Weighing in – The C-level and Precision Marketing
Posted on Mon, Oct 10, 2011
For the past number of weeks, we have been examining the basic issues that have contributed to the “Great CEO-CMO Divide” – the disconnect between these C-level roles regarding marketing vison, measureable results, business goals, etc. Sandra Zoratti, VP of Marketing for Ricoh, as well as an articulate and knowledgeable expert on Precision Marketing, will be blogging for the next few weeks to discuss what is required to alleviate the disconnect and to effectively leverage Precision Marketing techniques and projects. Welcome, Sandra! -Scott Baker
By Sandra Zoratti, Ricoh Production Print Solutions
If you’re an avid reader of OutputLinks like I am, you may have seen some recent blog posts talking about CEOs, CMOs and the true ROI of Precision Marketing tactics like TransPromo. There’s been debate amongst the Output Links community as to how marketers effectively implement these tactics, as well as how they achieve buy-in from the C-level suite. One thing that is certain is that Precision Marketing is evolving from a nice-to-have competitive advantage to a critical, must-have customer engagement and retention best practice – making it crucial for marketers to get it right.
The reason why is very simple – relevancy today is not an option, it is a necessity. Consumers are making it clear that brands that do not present them with targeted and relevant content and information won’t make the cut. Studies have shown that customers are defecting from brands they feel don’t know them and continue to send them irrelevant messaging[1] – such as a company that delivers consumers an advertisement or promotion for a service or product they already have from that company.
This shift in behavior and control of marketing messages has made Precision Marketing a much-needed approach for marketers to remain effective. More importantly, Precision Marketing allows marketers to quantify the cost of ineffective customer communications, which can be a crucial point for securing C-level buy-in across the organization.
Think about some of your clients’ customer communications. Whether they communicate primarily through transactional documents, such as monthly statements, or through a mix of channels such as mobile and e-mail, think about whether the information being sent to customers is tailored to that consumer. Are they sending information about services customers are likely to use based on their demographic or previous purchase history with that organization? If not, those marketers may be missing a major opportunity. The good news is, the information they need to customize these communications is likely accessible through programs and databases across their business. By working more closely with these stakeholders they can leverage existing information to maximize current investments and create more relevant and effective customer communications that will bolster marketing efforts and you can help them do this.
By looking at how much money is being spent on ineffective channels, it makes it easier for marketers to make the business case for investing in improvement, like data-driven, customized communications that drive significantly higher ROI and require alignment between the CIO and CMO. Precision Marketing actually better enables marketers to speak to language of business, making it easier to gain support from not only the CIO, but the CFO and CEO as well.
In the next instalment of this blog I’ll share an example of one large organization that recently followed this approach by identifying ineffective customer communications, investing in data-driven communications and creating cross-business initiatives that are getting rave reviews.
Be sure to check back! In the meantime, if you’ve got a great success story of your own, or a burning question about Precision Marketing, please feel free to share below!
Sandra Zoratti is the Vice President of Marketing for Ricoh Production Print Solutions (RPPS).