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Using Internet Marketing, it is possible to do things that were only dreamed about before Internet Marketing

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Direct marketing has been around almost forever – well since postal delivery was possible, though if you look at the way commerce worked during the Roman Empire there are some similarities to direct marketing. Does ordering something from some one 2,000 miles away via your local merchant count?

Database marketing, on the other hand, got started in the mid 1980s as computers and software became sophisticated and widespread.

It is now possible to store information about customers, and use the information to build lasting relationships with them. As a result, it is possible to increase sales and profits by:

• Changing customer buying behaviour

• Cross sales, repeat sales and upgrades

• Working out what's profitable and what's not

• Creating referrals and customer loyalty

Models can be used to create customer profiles, segmenting customers into profitability or preference groups, and organisations can develop a different strategy for each group. But, until recently, to devise a different strategy for each person was really beyond the capability of any but the most sophisticated marketers.

Then along came the Internet. It took some time before marketers realized the potential of the web for business, but when they did they saw that Internet Marketing is the greatest direct and database marketing vehicle ever invented, perhaps even the greatest marketing solution ever invented.

Using Internet Marketing, it is possible to do things that were only dreamed about before. For example, with cookies, you can recognize a customer whenever she returns to your web site, and greet her by name: “Welcome back, Margaret”.

Local shops used to do this whenever a customer walked in and customers love personal recognition opening up a whole new world of relationship-building possibilities. The response to any ad or offer should include both a freephone number and a web response option. There are several important reasons for this:

• The costs of web direct marketing are very low

• Customers grow to prefer this sort of response as they never get put on hold and can contact you 24/7.

• Customers enter their data directly into the web which can be (and should be) directly connected to the customer database. That means that your reaction to their response can be instant: an EMail thank you, and a shipment within a few hours.

That cannot happen with any of the other response mechanisms. Now you can customize or personalize your web site for each customer.

Since you know what Margaret has bought, even what she is interested in (as a result of an on-line survey) you can deliver an entry page for Margaret with items of specific interest to her.

Then you can truly personalise your Internet Marketing communications with her. It the old days, the best you could do was to send out an occasional “Thank you” letter or birthday card if you were reasonably switched on. Today you can:

• Say “Thank you for your order, Margaret.” and describe what that order is when the submit button is pressed,

• Send Margaret an EMail thanking her for the order and telling her what to do if she wants to change or cancel it

• Send Margaret relevant additional EMails such as: Your order will be sent on… ; Your order was sent using … and here is the tracking number; Did your order arrive satisfactorily? What was your opinion of the product and the ordering process?

What’s more, all these communications are free. If you are not already doing this then you should at the very least be thinking about it - if you don't someone else will and where will the customer go then?

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