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In The Year 2009, Focus In On Marketing Assets
By Jill Jozwik, Marketing/Media Director
The sales goal for any company, in any year, has to include—keeping existing customers while also targeting new ones. Several different media within the marketing mix can help accomplish this: ads, articles, press releases, Web site, online marketing, video, tradeshows, catalogs, direct mail and other sales tools.
Even in challenging times, it is necessary to sustain a level of advertising to reinforce your brand with a consistent message to existing customers, and increase awareness and motivate response with new customers. The key is to have compelling creative and then determine the most effective media to reach your target market.
In the year 2009, the fact is that we all need to do more with less. The challenge today is to keep your brand in front of your target market with less sales staff and marketing budget. With this in mind, you need to be smart about who you are targeting, the media used, the cost to do this and possible return on investment.
So, consider the economy in 2009, where your company is, where you want it to be and what your available resources are to help get you there. Certainly from a financial bottom line standpoint, you need to focus on having a profitable relationship with existing customers and new potential customers.
If your leads from all advertising sources are filtered into one master database, there are cost efficient ways to nurture these leads. Focusing on keeping your message in front of existing customers and nurturing these leads will increase sales.
In-House Database=Untapped Marketing Asset
To gain overall efficiency in the marketing mix, integrating database marketing is an ideal way to make the most of databases you already have in-house.
We all want to do business with a company we already know and trust. In fact, these are people who already know your company’s name. This can be a current customer database or a database of potential customers that have already inquired about your product, whether it is from an ad, article, press release, Web site, online marketing, webinar or tradeshow.
Often times, these databases are the biggest untapped marketing asset in a company. Optimization of internal databases and customer lists is more important now than ever before for a more profitable and focused approach in targeting prospects and customers.
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Also, adding your distributor database can be an effective way of keeping your distributors informed through your marketing channel.
Update Information
Step one: Put all of your current customers, distributors and leads from all advertising sources into one database—coding them appropriately.
Step two: You don’t want to send anything out until you update your database.
If your database has some dust on it and hasn’t been touched for a while, now is the time to update it. Get your sales and customer service staff to help and this can be done rather quickly. Any data that is missing can be appended or enriched using an outside service. If your staff is limited, an outside service can completely update your entire database for you. There are affordable and reputable sources that can make this process easy for you.
Not only is this data useful for sending out marketing information to the correct address, it can also be used for the salespeople for follow-up purposes. And if the salespeople record their follow-up results in this database, it can also be used for reporting. So the database is managed and nurtured over time.
Imagine this: one master database that has three uses and could potentially help close the sales loop with measurable results—and most of this initial information is probably already within your company. Then when a lead turns into a sale, it would be possible to track back the source of that lead and determine which media are more effective in contributing to sales.
Worst-case scenario is that you don’t have any kind of in-house database. Not to worry, you can purchase lists from many different sources or partner with a magazine. Get an experienced advertising agency or marketing company that is already familiar with your market to help you get a quality, targeted list for your product. Keep in mind that the key is a quality and targeted list. Part of the success of your marketing efforts depends on this list.
Zoom In
Step three: Once your database is updated, consider your goals, what information you want to send and if segmentation of the database is necessary.
Segmentation is simply dividing your database into interest groups. Sending relevant content to each interest group based on what they specifically responded to or are interested in is a very efficient, focused approach. Sending people content they are interested in will increase the probability that they will take action.
For example, if I sell cutting tools and segmented my database by product interest—for the customers that have previously purchased my drills or potential customers who have inquired about my drills, I would want to send them information on my latest drill technology, in addition to an existing drill series or drill specials for that month.
Segmentation can be done by type of target (current customer, distributor or potential customer), previous purchasing behavior, product interest, job titles or even geographical area (good for regional/distributor open houses, local tradeshows or rolling out a product to only a specific geographic area).
Execution
Step four: Finally, what method do you want to use for your database marketing to target your customers and prospects and what specific content will be used?
Online marketing such as e-newsletters or e-mail blasts are certainly cost effective.
If a more technical or interactive approach is necessary, then a webinar may be more appropriate.
Due to postage costs, direct mail may be slightly more expensive but may be an option in the right situation.
Telemarketing can be used as an extension of your company for multiple purposes.
Or if you are looking for any type of customer or potential customers' buying behavior or preferences, market research is the way to go.
E-Newsletter: This keeps your company name and news in front of your customers and keeps them up-to-date with new product/service innovations or makes them aware of a current product that they didn’t previously know about. Ads and other forms of promotion can drive people to your Web site where they can sign up to receive your e-newsletter.
E-mail Blast: Focused on one particular product, service or special offer and is much more of a quick read than an e-newsletter.
Webinar: For more technical information, sometimes a detailed presentation is the best way to communicate. A webinar is a cost efficient computer-to-computer presentation (the next best thing to face-to-face without traveling) and focuses on a specific product or technology. Registration for the webinar is promoted through an e-mail blast for customers to register. You can use list segmentation depending on the nature of the material to be presented.
Direct Mail: This can be a very effective form of promotion if you don’t have e-mail addresses or for a regional promotion. 3D direct mail is attention getting and can target an otherwise unreachable audience. For example, Presidents, CEOs, and CFOs are more likely to first of all, receive a 3D direct mail box on their desk than a postcard. And second, they are more likely to open the 3D direct mail box than read a postcard.
Telemarketing: Very useful to help append data or if you have a limited sales staff, telemarketing can be your extended sales staff in determining interest or pre-qualifying leads.
Market Research: Sometimes getting feedback from your customers or potential customers can help fine-tune your product offerings and marketing message. Research such as: product buying intentions, time frame for purchasing or reasons for preferred brands is helpful to position or re-position your products.
The success of your database marketing efforts depends on two things:
- A quality, targeted and updated database
- Professionally written and designed content that is consistent with your overall marketing message and integrated with all your advertising, and if it is online—linked to a landing page with appropriate content
Focus on an experienced advertising agency or marketing company that can help make your database marketing efforts a profitable relationship with your customers.
Also, keep in mind that the targets in your database originally came from ads, articles, press releases, Web site, online marketing, webinars or tradeshows. You got these leads from some form of marketing. So, not only is it important to continue advertising to keep your brand in front of current customers, but it is also important to keep filling the pipeline with new leads that can be nurtured and turned into sales.
In the year 2009, you need to turn obstacles into opportunities. It is very possible that your sales growth may come from taking business away from your competition that is sitting on the sidelines.
Need more information?
Jill Jozwik
Marketing/Media Director
Goda Advertising
1603 Colonial Parkway
Inverness, IL 60067
Phone: 847-776-9900
Fax: 847-776-9901