September 27, 2010
For Effective Personalized Messaging, Begin With Your Data
With traditional direct marketing, the creative typically drove the data. But the increased use of highly personalized messages has flipped that notion on its head.
Now that direct marketing managers have discovered the power of variable data printing, they’re turning to their databases first to identify information about customers that can be leveraged in a successful VDP campaign.
“The question for direct marketing managers becomes, ‘What can I do with what I have?’” says Forest Wathen, prepress manager at EU Services. “What data can I segment or append to drive the creative content?”
With data in the driver’s seat, it’s imperative that marketing managers uncover every bit of customer/prospect data at their disposal. Customer relationship management files are an obvious place to look, but you may have additional prospect data lurking within your company files. Consider the following less obvious places to dig for the data you need:
- Event participants: Names and addresses collected from events you’ve hosted. (Tip: Attendance rosters from events hosted by your competitors are equally worthy of your attention.)
- Website visitors: Your list of registered website users and people who have downloaded white papers, etc.
- Purchased lists (consult your list broker).
- List trades: See what you can negotiate with organizations that share similar interests.
- Phone numbers: Use whatever information gathered by staff and the customer service department. Use reverse phone look-up for name and address information.
- Online orders and inquiries
- Names and addresses in trade publications.
- Industry-related online rosters: Compare them with your own database (where appropriate, ask for permission to use).
