Direct Marketing Plans: Strategies for Business Growth
1. Why and When to Use Direct Marketing Plans
We should use Direct Marketing plans for:
- Launching new products
- Seasonal campaigns (e.g., Christmas or Black Friday)
- Special promotions
- Loyalty programs or reactivating old customers
Importance: Direct marketing helps reach potential customers, generate quick responses, and allows companies to personalize campaigns for specific results.
Advantages:
- Precise segmentation of the target audience
- Increased customer loyalty
- Higher sales
- Direct customer feedback
2. How to Divide Marketing Objectives
Marketing objectives can be divided into quantitative and qualitative categories:
- Quantitative: Measurable achievements expressed in figures, such as sales volume, customer satisfaction and loyalty, increased market share, and profitability.
- Qualitative: More generic and less tangible goals, such as enhancing brand awareness, improving brand image, and increasing customer engagement.
3. Lead-Nurturing Strategies: Importance and Examples
Lead-nurturing strategies are tactics and actions that companies use to attract potential customers and convert them into buyers. The objective is to generate leads, cultivate their interest in products or services, and ultimately convert them into customers.
Examples:
- Social media advertising
- SEO
- Affiliate marketing
- Targeted email marketing
4. Characteristics of Transactional and Relational Approaches
- Transactional Approach: Focused on immediate sales, closing deals quickly, and maximizing profitability in each individual transaction.
- Relational Approach: Focused on building long-term relationships and maximizing profitability from the relationship.
5. Customer Retention Rate: Importance and Formula
Definition: The percentage of customers who remain active or continue buying within a given period.
Importance: Retaining customers should always be a goal of loyalty programs. This indicator measures how many customers stay with the brand instead of switching to the competition.
Formula:
(End of Period Customers – New Customers) / Customers at the Beginning of the Period x 100
6. Churn Rate: Definition, Formula, and Importance
Definition: The percentage of customers who stop participating in a loyalty program or stop buying. It measures the percentage of customers who stop using a product or service during a given period.
Importance: This indicator allows us to identify how well the program retains customers and provides signals for identifying areas for improvement.
Formula:
Churn Rate = Customers Lost in a Period / Total Customers at the Beginning of the Period x 100
7. Clover of Loyalty: Two Key Elements
a) Customer Experience
- Make interactions with customers memorable.
- Ask yourself: What type of experience do I want to provide to my customers?
- Ask yourself: How can I differentiate my offer through the experiences I provide, and how can I generate a competitive advantage?
b) Information
- Includes information about the customer (needs, desires, expectations of products and services).
- Information related to the process of gathering information focused on the relationship with customers (CRM).
- Get in touch with customers with a certain frequency.
8. Multichannel vs. Omnichannel Strategy
Definition: A multichannel strategy integrates offline and online channels to reach as many customers as possible. It involves developing several marketing campaigns simultaneously across different channels, both online and offline, recognizing that the target audience is not on a single channel.
Importance: It allows you to collect data on customer buying habits and preferences, track interactions across different channels throughout the customer journey, and tailor marketing strategies to better target your audience and meet their needs.
Multichannel vs. Omnichannel:
- Multichannel marketing uses a limited selection of content channels, while omnichannel marketing encompasses them all. The multichannel strategy is a straight line from the brand to the customer, while the omnichannel process is more fluid or circular.
- Multichannel marketing places more importance on generating interest from different channels, while omnichannel marketing focuses on providing customers with a satisfying brand experience.
9. CRM Modalities: Key Takeaways
1. Cloud-Based CRM
Hosted on the cloud, accessed via the internet.
- Advantages: Easy deployment, scalable, lower upfront costs, easy management of payment plans, highly adaptable.
- Disadvantages: Dependent on internet connection, less data control, risk of data loss due to backup failures.
2. On-Premise CRM
(Local or in-house, on our computer)
- Advantages: Greater data control, customizability.
- Disadvantages: High initial costs, slower deployment.
3. CRM SaaS
(Software as a Service)
- Advantages: Updates provided by the vendor, flexible cost structure.
- Disadvantages: Long-term costs, reliance on vendor support.
4. Hybrid CRM
- Advantages: Combines control with cloud flexibility.
- Disadvantages: Complexity in implementation and maintenance.
5. Open Source CRM
(When there’s a community working on a product, allowing free use)
- Advantages: Customizable, low licensing costs.
- Disadvantages: Requires technical expertise, limited direct support.