Making Your Marketing Campaigns Work, With Lynn Hall

Calix Marketing Giant Award winner Lynn Hall shares her utility's Go to Market campaign strategy, with tips to prepare staff for action when marketing is successful.

What is The StoryConnect Podcast?

StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape their
stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns:
What does it take to make your marketing campaigns work?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of
StoryConnect: The Podcast.

My name is Andy Johns, your host with Pioneer, and I'm joined on
this episode by Lynn Hall, who is the chief marketing officer at

Highline. Lynn, thanks so much for joining me.

Lynn Hall:
You're welcome. Thank you.

Andy Johns:
First off, congratulations.

So we're here at the Calix ConneXions Conference in Las Vegas.

And Lynn's group with Highline was named today as Calix's
Marketing Giant Award winner.

So that's awesome. Good for y'all.

Lynn Hall:
Thank you. That is just a great honor.

It really is. A lot of hard work went into that and a lot of
teamwork.

And so, it was just very fulfilling.

Andy Johns:
Perfect. So Lynn is doing a session, in addition to picking up
awards, Lynn is doing a session here at this conference called

"Executing Campaigns That Win." And I think everybody listening
to this podcast is a fan of campaigns that win.

So go ahead and talk to us about some of the examples that
you'll be using in your session.

And what are some campaigns that you guys have done recently?

Lynn Hall:
Okay, I'd love to.

Thank you. So, you know, one of the things that we look for is
how do we make sure that our

message is getting to the right prospect and that they're
actually

moved to make an action.

And so I just have seen a lot of our digital campaigns falling a
bit short.

And I think it's because there is so much digital messaging
going on right now that, you know, people get

overwhelmed with it.

And so they don't necessarily open every email that we send out
or open and respond to a text or even

a Facebook ad.

So we thought we would try something a little different.

And we went to one of our print vendors, and we started talking
about die cut

mailers.

Andy Johns:
Okay.

Lynn Hall:
And so, you know, that's something that I haven't actually seen
in a while.

And we had one designed that looks like a house.

And so when you get the – you actually get a postcard in the
mail, and it looks like a house, and you

can open it up.

And what we use that for was to actually show whole home Wi-Fi
in the house.

Andy Johns:
Okay.

Lynn Hall:
And so, you know, we got to actually make it look like it was a
cozy home, but

you could see Wi-Fi radiating, you know, throughout the home.

And then you had room to put all of your bullets that you wanted
to communicate and what call to action.

So it was a great response.

We were entering a new market.

And so, you know, it's so hard in a new market.

You're trying to get your name out there as well as gain new
subscribers.

So it was just a really good way to kind of enter that market
with something different.

Andy Johns:
Yeah.

Lynn Hall:
And you know, our customer service team was very involved.

Like we made sure that we gave all of them copies so that they
had it at their desk.

Andy Johns:
Oh, that's so important.

Lynn Hall:
You know, and so they had a tangible.

They knew exactly what the customer was receiving, and they knew
the call to action on it.

So there was no question.

They didn't have to go look up something.

And so they were very prepared to answer questions from any of
the new prospects coming in.

And so it's just very successful.

And our other markets, you know, started asking for it.

They wanted the whole home mailer.

Andy Johns:
Of course, they did. Yeah. If something works, everybody's going
to want to get in on it.

Well, and you mentioned your other markets, and I guess I got
excited and jumped in.

But go ahead and tell us just a little bit, kind of a quick
overview, of Highline – where you guys are and, you know, what

you guys are doing. Because I think I just jumped in and got
excited about the campaign.

Lynn Hall:
Yes. So we're actually in six different states.

We're in Georgia, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and
Michigan.

And so we have a combination of customers that were legacy
customers and were from

ILEC territories.

And then we have a lot of new build, you know, in the new areas
of Michigan.

We've got a new build going on in Georgia, one in Colorado and
one in Kansas and Nebraska.

So a lot of construction going on in the new growth areas.

