How-To Guide: Data Enhancement

1. How-To Guide: Data Enhancement How-To Guide © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Data Enhancement By David Raab, Raab Associates June 2014 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Marketing has changed radically in the past two decades. Instead of blasting messages to anonymous consumers of mass media, marketers increasingly manage direct interactions with known individuals. This change presents a huge opportunity to improve the effectiveness of marketing messages by tailoring each message to the person who will receive it. But it also means that marketers who fail to accurately target their communications increasingly risk being ignored by consumers who only react to relevant content. Simply put, individualized customer treatments are quickly changing from competitive advantage to baseline requirement. Marketers no longer have a choice about whether to do them, although they still control how well they are done. The foundation of effective targeting is customer data. Data drives the rules that determine who gets what treatment at what time. Other resources are also needed, including analytics to understand the data and execution systems capable of managing the interactions. But without adequate data, these other resources are like an actor without a script: they may look great but don’t know what to say. Most customer data is generated within the company itself, including contact information, response history, purchases, and customer service interactions. However, other important information exists outside the company. This includes personal or business details that the customer has not provided directly, as well as behaviors such as social media comments or visits to other companies’ Web sites. This information provides insights used to target communications based on each customer’s long-term needs and immediate interests. External data is

2. How-To Guide © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. most helpful for prospects and new customers, who have generated little or no data within company systems. This guide describes the kinds of external data that are available to marketers, how they can acquire this data, and how they can put it best use. It will help you to improve the effectiveness of your marketing programs by expanding the base of information available for segmentation, targeting, and analysis. Let’s get started. ABOUT THE RESEARCH ANALYST With an MBA from Harvard, David is an expert in both B2B & B2C marketing strategy & technology. He has advised The Gap, JC Penney, Lowe's, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Williams-Sonoma, Scholastic, Unisys, Sprint and Verizon Wireless. He also publishes the Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems and the Marketing Performance Measurement Tool-Kit. To read the rest of this How-To Guide, become a Demand Metric member today! How-To Guide © 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. most helpful for prospects and new customers, who have generated little or no data within company systems. This guide describes the kinds of external data that are available to marketers, how they can acquire this data, and how they can put it best use. It will help you to improve the effectiveness of your marketing programs by expanding the base of information available for segmentation, targeting, and analysis. Let’s get started. ABOUT THE RESEARCH ANALYST With an MBA from Harvard, David is an expert in both B2B & B2C marketing strategy & technology. He has advised The Gap, JC Penney, Lowe's, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Williams-Sonoma, Scholastic, Unisys, Sprint and Verizon Wireless. He also publishes the Raab Guide to Demand Generation Systems and the Marketing Performance Measurement Tool-Kit. To read the rest of this How-To Guide, become a Demand Metric member today!