Email / CRM / Loyalty / Retention… What does all this really mean and what should your department ‘do’…?
“This is our email team, they do our CRM, loyalty and retention stuff”
Pick a customer marketing department at random and you can be fairly sure it’s had some variation of this description thrust upon it. Terms like ‘CRM’ and ‘loyalty’ get used interchangeably as the real definitions are only important to Marketing Professors, right?
Without sounding like a marketing swot I’d say ‘no’.
Of course, whatever moniker we use we’re ultimately talking about keeping and up-selling to current customers, so we don’t need to stop all work until we get this agreed. But I’ve found that giving more thought to what it is teams ‘do’ can provide real help defining the type and scope of service they gave to the business.
Service vs value add…
To give an example, ignoring all terms for a moment – what would you answer if you were asked “are you a ‘service centre’ or a ‘value add’”? The answer should not be what you want to be, but an honest appraisal of what you actually are. For instance, a good email manager can add real difference to your output, but output is ‘service’ – the value add comes when you do not simply build emails that push promotions at the customer, but also push customer information, in the form of campaign performance analysis, back into the company. Even simple engagement scores (opens, clicks etc) provide insight into what customers prefer and so can help inform business decisions. Use available data to segment customers too – ensuring you have an understanding of those customers who prefer X and those who prefer Y. In this way, are you happy to be called an email team? Your value add is not in the email itself, but in the analysis and insight.
Objectives, tactics, channels.
It’s for reasons like the above therefore that I prefer to use the term ‘customer marketing’ to define the department at the top end. I encourage clients to only use email when referring to it as a channel (amongst others); only use loyalty programme as a tactic to be employed (amongst others); and only use terms like retention when setting departmental and campaign objectives (amongst others). This may not match everyone’s definitions, and it’s pretty broad brush approach, but let me explain a few things in more detail, and hopefully it will help build up a picture.
Looking from the top down, a good starting point for a ‘customer marketing’ team is to be:
- An internal media/planning agency. Take the briefs from internal stakeholders (“we need to send out this promotion”) or write your own briefs based on a need you’ve defined – either way, look at the brief, look at the objective, and recommend the channel solution that can best achieves this.
- Data focused. To be able to do the above you need data, data and more data. Split tests, fallow cells, understand what happens when you do X vs when you do Y. Look at short and long term metrics. This information will enable you to identify customer insights, that lead to businesses opportunities, and to best fit solutions.
- Staffed with thinkers and doers. Of course, doers can and should be encouraged to input into the overall thinking, but once you’ve decided on the plan, you need the resource to execute it. Make sure you have people doing the project management
- Supported by relevant infrastructure. As above, you need the resource to support your plans. So review your email service provider, your data storage, ensure your company’s information sources are set up to capture what you need, fed in to the right place, and are then available to analyse.
- Tactically diverse. I’ve mentioned a ‘loyalty programme’ is a tactic (eg a traditional points programme), and this may sound odd as they tend to be company-wide initiatives. I mean I’ve worked with clients where these types of ‘programmes’ have been set in stone, running them is the reason for a department’s existence. But this is the wrong way round – ‘loyalty’ tactics need to justify their existence, it could be (for example) short term sales promotions, or a VIP recognition and reward programme better serve the need. Aim for loyalty, but don’t be hung up on it.
Value added as standard…
So with this in mind we get to a very customer centric approach – customers provide insight, insight leads to objectives, data leads to solutions, people and technology get this solution to market. Its therefore not CRM vs loyalty vs email. It may sound fairly straightforward, but if you have heard your department referred to as some combination of these terms, this change in thinking & clarity of definition should help set out your stall and define what it is you do – whether in a company big or small.
Written by Rob Fountain, Senior CRM Consultant
