Yesterday’s blog entry entitled Getting More From Your Existing Customers is clearly a hot topic at present.
The Chief Marketing Officer Council has just released its ‘Routes to Revenue’ study, in which three-quarters of senior marketers questioned believe they are not realizing the full revenue potential of their current customer base.
What’s more, less than half (46.5%) of the 650 marketing professionals who took part in the online and in-person survey feel they have good insights into retention rates, customer profitability and lifetime value.
However, among those strategies cited for extracting greater revenue/profitability from existing customers are:
• making communications more personal, relevant, targeted and timely
• addressing under-penetrated markets or new customer segments
• finding new ways to up-sell and cross-sell existing accounts.
A much broader set of strategies are employed for acquiring new business, including:
• testing and launching new products aimed at specific market segments
• establishing new partnerships and revenue-sharing agreements
• stepping up demand generation and customer acquisition programs
• expanding geographical presence and intensifying international focus
• ramping up eCommerce and customer-direct communications
• restructuring or expanding channels of distribution.
And, according to nearly 60% of survey respondents, introducing better segmentation, profiling and targeting strategies is the principal way in which they are aiming to better engage core audiences.
