MAKING YOUR DATA PAY: 5 Keys To Building A Successful Multichannel Marketing Strategy

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1 MAKING YOUR DATA PAY: 5 Keys To Building A Successful Multichannel Marketing Strategy

2 INTRODUCTION According to a survey from Infogroup Targeting Solutions (ITS), nine of 10 marketers plan on investing in Big Data solutions while 54% have already done so. And for good reason: Carefully collected and cleansed data can help marketers reach the right customers at the right moment through the most effective channel. In fact, of those who have invested in Big Data, a whopping 85% are already seeing returns. Long gone are the days when marketers could simply inundate consumers and businesses with one promotional offer after another. Rather, today s savvy recipients expect to be courted with highly targeted messages, wellexecuted branding and a consistent experience across multiple channels. The good news is, the right data can guarantee multichannel marketing success by enabling marketers to dig deep into end-user behavior and customize the consumer journey while optimizing marketing spend. The right data can guarantee multichannel marketing success by enabling marketers to dig deep into end-user behavior and customize the consumer journey while optimizing marketing spend. However, some marketers face obstacles when it comes to making B2B and B2C data pay off. While nearly a third of marketers are executing data-driven multichannel campaigns through a single integrated platform, the ITS survey reveals that 35% say they haven t yet used Big Data for multichannel due to budget limitations. Luckily, there are steps marketers can take to build a successful multichannel marketing strategy using highvalue data while still delivering financial returns. 2 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

3 MAKING DATA COLLECTION COUNT Before beginning the data collection process, it s imperative that marketers sit down and decide what they actually want to achieve with their data. This involves profiling a target audience so that a marketer can discover what sociographic, psychographic and demographic information is required to reach a target audience through multiple marketing channels. Next, marketers must develop strategic segmentation to tap into the right audience. By doing so, marketers can not only engage their customers and partners but also reach them through the channels that they prefer. Another way to collect quality information is to blend data from several sources. Selecting the best content providers, collecting relevant information and blending these data sets into a fully integrated repository can ensure that marketers have the data they need to create the most effective multichannel marketing campaign. Here, a robust third-party database can be particularly helpful by providing up-to-date information on millions of business contacts and/or consumers. Buyer files, controlledcirculation data, attendee lists, telephone directories they are all valuable sources of information that marketers would be hard-pressed to compile in-house. A third-party database provider, on the other hand, is capable of creating the most accurate and comprehensive database of business and consumer information. Testing and validating data throughout the data collection process is also critical to success. Because of the formation of new businesses, entities going out of business and changes to existing businesses, a database must be continually vetted to keep information up-to-date and accurate. For this reason, marketers would be wise to check delivery and response rates to see how marketing campaigns are performing. Early indications that a marketer is collecting the wrong amount of data, or not digging deeply enough, can help save time and money in the long run. And in the case of third-party databases, vendors should always have processes in place to call businesses to verify information and obtain additional information when needed. Here, a robust thirdparty database can be particularly helpful by providing up-to-date information on millions of business contacts and/ or consumers. 3 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

4 COMING CLEAN WITH DATA HYGIENE There s no underestimating the importance of cleansing data. After all, the risks of inaccurate and outdated data are multifold. And treasure troves of carefully collected data are meaningless if they end up being either irrelevant or redundant. Unfortunately, a CSO Insight Lead Management Optimization study reveals that poor data quality is a major barrier to achieving marketing and sales success. In fact, only 26.8% of survey respondents said their data accuracy percentages were greater than 75%, and another 26.1% said the figure was in the 51% to 75% range. Data- and call-verification technology can help. Savvy B2B marketers work with data providers who rely on multiple procedures to verify, update and improve the accuracy of any business or consumer information that may have changed over time. Through these solutions, new information such as contact names, employment size, website and line of business may be added or amended. In the case of B2C marketers, keeping tabs on aging consumer data can lead to higher-quality data sets. These data sets span from age and gender to income and home value. As a result, marketers must continually review their databases and update data monthly. And while socially gathered data is certainly a hot trend for B2C marketers, it s important to remember that this information is often poorly vetted and simply can t measure up to verified data. This can be a scary proposition, given that almost 80% of marketers set out to make greater use of customers social-media data to drive their marketing campaigns in 2013, according to survey findings sponsored by ITS and Yesmail Interactive. Other symptoms of dirty data include incorrect spelling, incorrect abbreviations and inappropriate language from the database. Validation checks and computer datacleansing processes such as duplicate removal and address standardization can help meet these challenges. Savvy B2B marketers work with data providers who rely on multiple procedures to verify, update and improve the accuracy of any business or consumer information that may have changed over time. 4 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

5 MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE FOR THE MOST IMPACT Whether you re a B2C marketer collecting lifestyle data or a B2B marketer armed with business-critical data streams, it s imperative that you slice and dice your data properly. Unfortunately, only 14% of marketers feel that they have effectively integrated data analytics across channels, according to the DMA Statistical Fact Book To make the most of data analytics, marketers need to employ analysts capable of mapping the data back to customers and figuring out how to use it to target the most precise segment. For example, to better understand buyer intention, an analyst may wish to rank a consumer s interest in a particular product or service. It s not enough to segment consumers as individuals who like to golf. Rather, diving deeper to determine how often they golf, the types of golfing equipment they purchase and whether they travel to golf can give rise to enormous upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Another aspect of data metrics is prioritizing the data you ve collected. It s not enough to simply review the data you ve gathered. Rather, it s critical that B2B and B2C marketers examine how the information they ve collected and cleansed matches up with their marketing goals and strategies. For example, if you re a B2C marketer targeting a particular age group, you want to make sure you have enough coverage for this segment. If not, you may want to consider finding an outside data source. Alternatively, if you re a B2B marketer looking to expand into Latin America, you ll need to determine the tipping point for having just the right amount of data for geographic expansion. The next step, after mapping and prioritizing data, is measuring the data and its impact on marketing success. It s a relatively easy task for marketers with a multichannel marketing strategy. After all, digital channels such as and social media produce results that are far more precise and easier to measure than those from traditional channels. However, the best part about measuring data is eventually building a strong business case for future investment in data-driven marketing strategies. It s not enough to segment consumers as individuals who like to golf. Rather, diving deeper to determine how often they golf, the types of golfing equipment they purchase and whether they travel to golf can give rise to enormous upsell and cross-sell opportunities. 5 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

