Manufacturers and channel partners alike want to capture information about their customer to better develop the customer relationship. This information can also allow manufacturers to deliver incentives (manufacturer to channel) or receive incentives (channel from manufacturer). By capturing this data both manufacturers and partners can report on product registration, usage, cost, and engagement. Manufacturers must also be able to obtain and use key information about its customers, like who they are, their purchase history, and their intended use of the product. Without this information it’s very difficult for a manufacturer to grow business within its existing customer base. It’s also important that manufacturers work with the channel partners to collect this data. Manufacturers must also be able to segment customers based on product ownership, purchase information, intended use as well as customer preference for receiving information and updates about a particular product , and notification of offers and promotions.
To collect this information, and deliver additional value, manufacturers should consider automating a product registration campaign. The focus of a product registration campaign is to encourage the registration of a product by either the customer, or the channel partner selling to the customer. The content of the campaign should extend beyond the “register now” message, and should communicate the additional value the partner or customer will receive by registering.
A target audience for this type of campaign can include contacts from your CRM system, customers generated from an eCommerce purchase, and contacts provided by a channel partner. You may also want to consider capturing the SKU upon purchase. SKU will initially be captured in a system outside of Eloqua. Because purchase history will be captured, it should be placed in a Custom Data Object in order to map multiple purchases to one contact.
Outbound communications should deliver information on learning how to get more out of the purchased product, industry news, and incentives. Incorporating targeted digital advertisements to those who have not yet registered is another tactic to drive product registrations.
The registration form should use progressive profiling. Contact information already captured in the contact record, or stored within CRM, should not be queried. Capture nominal information ( i.e. contact name, company), product information (i.e. model, version, serial number), reseller information (i.e. location, channel), purchase information (i.e. price paid, referring source), intended usage, and communication preferences.
Through this campaign the manufacturer will obtain key information to better understand the buyer, segment and deliver 1:1 communications, and develop brand loyalty. Information obtained within this campaign can also be used in a future up-sell and cross-sell campaigns.