ENGAGE A NEW MODEL FOR MULTI-TIERED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: TRANSFORMING THE WAY BRANDS ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS

ENGAGE A NEW MODEL FOR MULTI-TIERED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: TRANSFORMING THE WAY BRANDS ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS

It s easy for consumers to have great brand experiences when the marketing function is centralized and controlled think American Express. But when brand experiences are distributed, they tend to fall apart. Companies that operate in a multi-tiered distribution model, such as automotive, franchise retail and financial services, face unique sales and marketing challenges. There is constant tension between the corporate marketing department and the customer-facing entity, for instance, the automotive manufacturer versus the auto dealer, over factors such as who owns the customer experience and how to balance local, regional and national messaging. Add in a couple of marketing agencies jockeying for position, into the mix and things can really get complicated. Traditional marketing automation solutions are typically designed for either B2B or B2C communications not B2B2B or B2B2C. To meet the unique needs of these latter models, a new collaborative marketing model is emerging for multi-tiered customer engagement that helps alleviate turf wars and makes sure that the end customer has a seamless, positive experience with the brand. IF THE CHANNEL CAN T SELL, NO ONE WINS Automobile manufacturers here, we ll call them brands that sell through dealers are expected to provide sales and marketing materials to help the dealer succeed. But what happens next varies: most dealers would like the brand to back off and let them get on with selling. They tend to own the customer relationships (and the lists!) so the brand has little influence. Yet most brands want to maintain some control over what is sent to the end customer. Who wins? There are many reasons why the brand should win. Chief among them are the need for: Consistent brand messaging and brand image; Coordination of offers between the national and local level; and Quality control.

However, in the end, the brand really only wins if it makes its dealer successful, which means the dealer makes a sale. If the brand makes things difficult, the dealer will often decide to handle marketing on its own, with little or no input from the brand s marketing team. The thought of dealerships doing their own homemade marketing campaigns has traditionally made automotive brand marketers shudder, says automotive e-commerce and marketing consultant Gary Marcotte, former senior vice president of marketing at AutoNation and former manager of special markets at Lexus. In order to exert some control over the process, brands must be flexible and trust that dealers know their local market best. Successful marketing is a cooperative effort between the dealers and the brand. The best approach is to create an environment that strikes the right balance between helping the dealer, by providing the right tools and the right amount of flexibility for localization, and protecting the brand, says Marcotte. Unfortunately, traditional marketing automation tools are not designed for this type of model. Shortcomings typically include: Assuming that one user will own the marketing process from beginning to end from selecting a template, crafting offers, choosing lists and loading creative, and hitting send on the campaign. This is rarely the case in a multi-tiered selling environment. Offering limited localization options it isn t usually possible for a local store to insert their own unique offers, instead, offers are prescribed centrally by the brand. Complex functionality that makes it difficult for busy dealers to learn and use on their own. In many instances, marketing personnel within the dealership are not marketing experts per se, but rather salespeople and administrators who ve been asked to handle marketing in their spare time. Requiring that all customer lists reside in the tool. Fortunately, a new class of customer engagement tools are emerging that are designed specifically to address these issues and enable brands and their dealers to work cooperatively on marketing campaigns. SELLING SNOW TIRES IN FLORIDA Customer engagement tools enable brands to prescribe certain branding elements such as layouts and graphics, and provide a few pre-approved choices, providing some flexibility, but also

IS IT JUST FOR AUTOMOTIVE? While multi-tiered customer engagement is used primarily in the automotive industry, look for it to spread into other multi-tiered sales environments beginning in 2013. Examples include real estate, retail, financial services and many types of franchised businesses. boundaries. For instance, an auto manufacturer might have templates depicting SUVs both driving in the snow and driving on the beach to accommodate geographic factors and preferences. They also allow dealers to select offers that will work best for their markets. A car dealership in Florida, for instance, may not want to send customers a seasonal offer on snow tires or winter wiper blades. Importantly, this new class of customer engagement tools also enables dealers to maintain control over customer lists. In the automotive industry, dealers don t want to share lead details with the brand, because they don t want those leads shared with other dealers who are their competitors. It s a key reason why dealers in general are distrustful of centralized marketing automation systems. With this new breed of tool, user profiles dictate what type of access each user has. A corporate brand marketer for instance, can add and delete design templates, creative content and brand-sponsored offers, but does not have access to dealer-provided information on lists, leads or responses only summary data. A dealer can t tailor templates or change certain offers (but has the flexibility to choose from pre-approved lists of both) and has full control over customer, lead and response data. BUILD LEARN OPTIMIZE Getting the right tool in place is certainly an important step, but it s just the beginning. There are generally three steps to developing a marketing campaign. The first is Build, which is essentially about campaign creation. Users start by selecting creative from the brand s catalog, typically populated by its ad agency. They can then tailor default messaging, add local offers and promotions, and when ready, review and send. The next step is Learn. Once campaigns go live, the customer engagement tool collects consumer behavioral data and tracks

