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The Official Marketing Blog of DeepTarget
I had the opportunity to interview Damson Automotive Group’s Digital Media Directors. Please click on the link below to read the full interview and to see why they think email is a key component to their marketing initiatives.
http://www.deeptarget.com/news_and_events/damson-interview.aspx
The blah words in question are “Market Segmentation”. The definition of market segmentation that you can find on wikipedia is informative and worth a quick look or two. Obviously, there are reams of information sources to define this for you, but right now, a quick refresher is all you may need.
Why write about something that has been around since…well, marketing? Today, the difference is the availability of so many new forms of electronic communication, connection and performance monitoring. Therefore, as a marketer, one should be taking advantage of deep and deeper market segmentation in every campaign that is executed (I’m assuming here that most of your campaigns are e-campaigns, even though I realize that reality differs from my wish).
Not that there was much of an excuse before either. But, now? If you want to communicate or connect with your prospect, customer, reader, user, or fan realize that they are not all made equal nor do they think alike. This base and audience is made up of a number of individuals who are quite diverse.
On the one hand, they are not one mass. On the other hand, they are diverse individuals that can number in the 100s or 1000s or 10,000s or more. Somewhere between mass and individual is a logical step.
This is where market segmentation comes in. It is the ability to group individuals into logical subsets based on their demographics (age, marital status, household income, location), product likes or dislikes, past purchases, derived needs, feedback history and so on. Or some combination of these. When you have thus homogenized the mass into logical groups, you are able to apply more relevance to any communication. With more relevance, it follows that you get better results – whatever way you define “better”.
A fundamental tenet then of market segmentation is to know something about individuals. Something other than their name and contact information. This is the foundation of market segmentation. It is amazing how many businesses – of various sizes: small, medium and large – have still not arrived at this conclusion or started doing something about it. Those who are contemporary marketers and modern market practitioners may not choose to believe this, but for some of us who are on the ground dealing with people and businesses every day, let me tell you, there are many out there who are still at ground zero with respect to e-marketing.
However, it is also great to see how many businesses are truly making strides in this area by making the right technology investments – in CRM, marketing automation systems, various e-marketing initiatives such as email and online marketing. They are guaranteeing the increased success of their marketing and impacting the future of their business.
Are you one of them? Yes? My hearty congratulations to you and your business!
P.S. While market segmentation is a key factor that should be driving e-marketing, it is also true that segmentation – at least in my opinion – should follow only after you have built “permission” from those you are connecting with. It means that your audience has giving you permission to be reached. More about this in another blog posting at another time. The best source of information on this topic though is Seth Godin. While your at it, why don’t you read what he says about permission marketing?
There are few things scarier in business than unhappy or dissatisfied customers. No company, no matter how good they are, is immune to this problem. Of course there are many preventative or proactive measures companies can take to reduce the number of unhappy customers, but nothing is fool proof. So, the question is what do you do when you encounter unhappy customers? Is it possible to turn unhappy customers into happy customers? The answer is, of course! To illustrate this, I would like to share a personal example.
My morning routine includes me checking my email to see what I may have missed overnight. To my surprise this morning I had received several emails from one of my banks telling me that my statement delivery options had been changed from online to paper. This was very disconcerting to me because I had not made this change. So, I quickly tried to log on to my account and found that out that I couldn’t. By this point I was very frustrated and a little worried, so I hastily called my bank to give them a piece of my mind and find out what the heck was going on.
First, I have to say that this was around 6:00 in the morning and I’m grateful that someone was available at my bank to speak to me. This is pointer one – availability to solve problems lessens frustration for your customer. Secondly, the gentleman that answered my call was very professional and courteous. Pointer two- you catch more flies with honey. Third, he paid attention and then quickly acted. Enough said. Fourth, he solved my problem and acknowledged an error in their system. Now, I know that there are some problems that can’t be solved, but doing all you can goes a long way and yes admitting that you were wrong or that a mistake was made can sometimes work wonders too.
But, wait there is more. After he solved my problem he noticed that I qualified for their premier account which not only saves me money in fees but, it also includes a lot of perks that I wasn’t getting before. So, not only did he turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer, he increased my loyalty to the bank.
This bank employee is what I would call a marketing asset. If you have employees like this, then you have nothing to fear. If the opposite is true, be afraid, be very afraid.
For some reason, the term Gen Y seems to be a little scary to some. Sure, they seem to be everywhere (they make up an estimated 25% of the US population) and it may also appear that they were born hard wired for texting, surfing (the online kind) and being connected 24-7 to some type of media. But, as a marketer, the term Gen Y should not scare you. For you, Gen Y should spell huge opportunity. The fact that there are so many of them and they are hard wired for things like social media and texting is a huge advantage to marketers smart enough to market to them on their terms.
Gen Y actually spends more time texting, emailing and on logged in to social media sites than they do watching television. We all know by now how much cheaper it is to advertise online than it is to advertise on television. We also know that digital is cheaper than print. FYI- Gen Y’ers don’t get their news delivered by print. THEY GET IT ONLINE! They also are more likely to have things like bank and credit card statements to be delivered greenly, aka online. Digital online marketing is cheaper, quicker and more effective. Di d you know that, given the choice, Gen Y would rather live without social media and television for a week than go without texting and email.
So, now that you know what they want, give it to them! If you haven’t already started planning to use email campaigns and same site advertising like personalized banners, there is no time like the present. Get your CRM’s in gear and start using the information you already have to your advantage. Gen Y has huge buying power now and it will only increase in the future.
Get them to be loyal customers now by advertising to them in their own language and you will see benefits now and in the future.
