Here are some basic rules to get your marketing adrenalin churning. I encourage you to apply these rules as they best apply to your business. At Group 3 Marketing, we have spent the last 18 years building a model that addresses these rules. Yet, when we apply our model to each client's business, there are always variations that require careful consideration.
Identify your best customers. We all agree that all customers are not the same. Therefore, identify this critical group and try to apply metrics to determine if your marketing is impacting them positively.
Build customer profiles that encompass the whole 360-degree view of each customer. Once you do this, you can begin clustering customers. Once you create value-based segmentation rules, you can begin managing customers as an asset and determine the level of investment to place in each segment.
Measure the future potential of each segment. I don't mean Lifetime Value (LTV). I mean that through cluster identification you can better understand who might be the rising stars or those stars that are losing their luster — and implement schemes to impact their specific behaviors.
Listen to customers strategically. They are a wonderful resource. If you want to build a strong relationship, exploit your knowledge about them. Don't be afraid to open a dialog with them. We're not promoting more communications, just better, more relevant communications. Remember, there is a lot of noise out there. You want to cut through it at the right times with the right message and offers.
Measure the right things. Identify and create a small number of performance gauges to steer your business. In other words, build better dashboards that will allow you to align incentives that will impact various segments.
Go after LOST customers. Create a win-back strategy that is in place all the time. This means you have to collect and manage activity data that is continually being refreshed. Remember, a lost or lapsed customer may be moving to your competitor and that's not good if they bring their friends.
By Bart Foreman, Group3 Marketing www.group3marketing.com