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One of the best ways to produce measurable results is by putting more
emphasis on retention marketing in your annual marketing plan. Unlike mass media advertising,
retention strategies, which usually include forms of direct marketing, let you easily measure the
impact of your marketing expenditures through customer feedback and response.
Where do you stand with your customers?
Do you need to know what your customers are thinking? Why not just
ask them? Customer feedback gained through surveys can give you a
clearer picture of customers’ perceptions about your company, your
products and your service. You can see how loyal your customers are
and uncover potential for increasing your sales and referrals.
The insight you gain through customer surveys can also show
the impact of your customer communications efforts on loyalty,
purchasing and referrals. First Marketing’s Effectiveness Research,
conducted as a customer survey, can show you how many customers
recall seeing your communication and marketing materials, how
many read the material, and how many took action or did additional
business with you as a result. Effectiveness Research can also be
used to fine-tune the appearance, content and readability of your
communications to make them more appealing to customers and
more effective for you.
What you don’t know can hurt you
Miscommunication with customers is a common problem that
only gets worse when you don’t even know about it. Customers
may be disappointed in your product or offer. They may feel
neglected and unappreciated. That’s when they’re most likely
to turn to your competitor. On the other hand, customers who
have a strong bond with your company can be sold additional
products and services. Without knowing who they are, you’re
missing those opportunities.
First Marketing’s Relationship Index Survey can address both areas
by showing you exactly what your customers think. This survey
can identify problems as well as untapped opportunities for sales
growth. After using the insight gained from the survey to hone
your original marketing strategy, a second survey can be conducted to measure the impact of your efforts on
customer attitudes, sales and profitability.
A second survey may also reveal the need to
make further adjustments to your marketing
strategy to maximize effectiveness.
A more in-depth approach, the Relationship
Dimension Study, explores customer-centered
dimensions of the relationship,
such as commitment, customer interaction
and perceived value; as well as company-centered
dimensions such as performance, communication and customer focus. This research tool analyzes several facets of
each dimension to pinpoint problem areas
and suggest specific actionable responses
to problems. For example, when research
identifies “communication” as a problem
area, this kind of in-depth analysis can
reveal whether the problem is caused by the
quality of information communicated or
the timeliness of its delivery. Knowing the
specific causes of problems allows you to
make the most appropriate corrections.
Responses you can count
Online or in print, retention marketing
includes direct marketing to your
customers with response rates you can
use to measure the effectiveness of your
strategies. Direct marketing also allows
you to test multiple variables such as
different offers, headlines or designs to
see which generate the most responses.
Analyzing results allows you to further
refine your materials to meet your
business objectives.
E-mail marketing is not only cost efficient,
it’s also easy to measure. Most customers
respond within 24 hours. Variables such as
subject lines, offers and activity on a landing
page can easily be tracked for effectiveness.
You can measure open rates and, more
importantly, click-through rates which
show how many were interested enough
to click the link to your landing page or
Web site. Conversion rates show how many
customers took action or made a purchase,
which gives you the ultimate measure of
success — return on investment.
Newsletters and direct mail pieces are also
easily measured by including tracking
mechanisms such as different toll-free
telephone numbers, URLs or coded response
cards. As with e-mail marketing, you should
measure not only responses, but conversion
to determine the impact of each piece on
revenues and customer retention.
To make sure your marketing measures up,
make retention marketing a significant part
of your annual plan. Then when you present
next year’s marketing budget to the CFO,
you’ll have exactly what you need to justify
expenditures: measurable results.  |
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| Dr. Adina W. Wasserman,
Ph.D. is the Market Research
Director at First Marketing,
where she is responsible
for all effectiveness and
customer research, as well
as segmentation analysis.
She can be reached
at awasserman@first-marketing.com. |
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