Creative Agency Secrets

Have just updated the earlier databases work to include some which came out of the comments (thanks Tomas and Chris).

Here is new summary document. Databases summary April 08

It is for both brand managers and Marketing Agencies to show how to use customer data in order to stop 'campaigns' and start long-running 'conversations'.  

This drives improved ROI for brands (retention, lower costs, higher response rates).And for agencies, can be a new income stream (selling data services, analysis, results-based fees).

Event is in London, UK on Tuesday 29 April. The Secrets of Closed Loop Marketing Event Details:  

It is free to attend.

The product is called Data Centre. It is a desktop application for the marketing department / marketing agency.  It uses data feeds from multiple sources (sales, prospects, e-commerce etc) drawn overnight. 

It is innovative in that it enables:

• Single Customer View
• Customer Data Profiles
• Highly targeted marketing campaigns in a closed loop environment

The major smart thing about it  is that your data CAN be siloed, CAN be in multiple formats and places and Data Centre CAN STILL be used.

Data Centre allows you to

• run multi-channel campaigns
• by-pass the IT department….(!)
• closed-loop tracking and analysis for SMS, email & telesales
• web and email marketing integration

Can you blog / circulate it?  Anyone who wants copies of the case studies (Kettle Crisps, Hoverspeed) write a comment and I’ll send them over on email.

Afterthought… if you have a client who you want to challenge and educate about integrated campaigns, bring them along! 

How to do big things in the shortest time possible.

Mike Cassidy – serial entrepreneur [and very rich man].

Kelly Lewis – geekbrief TV host

Evan Williams – Founder of blogger, twitter

Tim Ferriss - author The four hour work week. the book hit the tipping point at SXSW last
year…. 

Key learnings: Do usability testing; pre-plan your key days with VC / hires; ask advice of the more experienced and do what they suggest; Tim's advice on how to reach influencers is SPOT ON for biz dev; as is the question at the bottom about finding a mentor, how to run a daily to do list

(more…)

When did you last ‘mystery shop’ your own business?  Either do this yourself, or get a friend to do it.

In the eighties this was a terribly trendy thing to do in the UK.  As the US became the ‘land of customer service’ where people bent over backwards to give great service to their clients and customers and the UK looked increasingly like a back-water.  It’s rather fallen out of favour these days.   But I think it’s time for a revival - ONLINE Mystery Shopping.

Seven things you can do to research your company’s customer interface

1. Do online research into your brand, company name, key individuals (remember to also get behind the login firewall for key print media e.g. FT.com, the Economist, Brand Republic, trade journals) and social media sites
2. Check out all the negative search phrases as well as brand names ( XYZ sucks, XYZ hell)
3. Go to the key websites for bad customer experiences Ripoff Report, Blagger, Grumbletext,
4. Phone into a series of offices - at 5 pm on a Friday and during your Monday morning meeting
5. Ask for a reference on your business and see who you speak to and what they say
6. Buy online (if possible)
7. Ask about privacy policy and what data is stored on you (and if you don’t get a coherent answer quickly on this one, sort it out quickly)

Two new clients in the past month have asked me to help them improve their sales and marketing databases.  One is a start-from-scratch job which is nice because there’s gthe opportunity of finding the best functionality and add-ons and enabling a smooth upload and data transition.  The other is an upgrade and extend job - which is rather more difficult.

Here’s my list of possibles that I am researching.  Are there any more that you’d suggest I add to the list?

Salesforce

Sage’s ACT!

Goldmine

Customers Really Matter’s InTouch 

I need to find something with good data, customisable fields, reporting, filtering, campaign management and, preferably, automated unsubscribe / undeliverable updates.

Am trying to start with an open mind….. but finding myself hemmed in by ghastly IT sales talk…. especially the ‘interactive dashboard’ video from Sage.  Urgh!