T’was some nights before Christmas, and marketing experts gathered in a trendy London Michelin Star restaurant, Lyle’s, to discuss CRM Marketing, and break bread. They came from across the marketing land – the retail experts, the iGaming pros, the CRM buffs, the CMOs – and filled the space, all carrying heads full of insight and an empty belly. Both would be attended to.
The night air was damp, an early hint of London’s trademark perpetual drizzle about to set in, as the professionals congregated around the no-fuss bar of this calmly designed venue. They enjoyed a quick meet, greet, sip, and sample of the award-winning small dishes, also indicative of things to come.
The reason for the get-together – PostFunnel’s Forum end of year event, on the topic of CRM Marketing in the new reality. For marketing teams, the last two years have been confusing and conflicting, restricting and freeing. Coping is now just as buzzwordy as personalization, segmentation, Customer lifetime value, and CRM Marketing. 2021 was supposed to be the year of the bounce back. Was it really?
Pleasantries done and dusted – and the event continued to its insightful stage, a panel discussion led by moderator Paul O’Shea, Director of Customer Success at Optimove, parent company of the PostFunnel brand.
CTLV, Please Move to the Head of the Line
The goal was to gauge how organizations adapt and evolve their Retention Marketing efforts in the face of constant turbulence and how they view Customer Lifetime Value’s role in marketing strategy.
“That’s one of the most important metrics we measure constantly and have done for a long time. Even when we are still looking to grow, which of course makes acquiring customers, and the revenue they bring in still be very important,” said Georgina Little, Head of CRM at Sweaty Betty.
Simon Theakston, Director of Data Services at LeanConvert, agrees, “I think at the moment it’s very much about that long term relationship with the customer going forward,” he says, “and how we leverage personalization when we start looking at a longer term relationship rather than a transactional relationship.”
“I think clients are demanding personalization and demanding that value that they get from their CRM communications,” he adds.
For Joanna Barros, Chief Marketing Officer at Touchnote, 2021 was a year of balancing acquisition and retention, “it’s good business sense to ensure that you’ve got retention well defended,” she says, “we can actually start really going a bit deeper into segmentation.”
Segmentation is crucial for marketers because of its bulletproof logic – the more granular you get with your segmentation, the more personalized the message and offering. The data concurs, and results do improve.
“We do see really good response rates when we are being super personalized. We send multiple campaigns each week to so many dimind-blowingomer segments. It’s mind blowing how many there are,” says Georgina Little, Head of CRM at Sweaty Betty.
Things About to Get (even more) Personal
Should organizations wait for a complete 100% picture of their customer data? Gartner, perhaps harshly, suggests it can “ruin a business.” “Don’t wait to be 100% perfect, start, you know, get it live, and then start optimizing it, and start testing it, it’s never going to be 100% when you start”, said Mr. Theakston.
Is the future of CRM Marketing getting even more personal? “I’m a big believer that customers are busy, they don’t really care about lots of marketing, so if it’s not personalized, and if it doesn’t speak to them, one to one, you’re in trouble,” said Ms. Barros.
Check out some of our past PF Events articles:
Chicago PostFunnel Workshop: How to Re-think Customer Churn
For CRM Execs, It’s Nurture Time