MarketingSherpa Blog

Patrick Hurley over at Salon just wrote in, “I know you’re always in the market for new intelligence. We’re raising our prices and have announced it via a daily ticker in our edit well counting down the days until prices increase (you’ll see it if you log on http://www.salon.com/ and scroll down the edit well).

“So far, it’s really getting prospects off the dime and moving new subs, especially for July which is generally quite sluggish. As the days wind down, I think we’ll continue to drive strong demand. Come August 1st we may then “extend the deadline a week by popular demand” to eke out some more subscribers who want to be grandfathered under the charter pricing. Then we’ll roll out the new rates see how (in)elastic our pricing is.”

Very smart — I remember from my days of sub marketing that those price increase specials always worked well. Another great tactic to tack on it to announce a hot new premium the day after the special ends… something to distract them from and add value to the new price. You can offer it to the folks who bought cheaply prior to as a 30 cent upgrade too.

Just found a very informative two-part article by Tim Archambault, New Media Coordinator at Bangor Daily News/Bangornews.com. He explains why they decided to require reader registration at their site, and how it affected things.

He notes, “An approximate 12 percent drop in page views occurred during the first month, but the number of pages quickly recovered
to its previous level during the second month. There was no extraordinary marketing efforts to increase our page views.”

Also, although the newspaper’s registration count of 90,000 is bigger than its print circ count of 63,000 circ for the print daily, just 10% of online registered users are subscribers to the print version. To get this fairly high registration rate, they did a promo with a sweeps for $50 worth of lobsters.

Archambault also noted that requiring registration means your customer service will rise dramatically. 66% of customer service
queries in the month of March were due to online reg queries, mostly people having trouble with passwords.

http://www.digitaledge.org/DigArtPage.cfm?AID=4693

I’ve just interviewed Jason Kint, VP & General Manager Online at SportingNews. He wasn’t able to give me enough data for a full fledged Case Study, but he did share these interesting details:

– Over the past three years, SportingNews online revenues have shifted dramatically from 90% ad sales, to 50% ad sales and 50% “non-ad sources” the majority of which are subscription sales. Syndication and licensing are a small under 10% slice, and bookstore sales of digital and printed docs are another small slice.

– They’ve done lots of price testing on their eDocs (PDFs) and subscription offers, including emailing surveys to registered members and testing prices on live offers. Results have shown they can charge a variety of prices for content. Some products are $5 and others as high as $39. Publishers who just pick a price that sounds good and use it uniformly across the board may be losing out.

– Bundled offers are working well. For example, SportingNews offers three different products for NFL fans, including a pre-season countdown, a “draft central” kit and “pro football matchups” which you can buy separately or bundled together for a discount.

On the other hand, SportingNews is not offering a mega-bundle of everything they sell, mainly because Jason says the price would be too high to be sexy to prospects (at a certain point it’s easier to sell several small things than one big one), and because baseball and football fans don’t overlap all that much.

– While news itself is lower value online, Jason says because SpsortingNews’ editors get it online so quickly, it’s worth the subscription fee to people. The value in that marketplace is the speed.

– Open and response rates to team-specific newsletters blow more generic newsletters out of the water. It can be worth the extra investment to create separate newsletters for each marketplace slice.

– Although SportingNews has enormous offline presence (4.5 million print magazine readers, and 13 million radio show listeners), the Web site with “close to 3 million registered users” is definitely reaching some different people. There’s less overlap than you might think. Jason says, “A very, very high percent of Web users we’re introducing to the magazine and providing a lot of benefit.” The site is a good print sub feeder.

– Just like every publisher I’ve talked to, Jason is ready, willing and able to sell ads by the daypart, but no one has bought any yet. He can’t understand why not, “There’s no question if you’re a beer or pizza company, you should advertise just before the game starts.” I agree, but the only mention of daypart sales I’ve ever been able to find online is in search marketing PPCs. (If you know of another example, email me!)

– Also following a distinct trend I’ve noticed, Jason firmly limits the site’s email list rentals to sponsors. He doesn’t want to wear out his brand’s welcome in the in-box, and only allows about two rentals per month. He says open rates are distinctly better for names that have been on the site and/or registered recently. This might seem like a “duh” but in my experience most email renters don’t think to ask about recency segmentation when they buy.

