Recessionary one-to-one marketing requires focus on value and relevancy
Published May 18, 2010
As the recession lingers on, consumers are still holding tight to their purses. This has created a greater need for value and relevancy in one-to-one marketing, DMNews reports.
Price is inevitably part of the value equation, which is why coupons have seen a resurgence during the recession. In September 2009, for example, Nielsen reported that coupon redemption grew by 10 percent at the end of 2008 following three quarters of declines. This trend continued into 2009 when, during the first half of the year, 1.6 billion coupons were redeemed.
However, coupons are not the only part of the value equation, noted DMNews. Relevancy of direct mail campaigns can also create value for the customer by offering supplementary products such as newsletters, welcome letters, and personalized offers.
To determine what will provide the most value to a company's clients, marketers are urged to rely on customer data, said the magazine. Customer purchase behavior, for example, will likely indicate if price reductions would be most successful, or perhaps loyalty programs and personalized incentives would be most effective.
A growing number of firms are finding that social media platforms are a great place to do this kind of research. Consequently, social CRM platforms are seeing rapid growth in adoption - a recent Gartner report projected that by 2011, more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies "will have some form of online community that can be used for customer relationship purposes."