Recent developments in the US with the 'do not call' registry, anti-spam legislation and the possibility of a 'do not email' registry around the corner, organisations need to quickly review their acquisition and retention strategies.
As is the norm with trends in the US or Europe, such restrictions will hit Asia soon. So what is the do not call registry all about? The Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov/donotcall) established the registry in response to public complaints about obtrusive telemarketing calls. Americans are able to register their residential phone numbers on an internet list.
Organisations are no longer allowed to 'cold-call' these numbers. Offenders caught calling a banned number face fines of up to $11,000 per call. The registry went live this month, with over 60 million (one third of the total) American residential phone numbers appearing initially. What next?
Anti-spam legislation and a 'do not email' registry are expected to follow.
Against this backdrop, marketers who specialise in developing relationships with existing customers to retain them and use them as a reliable source of customer referral will be the winners. The new direct marketing order will revolve around key areas such as partnership marketing, loyalty programmes, customer referral schemes and database marketing. All of these functions are linked to having a greater understanding of your customers and their behaviour.
Further to these direct marketing issues one should also consider the impact of personal video recorders (PVRs), the best-known one being TiVo.
With 20 million expected to appear in US homes by 2007, this 'ad-blocking' service will have a devastating impact on the advertising industry. When you also consider the prevalence of internet 'pop-up blocking' services, the future looks bleak for traditional advertising too. I installed Google's pop-up blocker only last week and since then 82 unsolicited pop-ups have already been blocked. Interruption-based mass marketing is getting harder and harder, which implies it is getting more and more expensive too.
If you aren't considering these issues today then tomorrow could be too late. You need to start engaging with customers now. Permission-based marketing is no longer a fad. And it doesn't have to be expensive or overly complicated either.
With customer dialogue it is in fact best to start with the basics. Firstly you need to start capturing customer information, analyse what you've got and then simply start communicating. As you build your understanding of their needs you will be able to evolve your communications appropriately.
No one wants to end up alone, so get engaged quick.