Creating a Plan for an EBM Strategy

You need to be able to respond effectively to simple and complex events by your consumers. As you put your plan together on how to respond to EBM (event based marketing) here are some important considerations.

You should be able to store cross channel consumer data and put in place queries so you can go through the detailed transaction information. You should put in place a procedure as to how often you are going to go through the data.

Identify simple & complex behavioural changes. Next, you should determine the significance of the behaviour based on that particular consumers transaction & interaction history.

Now select the best offer after you have put your 'wish list' of offers for that particular consumer. Put together a communications calendar - placing limits on the number of marketing contacts for that consumer.

Identify the best channel for the communication based on the consumers preference, and your ability to follow up. Your ability to follow up is based on the cost of the channel and capacity.

Personalize the message for the specific consumer. Do this in real time for all your events. Remember your events are driven by you, your consumers, & they are definitely cross channel.

The posts on EmailYogi this week have been focused on how best to create engagement. You can also listen in to our call on best practices at BrightTALK. We will be talking about how to leverage presence & preference to create the perfect CRM.

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Making Actions Speaking Louder than Words

Three things help you build stronger, service-based relationships and position your organization as a valuable resource -

1 - Significance: Did you contact your consumer for something unusual or significant? If you over-contact without significance you run the risk of getting the consumer to ignore your important messages.

2 - Relevance: Did you deliver a message that is highly personalized and relevant to your consumer? Generic messages or offers that have no relevance slowly start alienating your consumer.

3 - Timeliness: Were you able to deliver the offer automatically & quickly? If you don't respond within 48 hours you could rue missed opportunities and significantly increase the probability of acceptance.

A cell phone company reaches to a consumer proactively after the consumer has exceeded their monthly rate plan 2 - 3 months in a row. The consumer should appreciate this and might renew at the higher rate plan. This could mean a longer contract with the consumer and if done correctly, the cell phone company could even up sell the consumer on new phone.

If a hotel guest checks out earlier than expected, corporate marketing reaches out later in the day to find out why the consumer checked out. It is quite likely that the consumer had a bad experience. If the experience was bad the consumer can be accommodated with better service, & perhaps an offer. If the consumer did not have any issues, the hotel chain can leverage it into showing concern.

Financial institutions could proactively contact families before younger account holders turn 18. These families could be offered transition accounts for the young adult - giving them a peek into credit cards, insurance, & getting started with their own account.

There are numerous instances where an organization could leverage an event to follow up with a consumer. It should be done across channel - and the organization should learn to listen (and observe) consumer behaviour across channels.

We will be sharing practical tips and anecodotes of what works & what doesn't as you put together the perfect CRM. The call will be hosted on BrightTALK.

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Five Steps to Creating an EBM Program?

People interact with you for a reason. It is an event that drives their behaviour. This event may be driven by an impulse from outside or something that you did to drive that reaction. Event based marketing allows you to assign communication strategies for each event that takes place. (EBM = Event Based Marketing)

If you respond in real time regarding an event, you create a dialogue, and you win when the consumer is served.

If you build your foundation on good data (achieving real 'real time') you should be able to leverage the consumer information to create a compelling dialogue with your consumer (or business if you are B2B).

Here are five steps you should take.

1 - Put your customers (not your prospects) into different categories based on their value to you. From five star down to one star.

2 - Create a table with the customers adding the messages you sent to them prior to a particular purchase or transaction. See what it took to move your existing customers from one category to another.

3 - Write out transition use cases. These events that you identify are significant as they show how a customer transitioned from 'one' star to 'two' star, etc. Do the same thing for how you moved a prospect to become a customer.

4 - Assign communication plans for each consumer interaction or 'event.' If the 'event' takes place, leverage your use case to communicate with the consumer.

5 - Better yet, anticipate and start marketing 'next step' communiqués to people in one category to try and transition them to another.

The key is that your customers' behaviour is already revealing what they need and when they need it. Your task is to recognize the right moment and act on it 'impulsively' in real time. That is your mantra for EBM success.

On Friday, May 28 - we will be on the BrightTALK channel speaking about strategies on EBM, real time relevance, & how to create the perfect CRM.