6 PUTTING DATA TO WORK Once marketers have painstakingly collected data, cleansed it, verified it and measured it, it is time to put this data to work by executing carefully crafted multichannel marketing campaigns. For marketers, it s an opportunity to execute the insights gleaned from analysis about high-value customers and justify an investment in Big Data. One way to put data to work is by customizing a business s messaging. A data-driven campaign leverages customer information from each channel to target consumers with messages that are tailored to their individual needs and interests. Better yet, when insights are applied across channels, each customer has a consistent experience regardless of medium. Yet almost 40% of the marketers surveyed at the DMA2012 and Forrester Research Seizing Opportunity From Digital Disruption conferences said they rarely or never use customer data to customize messaging by channel. That s unfortunate, given that custom channel messaging is the most basic level of customer segmentation. By carefully measuring results and continually analyzing campaign highlights, marketers can piece together a more complete view of their customers in order to target them more effectively the next time around. Another mistake marketers should avoid is not taking the time to glean valuable lessons from their data-driven multichannel marketing strategies. By carefully measuring results and continually analyzing campaign highlights, marketers can piece together a more complete view of their customers so they can target them more effectively the next time around. Automated testing, real-time campaign optimization, trending analysis reports these are all important business intelligence tools that can highlight a multichannel campaign s strengths and flag unanticipated weaknesses. 6 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

7 LOOKING TO THE FUTURE What does the future hold for data and multichannel marketing? For starters, given today s highly competitive marketplace, companies need to be one step ahead of consumer and business preferences. By incorporating real-time data into marketing campaigns, marketers can not only predict market trends but create new business models for greater revenue and increased sales. For instance, more and more companies are discovering ways to monetize their data and information assets to create new revenue streams. Marketers should also anticipate greater use of socialmedia data in future multichannel marketing campaigns. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all data-rich socialmedia channels that, when combined with more established channels such as and direct mail, can create powerful, integrated campaigns. In fact, almost 80% of respondents at the Forrester Research conference said they plan to make greater use of social media to inform campaigns. Another key consideration: Real-time data rules. To be sure, historical data such as buying behavior and website activity has long helped marketers craft marketing campaigns. But the focus is rapidly shifting from static information to real-time data. Suddenly, more and more marketers are looking to build out their data infrastructures so that they can respond to customers changing preferences on the fly. Whether it s a product catalog that needs to be redirected to a customer s new address or a prospect that now prefers to receive promotional offers via rather than snail mail, realtime data tracking and analysis can support rapid-fire responses from an ace marketing team. By incorporating realtime data into marketing campaigns, marketers can not only predict market trends but create new business models for greater revenue and increased sales. 7 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

8 CONCLUSION These days, building a multichannel marketing strategy isn t a choice; it s a business necessity. After all, thanks to the proliferation of digital channels, today s marketers are being inundated with more customer and business data than ever. But while these bits and bytes present huge opportunities for growth and revenue, they can also easily overwhelm the uninitiated. Fortunately, by following these simple steps, marketers can leverage data without scrambling to make sense of endless streams of information. MAKING DATA COLLECTION COUNT. There are a number of hard-and-fast rules when it comes to gathering the right data. Rather than simply pull together disparate sources of data to create a hodgepodge of information, savvy marketers determine what they want to achieve with their data. Next, they blend data from several sources with the help of a third-party database provider. And finally, they engage in regular testing and validation of data. COMING CLEAN WITH DATA HYGIENE. The only thing worse than not having enough data is having data that s outdated and inaccurate. In fact, poor data is a major obstacle to achieving marketing success. That s why more and more marketers are relying on techniques such as data and call verification to protect their marketing investments. MEASURE, MEASURE, MEASURE FOR THE MOST IMPACT. The easiest way for a marketer to build a business case for data-driven marketing campaigns is to carefully measure results. Data mapping, prioritization and metrics are all ways to determine a marketing campaign s effectiveness and to build a business case for future investments. PUTTING DATA TO WORK. Whether it s a customized or a carefully tailored direct-mail piece, marketing campaigns that are built on clean and insightful data sets are the most likely to drive a return. The best part: The lessons gleaned from data-driven multichannel marketing strategies can be applied for years to come. LOOKING TO THE FUTURE. Social-media campaigns, real-time marketing responses, innovative business models these are only a handful of trends marketers can expect to see in the near future as data volumes grow exponentially. The reality is that more and more marketers are investing in Big Data solutions. To be sure, there are hurdles ahead. But savvy marketers are getting a jump-start on the competition by crafting multichannel marketing campaigns fueled by clean data, smart analytics practices and careful execution. $ 8 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building

9 ABOUT INFOGROUP TARGETING SOLUTIONS Infogroup Targeting Solutions empowers business, consumer and nonprofit marketing professionals to engage with their most valuable prospects and generate revenue through our innovative list management, list brokerage and insert media services. For more information on our data-driven solutions, visit or contact us at E 1st St Papillion, NE P: infolistservices@infogroup.com 9 Making Your Data Pay: 5 Keys To Building