What was I thinking?
Back in the late 1990s, I worked at Millard Group, which at the time was one of the leading catalog list brokerage companies in the country. Like every other list company and ad agency, we hired a few people that were supposed to be “online experts”. This was part of our effort to bring “added value to our clients”. But like everyone else 20 years ago that had come from traditional catalog and publishing backgrounds, we didn’t have a clue about anything online. Nor did the online experts we had hired.
So, I convinced upper management at Millard to bring in Amy Africa for a day of training to our brokers and list managers. Amy at the time was one of the earliest consultants in the online arena that understood the bridge between the traditional postal world, and what was happening – and more important, what was not happening – in the online world.
But Amy has a style of speaking and presenting her facts/ opinions/ observations that is different. She’s not quite Donald Trump, but I can see how some people would draw the comparison.
Anyway, most of the people in attendance at that seminar for Millard were blown away by the changes that Amy showed had happened, were happening and were going to happen. In retrospect, with 20 years of hindsight, almost all her predictions came true.
But after the event, most of the comments I heard were about how “offense and rude” Amy was. Well, I’ve heard that before about Amy. I’ve been hearing it for 25 years to be precise. Amy and I first met in 1991, at a Vermont/New Hampshire Marketing Group meeting. I knew what her presentation was going to be like – and it was not going to be rude and offensive, it was going to be a clarion wake-up call. She would not pander to her audience. Instead, she would lay-it-on-the-line in terms of what the consumer was doing, and where online business would go. I knew her message would be tough for some people to swallow – but they needed to hear it.
Over the years, Amy has delivered her advice on website design, email frequency, online search and a ton of other internet related topics in speeches and presentations around the world – literally. (I’m always amazed at how many of Datamann’s UK clients have heard her speak before).
Amy was the earliest cry in the dark world of online consultants 20 years ago that did not sugarcoat the opportunities, but told the truth about what was working and what wasn’t. Many of her pieces of advice have become benchmarks in the industry.
What the Millard people found offense was not Amy or her language (well, maybe a little), but her message that our world was changing. Back then, 90 per cent (if not more) of catalog orders were still coming in over the phone or through the mail. Mailers thought she was nuts to predict that that proportion would reverse itself someday. Well, that day finally came for most of Datamann’s clients and the catalog industry as a whole a few years back.
Now, Amy is focused on moving you off your butts and getting you to understand it is no longer a website world, it is a mobile world. And still, most catalogers say “it won’t happen…not with my customers… it will only add 4 per cent to my order volume…they won’t order from me off their phone.” Ah, the mobile deniers. Our industry has such a short memory.
This is why I asked Amy to come back to be one of the speakers at our seminar on Customer Acquisition this March. How could I not ask her?
A year ago, I described Amy as my wartime consigliere, the person I can always count on to watch my back. She has called me up or sent me numerous stinging emails pointing out incredibly stupid mistakes I have made, or am about to make. More than once, she has saved my hide. I have tolerated and always welcomed this from Amy because she is almost always right, and she never calls or emails without a solution to the problem she sees. She is the same with her clients.
If you have never heard Amy speak, there are a few things you need to know. First is Amy’s unwavering belief that the number one reason you have a website – and now mobile site – is to generate orders and sales, not to build brand or to drive customer engagement. If you think otherwise, Amy’s “delivery” of her message will soon dispel any prior doubts you had. There is no middle ground with Amy and over the years, I’ve learned that audience members either love her or hate her. Moreover, I’ve learned that Amy’s advice and foresight into what drives consumers to respond is almost always right.
Amy is independent. She has no “big data” agenda to push, or social media panaceas to sell you. She will tell you what is right and wrong with your mobile site with no hidden agenda. She wants you to succeed, she wants you to be generate tons of orders, but she doesn’t believe the only way to succeed is with a product she wants to sell you.
There are lots of consultants out there that want to help you become “a mobile marketer”. There’s only one – in my opinion – that’s worth listening to, and we have her at our seminar.
by Bill LaPierre, Datamann Blog
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