In The Solution Space

It’s enough to make anyone crazy.  Social media “gurus” shouting as loud as they can about using twitter, facebook, blogs to attract new customers and keep existing customers.  A recent conversation I had with a retailer summarized the problem best.  They were trying to do all these new things but were not clear about how this was going to increase their core business.

I asked a few questions.  Do you have a customer database containing purchase history? Answer, yes.  Great.  Next question, Do you have email addresses for those customers?  Answer, not all of them but many of them.  Great.  Last question, do you send targeted offers to them via email?  Answer, no but we do send them email marketing messages.

So I gave them this suggestion.  Turn Data Into Information.  If you know what they have bought, build separate email marketing lists under the following criteria:

• Customers who haven’t bought anything for over 6-12 months.  Create an offer to encourage them to return to your store.
• Customers who have bought a lot of items and you want to reward them for their purchases.
• Customers who consistently buy from you over a longer period of time.  Create an offer to reward their loyalty.
• Customers who bought a high ticket item and you want to reward them.  Create an event with similar customers and create a strong brand affinity.
• Look for customers who buy a particular item, and create an offer to buy related items or accessories

The fact is, there is a lot of data in a retailer’s Point of Sale systems and too often it is not turned into information that is actionable.  My earlier rant about social networks is not that they are unnecessary, but they are a tactic to building customer loyalty and there is a lot of low hanging fruit in your “information orchard” that is ready to be harvested into increased sales and profits.

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