Social Media and CRM
As is the case with everything, some advertisers and industries are simply better at CRM activity than others. However, these market leaders could be losing their edge if they haven’t been focused on the changing media and consumption patterns of their customers – especially when it comes to the use of social media. A CRM strategy is no longer about customer retention and sales. CRM is now about engaging with customers over multiple touch points in a relative way. Effective CRM uses dialogue to reinforce brand positioning and encourage loyalty while building long term customer value.
Any channel that allows for customer dialogue needs to be understood as part of an overall CRM engagement strategy. Potential CRM touch-points now include applications, social media spaces, micro-blogging, equivalent mobile channels and even standard banner media (through cookie retargeting). No more is CRM about bulk emails with last minute sales and special offers. Social media offers brands an opportunity to converse with their customers, gather feedback and build an ongoing dialogue with both existing customers as well as potential customers. An especially effective example of this is the much lauded Old Spice Campaign. Not only did this advertiser harness social media as an effective awareness channel, they encouraged users to interact with the brand. Old spice answered questions asked and subsequently posted response on a variety of social media and emerging digital platforms including Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.
Advertisers need also to think about CRM activity in the context of an integrated marketing and communications strategy. With media evolution and the opportunities for dialogue presented by digital, CRM practitioners, advertisers and agencies need to make sure the marketing communications path (including creative and media) are in sync. For example, if a brand has already connected or engaged with a consumer on a brand website or through email etc, ads reaching these users should recognise this. Tracking and retargeting technologies are core to this process as advertisers build expertise around integrated CRM activity.
In many ways the effectiveness of the Old Spice can be attributed to a creative idea, we also need to appreciate the implementation behind this campaign. Harnessing and coordinating production multiple digital touch-points takes a lot of hard work and resource. If advertisers want to extend CRM activity to social touch-points they need to have the resource in place to effectively manage these communications. They will also need the right kind of talent to manage these communications.
Cheers,
Sean
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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