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Creating an Event Based Marketing (EBM) Plan

Your consumer expects you to be observing them across channel. They expect you to leverage this information and provide exceptional service. To create an effective 'listening' strategy - you have to start with identifying basic triggers & events. As you segment your consumers into different categories - you need to look at those with signficant business value and define a strategy for complex events. Eventually you need to be able to apply the complex event strategy to your lower value consumers.

Basic Triggers: Examples of this are non-behavioural events like the maturing of a certificate of deposit, service renewal, an anniversary, or a birthday.

Basic Events: These are behaviour- based but not consumer specific. So you need to think about how you are going to respond to everyone that places an order, what response you are going to give for everyone opening a new account, or a $5000 deposit, or even a type of website inquiry.

Significant Events: These are consumer initiated events and typically specific to a particular consumer segment. This would include a dramatic transaction like a product return, or an account cancellation, or even a significant deposit or withdrawl. For a travel company this could show travel between specific cities.

Complex Events: At this point you need to apply the significant events to specific consumers. So if a consumer makes a transaction you roll out an event based communication plan for that consumer.

Email, mobile, & social media need to be leveraged along with traditional marketing channels to respond to consumer 'events.'

Don't forget to join us on Friday on BrightTALK as we talk about strategies on creating the perfect CRM.

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Seven Steps on How to Achieve Real 'Real Time?'

In our right now world you have to put together a program that is real time. And real time doesn’t just mean doing things faster. Here are seven things you should do to create a real 'real time' plan.

1 - Make sure your channels are connected. This means that you are soliciting information across channels, and that you are actually pulling all the information into one data warehouse.

2 - Put together 'steps of relevance.' This means that you start the process of collecting preferences from the consumer you can serve them with relevant offers.

3 - Plan your responses on each channel. If people interact with you on each channel, make sure you have a set of desired responses that you can execute on.

4 - Respond in as real time as possible. You have to build up 'mini-profiles' first, and message people right away. If you don't have a 'mini-profile' created, acknowledge the consumers input till you respond.

5 - Don't limit yourself to one channel. Use the profile & contact information to mix up your messages across channel.

6 - Invite the consumer into your home. Encourage them to browse your site, look at your magazine / catalog, subscribe to your email, and lure them into your 'living room.' Your living room is your social media channel.

7 - Don't forget to follow up. Many times the consumer is seeking information directly or indirectly from you. If they ask for information, it is easy to recognize their need & follow up.

You should try a two step follow up - send them information electronically (or by direct mail) and then follow up with a phone call. If they don't ask for information, track their clicks or behaviour and use that to build up your response so you can follow up effectively.

Following up effectively is all about being relevant. Being relevant right now is all about achieving real 'real time.'

Join us on Friday - May 28th on a discussion on how one can leverage key fundamentals in creating the perfect CRM. The call will be hosted on BrightTALK.

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Encore: Bad Stuff on Social Media

Social Media continues down a frenetic pace and can do an effective job in engaging people. I do get frustrated (as I am sure many of you do too) when I hear experts speak without any expertise.

Here are some horror stories -

You may have heard about a military mission that was jeopardized because the co-pilot 'tweeted intent.'

Or the school teacher who Facebook'ed how much she hated some parents as she prepared for the PTA meeting.

A very big corporations, very senior person was asked, 'How are you focusing on Social Media?' His answer, 'To continue to strive, to meet, and to exceed my customer's expectations in a dynamic economy, with a focus on values about our core customer and recognition of evolving demographics.' Deep, profound, and hard to comprehend. This is the vision that has stalled this corporations endeavor into the next step.

Another big corporation showed me their Social Media statement, 'Our focus is to enrich our customers' personal lives and to make them more successful by bringing to market exciting and useful products & services, empowering our employees & shareholders, & stakeholders in the process.' I bobbled my head in awe!

A CEO of an online retail software company made a statement in January 2009, 'Social Media will be gone in 2010!' Of course, he had a bias - his software allowed you to invest in search marketing and he was concerned that he would be cutting into his margins.

