Using Your Most Valuable Resource

With all the buzz about Social Media/Web 2.0, it's easy to forget about marketing to your customers. Social media is great to connect and provide customer service, but not so great for sales messages.

The area that needs further exploration is database marketing (aka CRM). Per AdAge.com, most companies are not doing this well.

It doesn't make sense to bombard your customers with thoughtless messages when you have the data to target them more appropriately. The best way to start is testing messages and response rates on a small sample of your data.

For example, I worked on a campaign targeting customers who bought a vehicle and paid an interest rate over 12%. Assuming they made their payments, they might qualify for a lower rate and a newer car. We targeted customers who had purchased three years prior, assuming they rebuilt their credit and now had equity in their vehicle. They were sent e-mail (if we had their address), a postcard and the sales staff followed up with phone calls. We found the customers were very transient and were difficult to locate. We then tested customers with the same criteria but who had purchased two years prior. The results were much better.

The key is to segment your data, run the campaign and measure the results. Once you analyze the results, you test again.

Business today is about using resources wisely. This applies to your customers and your marketing budgets.

An Amazing Show of Customer Loyalty

A local GM dealership's customers staged a protest yesterday about GM terminating the franchise.

The dealership will remain open, but will no longer sell GM products or be able to perform warranty work.

As a marketer, no matter what CRM tools or campaigns you may run, only great customer service can inspire this type of loyalty. The lesson is, no matter how great your marketing ideas and campaigns may be, it's all about taking care of the customer.

The Need for Relevance

Savvy marketers know your company/product/service needs to be relevant to your customers in order to survive. It's shocking, however, how many smart people get too caught up in what they've always done and forget this.

In the last few years, my focus has shifted from negotiating the best TV CPP's (of course it's still important) to relationship marketing. It started with database marketing using CRM tools. It's evolved to involved social media. The ultimate goal of these forms of targeted communication is to build relationships with your customers and stay relevant.

I attended a social function recently with some friends who I consider talented marketers. We were discussing social media and a friend pointed out the value in what I was learning because, "no one else wants to take time to learn it." I'm still stunned by that comment. A lot of people are taking the time to learn it. In this business, you have to stay current or you become...irrelevant.

Focus

Now that I've been blogging for a few weeks, I've decided it's time to focus on a few advertising/marketing issues, instead of just random issues I browse upon.

The five areas I will continue to blog about are:

1) Brand image versus value in a recession economy.
2) Online media trends. How does shifting budgets from traditional advertising generate better results?
3) Finding new markets in this economy. This includes elder care, medical records, environmental technology and other areas that are growing.
4) Customer retention programs. How to stay relevant to your existing customers, whether it's through social media, CRM programs or events.
5) The use and application of research to marketing/advertising decisions. This includes TV ratings, DVR usage, qualitative versus quantitative information, and measuring results against objectives.

The other items that don't fit these parameters have been deleted.

If you have questions or insight about any of these topics, please feel free to contact me by posting a comment.

Happy reading!