In today’s business world, marketing plays a key role in the success of any organization. Marketing is a set of activities aimed at market research, determining the needs and preferences of consumers, and developing and promoting goods and services that satisfy these needs. The goal of marketing is to create strong relationships with customers, increase sales and strengthen the company’s position in the market.
At the same time, marketing professionals can be roughly divided into several key areas: customer acquisition, retention and return.
Each marketing area has its own set of tools and methods. One such method is Direct Marketing – communicating with the customer through channels such as Email, SMS, mobile push notifications, phone calls and so on, directly.
Most times it’s expected that the customer has already shared their contact information: registered a personal account, subscribed to a newsletter, installed an app or became a member of a loyalty program. When you have a client’s contact, the main task is to retain it and “convert” the contact into an order or similar target action. And after that – into the next order. And so on.
This book dives into the use of direct marketing and associated strategies to transform website visitors into leads, convert those leads into customers, and ultimately boost revenue. It draws on insights from three hundred B2C companies along with my own extensive experience – over ten years in marketing automation with a specialization in customer retention.
I have tried to put the book together in such a way that once you understand a minimal amount of marketing automation theory and methodology, you can take the cases mentioned and apply them to your eCommerce business.
The book covers the following topics: the basics of direct marketing, key metrics and basics of direct marketing targeting, principles of marketing automation for online and eCommerce, and examples of marketing automation software. Each topic is provided with plenty of examples.
I hope this book will be a useful guide for students, entrepreneurs, marketers, and anyone interested in direct marketing who wants to develop their professional skills in this field.
Filipp Volnov is a renowned CRM expert in Russia and the CIS, with more than 10 years experience and knowledge in marketing automation. As one of the leading authorities in the field, he has been lecturing on CRM at Yandex Practicum, Russia’s largest online eLearning platform, sharing his insights and expertise with a wide audience.
In addition to his educational endeavors, Mr. Volnov served for 7 years as a leading customer success manager at Mindbox, the #1 cloud Marketing Automation platform in the ex-USSR region.
Mindbox is currently ranked among the top 5 B2B SaaS companies in the region, further solidifying author’s position as an authority in the industry. Over the past decade, he has managed a team of 10, generating an average annual revenue of more than $2 million. Throughout his career, Mr. Volnov has published over 30 success stories of various brands, showcasing the power of marketing automation in driving growth and efficiency.
Mr. Volnov was also responsible for managing marketing communications at Mindbox. He actively participates in conferences, exhibitions, and webinars, as well as oversees publicity in magazines and newspapers. His dedication to promoting marketing automation and sharing his wealth of experience has made a significant impact on the industry, and this book serves as a testament to his commitment to helping businesses unlock the potential of marketing automation.
In this book, the author unveils a unique marketing automation strategy developed over years of personal experience, which has consistently demonstrated a revenue increase of 10—25% from DTC marketing across many different industries. The strategy is divided into seven key customer journeys, each illustrated as a map and supplemented with real-life case studies and A/B testing ideas. Drawing from a wealth of expertise, the author provides valuable insights into the world of marketing automation, guiding readers through the process of implementing and optimizing these crucial chains for maximum impact and revenue growth.
THE BASICS OF DIRECT MARKETING
Key terminology
Before we delve into examples and study the experience of companies in the field of direct marketing and its automation, we want to understand the basic terms and concepts.
– Direct marketing – communication with the client “directly” through Email, SMS, phone call, chatbots, letters
– Target Audience – A group of potential customers to whom marketing efforts are directed.
– Segmentation is the process of dividing a market into segments with homogeneous needs and preferences.
– Personalization – tailoring marketing materials to a specific customer or group of customers.
– Conversion – the percentage of consumers who take a targeted action (e.g., purchase) out of the total number of consumers who received a marketing message.
