| Lori started by telling us that her talk was aimed | | | | information. Not just first name and email. And |
| toward small businesses and gave us the feeling | | | | the Holy Grail is the marriage of the online |
| that the material she covered could be done by | | | | shopping cart, transaction information, and contact |
| us without having to hire a company to do it. | | | | information. |
| Lori introduced herself as "The Database Diva" | | | | Lori went on to say that the perfect database |
| who helps customers squeeze profits from the | | | | should also contain transaction information including |
| customers they already have before they spend | | | | purchase date, amount, and purchase history. |
| money going out and getting new prospects to | | | | Lori then gave some great resources for us. She |
| come in. | | | | mentioned that to get demographics and |
| Lori next presented two case studies. The first | | | | psychographics, you can collect them yourself or |
| was a 2 day workshop on follow up marketing | | | | get them appended. Lori shared a company called |
| that she offered to her list of 3000 customers in | | | | Acxiom that can add customer data to your list. |
| the same geographic region. She started 10 | | | | She also mentioned InfoUSA which has a free |
| weeks from the date of her event. Lori had 8 | | | | 500 name profile that they'll do for you once. |
| weeks of email to these 3000 people. The emails | | | | They return the SIC code, employee info, and |
| were mostly informational and mentioned her | | | | more. She next pointed out that you can go to |
| workshop as well. | | | | the library and use ReferenceUSA for even more |
| For those 8 weeks, Lori monitored the open | | | | info. Lori mentioned SRDS but showed us a free |
| rates from her emails. She also monitored her | | | | way to get very similar information. The URL is |
| clickthroughs. And by using her email marketing | | | | lists.nextmark.com, and you can put a keyword in |
| software, she could tell who was just interested | | | | and pull up every list that's out there for sale and |
| and who was a "hot" prospect. Lori then showed | | | | also see what your competition is. |
| us an impressive report of the open and | | | | Lori then asked for a volunteer and showed how |
| clickthrough rates. The product she used is | | | | to use the Nextmark site to do some |
| SwiftPage which integrates with the ACT! | | | | competitive research. The audience was very |
| Database. SwiftPage created a report based on all | | | | impressed when Lori drilled down into an RC Car |
| the opens, clicks, and forwards to show Lori her | | | | Magazine and retrieved that magazine's subscriber |
| "hot hot hot" prospects. | | | | information. |
| Her goal was to have 20 people attend her | | | | The next topic Lori discussed was database |
| workshop. She got around 240 people who were | | | | segmentation. She showed how to code |
| the hottest. She then took those 240 names and | | | | Suspects, Inquirers, Prospects, Customers (active |
| sent them a physical mailing. Lori also used a | | | | customers based on sales cycle), Advocates, and |
| telemarketing company to follow up via phone. | | | | Referral Partners. |
| The telemarketers would inform the people of | | | | She then talked about how widely used the ACT! |
| her seminar, remind them that they got a letter | | | | Database is and if you don't have a solution for |
| from her, and ask if the seminar is something | | | | your database marketing, then ACT! is a great |
| they would be interested in. Very low key. If they | | | | one to start with. |
| said yes, the info went back into the database. | | | | Next she told us that we're ready for analysis. |
| Lori showed her final results. About 3000 names | | | | We start by acknowledging the 80/20 rule. You |
| have a 28% open rate, produced 248 | | | | want to list and sort all of your customers by the |
| clickthroughs and therefore she did 248 mailings | | | | percentage of revenue they've given you in the |
| to those people and telemarketing follow-ups. This | | | | last X months. |
| resulted in her getting her 20 attendees for about | | | | The top 20% of those customers are labeled "A". |
| $1000 in marketing costs. And now that she's | | | | Then "B", "C", "D", and "E". You want to market |
| done it once, she is going to repeat it in a few | | | | to your "A"s. She gave some great advice that |
| months. She now knows the formula to make it | | | | when you are writing copy; write it as though you |
| happen. | | | | are writing to one of your "A"s. |
| People asked some questions, and after | | | | Lori went on to explain RFM in simple terms. |
| recapping, Lori told us that these techniques work | | | | When you don't know who to spend money |
| pretty much across all markets. | | | | marketing to, you should use RFM. R is recency - |
| She then went on to present a second case | | | | who bought from me most recently? F is |
| study. | | | | frequency - who bought from me the most |
| Walter Knoll Florist is a 118 year old company in | | | | often? Who are the loyal regulars? M is monetary. |
| the St. Louis area. They noticed that secretary's | | | | These are either the elephants who buy |
