To this day, however, statistics regarding conversion to sale motivators in direct mail are still hard to source, so CDMS decided to commission a survey to find out which factors made British consumers more likely to make a purchase as a result of direct mail. The findings are extremely clear: the ability to respond to the campaign online was rated the most important factor of all, making consumers 20% more likely than average to respond and purchase. Timing of the campaign to reach the recipient when in purchase consideration mode (17% more likely) came in second with personalisation of the campaign rated as 14% more likely than average.

UK consumers are clearly calling for the ability to respond online, indicating that the internet is becoming ever more strategically important to the direct marketing process. Savvy marketers are thus investigating various new techniques for tracking online response to direct marketing campaigns. One such tracking technique deserves a little more attention due to its popularity and promise of success: personalised URLs. This technology allows marketers to generate a unique and personalised landing page for every client in their marketing database. It typically takes the form of www.domainname.com/name. When the recipient receives a piece of direct mail with a personalised URL printed on it and type it into the web browser they are directed to their own dynamic microsite containing the mailings, offers, products, and/or services especially meant for them.

On these personalised micorsites the activity of respondents can be minutely tracked, providing an organisation with valuable information such as customer appreciation of content. With the learnings taken from customer behaviour on the site, it is easy to improve the accuracy of offers and select content more relevant to the customer for display. Online and offline data can also be connected by sending personalised URLs in the form of a link on customer e-mails or even by SMS.

Consumers rated appropriate timing as the second most effective at inspiring response and purchase, at 17% above average. By registering customer attitudes from all touchpoints, and not focusing only on one or two channels, businesses have access to fresh information with which to create time-sensitive, “event-triggered” messages sent to customers via immediate delivery channels such as online or SMS, but only when they behave in a particular way.

A business can set these event triggers for anything from a customer birthday to proving responsive to a particular kind of personalised URL (pURL) and not another, to their following of a specific series of image click-thoughs. Tracking which content drives the customer towards a purchase and which turns them away provides valuable long term insight into likes and dislikes but also highlights a previously unavailable time-frame in which to correct targeting by offering something more appealing. With all this cross-channel data available, marketers cannot afford to ignore the importance of using all available information on the individual to ensure better personalisation is provided as this is ranked at some 14% above average as a driver of response and purchase.

Consumers are clearly indicating that the option to respond online, appropriate timing and accurate personalisation are very important to them and are the most significant drivers of response and purchase to direct mail campaigns. The three factors are related and depend on each other, allowing marketers to use the most up-to-date online information on the consumer to be combined with rich offline datasets to create campaigns that make the right offer, to the right person, at the right time. These practices yield a treasure trove of data to constantly refine and improve the cross-channel direct marketing process.

Article written and contributed by Richard Higginbotham

Recent developments in variable colour printing – where content and text can be altered for each document printed – are revolutionising the extent to which communications with existing and potential customers can be personalised.  Recent research from GI Insight has confirmed the close correlation between the personalisation and relevance of customer communications and the levels of customer satisfaction achieved.  So personalised communications and reporting tangibly help to cement and develop customer relationships (and therefore the amount of business done with each customer).  Digital print means that there is now no need for minimum quantities.  And because the technology can now operate at high speed, then the economies of production scale are available to commercial printers to pass on more affordable pricing to customers.

Personalised marketing and customer communications used to be very much a service only for the highest value customer segments.  This is no longer the case.  The economics offered by high-speed variable colour printing mean that even the low value customers can receive such a service.  This is a critical point for the whole theory of database marketing.  Here, the job is not just to identify who the lower and higher value customers are, but also spot the segments with the greatest value growth potential and create strategies to migrate them from a lower value to higher value group.  If we cannot afford to communicate in a personalised fashion with the lower value groups, how can they ever be persuaded to upgrade?

Finally, the new capabilities and economics of variable colour printing are also being harnessed to greater web usage.  Here the process can become very interesting – we know of at least one firm that is using personalised colour to encourage the whole (connected) customer base onto the web, which then encourages the customer to create and use a personalised version of the firm’s website, where they can access all their details online. Throughout this process, targeted additional product advertising is served up to the customer with the aim of increasing their value via product offers they are likely to be interested in.

So much for the new capabilities of communicating in personalised colour.  How should the outcomes of this targeted activity be measured? In order to answer that question we need to examine the key underlying business measurement, which should result from efficient and effective database marketing.

