Author: Sally Hooton

Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!

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Choosing a CRM for all your marketing needs

For a CRM system to deliver on its many promises – says Mike Richardson (pictured) – it has to closely reflect the shape and needs of a particular business. This means that, among the myriad options provided by a wealth of independent vendors, it is increasingly difficult to choose the right one.

Mobile technology is the enabler that allows organisations to meet the expectations of their customers and generate new business.

At the same time, it has raised customers’ expectations of how companies should communicate with them, making it essential for businesses to harness online data effectively.Mike Richardson

The importance of CRM platforms in this process continues to grow, giving organisations an unheard of power by making it possible to connect marketing and sales endeavours in a closed loop of information, making one indispensable to the other and both more effective than ever before.

The sales team receives an overview of the level of qualification reached before they contact a lead, automatically assigning prospects to the right salesperson while the entire sales cycle can be tracked through the CRM system, enabling marketers – and management – to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of campaigns in real time.

Compiling reports can also be highly automated, enabling sales, marketing and customer service personnel to devote more time to building relationships with customers.

The functionalities and options when it comes to CRM are plentiful. Follow the tips below before plumping for a platform and be well placed to make an informed decision.

First things first

Cliché it may be, but your priority should be to determine your company’s requirements. Which departments need to use a CRM and how many users are there likely to be? For companies intending to use their CRM primarily as a sales tool, a simple out-of-the-box deployment only accessible by sales, marketing and customer service is likely to be more than adequate. However, if it is probable that you will require extensibility to other business departments, check with potential vendors whether such options are available.

Another area to investigate is the possibility of integration with software already in place. An investment bank is likely to need a complex, tailor-made solution with customised forms and connectivity with various external systems, while a small family-run business can make do without such complexity and the associated costs.

A consideration of how the system will be deployed and used will have a direct impact on the next question: whether to plump for a cloud or an on-premise solution. The latter might be a good option for companies concerned with data security or willing to pay more up front to avoid greater total cost of ownership later. However, a start-up without a big budget might opt for a cloud-based solution, as the initial cost is much lower. On the flip-side, the cloud allows for greater flexibility relating to the number of users. Therefore, if you have a seasonal or wavering number of employees, a cloud solution may be preferable.

Make it mobile

In the times of 24/7 mobile accessibility, the effectiveness of a CRM system is significantly diminished if the data it holds is accessible only from one location.

Mobility is the buzzword of today, but not every business requires the same level of mobile access. A certain degree of mobile accessibility usually has a positive impact on sales, customer service and productivity, as effectively released from their desks, employees can make the most of their time. With so many professionals working on the move, businesses need to ensure staff have all the necessary information to hand wherever they are, particularly if meeting with a client or a prospective customer, where the ability to view all correspondence will help identify sales opportunities.

Assess the level of required mobility further with the following questions: do you encourage home-working? Does the system need to be updated in real-time and would the company benefit if managers could control it anytime, anywhere?

Make it social

If tools such as LinkedIn figure high in your businesses’ operations, integrating them with your CRM will gain you a competitive edge. With more customers staying connected at all times via social media, great volumes of data are being generated at high speed. This data has to be constantly aggregated from various outputs and fed into a system to inform your direct marketing. Additional fields and connectivity through links are a must to make your CRM truly social.

Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer as to what type of a solution will be best for any given organisation and, even if a company follows these guidelines for a contextualised analysis of its CRM requirements, the work is not yet over.

As your business grows and matures, its CRM system must follow suit and this means constant performance assessments, ongoing adjustments and staff training. Looking for new areas in which the platform can be used is ever important.

Mike Richardson is managing director – EMEA, Maximizer Software.

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Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Business Analytics Europe India Insight MENA Russia Strategy and Management

Have a ‘MINT’

affiliate, have a mint

Did jumping on the BRIC economic bandwagon give you indigestion? Try a MINT. The economist who coined the term BRIC for the powerhouse economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China has done it again. This time it’s the MINT countries of Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. Doug Sacks wonders if the new term sucks . . .

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Americas MENA Middle East USA

The Middle East – an incubator for women entrepreneurs

 Can women entrepreneurs be more common in the Middle East than in Silicon Valley? Columnist Doug Sacks (pictured) ponders the question.

