Focus Your Marketing

7 tips for generating results

If you want to generate results from your marketing, then focus on these simple, yet highly effective strategies.

1. Focus on winning back past customers.

Often called the “win-back”, learning why your customers left and working to overcome these reasons can be very productive. For many companies who maintain a detailed house-list, many of their customers are either “lapsed” customers or defectors. Companies should leverage the information they have on these customers to determine which ones are the most/least likely to return to the brand and develop communication strategies accordingly.

Information that may be leveraged includes:
• Time since last transaction
• Average purchase cycle
• Average revenue per transaction
• Categories/products purchased
• Geographic location
• Relative wealth index

Developing a complete picture of your target audience is essential. The same is true for understanding your defectors. If a similar progile exists, you can decide to create a new product offering, payment term, or resolve whatever the key detractor was. Additionally, you may decide that a change in target segment is needed.

2. Find the high-value targets

With all the concerns about spam, privacy, etc., it is of utmost importance that you only communication to those that are of high value and interested in your category/product offering. Take a look at those who have purchased your product in the past, develop a profile, and target those who are similar. Otherwise you’re throwing your money away—and that’s unnecessary in a highly addressable market.

3 Integrate your marketing communications

Develop a communication plan that consistently focuses on 3 or 4 key messages. Whether you are using email, fax, advertising, direct mail, or telephone, be sure to consistently communicate the messages you’ve chosen and the support for those key message points.

With the overload of messages the consumer receives, more than ever it is of critical importance to build your brand in a consistent and relevant manner. If you begin to fragment your message, you are only detracting from the potential impact of your communication efforts.

4. Reinforce your marketing messages consistently across all media types

Take one promotional offer and reinforce it at every touch point possible using consistent imagery, tone, and layout. If you target the offer and send it via direct mail, then reinforce it through e-mail; reinforce it when that customer logs on to your site; reinforce it when that customer talks to a customer service rep; reinforce it at point of sale. All are inexpensive ways to make your promotion dollars work harder.

5. Develop a communication plan based on number of expected touches with a prospect or client

Most direct mailers simply don’t mail enough to their best prospects. How many times should you mail? How much frequency is enough? And how much is too much? The simple rule is continue to mail to selected segments until the last mailing no longer generates an acceptable ROI. You must test your way into the correct mailing frequency using the ROI criteria to tell you when to stop. Most mailers are surprised to find out that they can mail many of their best segments much more often than they thought. As much as 15 times more often than they initially believed. Try it for yourself!

6. Save money and increase brand recognition by testing your marketing messages through email

Thinking of a new marketing campaign? Looking to test an offer? One the quickest and most effective ways to do so is with online testing.

Savvy marketers have been using email to test subject lines, offers, and more, for over a decade. Find a robust email client that provides detailed reporting. Search your database of the email addresses of those who you would be targeting and send an email complete with subject line, offer, and so on. Try multiple formats and see which provides the greatest results. This works rather before spending hundreds if not thousands on your next marketing campaign

7. Initiate a Referral and Affiliate Programs

Among your customers you must have some advocates. Use their commitment to your product or brand as a way to “spread the word”. Online affiliate programs or basic referral programs reward your customers for recruiting others to purchase your product or service. Make your referral program easy to implement and track and you’ll have dozens of other individuals acting as your very own sales agents.