Customer intimacy as recession proof strategy

Don’t let your business run aground . How to gain and retain customers effectively in challenging times

The story so far

Make sure that you:

Know the people you sell to

Offer the products and services your customers need via effective marketing channels

Remain control over sales cycle conversion processes

It is all about customer intimacy: People working together in a structured and customer centric way to create customer value and achieve results.

Result It is not just about the number of leads. It is also about your capabilities to convert these leads into loyal customers.

Structure: Gain & Retain Leads Qualified Opportunities Proposals New customer Cross-Sell and Up-Sell How many leads were converted into qualified opportunities in a given period? How many customers bought product upgrades?

Which methods can I use to successfully grow my leads and prospects into loyal customers?

Datran Media : ‘Overall, 82 percent of the marketers surveyed indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008, and 55 percent of the respondents cite that they expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel’ ‘In 2008, average email ROI is expected to be $45.65 for every dollar spent on advertising. Over two-thirds (67%) of respondents said email has helped boost sales.’

Jupiter Research: "Spam and the cluttered inbox have not killed the email medium for marketers," said David Daniels, research director at JupiterResearch. "With a clear messaging strategy that is built off of a lifecycle relationship driven approach, there is still tremendous value that can be derived from email," added Daniels.”

Drip marketing ‘ Feed your potential and existing customers with repeated contacts, or "touches”’ ‘ Carefully planned and thoughtfully targeted series of communications’ www.InsideCRM.com

Drip marketing ‘ Drip marketing is ideal for high-value products with a long sell cycle, especially high-ticket items which are purchased at infrequent intervals.’ www.InsideCRM.com

Drip marketing ‘ Do it right and you can convert more leads. Do it wrong and your customer gets the water torture .’ www.InsideCRM.com

Drip marketing vs. flood marketing It’s not about drowning your customers with unsolicited or undesired bulk email messages (a.k.a. spam)

Drip marketing It’s about getting your customers to opt-in . Permission is key.

Dangers ‘ Poor email practices cause consumers to be turned off, with around a third claiming to have stopped doing business with at least one company because of poor email marketing.’

‘ Getting your customers’ attention is much easier if you can leverage information that you know about them. This provides for a more rich and personal interaction.’

Lack of integrated customer data : Information is scattered, people are puzzled, campaigns are de-railed, and opportunities are lost

Lack of integrated customer data : "the failure of CRM systems to centralize all customer insights haunts email marketing and in many respects relegates it to a second class medium” JupiterResearch

To what extent is All customer information centralized & seamlessly integrated?

ERP

Order history

Invoice history

Items purchased

Pricing & discounts

After-sales - Complaints - Customer satisfaction surveys

Sales

Customer visits

Samples requested

Sales cycle

Quotes send

Outbound communications

Marketing campaigns

- Opt-in/opt-out history

Tracked behavior and response of recipients

Tradefairs visited

Customer profile

Multi-channel marketing Key is orchestrating the various direct marketing channels

Fire your sales Trigger automated actions based on active or passive responses A click-through? Alert a sales manager for follow up!

HURDLES 6 years ago smaller businesses seemed to think that e-mail marketing was harder to execute than other marketing initiatives. Today, many different vendors provide the tools to remove the hurdles associated with technology.

Don’t let your business run aground . Successfully sail into the future