Two weeks ago we introduced a series, The Sum of the Parts, in which consultant Rob Galkoff will discuss the various elements critical to successful e-mail marketing. You can read the initial article, a preview of the series, here.
Why capture data? For many of us, this may be a silly question. But, surprisingly, for many others it is not.
I’ve just started working with a major UK retailer. The company has a good retail presence and a small (soon to be dramatically larger) home shopping division. The business is approaching its 100th anniversary and is well represented in retail across the UK in a fairly competitive environment. It has a small e-mail database that’s grown over the past five years. This is supported by a customer database, but the company doesn’t have permission to mail the people on it.
Three months ago, my client decided now was the time to start capturing data. Like a bull in a china shop it laid down the edict to all of its stores to “start collecting data straight away.” Let the revolution begin! It did a fix to its electronic point-of-sale system (EPOS), and away it went in every store. The data capture campaign started three weeks ago, and I was brought in last week to help. So my first questions went something like this:
1) What are you asking for?
2) Why are you asking the information?
3) Are you conforming to the opt-in/opt-out laws?
4) What are your limitations to capturing the information?
5) Have you trained your store staff to ask for the data?
6) How long will it take to collect the data?
7) What are you going to do with the data?
8) Have you told the customer what to expect from you?
9) What is the customer experience going to be?
There was lots of silence in the room. The room remained quiet when I asked why the company rolled out the initiative across its whole organization in one go without trialling it. I was then frustrated when I heard it was rolling out a new EPOS system over the next three months that could handle the data capture requests easier than their present system.
The marketing team had decided they wanted to capture data. They believed that now the decision had been made, they needed to start immediately for fear of missing out on thousands of opportunities. They are 100% right in that the business would have been missing out on thousands of opportunities—but the reality is that it has been missing out for the past 90-plus years, so another few months wouldn’t make a difference.
So, why should we want to capture data? Apart from wanting to know more about your customers, we can start to profile them. Where might I find other like-minded people: “Hmmm, 60% of my customers read The Wall Street Journal. Maybe it’s a good place to advertise?” In the same way, you can identify trends: “One-third like skiing, 37% like weekend breaks, 53% like walking holidays…”
Most important, we capture data because it allows us to connect with our customers. This is exactly what my new client wants to do; the company just hasn’t developed its strategy yet.
When devising your strategy, think of the nine questions listed above. Even if you are capturing the most basic of information, go back and ask yourself the questions. If you trying to get detailed information, think about the time it takes for customers to give it to you, and question if they actually give up part way through; if this is the case, you need to collect it in more than one stage via a good preference center and communications campaign.
Next time we’ll be discussing where to get data, and I’ll keep you up to date about my new client. Please feel free to e-mail [email protected] if you have any questions/thoughts/comments.
Rob Galkoff is CEO of the Business Consultants. He was previously marketing director at multititle UK mailer Findel.
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