digital marketing: what direct selling companies can learn from top tech

Digital Marketing Imperatives:Lessons Learned from Top Tech

Julie CabinawVP, Marketing Technology and Innovation

Scentsy, Inc.Twitter: @JulieCabinawjcabinaw@scentsy.com

Session Topics

• Improve relationships through data• Measure, improve. Rinse, repeat.• Reducing friction for reps and customers• Live Test!

Improve Relationships through Data

• Creating a segment of “one”• Data should drive decisions

A Tale of Two Consultants

New Rep at Company A• Good experience as a customer.• Explores opportunity with her rep• Signs up online• Gets a welcome call from a

company concierge • Gets amazing sales kit• Gets good but generic content for

things to try as a new consultant

New Rep at Company B• Good experience as a customer.• Explores opportunity with her rep• Signs up online• Gets a welcome call from a company

concierge who asks her some questions about where she feels confident and where she does not in starting her new business.

• Gets amazing sales kit with personalized quick start kit geared to her responses

• Gets personalized interactive content geared to capitalizing on her strengths right away to gain confidence, to which her upline has added some personal notes

A Tale of Two Consultants

New Rep at Company A• Good experience as a customer.• Explores opportunity with her rep• Signs up online• May or may not get good

coaching from upline• Gets amazing sales kit• Gets new rep guide• Gets generic content for things to

try as a new consultant

New Rep at Company B• Good experience as a customer.• Explores opportunity with her rep• Signs up, answers questions in signup

about where she feels confident and where she does not in starting her new business.

• May or may not get good coaching from upline

• Gets amazing sales kit with personalized quick start kit geared to her responses

• Gets personalized interactive content geared to capitalizing on her strengths right away to gain confidence

Who might have a better start with the company?

A Tale of Two Consultants

New Rep at Company BWhat do we know about her?• Sign up Date• Personal Data – Name, Address• Upline Sponsor• We know her history as a customer• We understand preferences and

behaviors through Facebook auth• We understand notes her upline

collected in her lead profile score• We know the results of her

confidence quiz

Profile Data

E-Commerce Data

Social Media Data

Call DataCRM Data

Using data to drive decisions• Using data doesn’t mean becoming slow• Partnership between business, IT and finance• Build your strawman first –focus on lead

measures first• Track all the things! NOT. • Create a data curious culture

Perspectives from Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella

Improve Relationships through Data

• Discussion Questions:– Are your data strategies today supporting your digital future?– Could you reach a segment of one?– Do you have strong lead measures in place (as well as lag)?– Do you build programs that assume personalization and ask the

solution to follow?– Are you making data accessible to all employees? Are you asking for it

in business reviews, even with junior team members?

Measure, Improve. Rinse, Repeat.

• Sometimes, your opinion doesn’t matter• Your reps may not be a good proxy for

customers, or even newer reps• Don’t change strategy based on a focus group• Behavior, not stated preferences, is king• Minimize risk through multivariate testing• Make small mistakes often and fix quickly

Data!

Case Study: Amazon A/B Testing

Tools To Consider

• Wireframing Tools• Virtual User Testing Tools• A/B Testing Tools• Card Sorting Tools• Navigation Testing Tools• Survey Tools (in context)

Measure, Improve. Rinse, Repeat.• Discussion Questions:

– Are you fearlessly looking at customer and rep behavior with curiosity?– Have you moved away from big bang redesigns or launches?– Are you letting experiments end arguments?– What tools are you using to help you measure behavior?– Are you measuring for decision areas, not just ‘everything’?

Reducing Friction: What is your virtuous cycle?

Amazon Flywheel, Jeff Bezos Napkin Sketch

Common Sources of Friction

• Business Rules• E-Commerce Hurdles• Mobile Readiness• Social Shopping & Customer Service

Rule of Thumb: Doing what’s right for customers will in turn support your representatives.• Review your compliance rules supporting digital

social selling• Consider friction between consultant and

customer objectives

Business Rules

Rule of Thumb – Be curious and egoless in eliminating inefficiencies in your e-commerce sites.• Latency --“Those extra 900 ms just cost me 2

million dollars.”• Optimize the funnel between your brand and

replicated websites• Understand millennial expectations

E-Commerce

Rule of Thumb: Assume that your sites must work for all devices, but design for size and task.• Fully retool for mobile• Think Small/Medium/Large, not iPhone or

Android. • We currently see >50% of our traffic from

mobile devices

Mobile

Social Shopping and Customer Service

Rule of Thumb: Meet customers and reps where they live digitally.• Respond to social conversations within 24

hours of posts• Analyze sentiment: capitalize on positive,

reduce impact of negative• Brainstorm new methods of social selling

through social platforms or around them

Reducing Friction• Discussion Questions:

– Do you know what your virtuous cycle is?– Are there any internal barriers in your company to reducing friction?– What barriers discussed, business rules, ecommerce, mobile, social resonate most

for you?

Summary• Visit a summary post on this topic on LinkedIn

with links to resources, references and these slides

• Challenge yourself to look at one discussion question more closely next week – tweet @juliecabinaw to tell me what challenge you plan to take on

• Take a “peek” at one of your websites in the next week!