What do they Like đź‘Ť ?
Ever got a newsletter and thought: why you? Or just thought someone is just randomly sending you promotional stuff?
Well, that was me before I joined the CRM team at Photobox. I’ve now learnt how these newsletters are far from random handouts and have a process-based science behind them.
Joining as a technical CRM intern at Photobox I have learnt and understood the very root of customer retention. During the first few weeks, the basics of customer segmentation intrigued me and encouraged me to research more on it. Soon, I realised how important it is to categorise a customer based on their buying behaviour. Here are some of my top learnings as I reflect on my 1 month long (short) journey:
Learning 1: The software that lets CRM teams achieve their vision efficiently
The CRM team’s aid to reach the right customer is Adobe Campaign. The first time I was introduced to this software, I was so confused about where to start and what to do that I ended up researching it for almost one whole day! Adobe Campaign seems intimidating at first because it’s vast and highly configurable, has a myriad of features ranging from tools to create a template for the email to ones used for sending the right template to the segmented customer base, and all of this in just a couple of drag and drops!
Learning 2: Reading the requirements to be translated into workflows
During my initial weeks, I was asked to practice and explore the tool on the staging environment or the practice ground. This is when I learnt how to read the requirements and make a workflow which targets a specific customer segment. Soon I was transferred to the production environment with the same set of instructions and a word of caution :“it is against the law to send the wrong mail to a wrong person!” and that itself answered so many questions that I had.
Learning 3: The real deal — consumer segmentation
While I was struggling to get a hold on the software, I began thinking more about the segmented customers I would be sending newsletters to. First I got to grips with what segmentation is and how the customers are grouped together. A company usually divides the customer base into smaller groups, based on their common characteristics, which is called segmentation. For example, if there is a group of mixed buyers then active, inactives and lapsed can be segmented on the basis of the period they made their last purchase. This would now make them a recipient of specific “Delivery” or, in simple words, a personalised email. After a brief research I understood that there are multiple parameters for segmenting the customer base, behaviour being one of the most important segmentation criteria of all the others, including geographic, psychographic, etc.
Behavioural segmentation tells us the choices of a customer, most importantly “what do they like”, and what their buying patterns are around a specific product. Based on this, customers are pitched to buy another product or the same product with a different offer. And when they finally buy the product, they become a part of a new segment.
My learnings have empowered me in achieving multiple goals. First, making me a more aware customer, who would now understand the process behind promotional emails and secondly, a more informed employee who would now know the very essence of CRM.
Finally, I am grateful to the team for this opportunity with an immersive experience and an environment that lets me ask questions. So far it has been an amazing journey with the CRM team. I am eager to learn more and grow with the Photobox family!
Photobox is in a fortunate position to be hiring at this time, see our opportunities here.
