Responsys' Scott Olrich describes Individualized Lifecycle Marketing, and shows how it helped one company boost its email results.
Today, marketers compete in a world where customers are in control, expectations are high and rising, and every interaction can make or break a relationship. Acquiring, retaining and growing a strong, valuable customer base has never been more difficult -- which is why timing and relevance have never been more important in an organization's outbound marketing strategy. Now, more than ever, marketers must have a clear understanding of the complete customer lifecycle, as well as the ability to leverage that knowledge to send highly relevant messages to prospects and customers when they are most receptive.
Enter Individualized Lifecycle Marketing, the ability to send the right messages to the right individuals at the right times -- in an automated, scalable and repeatable way. It is the usage of context (timing and relevance) as a targeting tactic that has been missing from the outbound efforts of roughly 90 percent of marketers.
Individualized Lifecycle Marketing lays the foundation for more successful outbound marketing by providing a clear roadmap and proven methodology for marketers to propel prospects and customers from awareness to trial, and from purchase to loyalty. By helping marketers tailor their messages and tactics to the lifecycle of the individual, this approach dramatically improves their ability to acquire, retain and grow customer value.
In May, 2005, JupiterResearch found that, in conflict with profitability goals, marketers largely dismiss relevancy as an important aspect of their email campaigns, ignoring the evidence that highly targeted campaigns outperform offer-oriented campaigns. And the evidence is, according to Jupiter's ROI of Email Relevance survey, that relevant campaigns increase net profits by an average of 18 times more than do broadcast mailings, despite additional campaign costs. In addition, the study shows tactics that improve relevance (e.g., lifecycle marketing) deliver substantially higher improvements in revenue and net profits. Clearly, taking a more targeted approach to outbound marketing based on a contextual awareness of the customer position in the lifecycle has proven business value.
Email marketing success with Individualized Lifecycle Marketing
Leading marketing organizations in every industry are implementing lifecycle programs with impressive results. Individualized Lifecycle Marketing is helping companies build stronger, more profitable customer relationships that increase profitability.
Here's an example. PETCO, a large pet specialty retailer, needed to improve the relevance, and ultimately the results, of its email marketing campaigns. The company wanted to test the impact that refinements in its mailings had on its email subscribers, and correlate the buying behavior of email subscribers with non-email subscribers. PETCO also wanted to launch the most successful campaigns in an automated fashion to create campaign-management staffing efficiencies.
After testing various message formats and frequency, PETCO determined subscribers should get no more than four messages per month, including newsletters, product notifications, and other recurring and ad-hoc mailings. Using Responsys, PETCO set up triggered messages called "fetch my sales" that would trigger offers based on customer purchase behavior and shopping lists. PETCO also launched an automated pet birthday message, and found one-half of customers purchasing from these messages had never before purchased from PETCO online.
Use of both triggering and personalization has allowed the company to attain improved sales. For example, testing of personalized cross-sell messages revealed those who received them spent 15 percent more than those who did not. By testing message frequency, content and personalization, PETCO has dramatically improved clickthrough rates by more than 100 percent, and generated more online sales. By employing automated and triggered campaigns, PETCO fielded an increased number of comparatively more effective campaigns, without impacting staffing levels.
Summary
About one-third of the market will soon adopt contextually relevant tactics (e.g., targeting top performers, cart abandonment campaigns). During the next 12 months, however, the ability to implement these campaigns in a short period of time will represent a significant competitive advantage over the masses that remain mired in fielding undifferentiated broadcast campaigns.
Individualized Lifecycle Marketing provides a straightforward, customer-driven alternative to traditional marketer- or offer-driven targeting tactics, which often have limited relevance to a customer's current situation and result in annoying interruptions, rather than compelling communications that create value for both the customer and the company. By adopting this aligned, customer-focused way of marketing, companies can create an intentional, differentiating customer experience that drives ROI in a fiercely competitive market.
Scott Olrich is chief marketing officer for Responsys, a premier provider of on-demand email and lifecycle marketing solutions. The company provides an easy-to-use solution for planning and executing timely and relevant permission-based campaigns delivered at precise moments in the customer's lifecycle, allowing companies to drive the highest value to their customers and greatest profitability to their organization. Responsys is trusted by market category leaders such as: Avery Dennison, Avis Europe, CDW, Continental Airlines, Forrester Research, Lands' End, Office Depot and PETCO. Responsys, the world's largest, private and profitable email service provider, is based in Redwood City, California, with offices in London, New York, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon.