CRM - November 2007 - (Page 35)

BUILDING CUSTOMER LISTS email campaign to customer conversion rates provides clues into the behavior and preferences of her customers. Testing allows her to know the best times to send out to any given audience (e.g., emails to mothers are most frequently opened late in the evening or midmorning; grandparents open emails more during the core part of the day or early evening). Neiman also noticed an important shift from which day of the week her customers opened their emails most frequently, thereby forcing her to strategically change the launch date of her campaigns. Most list providers will allow you to test a sample of the list before you have to purchase the full version. (Also look at that firm’s list success rates and check with its references or previous customers.) According to Peter Patsula, author of Business Planning, list buyers should be able to sample 5 to 10 percent of the desired list. In addition, when sharing a list with another company that has a common profile of customers, be sure to obtain customer approval. choose to be with us, please click here.’” marketers are taking an accelerating In the end, after customers were given shift toward Internet-centric resources, the opportunity to opt in, The Right particularly within the last three years. Start was left with 25,000 legitimate cus- Perhaps most significant of all, Andertomers. Even now, when acquiring a cus- son claims that marketers are now much tomer, The Right Start continues to more involved with search—search request opt-ins at various levels of inter- engine optimization (natural search) est. This allows Neiman to give the cus- and search engine marketing (pay-pertomers exactly what they click keywords)—than they want, when they want it. are with list rentals. Highly sensitive topics In response to the increase reveal the importance of of Internet activity, though, opt-in messages: Neiman companies need to focus on can recount her experience, “turning site browsers into for example, with families buyers,” Anderson says, who have suffered miscarexplaining that an increasriages and have painfully ing share of marketing dolrequested the termination lars is being spent on of baby-oriented emails, “IT’S TO capturing data from—and alerting her to be cautious FIND A LIST OUT THERE building, maintaining, and of her customers’ needs THAT ISN’T AGED, ISN’T modifying customer lists in every realm. By focusfrom—search results. OVERUSED.” ing on being targeted and This is not to say that lists updated with customer themselves are antiquated— information, The Right Start has an in fact, there are just new and innovative extremely low opt-out rate—approxi- means of creating them. The Internet is mately one tenth of 1 percent—and simply the latest driver of information; has already acquired almost 200,000 consumers and marketers alike head active customers. there almost on instinct. (Here’s one Wetteman anticipates that the need clear indication: “Google” was recently to better understand the customer will entered as a verb in Merriam-Webster’s be evident in increasingly targeted Collegiate Dictionary.) approaches, like better surveying: “It In other words, customers have taken isn’t just, ‘Are you satisfied with your the reins and they’re holding on tight. meal at Denny’s? Fill out this card,’” she “We’re seeing people forming their own says. “It’s, ‘In January, how did you feel?’ lists,” Hren says—self-selecting accord[and] ‘In March, have you been back?’ So ing to their interests, hobbies, and activcompanies can use targeting and online ities. One day soon, he adds, consumers tools to have more of an ongoing rela- may “elect amongst themselves to say, tionship and an ongoing gauge of where ‘I’ll invite in some commercial entities to the customer stands,” she says. talk to us a little bit.’” Until then, customers and companies alike need to be selective—and, like any SWIMMING INTO THE NET relationship, the one between a busiOF THE NET It’s becoming increasingly apparent that, ness and its customers requires some as Anderson says, “tactics like direct TLC. Your company’s customer list mail and email are not about acquisi- “needs to be managed, nurtured, maintion marketing, they’re about relation- tained, and basically respected for the ship marketing.” She believes that, with value that it has,” Hren says. “It’s not the pervasiveness of the Internet, the just a list of names—it’s much more frenzy surrounding list businesses is than that.” diminishing. “It’s hard to find a list out there that isn’t aged, isn’t overused,” Contact Editorial Assistant Jessica Tsai Anderson says. As a result, she observes, at jtsai@destinationCRM.com. hard TOSSING BACK THE SMALL FRY Perhaps the best way to guarantee your customers want to hear from you is giving them the opportunity to opt in to receive information about you. “Opt-in lists are much more effective than buying a list,” Wettemann says. Self-generating options, according to Hren, include activities businesses can take part in to attract a customer. For instance, companies could hold or attend a relevant event; Igal Alon, owner of Mavrik Jewelry, makes contacts and finds new customers among self-selecting trade-show attendees. Of course, there’s also the Web, where potential customers can freely browse and decide for themselves whether or not they’re interested. Other programs include rebates, loyalty programs, or customer surveys. After the debacle with her first email, Neiman had to embark on damage control. “We sent out an email basically coming clean and saying, ‘We got this list, we don’t know if you really are [supposed to be] part of that list. If you www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | NOVEMBER 2007 35 http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - November 2007

CRM - November 2007 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity Have You Caught It? The Mother of Enterprise Information Market Focus: Technology: The Simple Truth about Complex Manufacturing Q&A: Gianforte Talks CRM Required Reading Predicting Profitability Checking the Pulse of the Contact Center Cast a Narrow Net Modern Times, Modern Methods Primos Hunting Calls Snares Efficiency Nailing It Down Moving in on Mortgage Delinquencies RDS Delivery Delivers on Service Secret of My Success Re:Tooling The Tipping Point Pint of View

CRM - November 2007

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