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Information Overload
With information overload rapidly killing traditional forms of online advertising
- today the key to effective marketing is relevancy.
Smaller businesses with a niche or limited product range are more often than
not focused by default but for the larger company with a diverse product range
the 'all things to all men' approach to advertising is becoming less and less
effective.
Monthly newsletters may have worked in the past but with the online marketing
juggernaut churning out newsletters after newsletter along with countless other
marketing material the newsletter is loosing its punch.
With over zealous spam filters and the sheer weight of marketing material it
is not enough that a newsletter is well written and well presented it has to
be wanted, and to be wanted it has to be relevant.
How confident can a newsletter editor be that if a subscriber did not receive
their regular copy that the subscriber would look to see why; how confident
can anyone be that the subscriber would even notice?
For the larger supplier who has a diverse product range the websites and newsletter
has to become 'intelligent' and move away from the 'these are the answers to
everyone's problems' and develop the individually customised websites and newsletters
that says 'these are the answers to your specific needs'.
Adding intelligence
To achieve high relevancy companies need to be able to accurately profile their
customers and likely to be at the heart of a high relevancy marketing initiative
will be a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database.
Along with demographic and personal information such as location, age and gender
a good CRM database will also store the customer's lifestyle preferences and
build up an individual picture of each customer's likes and dislikes.
Amazon is one such company that has led the way with website relevancy and
with their 'one stop' shopping philosophy and vast range of stock it is easy
to see why it makes sense for them to highlight to each individual consumer
what products may be of greatest interest.
Amazon do this by greeting their returning registered users by name and offering
recommendations based on previous purchases and profile information that can
be further fine tuned by each customer.
A company that builds an effective CRM database with accurate and current information
is in a position to develop both on and off line precision marketing.
With good CRM information newsletters can be delivered with the most relevant
story first, a simple step that could make the difference between a potential
consumer dismissing, or reading, what has been sent.
How to achieve accurate and effective CRM information
The CRM database is a pool of information and the first task for any company
wishing to take the CRM approach is to populate the CRM database with quality
information. The most obvious starting point is existing customers and the information
that has already been collated such as any existing inquiry and ordering processes.
However, although useful ordering and inquiry processes will not on their own
fully profile the existing customer and nor will they profile the potential
customer.
A good, cost effective method of populating a CRM database is to conduct online
surveys and questionnaires where demographic and personal information can be
gathered along with lifestyle and general profiling information.
A small incentive may be required to ensure a good response but companies need
to take advantage of the human trait where many people are willing to express
an opinion. Online surveys can be targeted at the existing customer in the form
of customer satisfaction and product evaluation surveys as well as the potential
customer in the form of market research, advertising and general promotion.
Using to days breed of online survey websites such as www.surveygalaxy.com
anyone can now generated online surveys on the fly, they are easily adaptable
and can be used to react quickly to shifts in the market. Online surveys offer
an effect non-passive marketing channel, quite unlike any other form of advertising,
where the survey mentally engages the consumer.
Using an online survey websites such as www.surveygalaxy.com where the gathered
survey information is stored in a database it is a simple task to upload the
relevant information into the CRM database.
If the CRM database is the queen bee of any precision targeted marketing campaign
then the online survey represents the worker bee, gathering information and
delivering the message.
With good CRM information companies are able to reduce their costs by not wasting
time sending information to people who have no interest in their product. By
keeping their powder dry for when they do have something that a particular consumer
will find useful and of interest they will be able to maximise their marketing
resource and develop better communication with the consumer.
When it comes to marketing relevancy is undoubtedly the new black.
About the Author:
Martin Day is a Director of Survey Galaxy Ltd a web site that allows anyone
to create, design and publish online surveys. For more information please visit
http://www.surveygalaxy.com |