A learned & esteemed internet consultant made a statement in January 2010, 'Social Media is too expensive, too hard, and almost impossible to justify!' What was his bias? He was a very intelligent guy and explained that by partnering with him he would break down the hard part for you. He still charges a pretty penny and knows how to justify his invoice.

Bad tweets continue, and many companies continue to try to snare their prospect. True engagement is a relationship and not a click through.

Do join us on the BrightTALK channel as we talk about the THREE social media MUSTS!

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Perfecting Social: Measuring Clout?

The cartoon from USA Today (May 20, 2010) says it all about the two sides of Social Clout. You can use social media to broaden your sphere of influence. Having a good product, service, or grades here are also vital.

Net'work' done correctly can drive Networth!

The key is to come up with a strategy that allows you to measure small steps in real time. Have a plan, select your social media channels, engage your consumers (or businesses if you are B2B), communicate, measure, adjust, communicate, & keep measuring.

Join our discussion on BrightTALK tomorrow afternoon as we discuss the three absolutes for social media engagement.

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Perfecting Social: Three Absolutes for Engagement

Businesses are trying their best to engage consumers in a dialogue leveraging social media channels. The consumer wants a dialogue too, this is what they expect.

First, the consumer seeks an expert. The consumer will only visit with you (your virtual site or physical locations) if they are convinced that you can provide the expertise that they need. For example, if you are seeking a new flat screen television and want to know about the ability to play internet content - your physical visit to the electroncis store will only be worth it if the rep helping you can answer your questions. Consumers expect your site to be on top of the game providing the consumer with all the information that they need.

Second, the consumer seeks convenience. They want the ability to start transactions at any channel and finish the transaction off at the channel of their choice. A very important consideration here is that they expect to find information easily on your site. This means that not only should your site be well organized, they are also looking for your site to have great search, & they want you to list all your other sites including your social media sites. Also, keep in mind - tell people what each social media site is supposed to deliver versus making them just click through.

Third, the consumer seeks knowledge. They don't just want to sign on the dotted line or just take your word for it. They want to be educated and want you to explain things to them. If they were buying a home they want to understand the financing options clearly, if they are seeking references - they want to find real testimonials, if they are looking for recipes they can look those up themselves including check out user generated ratings.

The key element here is that your business is the expert, your consumers use your products and services, and these consumers can be turned into brand ambassadors. The right way to do this is to engage your current consumers on social media channels, publish this content onto your regular web site, make it easy for your prospects to find the information, and encourage your customers to mentor your prospects into making positive decisions (purchasing your product or service).

Also, be careful not to make every communiquee on social media channels about selling or transacting. Your goal really should be to inform, educate, or inspire. You should use it to answer questions and provide information to help consumers make decisions that are beneficial to them (and ultimately will be for your brand).

Do join us on Friday, May 21st as we speak about three absolutes that are vital for social media engagement. The call will be hosted by BrightTALK, to sign up for the call, visit BrightTALK.

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Perfecting Social: Gardening Experts

Our series on great social media sites continues with real gardening experts. If you are planting in your yard, you could read a book, visit a store or better yet, visit the gardening experts at Gardeners Supply. Their director of gardening - Kathy LaLiberte is a real gardener who like others at Gardeners Supply loves sharing her passion with others.

In addition to having a phenomenal personal garden, Kathy and many of the other fine people from Gardeners Supply share their expertise through a blog that has become an inspiration for many. People go to their blog to get ideas, & seek answers.

Through their blog, they have established themselves as the authority on gardening. The way they carry on conversations on their blog shows you their passion & interest in helping others with their personal gardens.

Here is the latest from their blog - 'Do you know what to do to prevent 'transplant shock? As the garden centers (including ours here in Vermont) fill up with 6-packs of irresistible little vegetable and flower seedlings, it’s good to remember what a shock it can be for those plants to go from greenhouse to your garden. Without a little preemptive TLC, "transplant shock" can interrupt their growth and set them back by two or three weeks.' Here are a couple ways to ease the transition:" I hope you did click through to read the article - it is the perfect way to write, and subtly sell.

