It seems that every marketing organization is dysfunctional by not being more customer focused. Many of the challenges marketers face today are exaggerated due to the traditional marketing organization by brands or channels. I cite these three major changes as ways to shift from contact to customer-centered marketing:

1. Centralize your circulation decision making process across brands and channels. The development of marketing collateral and its distribution can remain organized by brands or channels. If the circulation decisions are made by a centralized process staffed independently of the marketing silos, then many of the dysfunctional challenges are removed. The centralized process considers all the marketing collateral and all the customer data to derive the data-driven circulation decisions. Customer preferences, marketing innovation, and corporate financial goals are emphasized more than political agendas between individuals or departments. The marketing departments are incented to develop the best possible marketing efforts in the hope it gets selected for circulation. It’s survival of the fittest.

2. Set appropriate marketing performance goals. The best goals align with the corporate targets for short and long term profits tailored to your business’s primary customer segments. The key annual performance metrics of any customer group could be number of unique buyers generated, revenue per marketing cost, total profit dollars, and profit per marketing cost. The actual targets will vary by customer group, but these common metrics align with reaching the current year’s corporate goals. Secondary goals can include those associated with specific brands or channels. If there is a corporate strategic goal to give an edge to certain customer segments, brands or channels then those should be primary goals. Each marketing individual or department is evaluated by their contribution towards the corporate goals. Marketing effectiveness and efficiency reign supreme.

3. Implement a contact optimization solution. These CRM solutions recommend the best contact strategy for each customer based upon the business objective and subject to any business constraints. Contact optimization determines the proper number of market contacts and which of the available ones are best for each individual customer. Best implies the best return on the marketing spend which meets the corporate objectives. A contact optimization solution provides these benefits: granular decisions, incremental return on marketing dollars, optimal contact stream and synchronized selects and plans.

These are significant, but not necessarily difficult changes. I have seen several multi-channel marketing organizations make great strides towards the new, future marketing model within a one-year transition. Everyone will get there someday. Why wait and struggle with exaggerated challenges when you can move into the future with greater ease. It likely gets tougher the longer you wait.

About Randy Erdahl

Randy Erdahl is an analytic marketing champion, a co-founder at Clario Analytics and serves as EVP, Optimization Solutions. Randy is passionate about sharing his vision for direct marketers to apply business intelligence to their marketing practices.