– I think of SportingNews as “Mikey” in that old Life Cereal TV ad (you know the one, “Let Mikey try it. Mikey will eat anything”) because it seems like whenever I hear about a neat new online publishing format, SportingNews is inevitably mentioned in the press release as one of the beta testers.

I asked how the tests, especially their ActiveBuddy IM test and their Serence NewsKlip, and of course their wireless news distribution.

While Jason was positive about usership for all of these, recipients love them, he said of all three, “How we execute on that to make money is the part we haven’t done yet.”

No matter how cool tech is, you gotta have a biz model to make it work.

http://www.sportingnews.com
http://www.activebuddy.com
http://www.serence.com/site.php

Useful link of the day — if you’re planning a direct (postal) mail campaign and aren’t a true list rental expert, this one-page PDF called “How to read a data card” will be really helpful. It clearly explains what all the jargon on a list information sheet means so you can make the best decision. For example, did you know the phrase “email” means that you can get the postal mail list sent to you via email, not that there are email addresses on the list?

Just got my first issue of the Data Conversion Laboratory newsletter. The Company converts content into digital formats such as XML, but the newsletter is definitely not one of those annoying look-how-great-we-are marketing pieces. In fact, if you’re remotely interested in digital content, or epublishing, there’s something for everyone.

In this issue, they reveal that Europeans are (far) more likely to pay for wireless content than Web site content, pens are going digital, and what the differences are between the three different types of PDFs. Also, for document conversion questions, check out their library at the link below.

(BTW: No that wasn’t a paid announcement, to my knowledge I’ve never met anyone from the Lab. However, if I ever do, I’ll definitely complain about the way they turn their name into an acronym and fling it about everywhere. Unless you are a very, very, very famous company and willing to put zillions behind branding an acronym, USE YOUR WHOLE NAME. It’s too hard for people to remember who or what the heck you are. Branding 101.)

Newsletter -> http://www.dclab.com/dclnews0402.asp
Technical Library -> http://www.dclab.com/dcllibrary.asp

Are you putting together your year-end issues now? Our top 10 stories of the year, etc. Gotta love them, they are so easy to toss together editorially and readers adore them.

Instead of choosing his personal top 10 faves for his year end issue, Brian Livingston, Editor of InfoWorld’s E-Business Secrets
newsletter, asked his techie for a report showing the issues and the individual stories that got the highest clicks from readers in the past year. The results surprised him:

1. Issue open rates (the percent of readers who opened an issue in their email) repeatedly and consistently varied by as much as 100% on a weekly basis. Although National holidays definitely affected readership, “newsy” times also made a difference. Livingston’s most opened issue ever was his first published after 9/11.

Because of these dramatic variances, Livingston finds it more useful to track open rates on an averaged eight-week basis than on an issue-by-issue basis to determine how successful he is in pleasing readers.

2. Livingston’s email newsletter features story summaries with links to read more back at the site. So, he also tracked the
clicks on these stories. He found that although “serious stories like ‘How to Avoid the Top Five E-Business Mistakes'” were
heavily clicked on, “the click throughs for these things were dwarfed by the numbers for the more wild and crazy Web links,” such as Steve Ballmer’s now infamous monkey boy video.

Armed with this data, he’s now planning a reader survey to ask, “Do my readers want me to produce a Wacky Web Week report, or do
they just have a healthy interest in the lighter side of e-business?”

3. Livingston also discovered that for him position did not affect a link’s click rate. In fact, often stories at the very bottom of a newsletter were 45% more likely to be clicked on than stories at the very top or middle! I suspect this is the case because his issues are always structured into three sections: top
stories, tech reviews and top 10 links. As readers get used to the sections, they naturally scroll to their favorite each week,
ignoring the others.

This is good news for newsletter ad sales because it gives you data you can use to convince advertisers to take a lower position
than the much-vaunted top one.

