Key Insights to Inform the Future of Your CRM

With marketers spending more and more of their budget on personalization tactics, the need for people-based marketing strategies is growing and customer relationship marketing (CRM) is beginning to evolve. In this article, Jose Cebrian will touch on the best ways to harness customer data and how to utilize that data across multiple channels, deepening the connection between marketers and customers. After surveying 200 participants, Jose dives into how marketers are starting to invest in data and analytics, and what channels they are employing to increase engagement.

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Customer relationship marketing (CRM) is continuously evolving. Today, brands are grappling to harness customer data from across the enterprise and leverage it in a coordinated way to personalize the consumer experience across multiple channels. They are constantly seeking to deepen the relationship by engaging with customers where they are through people-based marketing strategies. Merkle recently surveyed 200 marketers to get a pulse on what they are thinking.

Learn More: Why Salesforce is Losing Users to New CRM Startups

Marketers are Seeking to Invest More in Data, Analytics, and Technology

How are marketers investing in these channels, and why is this such a focus? In studying the answers to this question, it becomes obvious that marketers would invest in data, analytics, and technology over all other options presented, which include prospect media, as well as additional staff. Even high-ROI channels like search and email trailed by a large margin. At first pass, it doesn’t make sense if we look at this on a short-term basis, but my work with clients offers an explanation. Marketers are feeling more pressure to enhance the customer experience and deliver differentiation throughout the full life cycle from prospect to customer to loyalty and win-back. And small changes in media tactics aren’t going to get them where they need to be. They need investment to deliver on the promise of modern CRM, which is to ingest and analyze data, surface insights, and serve decisions to the systems that need them, whether it be a mobile app, an email campaign, a call center, or even an ATM. While investment is needed in more than just tech and analytics to produce and act on these insights, those investments are foundational, and many companies don’t have what they need today.   

Email Remains a Valued Channel for Personalization and Insights

It is not surprising to find that email is highly valued for personalization. The bigger question is, do people know what good is? Let’s face it: commercial email has been around for many years; email platforms are fairly mature, as are the operational processes around them. The channel is inherently –data driven, and the relatively large format allows for personalization in many different areas, including subject lines, imagery, content blocks, and other pieces. But that may contribute to the problem. Low levels of personalization are pretty easy in email, but it allows people to “check a box” that they are personalizing. But it has to mean more. If we continue on the theme of modern CRM, email personalization should not be considered something as basic as inserting a name or loyalty balance into a merge tag – that’s JV personalization. Rather, it has to be powered by insights and impact not just the content people see in their email, but also when they receive an email, the imagery they see, the language they read, and the offers they see – and even whether they receive an email at all. In addition, we need to connect that logic with other media in channel-appropriate ways.

Learn More: When Measuring the Value of CRM, Focus on the Money

Direct Mail is on the Decline. Can We Do More with Less?

If data, tech, and analytics are where people want to invest and personalization drives value, where does a “traditional” channel like direct mail fit in? It may not seem as exciting as some other channels, due to its production times, higher per-piece costs, and longer measurement periods, but we cannot count out direct mail. It may be easy to forget that database marketing was born to power direct mail, and modern CRM is an evolution of database marketing. Today, the technology is faster and the data wider, but at its core, we are (or should be) leveraging the same base disciplines for email, push, addressable social, call center, etc.

As a channel, direct mail still has an important seat at the table – it’s a great acquisition channel for some industries, including financial services, home services, nonprofit, and retail. And the laws surrounding direct mail in the US are simpler than other PII-based marketing tactics. But the reality is that direct mail is relatively expensive on a per-piece basis, so you have to know who you are targeting, why, what you are going to say, and what you expect the outcome to be. While those tenets should be true in any channel, the economics of direct mail enforce the discipline. So, like all channels and tactics, direct mail has its place in the marketing quiver for acquisition, renewal, and continuity programs. But also, like other channels, you shouldn’t use direct mail to target everyone on your list. Start with the audience. Understand the channels through which they respond and use those in a coordinated fashion.