Brian Giese's Blog

Top 5 (ok 6) Data Marketing Mistakes

Marketing databases allow sales and marketing to reach customers and nurture relationships more effectively (and efficiently). If they are designed properly and used correctly they are the "secret sauce". Unfortunately, this is often just not the case. So here are some of the most common mistakes that I see made by direct marketers as they build a data-driven marketing engine:

1. Having no methods or procedures established for monitoring the vitality of the customer base over time. Statistics such as retention, reactivation, conversion and percent new-to-file will allow a direct marketer to more easily determine the success of various marketing strategies.
2. Lack of standards regarding data hygiene including householding the file prior the delivery of promotions, etc. The result being mailing inefficiencies and potential customer service problems. Scrub that data!
3. All response models are not created equal. Many managers don’t realize that roughly 75% of the analysts time should be spent becoming intimate with the customer data through data manipulation and massage to ensure it’s predictive power is exploited to it’s fullest potential.
4. Lack of basic knowledge regarding database architecture, hardware and software. Lacking even a basic knowledge, a marketer is not in the best position to establish marketing specifications for the database that are reasonable and will maximize effectiveness.
5. Little knowledge of the rules that must be followed when establishing promotional or list tests to ensure results are readable, reliable and projectable and a lack of understanding of how to read test results once final.

Bonus mistake:

6. Purging customer records after 24 months of inactivity (or less). Most marketers don't understand the implications of doing this. At a minimum, a direct marketer should roll up key data for inactives including all promotional data and make available for future analysis purposes for at least 4 years.

Is direct mail and print advertizing going away?

I think it is - over time, not overnight.

Colin Crawford, an SVP at IDG (technologies largest print publisher) nails it in his blog. He says, "It’s been a challenging time to be a print publisher"... "the stark reality is that print is not rebounding and is not likely to". The honest truth is that print media is failing and dying a slow and very painful death. Last March I met with Scott Harding, CEO if ADVO (a 2B direct mail marketer) to discuss the future of online vs print marketing. He said that print media was growing and that the market looked rosy for ADVO and print media. On July 6, 2006 ADVO was sold to Valassis.

Smart print publishers (like IDG) are driving toward online media which is perfectly fueled for direct marketing. Digits were always meant to be measured. For the first time in marketing history we're able to measure patterns, like and dislikes, habits and trends of entire markets using the Internet. All this is being done real-time with very little user intervention. As a result, the economy is changing for mainstream direct marketing companies and If they listen to their customers they will change to serve them.

Good Ideas for Direct Marketing Campaigns

I just got off a teleconferance webinar discussing how to make business-to-business direct marketing campaigns work. Here are a few of the take-a-ways from the group.

Design all campaigns for measurement. Every campaign MUST have a clear process for collecting, measuring and tracking performance.

Kill underperforming programs. Sometimes even the coolest programs just don’t produce. Don’t fall in love with the creative if it’s not working. Tighten the rope on the measurement of these programs.

Don’t rely on a single third-party software platform. As with CRM systems, the expectation that a single technology will solve the measurement problem is unrealistic.

Some good ideas.

B-to-B marketers lack confidence in customer data

A large majority of b-to-b marketers (87%) have little confidence in their customer data, according to an on-site survey of attendees at the Direct Marketing Association's DM Days New York Conference and Expo this week.

Fifty-four percent of those surveyed by Extraprise said the lack of collaboration between sales and marketing is their biggest challenge. A little more than  half (52%) said they integrate sales and marketing systems.Fifty-nine percent said customer data is housed in at least four different data locations internally, while 18% said data are in five to 10 different locations and 23% said data are in more than 10 locations.

We still have a long, long way to go.

Opening day at DM Days Conference in NYC

Several direct marketing companies made announcements during the opening day of the 2006 DM Days New York Conference & Expo today.

Aprimo, an enterprise marketing management software company announced Aprimo Marketing 7.5, which adds a campaign management tool and marketing work flow integration to its existing product. Also, Abacus announced an e-mail product through a partnership with Silverpop that is built into ClearEDGE and dbEDGE, Abacus’ database marketing products.

Donnelley Marketing, an infoUSA company, announced it will launch SalesGenie Pro, an on-demand b-to-b marketing campaign management tool on July 1. The Pro edition adds marketing functionality, including customized reports, and is designed for midsize and large companies. “We’re working very hard to leverage all of the services and capabilities we have, bringing data and the ability to manage information together,” said Ed Mallin, president of Donnelley. Mallin said the product “fits a niche in the b-to-b marketplace” and that a consumer version would be launched in the future.

CMP Media is now CMP Technology

CMP Media, publisher of technology and healthcare publications (like CRN and VAR Business), will now be known as CMP Technology. The name change focuses on CMP's desire to serve the technology industry with a broader range of products and services. Namely, direct marketing. Under this new banner thay plan to compete with more brick and morter services like building data engines and supplying teleservices for clients. Take a look at this video for more information on the tactics.

Finding the right targets to market

Marketing technology related products and services to business-to-business (B2B) targets is tricky. I've found it crucial to select data lists that reach individuals at the right place in the organization, at the right time, with the right message. In some cases, you want to reach someone in an information-gathering role (Purchasing Manager or the IT Manager). In other cases, you want to target the person in the organization who’ll benefit from your product/service and will go on to be your champion too influencers or decision- makers. Other times you want to go to the financial stakeholder like the CIO. Different people, different campaigns.

The first step is to select the right targets.

As you move through the process of selecting a list and compiling your data, make sure they’re as up-to-date as possible, fresh data can make all the difference in campaign response. Try these lists…www.harte-hanks.com, www.infousa.com or www.hoovers.com. Contact me for advice on which list I’ve found to drive the best results.

Data-Based Marketing Defined

Data-based marketing is the technique of gathering all the information available about your customer, leads, and prospects into a central database and using that information to drive all your marketing efforts. The information is stored in a marketing database and can be used at both the strategic and tactical levels to drive targeted marketing efforts.

A company that utilizes database marketing continually gathers, refines, and analyzes data about their customers, their buying history, prospects, past marketing efforts, demographics, and so forth. They analyze the data to turn it into information that supports all their marketing and sales programs. More enlightened marketing companies also use customer and prospect interests and preferences, generally gathered on their web site, to tailor marketing efforts right down to the individual level. Data-based marketing has long been in the domain of the Fortune 500 - companies that spend millions of dollars on their marketing efforts. It is now in the domain of smaller organizations with smaller budgets!