It’s a thin line, or is it?

Five things retail should do to avoid having their marketing message becoming background noise:

At first consumers were reluctant to give retailers their contact information but this has slowly eroded once there was a quid pro quo. You can have my email address if there’s a benefit to me. This started the progression from collecting data to loyalty programs to full blown CRM. Customer data became a valuable commodity to retailers who understood how to use it to grow their business. Amazon became the model for using data to suggest other items – Collaborative marketing: People who read this book also liked these books. The question was always how much is too much in this new age of digital marketing. The question is at what point does the consumer stop paying attention to the continual barrage of offers? We’re now entering into a phase of digital marketing driven by Near Field Communication (NFC). Once a customer opts in location based technology alerts the retailer when a customer is in the store. This opens up a new world of marketing opportunities to the hyper connected consumer. Offers and coupons can be sent to their smart phone while there in the store. When you add the marketing power of social media to the mix the connected consumer becomes empowered to become an integral piece of the marketing landscape. The business to consumer dynamic has become a total 360 degree circle. The dilemma for retailers is to keep their offers and messages relevant to their customers.

These are five things retail should do to avoid their marketing message becoming background noise:

1. Keep your offers salient based on the customer’s purchase history
2. Develop marketing campaigns that will promote up selling and cross selling
3. Measure the results of each campaign
4. Refine and repeat successful campaigns
5. Less is more. Run fewer more targeted campaigns that have specific measurable goals.