Yasmin Elayat, an Egyptian-American born and raised in Silicon Valley says yes. She feels “the ecosystem of investors, business mentors and other entrepreneurs in Egypt and the Middle East was more supportive than those in the U.S. or Europe…”

While a study by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) suggested women in MENA were the least likely in the world to start a business, the study did not include data from startup powerhouses Jordan, Lebanon, the UAE and Qatar (Israel was included separately).Doug Sacks WEB

In Jordan, the number of female-led startups is closer to 33 per cent, near the global average of 37 per cent, and in Egypt, about half of the businesses invested in so far involved mixed-gender teams. The number of women entrepreneurs throughout the region probably lies somewhere in between, at about 15-20 per cent. Compare this with the GEM study findings that 10 per cent of the US adult female population and 5 per cent in Europe was involved in entrepreneurial activity in 2012.

While the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in the Middle East are vast, there are reasons for their rise in the Middle East:

Multiple business incubators and accelerators have opened in major cities across the region in the last three years, along with organisations and competitions specifically targeting women.

The World Bank says more women in the Middle East now attend university than men.

Girls throughout the Arab region are funneled into the hard-to-enter university science courses because of better high school grades than boys.

The number of women-led startup businesses could flourish further because the internet enables highly educated women to start a home-based business if, as in Saudi Arabia, her family might object if she went outside to work.

To read more, click here. 

Doug Sacks is International Business Development, Focus USA. Read his blog, here.

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In the News UK

Retailers are failing to meet mobile shoppers’ service expectations, says report

The majority of UK retailers are failing to assist mobile shoppers as they browse online. a recent study commissioned by LogMeIn, Inc. has revealed.

According to LogMeIn’s findings, just 12% of UK retailers offer live chat support to mobile shoppers, despite research showing live chat can boost conversion rates.

In addition, more than a quarter of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase if they talk to an assistant online.

With analysts predicting that online spending is set to reach an estimated £49.78 billion in 2014 in the UK, and mobile commerce (m-commerce) predicted to account for approximately £9.46 billion of these sales, LogMeIn examined 120 of the UK’s largest online stores to understand how retailers are reacting to this shift when providing customer service.

Ross Haskell, director of products, BoldChat at LogMeIn, Inc, said: “A high street store without shop assistants is almost unimaginable, yet that’s the experience many retailers are offering shoppers online.

“If shoppers need help, most have to pick up the phone or wait for a response by email or on social media. By incorporating live chat into the online customer journey, retailers can give shoppers the chance to ask for assistance, without any interruptions, when and how they want it.”

The study revealed retailers are almost twice as likely to offer live chat support to desktop shoppers than to mobile shoppers, with 20% of online stores giving shoppers the option to chat with an assistant. While many retailers have yet to embrace live chat, a global survey of 4,709 people commissioned by LogMeIn in 2013 shows that it is now the third most popular channel for consumers.

The LogMeIn commissioned 2013 Live Chat Effectiveness report found that 17% of people prefer to contact companies via live chat, while 23% favour the good old-fashioned telephone and 53% opt for email. Social media is the first choice for less than seven per cent of people, but is now the most widely available channel for customer service, overtaking the telephone.

Almost every retailer, nearly 97%, responds to enquiries on Twitter, while 94% use Facebook to provide support. Email is offered by 93% of online retailers in the UK, while nine out of ten (90%) publish a customer service phone number on their website.

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UK

The importance of customer insight to brands and supermarkets

Tony Nunan (pictured) examines how brands and retailers can win at point of purchase.

On entering a supermarket, it is probably obvious to shoppers that a huge amount of work has gone into the layout of the store: the promotional display that catches your eye at the entrance is clearly not there by chance; the positioning of the products on-shelf is not a mere coincidence and the products lined up at the checkout have not have not been placed there because of a lack of space elsewhere in the supermarket.

What, perhaps, is not quite so obvious, is the sophistication of the process that goes into achieving the optimum store: a culmination of research, experiments and in-depth insight into customers’ shopping behaviour – on the part of both supermarkets and brands.

The role of the subconsciousTony Nunan, MD of Visuality (WEB)

For most people, the word ‘research’ will bring to mind the ubiquitous focus group: eight people gathered together on a rainy Tuesday evening, discussing ready meals or lunch boxes. Focus groups are used but, in truth, they’re of limited use when trying to understand shopper behaviour. This is because a great deal of everyday shopping is undertaken automatically, with many decisions being taken at a subconscious level. It’s repetitive, it’s not terribly interesting and it’s something we tend to forget about almost instantly.

So, there’s little value in asking shoppers to describe in detail the process leading up to a purchasing decision they made last week – they simply won’t remember. Alternative methods are needed if we are to develop genuine insights into shopper behaviour– something that Visuality has been researching for many years.

If you want to understand something, start by observing it

As with research into any behaviour, the best way to understand it is to start by observing it. So, the best way to understand shopper behaviour is to spend time in-store simply watching how customers behave.

