Data Analytics Drive Results
admin | Apr 11, 2009 | Comments 2
A core methodology of TransPromo, a Precision Marketing technique is and should be Data Analytics. Many marketers, including internet and service print providers focus mainly on customer segmentation and there is a difference. Social media and the economy are forcing the requirement for personalization to drive customer interaction. Just last year, many were pleased with page hits, and page views – but today the name of the game is getting your customer to interact with your brand to build loyalty. In short, we are quickly moving from acquisition of new customers to proven or predicted outcomes with your customer to drive increase revenues and loyalty.
Some believe the ability to leverage data analytics is only in the domain of power companies, but today this is not so. Data analytics is now a critical skill for marketing professionals as companies attempt to deal with increasing market pressures and economy. Marketers who embrace data, analytics, and campaign measurement will be well positioned to provide proven returns back to the business.
In the Routes to Revenue report, 76% of the top marketers stated they were not realizing full customer value mainly due to data integrity, isolation and inaccuracy. In fact, many predicted they would be improving their ability to access meaningful data to drive personalization and more meaningful call to actions. Today, the challenge isn’t data, rather the challenge is generating insights and meaning from the data. By applying analytics to the data, we can gather necessary insights needed to facilitate faster customer call to actions and relevant conversations which will help improve bottom line results.
Best Western International’s ™ recent work with InfoPrint Solutions Company ™ demonstrated the value of applying data analytics within existing customer segments (gold, gold plus, platinum, and diamond). For example, data interrogation within the segments was implemented to determine who had or did not have the co-branded Best Western Credit Card. Traditionally, Best Western would have provided all customer segments an insert to apply for the credit card, regardless if the loyalty member was card holder or not. The TransPromo document placed the marketing imagery and messaging in a key location to drive non card holders to apply. The response was about 500% over the control group.* Again supporting the principals of transpromo – keep the communication targeted, relevant and timely.
Customer segmentation is not enough to drive impactful business results. Leverage technology to drive predictive modeling should improve campaign relevancy and improve brand interaction. Remember, the days of counting web hits is soon coming to an end as social media grows as the tool of choice for information and research. Brands that provide relevant information based on deeper customer knowledge will be ahead of the competition – taking market share.
* Best Western Disclaimer
The Best Western International TransPromo results were obtained through a pilot project conducted by InfoPrint Solutions Company for Best Western and the CMO Council and are reused with their permission.
The program was part of the Routes to Revenue research initiative sponsored by InfoPrint Solutions Company and the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. The transpromo pilot was run at the InfoPrint Innovation Center in Boulder, Colo., and output sent to selected Best Western hotel guests on their rewards statements. InfoPrint leveraged their TransPromo Consultancy Practice and software offerings from best of breed partners to design the transpromo statements which were then printed on the InfoPrint 5000 full color, continuous forms inkjet drop-on-demand printing system.
Filed Under: data analytics
Creating a relationship between customers and your brand is no doubt a key to building brand loyalty. Interaction, relevance and personalization are all essential elements to building customer relationship. These essential elements can only be maximized if quality customer data is possessed. Without quality, we will never know who our customers really are. Being able to identify a general demographic group they belong to is no longer sufficient.
Being able to greet you customer by their full name, using their favorite and images or knowing exactly when they normally check their email during the day are all driven by quality data. This, however, is not like an email list and cannot be purchased. There must be a self efficient system set in place to track, manage and update data automatically.
The key point here is you must be able to leverage the data you have in your marketing initiatives. The follow up to that is, you must be able to enhance the same data after each initiative.
Will V.
You make some great points here. Today, most companies have an enormous amount of data to work with. But few are using it to its full potential.
Retailers, credit card companies, loyalty programs and more all provide real-time insight into what our customers are looking for. All of that data also allows us to communicate even more effectively with our customers, providing them with the content, products and services they want when they want it.
As I have been saying for some time, in our information age, data is currency. Spend yours wisely.