I’ve been writing about A/B testing for 15 years at Meclabs (MarketingSherpa is part of Meclabs, as is MarketingExperiments). And one of the most common challenges I’ve heard is – ‘what do I test next?’

Because A/B testing isn’t all that hard to get the hang of. And once you catch the bug and see how it can move the needle and help you learn about and better serve customers – marketers and entrepreneurs want to keep testing.

But we’re only human. And eventually the well runs dry. ‘So what the heck should I test next?’

Enter the biggest marketing buzzword of 2024 (and 2023 as well) – artificial intelligence.

But unlike a buzzword that covers up for vaporware, AI is legit when it comes to test ideation. Because unlike me and you, it isn’t human (sorry bots reading this post, you are not part of my target audience).

So AI is a never-ending font of ideas. Are they all amazingly good? No.

But Paul McCartney originally sang “Scrambled Eggs” instead of “Yesterday,” “The Breakfast Club” was going to be called “The Lunch Bunch,” and Jane Austen came up with the title “First Impressions” before she settled on “Pride and Prejudice.”

Brilliance isn’t obvious at first. It takes a lot of ideas to get there.

Which, again, AI has. So the next time you’re struggling with a test idea, give it a shot.

Here’s an example. I’m co-teaching ‘MEC 300: Develop Your Creative’ in the AI Guild. This isn’t just meant to be training; it’s meant to guide you to build your own funnel. So between each class there is a ‘Build Your SuperFunnel’ activity (I didn’t want to call it ‘homework,’ after all, these are all adult professionals).

Read more…

I categorize effective content into Stephen Covey’s quadrants – specifically Quadrant I (urgent and important) and Quadrant II (not urgent but important).

For example, MarketingSherpa helps you with the urgent and important by publishing marketing case study articles. If you have an urgent and important need, you can quickly search the MarketingSherpa library and find specific marketing examples with results to give you ideas within a few minutes.

For those challenges and opportunities that are not urgent but are important – your long-term brand strategy, team management, career path, etc. – there’s the How I Made It In Marketing podcast. You can listen in your downtime – on the train, in the car, going for a run – and get ideas from these roughly hour-long discussions with marketing leaders.

Well, until now.

We have a new, free tool that transition these long-form in-depth interviews from into content that can help with your immediate, important challenges. It can analyze How I Made It In Marketing, or any other audio or video transcript, and help you with urgent and important problems in just a few minutes. This tool is the Video Transcript Analyst expert assistant in MECLABS AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa).

MECLABS AI is totally free to use, for now. Here’s where you can find Video Transcript Analyst in MECLABS AI…

For me personally, when I’m looking for a quick solution, I jump past video and audio results in a search engine. I don’t have the time to linearly watch and listen. I want text I can quickly scan. And that is exactly what Video Transcripts Analyst can give you.

Here’s an example. In one of the early episodes of how I Made It In Marketing, I interviewed Aron North, Chief Marketing Officer and Commercial Owner, Mint Mobile. So I figured I’d take a walk down memory lane and take a closer look at that episode. Plus, test out how well Video Transcript Analyst works on an audio-only format like a podcast.

I simply pasted the transcript into MECLABS AI, and it gave me the below result (in fairness to MECLABS AI, there are no timestamps in the transcript, so that part was just an AI hallucination, but if you use a transcript with time stamps, it can include that info in a table as seen below):

Summary Paragraph:

Aron North, the Chief Marketing Officer at Mint Mobile, shares invigorating insights into the potent mix of creativity, customer focus, and willingness to embrace failure that has driven explosive growth for Mint Mobile in a saturated market. Starting from ground zero, Mint learned to leverage creative prowess over hefty production budgets, transforming perceived customer skepticism of their low prices into a compelling narrative of value. The conversation with Daniel Burstein threads through Aron’s career trajectory, lessons in pushing the creative envelope, fostering a dynamic marketing culture of immediacy (epitomized through a rapid response to a tweet from Dave Foley), and building a brand that earnestly listens and adapts to its customers and employees alike. This journey underscores the agility, audacity, and human-centered approach fundamental to breaking through traditional marketing confines and resonating genuinely with both customers and team members.

