. . . long live acquisition, says Nick Martin.

Marketers need to wake up to the fact that the world of direct marketing is under threat. Now, leaflets through letterboxes and even email targeting have limited effect on customer acquisition, as belts are tightened.
With consumers reluctant to respond to direct messaging, has the marketing industry hit a brick wall? Is the acquisition process dead?

As the environment continues to develop with the coming together of traditional marketing and new technologies like Web 2.0 and social media, marketers will need to learn new rules to prosper.

A shift to retention
Rule number one in modern marketing is to keep the customers you have and maximise your relationship with them, focusing on cross-sell and up-sell. However, up-sell is a difficult game and most customers hate feeling as if they are being sold to.

So, how do direct marketers find new revenue streams without sacrificing customer satisfaction? The answer is to apply a relationship marketing strategy to learn the customer’s needs and preferences: the more you understand the customer, the higher the chance of retention.

Obtaining the best picture might include external data and will certainly be an ongoing process. Taking the trouble to fully appreciate the customer will enable the marketer to target cross-sells and up-sells strategically and time messages for maximum effectiveness.

Critical for success is the marketer’s ability to harness and use the power of existing data assets combined with third party data. These existing assets can be transactional data, as well as billing and customer data. They can be successfully combined with competitive and network data from third parties to create a much rounder picture of the customer. Getting the timing right is also crucial – if anything, who you are targeting is less important than when you’re targeting them.

Keeping in touch
Consider the pros and cons of the different channels available. We know that each channel will have a perceived cost base, but a channel’s value to a marketer is reflected in its impact.

Be aware that some people have a stated preference in the way they are approached and that should be respected. It all links back to understanding the customer. With a massive range of consumers out there, from teenagers to pensioners, the marketer has to appreciate their preferences and use the appropriate channels.

With technological advances, new channels of communication are constantly being opened. The rise of the Internet has led to the emergence of social media marketing, utilising popular platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Digg.

Some might baulk at the difficulties in owning and controlling a brand once it is in cyberspace, but the potential benefits are too great to ignore.

Marketers need to get customers into a positive mind-set about the brand, as well as recognising the costs and prospects of utilising social media marketing. As these new technologies and customer touchpoints develop, it becomes critical to present and use all data assets in real time. Social media moves extremely fast. To improve the customer experience and to execute the appropriate marketing strategy, marketers must be prepared to move at the same speed.

Also bear in mind the process of collaborative targeting, which involves finding a middleman to help a marketer collaborate with a media controller, such as Facebook, for smarter marketing. This third party helps suggest which ads and messages will serve which groups of people at what time.

New technology, new opportunity
Taking all these things on board will aid direct marketers in a highly competitive sector, made fiercer still with the recession’s effects on trade.

To the potential start-up, it might seem over-crowded but, with the continual development of technology, barriers to entry are smaller. There’s always a new generation coming through and their consumption of media and communication methods will offer new opportunities.

As long as marketers remember to combine the principles of acquisition, cross-sell and up-sell with an appreciation of the ever-evolving nature of consumers and technology, they have every reason to expect continued growth, crowded or not.