A People-First Approach to Technology

By Mark Morin
2021-04-27
Relationship marketing

One of our most recent projets involved the rebranding of a US-based Managed IT Services Provider, Tollanis Solutions. What struck us immediately, was the CEO Steven Smiths point of view. A veteran career CIO with years of experience with Fortune 500 brands, Steve stood apart from other tech entrepreneurs because of his empathy and passion for people.

The Synergist Framework™

This people-first approach translated into a new vision of Agile development, which we branded as the Synergist Framework™. A new brand signature was also developed to embody the Framework. Empowering Change through process and people elegantly emphasizes the impact of their work and their unique vision of IT development.

Tollanis.com – the website revamp

The new website, tollanis.com, embodies this people first approach with a combination of imagery and iconography. SEO friendly content is continually developed to attract and retain traffic on the site.

Tollanis.com

Sales enablement tools

Email outreach, presentation decks, product profiles and more are an integral part of the assets developed to support de sales teams efforts to grow the business.

STRATEGIES ranked as a Leading Global B2B Company

By Mark Morin
2020-12-07
Relationship marketing

At STRATEGIES, we bring brands and people together. Our clients, leading national and international brands, rely on our services to build stronger customer relationships through CRM, email marketing and marketing automation. So when they tell us we’re doing a great job, we’re thrilled. But when they take the time to tell the world how much they appreciate our hard work and dedication, well we’re simply over the moon! So imagine our delight when our five star customer reviews lead to something even bigger!

Every year, Clutch releases their Leader Awards. We are thrilled to announce that Clutch has named STRATEGIES a global B2B leader in the advertising and marketing category. Our team is among the best on Clutch, ranking 2nd of all email marketing agencies in the world!

We are also the only email agency classified as a Market Leader in Canada according to Clutch! Located in the center of Washington, DC, Clutch is a B2B market research firm. Their independent team interviews the past customers of B2B service providers listed on their site.

These verified reviews ensure that all of Clutch’s rankings and awards are fair and transparent.

“We are particularly thrilled with this award since it is strongly based on client satisfaction. It’s the culmination of 31 years of dedication and hard work. Of course, this award would not be possible without the trust of our amazing clients who allow us to do deploy innovative and sometimes daring programs that deliver huge impact and build stronger customer relationships.” – Mark Morin,

Clutch also has a sister site, the Manifest! The Manifest is a B2B resource and how-to site that features company shortlists according to location and service line. STRATEGIES is a leading email marketing agency on the Manifest!

We are thankful for each and every one of our wonderful clients, especially those who took the time to leave us a review on Clutch! Hear what they had to say about working with us.

“They’re friendly, competent, and transparent. If something isn’t working, they tell us about it, and they want to see us succeed. STRATEGIES works with us as though we are part of the same company. The team is also very involved in our business growth.”
– Digital Marketing Manager,
Insurance Company

This award and our perfect 5-star rating on Clutch are all thanks to you, our wonderful customers!

To learn more about us and our past work, check out our profile on Clutch. Ready to start your
next project? Contact us.

Email benchmarking tool – are you an email superhero?

By Mark Morin
2019-08-27
Email marketing,Relationship marketing

Why you should give our email benchmarking tool a try?

You don’t realize how great you really are unless you compare with what others are doing. It’s time to come out of the shadows and claim your share of the recognition you deserve. It’s time to measure how well you’re doing. To figure out how to take your email program to the next level. How does your program measure up? What parts are great, and what parts are simply Meh? Beyond opens and clicks, what do you need to look at to measure your email program performance? That’s precisely why we created this simple, and we hope fun, email benchmarking tool. Use it to evaluate your email superpowers and set yourself on the path to glory.

Five strategies for a healthy marketing database

By Mark Morin
2019-07-31
Email marketing,Relationship marketing

If you want a healthy marketing database, don’t be shy

A healthy marketing database requires constant upkeep, or it will degrade fast. The causes of this degradation are many: Customers become inactive. Implied consents expire. People unsubscribe. As a result, your relationship marketing program falters, no longer delivering the sales growth needed to ensure the continued prosperity of the company.

Marketing ROI – How to accurately evaluate campaign performance

By Mark Morin
2019-07-30
Relationship marketing,Strategy

Accountability and marketing ROI go hand in hand

Marketing ROI is becoming the number one metric for evaluating campaign success. And for good reason: Marketing spend is increasingly under pressure for greater accountability.

For this reason, campaign profitability analysis is essential. So is the need for optimization. ROI is often equated with profitability and traditionally stands for “Return on Investment”.

