The optimism of #Purpose & science of #design in forging #digital customer experiences! Opinions my own!

The right strategy at the right time.

Right time, real time✌️& there’s contextual “customer” time.

There is a right time and place to introduce a more complex direct marketing approach and many obstacles to overcome including lack of experience or resource, a focus on short term sales, poor legacy systems and so on. Here are a few pointers to help you identify when more complex contact strategies should be considered.

You have a sufficient marketing allowable.

Multiple contacts are only possible when the incremental value is high enough. Think about the incremental lifetime value created by changing the behavior of a percentage of the audience and how much you can afford to spend over an extended period to shift the perceptions and behaviors of a valuable group of customers. How much do you currently spend on an individual over a number of years trying to sell them a product, what is your cumulative success rate? Could you spend that same budget differently, perhaps over a shorter period to create a bigger success? Don’t forget, by using low cost digital channels ongoing communications can be affordable.

Response rates are declining

This is frequently the stimulus that forces a company to try something new. As response rates decline so activity shrinks and a company finds it is fishing in a smaller and smaller pond. As the AA discovered, trying a new more strategic approach can help revive fortunes

You want to create a substantial change in customer behavior

If you are trying to build customer loyalty, sell a complex product or one with high barriers to purchase, then a simple one off sales message may not do the job. Creating a variety of rich content and customer touch-points is likely to be necessary, this then creates the basis for broader engagement with prospects and a number of different messages that can be communicated over time.

In summary

Many studies have found that co-ordinated contact strategies, particularly those that use multiple channels, can have a greater long-term impact on customer behaviour and drive increased return on investment than simpler tactical or repeated messages. These programmes clearly take longer to create, require greater initial investment and need to be supported by robust targeting and analysis. However in the right circumstances this effort may be the only way to create success.