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Salmat White Paper:
Omnichannel
Marketing
made simple
1
Overview
If you have ever watched the TV show Mad Men, you would know that the heady days
of marketing and advertising being an all-powerful source of consumer manipulation
are all but over. Today, by comparison, consumers are more switched on, more
connected, more time sensitive and more empowered. As a result, customers are
more cynical, and their acceptance to company issued statements, lower than ever.
Technology is the driving force of this change, as we have the ability to buy from
anywhere in the world almost as quickly as we can from our own locality.
Compounding this, consumers demand not only exemplary products, but a product and
brand experience that meets not only their rational desires, but which taps into their
emotive mind set too. Today, consumers want to be the centre of the universe, and it is
up to us as marketers to make them feel that they are.
Understanding this challenge however, and solving it are two separate things. This
paper will provide you with not only the understanding of how to change the way you
think about your marketing strategies, but provide you with the working knowledge
and tools to make this change a reality.
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Realising Customers are the centre
of the universe
To borrow a common phrase from the English language, today’s customers are literally
Judge, jury and executioner. Consider the following.
Customer as Judge – Every day your brand is being evaluated by customers and
prospective customers. Every day these very people are making decisions about your
brand. It may be a positive evaluation resulting in a positive comment on social media
and a purchase, or perhaps it is negative; with the user deciding you are not worth
their time and your products not worth their money.
Customer as Jury – The power of social media is undisputed. It has almost single
handily revolutionised the way in which people communicate with each other, and has
changed the way we review and look for reviews about services and products. Social
media allows consumers the ability to get in touch with a community of enthusiastic
customer “Judges” who can sway opinions in just moments; either to your brand or
away from it.
Customers as executioners – Given the above, it follows that customers are
potential executioners of your brand. Get it wrong and your brand will be crucified.
Social media has the power to take the message further than many would ever have
anticipated.
Community networks are growing and their
influence is expanding too. Between 2005
and 2012, Facebook grew from 6 million
users to 1 billion
Bain & Company.
Other networks have similarly grown, giving
consumers greater potential to share their
thoughts and learn from others
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Always remember, Social media can
put people in places they are not, using
nothing more than 140 characters and a
link, or a single photo, which speaks a
thousand words
If you have done the right thing you are more likely to have kept enough “Customer
Judges” happy. These multiple judges/jury members are likely to spread word of your
brand. However, if you anger them, or change the customer experience to something
they find less than satisfactory, it will take almost a complete rehabilitation program to
stay the inevitable execution of your brand.
Knowing this, what does it mean for you and your brand? Simply put, your customers
(existing or potential) need to be the centre of your universe. Everything you do in
communicating to them must be predicated on a deep understanding of what they
want and how they want to be told about what you have to offer. It requires dedication
to understanding them through data analysis, listening to feedback and only then, the
development of a lifecycle strategy which seeks to evolve your market from awareness
to your brand to being advocates of it via targeted communications.
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Customer Centricity – The concept of
Lifecycle Management
Having read the above and the requirement to put your customers at the centre of all
you do, you could perhaps be forgiven for assuming that we are referring to customer
relationship management (CRM). In fact, we are referring to something richer and
more evolved than CRM, and as a result, much more valuable – Customer Lifecycle
Management (CLM).
The principle underlying CLM is a company-wide approach to creating powerful
customer interaction strategies that drive significant business growth and profitability.
As the name suggests, it is about engagement with a customer for what can be
termed ‘their life with the brand’, with the goal to transition customers from having
simple awareness, to being customers and then ultimately to being fully fledged
advocates; selling your products for you.
Other differentiators between CLM and CRM, include:
Customer Lifecycle Management
Customer Relationship Management
Must be undertaken by the company as
Can be undertaken by departments in
a whole. Every touch point must seek
isolation to the rest of the company
to engage and further the customer’s
evolution with the brand
Is linear and responsive, working to
Exists to trap information at a point in time
implement predefined strategies in
and to categorise it
response to certain customer stimulus
and the revolution of their needs
Seeks to tailor communications to
Seeks to tailor communications to groups/
individuals relative to their lifecycle stage
personas
Must be integrated with all customer
No requirement to integrate with other
facing systems and platforms to work.
systems, although will benefit from
EG call centres, websites, bricks and
integration
mortar programs
Seeks to evolve the relationship, growing
Seeks to engage the customer, but not
the value of the customer
evolve them per se
Concentrates on the journey
Concentrates on the journey
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Lifecycle Management Defined
Any interaction your customers have with your brand can be seen as either adding to,
or detracting from their overall lifetime value to your organisation. This is the concept
of customer lifetime value – an important figure, especially in the process of customer
lifecycle management.