Now as you look around their blog, you will see a connection to their fan page on Facebook. A place for you to nominate your 'Garden Crusader,' a video on 'Grow What You Eat,' & the second best thing (my opinion) - their kitchen garden planner.

Their blog fuses together content across channels and most importantly keeps people engaged throughout the process. The thing I admire the most about their blog is their ability to focus in on relevant messaging.

As winter subsided, they were talking to us about preparing our yards for spring. Soon after they gave us a planting guide. They have engaged people with questions on the best way to grow tomatoes. Just in time information, coming from real people and not just some 'manufacturer' trying to push product.

The three things marketers should take from their blog are as follows. First, their ability to fuse content - pictures, video, text. Second, their ability to stay relevant throughout the season. Third, their sincere passion in gardening. Social media is not about tweeting, or blogging - it is simply about sharing your interests. They do it very well.

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Perfecting Social: Peruvian Connection

We ran a series of workshops on 'M2.0' (Marketing 2.0) in 2006 & 2007. The purpose of these workshops was to help companies understand Web 2.0 channels and use those channels to market their own businesses. Interestingly, as I reviewed my notes from earlier - the top three concerns with getting involved with Web 2.0 were understanding what was available, deciding what was appropriate, & getting started. While many companies are now diving in to social media channels, I wanted to use this week to highlight some of the champions in social media.


These companies have established themselves as destinations and they offer a lot of learning for all of us.


Every day this week, we will focus in on one organization, & I hope you click through to look at their efforts.


Annie is Sincere -


An anthropologist by trade, Annie fell in love with the culture, people, & products of Peru. She eventually started Peruvian Connection with her mother - a site that not only sells merchandise, but also keeps you close to everyone involved. Common Threads is a blog community where fashion and function find common ground.

Even when you sign up for an email campaign, they start by introducing you to their products, their quality, & all things social media. The best thing about their writing style is their sincerity, and how they are able to go back and forth between selling a product, and getting people immersed into their 'Peruvian Connection.'


Their approach is interesting - here are three articles from their blog.


The first article talks about the Allure of Lace, tracing the origins of lace. At Peruvian Connection, our greatest love is the preservation and perpetuation of ancient and important textile traditions, like lace-making. You’ll find a plethora of gorgeous lace designs throughout our latest collection—from the Victorian-inspired Chatsworth Blouse to the summery, hand-crocheted Belvedere Tunic and Bayshore Lace Cardigan, amongst others.


The second article is focused on thinking green. The article offered tips on incorporating green into your lifestyle and was published on Earth Day.

The third article talks about 'Clothes that Work.' You don’t have to limit yourself to a wardrobe of conservative suits in order to look like you mean business. Give your working wardrobe a modern makeover with pieces that are chic without being stuffy… taking you from Monday morning meetings to Friday après-office cocktails in effortless style. Here are a few working points to get you started, sprinkled with some seasonal suggestions from our latest spring collection:...


Peruvian Connection has stores in different parts of the world, they have a catalog, and the web channel. The best thing about their program is how they are able to pull people into their blog to share common talk. The best lesson from Peruvian Connection is on how to weave your social media program into your brand without blatant selling.

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Seven Writing Tips for Interactive Media

Interactive media implies media that allows for a conversation - a two way dialogue - you can not only track where the consumer is going but you can also solicit feedback in real time. The web, email, social media, self service, & mobile are part of interactive media.

You need to communicate with clarity & creativity - here are seven tips.

First, choose your content based on the channel you are going to use. If you are using a kiosk - you need to be quick (people may be standing in line) & give the user options to choose from. If you are using mobile you can take a little more time and allow the consumer to think about a response. Email can be used to probe and serve up targeted content on the web site.

Second, realize the importance of being brief. State your point, provide convenient links as needed, & think about the 'next step' or purpose of the page. Reduce your copy as much as possible.

Third, focus on your audience. Do not use big words or phrases that sound rhetorical or cool or things that are too complicated. Keeping your message focused on the audience level keeps them engaged. If you are too cool, complicated, or too serious you could confuse them or offend them.

Fourth, think about the message and how it ties in with the rest of the interactive screen. If you are serving up an ad on the landing page - make sure that it is contextual and doesn't draw away from the overall message.

