One to one marketing

From: Ramon Ray <ramon_at_smallbiztechnology.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 18:50:16 -0500 (CDT)

WebCMO, Inc. http://www.WebCMO.com had a wonderful piece on
what really is one-to-one marketing and showed how British
Airways is NOT an example of one to one marketing. How can a
traditional brick and mortar store do one-to-one marketing
to thousands of customers without advance uses of technology
and coordination of their employees? They can't? BA can't
know what kind of wine a customer ordered last, does he want
a pillow or not...but I can, so can Microsoft on their
reseller page, Amazon, my local deli guy, even the Chinese
food by my apartment in Brooklyn, so can Dell and others.

I pass a deli almost every day and order a donught, about
the 4th time I came by, the guy had my order bagged almost
before I said "good morning" to him - that's one to one
marketing.

The concept of one to one marketing is something that the
WEB is best at - small business should leverage this to the
extreme. This is how we can really leverage the playing
field - not just in serving our customers but advertising
(let's stop advertising to the world, and only hitting 1
interested person)

Why did Dell beat the socks off of IBM and Gateway for years
- they knew their customers - IBM only knew 40,000,000 PC's
went to their distributors (TechData and etc), and maybe
waited a few months for some sales data from CompUSA and
other retailers to trickle in (forget about VARS, the data
was gone from the reseller) - by then of course, DELL was
making a new model of PC (maybe 10 times by then), cause it
could practically see the buying trends of it's customers in
real time!

Now IBM has positioned itself and has started its own
campaign to get to know its customer and send them email,
specific to their needs - not "John Doe (2 employees) here's
info on our AS400, 500 employee server.....". But now, "Hey
John Doe, with 2 employees, try out our new PC GL line of
desktops for you, and buy an Aptiva for your mother too".
That's one to one marketing.

As I've said, if you want to sell on the Internet and really
know your customers get Seth Godin's book about Permission
Marketing from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0684856360/fccssmallb
usines

This book was also good for traditional retail stores...

Those reaching the small business market - blanket, elephant
gun advertising just ain't gonna work - you've got to reach
small businesses where there needs are...

HP's learned that not every small biz wants a
reseller!!!!!!!! I don't care how important the reseller is
to HP. Some small businesses say - get out of my way, let me
click to an online store and buy the printer I want. I don't
need 20 sales calls to do it. BUT THEN some want it.
Advertisers and those reaching the small business market
have got to learn this.

On my site http://www.smallbiztechnology.com , I don't just
write about technology, but based on the technology quarries
I get, I can tailor my newsletter, hour by hour if needed to
fit the current hot topic of my subscribers (and others). If
you've ever visited Digitalwork at
http://www.digitalwork.com - these guys know exactly what
services you've used - if they use one-to-one marketing -
who knows.

Amazon http://www.amazon.com knows what I like (cause I told
it) and sends me info on just what I need - I don't care of
philosophy, the opera, agriculture, or even cars...only
business and small business technology, and etc....guess
what..That's just what Amazon sends me.

Going back to IBM's targeting small business...HP's sends me
newsletters now and then on technology topics - but they are
still too general!! I wish they would narrow it down even
more - I bet then there sales would increase!!


Ramon Ray - ramon_at_smallbiztechnology.com,
http://www.smallbiztechnology.com
Small business technology analyst and consultant
Editor, Small Business Technology Report

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Received on Mon Jun 14 1999 - 19:45:52 CDT