And so, you know, it keeps us really busy because we're trying
to, like so many marketers, take care of your legacy

customers at the same time that you're trying to gain new
subscribers.

Andy Johns:
Sure, you've got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same
time, for sure.

Well, going back to the campaign, thank you for the overview
there.

But going back to the campaign, you touched on so many different
pieces there.

You know, keeping the staff engaged and aware is super
important.

Let's talk about the whole print and digital thing, because
obviously, to an extent, you've got to be everywhere.

But we've heard a lot of folks say in the last couple of years
and, you know, full disclosure, Pioneer does both digital work

and print work, that, you know, it used to be 1996, 1997 when
you got an email, it was a big deal.

But you would get a big stack of mail every day.

And it's kind of flipped the other way now.

Lynn Hall:
It really has.

Andy Johns:
I mean, every time I open my email, all the marketing messages
are out there.

But to actually get something eye-catching in the mail as a
print piece is different.

And I've even heard folks saying, you know, particularly the
younger generations like the Gen Z, those folks to get something

in the mail is a bigger deal.

Maybe because they're, like you said, just bombarded all the
time by digital.

Lynn Hall:
Right. And, you know, and I think it's not that you can just do
one thing.

I mean, you've still got to do every avenue.

You've got to have your social media going at the same time.

But, you know, one of the things that we did, too was we took
that same the actual picture of the house, and we

used that also in our social media.

So, you know, you were doing the social media campaigns, but you
were also tying it in to the look and feel.

And, you know, and so I did wonder, but we couldn't measure that,
you know, how much of the bleed over

really happened because we were doing both and tying the two
together.

You know, it'd be something I'd love to know.

Andy Johns:
Right. But it's something that if they see it, then they'll
they'll recognize it.

And it kind of helps with that branding piece of it.

When you've done other campaigns, what kind of channels – is
that kind of the main focus that you do?

You'll have a print piece, and then kind of supplement it or
reinforce it with social?

Or what are some of the other channels that you've used.

Lynn Hall:
Yeah, but sometimes we'll do something completely different so
that you won't have the same look and feel.

But you know, we do a lot of contests as well.

Enter to wins.

Andy Johns:
Right.

Lynn Hall:
Because, you know, you can just gather so many new prospects that
way.

And so we have certainly done that, and it's been effective.

And, you know, you can do campaigns like that.

You don't have to have a huge prize, have a prize that people
want.

But, you know, something easy that they can associate with.

You know, Blink and Ring doorbells are such – they are loved by
everybody out there.

Andy Johns:
That's true.

Lynn Hall:
And so you really can do an enter to win for that and get an
amazing number of prospects.

You know, and get their information so that you can start
marketing to them directly.

And we love to do those.

Andy Johns:
Absolutely. Now, the thing that I always say around the office,
when we're working on a campaign, either for Pioneer or for

somebody else, is what if it works?

You know, like, let's plan for that piece with a call to action.

And then, like you said, preparing the staff.

So what are some of the things that you do when you've got a
campaign, you know, when you're working on one, whether it's the

one with the die cut that you mentioned or something else.

What are some of the kind of infrastructure that you put in on
the marketing and sales side for when it does work, when you do

win so that you're ready to to capitalize when it happens?

Lynn Hall:
Yeah. Because you do love to have the full staff ready to go.

You know, and so we don't just train our customer service.

We try to train all of our field technicians as well so that
they know what's coming, and they're

prepared. Because we'll have a spike in installations, and we
want them to be prepared for that, you know.

And so we do make sure that we send out, we call them marketing
flashes.

But they are a notice of what is going on this week.

Andy Johns:
Okay.

Lynn Hall:
And so it's very specific.

But we send it to every employee.

And that way everyone knows what's going on this week from a
marketing perspective

anyway. And it does prepare everyone as well that, you know, if
it is very successful,

we're going to have a huge bump in installations that we need to
prepare for.

So that's been extremely helpful.

And we also house those on our SharePoint.

So you can always, you don't have to just go back to an email to
look at.

