of the snippet – the copy that appears in the organic Google search results – and the place that link takes the user in your site are now critical in the lead-generation process.

Likewise, social media cannot be ignored. Facebook, Twitter and the like are valuable channels for the generation of content, particularly “fan” pages where you can maintain some semblance of control. Within these channels, your customers are doing your work for you. You can then analyse what they’re saying, the language they’re using, and much more – to help guide your subsequent marketing activities. For example, the words they use to describe your products should be injected straight into your SEO efforts.

Given that you’ve got an average of one click per user, you need to consider your agenda in delivering an EDM. What is the primary goal? Are there other business agendas that need to be met in this piece of communication, too? Can you repurpose other content to reduce the publishing and production costs, given that you’ve likely only got one click per customer? Simply by being aware of the way that users interact with your pieces of communication empowers you to make smarter decisions about the way you construct them.

Make every word accountable

Every word, statement and web page you produce should be held accountable to your bottom line. You need to be strategic in the way you produce it, and in the way it is managed and used to shape further marketing decisions.

In a nutshell, your content should be:

• Consistent across all channels – traditional media, advertising, EDMs, web pages, campaign microsites, your sales team’s spiel, the list goes on.
• Cost-effective – with the amount spent on content creation proportional to customer acquisition and retention volumes.
• Relevant – give the customers exactly what they’re looking for, and they’ll trust your brand as one that delivers on what they need, when they need it.

Need more guidance? Speak to Bienalto today about your content strategy – whether for EDMs, digital newsletters, websites or any other online channel.

“The Sun Rises on Eco” nomination was put forward to the SABRE (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation) Awards in a joint submission from the Sun ANZ marketing team and its PR agency, n2n communications.

The awards attracted close to 400 entries from across the region, with Sun outshining other global brands for its multi-faceted approach – which integrates online communications, media relations, events and employee communications.

Bienalto is proud to have provided a range of digital services for the winning marketing campaign. These services include the EDGE newsletter, competitions, online events, surveys and analysis.

Congratulations to Sun Microsystems on winning this great award!

And why wouldn’t there be, when absolute gems go online everyday. Take a look at this video to see what we’re talking about:

Clearly, there are some strong benefits to putting video up on your site. Here are a few of them:

• It offers captivating and dynamic content
• It enhances the user experience and builds deeper relationships
• It compliments and reinforces messages on the page
• It provides a strong call to action for your web visitors.

“Video is a great way of getting critical marketing messages across quickly and memorably, via engaging sound bites. It lets you reach time-poor audiences – like busy managers – who won’t read through pages of copy,” said Hurol Inan, Managing Director, Bienalto.

“Plus, it helps to build relationships by putting a face on the people within your organisation.”

But for video work as a marketing tool it must be professional, clear and cleverly edited – a true reflection of your brand. On the flip side, if your video production is inferior, it will damage your brand and image.

Introducing Cam Smeal

Bienalto now offers high quality video production services. Led by Cam Smeal, who has 20 years experience in the Film and Television industry, Bienalto is producing powerful, engaging and effective video communications.

Working with Cam and Bienalto, you get complete control of your production, from initial planning to distribution of the finished video. With Cam’s expertise, we deliver very high editorial and technical standards using the latest High Definition video equipment.

Cam says, “Just because we are shooting a corporate video, it doesn’t mean that our production values shouldn’t be as high as if we were shooting a feature film. We treat the two as the same – resulting in an extremely high quality product.”

Of course, it comes without the blockbuster budgets. Producing video is a surprisingly cost-effective process, and Bienalto can work within a broad range of budgets.

Speak to Bienalto today about how video will add impact to your website.

There’s a marked difference in the execution of marketing campaigns offline and online.

Offline, you design a campaign, launch it with a big bang and, voila, you’re done. Online, however, the ‘big bang’ is but a part of the journey.

In fact, it marks the start of a valuable ‘extend and expand’ phase – where you continually test and grow the campaign, adding new elements and attracting more people to it as you go.

Frontline Systems, a leading IT infrastructure and services provider in Australia, has embraced the online paradigm and implemented a highly successful campaign for brand positioning and market development. The Solaris is IT campaign – which is still in progress – is a prime example of the ‘extend and expand’ philosophy at work.

Challenge

“As a leading IT infrastructure and services provider, one of our ongoing priorities is to grow our market, utilising expertise from within to achieve this. Solaris expertise has historically been a pillar of our business and with it now being a truly platform independent environment, it complements our Vendor Hardware strategy.” said Greg Wade, Marketing Director, Frontline.

“We sought a campaign that would demonstrate our expertise in Solaris, educate the market about cross-platform support of this powerful operating system across x86 systems from leading vendors, and generate demand for Frontline services.” said Wade.

