3. Maximize the Marketing Value of e-mails
• Give the customer a reason to respond
• Personalize the content of your e-mails
• Offer something instead of direct mail
• Make it easy to opt and unsubscribe
• Combine e-mail and social media
4. Creating Word-of-Mouth Buzz
• Identify and devote effort to influentials
• Supply key people with product samples
• Work through community influentials
• Develop WOM referral channels
• Provide compelling info to pass along
5. Mobile Marketing
• Being concise is critical
‒ Copy should be only 50% of screen
‒ Brands should limit ads to phrase pair
‒ Put brand logo in corner of ad frame
‒ Use only one or two bright colors
‒ Calls to action should be in a bright color
7. Customer Databases/Database Marketing
• Database marketing
– The process of building,
maintaining, and using
customer databases and
other databases (of products,
suppliers, or resellers) to
contact, transact, and build
customer relationships
8. Customer Databases/Database Marketing
• Companies can use their databases in five ways
‒ To identify prospects
‒ To decide which customers get an offer
‒ To deepen customer loyalty
‒ To reactivate customer purchases
‒ To avoid serious customer mistakes
Editor's Notes
The variety of online communication options means companies can offer or send tailored information or messages that engage consumers by reflecting their special interests and behavior.
Marketers must go where the customers are, and increasingly that’s online. Of the time U.S. consumers spend with all media, almost half is spent online (see Figure 21.1). Customers define the rules of engagement, however, and insulate themselves with the help of agents and intermediaries if they so choose. They define what information they need, what offerings they’re interested in, and what they’re willing to pay.
Digital advertising continues to show much more rapid growth than traditional media. In fact, total digital ad spending in 2013 was estimated to have grown to $42.8 billion, which meant it surpassed TV advertising (at $40.1 billion) for the first time.
“Marketing Memo: How to Maximize the Marketing Value of E-mails” provides some important guidelines for launching productive e-mail campaigns.
• Give the customer a reason to respond. Offer powerful incentives for reading e-mail pitches and online ads, such as trivia games, scavenger hunts, and instant-win sweepstakes.
• Personalize the content of your e-mails. Williams-Sonoma reported a tenfold increase in response rates when it adopted personalized e-mail offerings based on individuals’ on-site and catalog shopping behavior. An engaging subject line is especially critical. One expert notes, “You really have about five seconds to grab them or they are clicking out.”
• Offer something the customer can’t get via direct mail. Because e-mail campaigns can be carried out quickly, they can offer time-sensitive information. Travelocity sends frequent e-mails pitching last-minute cheap airfares, and Club Med pitches unsold vacation packages at a discount.
• Make it easy for customers to opt in as well as unsubscribe. Run controlled split tests to explore how location, color, and other factors affect “Sign Up Now” messages. Controlled split tests assemble online matched samples of consumers with one sample given a test message that manipulates one factor and the other being a status quo control. Online customers also demand a positive exit experience. Dissatisfied customers leaving on a sour note are more likely to spread their displeasure to others.
• Combine e-mail with other communications such as social media. Southwest Airlines found the highest number of reservations occurred after an e-mail campaign followed by a social media campaign. Papa John’s was able to add 45,000 fans to its Facebook page through an e-mail campaign inviting customers to participate in a “March Madness” NCAA basketball tournament contest.
“Marketing Memo: How to Start a Buzz Fire” describes some techniques to increase word of mouth.
Identify influential individuals and companies and devote extra effort to them. In technology, influencers might be large corporate customers, industry analysts and journalists, selected policy makers, and early adopters. Companies can trace online activity to identify more influential users who may function as opinion leaders.
Supply key people with product samples. Chevrolet selected about 900 people with a Klout online influence score of more than 50 (of a possible 100) and gave them a free three-day rental of the Chevy Volt, resulting in 46,000 tweets and more than 20.7 million largely positive blog posts about the electric car.
Work through community influentials. Ford’s prelaunch “Fiesta Movement” campaign invited 100 handpicked young Millennials to live with the Fiesta car for six months. Drivers were chosen based on their online experience with blogging and size and quality of their online social network as well as a video they submitted about their desire for adventure. After the six months of trial usage, the campaign had drawn 4.3 million YouTube views, more than 500,000 Flickr views, more than 3 million Twitter impressions (the number of times a tweet is read), and 50,000 potential customers, 97 percent of whom were not already Ford owners.
Develop word-of-mouth referral channels to build business. Professionals will often encourage clients to recommend their services. Weight Watchers found that word-of-mouth referrals from someone in the program had a huge impact on business.
Provide compelling information that customers want to pass along. Companies shouldn’t communicate with customers in terms better suited for a press release. Make it easy and desirable for a customer to borrow elements from an e-mail message or blog. Information should be original and useful. Originality increases the amount of word of mouth, but usefulness determines whether it will be positive or negative.
Even with newer-generation smart phones, the Web experience can be very different for users given smaller screen sizes, longer download times, and the lack of some software capabilities. Marketers are wise to design simple, clear, and clean sites, paying even greater attention than usual to user experience and navigation.
Direct marketing can reach prospects at the moment they want a solicitation and therefore be noticed by more highly interested prospects. It lets marketers test alternate media and messages to find the most cost-effective approach.
Direct marketing also makes the company’s offer and strategy less visible to competitors. Finally, direct marketers can measure responses to their campaigns to decide which have been the most profitable.
Direct-mail marketing means sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item to an individual consumer. Using highly selective mailing lists, direct marketers send out millions of mail pieces each year—letters, fliers, foldouts, and other “salespeople with wings.”
In catalog marketing, companies may send full-line merchandise catalogs, specialty consumer catalogs, and business catalogs, usually in print form but also as DVDs or online.
Telemarketing is the use of the telephone and call centers to attract prospects, sell to existing customers, and provide service by taking orders and answering questions. It helps companies increase revenue, reduce selling costs, and improve customer satisfaction. Companies use call centers for inbound telemarketing—receiving calls from customers—and outbound telemarketing—initiating calls to prospects and customers.
Direct marketers use all the major media. Newspapers and magazines carry ads offering books, clothing, appliances, vacations, and other goods and services that individuals can order via toll-free numbers. Radio ads present offers 24 hours a day. Some companies prepare 30- and 60-minute infomercials to combine the selling power of television commercials with the draw of information and entertainment. At-home shopping channels are dedicated to selling goods and services through a toll-free number or via the Internet for delivery within 48 hours.
Some observers believe a proprietary database can provide a company with a significant competitive advantage. In general, companies can use their databases in five ways:
1. To identify prospects—Many companies generate sales leads by advertising their product or service and including a response feature, such as a link to a home page, a business reply card, or a toll-free phone number, and building a database from customer responses. The company sorts through the database to identify the best prospects, then contacts them by mail, e-mail, or phone to try to convert them into customers.
2. To decide which customers should receive a particular offer—Companies interested in selling, up-selling, and cross-selling set up criteria describing the ideal target customer for a particular offer. Then they search their customer databases for those who most closely resemble the ideal.
3. To deepen customer loyalty—Companies can build interest and enthusiasm by remembering customer preferences and sending appropriate gifts, discount coupons, and interesting reading material.
4. To reactivate customer purchases—Automatic mailing programs (automatic marketing) can send out birthday or anniversary cards, holiday shopping reminders, or off-season promotions. The database can help the company make attractive or timely offers.
5. To avoid serious customer mistakes—A major bank confessed to a number of mistakes it had made by not using its customer database well.
