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Knowledge Base A Compendium of Articles written by Michael Collins |
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| 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, propos |
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||
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| Warehousing for the desktop |
Business is experiencing a new awareness of the importance of data. As companies seek to integrate their suppliers, their customers, their marketing partners in complex relationship structures, new quantities of data are becoming accessible for exchange and sharing and the value of the data within the organisation increasing. Already accountants are working on how best to introduce the data as an asset on the company's balance sheet and we are already seeing this expressed in the value of companies whose data due diligence is being assessed, for a potential buyer or investor.
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| 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. | ||
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| On-demand CRM | There has been a great deal of discussion recently with regard to the pitfalls of on-demand CRM, hosted web-based systems that on the face of it provide an instant external resource, readily accessible by all who need it, at a flat rate per user. The main critics of hosted software tend to concentrate on the strategic costs that underlie the attractive (initial) costs and ease of deployment and the sometimes unrealistic expectations of the users. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||
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| Podcasting - the next step to 1-to-1 marketing |
Podcasting
is a new way to deliver messages to your clients, your distributors,
retailers or suppliers. With on-demand delivery it can help to achieve
that holy grail of marketing – one-to-one communication that is at once
relevant (right message), targeted (right person) and timely (right time)!
By backing podcasting with a sound data strategy you can ensure that
contacts receive the message you want them to get when you want them to
get it. Podcasts
could be viewed as the 21st century equivalent of the
versionalised consumer magazine – a marketing tool that will assist in
the development of the customer relationship.
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| Icing on the cake…or staple diet? |
In
an information age with the Net providing us with news and comment from all
corners of the world, data exploitation has been transposed from its
traditional place in the marketing mix to a place as a 21st century
corporate necessity. Essentially businesses have a wealth of data but a
shortage of actionable information. Delivery of the right information to the
right people at the right time has never been so critical to an
organisations success.
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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. |
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Cloud Computing |
The concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) or “cloud computing” in the CRM space removes the need to invest in IT infrastructure and software whilst offering an extensive range of business applications that can provide enormous efficiencies in handling customer and prospect enquiries, in directing and measuring sales force activity, event management, marketing and budgeting. |
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