Occasionally, it is appropriate to use CCTV cameras to record shopper actions; for example, for projects where we need to report back in minute detail and at a statistically rigorous level, or where we want to be able to understand the impact of small changes in layout or merchandising on customer activity.

The resulting digital recordings are analysed and data generated on a wide range of metrics. This allows us to determine who is visiting a category and when and to understand the extent to which different areas or elements in a display are successful in engaging customers and converting them into buyers. Crucially, by running such exercises pre and post changes to the store or category, we can understand the impact of such changes on store performance.

When shopper observation is supported by intercept interviews with shoppers at the fixture, genuinely detailed insights into the effect of the store environment on customer satisfaction and propensity to buy can be generated.

Eye tracking

Another useful technique in understanding the subconscious processes underpinning shopper behaviour is eye tracking.Shopping trolley orange (WEB)

We use two different methods of eye tracking. The first involves fitting discreet goggles to a shopper at the start of the shopping trip. These goggles produce a video record of everywhere the shopper looks during the journey through the store, enabling us to assess the impact and performance of all visual communication, from packaging to POS to price ticketing. The researcher can sit down with the shopper afterwards and run through the video, discussing points of interest and exploring those items that have generated interest or, as is often the case, caused confusion.

The second method is more of a ‘laboratory test’. Respondents are shown images on a high definition, 24inch colour screen. These images can be anything, from still photos to video footage. We use the kit to evaluate pack designs, POS and fixtures. Infra-red sensors within the monitor record everything the respondent looks at. If we are evaluating packs, the kit will tell us if a pack is looked at in a display, how it compares with competitors, and which specific design elements drive recognition and understanding; it will also tell us which elements of a pack design cause confusion. The lab-based test isn’t ‘real’ in the way that filming shoppers or using eye tracking goggles is; it is simply a test. However, used correctly, it can provide invaluable information about communication performance that simply can’t be achieved by other means.

If you can’t see it, you can’t buy it

In a recent experiment at a marketing trade show, Visuality challenged visitors to find the top ten advertised products which were ‘hidden’ among the top 100 advertised products – like a branded version of ‘Where’s Wally’. Coca-Cola, perhaps unsurprisingly, was the easiest to spot; it was found fastest and was the only pack found every time. Participants found many other leading brands much more difficult to find, raising genuine questions about their likely visibility on-shelf.

All these techniques, resulting in valuable insight, can contribute to the retailer’s ability to make their stores easier to shop. This, in turn, improves customer satisfaction and means we can turn an increasing proportion of shoppers into buyers.

Tony Nunan is MD of Visuality.

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In the News UK

Carphone Warehouse backs award-winning bid to get more over-55s online

Slingshot Sponsorship signs Carphone Warehouse as Headline Partner for annual UK campaign

After the success of last year’s partnership, Digital Unite has announced that Carphone Warehouse will again act as Headline Partner for Spring Online, a UK digital inclusion campaign, which will run from March 31 to April 4.

Around seven million people across the UK have never used the internet, of whom just over six million are aged 55+. Many more can’t do basic online tasks such as send an email or browse the web.

Since 2002, Digital Unite’s Spring Online campaign has sought to inspire people, particularly older people, to achieve a lasting use of the internet by supporting volunteers and organisations to hold hundreds of free internet taster events across the UK. Last year, around 1,000 Spring Online events were held helping over 20,000 people to get online.

The successful partnership between Carphone Warehouse and Spring Online 2013 saw a number of Carphone Warehouse stores actively participate in the campaign with their own Spring Online events. One store in particular, Carphone Warehouse Billericay, received a Spring Online 2013 Best Event Award for its enthusiasm and commitment to the initiative as the in-store team hosted their event on a Sunday when the store is normally closed. Such was the success and interest by local people that the Billericay store has continued to remain open one Sunday every month to help more people learn about digital technology.

Kesah Trowell, CSR lead at Carphone Warehouse, said “Getting to grips with technology can be daunting for many older people yet they can have the most to gain, whether it’s keeping in touch with friends and family, internet shopping and banking or finding out about community events and activities. At Carphone Warehouse, we’ve been guiding people through the complexities of the connected world for 25 years and are keen to share our knowledge and experience to help combat digital and social exclusion.”

Now in its 13th year, the Spring Online campaign has been instrumental in successfully helping tens of thousands of people make technology a part of their everyday lives, helped even more so through the partnership with Carphone Warehouse. Carphone Warehouse’s sponsorship of the Spring Online campaign will be administered by Digital Unite’s charitable arm, the Digital Unite Trust.

