Managing Personal Communications Marketing Communications Marketing communications today

Managing Personal Communications

Marketing Communications Marketing communications today increasingly occur as a dialogue as technology and software have enabled the consumer to dynamically interact with a company 24/7.

Direct Marketing Use of consumer-direct channels to reach and deliver goods and services to customers without using market middlemen.

Direct Marketing Channels • The benefits of direct marketing ‒ Convenient for consumer ‒ Provides information to consumer on products and services ‒ Supports relationship building efforts with consumers ‒ Allows for more individual targeting and personalization versus mass media

Direct Marketing Channels • Direct mail ‒ Can target consumers at different geographic areas or specific to one consumer (i. e. , state, sectional center (first three digits of zip code), zip code, zip+4, or specific mailing address ‒ Leverages technology to capture and analyze consumer information in forms of data to deliver more personal communications

Cont… ‒ Can create different marketing campaigns for current customers and prospects (never were a customer or are an aged customer with no recent activity). Retention strategy is used for existing customers and acquisition strategies are used for the latter ‒ Each business vertical market has best practices of direct mail ‒ Provides opportunities to measure lifetime value and word of mouth effects

Catalog marketing • Use of print to provide consumers with product information and ability to order products • Can be supplemented by in-store merchandise if cataloger has retail presence • Catalogs can be customized at individual consumer level • Business to business catalog marketing supports personal selling effort

Cont…. • Business to business catalog marketing is challenged by frequent movement of employees versus consumer residential movement, which can be tracked via ancillary processes such as national change of address.

Telemarketing • Use of telephone to attract, promote, sell, and service consumers and businesses • Recent legislation places constraints on who may be solicited (e. g. , do not call list) • Inbound telemarketing (receive calls from customers or prospects) • Outbound telemarketing (organization initiates calls to customers or prospects

Cont… • Telemarketing functions • Telesales - take orders, open, or manage customer accounts • Telecoverage - calling of customers to sustain or improve customer relationships • Teleprospecting - generate and qualify new leads either by phone or another channel • Customer service and technical support

Other Media for Direct Response • Newspapers and magazines can also contain response cards to be placed in mail • Radio • Direct response TV ads • TV Infomercials • Billboards (effectiveness enhanced by web addresses as one word may be sufficient for consumer recall versus 10 -digit phone number) • E-marketing

Public and ethical Issues in Direct Marketing • Hard-sell and computerized telemarketing offend consumers • Unscrupulous marketers can take advantage of unwary public • Marketing communications and offers can be misleading • Growing consumer of too much information being collected on consumers

Interactive Marketing (leverage Internet for interaction) • The advantages of interactive marketing ‒ Internet provides marketers and consumers with opportunities for greater interaction and individualization. ‒ Availability of contextual placement, buying ads on sites related to the marketer’s offerings ‒ Increase ability to reach consumers and track behavior

Interactive Marketing (leverage Internet for interaction) ‒ Individualized messages optimize investment ‒ Increases reach cost effectively ‒ Online communities precipitate knowledge for companies and consumers

Interactive Marketing (leverage Internet for interaction) Disadvantages of interactive marketing • Consumers can opt-out of communications • Companies can lose control of the message • Online “Clicks” may give companies misleading information. For example, a large number of clicks by a consumer on the web site may be a result of a poorly designed web site.

Types of Interactive Marketing • Web sites • Key issues is attracting first time and encourage repeat visits • Microsites – Limited area on the web managed and paid for by external advertiser/company, designed to supplement a primary site • Search related ads – • Links provided along with consumer search results, fee paid only when link is clicked on by consumer (cost per click correlated with click rank and popularity of keyword searched) • Search Engine Optimization has become a crucial part of marketing with greater emphasis creating more effective search ads

Types of Interactive Marketing • Display or banner ads ‒ Small rectangular boxes containing text and images, which are paid placement. So the larger the audience the higher the cost ‒ Consumers only spend 5% of their time online searching for information ‒ Interstitials are ads, often video and animation, which pop up between changes on a web site. Consumers often block these ads • E-mail campaigns are cost effective but run risk of spamming consumers and thus may be filtered by consumers

Types of Interactive Marketing • Mobile marketing growing ‒ Major opportunity with cell phones for advertisers to reach consumers on the “third screen”, TV and computer being the other two screens. ‒ Mobile apps – “Bite-sized” software programs that can be loaded onto smart phones. ‒ Monitoring consumer location allows for location-specific promotions.

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