I could probably talk about the importance of data all day, so I’ll keep try and keep this blog brief!
Data is important, vital even. Data IS the lifeblood of the marketing industry – and essential if you want any kind of success from your marketing.
The intrinsic value of your existing customer database is the ability to profile its characteristics. This can include basic criteria such as (for B2B):-
• Industry sector (using SIC – standard industry classification)
• Company turnover
• Number of employees
• Location
• Job title
The purchase history of your existing customers is also important – recency, frequency and value (RFV). This can be a huge help when planning contact strategies and promotional offers.
Most importantly, having detailed (accurate and up-to-date) knowledge of your existing customers can help with lead generation.
Beyond ‘gut feel’ about your target audience, good data can help you find ‘more of the same’, which is particularly useful if you’re looking to find more customers like your highest value ones.
You can also match these characteristics to prospecting data. This might be the criteria you use to select from a commercially available ‘list’, or the criteria that you use to manually seek out your target audience one-by-one.
This process is one which we feel very passionately about at Modern Media, and work with clients to interrogate, refine and utilise data to develop their marketing activity and create high value pipelines. If you would like to know more (since I’m still trying to keep this blog brief), please do get in touch.
