The Evolving Economy–What’s Important

June, 2006

The tone at the Southern California Direct Marketing Association’s annual Expo last month was all about the changing economy and how marketers are re-thinking their strategies on three key topics: Data, Database and Smarter Analytics. People are focusing on the customers that they have, and mining that rich data to turn loyal customers into even more profit for their companies. They are evaluating their databases, and many are deciding to build them – and going with vendors that are easy to do business with. Finally, good analytics are a must. Let’s look at these three topics in a bit more detail:

• Kicking up retention efforts. Many marketers are turning their concentration to retention. They are mining their internal customer data to figure out how they can build more profitable relationships with each of their customers. This just makes good business sense, and we’ve helped our clients build strategies around what the best “next product path” is for many segments of their base. This has proved to help maximize profitability and build loyalty. If you’d like a case study on a successful cross-sell/up-sell program, click here and we’ll send it your way.
• Database anyone? Many savvy marketers are making the decision to closely examine their database needs. They are determining specifically what they need – and staying away from vendors who push unnecessary technology at them. The approach seems to call for starting with the basics and building on as your needs change. Also, the more nimbler vendors are winning the business. We’ve put a lot of thought into the best ways to choose vendor partners. We’d be happy to send you our White Paper titled: Creating Better Partnerships.
  
• Stellar analytics.Determining what your ultimate customer looks like is important to planning your campaigns. Utilizing a good analyst can be a money-saver and profit-maker for your company. Look for an analyst that understands your business needs and knows how to crunch data six ways to Sunday. Look for one who has sound business experience coupled with statistical know-how. The best way to understand how analytics can boost results may be to review our Acquisition Case Study. It shows how superior analytics positively impacted program results.

RRW Consulting has excellent ideas on how to maximize each of these areas to help you thrive in this changing economy. We’d love to chat about your individual needs – just call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com