As a result of the Internet, available markets have expanded enormously.  The tiniest firm can now access global markets.  Yet at the same time, the transparency – especially in terms of price – which the Web has allowed has also meant that competition has increased enormously at the same time as national boundaries and local anomalies have disappeared.  Consequently, product differential has diminished and the customer relationship will become virtually the be-all and end-all of a successful ongoing commercial relationship.

This has made business focus on two things:  firstly, to ensure that they provide such a good proposition for customers that they stay, increase their spend (if possible) and become more profitable; secondly, to understand better the cost of winning, keeping and growing customers, so that value is returned to shareholders.

The database marketing industry has produced extremely affordable customer relationship management tools (increasingly on a pay-as-you-go basis), with which to analyse and target the right people with the right offers.  But unless one understands profitability trends at the individual customer level, then companies will not know who to target, why, and with what.

Profit per customer helps to measure the value of different customer groups and the efficiency with which that value is produced.  It reveals whether firms have to recruit twice as many customers to achieve the same profit growth – and therefore whether or not current growth rates are sustainable.  By extension, profit per customer is the final output of earnings minus costs of obtaining, keeping and growing the customer.  Also by association, the quality of the value proposition being put to customers is being measured – i.e. more compelling proposition, greater efficiency, higher profit per customer.

In summary then, new print and web technology capabilities mean that organisations can now affordably generate personalised, high-quality marketing and customer communications. However, none of this is of any use unless a sound, accurate database drives such communications and campaigns.

Contributed by: Yolanda Noble, Chief Executive, dsicmm

With consumers tightening their purse strings and seeking cheaper alternatives, one of the best ways for marketers to spend their reduced budgets is on customer retention and development, i.e. focusing on the key customers – the 10% giving you 50% of your turnover.

The discount end of the high street is where this strategy will certainly pay off. With more and more people turning to value retailers, marketers will need to think about how they will encourage shoppers to stay with them when the economy is looking up. These new customers might very well return to their usual shops, so the key action for value retailers is to develop customer relationships in order to keep customers after the recession.

In order to do so, a mechanism needs to be put in place to help them understand who their new recruits are and encourage similar prospects to walk in the door. If there is a loyalty scheme in operation new customers should be incentivised to sign up with the aim of identifying new customer profiles. Once identified, they are available for immediate analysis with two areas key to successful customer development and retention:

1.    If some new customers are already walking in the door the retailer can look at who they are, what they are like and where they are from. This will allow them to select ‘lookalikes’ for prospect campaigns to encourage even more people to make the transition from premium retailer to value retailer.

2.    They can understand the new customer better in order to develop strategies for retention once the downturn is over. This might be as simple as adding new product lines to the offering or creating incentive barriers to keep them attracted to the retailer.

At the other end of the scale, premium retailers are suffering from customer defection and unless they fundamentally change their pricing structure customers will keep defecting. Evidence of this move try and prevent loyal customers seeking out cheaper alternatives has started to emerge. Last year Tesco introduced a range of discount brands aimed at discouraging shoppers from going to value alternatives such as Lidl and Aldi; in the run-up to Christmas M&S held two one-day sales slashing prices in store by 20%; and Waitrose has recently started a direct mail drive to promote its latest in-store promotions.

Further to this, premium retailers should also be looking to identify, through transactional analysis, whose spend is not dropping. This can be used to drive campaigns to recruit similar kinds of shoppers in a bid to replace lost custom.

Finally, stores should keep in touch with lapsed customers throughout this difficult period in a bid to draw them back again when consumer confidence returns. This is particularly importance since the value retailers will fight to keep them once the economy has recovered.

So, both ends of the retail spectrum have their work cut out for them over the ensuing months as value and premium retailers fight for customer share and aim to keep or win back customers when the recession is over. Most importantly, the customer should not be neglected during this period of financial instability and transactional analysis should be maximized.

Written by: Andy Wood from GI Insight

AIMpromote is an on-demand web-based software application to manage the handling of sales leads. It is essentially a CRM, but is focused particularly on handling leads. There is also the ability to sell leads (lead aggregation business). AIMpromote takes a different approach and focuses more on lead management which for some, is plenty. If you check out their crm features, you’ll see most of them are in the sales lead management section which is great when it comes to lead management.

I have yet to sign-up for their trial but when it comes to sales management software, I’d consider evaluating AIMpromote along with other traditional players. Since they are relatively new and they don’t mention the price on their website, I’d first give them a call to find out more details. Based on the screenshots and feature page, it’s hard to decide if it’s worth the investment without knowing more information. Regardless, for a pure lead management solution they might be the exact solution you’re looking for.

