We have a guy who works at our sister agency, Soup, who is the Moses of eCRM. Well actually his name is Giles (Captain Grimes).  So really, he is the Giles of eCRM.  Recently he gave a really good presentation at an Figaro Digital event on the 10 Commandments of eCRM.   In this week’s NMA, Justin Pearse used his opinion piece to promote the power of email (Email as good as any marketing channel when done right: i/d 13th May).
Giles and Justin are right, some clients jump on the latest “shiny and new” digital thing like iphone apps and AR, but have not yet cracked “traditional” online marketing like email.   So below are Giles’s 10 pearls of eCRM wisdom:

1. Plan, Communicate and Agree
We always asked the following questions of each new client:
o What are your aims?
Many clients don’t really have a clear idea of why they are using email marketing. It is worth spending time focusing on what you would like to achieve. Is it increased sales, reduction in service costs or loyalty?
o Are your aims realistic?
Once you start an email relationship with your consumers you need to maintain it, therefore make sure you consider your budget and the eCRM timeline.
o Do you have the resources to make eCRM work?
A half hearted attempt is worse than none
o Have you gained company-wide buy-in?
Internal sell in of ROI – get them to use it – biggest reason for failure
o Have you agreed targets for your eCRM?
Never underestimate the significance of asking this question
2. Registration
Quite simply, if you make promises, make sure you keep them. If you say you are going to send regular email updates, then ensure you deliver against that promise. Let the registrant know what they can expect from you and how often you will make contact. Don’t be afraid to ask them what they would like to receive. Also don’t be dull. Please don’t be dull! And finally make sure you get a formal opt in. Did I mention not to be dull?

3. Be creative but get your message across
The challenge here is to make sure the email design is exciting and creative, but does also is built in a way that gets through the spam filters. Make sure you give equal weight to form and function and also remember:
• Always adhere to email best practice
• Don’t be afraid of text only messaging
• Test to mobile devices as well as ESPs
• Don’t be too cryptic or too clever
4. Get the conversation going
Remember people will change their likes and dislikes over time. Make sure that you invite comment, opinion, suggestions and even complaint. Consumer feedback is how companies learn to improve what they do. It is important to talk to your database, not at them. The normal rules of conversation apply – just like social media.
5. Target, Segment and Personalise
I don’t know about you but I prefer to be called by name rather than Dear Amazon.co.uk Customer! It is not difficult to personalise emails these days. Or to segment your audience and send content which is relevant to their preferences.

6. eCRM: It’s part of the mix!
The rules and benefits of eCRM are similar to social media, hence why they work very well together. eCRM is fantastic at recruitment, building loyalty and generating customer information, but it should be used as part of the marketing “toolkit” and use in conjunction with other marketing disciplines. Did I just use the term marketing toolkit? Please shoot me!
7. Remember People Change
Deutsche Bank holds up to 10,000 pieces of information on all their customers. That is a company that really understands their customers. Ask questions, keep the communication going and act on what’s said. Do that and you’ll be friends for life!

8. Analyse this, analyse that and report the other
The investment can be high and the ROI is far from instant, therefore it is vital that you report successes and link them to tangible return from investment. Like social media, good eCRM programmes, take time and effort to develop but are well worth the effort.
The key metrics are:
• Attributable sales / traffic volumes
• Customer retention levels and recruitment savings.
• Recruitment levels through MGM
• Incremental sales
• Savings on customer service calls
• eCRM prompted Social Media activity
9. When it’s over, it’s over, accept it!
Even the best executed eCRM plans lose people. Don’t try to make it deliberately difficult for people to unsubscribe but do ask why they are leaving. Ultimately respect their decision and be polite.

10. Remember eCRM ‘s a Marathon not a Sprint
eCRM is all about relationship and relationships take time. Stick with the relationship and the rewards will be yours!
I will leave the final words to Moses:
May the LORD, the God (of eCRM), increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!

I’m going to be Social Media’s answer to Jeremy Kyle, Kilroy or maybe Trisha. I will be chairing an event at the IAB for the Social Media Council and I will do my best to uphold the humble British tradition of chat-show host.

In July 2008 the IAB launched the Social Media Council – a group comprising all the UK’s major players in this space, established to help advertisers fully understand the formats available, and how to use them.

The IAB holds regular panel discussions to work through in an open forum the pressing issues and how to make most of opportunities and to work out the best way to provide value through social media.

As part of Social Media Week the IAB will be holding a discussion entitled…

The importance of picking your battles online: when, where and why should brands respond to consumers in social media?

“Years ago if consumers were dissatisfied with a product, service or particular brand, they simply told a friend, wrote a letter to Which? magazine or participated in a ‘That’s Life’ phone-in. Now, in a digital era dominated by online reviews, blogs, Facebook groups and Twitter feeds, the consumer voice is louder than ever, and brands are being discussed (behind their backs) at length.

