It is increasingly more difficult to manage communication with customers and prospects because of the following conditions; new channels are introduced as technology advances, old channels are made obsolete and perceptions change, branding and image are no longer controlled solely by that company or it’s marketing department, and the pace of business in general is accelerating.
Social media, mobile marketing, and even common direct mail options have created a web of customer contact that is very complicated. Customers and prospects can still be grouped and preferences can still be determined, but even the performance measurement tools that are used to sort these preferences are becoming more convoluted. Layered on top of the communication strategies is an expanding depth and breadth of demographics, psychographics, and lifestyle characteristics. The groups by design are becoming more targeted, with the ultimate goal to be marketing one to one.
Traditional telemarketing and catalog efforts have taken a beating for their intrusive nature or lack of “greenness”. But common best practices still exist. Not every customer is ready to enter the on-line digital communication stream. Of a company’s entire base of customers, a certain percentage will continue to respond as they have to these methods for years. The trick is not spending additional dollars to move them to a channel that isn’t right for them. Understanding in advance which groups might have a propensity to respond to email marketing will lower the overall investment and improve end results. With continued analysis of the off line audience, subtle adjustments can improve the bottom line on these customers as well. The market has changed, even small incremental savings are welcomed by organizations as attitudes and expectations change toward growth and profitability.
Channel preference also extends to how a company can receive feedback and insights from its customer base. The blogging and tweeting worlds have given a voice to the masses and that voice impacts branding efforts. Listening to customers, a strategy that strongly perpetuates success, has never been more critical. Marketing departments must see and hear and react to feedback generated. They must also be ahead of this feedback when possible.
The reason that marketing departments must stay proactive is because business is now moving ahead so fast. Trends become evident and disappear in weeks instead of months, making it difficult for a pure play cataloger to react, when testing and implementation can take nearly six months. Market statistics are more readily available, the economy has been and will continue to be front page news for years, and more media outlets are created every day. And these factors only take into account the current market, without regard to international growth. Innovation will be essential in handling each of the business challenges that company’s face going forward.
Little Know Tips to Improve Data Hygiene Processing
As the multi-channel marketplace grows in complexity there are a few bedrock principles that continue to make sense.
Getting “hands on” with today’s marketing efforts
For many years the operations and activities of the catalog marketers have stopped as their data files have been delivered to their services bureaus or printers.
The decision to support single tasking
If only one lesson has been learned from the difficult economic times it is this one, things are not going back to the way they were. Changes in marketing strategies, communication channels, preferences of customer contact and the impact of user generated contact have created a new world order.
