A loyalty card linked to an email address may soon form the basis of a simple solution for marketers looking to integrate on- and offline sales metrics. It’s something that several enterprises and software providers are currently working on and should bring to fruition within the next two years, claims Rhett Thompson, cofounder of CoreMotives, a Silverpop unit that creates marketing automation programs for Microsoft’s CRM system.
“One of the reasons that loyalty programs are growing and will keep growing is that they can take that online-offline integration further,” Thompson says. “Say you have the typical consumer who goes online to research a product and then goes to a store to make a purchase. If you add a loyalty card to that purchase, the ID number creates a loop that can tie that whole experience together. This is really the where we are going.”
Thompson’s company made a step in that direction when it helped clients including the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks measure the ROI of their digital marketing efforts. Sports teams and other entertainment companies can now activate a CoreMotives program to turn monthly sales summaries from Ticketmaster into reports revealing how individual email campaigns affected ticket purchases.
“There’s no easy way to determine ROI generated within their primary system of record, which is Microsoft Dynamics. Ticketmaster had an API method to get at this data, but it required a lot of programming and so not a lot of people were doing it. Our program makes it easier to access it,” Thompson says. “Now if, say, a ticket salesperson for the Devils sends out a batch email of 1,000 names, he has a key number and all buyers and their behaviors will be visible on his dashboard.”
While the automation platform does not automatically calculate ROI for specific campaigns, Thompson says it provides sales reps the necessary information to design more productive campaigns. They may, for instance, identify a significant group of buyers who did not purchase until after receiving a fifth email and then divide the total dollar sales they represented by five to achieve a basic ROI. “The power of this,” Thompson says, “is that the revenue piece is pulled back into the system and can be compared to activity in offline channels.”
CoreMotive’s revenue-tracking integration program is designed for any business that sells tickets. Theaters, clubs, and museums selling through Ticketmaster can take advantage of the ROI metrics as well as sports enterprises. Initially, however, it is athletic team sales organizations that are showing the most interest. Their customer bases consist of loyal fans who are multiple purchasers with longstanding relationships to the team—much like loyalty club members.
“The way we designed this feature, it could easily be used with company loyalty programs, as well,” Thompson says.
