What’s Working: 9 Tactics for Acquisition and Retention
June 24, 2009 By Hallie Mummert, Editor-in-chief, Target Marketing
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The economic downturn notwithstanding, what’s working in direct response programs has been changing in leaps and bounds for the past couple years. As such, four marketers from diverse sectors told interesting stories at last week’s DM Days New York Conference & Expo about where they’re investing their time and money these days.
In the session, “The Multichannel Approach: How Marketing Powerhouses Are Engaging Customers Beyond the Initial Sale,” moderated by The Logical Step CEO Steven Edelstein, a panel consisting of marketing executives from Allstate Roadside Services, Bosley, Murad and Songbird Hearing offered the following insights into which strategies and tactics are gaining traction right now.
#1. Today’s multichannel environment requires more of a lead generation approach to initial marketing contact through conversion. Songbird Hearing, a marketer of high-end disposable hearing aids, uses “chase” programs to establish an ongoing dialogue with prospects, such as getting them to sign up for an e-mail newsletter, says Vice President of Marketing Ben Quigley.
#2. For high-cost, and thus high-consideration, products and services, it’s critical to monitor and measure the effectiveness of contact center staff to ensure the brand value proposition is being communicated properly to prospects throughout the purchase consideration process, says George Fettig, vice president of marketing for Bosley, a hair loss restoration firm.
#3. When using DRTV, maximize your media spend with coordinated paid and organic search programs that pull in incremental prospect traffic, Fettig explains.
#4. Try to measure value of social media marketing efforts by including toll-free phone numbers or other fixed points of contact where possible for tracking. For example, skin care company Murad has offered free samples to collect individual contact information that can be used for further marketing, says Carey Grange, Murad’s executive vice president of direct to consumer.
#5. Leverage media exposure by using Google Alerts to stay on top of mentions of your company and products in media outlets, and then join the conversation, says Quigley. While only about 5 percent of these alerts are meaningful, he notes, coverage in a vehicle with huge readership (like The New York Times) allows you to reach the people who post and read the comments with transparent, helpful messaging that gets you more mileage.
#6. Social media is a great platform for promoting member-get-a-member programs, Quigley and Grange emphasize. Provide customers with the tools and incentives to spread your message to their networks.
#7. In today’s customer-centric climate, onboarding programs (i.e., welcome programs covering the first 90 days after purchase) are working well to embrace new customers and establish stronger ties to your brand, states Grange. These efforts don’t have to center around discounting, she explains, but can involve premium positioning and enhanced service instead to retain customers.
#8. Don’t wait until customers grow dissatisfied to the point of attrition before you reach out to see what can be fixed. Gauging their satisfaction levels at various points in their life cycles does not open the door to thoughts about leaving that never would have occurred to them otherwise, says Grange. Instead, it allows you to identify problems with your product, customer service or marketing that can be improved to reduce churn. Quigley takes this idea one step further: Incorporating a more solicitous approach in marketing communications (such as asking for feedback on what the audience finds helpful) to prospects and customers typically corresponds with a spike in sales for Songbird.
#9. Before you spend another dollar on acquisition efforts, take a step back and look at your customer and prospecting databases. It was so easy to acquire new names during the past decade that Bosley lost focus on its database of roughly 2 million customers. How many of those inquiries were still valuable leads, and could they be converted at a greater profit than new names acquired today were the questions Fettig and his team set out to answer. For Bosley, data mining and the right lead nurturing programs proved to be a successful venture. The same is true for Allstate Roadside Services, which has been successful with optimized reactivation and renewal efforts, says Karen Burns, the motor club’s director of marketing.
In the session, “The Multichannel Approach: How Marketing Powerhouses Are Engaging Customers Beyond the Initial Sale,” moderated by The Logical Step CEO Steven Edelstein, a panel consisting of marketing executives from Allstate Roadside Services, Bosley, Murad and Songbird Hearing offered the following insights into which strategies and tactics are gaining traction right now.
#1. Today’s multichannel environment requires more of a lead generation approach to initial marketing contact through conversion. Songbird Hearing, a marketer of high-end disposable hearing aids, uses “chase” programs to establish an ongoing dialogue with prospects, such as getting them to sign up for an e-mail newsletter, says Vice President of Marketing Ben Quigley.
#2. For high-cost, and thus high-consideration, products and services, it’s critical to monitor and measure the effectiveness of contact center staff to ensure the brand value proposition is being communicated properly to prospects throughout the purchase consideration process, says George Fettig, vice president of marketing for Bosley, a hair loss restoration firm.
#3. When using DRTV, maximize your media spend with coordinated paid and organic search programs that pull in incremental prospect traffic, Fettig explains.
#4. Try to measure value of social media marketing efforts by including toll-free phone numbers or other fixed points of contact where possible for tracking. For example, skin care company Murad has offered free samples to collect individual contact information that can be used for further marketing, says Carey Grange, Murad’s executive vice president of direct to consumer.
#5. Leverage media exposure by using Google Alerts to stay on top of mentions of your company and products in media outlets, and then join the conversation, says Quigley. While only about 5 percent of these alerts are meaningful, he notes, coverage in a vehicle with huge readership (like The New York Times) allows you to reach the people who post and read the comments with transparent, helpful messaging that gets you more mileage.
#6. Social media is a great platform for promoting member-get-a-member programs, Quigley and Grange emphasize. Provide customers with the tools and incentives to spread your message to their networks.
#7. In today’s customer-centric climate, onboarding programs (i.e., welcome programs covering the first 90 days after purchase) are working well to embrace new customers and establish stronger ties to your brand, states Grange. These efforts don’t have to center around discounting, she explains, but can involve premium positioning and enhanced service instead to retain customers.
#8. Don’t wait until customers grow dissatisfied to the point of attrition before you reach out to see what can be fixed. Gauging their satisfaction levels at various points in their life cycles does not open the door to thoughts about leaving that never would have occurred to them otherwise, says Grange. Instead, it allows you to identify problems with your product, customer service or marketing that can be improved to reduce churn. Quigley takes this idea one step further: Incorporating a more solicitous approach in marketing communications (such as asking for feedback on what the audience finds helpful) to prospects and customers typically corresponds with a spike in sales for Songbird.
#9. Before you spend another dollar on acquisition efforts, take a step back and look at your customer and prospecting databases. It was so easy to acquire new names during the past decade that Bosley lost focus on its database of roughly 2 million customers. How many of those inquiries were still valuable leads, and could they be converted at a greater profit than new names acquired today were the questions Fettig and his team set out to answer. For Bosley, data mining and the right lead nurturing programs proved to be a successful venture. The same is true for Allstate Roadside Services, which has been successful with optimized reactivation and renewal efforts, says Karen Burns, the motor club’s director of marketing.
Companies Mentioned:
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