If customers have a good first experience, they are more inclined to buy from you
again, effectively increasing their lifetime value. If they continue to have positive
experiences with your brand, not only from the perspective of how good the product
is, but how well you support them, inform them of promotions, or reward them,
then they may end up promoting your brand and creating new business, effectively
increasing their value to your business. Over time, this value can be calculated and
a value ascribed to it. Conversely, if a customer has a poor first experience or a bad
experience at any number of different points in their journey with your brand, they
could be said to have a much lower life time value as they are less likely to repeat
purchase, let alone recommend you.
Customer-centric firms are focused on increasing the value of each customer over
their life with your brand. However, the concept of consumption is linear. An individual’s
needs today are going to evolve and be different tomorrow. Consequently how you
address these needs will also evolve over time to maximise the lifetime value of the
customer. In line with this, the way you interact with them and the way you nurture
them to ensure added value needs to be mapped, so that you can understand the best
way to communicate with them at all times.
This is where customer lifecycle management plays a pivotal role. In essence, life
cycle management is a continuous feedback loop which aims to grow a customer’s
lifetime value by recognising that their needs will change as more time passes in the
relationship between themselves and your brand.
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The lifecycle itself has 6 distinct stages:
1. Brand awareness
Brand
Awareness
Advocacy
Leverage loyal
customers to generate
new business.
Inform and build trust
in a category and
brand.
Win repeat business.
Engagement
Solicit and measure
brand interactions.
Conversion
Transition consumers
from awareness to
reg/purchase.
L
lty
ya
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L
Customer
Lifecycle
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alt
oy
Retention
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itio
uis
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A
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L
Product
Awareness
Inform and build trust
in a product or service.
Role in Life cycle – Before customers actually become clients, they are simply
prospects who may or may not be aware of your brand, content or products. At this
stage it is important to build trust, to educate, and to understand the value drivers
customers use to evaluate your brand and offers to become engaged.
Achieved through – Research, advertising, reporting and attribution, SEO, lead
generation, ad tracking
Key Tip – It is important to remember that you may be required to not only build trust
in your brand, but in your overall category. Being seen as thought leaders in your
industry will raise awareness and make you the “go-to” within the industry.
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2. Conversion
Role in Life cycle – Once your customers start to consider you as a viable alternative,
utilise your various platforms to make a good impression. Engage them with content
that provides more information and which facilitates an easier transaction with you.
The way you interact with them now will establish the platform for the future by which
you encourage customers to return, interact, and engage for a long time to come.
Achieved through – Abandoned ecommerce cart follow engagement, web testing,
email marketing, content marketing, attribution modelling.
Key Tip – Use clever content to show your potential customer how you add value
above and beyond the item they are purchasing. Appeal to their emotive brain to
develop emotional affinity whilst talking about the rational aspects of your brand.
3. Product Awareness
Role in Life cycle – To reduce abandonment, an automated sequence of follow up
messages will remind customers about their unfinished requests. Be sure to test
different offers or incentives to help optimise, motivate and entice people to engage.
Achieved through – On-boarding programs (email welcome programs), reactivation,
reviews
Key Tip – Multivariate testing is key at this stage. Work out what works best so that
you can continue to improve the relationship.
4. Engagement
Role in Life cycle – In contrast to models of yesteryear whereby little work was done
to retain customers post purchase, this stage requires you to develop communications
and programs which ensure your customers remain loyal to you, and your brand top of
mind. This may include incentives, being made to feel important or showing that you
have taken the time to personalise communications to them.
Achieved through – Polls, voting, competitions, social media analysis, sentiment
analysis, “thank you” communications.
Key Tip – Solicit and measure brand engagement and ensure you tailor your
messages to reflect your appreciation and specific knowledge of these customers.
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5. Retention
Role in Life cycle – Depending on your specific purchase cycle, customers may have little
need to interact with your brand on a regular basis, or perhaps they see no need to. This is
where your retention strategies are pivotal.
