The trusted advice of an age old sage has been the stuff of many a story, from those seeking the meaning of life, to the love lorn wondering whether cupid’s arrow has struck true. There’s something comforting in the gray-haired wise man whose experience and insight make us feel good that what he tells us is the truth and can be trusted.
The stigma that age carries in our society is a very complex issue and even varies from region to region and country to country, however I think everyone can agree that as we get older, we view things in our surroundings in a different light. Our experiences color our perception of what our senses tell us and we in turn draw conclusions that may differ substantially from what we once thought when we were younger. This is especially true when in comes to the kinds of marketing messages and advertisements that capture our attention, and according to the results of an Ad Week/Harris Poll study, it is our age that is a large factor in whether we believe and trust those ads.
This caused me to think again of the importance of segmenting your target market, particularly by age. This would include your email and direct mail lists, allowing you to take full advantage of the differences in perceptions to adjust your marketing communications accordingly. Since Ad Week’s research indicated that one in five adults age 55 or older never believe that advertising is honest, versus one in ten adults age 18-34, it is imperative that you find a meaningful way to build that trust relationship so your message will be believed. Otherwise, you stand the distinct chance of wasting your precious marketing dollars.
I attended a webinar recently about how you can improve your marketing Return On Investment by combining the data you gather through your email marketing efforts and the information you have in your Customer Relationship Management system (or CRM). For those of you unfamiliar with the benefits of CRM, some would refer to it as a sales automation tool, which is certainly true, but is really only a tip of the iceberg. Your CRM can be an absolute gold mine of information about your customers activity which can in turn help you in predicting the behavior of those who are currently not a customer but could be.
Your CRM system can be instrumental in helping you segment your lists as well as your target market. What caused your current customers to trust you enough to believe your message and buy from you? What incites can be harvested from the notes taken by your customer service representatives helping with call-in inquiries? What feedback can the sales team provide on leads that have been sent to them to be worked? How can you use this information to tailor your marketing message so not only is the timing correct, but the message is believed? How can this data be useful for real-time testing to drive better results?
This is just a brief look at CRM benefits which could be a post all by itself. If you feel you lack the time or expertise to explore this critical business tool, drop us an email, we’d love to help.
Regards,
David