Judith Graham, operations manager for Spring Online, said: “We are delighted to have Carphone Warehouse as Headline Partner for Spring Online again this year. The way the stores took time out from business as usual to get involved in the campaign and effectively meet the needs of local older people was terrific. We’re looking forward to building on these successful foundations with Carphone Warehouse to help even more people in 2014.”

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UK

Increase your fan base – study your social media metrics, young musicians told

Scott Dylan is urging independent musicians hoping to hit the big time, to learn the meaning of the word ‘metrics’, to increase their online reach and broaden their fan base in 2014.

Online distribution and social media outreach should be one of the main goals for many musicians, but in order to track their success in these areas, they need to be able to understand metrics and what they should be measuring in order to gauge how successful they’ve been.

Every musician or band will have different opinions on what they want to track, from page views and track plays to ‘Likes’ or ‘RTs’ on Facebook and Twitter, but the key aim of 2014 for all those hoping to gain an online fan base should be to understand firstly how to measure their metrics and secondly how to improve each aspect.Musician

The beauty of understanding metrics for musicians is that there is no limit to what they can measure and how they choose to measure their success. They can track anything from the number of subscribers they have on their mailing list, how many YouTube plays they have, how many YouTube cover versions of their song there are, how many blog reviews there are on a new release or how many individual track downloads there have been. Once they understand which metrics they are tracking and keeping note of, they can start to work on improving them and broadening their reach.

For example, if a band is tracking how many plays they have on Last.fm as a measure of how successful they are, they can encourage friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter to listen to an exclusive track there, with the idea that they go to listen to an acoustic cove, a live recording or a brand new track, and stay to listen to the full album.

If a band wants to measure their success by tracking how many reviews they get on music blogs, they could launch a competition, encouraging those who have attended a recent gig to post a review online, with the most original review receiving free tickets to the next show or a special edition LP.

Once musicians begin to understand metrics, it is easier for them to start to improve their reach on social media, working on target areas and reaching new demographics.

Understanding success is no longer simply about record sales or gig attendance; the internet has unlocked a whole new world of measuring success and for bands that may feel like they are relatively unknown, tracking their metrics could pleasantly surprise them.
Scott Dylan is a UK-based digital marketing and social media specialist.

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In the News USA

Furious consumers 'abandon brands online out of frustration with mistargeting'

A new US study sheds light on mistargeting and how furious it makes consumers, with 94 per cent deleting emails, unsubscribing and generally taking steps to break off all lines of communication.

Janrain, a major provider of user management solutions for the social web, announced the results of their fourth annual US consumer survey, a Social Login and Personalisation study, that reveals 96% of consumers acknowledge having received mistargeted promotional information.

As a result, 94% break off communication and never visit the website again.

Simultaneously, 88% of consumers have encountered social login – the use of an existing ID from a social network such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. for registration – with more than half (51%) using it to register and login to other sites.

Yet, while the vast majority of online consumers (91%) are satisfied with social login and most report a preference for personalised communication, brands have yet to seize the opportunity to improve online marketing as a result of the data they can collect in the social login process.

The study, conducted by Blue Research – an independent research consultancy, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of nearly 600 social media consumers last October – confirms that marketers are wasting money providing content to consumers – ads, offers, promotions, etc – that have nothing to do with their interests.

People are fed up and taking action.

Paul Abel, managing partner, Blue Research, said: “In the four years that we have conducted this study, what is interesting to note is the evolution of consumers that are now no longer willing to accept mistargeted communications.

“Today, of those who receive mistargeted communications, almost seven out of ten report automatically deleting the email without even looking at them. This should be of interest to marketers determining best practices related to personal customer communications.”

Another key finding is that, among non-users of social login, the number one barrier is lack of trust. Almost half reported that they don’t trust a company to use their information appropriately. Just over a third are concerned the company will post to their social network feeds.

Larry Drebes, CEO, Janrain, said: “This year’s study confirms that it’s paramount for marketers to establish trust and transparency about how personal information will be used.

“The good news is that once trust is no longer an issue, consumers are willing to be identified and recognised as customers across multiple devices to receive personalised content.”

Other key findings:  

  • 64% of consumers using social login are more likely to return to a website that remembers them without a username and password.
  • ·60% find suggested products/promotions based on their social login profile information useful.
  • 49% of respondents who use social login would allow mobile phone apps to offer special in-store offers.
  • Social login users are 78% more likely versus non-users to download a mobile app from a site that is personalised.

A 60-minute webinar is being given by Paul Abel on Wednesday January 29 at 11am (PDT), 2pm (EST) on Social Login and Personalisation and the above findings. Click here to register.