You can go back and search for the campaign by a keyword.

And that really helps, I think, keep people in the know, and
they have a resource that they can always

go back to.

Andy Johns:
Yeah, I think that makes sense.

So when you're first talking about sending it out to everybody
that goes out over email, but then it's also in SharePoint where

they can go back to it.

Lynn Hall:
Yes. Exactly.

Andy Johns:
Got it. A couple of other things.

Let's talk about segments, especially with you guys being in
different markets like that.

When you're looking at a campaign like this, when you're talking
about with the die cut, how do you go about deciding who gets it?

For this one in particular, who are you after and what kind of
factors did you use to kind of carve up those segments?

Lynn Hall:
Right. Well, and it does depend upon, you know, exactly which
campaign we're doing.

In that case, you know, it was new subscribers, so we already
had the address database of all the

new homes that were going to be available.

And so we took that database and dissected it into segments so
that we weren't

sending all the mail at one time, because then we would drive,
you know, a lot of calls into the call center.

Andy Johns:
Sure.

Lynn Hall:
And so we just kind of stagger it.

Andy Johns:
Pace yourself basically.

Lynn Hall:
Yes. And pace ourselves so that, you know, we are more in control
of the number of calls that come in, because

I never want to miss a lead.

If a customer is going to make the call, I want that call to be
answered.

A lot of our people also go to our website, and so they sign up.

We do have a shopping cart that's easy for them to sign up.

Andy Johns:
Sure.

Lynn Hall:
And so that works as well.

And we will drive people to that, as well as to call.

So we have both available.

Andy Johns:
That gets into that "what if it works?" To make it easy for them
to click right through and make it happen.

Lynn Hall:
Yes, yes, yes.

Because you know, then you're just, you're building a pipeline
of customers.

And that's the ultimate to be able to go back and schedule.

But that's kind of how we, you know, do it on a new territory
where you've got new homes.

And then if we're going back into the legacy base, we'll use
Marketing Cloud – now,

Experience Cloud.

Andy Johns:
Which is the Calix product, if you aren't familiar.

Lynn Hall:
Yes, thank you.

Because it's very easy to pull our subscribers out of that and
look at exactly what services they

have today and what they don't have today.

And to do an easy mail campaign that's focused on exactly what
that existing customer needs.

And so that's very helpful to us because it really saves a lot
of time.

Andy Johns:
Sure. When you're talking about a marketing campaign, the two
things you always got to look at the top, as you know, are, you

know, are you going to expand it and try to find more customers,
or are you going to try to get in deeper and do more work with

the people that are already your customers?

It sounds like you guys have had good success.

Would you say most of the campaigns you're working on are with
existing customers to add additional services?

Lynn Hall:
I would really say most are for new because we have very
aggressive subscriber numbers.

And so just trying to make sure that we hit those first.

But never forgetting the base because we want to make sure we're
taking good care of our existing customer base.

Andy Johns:
So how does a campaign differ then?

If you're looking at the two campaigns, the one we've talked
about with the die cut and all that is existing customers

primarily. But if you're, how do you – I mean, going back to the
very beginning, I guess the way you talk to them, if they're not

familiar with you, how does a campaign change?

If it is an acquisition campaign going for new folks rather than
one maybe focused on improving ARPPU or something?

Lynn Hall:
Right. So if it is new, then you're trying to, you know, educate
people on who you

are at the same time that you're trying to compel them to take
action on the product that you have.

And so I feel like it is very different.

And, you know, we we try to stagger those because stagger them,
meaning not only within the

marketing group, but also with the customer service group as
well.

We try to stagger those.

And so we'll do a week of acquisition, and then we'll do a week
of upgrades, you know.

And so it just that kind of balances us.

And so it just you know that works for us.

And so you go with what works for you with the resources that
you have.

You know.

Andy Johns:
Sure, it's going to be a little bit different for everybody.

Lynn Hall:
It is. For sure, yeah.

