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October 25, 2007
And The
Objective Is?
More than once in my days at the various companies I’ve worked for, I would find
myself sitting in a meeting when about half-way through, the thought would come to me: Why are we having this
meeting? (If I was in the right mood, I’d ask the question to the rest of the group.)
I think we can all relate to this scenario, and have all been in enough of those meetings, wishing we could have those
hours of our life back.
However,
this dynamic isn’t only related to meetings. It’s something that occurs within marketing departments
every day. A few years ago, I was part of a group that was responsible for analyzing the ROI of our company’s
marketing activities. As we were reviewing our tradeshow participation, one particular show stood out like
a sore thumb because of its lack of ROI. So as any good marketing team would do, we highlighted that show
and several others as bad investments. We marked them as shows that we would not participate in the following
year. Then one of the team members who had helped plan that show said, “Our goal with that show was
not to generate leads. We participated so we could gain awareness within the vertical. In addition to a
sponsorship, we had 3 speaking engagements to drive our thought leadership.” This new information changed our team’s
view of the show completely, and it highlighted an important point: in order to achieve the proper measurement,
the objective needed to be stated up front.
If in the pre-show planning it had been stated that this show was an awareness generator, then our team could
have developed our metrics accordingly: How many people attended our sessions? How many people stopped by our booth? How
much signage and advertisement did we have among the show material and on the show floor? We could
have conducted a pre and post show survey to measure our company’s brand recognition. Instead, we
applied the same measurement criteria to this show as we did to all of the other lead generation shows. As
a result, we almost axed a very important show for the following year.
So remember, when developing and measuring your campaigns, understand
the purpose of each activity. And state it up front. From there, it will be much easier
to measure against that purpose.
October 4, 2007
Long Term Customer Relationships
The other day, someone asked the
question, "How do you keep long term relationship with your customers?" I responded by saying that I
once heard a joke where after 50 years of marriage, a wife said to her husband, "We've been married 50 years, and
I can't remember the last time you told me you love me". The husband replied, "I told you 'I love you'
the day we got married. If anything changes, I'll let you know."
Unfortunately, that's how many companies
deal with their customers. "Thanks for buying, see you later". The key to customer retention is communication. To
communicate effectively, companies should develop a strategy. Yes, it sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised how often
this eludes many companies.
So, what does this strategy entail? First, decide which customers with
whom you want to develop relationships (let's face it, not all customers are worth keeping). Then, segment the customer
list: Top customers; Good Customers; Other customers. From there, develop your communications schedule for each segment. The
"Top" list should receive more personalized, high touch communications. The lower levels can receive more "mass"
communication. Vary communications messages. Balance "sales" messages with useful content. Also, integrate multiple
methodologies: email, phone, sales call,etc. Finally, once the plan is developed, determine what resources (technology, call
centers, etc.) will help to enhance the process. Doing this effectively will allow you to develop those long term relationships,
and keep your company "top-of-mind" with your customer.
7:04 am est
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