Data Enhancement

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 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.

This brief 11-page How-To Guide is designed to provide practical advice for Data Enhancement and outlines the following:

1. Whats Available 
2. Linking With Customers
3. Using The Data
4. When Data Enhancement Makes Sense
5. Action Plan
6. Bottom Line

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