Why traditional Direct Marketing tools are no longer enough

Direct marketing has changed. The customer journey no longer involves a series of well-understood, linear touch points that are fairly easily predicted and influenced.

The landscape today is nowhere near as simple. Fragmentation of the traditional channel mix and the divergence of digital, has placed the consumer in control of where, when and what the brand conversation entails.

Customer Relationship Management has become the Customer Managed Relationship, meaning traditional Direct Marketing tools and techniques need to be adjusted to deliver ROI.

A detailed understanding of the paths to purchase requires a whole new set of skills; skills that Bray Leino is perfectly placed to deliver.

We call our approach “Unlimited CRM”, meaning that our unique suite of tools, built up over a number of years, enables us to analyse and understand the modern customer journey in detail, generating clear strategies that help consumers, using push and pull communications, along the journey.  It means the solutions can vary to tried and tested Direct Marketing techniques to more integrated ones.

Segmentation: That process might include a detailed segmentation strategy, similar to the work we undertook for The Royal Mint. Using a mixture of transactional and lifestyle data to generate a deep view of their audience, identifying key customer segments, enabling us to recognise the most valuable customers and tailor messaging appropriately to each group.  We created more value and less waste and generated a new group of collectors.

Complex tracking and measurement: Where an audience is large and varied, the process will require a strategy to motivate many complex customer segments. For instance, during our work on the 2011 Census campaign, we employed large scale tracking and measurement techniques that allowed us to generate real-time performance feedback. We then up-weighted and fine-tuned messaging activity in underperforming regions based on that data.

Customer communications: Continual customer prospecting programmes enable brands to follow subtle, data-driven communications strategies based on existing customer information, like our ongoing CRM programme work with Brittany Ferries.  Employing a mixture of eCRM tools and direct mail to drive repeat purchase and increase customer value.

Brand advocacy: Influencers and advocates play an increasingly pivotal role in the customer journey. It’s crucial to understand that social media engagement, reviews and feedback carry increasing weight in the digital sphere. Our work with the skincare brand Freederm required a focused advocacy strategy, using specialist 24/7 social media management to transform brand detractors into advocates and promote positive conversation around the brand.

But these are only a small selection of the techniques we can employ. And the continuing fragmentation of channels means that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Flexibility is critical, that’s why “Unlimited CRM” has to encompass the entire, complex journey.

Our skill-set makes us uniquely qualified to examine the key barriers across the whole process, creating a blend of traditional tools and innovative, reactive techniques, backed up by solid insight through real time data.