Fifth, use an active writing style. You want both a reaction and a reply from a user. Carry out a conversation offering the benefit of your product / service rather than just stating the offering.

Sixth, organize your content to make it more effective. Headline, sections, bullets, clear icons, definitions, images, bold, italics, links - organize the information into 'chunks' of information so the consumer can find the information easily.

Seventh, you have the ability to change and adjust your message so keep testing what works best on a smaller group before releasing the content to the rest of your population.

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17 Keys to Effective Email Marketing - Part 1

Here are 8 of 17 keys to effective email marketing, hosted on BrightTALK.

1 - Offer reasons to sign up,
2 - Ask for more information,
3 - Message people right away,
4 - Why people open & click,
5 - What makes up a basic message,
6 - Enhancing your message,
7 - How to grow your list,
8 - Social media absolutes.

Intrigue, incentive, & a mission statement go a long way to driving a successful email marketing program.

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How much should you charge?

Today’s article is about trying to figure out how much you could charge for a product or service. For that matter it is also about trying to figure out who you could target with a particular offer. I have successfully applied this principle at a number of places and would like to share with you an example with a travel company – hopefully you can draw from this some examples and try to apply them to your own business.

A travel company features destinations to their subscribers. They do it in two unique ways – first they simply list images of different destinations in their email campaigns. They also run a column & every week the author of the column shares her experience having visited a particular destination. They track the clicks on each city, plus they track who is reading the column. After three months of campaigns, they analyze their click throughs to gauge who is interested in which destination & who is reading the column. They pick the people and then set them up with a series of recurring multi-channel communiqués to coax them into the destination or even purchasing a travel guide.

The pricing strategy for the travel guide is quite interesting. They track the clicks on their travel destination column & put people into different segments – those who are avid readers (above 7 clicks) get to pay full price for the guide; those who have read it a little less (more than 4 clicks) get a 15% discount; those who have read it two or three times get a 20% discount. And of course, one time readers get a special offer – they get a free online subscription to 3 months worth of destination columns. If they open and read these emails, they get the offer to purchase the entire set of travel guides for 40% off list.

A cataloger that sells edibles features recipes on their email campaigns. They track who is reading the recipes and start grouping the 'clickers' into different categories. Those who click the most are merged with those who purchased edibles from this cataloger. Next, this list of consumers is targeted with a quarterly email with an opportunity to purchase a 'recipe book' at nearly full price. The lesser clicks get bigger discounts.

This same principle could be applied to a financial institution. You feature an expert’s column where you share best financial practices. You track the clicks on this column and use the information to invite the readers to insider seminars or to purchase DVDs or books by the expert.

A cataloger that I work with does something very simple – yet it is so effective. They offer their buyers and non-buyers a simple survey. The survey asks the recipient what they like and even asks them to rank products & suggest price points. The cataloger then keeps this information handy and leverages it into specific offers. It is all about knowing what people want, and engaging them in a dialogue.

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Common CAN-SPAM Questions...Part II

Here are some other CAN-SPAM questions answered.

7) If someone submits a price request, or downloads a whitepaper, do they qualify to be added to our email list?

Yes, but only if you expressly state that they are being added to your list. In the past it was okay to hide this information in the privacy policy (see question 2), but now it is considered deceptive if you use this strategy to send other types of messages.

8) Are emails retrieved through services such as ZoomInfo and Jigsaw governed by opt-in requirements of CAN-SPAM?

Yes, but only B2C email. Unfortunately, commercial B2B emails are not governed by CAN-SPAM opt-in requirements – this is why my inbox chokes every week. Marketers cannot pull email IDs off the web and start targeting; this is today's equivalent of pharming email IDs. Thankfully, both ZoomInfo and Jigsaw require account access to gather email IDs, this limits some of the potential harvesters.

9) If you are sending to a list of under 25 is this considered bulk email?

Yes. Keep in mind that ISPs are monitored in different ways and that bulk is not defined by volume.

10) A partner wants to run an email campaign to their clients promoting our products – can we use their name as the sender?