| week had been pretty flat over the last several | | | | everything you have and you never hear from |
| years and so they were trying to just get some | | | | them again or they are a huge percentage of |
| increase in sales. | | | | your sales last year. |
| The owner had 60,000 people in his database. So | | | | What you do is take a spreadsheet and sort your |
| she first filtered out just the b2b customers | | | | customers by Recency and code the top 20% a |
| (about 30,000). She then matched these remaining | | | | "1". Then the next 20% a "2" and the remaining |
| names with a universe database of 14 million | | | | customers "3", "4", and "5". You do the same for |
| other businesses to get SIC codes and other | | | | frequency and monetary breaking each into |
| information. That then told her that this florist | | | | quintiles and assigning the best a "1" and the |
| was very strong with healthcare companies who | | | | worst a "5". |
| wanted to do buy flowers and gifts for their | | | | Each customer will then have a value of 1-5 for all |
| assistants. Lori was then able to filter down his list | | | | three categories. You then multiply those three |
| and she also bought new prospects that fit the | | | | numbers together and you will have an RFM |
| right profile. | | | | number 1-125. The 1's are the very best people. |
| In the end, Lori reduced his mailing costs by only | | | | The lower the number, the more you can afford |
| mailing to the right people and increased his sales | | | | to spend marketing to them. |
| by 22%. | | | | She then listed the action items - or the next |
| Lori next gave her definition of database | | | | steps: |
| marketing as anything you can do to track and | | | | 1) Create a customer database that contains |
| measure your results. She then pointed out that | | | | complete contact information. |
| database marketing is pretty much direct | | | | 2) Add missing contact information. You can send |
| marketing and using a database to do it. She | | | | a customer survey to get the information. |
| summarized and said that you only want to spend | | | | 3) Append lifestyle or firmographics data with a |
| your time and money on the people who are | | | | service like Acxiom. |
| ready to buy now. | | | | 4) Start tracking your source codes. Like |
| She then went on to tell us that database | | | | keywords or whatever you can track about how |
| marketing gives us a plan with actual numbers to | | | | customers came to you. |
| use when we market. It's important to find out | | | | 5) Start grouping or segmenting your contacts. |
| what is driving the customer to buy. What is his | | | | 6) Perform RFM Analysis every 6 months. |
| motivation? | | | | 7) Survey your customers to ask lifestyle |
| She warned us that if we don't understand how | | | | questions, get referrals, and get testimonials. |
| to market to our database, then we're just | | | | 8) Buy prospect lists. Remember to buy the |
| building a commodity business that will allow our | | | | people that look and act like your best customers. |
| competitors to catch up to where we are. This is | | | | 9) Really investigate your advocates - create a |
| the secret weapon that, if you can master, you | | | | focus group so that you can understand what |
| can beat all your competitors. | | | | motivates them and build future products for |
| Lori then went on to share some "ah ha" | | | | them. |
| principles: | | | | 10) Sell your list to non-competing Direct |
| 1) All customers are not created equal. Some are | | | | Marketers as a profit center. |
| more important than others. | | | | 11) Back up your database daily or weekly. |
| 2) Customers are more important than prospects. | | | | Lori then answered questions. The first question |
| 3) Past buying behavior indicates future buying | | | | had to do with reports. Lori said that the canned |
| behavior. | | | | reports that come with software are never good |
| 4) Customers share demographics and | | | | enough and you'll have to create your own. |
| psychographics. | | | | The next question had to do with what to do |
| 5) The best prospects look like your best | | | | with the "C"s, "D"s, and "E"s. Lori recommended |
| customers. | | | | not spending any money on them, but that |
| Lori next shared some reasons to build a | | | | including them on your newsletter is fine. Also try |
| marketing database. | | | | to bump them into the "B" or "A" category |
| 1) Find our best customers | | | | without spending money on them. |
| 2) Strengthen our relationship with our customers | | | | The final question addressed using ACT! as the |
| 3) Find niche markets | | | | primary tool for database marketing. Lori |
| 4) Find ways to upsell and crosssell | | | | reminded us that SwiftPage is a plug in for ACT! |
| 5) Find out how much it costs to get a new | | | | that makes up for the database marketing |
| customer | | | | shortfalls in the ACT! Database program. |
| She then shared that about 1/3 of the people she | | | | Lori did a fantastic job educating us on database |
| talked with at the seminar had a list with only | | | | marketing. She is just one of 25 people who |
| name and emails or no list at all. Lori stated that | | | | presented at the 2007 System Seminar. |
| the perfect database has complete contact | | | | |