Published on May 31st, 2017 | by Guest

How To Ramp Up Marketing Without Losing Focus

An Effective Customer Database Improves Your ROI

Well maintained and managed customer data means a better understanding of your customers, along with a focussed and effective marketing campaign.

Marketing is one of those business disciplines that has evolved almost beyond recognition in the digital age. The tools and methods at the disposal of the modern day digital marketing expert are quite different to those used 20 or 30 years ago.

These days, the most successful marketing campaign relies on the best possible customer insights. Focussing on warm leads, rather than cold, means understanding what customers want and are interested in, and leveraging that knowledge better that the competition.

While your business might have a wealth of customer information, it is often stored in diverse legacy systems and applications. This is where a professional database analysis can pay real dividends in rationalising your customer data, improving business efficiency and creating valuable customer insights to inform and drive your marketing campaign. Let’s take a look at what is involved.

Data quality audit

The first step in improving your data management is to understand what you have as a starting point, by performing a data quality audit. This means a full examination and evaluation of your existing systems, resulting in a detailed and personalised report that makes recommendations on what could be improved. A data quality audit is free, so what have you got to lose?

Data Cleansing

The next stage is to identify duplicate and obsolete records and remove or consolidate them as appropriate. This uses bespoke software that can view and rationalise data across multiple files and applications. One of the many disadvantages of living in the big data age is the speed at which data decays, and you will be truly astonished at the number of records on your systems that can be removed or suppressed.

Single customer view (SCV)

An SCV system brings all your customer data into one place, meaning that everything you need is right at your fingertips.This eliminates the time and money wasted through duplicate data on multiple systems, leading to business efficiencies and better customer communications.

Data analysis

With relevant data held in one place, you are ready to start reaping the benefits. Tools such as Faststats Discoverer provide an intuitive way of deriving more detailed insights than ever before, using a simple Windows interface. It means that senior managers and marketers can explore and mine the available data without the need for specialist training in using complex software.

Maximise your marketing effort

A slick marketing database using a single customer view is the first step towards an effective and targeted digital marketing campaign that uses advanced data analytics and profitability analysis.

By examining advanced information on customer behaviour and trends, you can define detailed customer segments to build closer client relationships, improve conversion and retention rates, enhance brand recognition and increase your sales and profits.

A professional database is very much the glue that holds all your other digital marketing activities together. Without clear, comprehensive and effective customer information, everything else you try to do is liable to fall apart. Remember, in the big data age, the business that understands its customers best will stand at a huge advantage against its competitors, and will reap the greater rewards.

Tags: business, focus, how to, losing, marketing, ramp up