Triggered Communications Raise Email Response Rates and Conversions
Filed under: Email Marketing, General Marketing, Lead Management, List Strategy, Uncategorized, integrated marketing
There has been a lot of discussion from the recent DMA and around ICS regarding Triggered Communications. Why all the buzz? Quite simply it is driven from the successes that larger organizations are starting to see in this area.
While email response rates are continuing to be challenged, Triggered Communications are a key component to adding relevancy to the communications. And just like any form of communications, the more relevant and engaging, the more likely it is that you will get your message not only opened, but responded to.
A new conversation can be triggered from almost any customer touch point:
- External factors – website forms, shopping cart abandonment, customer service, etc.
- Messages – email activity (opens, clicks, unsubscribe, etc.), address change, etc.
- List – subscribe, profile update, and address change
- Link – specific link in email message
Once the “customer or prospect event” is captured, you can set a communications cadence around the key attributes of this event. These campaigns allow you to communicate with each subscriber individually based on his or her behavior or response. Because the messages are related to the specific action taken by the recipient, the conversations are natural and progressive, not sporadic and interruptive.
For example, a prospect clicked on an email to find out more information on your product, but did not take advantage of the offer. In the case of triggered communications, we can capture all “like prospects” and design communications cadences specific to this marketing situation.
These automated campaigns can be structured to follow up in a period of time after their initial response, or even so many days before the offer expires. Content can be specific to the link they clicked, or specific to the fact that they opened the email and didn’t click on a link. Testing strategies can be easily incorporated into the process as well.
According to Forrester Research’s US Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009-2014, marketers are taking on a more strategic leadership role in organizations because of their close connections to customers and prospects. Transactional, triggered email communications are on the rise because they improve open, click and conversion rates dramatically.
This builds off from the marketing foundation that a “handraiser” is one of your most effective prospect segments (from a percentage basis). Adding relevant and engaging follow-up communications will nuture leads through the sales cycles to drive more sales.
Give one of our account managers (or myself) a call to discuss triggered communications in more detail.
Advantages of Creating an Integrated Marketing Database for Your Business
Filed under: Data Cleansing and Enhancement, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, General Marketing, Marketing Technology Solutions, Uncategorized
Integrated marketing is creating growing complications for most businesses to manage their customer data. Customer Email data management requirements for opt-outs and bounces are often difficult to maintain, and creating intelligent landing pages for customers to provide you with updated customer data adds yet another level of complexity.
In our opinion, one of the easiest ways for organizations to address these new complexities is to create a replicated marketing database driven from your enterprise customer data management tools. Rather than trying to make your enterprise tools something that they are typically not meant to be, creating a replicated marketing database provides the security and fully functioning marketing features for integrated electronic and traditional communications to your customer base.
While you may be concerned about costs, we find that this approach provides significant advantages:
- Typically costs much less than trying to customize your own enterprise system
- Can be launched much quicker and with less hassle than changes to your own system.
- Immediately offers more features (i.e. Landing pages for customer email and general updates, customer preference centers, activity reporting, demographically enhanced customer data) that would require even more costs and development time if done internally
Given the growing demands for integrated marketing communications, you are likely looking at this area if you haven’t already set a strategy for your organization. We recommend that you consider this approach when you do.
Feel free to give us a call to discuss options in this area, or listen to our recent webinar How Changing Communications Trends Drive Integrated Marketing ROI for more concrete Direct Marketing Association facts in this area. You will also find an overview of ICS’s Integrated Communications Platform (ICP) which may be consideration for your business as well.
Multichannel Integration and Optimization: The Direct Marketer’s To-Do List that’s NEVER Done
Filed under: Email Marketing, General Marketing, Marketing Technology Solutions, integrated marketing
I’m sure you’re right there with me…there’s nothing more satisfying than crossing-off action items on my to-do lists – whether it’s in the office, at home and those places where both worlds blend.
But as marketers, that satisfaction is forever elusive when it comes to Web site optimization and making sure you’re being strategic across online and offline mediums. Why? Because your job should never be considered “done.”
At ICS, we’re constantly looking at our Web site optimization AND how our online marketing efforts integrate with our offline efforts… as well as, doing the same for our clients!
Maybe that’s why I thought you would like to see this article on 5 Ways to Get Your Website Up to Speed. Don’t let the title mislead you. It’s not just about online marketing, but more about multichannel integration and amending the age-old saying to: “targeting the right consumer with the right offer at the right time via the right channel.”
If you haven’t done so already, add these action items in this article to your “to-do” list and start reaping the sales benefits. If you’re not sure how to get started, just drop us a line and we can help.
The Importance of Developing Handraisers for your Business
Filed under: Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, General Marketing, Lead Management, Marketing Technology Solutions
So few companies fully understand and leverage the power of developing “handraisers”. In our world, this is someone who is interested in your company’s product, but not ready to purchase your products or services at this time. It applies to just about every business segment and industry.
I am sure you can relate this to your every day shopping experiences. You are shopping at a store or online for something you are looking for. Through your shopping experience you are exposed to the product or service, but you are just not ready to pull the trigger at this time. Possibly you want to shop around a bit, or receive additional details on the items you are looking at. While we tend to think retail, it could be any thing from a new car, to a charitable cause, to a service you need for your business.
If you haven’t developed a Handraiser channel for your business, you really need to make it a priority. It is typically not expensive, and it will provide you access to a very productive prospect segment. We typically see a handraiser Channel converting to customers a 5 to 15 times the best targeted competitive prospects. Often, they will even outperform your current customers when soliciting new business.
