Lee Chadwick, managing of CommuniGator, fields five questions about himself, his company and the customer management industry at large.
Tell us about yourself - who are you, what is your background?
LC. I’ve worked in various senior marketing positions in high profile technology companies with responsibilities for both online and offline marketing strategy and execution over the last 14 years. Having been originally trained in the ‘traditional’ methods of marketing, the continued need to increase impact and reduce costs drove me towards the digital channel and the obvious benefits marketers can derive in this area.
What do you think was the single largest event in customer management in 2007?
LC. The second generation email communication concept where the user is able to express their own preferences as to the type of content, frequency of delivery and depth of detail they receive from suppliers, partners etc. The important factor is that relevance is constantly changing, things I am interested in today, I may not be interested in tomorrow. Every communication with the customer should offer the option for the recipient to rate the content and relevance and update their own preferences to ensure future correspondence is closely matched with preferences expressed.
Email marketing should be about gathering insight and intelligence on your customers, consumers and prospects and then using that insight to better serve messages and offers. 2nd generation email sending platforms, due to the very nature of the above, now offer deep integration into CRM solutions which, when implemented correctly, would be the logical storage area of customer preferences. Where CRM is not present, the email marketing platform must come equipped with its own e-preferences engine which the recipient can interact with to tune in or out what they feel is relevant to them.
What predictions do you have for 2008?
LC. Traditional direct marketing continues to see a decline on returns for the SME. The SME is under continued pressure to promote itself cost effectively and sees email marketing combined with CRM as the most cost effective solution.
The biggest opportunity for growth in this market is presented to email marketing providers who can embrace the value-add that can be given to the marketer of allowing them to know more about their target audience. Email marketing for the forward thinking B2B marketer is an intelligence gathering tool allowing the more expensive part of the sales process to be engaged at a point where knowledge of a customer or prospects needs and preferences have been gathered. I predict a greater integration of marketing tools presenting a ‘single view’ of the customer.
Where do you want to take your company in 2008? Are there going to be any major changes?
LC. We are on a strong growth path, revenue doubled in 2007 over 2006 and forecasts are for this to continue. The major 2008 changes for us will be in the additional product functionality planned which ranges from our Virtual Catalogue capabilities through to enhancing our split testing engine. The real coup will be in the release of our new “I” Score system.
What factors are going to wield the most influence over the customer management sector as we move through 2008?
LC. Data protection and privacy issues – individuals are becoming more protective of their personal details and who holds them in light of recent data breaches. Cleansing old data and security of current data will be paramount.