Actually I think you gave all the details needed. The results stand to reason. A specifically tailored response to an equivalent need is bound to resonate and appeal more effectively than a more general focus which was the segment. If analytics can unearth the nuggets, then propositioning becomes a whole lot more effective

Martin

Wim highlights an interesting aspect with regard to the data points used to identify the use case. I’m wondering, from an approach perspective, if the company used analytics to segment targets based on
some “pre-identfied” use cases. Or, if they used advanced analytics to surface a particular “customer job to be done” as Wim mentions, and then target accordingly. Either way, this example certainly shows the power of analytics to extend traditional segmentation models or create new ones for more effective results.

Thanks for the post!

Hey, I don’t want to make marketing’s job more difficult but aren’t we trying to make our customers jobs faster, more stable and more efficient? Shouldn’t we be making their jobs easier? That probably means we should work hard at finding the message that gets results (or clicks)

With the objective of opening up some eyes to a new way of segmenting and to starting a dialog here, mission accomplished.

Here’s my thoughts (questions) to which you probably can’t share under that whole NDA thing. But, here goes anyway.

Those 12 deals – is the use case addressed from an existing service within the portfolio?

Or was the service created specifically for this long-tail segment?

If not, is the solution supportable within the portfolio?

What is the shelf life for the revenue stream/profit/cash flow?

Is it a one time bump? Or a long-term additive?

(This is the part i think you can talk about)

Is targeting micro segments/the long tail a sustainable model for any company? As has been proven, it works for the Amazons of the world. But does it work for Haliburton?

I guess thats it for now on this Friday afternoon. Hope to read more thoughts. I’m sure it will spur additional questions from me.

Cheers

Interesting!! My assumption is that the specific use case you are talking about is a specific “Customer job to be done”. Would you agree?

I’m also very interested to understand what kind of data-points they discovered to be unique to those Customers so that they could use it to tooth-comb others out of their entire base. In my experience that’s a big challenge, because basically most data available in many companies on a Customer level is the same or very similar for all Customers, thus far from unique. Finding unique data-points and/or combinations of data-points so specific that it only fits the specific segment of 200 Customers is not an easy task.

On the other hand.. we’re talking 6 % conversion rate here. That’s still not very impressive, though the improvement is!

Wim

In B2B the campaign numbers may be very small, but results at the level you show can be very rewarding. Email marketing automation tends to reduce numbers per message even further, making ROI difficult to justify.

I recently wrote a blog post on segmentation identifying 5 static profile attributes (geog, industry, company size, role, current equipment) and 5 dynamic or behaviour attributes (pain, aspirations, buying stage, info sources, risk attitude).

Mini-campaigns to a segment based on a combination of these attributes could be justified if the results you show above can be replicated.

Thanks for posting and commenting. I share your frustration, but i thought the results were good enough to let people know there is a better way to segment. Unfortunately, a lot of what i do is not shareable, as with most analysts, since it is very strategic to the people we work and talk to.

I will try again, or try to find someone else who can give me more details. Now I have been “baited” to find out more….

Thanks
Esteban

Great information. Thanks for doing and sharing the report.

I noticed that there was no attempt to distinguish between providing support using the social channel’s infrastructure versus providing easy access to other support infrastructure (preferably optimized for providing support)from inside the social channel. For instance, 91% of people responding to your survey say that it is important to provide customer service over social channels, but how many believe that the customer service should be provided directly in the social channel’s infrastructure, say on a facebook wall?

Do either of you have any sense for how companies (and consumers) look at or even understand these 2 options and their rather material implications for implementing customer service and support “within” or “via” social networks?

In the end, companies obviously need to balance consumer desires with creating sustainable and profitable business models.

Chuck