results. Simple graphical reports detail every consumer interaction with every campaign. Reports can be easily tailored to specific needs and the data portrayed can be restricted based on the user s role. For instance, a single auto dealer can only see reports for his own dealership, while a marketer representing a regional dealer network (or an automotive brand) would get a broader view. Reporting features must be powerful enough to enable in-depth discovery, yet easy enough for a non-marketer to interpret and act upon what they re seeing. It is generally advisable for brands to create canned reports (masking the complexity of report creation) for each channel, to ensure each channel partner has access to the data they need to continually improve their marketing efforts. The final step is Optimize, which entails analyzing campaign results and pinpointing what s working best so as to fine-tune the campaign content to optimize response rates and sales. Again, brands can do much here to simplify the approach & processes for its dealers. GAINING CHANNEL BUY-IN The modern customer engagement platform makes it easy for the dealers to participate in brand campaigns and promotions without requiring the dealer to give up control. And it still gives the brand the control they need over brand image and messaging. When done right, it s the best of both worlds for both parties. The automotive industry was the first to adopt this model, and the results have been impressive. Dealers report that this cooperative approach helps them sell more cars, not to mention additional parts and services. Sales are incrementally rising, and brands are seeing a rapid increase in their online audience as dealers engage their

customers and prospects through the use higher quality, relevant campaigns. Using a collaborative platform for customer engagement, automotive brands, their agencies and dealers are able to speak to consumers with a consistent brand voice. Inconsistencies across tiers are eliminated, along with fragmented messaging, low-quality clip art and homemade graphics. Individual dealers have easy, immediate access to brand-authored email templates and professional graphics, and can easily localize copy and offers for their market. Customer engagement is just one cog in the overall marketing wheel, and doesn t replace broadcast channels such as TV or radio. But in many industries, digital marketing is now the most widely used and effective channel, with a proven ability to move the sales needle that makes it worthy of attention and investment. HOW CHEVY USES MULTI- TIERED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TO INCREASE SALES Agency 720 is Chevrolet s agency of record in North America, handling all print, TV and digital marketing for the automotive brand. In 2011, the agency implemented Outsell s customer engagement Platform and worked cooperatively with regional dealer networks and individual dealers to successfully plan and execute direct marketing campaigns. Using Outsell s customer engagement Platform, Agency 720 provides dealers with pre-designed templates for brand-driven campaigns and offers, but also giving regions and individual dealers the leeway to incorporate local offers and modify certain content as they see fit. The dealers are responsible for assembling and sending messages, and can easily segment customers in order to more narrowly target campaigns, for instance, targeting shoppers looking at mid-sized sedans with sales material featuring that class of vehicle. Most typically, the local dealer marketing associations underwrite the cost of the Outsell customer engagement Platform, providing it as a resource to member dealers and helping to ensure a consistent customer experience from initial awareness through post-sales communications. Outsell & Agency 720 put together a multi-wave campaign that enabled dealers to send targeted campaigns based on customer behavior and click-pattern observations in order to send the right message to each customer at the optimal time. More than 500 dealers participated in the campaign, identifying in-market consumers and then sending them an orchestrated mix of email messages in an effort to get them to purchase a vehicle before end of year. Among the impressive results: Unique open rates were 260 percent higher and unique click rates 65 percent higher than industry averages; and In the 29 days the campaign ran, it helped the dealers sell close to 1,000 vehicles. As a result, Chevrolet, Agency 720 and Outsell were jointly awarded both a Silver Stevie Award and Honorable Mention for Best Use of Email Marketing in ClickZ s Connected Marketing Awards.