This whitepaper is a call-to-action for all marketers to re-assess antiquated outbound marketing techniques. Marketers need to develop dialogues with customers and prospects to deliver relevant, timely, personalized information throughout the customer lifecycle and reinforce consistent messages across inbound and outbound channels. The whitepaper will demonstrate:
•The current challenges with integrating inbound and outbound channels and the need to focus on creating engaging customer experiences.
•The benefits of optimizing inbound and outbound marketing
•The critical role cross-channel campaign management technology plays in delivering more relevant, timely, personalized interactions
From Monologue to Dialogue: Creating
Exceptional Customer Experiences
Seamlessly across Inbound and Outbound
Channels
JUNE 2010Executive SummaryThink about the last time you had a really great conversation with someone. Theexchange was memorable because you engaged in a mutual interaction and activelyparticipated in a dialogue. Share of wallet is awarded to organizations that createunforgettable customer experiences; experiences where every interaction, regardless ofchannel, contributes to a dialogue between a prospect or a customer and the organization.Marketers must be able to reinforce messaging across inbound and outbound marketingchannels seamlesslyto create personalized, unique customer interactions that influenceA targeted offer purchase decisions and result in sales.
presented during a Adapting to Customer ExpectationsYour target audience has more power and influence than ever before in history. The inter-customer-initiated net delivers real-time mobile access to relevant information at just the right time in thebuying cycle. Social media websites provide an effortless vehicle for anyone to instantly(inbound) contact share opinions about products, services and experiences. The burgeoning combination ofonline/offline, traditional/emerging channels has had a tremendous impact on the way wevia the web, call- all evaluate "good customer experiences". Market share is awarded to companies that canrise above the noise and deliver memorable, relevant, personalized, timely interactions.center, point-of-sale But terms like relevance, personalization and timeliness have practically become clichésfor describing optimal customer experiences. Few marketers would argue the importanceor ATM is two to of resonating with prospects. But the fact is, only 28% of companies engage in deep per-1sonalization based on past purchase history.three times as like- Unfortunately, many organizations have become accustomed to antiquated techniquesly to convert as an from 10-15 years ago; techniques that lead to one-sided monologues from marketers toa target audience. Eighty-seven percent of marketers indicated email was a primary chan-2offer made via tar- nel for engaging customers. Excessive dependence on one or a few channels (like email)often leads to a lack of consistency across other channels. In reality, customers andgeted outbound prospects are interacting across a wide variety of outbound and inbound channels.These collective interactions make up the customer experience.campaigns-and From Monologue to Dialoguearound 15 times Think about the last time you attended a speaking engagement. Perhaps it was amotivational speaker or a breakout session at a tradeshow. The speaker stood before themore likely than audience and presented a monologue. In this environment, the speaker had to assumewhat she was saying was relevant to everyone in the room. Now think about the last timewith untargeted you sent a generic email campaign to a prospect list. Like the speaker, you had to assumethat the email campaign would resonate with at least some portion of the audience andoutbound they would take action as a result. Unfortunately, there is nothing memorable aboutgeneric mass marketing messages and organizations that embrace personalization and3campaigns. segmentation are realizing 2-3 times higher conversion rates over mass marketing tech-niques. Prospects can and will, metaphorically speaking, leave the room. They tune out- Gartner and seek other sources of relevant information.Now think about the last time you had a memorable conversation; a two-way dialogue.This interaction resulted in both parties participating and reacting to each other. You gaveyour opinion, you listened and considered the other party's contributions. The experienceforced you to think and react in real-time. Prospects are conversing with your organizationacross inbound (call-centers, a point-of-service, or the web) and outbound channels inmuch the same way. Every time a customer reaches out through an inbound channelthere is an opportunity to market to that individual, but it's critical to provide consistentmessaging across the entire customer experience. Therefore, the information they con-sume at different times in the buying cycle must be relevant and personalized to keepthem engaged in the conversation.
2 JUNE 2010In recent years, the term "dialogue marketing" has been coined to describe ongoingoutbound engagement between an opt-in... [download for more]