Ensure that you stay top of mind with customers that may become less active with your
brand for any number of reasons; maybe they have forgotten about you, been lured away
by your competition, or simply need an incentive to reengage with you.
Achieved through – Employ re-engagement messages. Cross-sell opportunities, rewards
programs, gamification strategies, peer recommendations and rewards.
An email that reaches out for example, to advise the recipient that their product licence is
about to expire is an example of retention. Similarly, an email or communication piece that
is sent out to remind a user that based on previous purchase behaviour they are due to
make a new purchase is a good way to add value to your relationship.
Key Tip – Make the messages you communicate work hard for you. It is easier and
cheaper (in fact not only cheaper but more profitable) to retain business than it is to win
new business.
6. Advocacy
Role in Life cycle – If you can maintain a healthy and ongoing relationship with a
customer, chances are they will speak more highly of your brand experience to others.
In fact, these customers are the equivalent of VIP to your business as they are the most
active ambassadors for your brand.
By delivering specific campaigns inviting them to recommend your brand or products, you
can acquire new prospects through your advocate, whilst reinforcing your connection with
the key customer them self. This is where the value of a customer can really accelerate.
Achieved through – Gifting, referral programs, social marketing, peer reviews, advocate
ID
Key Tip – As the expression says; it’s not what you know it’s who you know. Your
customers have the ability to introduce your brand to their networks based on their positive
interaction with your brand. The key is to ensure they stay happy with your brand.
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Consider this: In 2012, Bain & Company
found a positive trend for consumers to be
defined by their personalised interests. As
a case in point they identified that on the
NetFlix website, movies selected via the
recommendation engine have increased
15%.1
Bain and Company found that 54% of
people like interacting with programs
(polls, feedback). They want to be
engaged.1 What are you doing to engage
them?
A recent study found that checking email
first thing in the morning is still the
common choice for 70% of consumers.
In Australia, over 50% will do this via a
mobile device.2
Australian’s using twitter are the social
influencers of society.3 These people have
the power to judge and condemn your
brand. Keep them happy
http://www.bain.com/about/press/press-releases/bain-study-identifies-five-trends-shaping-digital-innovations.aspx
Strongmail website
3
http://www.bandt.com.au/news/digital/email-on-a-pc-still-king-to-target-consumers
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2
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Omnichannel Marketing
Lifecycle marketing is all good and well, however, for all intents and purposes, as
much as it works to evolve the customer relationship, by itself it will not give you the
best competitive edge. Rather, your competitive edge will come from immersing your
target market. This is achieved by putting them at the centre of your product design,
the centre of how you compile data, making them the common thread between your
various go-to-market channels, and by ensuring that all communication platforms you
utilise are suitable for them; not because they suit your needs. And not just once, but
through their lifetime interaction with your brand.
Omnichannel marketing is a holistic,
customer-centric approach to multichannel
marketing. It is differentiated from channel
marketing by virtue of the fact that it is
customer centric, not channel centric
This is where omnichannel marketing is key, as it works to not only manage your
customer lifecycle, but to place each and every customer at the centre of everything
you do. Simply put, omnichannel marketing is a holistic, customer-centric approach to
multichannel marketing, though it is important to note; ominchannel marketing is not
multichannel marketing, in fact, it is very different.
An Omni-channel marketing approach works by closing the feedback loop across all
communication streams and in matching real-time feedback with tailored responses,
ensuring the best possible experience and results for your customers. This is different
from a multi-channel approach which adopts a channel centric method; resulting in
a broken customer experience due to siloed channel offers which lack integrated
coordination.
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Channel Centric vs Customer Centric
SMS
www.
Channel centric
►► Siloed offers by
channel
►► Limited coordination
►► Broken customer
experiences
SMS
www.
Customer centric
►► Offers shared
across channels
►► Coordinated activity
►► Relevant messaging
are driven by
customer
►► System learns and
takes best path
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Omnichannel marketing, by virtue of the fact it is truly customer centric, puts
you in the position to influence every potential touch point, at any point in the
customer lifecycle. You become an almost omnipresent force, knowledgeable
and connected in multiple ways with your audience. As such, omnichannel
marketing becomes less of a marketing tool and more a marketing discipline.
