Are Duplicate Fields Hurting Your Database Marketing?

A basic requirement of cost-effective direct marketing is elimination of duplicates, meaning multiple database records for the same person or company account. But marketers today need to watch out for another, trickier duplication challenge: duplicate data fields. Expanding use of multi-channel, multi-sourced data fuels the problem. The same prospect or customer record is often enriched by data from different online and offline sources--data appending services, lead-gen services, list rentals, predictive and lead scoring services, e-mail validation services, call center entries, online ad and social platforms, events, and so on. The marketer may intend to validate, update and unify this data, but efforts are delayed or incomplete for whatever reason. Then the marketer gets ready to launch a campaign and discovers many contact records have two job titles or four industry codes or three e-mail addresses. If the data entries are not clearly dated and sourced, the marketing team has no clue which data are the most up-to-date, accurate and appropriate for targeted promotion! We were pleased to see a recent MarketingProfs article by Ed King, CEO of the data automation firm Openprise, offer cogent advice on avoiding this costly problem. Obviously, marketers should first strive to unify field content promptly while the data is fresh. If data unification must be delayed, new data should be labeled by its source and age for use in future data consolidation decisions. Whether field data unification is immediate or delayed, the marketing team needs to agree on a data-unification logic. King advises that this logic should be based on at least three key factors: source authority (giving priority to trusted data sources); source focus (preferring sources more aligned/specialized for the marketer's industry/target); and age of data (for example, in B2B, more recent contact name or company size is likely to be more accurate). Consistency and scalability are the goals; ad hoc, manual record decisions are not only less efficient but less likely to yield optimal overall results. While unifying data in fields, the database process should also normalize data so formatting and coding are consistent. Plus, a smart database effort can remap field content for better targeting. King provides the example of consolidating 2,000 industry codes into 10 custom definitions that better fit market targets. For the whole article, see http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/30069/your-duplicate-data-problem-has-an-evil-twin-that-is-much-worse-duplicate-fields?adref=nlt060816

Spring-Clean That Sales Funnel to Keep Leads Flowing

If lead flow has slowed and lead performance is spotty, maybe it's time for spring cleaning of the sales funnel. A recent business2community.com post by Megan Totka, chief editor of ChamberofCommerce.com, offers a recipe for how even a small business can clean and polish its sales process. Start by purging old, unresponsive leads--plus, we would add, update contact and targeting information, and clean up inaccuracies and formatting of retained prospect data. Then create a time frame for contact and follow-up so leads don't go stale. Totka points out that the odds of qualifying and converting a lead increase by 21 times if called within 5 minutes, compared to 30 minutes. Obviously, speedy entry of new, qualified leads is an important system goal. But those incoming leads need good pipeline processes not only for lead entry but also lead qualification and management. CRM software can help, but it boils down to deciding on basics for turning leads into sales opportunities. Totka lists some key questions to ask: When leads come in from various sources, where do they go? How much time do you have to enter them? Who or what qualifies them? Who or what moves them along in the funnel? How much time do sales agents have to follow up with the leads? With those issues in mind, evaluate new or existing sales processes for problem areas, places where leads leak out, or stick and go stale. Still, no matter how good the sales funnel, it only works if a steady flow of leads is entering, and that means adjusting marketing strategy to boost qualified lead generation--testing and optimizing targeted e-mail, direct mail, social media and online promotions. If qualified leads aren't converting despite good targeting, then seek prospect feedback. Is it an overly complex sales process or something more basic like noncompetitive pricing? Test and readjust the lead gen and sales processes, adding lead nurturing, in the form of follow-up e-mails or calls, to move prospects past sticking points. However, even if the sales pipeline is pleasingly full, don't forget to keep purging unresponsive and inaccurate data to prevent costly clogs! For the complete article: http://www.business2community.com/sales-management/10-steps-cleaning-reigniting-sales-funnel-2016-01479262#3dI68EPFloBMSoco.97

Try These Mailer Creative Tweaks to Rev Response

In direct marketing creative, the devil that drags down response can lurk in the details. A recent Target Marketing magazine article by creative strategists Pat Friesen and Patrick Fultz suggests 19 little creative tweaks proven to pack response punch for e-mail and direct mail campaigns. Because DBM Designs provides data, print and mailing services for direct mailers, Friesen's and Fultz's "snail mail" creative tips struck a special chord, including the following 12 suggestions: 1) stand out from the standard postage look by creating your own indicia (within USPS rules); 2) push reader decisions with highly visible deadlines for action; 3) draw attention with copy "violator" design elements (and don't limit yourself to old-fashioned starbursts!); 4) check copy for active, engaging verbs in headlines, bullets and sentences; 5) use a signature sign-off on a personal letter because people respond to people not company robots; 6) embrace the standard P.S. because over 30% of readers scan the P.S. first; 7) have designer and copywriter work together for easy-to-read paragraphs of no more than five or six lines; 8) create copy "eye magnets" via highlighting, underlining, circling or "handwritten" notes; 9) keep marketing momentum by dropping pause-causing periods from headlines and subheads; 10) use data to take personalization beyond name fills to offers and copy relevant to recipient interests; 11) make sure wafer seals, fugitive glue or other adhesives don't create a mailer so hard to open that recipients toss it; 12) avoid iffy response by using "when" instead of "if." The immediate action implied by "when you call" will outperform the weaker, provisional "if you call." For more direct marketing creative tips and examples: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/19-ways-to-punch-up-your-creative/