Our panel of experts will provide case studies and practical guidance, encourage debate and answer questions on when we should listen to unhappy customers online, when we should get them involved in our brand campaigns and whether the noise of a few vocal, unhappy customers makes any difference to the bottom line.”

The panel will consist of:

• James Turnbull, senior marketing manager, British Gas
• Ronnie Brown, marketing director, Outside Line
• Robin Grant, managing director, we are social
• Iain MacMillan, CEO, RMM
• James Bromley, Managing Director, Mail Online
• Cheryl Calverley, Senior Global Brand Manager, Axe Skin

I’d like your suggestions on which classic British chat-show host to emulate and I’m also keen to hear your the questions that you’d like to level at the panel.

tom@skive.co.uk

@ale_2point0

The Tweeting Twankey in all her glory

Find the Tweeting Twankey and win yourself some Christmas spending money.

To enter into the festive spirit, every day for a week some unfortunate from Skive will don the unmistakably gaudy garb of Panto’s finest comic dame and miserably troll the streets of London texting, tweeting, twitpiccing, foursquaring and lifecasting their camp hearts out.

During the generally accepted lunch hour of between 1-2pm, from the 14th – 18th December, anyone who manages to personally locate the Tweeting Twankey (and believe me, she will be hard to miss) and speak the magic password will instantly receive £100 shopping money to spend in the store in which they have successfully located the bewigged young fellow.

So make sure you keep your eyes peeled for an embarrassed looking chap in a bawdy golden frock, and ask all the weary sales assistants if the Twankey’s been seen nearby.

And for every person who follows the Tweeting Twankey on Twitter, Skive will donate £1, up to a £1000, to Shelter’s Christmas Appeal.

In the Metro yesterday was a feature with the headline, “Text messages sparked football match violence”. Considering decades of street battles between the two football clubs, in times of pay phones – rather than pay-as-you-go – the news that scuffles were agitated by communication via mobile phones is not surprising. The Metro is not alone in this reporting. The Guardian lead an item with “’Firms’ used web to organize football violence”, a statement unsubstantiated in a post largely devoted to other parts of the story. These features are misleading as to exactly what role digital media had in creating the actions taken by some fans.

In channeling flexible and lightweight technologies to achieve a shared aim, social media is now demonstrated in all human pursuits, from the macro, such as the Iranian elections to the micro such as Jordan’s self publicity.

Why should football violence be any different?

The intersection of technology and communication are creating new behaviors, from informal meeting times betweens friends to large scale platforms for easier sharing: Skype connects people across the globe for free.

With the emergence of targeting, this shift is going to be even more powerful. This is how social media created greater reach to those ready to engage in the pitch invasions during the recent Carling cup-tie. In riots there are three types of people: those that will never riot, those that are always quick and ready to riot, and those that wait to see what the crowd does before acting. In the case of Upton Park the question was posed: to riot or not to riot? By targeting the group who are always prepared to riot those that can be influenced to riot could be agitated into action. The behavioral profile of the crowd determined the outcome, as the majority of people will never riot, the action of the people, although powerful, was within a small section of the crowd.

In leveraging new ways of organizing groups it’s not only about reaching more people – rather the right ones for your message. Seth Godin refers to this as marketing within a tribe, those that have shared interests spreading ideas and values across a group, creating influence. To expect the message to always remain pure or commercial is misguided.

The implication that technology should have a moral code of use, only to be used for elevated endeavors, is not new and is clearly an ideal rather than a reality. Technology is sometimes adapted from its initial intent, for example the NASA-invented blow rubber molding used on Nike running shoes. Platforms will and can be exploited for more anti social practices.

What we are seeing are the lengths to which individuals who were scattered and isolated with fringe goals are able to unite to achieve the spectrum of human ideology and desire. The point of these outliers is not that digital media is being exploited for deviant means. It is the speed and efficiency that  they enable.  By leveraging social networking and SMS as communication stacks it was possible to reach out to an audiance better and agitate a crowd quicker. Marketing has a similair objective – to spread messages through a marketplace, creating consumer action.

Brand communications also need to create emotion in consumers to stir the action expected of them. Those that do – such as Zappos – demonstrate the power of social media: by being transparent, in reaching out to people with a pure proposition comprised of inherent marketplace values (customer service in Zappos’ case), people do unite to promote products and services. T-Mobile realized this to great effect with their Trafalgar Sq. flash mob.

All areas of our social being are being affected through developments in technology and communications. In using online channels effectively, a wide mass of organizations and collectives that participate can be expected to promote their aims better. Once this happens, when you send a message that is resonant with the right audience, a call to action such as the one reported on the Guardian article to bring bats but not your kids, can be spread wider and quicker – and although not everyone listens - more do and then, who knows, if you choose to use digital media for social good, you could start to make a headline for the right reasons.