Does Your Marketing Database Need a "Tune Up"?

Here are some things your marketing database should help you do.  If your database can't help you with these things, it may be time for a marketing database "tune up":

   

1. Can your marketing database identify your most profitable customers by name? 

2. Does EVERY employee with any type of customer contact know when they are dealing with one of your best customers? 

3. Do you know which marketing vehicles, campaigns, and offers attracted your best customers? 

4. Do you know how your best customers are different from the rest of your customers? 

 

You want your database to help you identify that 10%-30% of your customer base that typically accounts for about 80% of your profit -- to ensure that you're doing everything you can to grow and maintain that profit. Although we've all heard the "80/20" rule, do you really focus on those customers that generate the bulk of your profits? 

 

5. Do you know how many different customer segments you have? 

6. Do you know what products are purchased by which segments? 

 

If you're using your "marketing database" more like a customer mailing list -- where every customer looks like every other customer, and you treat every customer the same -- why not start testing some segmentation strategies?

1. Do you have a complete view of each customer -- all the contact (marketing cost), response (offers responded to), and purchase data (revenue) for that customer -- all in one customer record within your database? 

2. Can you identify your best customers by name within your database? 

3. Have you "flagged" your best customers within your database in some manner? 

4. Does every employee who has contact with customers know who your best customers are, or how to identify them? 

5. Can every contact employee determine the value of the customer (best, next-to-best, etc.) they're dealing with? 

6. Do you know what percentage of your customers accounts for 80% of your revenue? 

7. Do you know how much each of your best customers is worth to you in dollar profit? 

8. Do you give your customers REASONS to be loyal to you? 

9. Are you capturing data about your customers each time you email, telemarket, or mail to them? (Record the offer sent and responded to, items purchased, etc.) 

10. Are you asking your customers about lifestyle, media, favorite websites, and other preferences periodically? 

11. Are you segmenting your marketing efforts by customer value? 

12. Do you know what marketing efforts and vehicles have brought in the most "best customers"? 

13. Do you make your most valuable customers feel special? 

 

What's keeping most companies in the "6 or less YES" category? 

 

#1 reason: the customer file is not built as a relational file.

Yet, most marketers BELIEVE the reason is lack of an effective data mining software tool.

 

#2 reason: lack of in-house marketing database support.

Many marketers believe that bringing in outside resources will cost 6 figures or more. For most small- to medium-size companies, there is no need to spend anywhere close to 6 figures to get your marketing database up to speed -- to allow you to answer "YES" to all of the questions above.

 

 

Response FX can analyze your situation, prepare your User Requirements Document, program your relational file, and create your user interface (user access screens, reports, etc.) -- usually in just a few months. Contact us to take the first step today. You could be just MONTHS AWAY from a more effective marketing database -- something that should be part of every marketer's action plan.

 

 

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