Do You Listen To Your Customers When They Speak With Their Data?

BOHEMIA, N.Y. - May 30, 2013 - PRLog -- There isn’t a day that goes by in our industry where an article on data crosses your screen or is found in a publication. The use of customer data has always promised to change direct marketing and mail for the better. There are signs the time may be here.

Better response, sales, and more revenue.

As more companies start to dig deeper into their data they are starting to see a better response from their marketing campaigns. Larger firms are using more market research, a variety of new ways to visualize their data and more are using analytics. Analytics is helping to answer the question, “What can we build with this data?”

Or is the real question the direct marketing and mail industry owes it to our customers to help them better connect with their marketplaces?

According to Acxiom CMO Tim Suther, in 2006, Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart told him at a conference that 37 percent of advertising was money wasted, according to their landmark research published in their book “What Sticks.” Rex Briggs recently refreshed that study and says the amount of money wasted is now up to nearly 40 percent. That’s almost $200 billion wasted in advertising globally!

The time is right to quit wasting money. Take whatever data you presently have and begin to build a better marketing program and have a goal to increase your data analysis, response and the relevance of the message. Here are a few thoughts to consider.

Trends

In data management we are seeing data compiled from a variety of different sources, such as IT creating a better flow of the data, and establishing better integrated files.

In Big Data, analytics, descriptive and predictive analysis, enters the mix of CRM, marketing effectiveness, return on investment, when bundled together shows data-driven insights connect the dots between real people. The data is integrated with the whole organization in cross selling, cross communication and channels and cross customer verticals – but most important - the emotional trigger that would prompt customers to buy their product.

Customers are increasingly accessible and engage with your brand in many new ways, which means marketing professionals have access to more data about their customers than ever before.

Understand analytics and stats at a lesser level.

Statistical analysis that used to be seen only in the world of insurance and finance are now being leveraged by marketing departments to better understand their data. Analytics is becoming more common, affordable and coupled with testing of a direct marketing and mail campaign, leading to better responses.

A marketer can learn enough to understand what the customers or donors are responding to and learning about these results through analytics, meaning the next campaign can reach a better response rate.

On a beginner’s level, learn to speak to and understand prospects and customers through the simplest method of demographic segments, purchasing behavior, communication channels and what relevant offers generate the best response. It’s all there for you to measure and be able to ask intelligent questions from the data that are worth testing.

Don’t try to be perfect.

What would it be like if you could have perfect insight into your customers’ motivations, their influential relationships, and all the other nuances that make a purchasing decision? Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the path of sales and marketing success started many decades ago that most of us thought was completely unattainable.

Keep in mind that data quality is as much a total business problem and not just an IT problem. In other words, any organization needs to take it’s time to find a data champion within and make sure the whole organization is on the same page when it comes to data management.

Data is our life. Please never hesitate to contact us with any of your data questions.

MVS Mailers, Inc.
31 Crossways East
Bohemia, NY 11716

www.MVSmailers.com