Andy Johns:
Well, let's talk last thing before we wrap up here, but let's
talk a little bit about results.

So if you're looking at a campaign like the one that you sent,
you know, I know that die cuts aren't cheap.

You know, it's a little pricier.

How do you go about evaluating the success?

You know the digital, a lot of them have the analytics in there.

Print is always, you know, historically, you know, tougher to
figure out.

But there's some, you know, some ways to do it.

So what are some of the ways that you guys look at a campaign,
and do you kind of regularly schedule that that postmortem?

Let's look at it and see what went wrong, what went right.

How do you guys a) anything like that built in, and then b) what
are the metrics or the success that you look for to determine

whether or not a campaign worked?

Lynn Hall:
Great. So, you know, there are some great numbers that we can
pull in

both on the number of calls that come into the call center and
how many actual

responses we have through the website.

And tallying both of those together to see our success, you know
.

And I plan on having some campaigns cost more than others when I
budget

for the year to make sure that we can do some things that are
different when we need to, you know?

And so I try to always have that in my back pocket as to when to
use that.

But there may be times where the results that we see are more
for

gaining the customer's information than it was for actually
getting the sale.

So and we count those as positive results as well, because then
I can go back and

continue to market to that customer with the information they
gave us and reach maybe deeper

results as a, you know, as a part of just continuing to go after
that customer to bring them

in. But, you know, we look at the number of, certainly at the
number of impressions that we're making on the website, as

well as the clickthroughs and the number of customers that
actually give us their contact information.

And we will categorize that into good, better, best categories
to say,

okay, this campaign, you know, really was good because we got
all of these responses back,

and we got y number of sales.

Because you still always want to get the number of sales as well.

But, you know, I'm not as, like I do consider success to also be
that they gave us

their information so that we can go back to them again.

So that can certainly score high on a campaign as well.

Andy Johns:
Well, while we're talking about that, do you have a number or
guidelines?

I mean, you see them if you Google just kind of the amount that
you should be willing to spend to acquire a customer based on the

lifetime value and all that.

Have you found, and it's going to be a little bit different on
everything, I guess, but have you found a guideline or anything

like that to share with folks?

Is how much to spend to go try to get new folks?

Lynn Hall:
Not really, because I look at it more from a penetration
standpoint is more important to me.

I need to justify every new cabinet that I turn up.

I really need to, by year five, be at 60% penetration.

So I gauge more on the results of how many people I actually can
bring

in and sell and become a customer and have the lifetime value of
that customer, because once they come in the

door, our churn is just very, very low.

So it makes a lot of sense to – you may have to pay a little
more to get the customer, but it will pay in the

long run and that customer will be with you.

So I want to hit those penetration numbers.

Andy Johns:
Yeah, we'll have to save that discussion on fighting churn for
another podcast on another day.

Last question I had for you just to wrap up here.

What advice do you have for somebody, whether they've done one
campaign or whether they've done 100 campaigns, if they're

sitting here looking at, all right, we're about to start this.

We have this objective.

We're going to launch a campaign to do it.

What advice do you have for somebody like that?

Lynn Hall:
You know, I think that it's so important to not lose your
creativity.

And I think us as marketers, many times we do the same thing
over and over again.

And that's, you know, losing some of your creativity.

So I would rather get in a room and do a brainstorming session
and come up with some new, unique

ideas that may at first seem crazy, but as you talk through them
and work through them, you'll find some pieces that really

work. And I would encourage everyone to keep that creative edge
going so that we're not just

doing the same old thing over and over again.

Andy Johns:
I like it those brainstorms.

It's a fun part of the job too, most of the time.

Lynn Hall:
I love that.

Andy Johns:
So good stuff. Well, thank you so much, Lynn.

I appreciate you joining me.

Lynn Hall:
Okay. Thank you.

I enjoyed it.

Andy Johns:
She is Lynn Hall. She's the chief marketing officer for Highline.

I'm your host, Andy Johns with Pioneer.

And until we talk again, keep telling your story.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources, a
communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.