Loyalty Builders

Why response models are the wrong way to target

editor — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:24:03 +0000

Why response models are the wrong way to target

Fri, 02/03/2012 - 15:09 - Mark Klein

Who to target is a crucial question for direct marketers, and response models are a popular but difficult solution. No one wants to send spam or junk mail. David Baker takes on the problem in a recent blog post. Now Baker is a very smart guy. His position at Acxiom gives him great insight into what’s happening in email marketing. When he’s the author of the latest Email Insider post, I read it right away.

HE SAID "YOU CANT MEASURE TASTE". I SAID "WANT TO BET?"

editor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:46:24 +0000

HE SAID "YOU CANT MEASURE TASTE". I SAID "WANT TO BET?"

Wed, 01/11/2012 - 12:44 - Mark Klein

istock_000015129724xsmall.jpg

A few weeks ago I met a gentleman who said I couldn’t predict what his customers would do. “Our customers’ tastes dictate what they’ll buy”, he told me, “and you can’t measure an intangible like taste.”

He was quite surprised when I told him we’d been doing it for years. And I suspect he didn’t quite believe me until I showed him how we do it.

At Loyalty Builders we measure taste using the algorithms we’ve developed over the last 10 years. With this proprietary math we can predict the likelihood of each individual customer buying each individual product. The methodology scales nicely so the number of customers and products is, for practical purposes, unlimited.

Credit Cards Or Transaction Data

editor — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:55:03 +0000

Credit Cards Or Transaction Data

Mon, 11/14/2011 - 13:50 - Mark Klein

istock_000011713012xsmallcreditcard.jpg

A recent Wall Street Journal (10/27/11) carried a story about using credit card data to predict whether or not you will take your medicines as prescribed.

The article, “Next Frontier in Credit Scores: Predicting Personal Data” describes the Fair Isaac “Medicine Adherence Score” that “is based partly on how long a person has lived at the same address and whether he owns a car.” The Journal notes that “The proliferation of ’scores‘ highlights the widening trade in personal information, which is already fueling public concern about diminishing personal privacy.”

Hunkering Down

editor — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:11:05 +0000

Hunkering Down

Thu, 08/25/2011 - 12:07 - Arthur Einstein

Marketing in a downturn takes nerves of steel.

Study after study shows that, tough as a downturn can be, it’s actually an opportunity. Marketers with the guts to invest when conditions look bleak always emerge from a downturn stronger than if they’d headed for the storm shelter and pushed marketing to the back burner till the storm blew over.

But how can you afford to be a take-no-prisoners marketer when you may have less money to invest? Spend smarter! Make every marketing dollar generate more revenue. Here’s how it’s done.

What Marketers Want

editor — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:22:13 +0000

What Marketers Want

Thu, 04/28/2011 - 04:13 - Mark Klein

istock_marketing_campaigns_v2l.jpg

You can’t kick back in this business. Over my many years producing software, I’ve learned that you can’t relax and coast on previous work. There’s always room for a better version, even when you have produced something as game-changing as Longbow, our SaaS platform that aspires to be ‘direct marketing in a box’. And of course we here at Loyalty Builders haven’t been sitting back; if you are a client, you or someone else in your organization has been fielding calls from us as we try to determine what marketers need to do their job.

It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Relevance

editor — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:43:46 +0000

It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Relevance

Wed, 04/06/2011 - 15:37 - Mark Klein

istock_000005315240xsmall_targeted_customers.jpg

Relevance has always been the key to successful marketing. Long before the rise of advertising and mass distribution local merchants knew their customers needs because their customers were their neighbors. The relationship was 1:1. It worked but it didn’t ‘scale’.

Now, 21st century technology has made relevance possible once again. And what we’ve learned with a certainty is that the more relevant the offer, the more successful the campaign.

It’s not enough to personalize a mailing with the customer’s name. Individualization - the ability to make appropriate offers to each customer - can make the message more relevant. It’s the key to creating true one-to-one direct marketing campaigns.

The evolution of direct marketing

editor — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:49:47 +0000

The evolution of direct marketing

Fri, 02/11/2011 - 15:49 - Mark Klein

dm_evolution_of_man_4.jpg

Last year, an industry insider said that “all marketing will become direct marketing.” But direct marketing itself is changing rapidly and dramatically as two important trends are influencing marketers thinking:

Response rates are low and going lower
Companies with more individualized messaging are seeing distinctly improved results

The figure shows the evolution we see.

How good are you at keeping customers?

editor — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:29:08 +0000

How good are you at keeping customers?

Wed, 01/19/2011 - 10:00 - Mark Klein

man_on_wire.jpg

When we talk to clients and prospects about the challenges they face when marketing to their current customers, the issue that never fails to surface is retention. Yet when we press for more details, we are confronted by a paucity of analysis, a struggle to even size the problem, and more often than not, a semi-helpless shrug when we ask how they are attacking the problem.

Customer marketing is a three-legged stool

editor — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:37:43 +0000

Customer marketing is a three-legged stool

Tue, 12/21/2010 - Mark Klein

three-legged_stool.jpg

Direct marketing to your existing customers, the best way to grow revenue for most companies, is like a three-legged stool. The three legs are customer data, customer analytics, and customer campaigns. Remove any leg and the stool falls over.

Without customer data, you’re flying blind - forced to use newspapers, TV, pay-per-click, and take a chance your customer will find your message. You can’t use personalized direct marketing and all the revenue lift it generates.

How big is your one-time buyer problem?

editor — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:12:20 +0000

How big is your one-time buyer problem?

Mon, 11/22/2010 - Mark Klein

What’s your gross margin on a typical first purchase? Is it less than your acquisition cost for a new customer? If your answer is yes (and that’s most companies), you have a one-time buyer problem.

Getting the second sale and solidifying a buyer as a profitable customer is one of the toughest jobs in selling. The problem is particularly serious for catalogers and on-line merchants. In our eleven years of helping direct marketers, we’ve learned how to size and solve this problem. What’s surprising is that the information you gather when sizing the problem is the key to the process you’ll use to solve the problem. You’ll learn which one-timers are more likely to buy again, when the best window in time is to make the approach, and what to offer them.