Many firms use mass marketing techniques whereby they are sending the same message to all their subscribers irrespective of its relevancy to each individual client. However mass marketing has lost its effectiveness due to technological advancements that have resulted in a requirement to switch to integrated multi-channel marketing and segmentation.
“Consider all the money you dedicate to acquiring new customers, and the database you’ve built as the result of your investment in acquisition. Now picture that money flying out the window when your customers disengage— either explicitly through an opt-out, or subtly by withdrawing their interest. When you “lose permission” to interact with those customers, you are left unable to approach them about additional products or services” [1].
The first step to achieving integrated multi-channel marketing that is relevant to every user is to identify all the possible revenue streams that are available, and then choose the specific market segments that add value to your firm. This will allow the development of a database that contains all the fields required for that market segment and that are required to maximise your marketing efforts. Armstrong and Kotler [2] define market segment as a group of consumers who respond in a similar way to marketing efforts.
Consequently an essential part of fulfilling any digital marketing plan is the development of customer dialogue by tapping into the potential of a fully integrated database. Every subscriber must be dealt with as a recognisable individual with unique preferences. A fully integrated database is essential so that the customer’s name, address, on-line behaviour and previous order history are easily recalled and used appropriately in email sequences that are personalised and automated. A fully integrated database means that all the customer touch points where customer data can be obtained are being tapped and these database fields are being updated through all the firm’s different systems (website, CRM system, ESP system…) into the database with the aim of user personalisation.
Personalisation is a data intensive task. It is important to manage and control all the data touch points from the different channels outlined in the diagram above. In addition it is important to use the newly obtained data to feed back to all the channels as well. For example if data is coming in from the website that a client is continually looking at a webpage that displays information on ‘Financial Services’ then it is important that this information is used in our marketing messages to ensure that this individual client does not receive information relating to ‘International Trade’ or ‘Government’. And if the email campaign or the sales team receives information from the client then it is equally important that we can feed this information back to the website through your database.
[1] Marketo 2014. Improve Customer Acquisition with an Engagement Strategy. [Internet] Available from:https://www.marketo.com/_assets/uploads/Improve-Customer-Acquisition-with-an-Engagement-Strategy.pdf?20140926122647
[2] Armstrong, G. Kotler, P. 2003 Principles of Marketing, 10th Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
