Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format. With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Digital marketing at risk of 'offer anarchy'

The paper, entitled 'The Four Futures', showed that out of the 86% of consumers who receive marketing emails, only 12% look forward to receiving them and 46% think they receive too many.

Despite this, consumers said they are still open to receiving targeted marketing communications. Of those surveyed, 70% said they are happy to receive voucher offers for products purchased regularly, and 55% said they are happy to receive product recommendations based on their lifestyle data.

"The possibilities for the future of customer loyalty are profound. The real challenge for the marketing and loyalty industries is to embrace the digital transition with both hands while showing enough restraint and respect for consumer's permissions and preferences," said study author Martin Hayward, vice president of global digital strategy for Aimia.

Long-term approach
In an era of technological development and expanding communication channels, it is important that marketers avoid the temptation to adopt a short-term approach and overload consumers with communications. Marketing professionals should have a thorough understanding of what is best for customers, rather than what is possible.

"Building 'real relationships' with consumers provides the key to success and enlightened companies that understand how to effectively and responsibly use new data and new channels in the right way will have a significant competitive advantage in the future," explained Hayward.

To help marketers navigate the digital transition, Aimia has assessed the possible outcomes that lie ahead and developed four possible futures:

• Future 1: offer anarchy
  The increasing volume of customer data created by digitalisation remains freely available and loosely controlled. Customers tend to be over-exploited by many vendors, leading to highly transactional, deal-based behaviours, limited loyalty and frustrated, over-messaged consumers.
• Future 2: pay to play
  A market where data is increasingly acknowledged to be valuable and powerful. Data begins to be controlled and traded as a valued commodity, requiring businesses to pay to access customers through increased rewards.
• Future 3: the hunt for affinity
  An environment where consumers and brands realise that it is possible to locate meaningful relationships that offer more relevance, value and affinity, which ultimately allows for long-term relationships to be built.
• Future 4: real relationships
  Winning companies build deep, trusting, long-term relationships with customers. A truly virtuous partnership to help consumers manage a complex environment and achieve value and satisfaction from their commercial relationships.

The ultimate future requires marketers to leverage data and build long-term customer loyalty while giving customers control over how, when and where their data is used. It is a future of 'real relationships' and one where everyone wins.

The full report has been made available for free download from Aimia's web site - click here (PDF document). Aimia owns and operates the Aeroplan coalition in Canada, Nectar in the UK, and Nectar Italia. The company also has stakes in Air Miles Middle East, Club Premier in Mexico, Prismah Fidelidade in Brazil, and i2c (a joint data analytics venture with Sainsbury's in the UK).

Have you seen How To SELL Anything?

This incredible sales handbook distils an expert's lifetime of sales and marketing experience and hands it to you on a platter, in a simple, easy-to-follow format.

With existing customers being the most valuable source of income for any business, this book will teach you how to increase your return business and make more profit from your most loyal customers - and even how to reduce the costs of dealing with your least profitable customers.

You'll learn to sell yourself, sell your products, and sell your brand on the internet, writing high-conversion landing pages, social media posts, and more. You'll start attracting customers you didn’t even know existed, and learn the top trade secrets for customer retention.

You'll become a lean, mean selling machine. See how the experts do it and learn to adapt what they've done for your own profit. You'll learn to write strong, powerful, effective sales copy, whether it's for a sales script, sales letter, flyer, insert, advert or just about anything else.

You'll learn how to sell whether you're selling by telephone, by mail, or even meeting prospects face-to-face. You'll find out how to size them up, present yourself, nail down their true needs, close the sale, and learn to tackle the tricky ones.

You'll discover the biggest secrets of successful direct mail sellers, sales letter writers, and how to segment and choose the right prospects for each campaign.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)