| Data dynamics in new media marketing | E-commerce has imposed new, reduced timescales between those points in time when the relationship is measured and tested or where opportunities for collecting, verifying or qualifying information are encountered. Previously the direct marketer could anticipate when a mailing or phone call was effected and within some degree of control when a response would be generated. Access to the web has reduced this element of control. A marketer can no longer engineer when a contact may wish to encounter his message, proposition or brand, or, indeed, come across it. |
| CRM for Everyone | Back in the last century, the story was told of the corporate chairmen who read about database marketing and “wanted some” even though they were not sure what it was. The same is happening all over again with customer relationship management (CRM). As many people as you speak to will give you just as many definitions of what they think CRM is all about. |
| Data Fusion delivers the “Why” Chromosome In Customer Management | When considering the uses of a database for marketing, the issues go far beyond the realms of purely direct marketing. There is a role for the database in supporting most elements of the marketing mix. Advertising can benefit from the profiling of the database to determine the tone of voice of copy, the image of the characters in TV commercials or press ad photography and the media selected to carry the ad. Similarly, market research can be segmented and directed to profiled individuals so that more robust samples can be constructed. |
| Magazine Culture – another weapon in the customer relationship armoury | As a marketing concept, customer magazines work because the readers feel comfortable with the medium. Most people are used to reading magazines and the vast majority are influenced in their purchase decisions by what they see and read in magazines. In addition, the customer magazine is a rare concept that straddles the (fast disappearing) traditional advertising “line”; the medium itself is above the line whilst the execution and delivery falls into the PR and direct marketing categories respectively, firmly below the line. So within one initiative, customers can be pushed towards the brand or products through editorial and advertising and pulled into purchase decisions through tailored propositions and offers. |
| A new dimension in the Campaign Management cycle | The growth of the World Wide Web has implications on both sides of the data-driven communications equation. On the one hand, the web provides a novel, exciting and convenient medium for delivering a message to customers and prospective customers. On the other, it presents a channel for data collection that makes possible concepts that were only hypothetical in the past. ….The development of the World Wide Web has meant the evolution of the concept of a closed loop ….and with it comes the need for greater stringency in data strategy. |
| Direction for profitability from understanding your data | We’re told that businesses can find tremendous benefits from analyzing the vast amounts of data they collect. And it’s true. In fact, you can find hidden nuggets of information among your data, once you know how to go through it systematically. |
| Putting Customers in the Frame – management frameworks for CRM | Companies need to build customer management frameworks if CRM is to be successfully realised. Since the introduction of the term ‘customer relationship management’ businesses have wrestled with a number of issues: is it purely a technology or is it a business strategy? Is it a process that can be imposed on a business or does it demand a change of culture? Is it contact management or is it salesforce automation? Does it belong in the IT department or is it a marketing function? Companies run into problems with their customer strategy because they do not apply a similar approach to all aspects of relationship management, whether it is between company and customers, suppliers or employees. The solution is to build a management framework that, through a relationship management system (RMS), integrates your commercial objectives with current and planned technology, the skillsets of your human resources, business and market intelligence, and the dialogue between company, customer and supplier. |
| Loyalty to the cause…..in a cold climate Insight into charity supporters | So reduced discretionary spend continues to restrict personal donations and means even greater competition for each donor pound. But out of the doom and gloom there is some hot news – an approach that can address your own business imperatives and help maintain and even increase revenue levels.The solution lies with maximising the use of your database and turning it into a powerful marketing tool. What you know about your donors and supporters can help drive more relevant communications, resulting in a better relationship and increased loyalty. |
| All Copyright Michael Collins. All rights reserved. |
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