How to get useful marketing data

To create a successful 360 degrees direct marketing campaign, you need an integrated and complete business or consumer database. Today, over 87% of organizations in the US have incomplete databases. Collected over the years through several sources such as direct mail, website, telemarketing, promotions, events, and more – their database is now a mix of customer information with some critical data missing in each of the contact fields.

There are several companies all over the world, offering database appending services with high match rates. Through these services you can have a foolproof database that will help you in generating more bang for each marketing dollar you spend.

Revive old contacts – It will help you in getting the latest customer contact details including name, title, phone, email ID, mailing address, state, zip, and more, so that you can communicate even to old and lost customer contacts. The updated NCOA in the vendor’s database will enable you to reach the ones who had moved out and re-touch them.

Open doors to new ways of marketing – Once you get the complete database in your hand, you can touch your prospects at several points through multi-channel marketing. By having a direct marketing strategy with a mix of email, direct mail and telemarketing activities, you can increase your customer participation and retention rates.

Boost response rates – Reduce wastage due to undeliverable mails, boost response rates and increase savings on postage and printing. This will significantly reduce your customer acquisition and marketing costs.

Data cleansing – Apart from adding the missing info you can also get your data corrected for errors such as obsolete locality names; miss-spelt localities, names and e-mail Ids, zip codes; fraud names and email addresses, among others.

Gain competitive advantage – By delivering the right content to the right prospects at the right time, through the right channel, you can move a step ahead of your competition. Cost of acquiring new customers is much higher than keeping the old ones, so leverage the potential of your existing contacts.

Faster turn-around – Data appending vendors provide a host of appending services such as email appending, phone appending, fax appending, address appending and reverse appending. They provide append rates ranging from 30-70% (based on the shape of your in-house database) and deliver results within a week or two, so that you can start your full-circle marketing campaign right away.

How to collect lead based data

Whether you're targeting the consumer or business market, the first step to optimizing lead generation is to make sure you're using sufficient quality data.
Your own market data should be up to date, compliant and have sufficient information to enable effective segmentation and targeting of prospects. If you are in any doubt as to the quality of your data or if you want to expand your pool of prospects a professional list broker can really help.

Direct and email pieces really must have a strong focus on a 'call to action'. You need to strongly suggest to the reader that they should take a particular course of action. 'Buy Now' is seen everywhere, largely because it works! Including a call to action serves two purposes. It starts the reader moving along the sales cycle through such actions as registering for further information, a product trial or to download vouchers and coupons. In addition, using tracking codes on coupons or website addresses the call to action allows you to monitor responses to your creative piece.

When creating your call to action, consumers respond better to direct and email communications with an emphasis on a clear offer . Your main aim should be to create an offer to attract a purchase as early as possible in the sales cycle. Examples of this sort of offer are percentage discounts or two for one offers.

In B2B marketing things are somewhat different. Although simple offers have a place, thought leadership-based calls to action tend to initiate earlier purchasing decisions. Your calls to action for this group could include invitations to web-based seminars or to download research surveys and the latest white papers.


When is comes to collecting lead information on-line, be careful about how much information you ask for. People are becoming more aware of the value of their data and are more reticent about handing over their information. Many people will only part with their details if you are offering something they perceive to be of equivalent or greater value in return.

Interrogate your existing consumer/market data for clues as to what your prospects would consider to be of value.

Remember it's better to collect basic information that people are happy to part with, name and email address, so that you can strike up regular communication. Attempting to capture too much information too early on in the sales cycle can act as a deterrent and valuable leads can easily be lost this way. Keeping data collection forms short and simple with very few fields is key to making sure visitors provide their contact information.

Above all ensure any information collected and permissions given must be treated ethically and in accordance with the latest data regulations.

How to collect Sales Data

It could be surprising to know, but there are actually businesses that don't make use of any automated tools to handle the different processes of their enterprise. For them, they can be costly and may be difficult or complicated to handle. What's more, they have to invest in training their sales agents on how to use them.

If this is your manner of thinking, it's time to for you to correct that. One of the foremost reasons why you may have to use these marketing automation systems-such as CRM solutions, as well as sales force and workflow management applications-is because they can help in organizing the processes of your business. They can also introduce consistency in all levels. Most of all, they can help sales agents save time. Thus, they can focus more of their efforts not on record keeping, sales reporting, or invoicing, but on closing deals and finding more customers for your business.

You can have the information on-demand. You can access all your much-needed information, perhaps the different touch points of your leads, whenever you want to. A lot of these systems today are now web-based; so wherever you are in the world, as long as you have Internet connection, you can get hold of the information that you need. You can even synchronize your marketing automation tools with your mobile phone and your Microsoft Outlook calendar, for example.

