• by Neil Rosen , July 12, 2011

Because consumer use of the Internet is endangering traditional CRM models, today's marketers have to integrate new kinds of online strategies into their marketing plans. These strategies are designed to leverage opted-in customer and subscriber databases, not only to generate sales, but also to improve and build on past CRM successes.

Let's look at the problem in more detail. Many popular internet technologies make it difficult for companies to manage and optimize the customer relationship:

• Search engines bring competitors closer to companies then ever before, causing those who are easily distracted to wander from the task at hand. Every time someone visits a search engine and searches on products or services you sell, Google and the other search engines are sure to remind them, on every page where results appear, who your competitors are and how they might find better deals or information to help them drive down your prices.

• Product review sites and social networks make it easy for consumers to get information on competitive product offerings and at the same time make a direct purchase.

• Social networks virally spread both positive and negative information about companies, sometimes true and sometimes not, to millions of people in just minutes or hours.

The problem is clear. Without a strong customer relationship, your company is in competition with everyone -- even your own products when they're offered at a discount through a daily-deals type of site!

One way to increase and solidify your relationship with your customers is to put some extra strategy into your email marketing.

There are any number of reasons why a subscriber may not have opened or clicked on an email. The customer may have been busy when the email came in; the subject line may not have appealed to her at that particular moment; he might have been offline and discarded it when he turned on his mail program. Emails get lost, emails get ignored, emails get mislaid.

Resending the campaign to those who didn't open the first time, using a different subject line but the same creative, is a great way to catch up with those customers who fall into the above categories.

Resending the email campaign does a number of things:

• It adds convenience to the customer's experience; she doesn't have to go through his inbox looking for the email

• It allows the customer to see the offer in a slightly different light by changing the subject line on the email

• It creates another touchpoint between the customer and the retailer

Let's look at this last point in particular. The old "rule of seven" is still alive and well in marketing. This is the rule that there must be seven touchpoints between the customer and the marketer before the customer really "gets" the message. It doesn't mean that online retailers should inundate their customers with emails -- far from it. What it does mean is that marketers need to get creative in creating resend campaigns. Who opened but did not click? That group needs one message. Who didn't open at all? That group needs a different message.

Segmenting the email list goes miles toward assuring your customers that they are -- each one of them -- important to you, and that you want to make their shopping experiences positive, convenient, and satisfying.

The more information you can bring to the table, the better. Send customers getting-to-know-you questionnaires not just once, when they first sign on to your list, but frequently throughout your relationship. (And then use that information! According to a Harvard study, many companies gather data about their customers and then simply sit on that data ... what's the point? Use your customer information in segmenting lists, sending special offers, and generally in making it clear to the customer that he or she is specifically important to you, that you know her preferences, that you respect his choices, and that you're there generally to make their shopping experiences the best they can be. Use this data especially when resending, and you'll be surprised at the results you get.

Resending is an easy, low-cost way to remind subscribers of your great offer, gain additional revenue, and continue to cement a strong relationship with your customers. And the best news is that it's not just good for CRM -- it's good for your bottom line as well. Resends can boost your open rate by as much as 50%! Resending is an easy, low-cost way to remind subscribers of your great offer -- and for you to gain additional revenue.