5 Steps To Developing Data Driven Marketing Campaigns

 As marketers we are all looking to reach “nirvana”: target the right person with the right message, at the right time. Its the clear path to driving conversion rates that exceed expectations. The days of blasting promotional messages to all, or at the very least, many are dead and gone. The conversation has changed. We must put ourselves in the customers’ shoes and target them individually as best we can through data driven strategies.

The data driven marketing concept is no longer a myth or impossible to put into practice. The fact is that excuses like resource constraints, budgets, and lack of data are just that – weak excuses. There are ways to quickly and effectively harness customer and prospect information you most likely already have on hand. Here are five ways to get this done in rapid fashion.

Step 1 – Make a list. If you are a multi channel marketer there is no doubt a lot of customer data floating around in silo databases (like Email, POS, and Web Analytics). It continues to amaze me how many marketers don’t know where their customer data is being stored and how to get to it. Do some digging and make a list. Dust off your old copy of your preferred flow charting software to document the current state of your data flows. This “state-of-the-state” view will allow you to identify integration points moving forward.

Step 2 – Build an alliance with your IT folks and marketing technology vendors. Marketing and technology now go hand in hand, with many organizations and marketing parties logging into multiple interfaces daily to execute campaigns and track results (Email, Web Analytics, E-commerce, etc). Technology vendor account managers are incentivized to grow your business, so leverage them in this manner as much as possible. Run ideas by them, ask for advice, understand the pricing associated with integrations, and inquire about what their other customers are doing. Internally, your IT folks should also be your partners in crime, and misjudged to be your enemy; they will no doubt play an integral role in the data and technology integration process. Together, you will identify opportunities, prioritize, and build out a strategic roadmap with common goals in mind.

Step three – Identify relevant customer data points. Look for standard customer data points, such as customer ID’s, purchase history, and order value within your available sources that will allow you to build rich customer profiles for target marketing. Doing so will also mean that your IT team will give you less push back if you only need to ask for basic customer information. The goal here is to find the data points that will allow you to target customers with content and offers that are relevant to them as an individual based on the preference and purchase information you have on them.

Step four – Pilot with email. Email marketing continues to drive the most return on investment versus any other marketing channel in the online marketing portfolio. Such campaigns provide an incredibly flexible medium to leverage for data driven campaigns. Nearly all the best of breed service providers include API (Application Programming Interface) solutions for data/technology integrations and dynamic content engines that will allow you to populate emails with targeted content and offers. Pick a population of your customer and prospect databases to do a split test. Target your test group with a data driven campaign and the rest with your standard messaging.

Step five – Implement a test and learn methodology. Set some realistic goals as you pilot your initial data- driven campaigns. A couple of small wins will give you the insight you need to expand your strategy to include additional integrations (web analytics, e-commerce, social media, SMS, etc). Over time this incremental approach will allow you to become a rock star one-to-one marketer.

The common theme to all these steps is in their common-sense simplicity. If marketers can take a few moments to put these steps in motion, their productivity and ROI could skyrocket. It’s really more of a question as to whether an organization can afford NOT to leverage their existing customer data to realize higher conversion rate and sales. Otherwise, companies will leave money on the table without even knowing it.