Frontline engaged Bienalto to deliver a comprehensive strategy; and take charge of campaign design, execution, and the critical ‘extend and expand’ phase.

Solution

Bienalto conceptualised the Solaris is IT campaign as the way forward for Frontline.

Solaris is IT, which includes a website and competition to gauge interest and offer interactivity, is tailored for three key audiences – IT managers, architects and system administrators.

Built using Events Manager, the campaign captures customer data and is designed to integrate with Frontline’s CRM.

“We tested the campaign messaging on Frontline’s existing customer base before expanding beyond their database,” said Hurol Inan, Managing Director, Bienalto. “Once we got the message right, we were ready to broaden the net and capture new leads.”

The expansion strategy entailed the use of social media sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, and online advertising on specialist IT news sites; as well as ongoing email communication with people who had already registered interest.

Using strategies such as these, Bienalto has more than doubled the response rate for the competition since moving beyond the Frontline database.

“Bienalto has been involved at every step of the way – from initial concepts to visual design and development. They are now steering critical activities like email marketing to achieve the best possible outcome,” said Wade.

Frontline’s Solaris is IT campaign is still in progress, yet already a number of sub-campaigns are in the works to extend its scope.

“Based on the foundations we have built with this campaign, we have every confidence to launch new campaigns. They will be predictable from the outset and generate strong results for the business,” said Inan.

Are you ready to leverage online?

Any business with a major initiative or objective on the radar should be thinking about taking the campaign online.

If you are unsure of where to start, speak to Bienalto today. Call us on +61 2 8356 3000 or email info@bienalto.com.

Enter the Solaris is IT competition today!

Bienalto encourages IT professionals to enter the Solaris is IT competition, and promote it within their organisations.

Entering is easy. All you need to do is register to receive Solaris information pack to be in the minor draw. If you are existing Solaris users, this pack also contains instructions on how to enter the major competition for which you will need to state, in 250 words of less, how Solaris 10 improves your working life.

You will go in the running to win some cool prizes, including one of five Google Android powered HTC Dream Smart Phones, or one of five BOSE around-ear headphones.

Learn more about the campaign and enter the competition

Following the recent launch of our Events Manager solution, we’ve been rolling up our sleeves and helping clients integrate the solution with their CRM.

Why have we made CRM integration a priority?

It’s simple. Integrating your events registration system with your CRM system gives you more powerful insights into customer interests, attitudes and behaviour. From this, you can create meaningful dialogue that strengthens the relationship, into the long term.

The costs of NOT integrating

When we conducted research for the Event Marketing Whitepaper, a common pain point for the businesses we spoke to was a lack of integration with a CRM. While most event marketing platforms come with a database that enables some level of segmentation and targeting, full integration with all channels (call centre, snail mail, and so on) is sadly non-existent.

This is despite the fact that the costs of not integrating quickly add up:

• Time and resources costs – every time you launch a new event, you have to start again, inputting customer information, updating details, and so on.
• Reputation costs – more significantly, without integration, targeted marketing is virtually impossible. Given that every interaction with a customer is a test of what they think of you, if you send them an invitation to an event similar to one they previously declined interest in, you risk losing their trust and respect. Once lost, it’s pretty hard to get back.

On the flip side, integration of your CRM with other marketing systems like event registration gives you:

• Richer insights into customer preferences and behaviours
• Business intelligence
• Significant cost and time savings.

CRM Adapters make it as easy as plug and play

Every organisation needs the ability to synch information coming from various marketing channels.

To address this in the events space, we have developed CRM Adapters for our Events Manager solution. This plug-and-play approach makes it simple for organisations to start using Events Manager, synching the data collected within this system with their existing CRM.

It means you can start reaping the benefits of having customer information at your fingertips every time you launch an event.

Already, we have integrated Events Manager with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com. Plans are afoot to build CRM Adapters for Interaction and Oracle On Demand shortly.

Do you have another CRM you’d like to see integrated with Events Manager? Talk to Bienalto about it today. Call us on +61 2 8356 3000 or email info@bienalto.com.

The campaign seeks to change the way Australians think and talk about engineering. When asked what an engineer does, most of us would say, “They build bridges”. But, in fact, they do so much more.

Make it so will show everyday Australians that engineering teams make things happen.

We encourage you to show your support for this fantastic campaign – read on to find out more and see how Bienalto is involved.

About Make It So

The campaign asks general Australian public to share their dreams – from the serious to the esoteric. Some of these dreams will be chosen by Engineers Australia, and teams of “Make it so” engineers will turn these dreams into reality.

The whole campaign is explained on the Make it so website.

Our role in the campaign

The Make it so campaign site was proudly built by Bienalto, and uses Events Manager to capture registrations and send out email updates. Events Manager synchs with  Salesforce.com CRM platform, for quick and accurate updates to participant details.