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In the News UK

‘Poor customer feedback measurement will cost you in sales’

Digital marketers urged to improve online customer feedback

Many businesses are failing to fully understand their customers’ needs because they are still using outdated feedback methods for modern online transactions.

So says Udesh Jadnanansing, founder and managing partner of customer feedback management software specialist, UK-based Mopinion. He is urging online marketers to look more closely at the way they gather feedback and to consider using more proactive tools to comprehensively understand their potential clients’ needs.

Jadnanansing (pictured) said: “Traditional online customer satisfaction surveys have always had trouble reaching customers at the moment when the experience is still fresh in memory. But the technology is available, so what are we waiting for?Udesh Jadnanansing, Mopinio (WEB)

“Many companies measure satisfaction and loyalty on relational and transactional level. On one hand, organisations would like to know what the relationship is with the brand (relational). On the other hand they want to receive feedback on all major touch points to be able to implement improvements immediately (transactional). Passive feedback methods are neither very reliable nor timely enough to react to the fast-paced world of modern online transactions.

For the transactional part, many organisations are still focusing primarily on traditional touchpoints, like telemarketing or contact with employees like support agents and account managers.

“Often, this method of measurement does not go beyond sending a questionnaire by email after contact and is based upon strategies designed to evaluate telephone-based sales and interactions.

“A few organisations are using telephone surveys by IVR (Interactive Voice Response) or SMS, but that’s it most of the time. We believe that many businesses are losing out by using such passive tools for such an interactive portal as online” adds Jadnanansing.

While assessing telephone contact was traditionally fairly straightforward, an agent asked questions and recorded the feedback. However, online customer traffic and interactions can be far more complex – but at the same time this offers a potential mine of more detailed and potentially more useful information – with a greater focus on non-transactions and clues as to why the business may be missing out on this custom.

Jadnanansing believes companies are focusing too much on the measurement of data, missing that the key to improvement is in qualitative data in combination with metrics about effort and use. “This requires another structure of online teams and handling with data. And, if online isn’t complex enough, companies also have to deal with different web devices like mobile and tablet. To get a good impression about the overall online experience, a company has to obtain feedback from all web devices.”

The advice is straightforward, as Jadnanansing concluded: “Companies should realise that every customer reaction is a possibility for a conversation that  can result in a better customer experience. In addition to collecting data, companies have to listen a lot more and take action immediately. Many companies are waking up to the benefits of fully monitoring their online touchpoints – which means it has never been more dangerous to be neglecting your customers’ needs. If you don’t fully understand and cater for these needs your competitors may well be doing so!”

 

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In the News UK

Investment in image & sound sharing app grows, following commercial interest from brands

Shuttersong, the first app to embed music and sound into a playable JPEG image, has secured an additional £300,000 investment as it looks to build on the commercial opportunities it can bring to UK brands.

The latest investment, made by former Accenture partner Gil Anderson, means total seed funding now stands at more than £1.3 million. Some 30,000 users – from teenagers sharing talking ‘selfies’ on Facebook to parents sending audio images of their loved ones to tech-savvy grandparents – have downloaded the app, and that number looks set to keep rising as photo-sharing continues to redefine social media habits.

However, the new funds will largely go towards the commercial expansion of the platform for use by brands and digital marketing agencies looking to implement Shuttersong’s patent-pending technology for social marketing campaigns, fan engagement and user-generated content. The company is already in talks with several companies including a large greeting card business, a major record label and a well-known online fashion retailer.

Gil Anderson said: “Shuttersong fills a void in the current marketer’s toolbox.Shuttersong

“Image and video-sharing have sky-rocketed in the last year. Shuttersong’s streamlined technology gives marketers a totally novel way to create, promote and share their content. Its potential is tremendous and I am thrilled to be joining the team at this exciting time in the company.”

The company’s chief executive and co-founder, William Agush, said: “The compelling thing about Shuttersong is that it gives you all the benefit of video with all the convenience photography.

“Every mobile user already knows how to take a picture and every company already has a photographic library, so the consumer and commercial possibilities really are huge.

“This investment is an important step forward for Shuttersong, as we continue to build out the app’s capabilities and evolve our commercial partnerships,” added Agush. “We’re really excited about how brands are beginning to engage with our technology to enhance their content offerings and bolster e-commerce.”

  • Shuttersong was founded by 58-year-old marketing veteran William Agush who was inspired by a ‘talking photo frame’ that played the toddler voice of his now-adult son. It is the first free mobile app that combines any digital image with up to 15 seconds of sound, forming a single, shareable anywhere, high-quality JPEG file.