7 steps towards personally talking to millions of customers at once

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Copyright © Digital Alchemy 7 STEPS TOWARDS PERSONALLY TALKING TO MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS AT ONCE
7TOWARDS PERSONALLY
MILLIONS
OF CUSTOMERS AT ONCE
TALKING TO
By Digital Alchemy Team

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CUSTOMERS ARE IN CONTROL… AND YOU NEED TO CATCH UP
Imagine this...
Your customer is walking into the store with a
smartphone in hand, validating the store associate’s
advice by looking up product reviews and recommended
items, comparing prices across brands, calling customer
service for help, and checking discount coupons
received via mail or SMS, all while physically browsing
the store. Given the circumstances, as a store owner or
marketer, what would be the most effective channels to
communicate to your customers?
If you don’t know the answer, the only person who can
tell you is the customer. Simply asking customers how
they want to be contacted and then monitoring those
preferred channels is only the first step. Customer
preference evolves over time and if there are only
100 or 1,000 customers, it’s still feasible to ask them
individually about how things might have changed. But
what if you have 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000 or even
10,000,000 customers? What does it take to create a
personalised multichannel mix for each customer at a
scale of 1 million?
Here are 7 steps to follow to create a successful
multichannel communication.

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STEP 1:
Optimise a single view of the customer
The first step is to make sure your data strategy is properly
manageable by integrating the data to create a single view
of the customer. The point is to implement a platform that
provides a single version of the truth, that enables you to
not only remain updated on the latest conversations with
your customers, but also creates a way for you to track
their interaction with the brand. This interaction can be
analysed so that relevant messages can be sent at the
right time.

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STEP 2:
Gear up for contextual segmentation
Marketing segmentation has evolved into a very sophisticated
science.
In other words, we have to look at context or situation and
start creating segments around those.
With a powerful single customer view platform,
you can move beyond traditional market
segmentation to true one-to-one personalised
marketing in a real-time context.
The process of segmentation should also continue to evolve
by combining demographic information with behavioural
insights (e.g. features that are of interest) and key concepts
that influence customer behaviour. As marketers, we should
stop segmenting markets based on traits or stereotypical,
traditional behaviour and instead begin with “what problems
do this set of segment face” and “how can we solve them”.
In order to adapt to this consumer reality, our segmentation
should be redesigned not to fit particular traits of a group of
people, but according to their motivation and behaviour.
Sam is 65 years old but is a triathlon
biker. The traditional demographic model
would have assumed that Sam is not
interested in buying a triathlon bike, shoes
or accessories, or triathlon travel packages. In reality
a customer is a dynamic being and therefore we must
treat our marketing campaigns as such.
Example

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STEP 3:
Recognise that a customer responds
differently to each channel
It’s not just about a message or offer that you have to
personalise. In order to increase the response rate, you have
to communicate through customer’s preferred channels. If
your customer does not like to speak with you on the phone
and has asked you to send an email, what chance do you
think you have to convince them to buy if you keep using
telesales? It is highly likely that they will turn you down at
hello. You have to understand that customers have their own
ways to consume information, for example, telesales might
work for some customers while others might prefer receiving
information via email or text messages.

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STEP 4:
Create dynamic content using customer’s rules
Treatments, rewards, and personalised offers for individual
customers are possible through event triggers defined under
customer’s rules.
The customer’s rules also include the choice of channel and
timing under different sets of circumstances.
A reminder SMS message sent to
mobile subscribers to recharge before
credit runs out with an offer for bonus
credit based on their subscription plan
and usage behaviour.
Example

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STEP 5:
Make it responsive
You send an email to customers. If it bounces, you send
them direct mail, and if customers open the email, then you
give them a call to follow up. That’s how you make your
channel responsive. By tagging all your communications
together and using multiple channels to provide information
to customers when one of them fails, you can significantly
increase response rate.
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4
5

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STEP 6:
Track results across multichannel
Response through each communication channel helps you
to identify channels of customers’ choice and track their
behaviour. Response data should feedback to the marketing
data mart on a daily basis.
It is also important to note that tracking performance on an
unresponsive channel is equally as important as the channel
with the highest response rate. This is because no-response
data gives you a clue for a “not” to-do list, which helps you to
narrow down the choice of effective channels, thus minimising
the marketing expenses while maximising the response rate.
And since customer behaviour is dynamic and evolving over
time, a fully integrated customer response will bring in new
insights and keep track of your customer’s behaviour.
SMS
E-MAIL
DIRECT
MAIL
CALL

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STEP 7:
Automate campaign management and production process
Managing multichannel communication on a regular basis is a
continuous battle with a huge cost if it is not being automated.
To minimise time and cost for campaign management and the
production process, you need a strong customer analytics
team with an automated platform to enable you to create
achieving multiple marketing campaigns.

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ACHIEVE MULTICHANNEL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE WITH
ANALYTICS
With powerful analytical tools and strong business analytical
skill, you can understand how each customer responds to
multichannel. This applies regardless of how many customers
you have.
But marketing success is not a matter of chance, it is a
matter of customer’s choice.
You can design the most creative campaigns or send the best
offers to your customers, but without the right channel and
relevancy, your response rate is by chance.
The need to effectively manage multichannel
is critical for your competitiveness.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Digital Alchemy Team
Digital Alchemy Limited (DA) is Asia Pacific’s leading Database
Marketing Services Provider. DA’s team of professionals are dedicated
to working with clients to improve their marketing efficiency and to
capture latent customer value. Established in 2003 and operating in
Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Nanjing, and
Singapore, DA has been contributing to the success of an expanding
breadth of clients including leading companies in financial services,
telecommunications, retail, motoring services, media, and other
industry sectors.
www.digitalalchemy.asia/blog
www.digitalalchemy.asia | info@digitalalchemy.asia
Copyright © Digital Alchemy | July 2015
www.
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7 steps towards personally talking to millions of customers at once