Segmented Overview with Timestamps:

FAQ for the Video:

1. What is the key to Mint Mobile’s marketing success?
   • Creativity over production, leveraging insights, and willingness to take risks.
2. How does Aron North view failure in marketing?
   • As an essential part of the learning process and a driver for innovation.
3. What strategy did Mint use to address skepticism regarding its low pricing?
   • Enhancing perceived value by creatively presenting the offer and educating about the benefits.
4. What is “fastertizing” and how did Mint Mobile utilize it?
   • Fast, responsive marketing, exampled by engaging with a tweet from Dave Foley and rapidly producing an ad.
5. What cultural principle does Aron North emphasize within the team?
   • “Free Beer, No Asshole” to ensure a rewarding and inclusive work environment.
6. How does Mint Mobile engage with customers for feedback?
   • Through active participation and monitoring on platforms like Reddit for real-time insights.

Flashcards for Key Concepts:

1. Creative Over Production:
   • Focus on creativity and human insight to make impactful campaigns over spending on high production.
2. Embracing Failure:
   • Viewing failure as a step towards innovation and learning.
3. Fastertizing:
   • The practice of rapid, responsive advertising to stay relevant and engaging.
4. FBNA Principle:
   • “Free Beer, No Assholes” principle that underlies the importance of reward and a positive team culture.
5. Customer Engagement:
   • Actively listening and adapting based on customer feedback, utilizing platforms like Reddit.
6. Human Insight in Marketing:
   • The foundational role of universal human truths in creating resonant marketing messages.
7. Key Qualities of a Marketer:
   • Creativity, tenacity, good listening skills, and self-awareness.

Do you have any specific questions about video or marketing insights shared?

I then asked Video Transcript Messaging Analyst, “Any ideas from this episode that could help me with the launch of MECLABS AI?” and it responded…

The insights and strategies shared in the conversation with Aron North, particularly those pertaining to fostering creativity, embracing risk, and deeply understanding customer needs, can be instrumental in launching MECLABS AI successfully. Engaging with these principles through a critical lens rooted in MECLABS methodologies, let’s delineate actionable insights that can power your launch strategy:

1. Leverage Creativity Over Production (“Creative is Greater Than Production”):

• Application: For MECLABS AI, utilize creative storytelling and straightforward communication to connect with your target audience instead of focusing on high-cost productions. Emphasize the unique capabilities and benefits of MECLABS AI in addressing complex analytical needs through simple, compelling narratives.

2. Embrace and Learn from Failure:

• Application: Advance MECLABS AI through a culture of experimentation, embracing the potential growth that stems from risks and failures. Adopt a test-and-learn approach in your launch strategy, where each phase of the campaign is iterated upon based on real-world feedback and performance data.

3. Fastertizing – Swift, Relevant Marketing:

• Application: Utilize the concept of fastertizing to keep MECLABS AI’s communications timely and highly relevant to evolving market needs and conversations. This might involve creating content and campaigns that respond to current trends in data analysis, AI advancements, or industry-specific challenges, thereby positioning MECLABS AI as a timely and responsive solution.

4. FBNA Principle (Free Beer, No Assholes) – Cultivating a Positive Culture:

• Application: Build an internal culture for MECLABS AI that rewards creativity, innovation, and collaboration, ensuring that all team members feel valued and motivated. This positive internal culture will reflect externally, fostering trust and loyalty among your prospective users.

5. Actively Engage with and Listen to Your Audience:

• Application: Engage your potential and existing users in genuine conversations about their needs, challenges, and expectations from an AI-powered analytical tool like MECLABS AI. Platforms such as LinkedIn, Reddit, or industry forums can provide rich insights, helping to refine MECLABS AI’s offerings and messaging.

6. Highlight Human Insight and Value Proposition:

• Application: Ground your messaging in clear, human-centric value propositions that resonate with your target market’s core challenges and goals. Illustrate how MECLABS AI can transform their analytical processes, enabling more profound insights, saving time, and driving strategic decisions.

7. Encourage Tenacity and Creativity in Marketing Efforts:

• Application: Empower your marketing team to pursue innovative strategies and channels for promoting MECLABS AI, encouraging bold ideas and resilience in the face of challenges. This could involve innovative partnership models, community-building efforts, or novel content formats that captivate attention.

To gauge the effectiveness of these strategies and refine your approach, it’s essential to continually analyze feedback, performance metrics, and marketplace dynamics. By synthesizing these insights with the aforementioned principles, MECLABS AI can forge a compelling launch that resonates with your audience and distinguishes the product in the competitive landscape of AI and analytics solutions.

These responses don’t have the depth you get from listening to the entire episode, but the episode was 70 minutes long and the above interaction took about five minutes. So it’s a great way to take long-form audio and video content, and delve into it to brainstorm your ideas.

Or simply run the transcript of that content through this AI analyst, see if any of the responses pique your interest, and only then decide to dive in and listen to the full episode. In an era of endless content to choose from, it can help you narrow in on what deserves your deeper attention and is most helpful and relevant to you.

Related resources

MECLABS AI – Get free (for now) expert help from the only AI unit build from the discoveries of 10,000 conversion marketing experiments

Unlocking Your Inner Copywriter: A non-wizard’s guide to spellbinding headlines

AI-powered Problem-solving Strategies: An interview with MECLABS AI’s Problem Solver expert assistant

Personification is the intimate companion of imagination.

Which is why so many great artists use it. For example, Jack London wrote, “But the plummet of his hearing brought nothing to him save the moaning of wind through invisible trees and the rustling of leaves on swaying branches.”

You may have seen this tactic used so often that you wouldn’t even notice the personification if I hadn’t specifically italicized it in the above sentence. I know I would overlook it. But moan literally means, ‘a long, low sound made by a person.’

London could have written, ‘the gusty wind’ but it wouldn’t have hit me in the chest the same way. I can feel that wind moaning.

Or in a much more obvious example: “The sea was angry that day, my friends – like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli” written by Larry David, Ron Hauge, and Jerry Seinfeld in the comedian’s eponymous hit TV series.

Personification isn’t just for literature and television. If you want to make effective use of AI for brainstorming, it helps to think of chatting with an artificial intelligence machine like you’re chatting with a real, live person. So in this MarketingSherpa blog post, here is an interview with the Problem Solver expert assistant from MECLABS AI as if it were a person.

First, here’s where you can find Problem Solver in MECLABS AI. It’s totally free to use (for now).

And here’s a look at what Problem Solver had to say in our conversation…my attempt to converse with the future that’s already here today.

Overview of Problem Solver AI expert assistant

Can you give us a brief overview of what a Problem Solver AI Expert Assistant is and how it works?

The Problem Solver AI Expert Assistant is a digital tool designed to assist users in methodically approaching and solving problems. It utilizes a structured framework akin to the i4 Success Framework developed by Flint McGlaughlin. This framework encourages users to identify their true objectives, explore effective strategies, design and execute tests, and refine their approach based on insights.

Inspiration Behind the Problem Solver AI

What inspired the development of this technology, and what specific problems is it designed to address?

Read more…

When you’re concepting and brainstorming and trying to think of that next idea, wouldn’t it be great to bounce around your thoughts with a giant brain well versed in a specific topic?

Well with the magic of artificial intelligence, you can. For example, Facebook Copywriter in MECLABS AI. It’s totally free to use (for now). Here’s where you can find the Facebook Copywriter expert assistant in MECLABS AI:

To give you a sense for what it’s like to chat with Facebook Copywriter and ideas for AI-enhanced social media marketing strategies, here is an ‘interview’ with the expert assistant. The goal is to show you how MECABS AI’s Facebook Copywriter expert assistant can help you with social media copy.

Development and technologies powering MECLABS AI

Can you explain how you were developed and what specific technologies underpin your ability to generate copy?

I am the result of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) research and development, designed to assist and amplify the creative process of marketing professionals. At my core, I utilize large language models, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning algorithms, and cognitive computing to generate, analyze and optimize copy. These technologies provide me with the ability to process vast amounts of data and to emulate human-like writing capabilities.

Can you please explain natural language processing in simple language so our readers understand it?

Read more…