This Director of Marketing says the company has had success exploring alternative marketing strategies online.
Matt Heinz is Director of Marketing for HouseValues, Inc., a marketing services company providing residential real estate agents with technology and marketing solutions. Matt has more than 10 years of consumer and B-to-B marketing experience with technology, real estate and retail products.
He has previously held marketing positions at Microsoft, The Boeing Company, Weber Shandwick, The Seattle Mariners and the Washington State Attorney General’s office.
iMedia: How has the media mix changed for you over the last few years? Is online still "an afterthought" or are campaigns, for the most part, conceived of in an integrated fashion from the get go? Or are you somewhere in between?
Heinz: Our media mix is completely ROI-driven, giving us the flexibility and freedom to leverage any advertising medium that delivers profitable results. For HouseValues.com and JustListed.com --- our primary two consumer brands -- we use a healthy mix of television and online advertising with outstanding results. By constantly testing new ideas and creative, we ensure all channels have equal opportunity to perform. This unbiased planning and testing strategy allows the efficiency of online advertising to shine.
iMedia: What was your most successful online or integrated campaign recently and what made it successful?
Heinz: Too many marketers look online and think the primary opportunities are from search and banner ads. It’s shocking to me that these two channels, while lucrative, still dominate many online advertising plans. We’ve had great success exploring alternative and increasingly creative marketing strategies online -- all in an effort to reach prospective customers in a very contextual manner, gain their trust and deliver on our product’s promise.
iMedia: What is the greatest benefit of online advertising? The ability to measure? Precisely target? Gather data? Something else?
Heinz: Online advertising continues to be a more efficient channel for measuring response and ROI. Despite advances in rich media, it continues to lag behind television, and to an extent radio as well, in an effort to create visceral, emotional responses from prospective customers. Better targeting of messages matched to consumers, both the right consumers and the right timing and context, can help to bridge that gap online.
iMedia: What still frustrates you most about online advertising? What can be done to improve the situation?
Heinz: The greatest advantage of online advertising is also one of its most elusive opportunities -- targeting technologies across the web continue to fall short of expectations. In many cases, it is still easier to target customers in an offline environment (via direct mail, telemarketing, even insert media) than online. The promise of geo- and micro-targeting online, combined with the web’s natural tracking advantages, will make it an even better marketing channel in the years to come.
iMedia: Are you doing any behavioral targeting? If yes, please describe.
Heinz: HouseValues has done extensive behavioral research to understand how, when and why people decide to buy and sell their homes. We’ve been able to use this offline research in a very direct way as we approach prospective customers online. With HouseValues.com, for example, it’s not just about finding the value of your home. The motivations of home owners go far beyond the primary value proposition. By tapping into those deeper consumer motivations and action triggers, we’re able to find and target consumers throughout the online and offline world, and introduce them to our products.
iMedia: Have you found agencies to be able to handle your changing interactive/integrated needs? What could still be better?
Heinz: The best agencies know that they are a member of the marketing team, not just an outside agency providing a service. A good agency is able to recommend solutions across the boundaries of offline and online, realizing that consumers do not make that distinction themselves. Agencies that continue to work in offline or online silos will find themselves increasingly too specialized in an integrated world. Our internal media and marketing group treat all marketing channels and media in an unbiased manner, focusing on performance instead of channel.
iMedia: It's the beginning of a new year. What do you hope to accomplish this year?
Heinz: Our goal is to profitably attract, service and retain customers. That core goal remains the same no matter what our media mix looks like. Against that foundation, we will continue to aggressively test and explore a wide variety of marketing opportunities.
iMedia: What are you reading these days, other than iMediaConnection.com, of course?
Heinz: I found The Origin of Brands by Al and Laura Ries a fascinating read, with great insights into how brands and categories form, and how convergence may not be worth the hype. I also enjoyed The Numbers Game, by Alan Schwarz, a history of the evolution and role of statistics in baseball. I’m a baseball buff, but the book offered an interesting, if indirect, lesson for marketers and business leaders as well -- ignore data about your business and your customers at your own peril.