We can't tell you to go to the gym more or eat more greens. But we do know exactly what small steps you can pledge to make that would take your relationship marketing to the next level
If you want to nail your New Year’s Resolutions, you gotta set attainable, valuable goals. Things like “make two trips” from your car to your kitchen when bringing home groceries – if you ask Larry David.
We will not pretend to be the same life-hackers that Mr. David is, so we’ll focus on what we know best: Relationship Marketing.
In the world of B2C CRM, we know exactly what are the small steps that marketers can pledge to take next year that will bring the most impact.
We gathered six such potential pledges for you to choose from this time around (think you can manage 3 or 4? Go for it. We’ll gladly support this, feel free to reach out).
#1 – I Will Use More Control Groups
We’re starting strong, with one resolution we can’t stress enough.
At Optimove, we encourage marketers to treat every CRM marketing campaign as an experiment. And smart CRM marketers know that though it involves adding another step to the overall work process – the ROI can be tremendous when adequately incorporated.
Oh, and on the Optimove platform – this “added step’ is merely leaving the default checkbox marked. The product takes it from there, including making sure it’s statistically credible with no sampling bias.
When you start using control groups, you’ll become a savvier marketer who’s uplift-oriented and able to measure just how much your CRM is worth.
But there’s more to it.
Because understanding and gauging the value generated by your marketing strategy paves the way to retention-marketing superiority. In turn, it allows you to start looking at revenues generated from existing customers – which is a stronger measurement for incrementality generated by marketing activities.
Opens and clicks are great. But they’re still a step or two from revenue.
You can measure the value your CRM brings your organization using “The CRM Contribution” formula = (Revenue uplift / %Campaigns with control) / (Total revenue)
This goes hand in hand with the point mentioned above. Optimove encourages marketers to measure things by impact and incrementality – and the way to do so is by using control groups. And by experimenting… but more on that below.
To measure the success of your campaigns, you must always run experiments. Optimove encourages marketers to take a more scientific approach when testing things this year (and always).
And, as you probably know, between adding more customer segments or adjusting your templates, using different CTAs, creatives, and target groups, there are enough variables to put to the test.
When testing, make sure to change just one metric in your campaign so that you’re 100% sure which attribute is the game-changer – in other words – make sure to attribute the impact correctly.
Additionally, we encourage marketers to look at three levels of experimentation:
Short term (i.e., one campaign or message) – test just the title, offer, design, send time/date, etc., in a template.
Mid-term – test an entire series of campaigns, like your Welcome Email Cycle or reactivation Cycle, to test the whole flow.
Long term – test across the entire series of campaigns. Optimove streams allow you to run controlled tests on multiple campaign series to determine which strategies are most effective at meeting long-term business goals.
Optimove clients who used multiple channels in 2020 outperformed those who used just one execution channel in each campaign. It is mostly because it allows you to get one step closer to the ultimate CRM promise – of communicating the right message through the right channel, not only at the right time and to the right person.
#5 – Trust AI More
We know it’s not the easiest pledge here. Heck, 2020 was such a difficult year, and the world was able to end it with some hope thanks to science. And still, so many people around the globe are sceptical about taking the new coronavirus vaccinations.
But in a world where we trust random content creators to choose what our kids watch on the tablet when we leave them alone with YouTube Kids, where we cross the street without taking our eyes off the phone, and shove so much processed foods down our throats every day – that somehow, we at Optimove tend to take these trust issues with science with a large pinch of salt.
The truth is, AI is already all around us, and it’s undeniably making our lives easier. From shorter commutes to better access to information, from banking to entertainment.
At Optimove, trusting AI means that the marketer can let AI do the hard, otherwise unscalable heavy lifting of connecting the dots and making realtime decisions – that are all based on the marketer’s input – from the data to the creative to the channels used, and everything in, around, and between.
Allowing AI to choose how to match the right (marketer-made) creative and message, through the (marketer-chosen) channel, to the right (marketer-made) group/segment, will free up the marketer to create better creative, more precise messaging, smarter segmentations, and more unique user experiences.
#6 – Start Brainstorming Sessions from Customer Insights
This leads us to this: instead of starting your thought-process with campaign ideas, do so with data/AI-driven insights. Ideas based on customer knowledge have a much better chance of making a real impact because you know where to aim.
And, as we said, because by letting AI tell you where to aim, you’ll have more time and resources to pave these paths with the best, most direct, creative, and original marketing you are capable of.
On your way to unleashing the best marketer in you. Regardless of how many grocery trips you’re making.
Dafna is a creative marketing content writer and editor who produces strategic content for various online industries. With over ten years of professional writing experience, she helps brands grow and increase profitability, efficiency, and online presence. Dafna holds a B.A. in Persuasive Communications from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).
