To us, the term 'marketing' is about "creating the opportunity to sell". It doesn't make the sale; it provides the infrastructure and support to enable the sale to take place.
Each and every time a prospective or existing customer comes into contact with a business, a selling opportunity then exists. Marketers need to identify all potential customer contact points and map them into a cohesive relationship programme, so that at each point, trust grows and their value to the company increases.
The aim of any communication programme should be to build towards a relationship whereby the client enjoys engaging with the company/brand and as a result, the company achieves a greater return on its marketing investment.
This ideal scenario is the result of two courses of actions; the initial acquisition of a customer, and then their subsequent positive development.
We have developed the diagram below to represent the process of achieving an ongoing client-relationship. It shows that the more customer information is to hand, the more personalised the marketing approach can be, and in turn the more profitable the relationship can become.
Acquisition
One of the greatest problems that our clients experience is the difficult selection of the appropriate marketing tools to drive business forward or to achieve specific targets.
There are generally two types of marketing: the proactive and the reactive. One informs the customer of the existence of a company's product or service, and one provides the information required to support the close of the sale. Any implementation of strategy must achieve a good balance between the two.
The concept of the customer buying decision process is relevant here. This is the path or steps a potential customer takes from discovering a company/product through to making a purchase decision. This must be understood in order to predict the stages of the customer journey and to define what messages to use and how best to deliver them.
Successful marketing campaigns follow this path by providing suitable communications with appropriate messages at each step, to drive prospective customers further along the path towards the purchase decision.
A common error is that much marketing material, attempts to make the sale in the first communication, by overloading the prospective customer with information too early in the process. The initial marketing effort should simply provoke sufficient interest to engage attention.
Development
One of the greatest assets a company has is its customer base, and this should be exploited. We all know that it is cheaper and more cost-effective to persuade a past or existing customer to buy again, rather than to acquire a new one. However, more often than not, firms do not identify and routinely connect with their valued customers.
In order to communicate effectively with customers for the purpose re-selling and cross selling, it is crucial to collect relevant data. For example, initiatives such as those used by a now famous dog kennel company, whose practice is to take the holiday addresses of their Clients so they could send a postcard from the pet to the owner saying that they were having a lovely time. This is the kind of small touch that makes the difference to a relationship. It does not have to be quirky; the important point is to identify opportunities to solidify the relationship and gather useful data to enable those initiatives to be implemented.
It may not always be practical to communicate with all those customers that have bought from your company. In this event, identification and concentration on valuable customers is crucial to ensure a good return on investment. Alternatively, you may wish to communicate with all your past customers but differentiate the offering to those clients that are deemed to be more valuable.
Recently, we analysed a client�s database to discover that 2,000 of their 100,000 customers generated almost 98% of their entire revenue. Because of the risk posed to the bottom line if the 2% were to stop using the company�s services, we created a privileged invitation-only membership scheme with a series of valuable extras. The rationale was to devise a way of thanking those customers for their commitment, as well as tying them in further to the brand. In practice it also helped motivate other customers on the verge of qualification to spend more, in order to benefit from the same privileges.
Customer relationship programs can vary in their use of marketing disciplines, from sending regular newsletters to implementing loyalty schemes. The key to identifying the appropriate tools to use, is to start by focusing on what message to convey in order to promote loyalty, encourage repeat purchase and accelerate recommendation by 'word of mouth. The correct medium to deliver the message is likely to become apparent once this has been defined.
Conclusion
Whether companies have the budget to deliver a comprehensive campaign or not, they should consider all the elements of their marketing strategy as a whole. By doing so, they will then be in a position to prioritise a step-by-step approach as part of one overall plan.
Please call Ben Harris on 0845 123 2900 to discuss tactical planning for your business.
