The 1to1 Future is here
Nice piece on the BIMA Blog from Felix Velarde of Underwired on the 1to1 future predicted by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers in 1997. H rails against the fact that most campaigns driven out are email based and should be much wider.
But this is all based on the use of email as the channel that replaces
snail mail-enabled printed materials. And eCRM should be so much more
than that. A digitally-centred relationship marketing programme -
centred so because of the immediacy and cost efficiency - should not
mean email alone.
Yet again, few agencies are doing the whole picture for client brands. (let alone for their own business).
I have started work with Honeycomb Software who provide just the centralising database and data management tools for enabling this detailed customer understanding. Take a look and let us come and show it off to you.
But seriously, there are so few brands willing to start this detailed customer engagement which has been technically feasible for the past 3 years that it angers me. Felix is right, email marketing is just the first step - broaden the customer conversation and deepen their brand engagement. Then you’ll see if you can sell more stuff more profitably.