You don’t need me to tell you times are a bit tough right now. Buyer confidence is low, and that means that keeping the customers you have is even more important—let alone attracting new customers.

Can a customer relationship management system be the way to do this?

A white paper published by VendorGuru.com claims it is.

While everyone’s avoiding the R-word (recession), most businesses as well as consumers are tightening the purse strings. Customers are suddenly more valuable than just a short time ago.

CRM systems can help a company of any size ensure these customers keep returning—and it’s common knowledge that existing customers are cheaper to retain and more likely to buy than new customers.

“Businesses could find an effective CRM approach will give them an important competitive advantage under recessionary conditions,” states the white paper.

With an effective CRM system in place, businesses may retain profitability and grow even during a recession. Some view recessions as a bit of “natural selection” in the business world, allowing the fittest to survive and paring away those without the strength to weather tough times.

The white paper highlights three strategies for surviving—possibly prospering—during a recession.

Increasing customer penetration is the first. Customer relationship management tools can work to boost profitability as much as 70 percent, according to the white paper. Acquisition costs for new business tops the cost of servicing current customers; there are also opportunities for cross selling. CRM software guides your sales force by offering scripts for cross selling and showing the customers’ order histories.

Achieving efficiencies is second in line; streamlining a business from within is key during lean economic times, and unproductive salespeople can be identified and helped. In fact, CRM can help a company automate processes and develop greater efficiency throughout the entire sales cycle.

Finally, the white paper says CRM can help to use resources effectively. During slower times, keep your staff busy by trying new CRM strategies and solutions.

 

The summit will offer attendees information and seminars on hot topics in the world of customer relationship management today, including:

• The creation and measurement of critical business processes in marketing, sales and service.
• Emerging capabilities and best practices in the contact center, field and e-commerce channels.
• The collection, management and use of customer data.
• The impact of on-demand and outsourcing on the provision of IT solutions.
• The disruptive innovations that enterprises need to start planning for now.

The CRM summit is an opportunity for discussion and networking opportunities with analysts and guest speakers, executives and leaders from technology providers in the CRM arena, and other CRM professionals.

In an industry with as much rapid growth and change as customer relationship management, the chance to share with and learn from other CRM professionals is valuable. Gartner, a provider of research and analysis on the IT industry, describes the event as offering “offers marketing, sales, and service decision makers independent; realistic understanding of how their business strategies will be influenced by, and can take advantage of, the evolution of IT.”

Keynotes and guest speakers include:

• Chip Conley, Founder, President and CEO, Joie de Vivre Hospitality: Peak – How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
• Dan Gilbert, Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University: Stumbling on Happiness
• Ed Thompson, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner: Improving the Customer Experience
• 2008 Customer Awards & Users Choice Award Finalists Presentations

More topics include data integration and analysis, systems architecture and business process alignment, and vendor selection and negotiation strategies.

Another Gartner event will be held immediately following the CRM Summit. Gartner’s Business Process Management Summit, Sept. 10-12, will focus on “creating and sustaining an agile process-powered organization and explains how to align business strategy and IT to maximize operational agility, providing new opportunities to expand revenues and productivity.”

Keynotes for the BPM Summit include:

• David Osborne, Author & Senior Partner, The Public Strategies Group: Beyond Bureaucracy: Transforming Government in an Era of Permanent Fiscal Crisis
• Dan Roam, Author & Founder, Digital Roam Inc: The Back of the Napkin: Solving BPM problems with Pictures
• Sara Roberts, CEO and President, Roberts Golden Consulting: Organizational Change Management 2.0: Transforming Your Organization for Innovation
• Janelle B. Hill, Research VP, Gartner & Michele Cantara, Research VP, Gartner: BPM: Transforming Your Business
• Yvonne Genovese, VP Distinguished Analyst, Gartner: User Interaction and Empowerment Disrupts Business Application Transformation
• Daryl C. Plummer, Managing VP & Gartner Fellow, Gartner: BPM and SOA: When Grand Plans Collide, Chaos Ensues

Nearly 35 companies will be exhibiting sponsors at the two summits.

Software applications that can be accessed via the Internet are growing in popularity, and it’s not hard to see why. With the applications available on a pay-per-use basis or even free, businesses—especially small and medium businesses—can find a cost solution that fits.

Businesses can take advantage of the provider’s secure server and avoid buying software and installing it on company servers.

“Already, more tools and applications, such as office software, e-mail and customer relationship management are being served from such centres, and we can expect the range of applications and services available to grow,” says David Mitchell Smith, vice-president and fellow at Gartner Research.