Information will be more accurate. What happens if you have different systems handling a wide variety of information? There will be a time when these data will overlap. Worse, it will be very difficult for you to determine which of this information are already outdated and which ones are constantly updated. With a more centralized system, there will only be one database that will be constantly updated. You can minimize having two entries of names. You will also get an idea which of the customers may have already been billed and which ones have already paid.

here's more effective workflow management. Workflow management refers to the process of passing documents from one machine to another, or from one person to another. When you have just one system to think of, you can easily spot where the possible errors may have occurred. What's more, you can eliminate processes that are no longer necessary. You can also make your sales agents more accountable to their actions and performance since you can already make their responsibilities very clear. The process from lead generation to processing of orders will be shortened. Anyone can also monitor the processes involved. The data that can be generated from this workflow management can be utilized to evaluate the performance of sales agents.

Needful data collection

Data collection is collecting useful intelligence for making decisions such as product price determination. Nowadays, available on websites, directories, B2B/B2C platforms, e-books, e-newspaper, yellow page, official data, accessible databases, vast and updated information online encourages more people to collect data from the Internet. Before data mining, you still need to be well prepared, as the ancient Chinese saying says "Preparedness ensures success, unprepared ness spells failure."

Why do you want to collect intelligence or what's your objective? What will you do with this intelligence after collection? Making a description of your project can help the data mining team have a better understanding of your aim. Taking an example, an objective can be I want to collect enough intelligence to determine a competitive price for my product.

What type of information you need to collect to support your final analysis / decision? Such as, if you want to collect the prices of similar product, product specification are necessary to collect for comparison of the same one. The external factors like coupon, gifts or tax also need to be considered for accuracy.

Where? General searching using keywords or gathering data from specific resources or database depends on project nature. The information from e-commerce websites would be a great avenue for price gathering and product specification.

Who? Will you collect the data by using the resources of your own or outside resources? Outsourcing of online research work to lower wages countries with the accessibility of internet capabilities and vast English educated personnel like China would be an option for cutting cost. The people who are going to do the work need training and necessary resources on that.

How? Always remember your purpose of collecting data to improve the collection process. The methodology and process need to be defined to ensure accurate and reliable data. Decisions making on wrong data would result in serious problems.

If your business-to-business marketing-for-leads program is to succeed, marketing, sales and corporate management need to share a unified definition of qualified sales leads. If you all agree from the start on what a qualified lead is, then deliver leads that meet that definition, your sales team will be able to effectively and efficiently follow up and close more sales.

Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified?

Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to?

Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads

How to get quality Telemarketing Data

For businesses carrying out an IT telemarketing campaign a key part in its success or failure is the quality of the data being used. Despite this many companies still treat data as an afterthought rather than as a key part of their strategy.

When selecting data, businesses have the choice of either building their own list or buying existing content. Building data means carrying out your own research to create a bespoke database of contacts for your campaign. If you don't want to perform your own research then you have the option to rent the data from a third party company. Both options have their own benefits and drawbacks.

When deciding whether to buy or build there are several things you should consider. In many cases the person you need to contact within an organization will depend on the campaign you are running. If you need to reach a specific person you need to be sure that any data you buy is sufficiently well targeted. Some data providers will just provide a very general contact for each organization and more tailored information may not be available. In this case you may have no other option than to build your own data.

Generally building your own bespoke database will tend to be a more expensive process than simply buying from a third party. However if from this targeted data you are able to generate a higher number of sales then clearly this can be seen as the more cost effective option. As a compromise many businesses choose to combine the two options. That is they rent data which they then qualify themselves through their own research.

In summary the more niche and targeted your telemarketing campaign needs to be the more value you will get from generating your own database of contacts.

An important function in telemarketing is the ability to generate leads. Generating leads is an essential part of developing long-terms sales. Generating leads can be an important first step in build a lasting business relationship with your consumer. However, some businesses are uncertain on how they should start developing leads. These businesses are unfamiliar with the usefulness of a good business telemarketing list.

In the world of advertising and marketing, consumer research forms the focal point at which all marketing messages gravitate towards.

Consumer knowledge is usually a determining factor in designing a promotional campaign. There are various ways to obtain consumer data. But one of the easiest ways is by purchasing a list. A business telemarketing list can contain various data that is useful to the marketer. These lists may contain a varying degree of data about the consumer. The information can vary depending on the type of list you choose to purchase.

The most common types of lists are telemarketing lists and mailing lists. These lists can be further segregated by other factors such as industry, ethnicity and geographical demographics. There are several companies that can sell you lists. When selecting a 'list-vendor' to purchase from, you may want to choose the one that can fulfill your requirements the best.

Data Entry Outsourcing

As a small business owner, you want to save money in as many ways as possible in order to increase your profits while viewing your business growing. Compliments of the Internet, outsourcing business processes can be done not only domestically but also universally with qualified and experienced personnel at a low cost.