This is an important distinguishing feature. Omnichannel marketing is not a
set and forget tool; it cannot work without being underpinned by strategic
thought. Rather, it must focus on the customer experience from the beginning,
ad infinitum. By default it must encompass every client-facing aspect of your
business, from sales, through to customer support, to accounts and through to
marketing.
All communication channels must be inextricably linked to each other and all
messaging tailored in real time, thereby engaging your audience in ways which
make them not only feel that they are in charge, but which as importantly, makes
them feel good about their purchase.
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Advantages of Omnichannel marketing
An Omni-channel marketing approach keeps the customer as the focus of all
marketing activity and interactions, resulting in a seamless, consistent experience with
your brand. This is different from a multi-channel approach which adopts a channel
centric method; resulting in a broken customer experience. Other advantages include:
►► Closed loop metrics. Omnichannel marketing captures rich user data from multiple
touch points which can be stored and then analysed for the purposes of improving
ongoing messaging
►► This allows you to understand media consumption better and will help identify
potential behavioural patterns
►► The ability to segment individuals according to customer status, level of
engagement, spending habits or length of time they’ve been a customer
►► The ability to tailor communication to an individual, based on both market
intelligence and specific user data such as rewards cards
►► The ability to take this tailored communication and then select the most viable and
appropriate platforms to deliver the content based on previous habits
►► Trigger based marketing automation can be applied to nurture the relationship.
This is particularly advantageous as it allows key events in the lifecycle of the
consumer to be identified and triggers set around them.
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For example, if you know that someone who visits your site via a specific keyword
search, who spends more than 3 minutes on your site and who has navigated through
a set of key pages is more likely to convert if you show them Page A next rather than
Page B, you can use automation to display page A, thus tailoring the experience.
You can set up multiple triggers for multiple stages of the lifecycle and based on
specific user data, allowing you to truly create a customised experience which creates
a deeper rapport with your customer base.
If correctly established, omnichannel marketing will monitor in real-time, the
interactions of your customers with your brand and work to disseminate the data
across all your touch points. Via marketing automation you can ensure that not only
is the customer experience consistent, but that the customer journey is continued,
even if – as is highly likely – the customer utilises a different channel for their next
engagement with your brand.
Successful implementation will ensure there are significant Return On Engagement
(ROE) benefits for you, without the incremental labour and marketing costs.
Building an Omnichannel Marketing Program
The decision to build a customer focussed channel marketing program may or may not
be one that is made easily. There must be consideration around whether your business
has the resources to facilitate it, whether or not there will be value added to your
organisation and determinations which need to be made about your target market.
Once you have deemed that omnichannel is suitable for your brand, there are 5
key steps, which set the foundation for an effective and measurable omnichannel
marketing program.
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Define the
stages
of your
customer’s
lifecycle
There are many different ways to define the
customer lifecycle with your brand. However,
the template provided earlier in this report
should help get you started. At all times,
ensure you know “What needs to happen at
each stage to move the customer to the next
stage, or keep them in a given stage?”
Understand
who your
customer is
Lifecycle marketing is based on knowing your
customers and building around them. Identify
key data source and database elements
(Across all your touchpoints and channels)
which indicate key customer behaviours and
use these as the trigger points for sending
automated messages.
Plot your
program
Identify each touch point and how your
customers interact. Then plot these against
the customer lifecycle to understand what the
key triggers are at various stages. Ensure you
list all of your current marketing programs;
and include the channels being utilized.
This includes promotional, transactional and
service-related messages.
already have marketing programs in
Modify and You
place working to engage your audience. Sift
optimise your through the data and identify what works
the best, through what channels and at what
marketing
times. Determine which activities need more
programs or less activity and curate your content. It is
also important to set testing methodologies
for moving forward and establish benchmark
criteria.
is the key to success. Identify key
Measurement Feedback
objectives such as increasing relevance,
and
increasing ROI, growing response rates,
identify patterns and behaviour, retaining
Monitoring
customers interest or increasing spend per
transaction. You may also want to assign a
value to each interaction in order to measure
“Return on Customer Engagement”.
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The role of content in omnichannel marketing
Content which is innately shareable is very
powerful. Create content which can be
shared and you make customer acquisition
that much easier.
