The company has also appointed a marketer to maintain and develop new partnerships with companies. Both positions were filled last week after being created as part of AOL's focus on retaining customers.
David Pagliari, who joins from NatWest's marketing team, will be director of direct marketing and retention, with overall charge of AOL's customer relationship management and direct marketing.
David Rice, a former managing director of My Avantgo who has recently worked in the US, joins as director of partner marketing. Both will report to vice-president of marketing Sharon Lang and have been employed initially on an interim basis. However, it is likely that their contracts will become permanent.
The appointment follows the creation earlier this year of a tier in AOL's marketing department to support Lang.
As head of direct marketing and customer retention, Pagliari will plan and implement both online and offline direct marketing campaigns, ensuring interaction with existing customers and forecasting customer acquisition and retention through DM.
As part of its retention strategy, the ISP has launched an online software package, AOL 8.0, which includes features such as a spam button allowing customers to report unsolicited e-mails.
Rice's duties include managing the partner marketing and business development teams within the marketing department and developing new partnerships to create more cost-effective ways to retain and acquire customers.
AOL has a member base of more than 2m, largely generated through DM. Customer retention is vital for the ISP now the market has become more competitive. CRM is seen as a key tool in persuading consumers to upgrade to services such as broadband.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
