John Deere Credit’s David Patterson & Steven Brubaker on Trigger Marketing
February 2008 By Hallie Mummert
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In the quest for more meaningful interactions with prospects and customers, companies are turning to automation-based solutions that help them manage and deploy more complex behavior- and profile-driven communications without the need for army-size marketing teams.
And, of course, improved response rates are a big part of the equation. “For real-time triggers, even to a single campaign, we’re seeing up to a 300 percent increase in conversion. And that’s not out of the norm,” says Scott Olrich, CMO of Responsys, a Redwood City, Calif.-based marketing solutions provider. “It’s important to remember,” he adds, “that it’s not just the trigger that’s providing the lift, but the incorporation of data analytics for message/offer development and the use of a dialogue approach to drive response.”
John Deere Credit Worldwide, the financing arm of global equipment manufacturer Deere & Co.—which sells to farms, professional landscaping firms, nurseries, construction firms, forestry services and consumers—relies on such a trigger-based marketing program to keep up with its large, diverse audience. Via Responsys’ Interact module, the financial services group is better able to match its messaging to customers’ and prospects’ needs in the right time frame.
David Patterson, manager, marketing and communications, for John Deere Credit, and Steven Brubaker, John Deere Credit’s manager, eBusiness, discuss the company’s trigger marketing program and how this approach is providing real sales benefits.
Target Marketing: What factors influenced your decision to implement a trigger approach to direct marketing communications?
David Patterson: We wanted to increase the effectiveness of our marketing. And we equate effectiveness with delivering more timely offers … in terms of the offers being delivered closest to … when that prospect’s in the window of when he’s most likely to find [our] information valuable.
And now we have some data on the back end that shows that if we can deliver the message via e-mail, our conversions can increase—which you’d expect because it’s more timely on delivery than with direct mail. But we still use direct mail and some of the other mediums in an integrated mix.
TM: What data did you analyze to develop your triggers and corresponding offers/messaging in the channel?
DP: Purchase history behavior is key. We also have some data that goes a little bit beyond demographics. As an example, if a prospect plans to expand its business, that’s a key data point. In one of our markets, we’ve found that prospects and customers who are extremely technology savvy and are buying into technology applications for running their businesses, we [should] move them into a higher priority bucket. There’s that, and then the expansion piece [of data] … which indicates you’re likely going to be more levered … there’s a logic that would say that prospect probably has a greater need for financing. So, those are a couple things that go beyond just purchase history and various segmentations that we do that allow us to better target both timing and the messaging.
And, of course, improved response rates are a big part of the equation. “For real-time triggers, even to a single campaign, we’re seeing up to a 300 percent increase in conversion. And that’s not out of the norm,” says Scott Olrich, CMO of Responsys, a Redwood City, Calif.-based marketing solutions provider. “It’s important to remember,” he adds, “that it’s not just the trigger that’s providing the lift, but the incorporation of data analytics for message/offer development and the use of a dialogue approach to drive response.”
John Deere Credit Worldwide, the financing arm of global equipment manufacturer Deere & Co.—which sells to farms, professional landscaping firms, nurseries, construction firms, forestry services and consumers—relies on such a trigger-based marketing program to keep up with its large, diverse audience. Via Responsys’ Interact module, the financial services group is better able to match its messaging to customers’ and prospects’ needs in the right time frame.
David Patterson, manager, marketing and communications, for John Deere Credit, and Steven Brubaker, John Deere Credit’s manager, eBusiness, discuss the company’s trigger marketing program and how this approach is providing real sales benefits.
Target Marketing: What factors influenced your decision to implement a trigger approach to direct marketing communications?
David Patterson: We wanted to increase the effectiveness of our marketing. And we equate effectiveness with delivering more timely offers … in terms of the offers being delivered closest to … when that prospect’s in the window of when he’s most likely to find [our] information valuable.
And now we have some data on the back end that shows that if we can deliver the message via e-mail, our conversions can increase—which you’d expect because it’s more timely on delivery than with direct mail. But we still use direct mail and some of the other mediums in an integrated mix.
TM: What data did you analyze to develop your triggers and corresponding offers/messaging in the channel?
DP: Purchase history behavior is key. We also have some data that goes a little bit beyond demographics. As an example, if a prospect plans to expand its business, that’s a key data point. In one of our markets, we’ve found that prospects and customers who are extremely technology savvy and are buying into technology applications for running their businesses, we [should] move them into a higher priority bucket. There’s that, and then the expansion piece [of data] … which indicates you’re likely going to be more levered … there’s a logic that would say that prospect probably has a greater need for financing. So, those are a couple things that go beyond just purchase history and various segmentations that we do that allow us to better target both timing and the messaging.
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