eROI Days Email Agency

Making marketing decisions around the Customer Lifecycle is definitely not a new concept, but it’s certainly one that’s getting more and more attention, and for good reason. When done well it’s a proven strategy for driving sales and increasing profitability, while simultaneously reducing marketing costs – something that in today’s economy every business, no matter how big or small, is looking to do.

Here at eROI not only have we been helping our clients understand how online marketing can be utilized to improve their Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) efforts, but in planning for 2010 we are examining our own efforts in this area and are determining how we can improve upon them. I’m excited to go through this process as I know what a win-win it will be for all of our agency/client relationships. Developing a better understanding of what stage our clients (and potential clients) are at in their lifecycle with us will go beyond informing our marketing efforts and affecting our profitability, it will help us be a better partner and continuously improve upon their satisfaction.

A few months back, while planning revisions to our sales cycle, we recognized the opportunity to look beyond the initial sales stage and take a closer look at how we were participating in the entire lifecycle of our customers.  I use the word “participating” because it’s important to remember that we don’t control our client’s movement through the cycle – the client ultimately makes the decisions about when to begin a relationship, how involved in the relationship they want to be and when to end it. All we can do is influence and be responsive to those decisions. When examining the most successful agency/client relationships, the most common denominator seems to be that they are fluid. There is valued collaboration. The agency has put in the effort know and understand the clients brand, business model, needs and goals so well that they are able to present work and ideas that not only meet expectation, but go well beyond them. There is open and continual communication. There is respect for the client’s needs, and in turn for the agency’s process. There is trust. There is ongoing mindsharing and idea flow.  There is a true partnership.

Achieving this “fluidity” doesn’t come instantly, it takes a lot to build a relationship to that level and, although the effort needs to come from both sides, there are many steps that an agency can take to help bring it to that point. This is where CLM can help.

At eROI we classify clients and potential clients in to one of these 5 general categories:

1. Prospects – those people in our target market.
2. Leads – Prospects who have shown interest in us.
3. Active Customers – those who are currently using our products or agency services.
4. Inactive Customers – those who have not worked on a project with us in over a year.
5. Former Customers – those who have canceled their product contracts or have not used our agency services in over 2 years.

Each category requires a different type of communication and tone of messaging. And not just from Marketing– it’s imperative that an integrated communication approach be adopted by all who interact with the client (or potential client) – including Sales, Account Services, Support & Training, Accounting, even the Creative teams. No matter who in the agency they are interacting with, every client should feel valued (because they are!), they should feel that you, as an agency, understand them and are listening to what’s important to them.

When planning a Customer Lifecycle Program you need look at it in stages. Each stage requires it own strategy of specific actions and communication approach. There are varying titles out there for these stages but within our strategy we refer to them as:

• Acquisition – The process turning Prospects into Leads.
• Activation- The process of turning Leads in to Clients.
• Relationship Management – The process of building, maintaining and growing our relationship with Active Customers.
• Retention – The process of trying to reengage in a relationship with Inactive Clients.
• Reactivation – The process of trying to reengage in a relationship with Former Clients.

Every business has a unique target market and customer base making the specifics of what’s involved in managing each of these stages unique to that business. No matter what your business though, the underlying strategy of Customer Lifecycle Management is the same – do all you can to understand what, when, how and why a customer wants to be communicated with, keep a good account of that information and use it strategically within the various stages of the Life Cycle to help grow your relationship with them.

There are a lot of recourses available that can help you develop a CLM strategy that’s right for your business, and my team at eROI would be happy to work with you on ways in which you can incorporate online marketing into that strategy (see our VP of Strategy, Dylan Boyd’s post on the topic).

As you begin your research and planning, it can easily get overwhelming – know that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing right away, you can take a gradual approach. Start by setting some goals that will help build the foundation of your strategy. For example, here are a few top-line goals that we have set for the upcoming year:

• GOAL 1: Profile current and potential client behavior more closely.
• GOAL 2: Regularly create new value-added resources to share.
• GOAL 3: More proactively ask for client satisfaction feedback.
• GOAL 4: Work as an agency to develop a more integrated client communication approach across all departments.

Customer Lifecycle Management can be complex and requires long-term strategic planning, but it’s certainly worth the effort. Sure you will see an improvement in your bottom line, but above that you will be building the type of long-term, fluid agency/client relationships that all agencies strive for.

eROI employees live by the work hard – play hard motto and Halloween always presents a great opportunity to balance out the work.  This year one of our employees took it upon herself to throw a bash and invite the gang.  With Halloween a week away the invitations have been sent out and the tone has been set for this once a year event.  Kelsey and her team came up with an amazing email that translated into a one of a kind event using eROI Event’s custom-theme capabilities.  One of our designers, Stephen, created a zombie cool invite complete with his signature hash-tags (you would know why I say signature if you follow him on Twitter).

