Metrics-Driven Marketing Strategy

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Metrics-Driven Marketing Strategy

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CRM Marketing Basics? Part 2

Is every department working together for the best total results? Is every department using the CRM software? Identify the opportunities and take action. Here's a basic overview from Wikipedia:

From the outside, customers interacting with a company perceive the business as a single entity, despite often interacting with a number of employees in different roles and departments. CRM is a combination of policies, processes, and strategies implemented by an organization to unify its customer interactions and provide a means to track customer information.

CRM includes many aspects which relate directly to one another:

• Front office operations — Direct interaction with customers, e.g. face to face meetings, phone calls, e-mail, online services etc.
• Back office operations — Operations that ultimately affect the activities of the front office (e.g., billing, maintenance, planning, marketing, advertising, finance, manufacturing, etc.)
• Business relationships — Interaction with other companies and partners, such as suppliers/vendors and retail outlets/distributors, industry networks (lobbying groups, trade associations). This external network supports front and back office activities.
• Analysis — Key CRM data can be analyzed in order to plan target-marketing campaigns, conceive business strategies, and judge the success of CRM activities (e.g., market share, number and types of customers, revenue, profitability)

Weak points in CRM will effect cash flow, customer satifaction, customer retention and many other business performance factors.

Who's Calling?

When was the last time you called your own business? Hopefully you are pleasantly surprised. To be sure you are putting your best foot forward with clients; try calling at different hours of the day and requesting different information or posing as different types of callers. Obviously you may need to get some help from a friend.

Keep in mind that someone trying to sell something will be sure to provide all of their contact information in hopes of the return call. A customer on the other hand may be completely different about providing information.

Be sure to also evaluate an automated answering system that directs callers to various extensions. Is the system pleasant and up to date? Do you have someone screening your calls? Are they good at it? All these items should also apply if you are paying an answering service.

Lastly, is there a tracking system for the source of inbound calls? This information can be a huge help to evaluate your marketing efforts.

CRM Marketing Basics

Working with clients everyday, I try to always ask how they are doing with Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Here's a description from Wikipedia:

Customer relationship management (CRM) consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers. CRM software is used to support these processes; the software system can be accessed, and information about customers and customer interactions can be entered, stored and accessed by employees in different company departments. Typical CRM goals are to improve services provided to customers, and to use customer contact information for targeted marketing.

While the term CRM generally refers to a software-based approach to handling customer relationships, most CRM software vendors stress that a successful CRM effort requires a holistic approach. CRM initiatives often fail because implementation was limited to software installation, without providing the context, support and understanding for employees to learn, and take full advantage of the information systems.

It's amazing how much insight you can gain from a free source like Wikipedia. Included in the initial entry is why most CRM initiatives fail. That really points us to an opportunity that can make a difference to the bottom line. Many times a company has already invested in the software package, it's just not being fully used. 2009 is a great opportunity to review your CRM approach and take full advantage of every opportunity.

Mainstream Green Consumers

Mainstream green consumers, one of the largest and fastest growing markets nationwide, according to the Center for Media Research which also concludes not all green consumers are the same. In their brief they breakdown the green consumer into four main groups with demographic information. Only 23% of consumers say that they don't care about the environment. The study reports that online research is an important source for green information. There is very interesting analysis in the research brief. Please contact us in you would like a copy.

Shopping with Mrs Green

Garment Graphics is proud to host the Mrs Green e-commerce site. The site officially launched over the Thanksgiving Day weekend with wonderful eco-conscious products. Organic apparel, trendy We Be Bags made from recycled canvas bags, and organic soaps are just a few of the products available.

The Mrs Green store is also an example of our Signature Store e-commerce feature of our new site. Our new site launched at the beginning of November and includes the new Signature Stores feature. There will be more about all the uses of Signature Stores on future posts.

Golf Event Planning

Tournament Planner
Planning a golf tournament? Remember, the key to a successful golf outing is to keep it simple.

Who’s Running the Show?
Create a Tournament Committee to give the outing direction and keep it on track.
• Chairman (Tournament), Vice Chairman (Sponsors), Vice Chairman (Players), Vice Chairman (Awards and Prizes)

How Much Money Do We Have?
Figure out your budget.
• Entry fees as well as sponsorships will determine where you play, the types and amounts of food and beverages provided and the number and types of awards and prizes you give out.

We Need More Money!
Increase the proceeds with sponsorships.
• Tournament sponsor
• Food and beverage sponsor
• Tee sponsors (playing and non-playing)
• Golf cart sponsors

Where and When?
Once you know how much you have to spend, you can start looking at course costs and availability.
• Some courses require a deposit.
• Some courses require reservations a full year in advance.
• Always set a rain date.

To Scramble or Not to Scramble?
Determine the type of tournament you’re hosting: charity, competitive, members only or recreational. Choose a format that will be enjoyed by the majority of your participants.
• Determine whether your field is serious or just there to have fun.
• In most cases players enjoy a scramble (each player hits from the best spot) because there is less pressure, which makes it more enjoyable. And handicaps are seldom required.

Should We Limit the Number of Participants?
The more players you have, the more money you have to spend. But larger fields can cause problems too.
• Nobody wants to be on the golf course for 6 or 7 hours
• Make sure the course has enough carts or additional carts will have
to be ordered.

Something For Everybody!
In addition to the giveaways handed out at the registration table, you will have to determine
additional awards and prizes.
• Decide how many places you want to award
• Longest Drive
• Closest to the Pin
• Straightest Drive
• Longest Putt

Put It In Writing.
You’ll need a number of written materials before, during and after the event.
• Promotional flyers
• Player invitations
• Outing day agenda
• Team pairing sheets
• Rules sheet
• Prize sheet

I’m Hungry.
If you’re going to serve food and beverages you need to consider when, where and what you are going to serve.
• Breakfast, lunch or dinner
• Sit-down, buffet or out on the course
• Beverage cart
• Snacks placed in the welcome bag/kit

Did I Win?
Everybody likes to win, so the more awards and prizes, the more goodwill. Remember though, if everyone has a good time, winning isn’t nearly as important.

Contact us at Garment Graphics, we'll help you put on a great event!