Subscribe
  • Home
  • /
  • TechForum
  • /
  • Strategic marketing can help CEOs increase revenue

Strategic marketing can help CEOs increase revenue

In today's experience economy, business leaders must think of customer experience as a competitive advantage, says Julian Ardagh, CEO of Effective Intelligence.


Johannesburg, 06 Apr 2017

If you were to Google "how to increase revenue", one of the first search results outlines four simple methods.

Increase number of customers. Increase transaction size. Increase the frequency of transactions per customer. And, perhaps, most obviously, increase price.

When looking at the first three options on this list, you'll notice they're all to do with your customers. Securing more customers, getting them to spend more money and encouraging them to do so more often.

In today's experience economy, business leaders must think of customer experience as a competitive advantage, says Julian Ardagh, CEO of Effective Intelligence (EI). "Traditional marketing strategies are not as effective as they used to be. As new technologies alter customer behaviour and up customer expectations, CEOs must remember: your brand is only as strong as the experiences you create for your customers."

And if you want to provide your customers with a positive experience, you need to know your customer - understand their likes and dislikes, behaviours and preferences. CEOs that run a customer-centric organisation, with a data-driven understanding of their customers' needs, are best equipped to meet these needs, and, in doing so, increase revenue.

Increasing customers: So you want to generate more leads? A great starting point is to relook at your target market. This is where understanding your customer comes in. As a CEO, if you're keen to pique the interest of middle-aged men, living in urban areas you need to know as much about this market demographic as possible. That way you can best tailor your campaigns, brand messaging, channel strategy and offers to speak specifically to this segment of the market.

You can also use your existing customers as a benchmark to target potential customers. This comes down to strategic market intelligence. If you look into your customer data and discover that your products or services are actually quite popular with middle-class women in their 20s, then use these insights to target similar prospects.

When CEOs test, optimise and implement their customer acquisition strategy effectively, not only can they grow their customer base quickly, but also better manage their costs.

Upping transaction size: With real-time market intelligence, you can paint a picture of each customer. This picture, created using an assortment of data, makes it easier to cross-sell and up-sell offerings. Let's imagine one of your customers has quite the sweet tooth. CEOs looking to maximise revenue will use this customer insight to offer that specific customer specials on their favourite sugary goodies, or will alert them when these items are on special.

Keep them coming back for more: If you don't know how effective a specific campaign was or how well your latest advertising strategy is doing, there's no way to tell if you're on the right track. Strategic CEOs leverage key results and metrics to continuously measure, refine and optimise results, notes Ardagh. If something isn't working, change it up.

Ultimately, when you optimise your marketing, brand and advertising budgets, ROI is guaranteed.

EI recently launched its Analytical Marketing Optimisation Solution, called AMO, which uses the most extensive consumer data in SA to help CEOs target new customers, upsell offerings and promote customer loyalty. All of these strategies, in turn, up revenue.

Share

Editorial contacts

Patricia Stander
Effective Intelligence
(086) 100 0452