Herrick is trying to spur his intended audience to action in this poem. I’d encourage you, as marketers, to do the same, but my intent is a little different.
It’s constantly drilled into our collective heads that we have to measure marketing results. We have to gather data about our customers for segmentation and other activities. This has resulted in seemingly endless data-gathering, but seemingly very little action.
To quote Elvis Presley, what your marketing may need is “a little less conversation and a little more action.” Sure, you need to gather data, but make it actionable data. Or, if you’re not gathering actionable customer data, figure out what data you need to improve customer service delivery.
Take as an example a hotel. As a business traveler, I frequent many of the same hotels repeatedly. While the reservation shows my name so that they call me by it at the desk, and their loyalty programs show I get to go to the manager’s reception and the upgraded breakfast, none of them seem to catch on that I make similar requests every time I stay, and I buy the same ancillary services quite frequently. Why not ask me up front if I want those services? Why not log my requests and fulfill them when setting up my room? That’s the type of actionable data that can result in improved customer service delivery, and delight the customer.
In this example, there are two other notables. Asking me up front if I want to buy the usual ancillary services may result in selling them to me more frequently, since I may forget to request them if I’m in a hurry. And fulfilling my usual requests in advance uses very few additional resources if any, but will create a loyal customer – lowering overall customer acquisition costs. So in short, higher sales at lower cost.