Best Practices in Interactive Marketing:
A Strategic Approach to Segmentation and Web Self-Service
When you are trying to reach new customers about which you have little or no information, try employing navigation strategies that help customers segment themselves. A simple example: financial services firms often offer specific links such as "US investor" and "non-US investor" to encourage self-selection.Once the segments are created, marketers create targeting rules that drive specific content and navigation to segments based on campaign goals or business objectives. These rules are associated with specific areas of a Web page and eventually drive the automated delivery of the right experience to the right segment at the moment of highest impact. A pharmaceutical company, for example, buys a number of keywords from Google, some associated with their brand and some based on symptoms their products treat. Site visitors see different landing pages and different content, depending on whether they searched on a brand name or a symptom.Effective Versus Ineffective Segmentation
The basic rule for effective segmentation is to focus on a limited number of high-value groups. Dividing your market into many small, less distinct segments can be difficult to manage and may dilute your resources. Similarly, taking a phased approach and focusing first on high-value real estate rather than site-wide integration ensures faster time to impact and provides time for testing and improvement. Strategies that target the "low-hanging fruit"—groups that represent the best balance between risks, reward, ease and speed—will pay off the most quickly.Ongoing testing and refinement is required to ensure continual improvement of the performance of your website. Once you have a clear profile of a segment and have created targeting rules—"if a site visitor clicks here and is not a returning customer, present this offer"—you can begin testing everything from segment definitions and targeting rules to specific messages, offers and promotions for relevance and effectiveness.Segmentation is an evolutionary process, not an end state. Failure is necessary and expected. Only by accepting the principle of continuous improvement can you optimize the value of your online presence. Are your segment definitions correct? Are your offers resonating? Can your Web visitors find what they are searching for in a few clicks?A New Class of Solutions for Interactive Marketing
Interactive marketing requires next-generation Web content management systems designed to address the challenges of an increasingly dynamic and digital world. Important criteria for these next-generation systems are simplified processes, rich interfaces and powerful rules engines that can be driven by marketing and business users without undue reliance on IT. With these capabilities, you can drive a closed-loop, automated process that lets your marketing team:
Easily create and manage dynamic websites;
Quickly assemble customer segments and targeting rules;
Automatically deploy and deliver targeted content and site navigation;
Track the behavior of site visitors;
Analyze the effectiveness of content and campaigns; and
Quickly make adjustments and incrementally improve online experiences.
Next-generation Web content management systems also incorporate open frameworks that allow tight integration with best-of-breed Web analytics technologies as well as other customer-intelligence applications, such as CRM systems. These technologies are important because Web analytics provide insight into the value and quality of a website’s content by enabling you to view the behavior of your online visitors over time. When properly integrated with content management, this insight can be used to improve, and continuously refine, the online experience.
What’s the Payoff?
Segmentation allows you to drive more value from your online presence in a variety of ways. Segmentation can make your website more relevant and your marketing campaigns more effective. Segmentation can help you engage your customers and prospects in a richer, more forceful dialogue. It can improve direct response metrics, convert visits into sales, improve the messaging behind a brand and give you more insight into your marketplace and customers.Segmentation enhances Web self-service, delivering the right content or offer in fewer clicks. It impacts profits by increasing the total number, and average value, of transactions as well as the development of niche products and the identification of highly profitable "premium" segments.It also allows you to address different customer needs without expanding your product range by using different bundles, incentives and promotions. One online computer manufacturer, for example, organizes its Website by customer groups (private, small business, large business, public sector) rather than by product groups. They offer the same products to all groups but tailor their service offerings to each group, such as offering IT administration services only to corporate customers. With this strategy, they sell more products at less cost and are more profitable at the same time.Segmentation can also help sustain customer loyalty as your customers move through different life-cycle phases. Automobile and cosmetics manufacturers, for example, are particularly good at addressing the variety of needs and expectations of their diverse customer bases. The payoff is long-term relationships and repeat purchases. Successful marketing, Web and otherwise, almost always includes customer segmentation. The trick is to approach it strategically.
Interwoven is a global leader in content management solutions. Interwoven’s software and services enable organizations to effectively leverage content to drive business growth by improving the customer experience, increasing collaboration, and streamlining business processes in dynamic environments. Our unique approach combines user-friendly simplicity with robust IT performance and scalability to unlock the value of content. Some of the most recognized enterprise and professional services organizations worldwide have chosen Interwoven, including: adidas, Airbus, Avaya, Cisco, DLA Piper, the Federal Reserve Bank, FedEx, HSBC, LexisNexis, Microsoft, Samsung, Shell, Samsonite, White & Case and Yamaha. More than 20,000 developers and more than 300 partners enrich and extend Interwoven’s offerings. To learn more about Interwoven, please visit www.interwoven.com.
Avenue A | Razorfish is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology services agencies in the world. The company helps industry leaders such as Ford Motor Company, Carnival Cruise Lines, Kraft and Starwood Hotels use digital channels to acquire and service customers. Avenue A | Razorfish’s full suite of digital offerings includes online advertising, website design and development, e-mail and search engine marketing, emerging media strategies and enterprise portal development. Its award-winning client teams have a great understanding of customer needs and provide solutions through distinct business disciplines, which include: analytics, strategy, technology, media, creative design and user experience. Avenue A | Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and global operations in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Please visit www.avenuearazorfish.com for more information.
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