Omnichannel marketing – by definition –requires you to deliver high-quality, relevant
and valuable information to prospects and customers at a specific point in time.
Obviously this is no mean feat, as not only does it take extensive planning to map the
various journey’s customers may undertake, it also requires you to curate an extensive
array of content. You must have at your disposal varied and relevant material which can
be served up simultaneously to people at different points of the customer lifecycle in a
way which adds value to them and by association, your organisation.
The key to creating this content is to map the lifecycle process and understand all
scenarios you will need to create content for. As a starting point consider mapping and
writing content based on the following:
1. Triggers –The initial triggers that lead to first point of contact
2. Research pathways – Knowledge of the processes that your potential customers
undertake to search for viable options to meet their needs. For example, if you
know your market reads reviews, industry reports, white papers, social media or
views demonstrations, you should look to generate content of this type, ready
for them to “stumble across” when the time is right. Whilst you should prepare
information for them to digest in ways which are familiar, also consider providing
secondary sources which may also resonate and provide the same level of detail.
For example if they like whitepapers, consider providing video digests, access to
analysts or experts (Email, appointment or webinars), offering events, tailoring call
centre scripts, or sending more detailed emails.
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3. Process pathways – Determine the number of steps between initial contact and
the decision to make a purchase and create content for each individual stage.
4. Progression – There are multiple stages customers move through, so you will
need content for each. These may include the onboarding process, the purchasing
processes, implementation, customer support and reacquisition programs for
customers who abandon.
5. Loyalty program management – Determine how you will continue to engage
with your customers and how you continue to add value, post-purchase. This
may include problem resolution, new product offers and community participation
opportunities.
5 Lifestyle Programs to Consider
Irrespective of the size or type of company you work for, chances are you have – to
some extent – in place a number of programs which work to engage your audience
and nurture them through to conversion. These programs may not be designed to span
the entire customer lifecycle itself, but they do exist.
If this is the case, rejoice! Many of these programs will in all likelihood, be relevant
in some shape or form to one stage or another of the overall customer lifecycle.
If repurposed correctly, they could become pivotal components of your overall
omnichannel approach to marketing and could save you significant time in the
development of your program.
Whether or not you have a customer centric focus already, or if you are looking to
implement one, chances are you have to some extent already developed elements
which can be brought together to form significant elements of your overall
omnichannel platform. Below are 5 examples of lifecycle programs which address
specific stages in the overall customer lifecycle.
1. Welcome program: A welcome program is a series of coordinated trigger point
messages which seek to remind recipients that your brand, product or program
was worthy of them sharing their details with you. They are designed to introduce
a new subscriber or customer to the brand, build trust, inform and drive the
subscriber toward a first purchase or related conversion event.
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1
2. Abandonment program: Recently, the Baymard Institute averaged out the
figures compiled from 13 different studies into ecommerce cart abandonment.
The figures are somewhat shocking. Despite initiating the purchase process, on
average, 63.75% of shoppers will abandon during the process. Abandonment
programs are designed to re-engage customers who abandon by offering them
incentives to complete the process.
3. Post-Purchase program: Once a customer completes a transaction, the business
needs to view them as a valuable asset. This program is designed to keep the
customer engaged and to build upon the relationship, with the aim of turning a
one-time visitor into a loyal repeat customer.
4. VIP or loyalty program: A successful post-purchase program will turn the
customer into an advocate. At this stage it is important you are monitoring
customer activity and rewarding them for their commitment to your brand.
5. Winback program: As the name would suggest, this program exists to reengage customers who have not visited you or engaged with a program within a
designated timeframe. The aim of this program is to reintroduce the customer to
your brand and to engage them so they transact with you again.
1 http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
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Getting started
It is no secret. Lifecycle programs are involved and complex. There are multiple
stages which need to be addressed. Not only must you compile your data, determine
the various components of the program – from the number of steps in the process,
through to the content – and map your strategy, but there are 2 other major
considerations to be considered:
1. Technology platforms; and
2. Determining whether to manage this internally or to partner with a 3rd party
Considerations for a partner
Having read the above technological components involved in a robust CLM, you
could be forgiven for thinking that the enormity of it all is beyond you and your team.
However, don’t be paralysed by the fear of it, nor lose faith in your ability to implement
this for your organisation.
