The people who want to hear from you asset

Go to your customer database. Right now. I’ll wait. Now ask yourself the following questions: How many of those people really want to hear from you? How many actually pay attention to what you are saying? Better still, how many eagerly anticipate getting your communication–Sunday circular, direct mail, e-mail, phone call, whatever–because they know it [...]

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Profitless prosperity

Ah, the era of “profitless prosperity” is back. I still have my Pets.com sock puppet to remind me of those once glorious times. Barely a day goes by now that we don’t hear about a stratospheric valuation (actual or rumored) for some digital darling. From Facebook to Twitter to Groupon, it seems that unless your [...]

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Plunge

There are two basic ways to enter a swimming pool. The first involves testing the water, cautiously inching your body into the pool as you slowly descend the steps or the ladder. It’s all about deliberateness and the hope that this “safe” approach will allow you to avoid any unpleasantness. The second, of course, is to [...]

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Say my name, say my name

Recently I’ve been wondering how much Groupon would be worth if they could consistently send me deals for products that actually interest me and aren’t an hour from my home or office. The potential for daily deals sites, mobile commerce applications and, heck, just about anything in your marketing plan is enormous. But when your [...]

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Gee, I thought you were in the local advertising business?

Much has been made of the continuing, and seemingly inexorable, decline of the daily newspaper business. Most of these companies have been trying to figure out how to make money through delivery of their product over the internet. Turns out it’s hard to get folks to pay for something they can readily get for free. [...]

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Twitter’s birthday: Blow out the candles, step on the gas.

You probably heard that Twitter celebrated its 5th birthday yesterday. The flash-sales model pioneered in the US by GiltGroupe is about 3 1/2 years old. Groupon was founded in November of 2008, not even 2 1/2 years ago. While it remains unclear whether Twitter will go the way of a MySpace or a Facebook, it’s [...]

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A very omni-channel holiday

First there were brick and mortar retailers and direct-to-consumer companies–and never the ‘twain shall meet. Then came retailers operating in multiple channels–but don’t call them “multi-channel retailers”–most pursued their strategies in operational silos. Then more companies came to realize that silos belong on farms, and we saw more integration: consistent branding across channels, pricing and [...]

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Prospects, Not Suspects

The notion that a smart sales and marketing strategy distinguishes between suspects–consumers who MIGHT turn out to become profitable customers–and prospects–consumers who are highly likely to turn into valuable clients–is an old idea. Great sales people possess this intuition.  Great marketers use customer insight, robust analytics and customer segmentation to do this more scientifically. If [...]

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