The market may grow to nearly $19 billion globally in just three years, according to Gartner. The company estimates that 25 percent of all new software will be software-as-a-service, though some applications may stay in-house.

E-mail is one of the applications most likely to become hosted increasingly on a service provider’s server, driven by storage requirements as much as the boom in telecommuting.

Gartner predicts that by 2012, “at least a third” of business software will move toward software-as-a-service rather than in-house applications, and Oracle, SAP and Microsoft are positioning their businesses and products to cater to this shift.

Many providers already offer full-service online software applications, including Microsoft with its Office Live Workspace which offers a free, hosted, online file sharing service that allows users to store, access and share documents. Google Apps features Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Sites. Google’s applications are available as a free, basic version or a fee-supported version with more features and functions.

LucidEra, NetSuite, Callidus Software, Ketera Technologies, RightNow, Salesforce.com and Coghead are just a few of the companies offering online solutions for analytics, sales, marketing, finance, ERP, CRM, e-commerce, sales performance management, electronic procurement and more.

These online offerings give smaller businesses the ability to “play with the big boys,” by having access to applications and functions that would be too costly to buy and run on in-house servers. Fees can range from $5 per month up to $200, depending on the complexity and features needed. These fees often include upgrades, maintenance and customer support, but users are advised to check for “hidden fees.” These charges most often relate to storage capacity or customer support.

]]> http://www.crm-guru.com/software-as-a-service-provides-affordable-solutions-for-small-business.php/feed 6 http://www.crm-guru.com/should-you-add-a-customer-module.php http://www.crm-guru.com/should-you-add-a-customer-module.php#comments Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:56:37 +0000 ssikes http://www.crm-guru.com/should-you-add-a-customer-module.php By Sharla SikesIt may seem like we’ve talked about Web 2.0 ad nauseum, but that’s because it’s a hot topic in the world of customer relationship management. And there are a lot of ways it can benefit businesses of all sizes, too.

Today’s question: Should you add a customer module to your CRM system?

First of all, what is a customer module? Denis Pombriant at DestinationCRM.com calls it a “single place within the CRM system to capture and analyze relevant customer data.”

If you don’t have a method of doing this, consider the advantages. With CRM 2.0, social networking and media have built a relationship that becomes closer every day. Pombriant says we’re seeing the “leading edge of a movement to shift the focus from the transaction to the customer.”

Data is the key to success for such a movement. And finding out who the customers are is the key to building that data. To date, analytics have been superficial and spotty, making the available data less than outstanding.

“The fact that CRM has been rather successful despite this deficiency says more about the market lifecycle than it does about our ability to know the customer,” says Pombriant.

So far, most data is generated by early-lifecycle companies, or new companies working to get started. Market share was the top priority. However, as both markets and competition grow, it’s wise to offer the customer something others aren’t that goes beyond mere products: customer intimacy.

Sounds a little naughty, I know, but think of your own buying habits. When you’re shopping, don’t the intangibles become just as important as the products themselves? Service is the name of the game today, and that holds true for online sellers as well as brick-and-mortar companies. Most consumers want to be more than a dollar sign or a faceless transaction. My favorite sellers both online and in “real life” are those who make a little extra effort to acknowledge me, and even the tiniest gesture can make all the difference.

It’s been well-documented that it costs more to attract new customers than it does to keep existing ones returning.

Thus, to make sure your customers return, a way to understand customers’ “needs, biases and desires” becomes imperative, and a customer module is key to building that understanding. A fully functional module should include the following, according to Pombriant:

“- A database for tracking customer demographic information that can be maintained by the customer as well as the vendor–much like a social networking site.

- A community interface through which the company could ask its customer base about product innovation, messaging, and anything else relevant to how the customer consumes its products and services. This interface, a kind of customer laboratory, would support typical bidirectional interactions with customers as well as one-to-many interactions. For example, a company could collect data while individuals interact to trade information about their use of that company’s products and services.

- Analytics to slice and dice the data generated by the community.

- A mechanism for rewarding good customer behavior (repeat purchases or contributions in the community).”

A customer module will perform these functions smoothly, rather than the haphazard manner in which each is done separately by many companies.

Pombriant cites statistics to justify the cost of such a module:

“In 2005, 36,000 new products hit the market and, by early 2006, 80 percent of them were projected to fail. I doubt it’s much different today,” he says.

Implementing a customer module helps ensure your product or service won’t fail, or at least has every chance of succeeding. Social marketing dominates most industries, and when properly researched and installed, a customer module can pay “big dividends.”