In order to focus on customer engagement, companies will need to look at a testing philosophy that meets certain objectives. Before beginning a specific formula for direct marketing strategies, you need to identify if you are looking to drive customer acquisitions by improving response rates and establish customer loyalty or increase revenue streams while lowering marketing costs.
According to an ACCENT Marketing Services report, all of these need to be clearly addressed to make valuable use of Multivariate strategies. Otherwise, no matter what the results with Multivariate are, you won’t be able to implement them.
ACCENT offers outstanding results with Multivariate testing. Many clients have found the design and execution to yield about a 400 percent return on their investment. It also has increased their customer engagement by improving response rates, which ultimately affect the company’s bottom line.
So what are the best testing tools for successful customer engagement solutions? Traditionally speaking, the market has relied on an A/B testing. This formula uses the champion and challenger concept to gain customer perspective while trying to manage costs and ROI. A/B can accomplish some of these goals but at what expense and how long will it take? In the end, the results might not even be useful or make any direct impact on marketing campaigns.
These shortfalls in A/B testing served as the motivation behind Multivariate testing. This method uses a statistical dialogue that combines creativity, advertising, pricing and promotional materials into one unit. This technique allows you to test multiple variables at the same time for the best customer engagement strategy.
Multivariate testing unifies the testing process, unlike typical A/B testing. It reduces testing time and sample size, increases flexibility of test designs, increases efficiency, expands depth of insight and shortens the turnaround time from key learning to executions to capitalize on the customer engagement experience.
For a truly effective Multivariate testing solution, you should first define the test objectives, understand which variables are going to be used and the sample size and then design and deliver the test. Once the variables are weighed in, the analytic can be set up as a roadmap for the remaining customer engagement criteria. By isolating the results and not packaging them together, like traditional A/B tests, you can receive amble benefits for an effective response.
It takes a lot of work to nurture a relationship and business relationships are no different. If anything, managing customer engagement is one of the trickiest components of any customer service business. Therefore, having ample tools, resources and the strategy to maintain a customer’s behavior throughout a life cycle is key.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin