Search results matching tags 'digital' and 'direct marketing'

One-to-One Marketing goes 3D

1845437 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:49:00 GMT

Lord Leverhulme famously said that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half”. In a downturn it is vital that none of the marketing pound is wasted and as planning director at Leeds-based direct response agency PCD, I can reveal how to be smarter with your marketing spend.

Whether you call it direct marketing or one-to-one marketing, the all important goal is to promote your message to your customers in a more targeted way. Achieving this goal becomes ever more vital as company boardrooms insist marketing teams justify their budgets and as such decisions, strategies and plans will become more customer data insight driven.

Digital opportunities and channels provide marketers with never before seen levels of interactions with customers and prospects. Integrating in a single process, for example via direct mail, sms, web or email, with levels of personalisation that are no longer restricted to simple variables but include imagery, product messages and copy to fit an individual customer’s particular purchasing habit and lifestyle, help to engage with target audiences.

Yes, this comes at a higher cost, however experience has shown that cost per pack whilst increasing is countered by an overall increase in conversion, lowering overall acquisition costs.”

To reflect this explosion in alternative on and offline media platforms, we at PCD have refocused the business and developed a 3D approach – data, digital and direct.

• Data means knowledge and provides insight, information and understanding which results in targeted planning, segmentation and a well defined strategy.
• Digital means one-to-one dialogue, delivering relevant and personalised comms. This means that the right message is being delivered the right way at the right time, both on and offline.
• Direct means accountable and results in brand building, generating response, measuring, learning and improving.

I believe that we needed to develop this unique 3D approach in order to provide clients with targeted methods to reach their consumers and increase customer value.

What’s different about our 3D approach is that you will realise it’s not just about sending complex mailing packs, building the biggest websites, sending the most emails or developing ‘flashy’ online campaigns. It’s about taking data and using it to understand your customers. It’s about understanding a customer’s journey with your brand, the touchpoints and conversations you’ll have and those you should have. It’s about segmenting data to target creative more effectively and then delivering campaigns that embrace and engage the customers.

This is all before a creative concept is hatched and means that clients fully understand their customers, allowing them to embrace and engage with them in a way they have not been able to do before.

I believe that our approach begins by understanding our clients data, the segments they form, the impact these segments can have on your business and then the creative message we can deliver, ultimately ensuring the right customer receives the right message by the right channel.

For more information visit www.pcdagency.com or telephone 01943 872505

Is the rush to embrace digital eclipsing the traditional?

2652554 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:25:00 GMT

Digital digital digital – isn’t it wonderful?! With its power to engage, its speed, the huge choice and access it offers consumers and, not least, the vast opportunity it provides for marketers to get under the skin of prospects and customers like never before.

Well, a resounding ‘yes’ to all of the above and more. As marketers we must all learn to adopt and adapt to all things digital if we are to maintain currency, credibility and capability. Traditional DM agencies can no more afford not to have some kind of digital skills now than their above the line colleagues and, in the heady world of data in particular, digital’s role is rapidly moving from peripheral to central.

The richness and depth of the data that can be captured, analysed and manipulated takes us closer to real-time customer insight and understanding than ever before. Clickstream and web analytics are just a couple of the many tools now at our disposal to track consumer behaviour and preferences in minute detail. There seems to be daily coverage on some clever new way of using web, e mail and mobile data to better effect, eclipsing other channels in a frenzy of new technology-itis.

And at this point we need to sound a cautionary ‘But’. Yes, the speed of technological change in the digital channel is exponential and very, very exciting – of course, this brings its own challenges with almost instant obsolescence of the latest gadgets – but let’s not lose sight of the bigger picture. Data to drive consumer insight comes in all shapes and sizes – at campaign level, at channel level (including digital) and at customer and household level. Clever tools such as web analytics are excellent when well-used at campaign and channel level. The problem is that they only give a part of the picture, so whilst the digital channel and the data-rich benefits it brings are growing rapidly in importance, a little perspective can go a long way.

High streets may have suffered in the last few years but we still see millions of people browsing and shopping in-store every day of every week. Direct mail volumes may be dropping but there’s still plenty piled up waiting for us when we get back from holiday. Call centres are also still seeing a brisk trade for both sales and service, and for more complex, big ticket products (especially such as pensions and mortgages in the financial services market) many consumers still prefer the reassurance of dealing with someone face to face.

So digital, although growing very rapidly, is still only part of the whole channel mix. What’s more, most consumers will often use a mix of channels - sometimes over a sustained period of time – to make their purchase. Using data from all relevant channels and bringing it together at the customer level is where we get the real insight for improving communications and targeting.

So the value to be gained from data sourced from digital activity is enormous, but let’s not lose sight of the basic (and still valid) principles of what makes great direct marketing. By looking at the picture from the customer perspective the whole really does become greater than the sum of the parts.

Have you got a behaviour problem?

2347496 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:20:00 GMT

You soon could have. That’s because the Internet Advertising Bureau has just put together a ‘best practice’ code on how you go about it. The three main tenets for behavioural advertising are consent i.e. you’ve got to give people a chance to opt out/in; education i.e. you’ve got to tell people how you’re going to use their data; notice i.e. tell people that you’re going to use it for a specific purpose.Is it going too far or not far enough? The key point of conjecture is that the companies that ‘cold ping’ you don’t actually have any of your personal data. It’s all down to that pesky cookie code on your hard drive. So, in effect, it is you and it isn’t you. It’s hardly the same as cold calling though. Indeed, if you head onto the Internet shouldn’t you expect it? Isn’t it all in the spirit of the web? Isn’t it great that companies are hunting you down to bring you thoroughly relevant offers and deals?

Sorry, sex doesn’t sell

2347496 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:39:00 GMT

Buried in my usual Obama-heavy copy of Time magazine was a review of ‘buy.ology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy’ by Martin Lindstrom. Talk about digital direct marketing! The legendary marketing uber guru actually wired his guinea pigs to brain computers to see if there was a connection between religion and brand loyalty. Surprise, surprise – there was pretty much no difference in people’s reaction to either. From Pontiff to Pontin’s, they were tickled by the stimuli in the precisely the same way. Specific findings also included the fact that product placement doesn’t work – apparently viewers just tune it out unless it’s pivotal to the show; cigarette warnings actually encourage people to smoke – the craving spot in people’s brain is stimulated by the warning; Oh, and sex doesn’t sell, but controversies about sex do. Hello boys, indeed. Pseudo-scientific clap-trap? Maybe, but it’s further evidence that we’re going to have to keep throwing away the rule books - even the ones written last week. Don’t forget that this is the week that Ofcom publishes its report into the future of public service broadcasting and Lord Carter’s Digital report sets out the government’s thinking on how new technologies affect the industry. It's a brave new world and we’re the ones shaping it.