On a basic level, a campaign management solution gives marketers a way to identify and select target audiences; assign correct offers/treatments; define attributes for personalization; perform elementary analytics; execute, track and measure campaigns; manage customer contact history; and finally, develop business rules — without the need for programming. Basic functionality, however, doesn’t necessarily meet the “wired consumer’s” expectations for a meaningful dialogue. Today’s marketer needs a more complete solution that fully contemplates the customer’s desire for relevancy and cross channel consistency.
The marketer’s checklist for a campaign management solution now includes:
1. Consolidation of customer data into a single, multidimensional marketing data mart. Not only does this “single source of truth” reduce redundant and/or conflicting messaging, but it also enables better targeting, relevancy, personalization and timeliness — making every communication more effective.
2. Cross channel orchestration of direct mail, email, SMS, surveys and social media based on a common set of business rules. Marketers should be able to develop multi-wave, multichannel campaigns that create a natural dialog with each customer.
3. Analytics driven campaign creation, leveraging segmentation and modeling tools. Many exceedingly successful marketers employ analytics, including model scores and customer behavior profiles, to develop relevant, effective campaigns. The right tools really can turn “learnings” into profit.
4. Performance tools that streamline the ability to test and learn with an ability to create multiple segments for champion/challenger testing, along with tracking codes, for closed-loop analysis. Marketers shouldn’t be hobbled by not being able to iteratively test offers and understand “lift over control.” But we all know this still happens — all too often.
5. Data analysis and visualization tools powered by a business intelligence engine. Marketers need to “slice and dice” campaign performance data in order to understand the key factors that drive campaign success (or the lack thereof). This functionality also should give marketers more insight into their customers, providing the ability to move quickly from strategic insight to campaign design and deployment.
6. Integrated cross channel delivery capabilities that allow the marketer to select a customer (who), define the message (what) and then choose the customer’s preferred channel (how) — with the ability to test and measure response rates for a single campaign across all channels. Having to pass data between channel-specific solutions is a recipe for inconsistent messaging, low response rates and potential contact fatigue.
7. Social campaign apps allow marketers to better engage their fans, generate newsfeed stories to build brand awareness and grow their fan base, as well as convert anonymous fans and followers into their direct marketing programs.
8. “Lights out” campaign automation allows marketers to “set it and forget it” for ongoing campaigns — guided by easy-to understand business rules acting upon new data and customer behavior changes.
9. Multi-wave campaigns where the results of the first campaign automatically guide or select the subsequent marketing treatment(s).
10. Multi-wave, cross channel campaigns orchestrate customer dialogues across channels and across waves, allowing marketers to use one channel, such as SMS, as a follow-up reminder to respond to a recent email or direct mail offer.
More Plug-ins: Analytics:
- “Meaningful social media measurement” by Steve Goldner, senior director of social media, MediaWhiz
- “Fully utilize attribution in search marketing” by Roger Barnette, president, IgnitionOne
- “On the move: surveying your mobile user” by Christopher Pam, Web marketing specialist, iPerceptions
