Tag Archives: Customer
How Customer Communications Creates New Factors in a Marketing Communications Plan
by How Customer Communications Creates New Factors in a Marketing Communications Plan
In delivering a customer communications management system, there are extra considerations in respect of the development of a marketing communications plan.
The marketing communications plan can provide a clear guideline as to how to execute, the expected costs and the expected return. Customer communications management will increase the ease with which a multi-channel marketing communications strategy can be executed. It will also increase the sophistication with which a company can communicate in a relevant manner with its customers.
In the context of discussing the plan I will use Philip Kotler ‘P’s framework as this is the standard study for virtually all marketers.
First off, lets establish the Four P’s of product marketing in context with customer communications management:
Product – Which products are you looking to promote? Today’s customer communications management platforms mean that you can market more than one product in an individual campaign based upon an individual users profile. Therefore Product Range Selection is an additional component in the customer communications management driven marketing communications plan.
Place – Customer communications management processes give the marketing communications plan complete freedom to choose from a wide range of communications methods. These include voice, Direct Mail, Transactional Mail, Email, Social Media oriented email, social media direct, SMS, mobile and web. Therefore channel flexibility is a key advantage for the marketing communications plan.
Promotion – Specifically what is your promotion and what are the promotion objectives? To garner new customers? To market more to your existing customers? To raise awareness of a product launch? To build brand appeal through a news advisory about your company’s efforts in the community? To raise funds for a charity that your company sponsors? The options are wide and… Continue reading
Total Cost of Ownership for Marketing and Customer Communications Management
In developing a business case for Customer and Marketing Communications Management, there are some significant consideration in developing the overall Total Cost of Ownership elements of the business case. There are many aspect to a customer communications solution that will need measuring in different ways.A full implementation of Customer Communications Management will demand hardware, software and human resource. The differential in costs could be significant between the various vendors.There is no single vendor that can deliver every aspect of your Customer Communications Management infrastructure although there are one or two that get fairly close. In designing you implementation strategy you will need to think about whether a best of breed approach with integration is better or, a minimal vendor approach is desirable.Lets take a look at some of the key focal points for you customer communications management infrastructure:Customer Communications Management Support & Maintenance for Software, Printers and Inserters.Support and maintenance contracts with vendors will apply across the full spectrum of products. Within the software arena, It is likely that vendors will offer similar contracts terms and terms of service. But do check the terms of service. If the business is a 24hr operation, you are going to need 24hr support. Also examine the level of support offered in the regions in which you may install the software systems. If you are based in France and all support operations are based out of the US, how quickly can people be on site to support you if matters go critical?The software elements of the Customer Communications Management infrastructure should also be examined. Will major upgrades come free of charge, or will there be an expectation that more money is spent to stay on the upgrade path?Also, the upgrade policy should be examined in context with… Continue reading
