The year 2009 is one in which lenders and vendors will be challenged to uncover more qualified leads, engage customers, produce better results, and do it more efficiently. There is a great deal of innovative technology that has been developed over the last couple of years to address a number of these specific challenges. While many of us are aware of these innovations, and a number of us have acquired these innovative technologies, the real question is whether there is an effective strategy to receive the maximum ROI from these powerful tools?
These technology innovations include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. CRM consists of the processes a company uses to track and organize its contacts with its current and prospective customers. A number of the most common solutions include Salesforce, Sugar, Goldmine, ACT, Microsoft Dynamics and Saleslogic.
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses e-mail as a means of communicating a specific product or service message to prospective clients, with the purpose of driving demand or encouraging customer loyalty. Some of the most common include Constant Contact, Streamsend, iContact and Vertical Response.
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing website usage. This often includes information such as who is visiting your website, when, what pages are they viewing and how long they are on each page. Once again there are a number of innovative solutions in this category that include the likes of Leadlander, Clicktracks, Google Analytics, Webtrends and Yahoo Web Analytics to name a few.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a website from search engines. Typically, the higher a site's "page rank" (i.e., the earlier it comes in the search results list), the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. There are numerous SEO software solutions, companies that focus solely on SEO and Internal webmasters that perform this function.
A podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is distinguished from most other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added.
A webisode is simply a web episode a form of new media that typically features a dynamic, serial storyline, where the method of viewership is over the Internet to promote one’s products or services in a compelling way that engages prospects. Most webisodes are relatively short, ranging from 210 minutes in length.
This is a just a brief sampling of some innovative technology that has been released to uncover more qualified leads, engage customers, and produce better results. Lenders and vendors are challenged with layoffs and diminished internal resources, which forces lenders and vendors to do more with less. With fewer resources how efficiently are these innovative technologies being used and is there a strategy to get the maximum ROI?
Each of these solutions is much more effective when they are a part of a corporate strategy to effectively engage prospects and customers. Consistency and data quality are critical.
Just because one has a CRM does not mean that the application is being used consistently by the sales team, that the proper data (business intelligence, target market information, pain points, emotional drivers etc.) is being collected or used to drive demand. Email marketing that is not consistent with what the sales team is saying, or does not go out on a scheduled frequency is quite ineffective.
Is your organization tracking website activity? If so, what are you doing with that information and how does it complement your overall sales and marketing strategy? After spending the time and money on your website, has anyone taken the time to optimize the site to drive traffic? Have you embraced new media such as podcasting or webisodes? If so, are they strategically aligned with an overall strategy?
While there are a number of innovative technologies that can assist lenders and vendors in engaging prospects and clients to drive volume in this difficult market, what’s really needed to fully maximize these solutions, is innovative strategy. This includes a comprehensive strategy that pulls all of these innovative technologies together and aligns them with your corporate and brand positioning to accomplish differentiation in the market place.
If you have additional innovative technologies that you would like to add to this discussion or innovative strategies that you have applied when using these technologies please add your comments to this blog.
