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For a very long time, marketing has largely been an act of broadcasting a message or a story to prospective customers and hoping they remember your product if and when they need you. Billboards, commercials, and ads are all designed to improve branding in the hopes that one day, when the need arises, you’ll remember their pithy slogan or catchy jingle and go to the store and buy their product. It’s a shotgun approach, and it’s worked to varying degrees for more than a century.
Some shotgun marketing was done so well that branding is pervasive in the market. No one says, “I need a cotton swab.” People say, “I need a Q-Tip.” I’ve never heard anyone say, “Can you hand me a facial tissue?” because everyone says, “Can you hand me a Kleenex?” And if I ever need to cut a soda-can in half, I know that I need a Ginsu knife. These are examples of supremely effective marketing and branding efforts. But most products for sale do not have this level of marketing success.
The problem with the shotgun approach to marketing is that companies waste time and resources. Often, the message is ignored or it doesn’t resonate with people because they aren’t focused on the need you’re trying to meet when the message is transmitted. Some of it will work, and that’s why businesses do it. But people don't shop today they way they did 20 years ago. Buying has changed. Marketing has to change, too.
What if, instead of blasting all the things you think are great about your offerings across the airwaves, you could interact with prospects and make a pitch at the time they actually need you? Your company already has multiple contact points with prospective customers: website, telephone, email, online chat, in-store kiosk, etc. According to Paul Becker, CEO of Pinpoint Systems Corporation, and an expert in interactive marketing, “Making offers to customers and prospects when they contact you is much more effective than a cold outreach. But those offers must be targeted.”
Few companies are taking full advantage of this opportunity. In most organizations, the website and the call center software are not connected to the marketing databases and applications. One part of the system is set up for marketing, and another part of the system is designed to deal directly with customers. The first step to capitalizing on the benefits of interactive marketing is the integration of your organization’s marketing and customer data.
People with inquiring minds contact your company daily. You just need a plan and the tools to gather the correct information from them to make a timely pitch while you have them engaged. Firms who specialize in interactive marketing offer software to their customers that manage “offer decisions.” In other words, the software tracks customers’ clicks, responses, profiles, and interaction histories, and formats the exact offers that will appeal to them most—all in real time. And, predictably, it works.
For example, Pinpoint’s customers have, on average, experienced a 10% increase in conversion rates since adopting interactive marketing solutions. And one of its large clients has experienced a $1B increase in sales over a one-year period directly attributable to interactive marketing. Even if you are not poised to increase sales by a billion dollars right now, your business can still benefit from this marketing approach. “Simply by leveraging your existing direct marketing capabilities, you can create an interactive conversation with each customer on each inbound or in-store contact,” says Becker. “If done correctly, a business will see its conversion rates increase dramatically.”
It isn’t surprising to find that getting the attention of customers at the right time, and making the right offers, will result in increased sales. It is a little surprising more companies haven’t already taken advantage of the opportunity. The technology is in place right now to do so.
Are you ready to take your marketing to the interactive level like some of your competitors already have? What contact points can you leverage to increase sales?
