Investing heavily in the wrong form of marketing campaign can prove a costly mistake for businesses with an eye on growth. It’s little surprise, therefore, that a whole host of software providers are offering applications that help companies target their message more effectively.

In need of a solution
To Noel Coloe, UK general manager of analytics business SPSS – one of the more established software firms operating in the sector – the case is clear. ‘We think people need to optimise their campaigns,’ he ventures. ‘Executives of larger organisations are looking to move away from simple carpet bombing, particularly with new methods of communication like email and mobile phones coming to the fore.’

Coloe’s view is simple. If you’re looking to target a specific group of customers it is essential to understand what they are likely to respond to. There is, after all, no point in pestering people with phone calls and text messages if this approach is only going to create a negative impression of your business.

‘What’s interesting,’ comments Zach Nelson, chief executive of California-based customer relationship management group Netsuite, ‘is that when we used our software ourselves we found [the media campaigns] that generate significant leads are rarely those that generate significant orders.’

See the returns
Being able to analyse these trends offers an obvious business benefit.

‘Traditionally, marketing has been a bit of a grey area,’ declares Steve Kirk, finance director of AIM-listed marketing software group SmartFOCUS. ‘In the past it has been difficult to genuinely asses the returns achieved on investment but by using the appropriate software you give a board the ability to see what’s coming back for all the money they’re spending.’

As a result, for example, users of the software may discover that online advertising generates a considerable amount of interest yet few actual orders, whereas positive referrals from existing customers almost always lead to new business. In such cases it may be advisable to spend more on keeping your existing clients happy than on a more generalist online advertising campaign.

The other advantage of many of the more sophisticated marketing software systems available is that they enable companies to retain and analyse vast amounts of customer data in one system.

‘The problem with some marketing systems is that you have two issues to deal with – namely, that you are selling both to new customers and existing customers,’ Netsuite’s Nelson asserts. ‘A lot of systems only target the former group, so when a prospect becomes a customer they move into a different system and you can’t close the loop.’ If, on the other hand, you are able to see what specific clients have been buying, not only can you try and sell them more but you can also work out which products other, similar customers may be interested in.

‘Marketing software can help make your campaigns more effective and targeted,’ SmartFOCUS’ Kirk concludes. ‘It gives you better information about how customers behave and businesses can then use this to better target their marketing spend. You can monitor how effective campaigns are and work out which people are receptive to which campaigns.’