If you want to improve in socializing or conversation and talk, professionals will advise you to actively listen to the words and the body language of your conversational partner and react to it. That means e.g. repeating what they say in your own words or summing up what you just heard to show you listen and understand what the other person says and means. In marketing, when reaching out to hundreds or thousands of prospects, the device stays kind of the same, even though the tools might change.
Listen
Of course you can’t go over to every customer or prospect and listen to what their preferences and interests are. But! There are other possibilities to collect not just contact information but also information about your customers’ preferences. Let me just list two of them for you to try out:
- Poll: If you send a direct mail you can include a poll to ask your customers for their contact details and preferences about a certain product. Of course this also works online. As the call to action you can reward each customer who filled out the poll with a free give-away or discount in-store or online.
- A/B Testing: Run an A/B test to see what offers, designs or messages generate better results. Read this Case Study about an Outlet Village that ran an A/B test and what their business findings were.
Process
After running your marketing campaign don’t rush into planning your next campaign already, but look at what your recent campaign results have to tell you. From response rates and conversions you can gain information about customer behavior. No response is some kind of response as well, meaning that this approach did not work for your target audience. Make sure to cover these key questions from your campaign analytics:
- Did the approach generate more or less response than previous marketing efforts?
- Who acted on your call to action? Who didn’t?
- Where is the target audience that responds to your offer?
- Where do you see business potential?
Reflect
Shared happiness is double happiness! Now that you gathered all the information, let your customers know just how well suited your offers are for them personally.
- Use the information—from your poll for example—to leverage your marketing message.
- Or collect the voucher codes that got redeemed and send those customers a direct mail postcard saying ‘Thank you for your purchase! Here’s an exclusive sneak peek of our new collection/product/offer!’
- As in all relationships, loyalty doesn’t come naturally and should be rewarded. Why not create a VIP customer club with regular news updates, special discounts and offers.