Add One-to-One Services -- Sherburne

HAVE YOU added one-to-one communications or variable data printing to your portfolio of offerings yet? Although we have been talking about variable data printing as a value-added service for a decade now, adoption rates have been slower than the pundits projected. But that all seems poised to change. With the economy in disarray, marketers of all types are scrambling to find the most cost-effective—yet still effective—means of communicating with their customers. According to customer loyalty guru Frederick Reichheld, it can cost five times as much to acquire a new client as it does to grow an existing one. Marketers want to protect one of their most valuable assets—the existing customer—and grow their share of wallet to take advantage of these dynamics.

In its 2008 Marketing Outlook, the CMO Council reported that quantifying and measuring the value of marketing programs and investments remained the top challenge for marketers that year. -Other key priorities included growing customer knowledge, insight and conversations, as well as upgrading the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing groups. While the Council’s 2009 Marketing Outlook has not yet been published, it is likely that these priorities will remain roughly the same for most marketers.

If you offer one-to-one communications services and, better yet, offer those services across multiple media, ranging from print to e-mail, Web, SMS and more, you are in a position to help marketers with all three of these priorities. By incorporating e-mail and the Web into the customer communications mix, performance of marketing programs can be measured in real time, and rapidly adjusted as appropriate for optimum results. Multichannel marketing programs also help marketers learn more about customers as they build an ongoing dialog with them through these programs. Finally, these programs contribute to the overall efficiency and effectiveness of marketing.

Data Integration Is key

But what about the data, you might ask? Isn’t it true that most companies don’t have accurate data or enough data about clients? This has been one reason for the slow uptake in variable data volumes.

But, according to 1to1 media, a division of Peppers & Rogers Group, this situation is changing rapidly. In a recent 1to1 in Action white paper, “Panning for Gold,” the firm reports: “Crafting fact-based marketing, sales and service strategies using insight gleaned from customer data is one way companies are gaining a competitive advantage today…Fortunately, as the number and quality of the -avenues for tracking and collecting data increase, so do the technologies needed to make sense of all of the customer information available to companies today.”

The white paper reports that although nearly three-quarters of companies house their customer data in multiple databases, 58 percent have launched an initiative or task force to integrate data across the enterprise. The paper profiles a number of technologies that marketers are exploring, and is well worth reading. This paper, plus a wealth of other excellent information on the subject of customer communications, can be found by visiting www.1to1.com.

It will require that you register to receive information but, by doing so, you can also opt in to a range of informative and interesting newsletters and other materials also worth reviewing.

If you have not considered adding one-to-one multichannel communications to the mix, there is no better time than the present to do so. Sure, it is a scary time to be investing in new things, but it is also an excellent time to be investing in new things.

As NAPL’s Andy Paparozzi points out, our industry is not only undergoing change due to cyclical effects of the economy, it is also undergoing structural change, mostly driven by the range of alternative media marketers have at their disposal. When we come out of this downturn—and we always do—we will see a very different industry.

I can guarantee that innovation and value-added services will be a critical part of any successful printing business of the future—and multichannel communications should rank right up at the top of the list. “Business as usual” is not likely the strategy that will carry you into a successful future. If you don’t have a digital press, I would agree that now may not be the time to buy one, but find a partner who does have one and to whom you can outsource some of this work until you reach a point where the volume justifies more investments on your part.

I hear objections to this approach all the time. They include:

• My customers are not asking me for variable data—but ask yourself: Do you go to McDonald’s for Chinese food? Your customers are asking someone for it!

• I don’t want to get another firm involved. They may poach my client. Yes, they could. But if you do nothing, the risks are even greater. Your customer is likely to “poach” herself because she will be looking for these services.

• I can’t afford to do this right now. But I would counter that you can’t afford not to.

Use Data in New Ways

I could go on, but I won’t. The truth is, this stuff works! There are lots of stories out there about the successes, where in the past people were reluctant to share results. 1to1, PODi and others have done a terrific job of getting the word out. If you don’t believe it, start with your own business!

You have customer data. You probably have customer data in several different places. Examine that data. Find out what you know—and don’t know—about your customers. Then try your own self-promotion campaign using multiple channels (including print).

Design it to fill the gaps in customer knowledge and to educate clients about the full range of services you can offer. If you can’t produce it internally, reach out to that potential partner. The best way to learn this stuff is to experiment on yourself. And, as a bonus, if you do it right, you will gain new business as a result.

Get educated and get personal. This is not the wave of the future; it is today. PI

—Cary Sherburne

About the Author
Cary Sherburne is a well-known author, journalist and marketing consultant whose practice is focused on marketing communications strategies for the printing and publishing industries. She has written six books, including “Digital Paths to Profit,” published by NAPL; and, most recently, “No-Nonsense Innovation: Practical Strategies for Success,” written with Bill Lowe, the father of the IBM PC, and scheduled for publication this spring. She can be contacted at Cary@SherburneAssociates.com.