Integrated marketing is well established. Even so, many marketers are preoccupied by the means of communication, whether online or offline, and don’t put enough emphasis on the value of the data and its use in improving customer experience.
Knowing whether customers have visited a website after receiving a piece of offline communication and the sales achieved as a result is a real data challenge, says Kirsty McKinney, brand manager at Market Location. It requires a focus on data that many companies lack. Read on for six golden rules of how to integrate online and offline data.
1. Recognise the importance of data integration
Data integration is key, but not as difficult to implement as people imagine. Most online systems have grown impromptu as businesses and digital communications have developed. Consequently, many businesses have legacy systems for both online and offline. There’s nothing wrong with this, provided marketers recognise the importance of data integration. Without it they will not know what information they have or whether the data is complementary, duplicated or consistent.
What creates confusion is the silo approach to data where the information from different sources is kept separately, says Gary Selby, joint MD at Information Arts. All communication, whether online or offline and whether to sales, marketing, customer service, finance, despatch or anywhere else should be integrated.
Although it is not necessary to link all databases, it is necessary to have access to the data they contain. The simplest way is to copy information from the various sources onto a dedicated marketing platform on a regular basis. Such integration is easy, not necessarily expensive, and means the data can be regularly cleaned as a single entity. Without a single view of the customer, there is danger of duplicating customer contacts, contacting customers inappropriately or mistaking them for prospects.
2. Get help if necessary
Problems with integration begin when experienced marketers lack the necessary technical skills. Most of us tend to think that anything we don’t really understand is complicated and time-consuming. Some businesses will have skills in-house and can handle integration work themselves. There will probably be more who do not. Specialists can look objectively at what needs to be done and can handle it off-site or train the in-house team.
When looking for specialist help customers should expect experts to be able to understand the different channels and their interaction and have experience of bringing together the different online and offline components.
3. Use unique identifiers…
Marketers need to know what data they have, whether it’s effective and what more they need. Online and offline information about existing customers can be matched relatively easily by providing each customer with a unique reference number. Such identifiers help data that has been gathered through different channels, for example if a customer is sent an offer by terrestrial mail and then goes online to order. The unique identifier links the two actions and so helps to measure the success of the marketing communication.
The main problem with unique identifiers occurs if the original communication has been passed to a colleague whom the recipient feels to be more appropriate. Such forwarding is helpful for maintaining data accuracy in targeting, providing the identity of the new recipient is recognised and captured. Richard Lloyd, MD of Cyance, says, It’s often useful to have a note on the landing page asking the visitor, if they are not the person named, to state who they are. Some people don’t like correcting the page’s assumption about their identity because they are worried they’ll not be allowed to continue with their transactions on the page. Reassure them.
Prospects, who of course are not yet existing customers and so have no established relationship with the business, cannot be expected to use a unique identifier even if they are allocated one. Consequently data held on prospects will probably be less accurate than that held on customers and should always be considered to be so.
4. And bespoke URLs
Visitors driven to the website by offline communication should be directed to a URL created for the purpose. Lloyd explains, If businesses provide a bespoke URL, offline data can then be included within an online environment. If businesses don’t provide a bespoke URL then they lose a lot of the value of the information as they can neither identify the visitor precisely nor tie them to a particular campaign.
Steve Kemish, web marketing specialist, also at Cyance, continues, Every visit to a website leaves a traceable path in the web server files which record website activity. This ‘click stream’ data tells the site owner exactly what each visitor looked at, in which order and for how long. The information can be used to build a personalised experience both online and offline, particularly when combined with a scoring system for important web pages.
The messaging and content of bespoke URLs should change to reflect offline communication. Visitors who attended an exhibition, for example, can be offered further information about the products they saw displayed. Internal data sources, such as purchase history, loyalty cards, call centres, email marketing, direct mail history, sales visits and conferences or seminars can all be tied to website messages and content.
5. Use offline information to influence online communications and vice versa
More customers expect to communicate with businesses via multiple channels so messages should be consistent, wherever they are or whoever they contact. Using data from all channels helps personalise each one. Customers get more from each communication and also feel that the supplier knows who they are and what interests them.
Information gained online can be used to create more accurate offline communications and better briefing for the sales teams. Kemish says, Pre-prepared online usage reports for individual customers or prospects can show visiting salespeople what interests the contact; if the report shows no online use, the salesperson could perhaps encourage it, mentioning the key benefits. Customer feedback can be used to improve website design and even to deliver customised microsites for key accounts.
Telemail, i.e. using email and telesales together to improve targeting and conversion rates, is another example of exploiting online activity data in an offline environment. Telesales teams are alerted when a marketing email is opened by a customer and informed whether the recipient has clicked through to the website. The team can then organise sales calls according to which customers have been accessing product information and when.
As Selby comments, The elegant solution is for each touchpoint to be driven by a central repository of data which is itself collected by any means.
6. Respect customer preference
Some customers may request that communication be limited to particular channels. Businesses must have the ability to cope with that choice, respect it and avoid taking a later and arbitrary decision that they know better than the customer. McKinney says, The speed and versatility of online media makes it a very attractive proposition, but the preference of the person receiving the communication must be put first. To make only one channel available is dangerous as it can result in customers rejecting the idea of responding at all.
Not offering choice is at best bad practice and at worst rude or possibly illegal. It’s also bad for business as Daniel Cross, director of strategy at Lateral Group, explains, Businesses need to be approached by the most effective method, which can change according to the person you’re trying to contact. Directors, for example, are unlikely to take unsolicited calls or open DM themselves, while contact with junior staff members might be better using printed information followed by a phone call. The database needs to be able to handle this level of sophistication and provide marketers with insight which shows them which channel is best and when.
There may be good business reasons for withdrawing a particular means of communication, for example, when such a tiny proportion want a paper catalogue that production and postage is no longer economically viable. However, businesses with integrated data can look at the customer as a whole before making a decision based on local economies. It may be, for example, that the proportion of customers receiving a paper catalogue is small but their order value disproportionately large. If their preferred means of communication is withdrawn they may choose to take their business elsewhere.
Problems with online/offline integration tends to throw a spotlight on existing problems within the business. However, knowing such problems exist is the first step towards solving them. As Anish Raivadera, MD of Actuate, says, Each customer is an individual so however data is captured it needs to be combined to shed as much light as possible on the customer. Without it, targeted campaigns become meaningless.
Less is more
Richard Lee, MD of Blue Sheep,is adamant that companies should always strive for a single source of data. He comments, “There should be one repository for online and offline data for two reasons: Data captured online is rarely sufficient to deliver complete information; a single complete view of the customer is the only basis for a longterm profitable relationship.
“However there needs to be a balance between collecting enough data online to be able to match with data already collected and not interrupting the customer’s transactions. Marketers need to be selective about the data they need as it’s not possible to capture as much as we’d like online.”
Many businesses encourage customers to use online responses only. However, Lee is not sure that the effect on business would be completely positive. “Businesses should be wary of moving their entire response mechanic online as they might jeopardise potential legacies from longstanding relationships.”