As with most large scale projects, the key is to find a partner who is capable of helping
you achieve your goals. After all, other business units call in specialists more often
than you may think to help them with specific projects. Whether it is the IT department
calling in the expertise of a specialist database architect, or the finance department
outsourcing certain work to forensic accountants, strength for the organisation can be
found through the correct partnership with a specialist provider.
The key to finding the right provider is to ensure that:
•
They have access and skill in the use of the latest technologies
•
Their primary function exists to partner with companies looking to implement CLM
and omnichannel marketing approaches
•
They are not technologists who will do an install and training, but rather are
technology-savvy marketers who understand the science behind the platform.
•
You want a partner who is capable of using their experience in this field to make
recommendations to you, to proactively make suggestions based on their inherent
knowledge and who can add even more strength to the implementation of the
program through their in depth insight
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•
They are conversant in all the multiple technologies relevant to the implementation
of customer lifecycle marketing. This is important as this will allow them to
critically understand the mechanics of the platform better and to ensure that the
technology solutions being implemented are capable of the job, now and into the
future.
The technology platforms
Lifecycle marketing represents a massive paradigm shift for many marketing
departments. Not only does it require marketers to realise that they are no longer
in total control, but it similarly requires massive changes to the capability set of the
organisation. Where data could once reside in isolated data silo’s, a true omnichannel
approach requires all platforms to be integrated and for the data to be actively pushed
in real-time, to every other channel being utilised.
Suddenly big-data comes into play. You have to be able to not only collate reams of
new real-time information, but triggers need to be identified, data analysed and actions
taken to ensure that the lifecycle is ever improving and that customers are being
engaged the right way and in a timely fashion. To manage this effectively, you need a
technology platform capable of all this and capable of growing with you.
Salmat Influence (powered by Teradata Applications) is a prime example of how
technology can be combined with preeminent strategic thinking to achieve your
lifecycle marketing goals.
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Sitting one level underneath the customer, Salmat Influence is an enterprise marketing
solution that works to take real time market data and combine it with corporate
thinking in such a way as to ensure that every communication piece is optimised to its
full extent and that the customer’s requirements are always put first. With a platform
such as this in place you have the ability to interpret everything from customer
purchase history, mobile and social footprints, market influences and at what stage
of the lifecycle a customer is at. Best of all, you can qualify what communications are
best suited to maximise your chances of a conversion.
Technological aspects to Omnichannel marketing
►► Big-data platform
►► Marketing automation suite capable of integrating with all systems and channels
►► Email delivery platform with robust metrics tool
►► Website metrics
►► Social Media and online tools capable of determining Share of Voice (SOV) and sentiment
analysis
►► SMS generation tool
►► Call centre operations
►► Real-time monitoring
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In Summary
Here’s the thing. The customer is more empowered than ever before. They can find
and disseminate information faster than ever and will use this information as the basis
for many decisions. This puts them in control as the judge, jury and potentially, the
executioner.
Ironically however, in understanding that the customer is the centre of the equation
and taking steps to implement a customer focussed lifecycle management program,
you are putting yourself back in the driving seat. You can again be in greater control
of your destiny. It takes sound strategic thinking, a thorough understanding of your
customer base and subsequent mapping of the process behind sales conversion,
but it can be done. The result is a omnichannel lifecycle marketing program that
communicates on a one to one basis, tailoring communications that will not only
help convert potential clients into customers, but which will work to re-engage lost
customers, reward loyal ones and which will ideally turn existing customers into brand
advocates.
It is then these advocates who can and will become one of your greatest marketing
assets, not only for the value you can place on them for their repeat business, but
for the value of new business they help your business secure. The key is to put them
at the centre of your universe and use them as the foundation upon which all your
marketing efforts are focussed. Get this right, and you will reap the rewards!
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About Salmat
Our team of highly experienced digital marketing specialists will work with your
business to:
•
understand key marketing objectives and your plans across digital and traditional
marketing arenas
•
devise a suitable strategic road map for your campaigns to deliver against these
objectives, including a blueprint of a single customer view
•
review and look at creative ways to improve on your key metrics
Being relevant to your customers in every context improves brand recall, engagement
with your messages and ultimately sales conversions.
Contact us today!
web: www.salmatdigital.com.au
email: [email protected]
phone: 1300 SALMAT
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