Personal Marketing

This course provides a thorough understanding of the four key disciplines:

1. Targeting
2. Interaction
3. Control
4. Continuity

You will learn how to exploit Personal marketing techniques through all media for customer acquisition, retention and development. The Certificate in Personal Marketing offers a thorough understanding of Personal marketing principles and practice in a short space of time. Topics such as retaining and activating customers, the internet, database marketing, customer acquisition, new media and privacy, creativity in direct marketing - to name but a few - are all covered by the comprehensive, up-to-date syllabus.

Course content

Module 1. What is Direct and Interactive Marketing?

• What makes D&IM different is precision targeting
• Targeting prospects and customers by status, potential value & interest
• Generating enquiries and orders
• Accountability through measurability
• Increasing customer loyalty & lifetime value
• The TICC formula
• Focusing on the individual
• From distance selling to database marketing
• Main types of D&IM applications with examples

Module 2. Channels to Market

• The changing nature of sales and communication channels
• Convergence of channels
• The growth of direct selling
• The growth of the internet
• Why the net has grown and the risks attached
• Impact on traditional business
• Is interactive marketing the same?
• Issues with selling through retail and intermediary channels

Module 3. Direct Marketing Planning

• How to construct a good marketing plan
• How to assess a company's current position in the market place
• How to set realistic and quantifiable objectives
• How to develop strategies
• What to include in a D&IM action plan

Module 4. Forecasting, Planning and Measuring

• What to measure to evaluate your campaign and its components
• How to use key performance indicators and how to calculate them
• Calculating how much to spend on acquiring a new customer
• Budgeting a direct marketing acquisition programme
• Lifetime Value and how to calculate it
• Response and campaign measurement timing issues

Module 5. The B2B Difference

• Why B2B is different to B2C - corporates to sole traders
• The Decision Making Unit
• The buying process and timing
• Data gathering and decay
• Privacy
• The internet

Module 6. Segmentation, Profiling and Targeting

• The importance of targeting
• How data can help you understand customers and prospects
• What is profiling and segmentation?
• Primary sources of profiling data
• Examples of B2B & B2C profiling
• The principles of segmentation
• Examples of segmentation at work
• Propensity modelling
• Trigger communications

Module 7. The Internet

• Who is online and what are they doing?
• The different roles that websites can perform
• Issues to consider when planning
• Content and personalisation
• The customer expectation
• Ways to promote your website
• Search engine optimisation
• Affiliates
• Viral
• Advertising
• Measuring success
• Case examples

Module 8. Planning to Acquire New Customers

• Setting customer acquisition planning in context - balancing new customer acquisition and retention programmes
• How to set customer acquisition objectives
• The stages in planning an acquisition campaign
• The hierarchy in audience groups
• Identifying your target audience - who are they and their profiles
• Understanding how and why they buy
• How and when to choose a one-stage selling or multi-stage enquiry process

Module 9. The UK Media Market

• An overview and comparison of the media choices available
• The advantages and disadvantages of the major media, including DRTV, press, magazines, direct mail, radio, door-drops, etc
• Buying media, guidelines costs and responses

Module 10. Integrating the Acquisition Campaign

• How to get the most out of your acquisition budget
• Combining media in multi-media campaigns for maximum effectiveness
• How time decays the interest
• Integrating Direct and Interactive Marketing with other marketing and advertising activity

Module 11. Customer Retention

• The new marketing paradigm - from transactions to relationships
• CRM - what is it, and is it a myth?
• The importance of staff, training and integration
• What is true loyalty?
• Degrees & types of loyalty
• Types of bonding - financial, structural & social
• What is wrong with market share thinking?
• Why do customers defect?
• The customer satisfaction trap
• The stages in planning a customer campaign
• REAP objective planning
• 10 ways to analyse customers
• Relationship marketing campaigns at work

Module 12. Communicating with Customers by Email, Phone and SMS

• The benefits of email, costs and potential results
• Issues with technology
• When and how to use emails
• Tailoring & personalisation
• What to measure
• SPAM & Privacy
• Pros and cons of SMS
• Case examples of email and SMS building relationships
• The growth of call centres & their potential roles
• Consumer likes and dislikes
• Loose v. tight scripting
• Cost considerations in planning telemarketing campaigns

Module 13. Testing, Statistics and Research

• How to implement a direct marketing testing strategy
• When and what to test
• When to test or use research
• Understanding the statistical principles behind testing
• Constructing test matrices
• Reading test results, how to compare results and how to be sure of their statistical significance.
• Testing in different media including press, mail, inserts and email
• How to avoid the common pitfalls that occur in testing
• Testing in B2B

Module 14. Data and Databases

• Four chief uses of data in D&IM communications
• Basic types and sources of customer data
• What is a postcode
• The importance of data quality
• Introduction to name & address processing
• Deduplication and its issues
• Data capture pitfalls
• How to select data for a customer mailing programme
• Database functions and requirements
• The four main system types: Marketing, Sales Management, Telemarketing and Fulfilment

Module 15. Direct and Interactive Marketing Law and Codes of Practice

• The CAP code
• Data Protection Act
• TPS, FPS & MPS
• B2B & B2C differences

Module 16. Campaign Management

• An industry map of the many different suppliers needed to undertake a campaign
• What they do and how they work together
• Managing campaigns - three bibles
• Choosing the right supplier
• Briefing suppliers
• Requesting quotations that compare suppliers adequately and avoid hidden costs
• Scheduling a campaign from start to finish

Module 17. Creative Strategy and Implementation

• Differences between general advertising and D&IM
• How and why people respond
• What is a direct marketing proposition?
• Taking a consumer from awareness to action
• AIDCA in action
• The strategy behind direct headlines
• The function and nature of offers
• Briefing and inspiring your agency
• Evaluating creative work

Module 18. Creative Implementation

• Approaching integrated campaigns
• Skills and techniques behind persuasive writing
• Structuring the copy
• How long should the copy be?
• The special requirements of mail
• Envelopes and offers
• The role of design
• Developing great emails