There are countries such as China, India and the Philippines along with other developing countries who are accepting outsourcing as a way to boost their own economies. It is one of the businesses, which businesses are outsourcing to lighten their workloads while having it done not only faster but also more efficiently.

Before you consider the option of outsourcing your data-entry needs of your small business, you must educate yourself to what it is all about. This includes data imaging, conversion and document processing. This also entails photo manipulation and catalog processing services.

Data-entry is a constant need for most small businesses, which need to document the daily activities of their business. If you need data processing jobs performed, you should seriously consider outsourcing. Outsourcing your data-processing needs will enable your business to have your data entry performed a low cost. You will also be eliminating extra work for your business and this means that your business will be able to effectively separate your business work into time manageable pieces.

Medical billing and transcribing businesses utilize data-processing as a part of their every-day operations. It can be performed not only by outsourced companies but data processing freelancers.

It is true that data-entry jobs can be performed in-house but there are particular jobs that should be performed by experts as compared to your staff. If you need a large data entry job performed, this will take a lot of time and will more than likely require overtime by your staff to perform this task. If you outsource this large data job, your company will be able to function with "business as usual" while focusing on other important aspects of the business.

If you are faced with a time-consuming data job, which is imperative for your business to complete, consider outsourcing this task to freelancers or data entry outsourcing businesses. By outsourcing, you will not only save your business time but money while still being able to focus on other priorities of your business. Data processing outsourcing can be a wonderful change for your business. Data entry outsourcing will allow you to effectively run your company's workloads and priorities.

How to collect Customer Data

Every business owner knows the importance of understanding customers. They are the reason you are in business, so it is important to keep tabs on them. Knowing their shopping habits within your company can help you better market products to them. The only problem with this is how to collect and store customer data for mailings. There are different ways in which this can be accomplished, but the most common is with online software. It is the most efficient way to keep track of that many people. Unless you have a company that has just a few customers, online software is the way to go.

Before you can learn how to collect and store customer data for mailings, you first have to know what kind of information you will ask your customers. The most common question of course, refers to their contact information. This could be a telephone number, mailing address or e-mail address. Which one you decide to use for your database depends on you. If you are planning on sending more e-mail promotions than any other, get their e-mail address. If you prefer the old fashioned way of mailing coupons and newsletter to their home address, then get that information. In addition, it is important to learn how often they buy from you and at what time of year are they most likely to be customers.

For people who want to know how to collect and store customer data for mailings, online software usually is the easiest method. It doesn't take much work to implement the system because all you have to do is install it and have it formatted to meet your questioning needs. It then will work each time a visitor goes to your site. The customer is prompted to submit this information and send it back. This is called a forms handler, which is the process of actually sending you the customer's information. This can be done as an e-mail or it can be automatically entered into your online database.

Once you have the software, you need a way to store the data. Many databases used for storing data are free. This is a great solution for small and medium sized businesses that don't have it in the budget to spend a lot of money on the software. Knowing how to collect and store customer data for mailings is a wonderful marketing strategy. The data can then be used for mailing promotions, as well as announcing new product lines.

The more information you know about your customers, the more likely it is you will know how to make products that please them. Without your customers, you wouldn't have a business. Using a mailing list is a great way to market your customers, as well as target potential customers.

Globalization and technology developed at a rattling rate make our lives more comfortable but we are stranded in a tighter area in our daily lives, on the contrary. Future might be ahead that is worse than Georger Orwell’s “Big Brother”. This time private companies trace us more than the government does, ranging from GSM operators to web search engines, credit card data and survey forms.

In the era of marketing, advertising and consumpiton, it does not matter so much to get data collected about us. The heart of the mattter for the companies is what they could do with those data, how they could increase their sales and forecast future.

Data mining is a method became very popular in 1990s, which aims to reach optimum efficiency in planning and organization thru collecting data from gigantic databases and determining specific trends, allowing to forecast future. Having used artificial intelligence, this method is based on analysing “significant” data and trends by computers, which takes many years for an ordinary man to collect those data. In the beginning such significant data seem “irrelevant”, but following computer analysis, it could appear as “relevant” by comparing two parameters. For example, according a survey run in a supermarket chain, families buying nappies tend to buy beer as well. So, a promotion campaign is held with the concept of “Party Time for the Families with Kids”.

Why is it so important to connect medicine and insurance, public and private sector, automobile demand graphics with avocado and banana curves? Before answering this question, it would be better to check how such a thing could be possible.

The key concept of data mining is to purge specific data series by sorting and comparing among gigantic databases. Despite “Merge and Purge” and “Database Enrichment” methods remained out of fashion as compared to “data mining”, data could be really transformed into valuable information and automized easily.
 
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