Where do you get started? Typically business owners will provide an opportunity within their website or retail location for prospects/shoppers to receive more information or to stay in touch with the company. This can be as simple as a sign up for a newsletter or an opportunity to receive “special value offers” from the company.
To fully maximize the potential of the Handraiser channel, every prospect / shopper touchpoint should provide an invitation to easily engage in this communication. Examples of these might include:
- A link on your website that offers prospects an avenue to stay in touch
- Point of Sale within your storefront that invites shoppers to sign up for special offers
- Reference in your marketing efforts (newletter, mass media, targeted media) to go to a landing page to sign up for ongoing special values
Handraiser Data Capture Example
The Email channel is an excellent avenue to communicate with this audience … taking advantage of the low cost and delivery speed of the medium.
Have you developed a Handraiser channel for your Business? While many businesses have integrated these systems as a part of the Lead Management process, still the majority of businesses have not. If you are one of these organizations, you are missing out on a powerful and inexpensive way to develop new customers.
Search Engine Optimization is a long term investment
Filed under: General Marketing, Marketing Technology Solutions, Search Engine Marketing, Uncategorized
I was connecting with Adam Henige, our strategic partner from Netvantage Marketing this week about all of the cool and trendy social networking tools that are appearing everywhere it seems. We are now Twittering on Good Morning America!
But how do these new marketing tools really compare to the fundamentals in the Digital Services arena like Search Engine Optimization. As Adam explains below, this is more of a longer term investment and very analytically/metric driven. While the new social networking tools have their place, SEO has proven to be a constant contributor to targeted digital lead generation in the long run. Take a read through his thoughts below:
We live in an instant gratification world anymore, and it somehow manages to become even more instantaneous with each passing day. Twitter is a perfect example of this. If you haven’t “tweeted” yet, you’re probably going to be considered unhip by teenagers and the tech savvy, and you’ll also be left out in the dark as to what everyone you know is doing at every second of the day. Businesses, of course, have jumped on this bandwagon and are courting followers and fans through these channels and (some better than others) promoting products and services and attempting to build brand loyalty.
Some of us who earned our stripes in more traditional online marketing (does anyone remember SEO, pay per click and banner advertising?) are going to have to continue to get better at selling the value of a service that often seems to be getting no results, or moving at a snail’s pace. Social media appeals so well to the instant gratification crowd, as you can get huge blasts of traffic through to your site from Digg, Reddit and Stumbleupon, but often this success is fleeting. Twitter can be a great tool to engage customers and prospects, but still lacks a great ability to target.
I’ve spent months, and sometimes years on sites to finally get that high ranking that starts driving the “dream traffic” you want to your site. The hard part is trying to keep someone paying for this service, when all you can show them is an increased ranking…but no revenue. The truth is, even for highly targeted terms, being on page one of search results simply isn’t good enough to get a significant portion of traffic. If you’re not in the top three listings, you’re still not even playing the game. In competitive markets, getting from 15th to 1st can be incredibly difficult, and may take months or years. But depending on what product or service that keyword relates to, getting to the top can mean literally thousands of visitors coming through to your site who have already expressly stated they want what you have.
Let’s put it this way, if you sold coffee, this would be the equivalent of magically appearing in front of someone right after they decide, “I need a cup of coffee.” No trip to Starbucks, or the grocery store to look at competitive products, they ask for coffee and you’re there, and you have the first opportunity to sell. How much is that worth? And can you afford not to make that investment? The truth is, if you don’t, someone else will, and those who do won’t be worrying about jumping on the next digital marketing bandwagon, at least not with the same urgency.
Adam Henige is a Managing Partner at Netvantage Marketing, an ICS Strategic Partner specializing in paid search management, SEO, and web analytics.
Our Technology Solutions provide administrative efficiencies for Marketers
Filed under: General Marketing, Marketing Technology Solutions
I was working with a client this week who was looking to implement a new Customer Loyalty program. Our role in the opportunity was to create a new technology portal to manage their customer loyalty activities via the web. This year’s program was going to increase in size … forcing the client to look at more efficient ways to manage the activities.
Our MarketSmart Technology Suite was able to provide this client with advantages in two distinct areas:
First, our technology platform was able to provide clients with a start up advantage. Our “object-oriented” approach leverages pre-built modules of functionality. While we completely customize the application around the unique business processes, our development approach allows us to build solutions for a fraction of the cost, in a fraction of the time of a traditional new build, and with more advanced features right out of the gate.
While startup advantages are critical, the real eye-opener for many clients is the ongoing administrative advantages of today’s technology solutions. Through the typical lifecycle of marketing programs, ongoing efficiencies will pay even greater dividend for clients:
- Clients can now have direct access to real-time reports right from their desktop — versus having to make a call, connecting with a coordinator and having a report run. This takes time and the client will likely be charged for the processing.
- Questions and issues can be quickly resolved via administrative access to the system
- Communications can be structured to clients or participants via email versus traditional print and mail communications
- Updates and alerts can be built into the application to notify you when key issues develop
- Customer Fulfillment activity can be electronically managed … saving you hours of administrative logistics (and expense)
While we will see if we win this business, this is another perfect client situation where we can really change the business model for the marketing organization. Through advanced, data-driven technology, we can reinvent administrative processes … allowing our customers to become more efficient, more productive, and more cost-competitive for their clients. And similar repeat business will become even more profitable.
Today’s marketing technology solutions directly translate into lower costs and higher customer satisfaction. If you are still working in an outdated legacy system environment, you may have an uphill battle long-term. And you are likely battling with competitors who have already made the transition.