A/B Testing – How to implement a winning strategy

By Mark Morin
2019-07-30
Email marketing,Relationship marketing,Strategy

Yes, we can learn to love statistics and A/B testing

I am a big fan of optimization and A/B testing. But that was not always the case. When I was studying for my MBA at HEC in the 1980s, the most challenging courses I enrolled in was Statistics and Probabilities. This course, loaded with obscure equations, was meaningless gibberish to me. And I couldn’t see how it could be useful in real life except maybe for surveys.

The fundamentals of marketing automation effectiveness

By Mark Morin
2019-07-26
Marketing automation,Relationship marketing

Customer-centricity is the key

Why should we learn to master marketing automation fundamentals when we have so many other priorities? The answer is simple: in recent years, marketers have embarked on an epic quest for customer-centricity and one-on-one customer relationships. This quest has led to the development of large-scale marketing automation platforms.

These martech tools make it possible to trigger on-going campaigns according to the customers’ behavior. They also help marketers better understand where customers fall in their brand adoption journey.

B2Me Marketing: What’s it all about

By Mark Morin
2019-07-25
CRM,Relationship marketing

B2Me Marketing – helping people make better choices and get more enjoyment from whatever they buy.

As consumers, we are constantly faced with the challenges of too many choices and too much information broadcast across a cluttered and fragmented media landscape. Any attempt to guide people through their customer journey is totally useless if we can’t deliver the right message at the right time.

This short video explains how personalization can play en important role by increasing the relevance of your marketing messages. Personalization helps your customers make the informed choices that are best for them. In doing so, they will get more enjoyment out of everything they buy from you.

Flèche d’or 2019 award nominees – our three campaigns

By Mark Morin
2019-05-18
Email marketing,Marketing automation,Omni-channel marketing,Relationship marketing

Each year, the Quebec Marketing Association (formerly the AMR) holds a competition to select the top marketing campaigns created by prominent brands and their agencies. Year after year, Strategies does quite well in the standings. Last year, we were awarded Best omnichannel marketing campaign. The year before, we were honoured as the Agency of the year.

This year, we have three campaigns nominated for an award (out of three submissions) for three of our clients. Check out the videos below to learn more about the nominees.

OSM – 2019-20 SEASON LAUNCH

In order to highlight Kent Nagano’s last season as artistic director, the OSM commissioned Strategies to design an email campaign to launch programming for the upcoming season and begin the season ticket renewal process.

This campaign was highly personalized according to the various client segments. It integrates many interactive content elements, including musical excerpts from featured concerts from the upcoming season that can be listened to directly in the email. The engagement rates for this campaign are truly exceptional, which probably explains part of the nomination of the campaign.

RENAULT CANADA / EUROP AUTO – DISCOVER AUTHENTIC EUROPE

Renault Canada and Europ Auto turned to Strategies to help it better convey the value of “short-term lease” car rental format and in the process help to boost sales. Our agency redesigned the brand experience and implemented a relationship marketing strategy centered on the freedom and rich travel experiences that a only a car can provide.

The “Discover Authentic Europe”, program showcases destinations that are off the beaten path throughout Europe. Including a welcome series, a renewed e-mail template, destination campaigns and conversational programs geared towards the joys of traveling, this program resulted in higher engagement, increased website traffic and a significant sales increase for Europ Auto.

LEVENSWATER SPRING – INFLUENCE CAMPAIGN

Levenswater produces a range of small batch craft gins in the Niagara Valley, including Levenswater Spring 34. This unique gin recently won the Best Compound Gin Award at the World Gin Awards. When it secured its first order from the SAQ, Levenswater needed to create awareness for its product in Quebec and quickly sell out inventories in order to stimulate a new order from the corporation. Levenswater turned to Strategies to set up an Influencer Marketing program to reach out to the mixologist community and gin-lovers in Quebec.

Working closely with a group of influencers, online publications and mixologists, we deployed an outreach strategy that generated over 600,000 earned impressions over an eight-week period. Tasting events were held in Montreal’s Frank & Oak stores and recipes were developed and distributed in partnership with several popular bars including the Alt+ hotel’s Les Cousins bar.

THANK YOU TO THE JURY FOR THIS RECOGNITION

These nominations in such a prestigious awards competition is already a great victory for us. We sincerely thank the Jury of the Flèche d’or competition, under the chairmanship of Mélanie Roth, Senior Director, Strategy and Marketing Execution, National Bank for having recognized the quality of our work. Will we be the winners of one or more awards? This is what we will soon find out at the 2019 Awards Gala on June 11, 2019 at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit the Association Marketing Québec website.

