During dmaDetroit's 15th Annual AIMS event, Ira Dolin, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Email Services @ Aspen Marketing Services presented on: "What is Relevancy?" This is his presentation.

1. What Is Relevancy?
Written and Presented by: Ira Dolin

2. Ira Dolin is the Vice President of Digital Strategy and Email Practice for Aspen Marketing
Services, the largest privately held marketing services agency in the U.S., leading the strategy
and development of Aspen’s email marketing.
Responsible for driving business performance and cultivating long-term relationships with
consumers across a variety of brands, Mr. Dolin is accountable for acquiring more than
40MM email addresses and permissions. He leads Aspen in all digital and email channel
strategy, as well as and the development and architecture of solutions that leverage a variety
of ESP platforms. One of his more recent initiatives was the production of an ongoing product
development roadmap for an enterprise-wide Web-to-email platform, allowing auto dealers,
franchisees and agents to create HTML emails, manage and segment mailing lists and track
email campaigns in four easy steps.
Mr. Dolin’s 18 years of experience encompasses a wide range of industries such as
automotive, financial services, CPG, QSR, retail and travel industries. Prior to joining Aspen,
Mr. Dolin served as Director, Internet Marketing for The Marketing Store, where he led online
marketing efforts for brands such as McDonald’s, Miller, Coca-Cola, PetSmart and Dyson.
Ira earned a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from Drake University.
who am i?

3. What is Relevancy?
In these times, it doesn’t take much to delete a
message, toss it in the garbage, unsubscribe, etc...
Triage is happening from multiple places, 24x7. As a
marketer, you have a few moments before the reader
decides where your message will go and if they’ll
ever want to hear from you/your brand again. Is it
relevant? In this session, we will walk through a
myriad of obstacles you face every day trying to be a
relevant marketer. The topics will help uncover how
you can obtain higher performance metrics that
generate results. And most importantly…it will
answer the question.

4. When you read an email, you try to
justify why you should delete it.
Optimization doesn’t happen on the
page, it happens in the mind.
Source: Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Crafting an Effective Email Message

5. 6. You’re bragging about your products. It’s disgusting. Just stop.
7. Your marketing “voice” is different from your real “voice”?
8. My trust is not for sale. You need to earn it.
9. You don’t understand me as a customer nor provide me timely
content.
10. I don’t trust you. Your copy is arrogant, your motives seem
selfish, and your claims sound inflated.

6. 1. You’re solving your problem, not mine.
2. You don’t communicate with me. You talk at me.
3. You don’t know more than my first name, so it seems.
4. You say “sell,” and I hear “hype.” Don’t sell. Be clear.
5. It’s just too much already.

7. Image Source Page: http://www.redbubble.com/people/detour/art/5521770-1-magic-8-ball

8. time
Image Source Page: http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/2010/03/matching-social-media-to-your-needs-and.html

9. channels

10. data
Image Source Page: http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-10-01/business/17184413_1_online -content-journalism-google

11. emotion
Image Source Page: http://sheltonshinji.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/4 -advertisements-for-evian/

12. Relevance Factors
Internal Factors External Factors
• Personal interests • Seasonality
• Demographics • Special discounts
• Shopping habits • Limited-time offers
• Personality • News events
• Communication styles • Competitive initiatives
• Level of engagement
Source: Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Crafting an Effective Email Message

15. Value
value Image Source Page: http://www.tehrantimes.com/News/10857/11_VALUE.jpg

16. Value Proposition
vs
Mission Statement

17. value differentiation
Image Source Page http://thefuturebuzz.com/pics/differentiation-point.png

18. usability
Image Source Page: http://humorpix.com

19. Image Source Page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahandmikeprobably/with/4266668689/
functionality

20. presentation
Image Source Page: http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1164670604031444212lqcAAC

21. Creative
Image Source Page: http://www.customerexperiencelabs.com/wp-content/uploads/eyetracking.jpg

22. Trust comes from meeting and beating customer expectations.
trust

23. set your stage

24. frequencies
Image Source Page: http://www.davidjarvis.ca/dave/gallery/

25. workflows
Image Source Page: http://www.mindfieldsolutions.net/images/achievegoals.jpg

26. Contact Strategies
integrations
Image Source Page: http://blogs.webtrends.com/img/Orange%20Apple.jpg

27. Ira Dolin
V.P. Digital Strategy and Email Practice
Aspen Marketing Services
630-930-7250
idolin@aspenms.com
contact