Events Manager will be used throughout the campaign to manage all communication with participants – update emails, requests for help, events and so on.

Today’s launch of Make it so marks the start of phase one: mobilisation of engineers. We will be working with Engineers Australia throughout each subsequent phase of this exciting campaign, and look forward to keeping you in the loop.

Show your support and find out more by visiting Make it so today.

These business leaders are asking the right questions. In most cases, there is room for improvement – and a strong business case, too, given that online is a low-cost, proven channel that generates measurable results.

That is, attracting more customers, generating leads, creating buzz and awareness, or simply improving business efficiencies.

Quantitative analysis is the fastest and most effective way to find out how you can better leverage the online channel.

Quantitative analysis the key

The best way to understand how well your website is currently working is through quantitative analysis. This strategic tool paints a clear picture of the best and worst aspects of your site; and, as long as you are prepared to act on the findings, your site’s performance will improve.

I have talked in the past about the importance of quantitative analysis, and the message is as relevant as it ever was.

When we help our clients analyse their websites, we start with the absolute basics:

• Are customers coming to your website?
• What are they doing on your site?

From this baseline, we can identify the gaps or pitfalls, develop a roadmap to plug these gaps and ultimately improve the performance of the online channel.

It sounds simplistic, but of course we cannot reach any conclusions without a comprehensive understanding of our client’s business and their strategic marketing approach.

Reassess your KPIs

During the assessment phase, it’s important to cross-check the stated objective of the site against its KPIs. Setting up good KPIs is critical for the ongoing monitoring of a site’s performance, and it ties in beautifully with a quantitative analysis.

With a vast array of measurables to choose from - page views, cost per acquisition, new visitors, the list goes on - there’s absolutely no point in trying to do it all. Rather, you should realign KPIs to match current business priorities and focus on getting accurate, timely data to support these KPIs.

The right KPIs enable you to track issues, identify opportunities and provide relevant recommendations to senior management about the online channel.

Augment with benchmarking

Once you have identified gaps in your website, it pays to check out what the best of the rest are doing. Seek out best practice in your industry and benchmark against comparable sites. This enables you to gather fresh ideas and set a clear direction for your own site.

We use a tool called Position Pundit to professionally benchmark our clients’ sites, looking at the user experience and customer acquisition/retention mechanisms. These insights can be invaluable in planning the future direction of your own site.

In conclusion

Rationalising your website. Realigning it. Resetting it. Call it what you will – but any form of strategic re-evaluation of your online channel now will pay off in the long term.

I know it works. Having provided website analysis services for many clients in the past few years, and seen these clients reap measurable rewards from the changes enacted, it’s a proven investment.

Knowing that your website is doing OK is more than just about peace of mind. If it’s not up to scratch, you need to know how you can fix it. If you just ignore the problem, then you run the risk of losing customers – and at a time like this, every single visitor counts.

Want to know more? Read about Bienalto’s website analysis, benchmarking and web analytics services.

Or contact me today to discuss your site.

In July 2008, the investment attraction function previously administered by Invest Australia was rolled into Austrade as part of its overall trade facilitation function.

Austrade’s existing website lacked the scalability to simply ‘plug in’ a new section of content and was ready for a refresh to improve usability and content.

Austrade engaged Bienalto for one month of intensive strategy and collaboration to devise a new information architecture and content rationale for the site. The new website, which was launched in February 2009, creates a dynamic, progressive platform for the future growth of the agency.

Challenge

Until 2009, Austrade had operated different websites for its local and overseas audiences: www.austrade.gov.au and www.austrade.com. There were issues associated with marketing the two sites; as well as the challenge of overcoming misconceptions around the US domain of the international site.

There were also content issues. The typical Austrade customer would come from a particular industry or market – and without creating too many headaches for content managers, Austrade sought a better way to channel users down their chosen pathway.

“In addition, we faced the challenge of incorporating all of the information from the Invest Australia website – in the knowledge that we had no extra funding to manage a whole new sub-site,” said Shannon Kolbe, Web Project Manager of the e-Business Team, Austrade.

This challenge of managing new content on a shoestring was picked up on by Bienalto, which came up with innovative ways to reduce the cost of upkeep on the new site.

Solution

Bienalto benchmarked investment sites from around the world to gain a clear picture of what information investors need to aid the decision-making process.

Guided by this research, Bienalto recommended an interface rich in graphics and video content; with clear navigation from the home page to channel users into different sections of the site.

“After consultations with the investment specialists, we saw that what they do is no different to a professional services firm. That is, they provide advice. So we started thinking within the context of what is best practice for professional services firm,” said Hurol Inan, Managing Director, Bienalto.

