Thursday, September 11, 2014

Using a Scientific Approach to Direct Marketing

Thanks to evolving technology, today's direct marketing can rely more on scientific discipline than risky, intuitive market reads. A recent article in Direct Marketing News highlighted a five-step scientific approach that you can apply to almost any marketing channel -- social media, e-mail, mobile, display ads and, of course, direct mail -- courtesy of Matt Dopkiss, CEO and founder of Dynamit, a data, design, and technology company. Here's Matt's "big bang theory meets big data." First, identify the hypothesis, or marketing question, that a campaign is seeking to answer (say, which offer gets to highest response). Make sure that the test hypothesis is specific, measurable and actionable. Second, use a control model for comparison of results. Compare the response of subscribers receiving a new e-mail version with a set of subscribers not receiving the e-mail, for example. Third, use statistics to verify your theory, collecting enough data to draw valid conclusions -- but not such a huge data set that noise overwhelms actionable results. Fourth, repeat tests to make sure results can be reproduced and are not due to timing or extraneous factors (such as weather, news events, etc.). Finally, be certain you are applying the right technical tools and methods (and trained staff) to extract actionable data. For more detail, go to http://www.dmnews.com/the-big-bang-theory-meets-big-data/article/369346/

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Digital Marketers: Poor Data Stymies Personalization

Personalized marketing is such a basic today, it's shocking to learn that the majority of digital marketers still struggle with personalizing large-scale efforts. And the problem is rooted in something even more fundamental: customer data. More than half of digital marketers (53%) say they always or often struggle with personalizing their marketing efforts at a large scale, according to a recent report from Neustar, which was recently reported by MarketingProfs. Only 4% say they never struggle with personalization, per the survey of 100 U.S.-based digital media and marketing executives.The marketers surveyed say they struggle with scaled personalization for a mix of reasons, but weak data leads the list: 33% cite poor or incomplete customer data as the biggest obstacle, 26% say they have difficulty turning their data into action, and 15% struggle to identify customers across different devices. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) say they need both better data and better marketing platforms to make personalization easier. To read the MarketingProfs report, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/25590/marketers-top-obstacles-to-effective-personalization