One of our Web Developers, Christine, busted out the production on both the email and the event.  The result is a Halloween art piece brought to life.

“Woman Sues Toyota Over ‘Terrifying’ Prank” was the ABC News headline that caught the eye of one of eROI’s developers and the article quickly circulated around the office.  The article stated that Amber Duick was suing Toyota for $10 million over emails that supposedly made her believe that she was being stalked.  The campaign in question was for Toyota’s Matrix car.  The emails, intended for “men under 35 who hate advertising,” was a series of emails “from” a fictitious English man on the run from cops claiming to need to stay at the recipients house.  Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency responsible for the ads, even created a fake MySpace page for the fugitive.  The campaign was well executed, funny, creative and buzz worthy and the lawsuit only adds to the hype around the emails.

It seems there are a couple things that don’t line up with the lawsuit.  First of all, the lawyers who represent Toyota asserted that there was a confirmed opt-in process that Duick admitted that she committed to at the initial outset of the series of Toyota campaign emails that she received.   The article didn’t mention whether or not there was an unsubscribe link and physical address in each email (CAN-Spam compliance), as Toyota  and Saatchi & Saatchi may have taken the position that those elements in the email would have detracted from the authenticity of this fake campaign (not sure I’ve ever written “authenticity and fake” in the same sentence where it actually kind of made sense).

If there was an easy opt-out on each and every email, which would make you think either this is the most privacy concerned criminal ever encountered, then there isn’t even a glimmer of hope that Duick could win her case.  As is, Toyota has an overwhelmingly solid legal argument based on her written consent in opt-in.

What could have been done differently?

Obviously a neurotic Los Angeles woman wasn’t their target audience, so how could she have been engaged while not being “terrified?”  List segmentation could have been used to “check in” on consumers not fitting the targeted demographic.  Toyota could have even segmented women from men and had an extra question or check in to make sure their campaign would be received with the appropriate response.  Another idea would be to just make the product a little more blatantly obvious so you know you are interacting with a brand but you are still having fun.  Finding a balance between really creative and fun with responsible marketing is key.

I was forwarded a link to a site that engages the user through Facebook Connect.  It had a total video game vibe and my curiosity got the best of me. There was a sense of doom from the beginning.  A New York City cab flipped on it’s side, men with guns and – wait – my face?  Flash forward to predictions of my kids deaths and pictures of them overtaken by worms, it was an experience that fascinated me and creeped me out at the same time.

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In an effort to be semi-thoughtful in this blog post, I’m not going to simply copy my Jim Collins notes that I had to write fast and furiously and therefore missed them in my Inc. 500 twitter stream.  I’m going to reflect on some of the stand-out items from his speech and after reading in 2 days his book, “How the Mighty Fall, And Why Some Companies Never Give In.”

Being at the right place at the right time is IRRELEVANT.  Jim’s urging to the entrepreneurial crowd got his message across loud and clear – that the tough economic storm can NOT be an excuse for everything that ails you. We, as entrepreneurs, have control of our own destinies and our own company’s destiny.  It’s up to us to dig deep and build great, enduring companies over the next 15+ years.

I learned a lot from reading his book, but one story that cemented in my brain was what Collins called the Jim Stockdale Paradox. Admiral Stockdale was a Vietnam prisoner of war. When Collins asked him about how he made it through years of isolation and torture, Stockdale responded that he had unwavering faith that he’d get out but was still keenly aware of the brutal journey and circumstances in front of him.  Collins then asked who didn’t make it. Stockdale responded “the optimists.” Stockdale proceeded to explain that the optimists died of a broken heart because they always put a time-table on when they’d be released – by Christmas, by Easter, by end of July and so on.  The lesson is to believe in your path for the long haul and don’t let short-term setbacks deter you from your cause.

Last thing that really stuck with me was the leadership success factor of humility and making your mission all about the company in every way, not about yourself. Many of the most successful leaders like Anne Mulcahy of Xerox repeatedly turned down interviews and coverage of most of the top publications as she focused internally to clean up a nearly disastrous cash situation at Xerox and attributed the success to everyone else but herself.  Collins showed example after example of leaders of great companies who did this AND similar great companies with new leaders who didn’t instill that “it’s all about the company cause” mentality and those companies started their decline and ultimately fell from greatness.