Yes, the partner should use their own from field and list. As the sender, the responsibility is to clearly identify yourself to the (opted-in) recipients and then honor the unsubscribes. The offer promoted within the email is of secondary importance. To increase success of such a campaign, I would suggest including the partner offer in the subject line or in the top copy of the message.

11) Where can I find a concise and comprehensive list of CAN SPAM rules and regulations?

The FTC has some useful information on their site.

12) Does the opt-out message itself need the address/phone, or sufficient on the website they are directed to?

Opt-out information should be included with every email sent – the unsubscribe link and a physical address (or qualified P.O. Box,) phone numbers are not required. I would recommend you routinely audit each process and consider including on applicable landing pages and incorporating a confirmation email to be sent once an unsubscribe request is received.

If you would like to read the first six questions, simply go to yesterday's article - Part 1.

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Common CAN-SPAM Questions...Part I

Your email marketing needs to be CAN-SPAM compliant. There are many who still forget to include basic CAN-SPAM requirements. Here are some answers from a discussion on best practices from real questions posed by marketers.

1) High level overview of differences between fax and email spamming?

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 makes it a violation of federal law for a person to send unsolicited advertisements from any fax machine, computer or other device to a fax machine. The act gives private citizens the right to sue to a) enjoin future transmissions; b) recover $500 in damages for each junk fax (or more); c) an injunction plus challenges. An unsolicited ad is defined as any material advertising the availability or quality of property, goods or services without the recipient agreeing to receive the information. The act also stipulates that fax machines are required to have the date and time of the transmission, the identity of the sender and the telephone number of the sender/ sending fax machine(s). Unsolicited email in the B2C segment is legally considered spam. The sender is not allowed to send email unless the recipient has opted in; senders must also provide an unsubscribe link, include a physical mailing address and a clear (not deceptive) from field. Personally, I believe that unsolicited B2B email should not be allowed.

2) If a subscriber opts in to receive an eNewsletter is it safe to send them promotional offers or cross-promotions from the company?

Legally, all you are required to do is state in your privacy policy that you own multiple brands and if a person signs up for one brand, they are automatically subscribed to all the others. That being said, if someone unsubscribes from any email, you need to diligently remove them from all lists. My suggestion is that you clearly tell people what they are signing up for, it will save you a lot of grief – your call center reps will be happier and the ISPs and your recipients might actually like you.

3) Are unsubscribe confirmation emails CAN-SPAM compliant?

Yes, while you could irritate the unsubscriber, it is legal to send them recipient a confirmation email as you are notifying them about the change in status of their subscription. You can make it consumer friendly by being saying 'sorry', soliciting their feedback, & giving them a 'parting gift.' The parting gift could be access to a special page on your site.

4) Do CAN-SPAM rules require that commercial emails to non-customers may only be sent if the recipient has opted-in?

Yes; unless the non-customer/ prospect has opted into a larger append file that has been sold to you. For example, the recipient may have filled out a consumer survey to access store discounts – the privacy policy may have opted the customer into receiving offers from related parties. As a marketer who has gotten access to this list, you are to remove this person from the list as part of the unsubscribe process. I would suggest that you notify the seller of the list about the unsubscribe – I would also hope that the FTC looks into the last item, to prevent the possibility of the person’s name being sold in perpetuity.

5) With the help of systems like salesforce.com, is it recommended to use such systems for sending out emails to prospects?

Tools like Salesforce.com make it easy to target prospects and customers with personalized messaging; their inherent templates make the sender’s job very easy. The challenge, is managing the unsubscribes – if someone were to unsubscribe from the communiqué, do you have a process in place to promptly remove him/ her from the master list? Two salespeople from the same company might share one prospect, if that prospect unsubscribes from Salesperson A’s message, then you have to make sure that Salesperson B doesn’t send to him/ her. Personally, I believe that the send process for emails should be centralized even if it is a campaign on demand – there is value in this strategy.

6) Do you have any statistics on litigation? How many cases are there? How many have been judged against a business?

I know of a few instances where the sender was sued by the recipient for either unsolicited emails or not honoring an unsubscribe request. In a few of these instances, the State’s Attorney General was ultimately involved and the sender was fined. The main take-away is to be careful how you market and regularly audit your own processes – never assume that things are going to work.

