This presentation outlines 9 steps to turning marketing analytics into ROI. These steps aren’t ultra-sophisticated, but rather practical, nuts-and-bolts ways to optimize the marketing we do with our clients.  Marketers who can make these steps part of their marketing DNA will win. View the related blog post: http://bit.ly/aeZH0L

1. 9 Steps to Maximum ROI.Turn Marketing Analyticsinto Actions March 2010

2. 10 Steps: Overview 10/11/2010 2 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 I am Martha Bush, SVP of Strategy & Solutions At SIGMA Marketing Group. This presentation outlines my top 9 steps to turning marketing analytics into ROI. These are the critical opportunities we remind ourselves of every day. They aren’t ultra-sophisticated, but rather practical, nuts-and-bolts ways to optimize the marketing we do with our clients. Marketers who can make these steps part of their marketing DNA will win. No kidding.

3. Step 1: Make sure a unified view of your customers is a top marketing priority. You can’t grow what you don’t know. Sure, it’s a huge hurdle! Sure, you need the involvement of your IT department! 10/11/2010 3 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 You wont achieve maximum ROI without a truly complete view of your individual customers. You need regular transaction and behavior information from all your channels. You need lifestyle and life stage information, and you need data that can help predict what they’ll do next.

4. Step 2: Build marketing strategies for each key customer segment. 10/11/2010 4 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Your customers are not one size fits all. You have segments that are more valuable than others. You have segments that perceive your brand and use your product or service in very different ways from others. To turn your investment into the best payback you need to know where to spend it to create the greatest customer response and value. Align your creative and product plans with your segments and find where you can drive the greatest response. Use the best targeting you can afford.

5. Step 3: Build strategies rooted in deep customer insights. 10/11/2010 5 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Want your customer relationships to grow and grow? You cannot stop looking for insights that can be turned into strategies. What’s the most relevant thing you can tell them? How can you get them to take action? Traditional advertising leans on primary research and direct marketers often wait to see what will happen in the field. Create the most valuable customer insights by integrating the two approaches — tying the customer voice with the customer’s behavior to find the right combination of messages, offers and benefits to create customer action now. Push customer knowledge out and up to all users.

6. Step 4: Get the right message to the right customer at the right time – withoutdriving yourself crazy! 10/11/2010 6 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Boiling the ocean with huge campaign management solutions often creates havoc. Personalized multi-segment messaging is possible without massive investments of dollars and time. Before you buy a tool… develop a test and learn strategy that can gradually create skill sets, a solid set of learnings and business rules, and ultimately an investment in campaign management tools that both you and your partners are ready to work with.

7. Step 5: Bring the right and left parts of your marketing brainpower together. 10/11/2010 7 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Your database analysts and your creative team eye each other wearily. They don’t speak the same language and they don’t want to. But to get the greatest impact you need a creative team that “gets” the analytics… AND …an analytical team that knows the kinds of insights that can be at the heart of great creative.

8. Step 6: Create one relationship strategy – implement across many channels. 10/11/2010 8 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Oftentimes, different departments own different communications channels, but these channels often touch the same customers. This can create disjointed messages and interactions. Create one sales funnel that can be implemented in an integrated fashion. Create an engagement plan to map out the steps a customer goes through in doing business with you. Doing this… you’ll keep yourself sane and your customers closer.

9. Step 7: Measure, Measure, MeasureAdapt, Adapt, Adapt. 10/11/2010 9 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Find the right metrics that really tell you what’s happening with your customer’s relationships. Push ALL marketers on your team to use the SAME metrics. Make measurement non-negotiable for every strategy and every tactic. Be ready to adapt and respond as customers’ needs and responses change.

10. Step 8: Focus on the data – clean it, enhance it, understand it. 10/11/2010 10 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Data is most definitely not the sexiest part of the equation. The ability to link your data from all silos is critical to getting multi-channel ROI. Marketing stats should accrue to the people who really know the customer best. They are the ones who are creating the foundation for all the other activities.

11. Step 9: Create an engagement machine. 10/11/2010 11 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Forget one-shot programs! Stop the ad-hoc work! First… Test and learn until you have proven, data-driven acquisition and retention strategies. Then… Automate programs to force time and cost out of the process.

12. In closing… 10/11/2010 12 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 ROI Marketing cannot be achieved by purchasing the right tool or with one “boil the ocean” project. Step-by-step,test-and-learn, insights-driven processes that can be measured will win the race to a better return on marketing investment.

13. Engaging your customersthrough analytics, strategy and technology 10/11/2010 13 Confidential © SIGMA Marketing Group 2010 Our Blog: FifthGearAnalytics.com Web: SigmaMarketing.com Twitter: @SIGMA_MktgGrp Call Toll Free: 888.277.9837 Email: SIGMAinfo@sigmamarketing.com