What is the Customer Journey? And What it Means for Your Brand?

By Mark Morin
2018-06-21
Digital marketing,Omni-channel marketing,Relationship marketing

The customer journey – A 360º view of your customer interactions

A lot has been written about the customer journey, or path to purchase, and about the importance of communicating the right message at the right time according to what stage of the journey your customers find themselves.

Stratégies wins 4 awards at the AMR 2018 Gala [video]

By Mark Morin
2018-06-15
Relationship marketing

At their annual Awards Gala, the Relationship Marketing Association (AMR) and the Flèches d’or Awards (Golden Arrows) jury recognized the excellence of our marketing campaigns by awarding four Top Awards and a certificate of merit including the Best Multi-channel Marketing Campaign as well as Gold in three categories.

We are honored by this industry recognition of the quality of our team’s great work. It’s thanks to our clients and the confidence they place in our strategies that we are able to shine.

Email marketing defined – everything you need to know!

By Mark Morin
2018-06-10
Email marketing,Relationship marketing

Email marketing is a powerful tool…if you know what you’re doing

Email marketing is sometimes equated with sending out newsletters. But it’s so much more! Simply put, Email Marketing is the systematic and structured use of email in order to initiate, build and consolidate a relationship between brands and people. Email is the most popular media for Relationship Marketing. This is largely because of its impact, its ROI and its ability to grow sales.

What’s the true role of Marketing? Hint: It’s Not What You Think!

By Mark Morin
2018-02-09
Relationship marketing

I often ask my workshop and conference participants – typically seasoned marketing executives – what the role of marketing might be? Their answers are, by and large, always the same. They revolve around advertising and marketing communication.

They tell me it’s all about branding and image. About differentiation and value. This, of course, is all true and essential. Part of what we are tasked to do as marketers. But is it enough?

Marketing : beyond the four Ps

Strictly speaking, marketing encompasses what we all know as the four Ps. This is how marketing is taught in most business schools on the planet. Price, Place, Promotion and Product. This model for marketing management was first published by E. Jerome McCarthy, back in 1960. But has it kept pace with the times?

What is a marketing collaboratory?

By Mark Morin
2018-02-07
Relationship marketing

Collaboratory: [Coˈlæbrəˌtɔrɪ] noun :

The word collaboratory (pronounced co lab ratory) is a blend of the words collaboration and laboratory. The term is borrowed from the scientific community and is defined as a virtual collaborative environment. It’s a place where scientists and researchers from around the world work together on research projects.

This environment allows them to share resources, research and knowledge. The objective is to achieve innovative solutions faster by leveraging collective knowledge.

Your 2018 Marketing Resolutions – Three dumb things marketers should stop doing right now!

By Mark Morin
2017-12-19
B2B Marketing,Relationship marketing

My, how time flies! The year is quickly coming to a close. And most of us busily preparing for the new marketing challenges that lie ahead. Fine-tuning budgets. Tying up loose ends. And perhaps looking forward to some time off with family and friends. But before we break for the holidays, why not take a few minutes to reflect on how we hope to change and improve in the coming year. Here are three 2018 Marketing Resolutions : dumb things you should stop doing in the next year. Heck, why not stop doing them right NOW!

ROI and Effectiveness – Do You Truly Understand the Difference?

By Mark Morin
2012-06-29
CRM,Relationship marketing

Do you understand these common metrics?

Because of the tremendous economic pressures since the downturn, and the need for marketing accountability, ROI has now become Marketing’s new Holy Grail. However, effectiveness and ROI are not synonymous, though many marketers perceive it to be so.

ROI is the efficiency with which a marketing activities produces a result. ROI calculates the revenue generated for each dollar invested.

Efficiency and effectiveness – what’s the big difference?

The fact that a given media, or marketing activity is efficient – meaning that the cost per dollar of sales generated is low – doesn’t automatically make this media or activity a better choice relative to others with a lower level of efficiency. Obviously, you want both. But you can’t always get what you want!

Relationship Marketing: 4 things you need to know

By Mark Morin
2012-05-14
CRM,Relationship marketing

Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on creating, maintaining and growing business relationships between an organization and its customers. Relationship marketers focus on the quality, longevity, depth and value of the relationship with customers on an individual or personal level.

When recommendation engines go terribly wrong

By Mark Morin
2012-02-08
Digital marketing,Relationship marketing

One of the most popular forms of personalization used on eCommerce sites is the “people who bought this, also bought that” recommendation. The assumption is that people have similar tastes and so if other people are buying the same things, so should you. Sometimes, the intention is to ensure that someone who buys an item requiring additional accessories be reminded of all that is needed before checking out their shopping cart.

Some sites use an algorithm to predict which products should be paired with each other. Others simply tag products and bucket them into groups. Now the latter can same time and money, but sometimes leads to some strange recommendations as seen below on the Tiger Direct website.

Do you and your customers speak the same language?

By Mark Morin
2011-10-17
CRM,Relationship marketing

One of the guiding principles of B2Me is to use simple language and familiar terms in order to clearly communicate what you need to say to your customers. Get rid of jargon and marketing speak — Make it a priority!

American insurer Cygna clearly understands the importance of simple and effective communication. The company prides itself on systematically simplifying the language it uses in its marketing communication and more important, in its contact between their employees and customers.

If you’re trying to persuade people to do or buy something, it seems to me you should use the language they use every day. -David Ogilvy

To help achieve this goal, they created a program for first-line staff that dictates what words should be used to describe insurance concepts, products, terms and conditions. The program is called “Let’s be clear”, and is designed to help employees “translate” the obscure language of the insurance industry into plain English.

Here are a few examples: “you” instead of “claimant”, “process your claim for payment” instead of “adjudication” and “start date” instead of “activation”.

The goal is to make customers feel comfortable, to create a climate of trust and allow the customer to feel valued – not diminished by the use of language they don’t understand.

Cigna even created a website that provides a dictionary of common insurance terms and their translation into plain English in order to be clearly understood by a customer.

At the end of the day, it simply a question of respect for “me”, the customer. Do you speak the same language as your customer? Or are you forcing your customers to speak yours?

Five benefits of B2Me™ on RetailExperience.com

By Mark Morin
2011-10-13
CRM,Relationship marketing

There’s an interesting article on B2Me™ on the Retail Experience Blog, by Paul Flanigan, former director of brand communications for Best Buy.
Here are a few lines from his post:

We have all heard B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer). But this has now evolved into B2ME. The simple definition is the practice of marketing to the individual based on the desires of that individual. It’s not about closing a sale, it’s about developing a relationship with every single unique individual.
This doesn’t (or shouldn’t) seem like a new way to market. We have been doing this all along, right? Well, the advent of personal technology has quite a bit to do with it. Marketing has had to catch up with individuals who are mobile, savvy, and in control of the sales cycle in pretty much every type of buyer/seller relationship.

Read more on RetailExperience.com

How much is a customer worth? Probably more than you think!

By Mark Morin
2011-10-01
CRM,Relationship marketing

When you look at marketing from a purely transactional perspective, you often lose sight of an important dimension: the long-term value of a customer. Or more precisely, the cumulative net revenue that a customer provides during the “lifetime” of the relationship between the customer and a business, or a brand.

This transaction perspective focuses on the immediate sale of good and services through marketing campaigns of all nature. From that point of view, the customer value is equal to the amount of the sale produced as a result of that campaign. Transactional marketers will work to reduce the cost per transaction in order to maximize short term revenue. Nothing wrong with increasing revenue… far from it. But this narrow vision often forces us to make choices that as purely short-term.

Why you should blog – from two authors I admire… a lot!

By Mark Morin
2011-08-20
Digital marketing,Keynotes and training,Relationship marketing

Seth Godin and Tom Peters sum it up quite nicely: writing a blog — just like writing a book — changes the way you think, the way you communicate and the way you live. Do you have a blog? How has it changed your life?

Where all those choices got started… according to Malcolm Gladwell

By Mark Morin
2011-06-10
CRM,Keynotes and training,Relationship marketing

As a fan of all things Gladwell, I would like to share with you this excellent video produced by TED TV that chronicles the history of how Howard Moskowitz changed the way we shop for groceries — a change that led to the avalanche of choices that we face in our lives, day-to-day. Presented in typical Gladwellian style, this is a fascinating tale of innovation that began in the ’80s.

The unexpected impact of choice on customer satisfaction

By Mark Morin
2011-06-10
CRM,Relationship marketing

In this video from TED TV, american social psychologist Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice explains the negative impact of choice – or more precisely, the impact of too much choice – on our level of satisfaction with the things we buy in our day-to-day lives.

Unrealistic expectations, or persisting doubt over the choices we make: these are the reasons why we must limit the number of products and services we offer our customers. By personalizing content and product recommendations, B2Me allows us to reduce the number of products suggested to a limited set or a single item that best suit the customer’s needs… One customer at a time!

Blog : Relationship marketing