According to a new report by Booz & Co., the next wave in marketing will be customer-preference driven targeted marketing, also known as “profiling”:
In a world overrun with marketing messages, the next wave of marketing technology will cut through the clutter, building automated marketing campaigns that address customers’ wants and needs individually. The result: greater [...]

A Company’s website is not often looked at when implementing a CRM solution or CRM processes, but it represents a major facet of the relationship that a company has with its customers.  The website is the public face of every company, and represents a major entry point to customer communications and relationships.  Yet the corporate [...]

IVRs are an important part of any company’s CRM implementation.  IVRs (when implemented correctly) are great for sales and customer service, routing calls to the appropriate individuals and gathering information to facilitate faster and better service.  But rarely is it considered to use an inbound IVR for marketing purposes.  Kelly Starzec at the IVR Blog [...]

I came across an article today on how many people are not making the most of Email Marketing.  This struck me as true and very accurate.  The typical email marketer creates good content, and blasts it off to everyone in their list.  While the article touches on targeted content, triggers, and other topics of note, [...]

This is part 4 of the series “Targeting The Customer“, a 5-part series on using marketing automation to target customers and improve marketing effectiveness.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we discussed the role and methods of profiling customers and prospects.  In part 3, we discussed how to utilize profile data to send [...]

This is part 3 of the series “Targeting The Customer“, a 5-part series on using marketing automation to target customers and improve marketing effectiveness.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we discussed the role and methods of profiling customers and prospects.  Yet obtaining valuable data about the interests and habits of a customer [...]

This is part 2 of the series “Targeting The Customer“, a 5-part series on using marketing automation to target customers and improve marketing effectiveness.
In the first post of this series, we discussed the importance of profiling and it’s purpose in gathering information regarding customer behavior and preference, and utilizing that data to target the customer [...]

This is part 1 of the series “Targeting The Customer“, a 5-part series on using marketing automation to target customers and improve marketing effectiveness.

Sending off blind email blasts without regard to the end recipient is like a sales rep using the same sales pitch for a product, regardless of the customer’s specific needs.  While email [...]

As I’ve stated previously, Marketing Automation has become the forgotten child of CRM.  It’s features are underdeveloped, it is always an “afterthought” in CRM implementations, and has often been relegated to simple email marketing off of the CRM’s sales leads or contact management databases.  As important as email marketing is, in most CRM systems its [...]

It is no secret that direct marketing plays an important role in most companies’ marketing strategy.  Yet at the same, time, most forms of direct marketing are an annoyance to customers, so much so that laws have been passed heavily regulating the means of direct marketing via electronic channels (email, fax, and voice;  SMS can’t [...]

For a decade now, marketers have been striving to obtain email addresses for their clients and prospects as the most critical piece of data for keeping in touch with customers.  In many cases, companies would incentivise sales forces and telemarketers if they could obtain that single piece of information from a client.  Because email as [...]

New CRM implementations will often focus on Sales and Support (in that order).  As an outgrowth of this (or perhaps as its cause) CRM software solutions tend to focus heavily on these two areas, often downplaying one of the most critical components of CRM, marketing.  Marketing is truly the neglected child of CRM, and marketing [...]

CRM is focused primarily on relationships with customers for the purpose of driving revenue and profits.  As such, in typical instances of CRM implementations, Sales Force Automation typically becomes the central focus, with all other aspects of CRM becoming secondary.  Indeed, in most of the cross-departmental CRM implementations that I have been involved with, Sales [...]