The rationale behind the video content – which appears within the “Invest” section of the site – was clear:

• Investment specialists are located all over the world, and are always on the road; and while they are more than happy to talk about their expertise, they are much less willing to write about it. Video and audio are a quicker and easier way to capture their messages and establish dialogue with customers.
• The video solves multilingual issues, with recordings made in different languages according to which country the investment specialist is based in.
• Potential investors are more likely to engage with Austrade’s investment specialists after listening to them speak in a video or audio recording.

Another new area of the “Invest” section addresses the content management issues. “Investor Update” is a blog-style communications piece, which gives Austrade a manageable platform for getting new messages to market and keeping the content fresh.

“Investor Update is the first port of call for any potential customers who want to stay up-to-date with Australia as a market. All the investment specialists have to do is send a bulleted list of hot topics to the Corporate Communications team every few months – and we’ve got the content we need,” Shannon said.

Bienalto’s aim was to build a site that would grow with the organisation, whilst remaining mindful of the strain content management would place on internal resources.

“Many sites make the mistake of designing for the launch; that is, creating a whole lot of content that the company has no resources to manage down the track. The content on Austrade’s site can be refreshed on an ongoing basis, and can also be rotated to ensure a fresh appeal for repeat users,” said Inan.

Results

The simplicity of the new Austrade website is winning votes with Austrade staff around the world.

“I keep hearing how proud people within the organisation are to be able to promote the website to customers,” said Shannon.

“A priority for the new site was to encourage more customers to talk to our investment specialists. Bienalto has really nailed this with their solution – the video recordings of our investment specialists discussing current economic issues really boosts their credibility.”

As Austrade sets forth with its new investment role in place, Shannon believes that the new site forms the centrepiece for clarifying the service offering.

“We’ve now got a new, clear way of looking at content, and incredible efficiency in delivering this content to our main audiences – which frees us up to explore new opportunities and ensure this site remains as progressive as it is today,” said Shannon.

Visit the new Austrade website.

From Cindy Lauper to classic concertos, Chicago the musical to Carmen the opera, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) shows it all. It is the premier multi-venue performance space in Queensland, attracting renowned international performers as well as providing a home away from home for Queensland’s leading performing arts companies.

With new shows on each month, QPAC relies on a slick and efficient marketing system that promotes the program to a database of more than 150,000 people. Of course, details about each show are not sent to all people on the database – and therein lies the key to what has become an incredibly efficient and successful email marketing program.

Bienalto has designed and developed a template for QPAC’s event promotion emails, enabling them to send out targeted emails to segments of the database – at the click of a button. Following on the success of this template, Bienalto is now working on a range of other projects with QPAC to iteratively improve its online communications channel.

Challenge

With such a diverse repertoire on its bill, the biggest challenge facing the marketing team has been finding a customer segmentation model that works. In other words, calculating what a customer is likely to buy tickets for, based on their previous purchases.

“The problem is, just because someone came to the ballet last month, it doesn’t mean they will buy a ticket to the next ballet performance,” said Rae Bassett, Audience Development Manager, QPAC.

“Particularly for first-time bookers and those that only come to the occasional performance, it becomes incredibly difficult to predict what their next purchase will be.”

QPAC sought a new way of promoting events that would rely on segmentation in the first instance, but would also include other promotions that could potentially generate increased sales.

Bassett and her team also sought a more streamlined and efficient process, to reduce the time spent on each campaign.

Solution

Bienalto devised an email template featuring a ‘QPAC recommends’ section. So, along with the main promotion, two to three alternative events can grab a customer’s interest, to squeeze more value from the single piece of communication to customers.

Information architecture principles have been applied to the design of the email template, to ensure that key elements (for example, ‘Buy Tickets’) are easily accessible. The design is also flexible enough to accommodate the distinctive branding requirements of different productions.

“We also wanted more ‘engagement information’ in our emails – which research from the United States has shown to be crucial for those first-time bookers who have the potential to become valued customers,” said Bassett.

With this in mind, the email templates enable the easy insertion of video content to better engage with customers. Bienalto has also helped to develop a ‘first-time booker’ program, which identifies the unique needs of new customers and sends timely welcome emails, information about the venue, reviews and a post-event email with a ‘first impressions survey’.

Results

“We have almost doubled our click-through rate on event promotion emails since we started using the new template,” said Bassett.

Prior to using the new templates in November 2008, the average open rate for campaigns was 27.5%. By February, the open rate was up to 45%, with an average list size of 10,000 recipients.

“Unique click-throughs have increased by 2% too. In itself, that doesn’t sound like a staggering increase, but the difference it makes to our bottom line is massive,” Bassett said.

The templates have made it much easier and faster for the promotion team to set up emails for each campaign – what once took up to four hours now takes 80 minutes. Considering that they often do more than 14 email campaigns per month, this is a huge saving.

“We simply could not live without email marketing anymore. It is so powerful and cost effective, and this new templated approach ensures that we extract maximum value from every piece of communication we send out,” said Bassett.