Imagine being able to time a marketing campaign so it hits exactly when a customer needs the product or service promoted. Today's trigger-based marketing programs seize the moment by capturing just-in-time data and then turning that data into executable campaigns before the window of opportunity with customers and prospects begins to close.

Companies that engage in trigger-based marketing programs are yielding as much as a 400 percent improvement in response rates. They are marrying their knowledge of customer behavior and preference with trigger-based campaigns that strike while the iron is hot, all without busting the marketing budget.

Defining Triggers

Triggers represent specific moments in time that offer a unique marketing and sales opportunity, with added relevance for the customer because of other events happening in tandem. They generally fall into four categories:

• External triggers-product development cycles, mergers and acquisitions, changes in market conditions, and competitive actions.
• Customer life triggers-birthdays, a new baby, a home relocation, changes in marital status.
• Behavioral triggers-customer opening a new account, changes in purchasing patterns, and changes in spending levels or account values.
• Communication triggers-when a company already needs to reach out to the customer at various points (whether it be a welcome packet or a notice about a change in service), opening up a new opportunity to educate and cross-sell.

Today's Web-based solutions provide pre-defined triggers to automatically initiate marketing programs. Typically a customer action, such as one of the events outlined above, creates the mechanism for marketing materials to be sent out to the consumer. This is done by establishing a set of business rules that act on pre-assigned criteria and push out a desired piece of mail, e-mail or telesales call to the consumer. Trigger-based marketing programs take existing customer data and profiles and apply business rules against that data to systematically drive a communications piece through execution at reduced campaign cycle times-in many cases within days versus weeks or months-enabling companies to deliver "right-offer, right-time" communications.

What's the secret to creating an effective trigger campaign? Relevancy. What use is a competitive college loan offer to a family whose kids are in elementary school? Relevancy requires looking at customer behavior and preferences to determine the best messages for addressing individual customer concerns and/or needs, and then aligning those messages with the precise time a customer needs to make his buying decision. Get the timing right with your triggers, and you'll increase relevancy and, along with it, customer response and revenue.

Automation Is Vital

One example of a highly effective triggered-based program often is referred to as an "onboarding" program. The concept of onboarding, or welcome programs, has been around for a while, but until now marketers have attempted these complex programs with less than inspiring results.

Often where marketers got stuck was in the execution of a trigger-based program. Where do you get the information that drives your program? How do you ensure it's being leveraged at just the right time in the customer relationship to make it the most effective? Marrying all that data can create hundreds, if not thousands, of combinations; how can you mail and print that number of personalized campaigns cost-effectively?

Today, the answer to many of the past's problems lies in the advancements of automation. Automated processes help companies more frequently and accurately capture customer data (both demographic and behavioral), better enabling marketers to pinpoint specific individual needs. As an example, many companies are adopting Web customer preference centers. These preference centers walk customers through an automated process that allows them to self-select information or product areas of interest and their preferred channels for contact-even their preferred frequency of contact. This information then can be synched with the trigger-based marketing program to further direct the when, what and where of each communication sent to each customer.

Assisted by new on-demand technologies that leverage templates for highly versioned communications, companies effectively can deliver a different communication to each customer automatically. What's more, these communications can be delivered through a variety of channels based on customer preference and time-sensitivity.

Real Results

The benefits of automated, trigger-based direct marketing are significant. The biggest gains are seen in improved ROI that is driven by better direct marketing response rates and cross-sell efforts due to better targeting. More efficient prospecting is achieved as automated processes provide an engine that continuously gathers data, tests it and refines it for increasingly accurate customer mining. Trigger-based marketing programs also strengthen customer relationships by providing better-orchestrated communications that offer unlimited options for personalization at the most opportune times.

Getting Started

In implementing trigger-based programs, keep in mind some critical success factors. First, start by using some of your current creative and go with known business rules. Don't try to reconfigure your current systems or dramatically change internal processes-that's a sure path to nowhere. Your trigger-based solution should conform more to your internal culture and processes than you to it.

Also, start with a heavy emphasis on measuring results. You'll be able to learn and test on the fly, so layer in new business rules and continue to hone messages and offers to ensure you're getting the most from your newfound flexibility and speed.

Finally, test, test, test . because with more automated trigger-based marketing approaches, you can.

Reprinted with permission from Target Marketing Magazine (7/1/07 Issue). Article by Andrew J. Frawley, CEO of Waltham, Mass.-based Click Tactics (www.clicktactics.com), an innovator in direct marketing services for Global 2000 companies.

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