In tomorrow's articles I will list a few other questions with answers.

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Forget 80:20, Apply 1:1

Earlier this week we talked about RFM & OCC and how vital it is to keep your customers and prospects engaged. Many marketers put together models on how they target their list, applying RFM or their own strategy to determine who receives direct mail, catalogs, media advertising, online messaging or email. Typically, these models all come back to one of the most innate segmentation strategies we learn as marketers – the 80/20 rule, focusing on your top-tier for maximum results.

Email & social media present a unique opportunity to break the 80/20, if applied correctly you can provide recipients with personalized content that is targeted, relevant and helps you strive toward a conversation. Asking for feedback on recent purchases, including extremely relevant offers, responding to requests via digital channels, leveraging user generated content in messaging, & joining conversations on social media sites are just a few examples of how you can regularly engage your recipients, provide truly unique messages and focus on 100% of your list in a 1:1 strategy.

These techniques move you away from the batch-and-blast mentality, mass marketing or mass de-personalization techniques that were formerly the only strategy in the early days of eMarketing… interestingly enough, the more sophisticated your digital marketing program becomes, the easier it is to focus on the entire list one at a time.

Remember your style has to be conversational, and a conversation is both listening & responding. You want to reach the ultimate stage of marketing where your consumer seeks you out.

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How to follow up after a sale

Many marketers have the challenge of marketing to customers who only make one big transaction a year; they’re unsure of what to sell and how to promote but want to make sure that they are in consideration whenever the recipient is in the market again. My suggestion is to keep the recipient engaged with information, good customer service and useful tips. Here are a few examples from different industries:

Your customer has just purchased a vacation trip, start by asking for feedback about their trip, offer lifestyle and food tips from other destinations. Make email communiqués reminiscent of the travel channel – offering a get away with every newsletter. Include information and numbers that they can call about destinations but don't force them to buy, simply remind them that you are there.

Your customer has just purchased a large piece of furniture; follow up the purchase with a sincere thank you. Then ask them to send you pictures or feedback of how they like the purchase, how it fits with their existing décor. Keep communicating with them offering design tips and ways to spruce up their home. Share stories of how other people have transformed their homes with similar/ complimentary products. Keep them in their same segment but offer smaller gifts that may be perfect for their friends and family.

A customer makes a large financial investment – a bond or CD. Like the furniture purchase, thank them and then keep them abreast of what is happening in the market. Engage them in a dialogue by getting them to share information about their family, their financial aspirations and how you can help them get there. If you keep them engaged they will pay attention to your communiqués including your offers.

Regardless of the industry or purchase, the key is to keep people engaged with content that they perceive valuable and applicable to their daily lives… regular interaction could be your answer.

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How to get the First Sale of the Day

As I grew up in India, I watched merchants treat their first customer of the day with a lot of respect. The first customer was thanked, even given a freebie, offered a cup of tea and in some cases if the customer asked for a special deal they often received it. The rationale for this exercise was to set the tone for the entire day. It was considered to be a bad omen if the first customer walked away without making a purchase so merchants were very careful to not let that happen, this practice is called Boni.

To apply this back to email, I would like to recommend the following:

Activity/ Loyalty points: Award points for their purchases etc. the more points a prospect has should result in more opportunities/ better deals. Advertise this on your site and in your community so readers know what to expect and what will help them build elite customer status.

First Responders: Let your top customers know about deals first, we should always make sure that our best customers are reassured they will be the first to receive information from you. A furniture company I am working with has taken this advice to heart and actually sends emails on behalf of their salespeople to their elite customers. Additionally they take the extra step of making their salespeople call these elite customers to remind them to check their inbox for that special offer.

Quote ‘em: Ask your first group of buyers/ responders for a quote and leverage it. Publish their quote about why they are buying the product/ service on your landing page along with the date so others know it is current. This makes your site a lot more interactive, gives you additional authenticity and helps you refine your offer… most importantly you create a bond with your buyers.

Follow a Pattern: Inform the customer about the order they just placed, ask them for feedback and leverage that feedback to get back to them promptly.

