Orchestrated Marketing

What is Orchestrated Marketing (OM)?

OM is the advanced system of direct marketing developed by Proficiency Group and iNovaSoft. OM has been designed so that marketing communications/campaigns reach the multiple contact points of customers and prospects in a coordinated and sequenced way to achieve maximum response.

It is generally accepted that traditional direct marketing campaigns achieve a 1-5% response rate…the DMA say the norm is 2%. The response rate of OM ranges from 5-50% depending on the extent in usage of the systems tools: Variable Data Publishing (VDP), Data Profiling and Personalisation.

OM delivers extraordinary performance measured in increased sales, gross profit or net profit return on OM investment; increased clickthroughs (CTR’s) on Ecampaigns; white papers requested or increased delegates at events.

Why OM?  

The normal promotional route to B2B users in the OP market is the well worn path from manufacturer via wholesaler via dealer via buyer to the user chooser. This has been a mountainous route which can take up to 2 years especially damaging the launch of new products. In other words, the intermediaries have acted as gatekeepers to manufacturers’ sales and marketing activity.

This was tough enough when the OP range was only 5000 products. Now with the range exploding to 40,000 items, the intermediaries add very little value to the selling and marketing of manufacturers’ products. Wholesalers are focused on logistical speed and efficiency of box shifting; dealers on single source delivery and personal customer service; and corporate buyers have bigger priorities in facilities and travel management than office supplies.

The “pass-the-parcel” mountainous route needs to be by-passed with a direct “tunnel” marketing route from manufacturer to user chooser. The internet enables this to happen now.

The challenge is for manufacturers to involve wholesalers to maximise product availability for dealers; and to offer a managed service for dealers which they trust with their confidential customer databases.

PROM – Proficiency’s Orchestrated Marketing system facilitates this. PROM enables manufacturers to reach user choosers with direct marketing campaigns they opt in to. Wholesalers and dealers involved are freed up from the inconsistencies and inefficiencies of the pass-the-parcel promotional activity whilst receiving dynamic reporting on results enabling them to follow up. 

How does PROM work?

By taking an orchestrated view of marketing communications the iNovaSoft planners create a comprehensive workflow diagram. This maps out the multi-point contact strategy that spans the sales cycle – for prospects and the lifecycle for customers.

The next stage is match the creative strategy with the contact strategy to deliver the multiple forms of printed and digital communications which form part of the campaign.

The campaign is then  programmed by iNovaSoft which effectively automates the plan. Customer rich data is created at each touchpoint of interaction and used to enhance further communications. Customer data is gained from each touchpoint with the user to develop a rich personal profile termed the Persona.  

iNovaSoft is a web based service developed exclusively for Proficiency, representing over £1M investment and 2 years of planning. It is a complete framework for creating and delivering orchestrated marketing campaigns.

PROM works by acknowledging that each marketing device – ads, DM, email marketing, text messaging and events has a unique and distinct role to play in leading your customers to act in a particular way.
 
Highly personalised communications are “triggered” by the various responses of each individual user. This allows the marketer to engage in a one-to-one dialogue with users in a relevant, timely and truly cost effective manner.

Finally, the marketer can view the performance of the campaign via a digital dashboard. This means that the campaign can be reviewed adapted and ‘triggers’ adjusted in real time, in order to maximise the return on investment.

How we define Personalisation?

The average person is bombarded with thousands of messages…85% of which go unnoticed. More customers are becoming increasingly ‘marketing  aware’ of what is relevant to them and what can be disregarded.

The challenge therefore is to make marketing messages highly relevant and effectively targeted. This is where personalisation helps.

The rapid development of digital printing technologies now enables elements of printed communications to be amended during the printing process, based on specific data held on each user…and to do this in a cost effective way.

This personalisation process is known as Variable Data Publishing (VDP) which allows the tailoring of text, colours and pictures to the individual recipient. You can even picture the customer’s name in lights if it helps to get the message across!

Personalisation will help you increase the response rate from marketing campaigns. The DMA gives 2% as an acceptable response rate using traditional “spray and pray” mass marketing methods. For personalised communications that rises to 28%. Moreover, recent research conducted by Cap Ventures reveals that it can increase customer retention to the tune of 47%.

The business case for personalisation is proven. Higher response rates, more cost effective and higher relevance and value can only help to enhance the affinity with the marketer’s brand.

There are 6 elements required to produce a personalised VDP communication:

  • The database – ‘persona’ profile and buying behaviour
  • The rules – parameters matching ‘persona’ with content
  • The content – variable and fixed text, colours, graphics and pics
  • The layout – design of content on page of variable data
  • VDP application software – to merge content ready for publishing
  • The output device – specialised printing and publishing tools

Are you ready to make your marketing communications more personal?

For free consultation on any aspect of PROM:
VDP or Personalisation please contact Peter Frost at Proficiency Group on 01932 784887 peter@proficiencygroup.com