Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

More products

More media choices

More places to purchase

Fewer customers???

Author Joe Jaffe* suggests that as electronic marketing options proliferate, companies may run out of customers.

Media continues fragmenting.  Products risk becoming commodities from over-exposure.  Both contribute to increased new-customer acquisition costs.

Conversely, electronic media makes connecting with current customers easier, cheaper and more effective.

We’ve worked in retention for years, and couldn’t agree more.

Re-evaluating the importance of current customers must be front and center. Consider:

What’s the value of repeat customers? As acquisition costs increase from 10X the cost of re-marketing, possibly priceless.

What’s the optimal, efficient allocation of marketing dollars? We all want to fill the hopper, so many favor customer acquisition.

Actually, marketing to current customers builds a profitable revenue stream that helps insulate companies from unexpected changes.

Naturally, you’ll keep hearing from us.

* P. S.  Jaffe, Chief Interrupter at Powered, Inc. just wrote Flip the Funnel, check out an excerpt at MarketingSherpa, it’s worth registering.

We applaud efforts to eliminate silos and integrate product lines, marketing messages and communication channels.

But wonder if efforts are nearly as integrated and synergistic as many suggest.

Consider:

Have marketing goals—and messages—been integrated? Cutting through the 2,000 plus advertising impressions seen each day often works better with consistency.

Is the marketing calendar integrated? Overlapping communication may dilute the response to either effort.  We recently learned of: “NEW Designer Clearance” in the AM and “NEW Designer Arrivals” in the PM.

Can like products be bundled better? Perhaps offers for brokerage and banking or spa and salon services make more sense as “financial solutions” or “beauty central” than as separate products.

Yesterday: E-bay

Today: Google

Tomorrow: Facebook?
Reviewing OneUpWeb’s excellent “Holiday Special Report”, some interesting facts popped out.

Average Internet usage increased incrementally to 12 hours a week with heavy users online up to 42 hours!

Social-networking skyrocketed 115% and may dramatically change marketing playing fields:
•    Average social-network users now spend 15 hours a week updating, linking, tweeting and connecting.

•    Facebook and YouTube combined now have 25% more unique monthly visitors than Google.

•    25% of social-network users link to a company, product or service.

A few thoughts:
•    Re-consider paid advertising—social sites can deliver very targeted eyeballs cost-effectively.

•    Virtual” brand ambassadors become critical—every social network link affects your reputation directly.

•    If social networking strategies remain “in-work,” get on it!

Slice
Dice
Mix

Better results aren’t a mystery.

Why not live test your ideas on-line? It’s often cheaper than market research.  You’ll have results–not possibly biased “findings”–that translate to other channels.

Use Google’s AdWords and DoubleClick applications to test key-words, phrases and alternative creative–it’s almost effortless.

Slice robust email files into segments to test subject lines and creative treatments easily.

Both options deliver valuable information–fast.

For one client, simple subject-line testing increased open-rates 20%; unfortunately when dicing results, click-throughs and sales didn’t improve.

We then mixed formats–making minor design changes–and found a recombined landing page that improved conversion 20%.  Months later, sales remain 30% better than before testing.

Step into the electronic test kitchen–give it a try.

You’ll like the results.

Marketing Sherpa’s 2009 benchmarking survey suggests a paradox:

Most B-to-C and B-to-B marketers believe their email performance continues to improve, but only 27% plan on investing more in their email efforts.

Feels odd, particularly when email’s the preferred communication medium, unless consumers are under 26.

Sure, email’s not sexy, clutter abounds and growth is slow, but it’s effective, inexpensive and instant.

Surprisingly few marketers employ the following performance enhancers:
List Segmentation–behavior-based segmenting can reveal your most responsive groups and best creative options.

Subject Line testing–open rates can vary dramatically by changing just a few words.

Format testing–click-through rates and sales conversion can be improved dramatically by testing the look/feel or links locations.

Call
Click
Visit

Whenever we have a marginal customer experience–and it’s still often–we wonder:  Does this company truly want my business?  Is management seeing things through customers eyes?  Has anyone called, clicked or visited lately–unannounced?

Calling: Is automated routing the right way to start?  Cost-effective, but most of us hate it.  Where are better customers routed–best reps, randomly, to overflow call centers?   Do you have to give the same information multiple times?  Kudos to United for pre-empting the process with reverse look-up and Delta for bringing call centers back on shore.

Clicking: Does your navigation make intuitive sense?  Does your help or search function return meaningful results?  Do you ask customers for information you don’t really need before checkout?  Even Apple’s help for i-Life suite could use improvement.

Visiting:  How does the facility look–fresh, neat, bright?  Start with the parking lot.  You’d never enter K Mart based on exterior maintenance.  Do associates greet you–and how?  How are stock levels–from literature to merchandise?  Consider Target and Wal-Mart.  Target may win for style but to know that the product’s in stock head to Wal-Mart.

It seems basic, but executing on the front line builds loyalty, which is a good investment in bad times.

You’ll irritate your customers

They don’t want “junk email”

No one reads anyway

Pundits have already pronounced the death of email.

Their contention:  it’s over-saturated, spam filters block many messages and open rates are declining.  This is partly true.

But, our experience mirrors what a recent DM News survey found: consumers are becoming more receptive – not less – to receiving transactional emails.  Fully 68% are generally open to receiving messages. And, 25% to 50% of transactional emails get opened.

Contacts want to hear from you when you:

Create compelling presentations and offers.

Respect your audience and deliver relevant messages.

Communicate regularly and concisely.

Nearly 70% of sales are generated by word of mouth. And, with consumers becoming expert “opt-outers” and “ignorers” of marketing messages, success now often occurs when consumers talk and influence each other in your favor.

Customers have more ways to engage in conversation than ever before. And they do–constantly and concisely.

This dynamic inspires us to begin a dialog with our peers aimed at helping each other make the most of evolving challenges and opportunities. We all can market more effectively with collaboration.

The idea: we can all learn from each other’s practical wisdom. And we need to.