Cross the Channel: Imagine the excitement you will create if a CSR tells your caller they were the first (or some number) phone order that day and were getting a special deal. More than exciting your customers, this will actually make your employees more enthusiastic about playing along.

What is interesting about this idea of Boni is that people always come back to the merchant they have purchased from – not necessarily the first thing in the morning, but at some point, because they have trust and an established relationship. The goal here is to build sustaining relationships as you create interactive conversations.

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OCC: Opens, Clicks, & Conversions for Effective Segmentation

Key metrics of email marketing programs are opens, clicks, & conversions. Opens are measured when an open pixel image is served up or the email is opened by the consumer. People open an email based on pre-established interest or preset expectations. Effective subject lines and timely emails help improve open rates. Also, opens improve over time if you continue to communicate with the consumer with relevance.

Then there is the Click - the good click & the not so good click. People may click un-subscribe and of course the marketer should seek to know why. The goal of the email should be to tell a story and drive people towards conversion by encouraging them to click through onto the landing page. Simple tips would be to create engaging content and use the 'Paul Harvey' approach to get people onto the next page.

A conversion is the achievement of a goal that has been put together for a particular campaign. This could be getting the consumer to take a survey, luring them towards a landing page, getting them to open an account or book a trip or make a purchase.

Marketers need to assign values for each category and assign a score for opens, a little more for clicks, and of course a higher score for conversions. The OCC score should then be used to create segmented lists that can drive very high responses driving extraordinary conversions.

Many marketers are still in the business of mass marketing with email because of the lower costs of the campaigns. This mass marketing leads to little scoring as the marketer watches overall metrics of opens, clicks, and conversions but does not create individual scores for each customer. OCC scores should be automatically computed per consumer per campaign. This way it is easy to track an individual over a series of campaigns and not just measure single campaign results.

Opens, Clicks and Conversions are being tracked by some progressive email marketers. They assign scores to each consumer activity and then segment their list based on the points, higher scores are targeted with personalized offers, lower scores with bigger discounts.

Ideally an OCC score should be assigned to each consumer and this should be how the list is segmented, offers personalized, and messages delivered. This basically means that as marketers segment they will be targeting people with high scores with more personalized offers and continue to test things out with those with lower scores.



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RFM: Building a Better Database

RFM or Recency, Frequency, & Monetary - these are three typical measures of how a direct marketer targets their customer. Recency refers to how long ago your customer purchased from you, Frequency refers to how often the customer has purchased, and Monetary refers to the amount of money that the customer has spent with you over time.

All three are key drivers of how lists are put together by direct marketers. This is how catalogs are typically mailed. Customers are assigned scores from 1 - 5 for each category. So a very high Monetary customer might get 5 compared to a low value customer who gets a 1. Similarly, a recent transaction might get a 5 and very frequent buyer might get a 5 with the 1's being given to those that score low.

If you are a bank or a credit union the same formula can apply. New customers and interactions equal Recency; repeated transactions equal Frequency; more than one service relationship equals Monetary. The way a direct marketer can apply this formula depends on the business.

Marketers then assign these numeric values to their customers. A perfect customer score is 5 x 5 x 5 = 125. Similarly an average customer might be at 4 x 3 x 2 = 24. The scoring of these customers drives marketing programs. The high scoring customers are well treated and courted often. Monetary is very important and it shows the lifetime value of that customer - this is the ideal customer. As Frequency builds up it shows that the marketer is beginning to earn the business of the customer. From a one time purchase the transactions continue and the overall Monetary value adds up.

Recency is all about timing. The more recent customers are often courted with offers in attempt to drive the next transaction, followed by more, ultimately leading to the 'ideal' high Monetary customer. Apply these simple tips to build up a simple RFM scoring model for your customers. Of course there are other factors that drive how data is stored and prospects are scored. Tomorrow, we will talk about scoring email prospects.

If you are looking for a way to ideas on how to rejuvenate your marketing database, do read this article on seven things you should do, also do join us on May 28th from 2 - 3 pm EST as we share best practices on how one can build up a perfect database.

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