Tag: customer relationship management

Joel Book Peels Pack the Pages of Effective Cross-Channel CRM at AZIMA Event

Posted on February 23, 2012 by - Events

Guest Post by: Liam O’Mahoney

With all of the mobile, social and email activities consuming the marketing efforts of organizations in the B2B and B2C spaces, Joel Book of ExactTarget brought all of the planning, executing and evaluating together in weaving a concise web of how to manage cross-channel marketing and cultivate a more fulfilling customer life cycle of engagement.

Before a turnout of 100 attendees at the Feb, 16 AZIMA event, Book dove into research, reflections and the results of two case studies to portray how a proper CRM methodology should work. Essentially, given the “33 Flavors” of available channels (remember that Springsteen song “57 Channels and There’s Nothin’ On?), the key to attracting, engaging and serving customers is constantly delivering personal, relevant and timelyinformation while also respecting their boundaries. He cited the campaigns of Pei Wei and Volvo Construction Equipment for their successful database development, targeted customer engagement and very high redemption percentages.

For you academics out there, the thematic six-step disciplinary progression chart for a robust Cross-Channel CRM campaign consists of the following:

Acquire -> Engage -> Convert -> Serve -> Grow -> Retain (Brand Ambassador status!)

Book pointed to a major disconnect that often exists between the web content management department and the business development / customer engagement teams. Lead generation suffers dramatically when the call to action isn’t immediately visible or definable on the home page for the sake of being aligned with the needed data to initiate the customer relationship and nurture the engagement life cycle. The “Lead Management Workflow” relies on two factors – the speed of the response to an initial customer request (should arrive within 24 hours of receiving contact information) and delivering quality and qualified information into the hands of local dealers, agents or representatives.

He emphasized the importance of organizations having the courage to experiment with their data, the digital media tools and their methods of acquisition and measurement to develop the right formula that will work for their particular customer service objectives. He closed with the thought that social media is not the End Game, but is rather a step in the Cross-Channel CRM cycle of capturing emails and consistently following through on personalizing customer needs and interests. He summed up his presentation with the mantra that “Serving is the New Selling” on the quest to nurture a successful customer life cycle with data integration and marketing automation.

Joel Book’s Overarching Principles for Effective CCM & CRM

  1. Develop a customer engagement strategy – have a campaign management process.
  2. Maintain customer data integration and centralization –  ensure engagement at every stage of the life cycle.
  3. Marketing automation – have web and sales/service teams aligned to sustain the life cycle.

Key Takeaway Notes:

  1. In 1990, one television spot on the three major networks could disseminate its message to reach 80 percent of households across the United States. Today, it would take 20 messaging channels to attain that same figure. (Read: massive media fragmentation!)
  2. The ROI ratio of cross-channel marketing is $41 of revenue for every $1 invested.
  3. Organizations should regularly harvest referrals, opinions, evaluations, word of mouth (earned social media) to augment the lead management workflow and assist product distributors and sales representatives in the field.
  4. It is essential to have comprehensive CRM software for data cleansing and lead scoring to support the lead management workflow.
  5. According to a Forrester study, 30 percent of customers will start their purchase decision-making at an organization’s home page and 27 percent at a brand page.
  6. 58 percent of customers begin purchase process with search and 46 percent combine social media and search.
  7. The most effective CRM software should analyze customer activity points and frequency to calculate a rank profile and likelihood to buy.
  8. By 2015, 71 percent of sales leads are expected to originate through a corporate website.
  9. There is no such thing as a singe-channel consumer!
  10. CRM programs should embrace the Zappos model that service is the anchor of selling.

This post is a reprint of an original post shared by AZIMA member Liam O’Mahoney. Read the original post on Customer Relationship Management on Liam’s blog.