News
 A
Wish List for Database Marketers
Segmentation, modeling, campaign analysis, product
development, strategy, creative execution - Customer
data informs some of the most important aspects of a
direct marketing program. And the more robust a
database is, the better all those aspects will be.
After all, if you want to get the most out of your
database, you have to put the right stuff into it.
So what kind of data should you be capturing?
According to database expert Pegg Nadler, proprietor
of consultancy Pegg Nadler Associates Inc., there
are three main types of data that should be on every
marketer’s data wish list:
• All points of customer contact. You should be
collecting all of the ways that a customer interacts
with your company over time. Look at all
activity—direct mail, Web, in-store—and tie that to
name, address, purchase history, return information,
so you aren’t just thinking about what may be
offered in the mail or one product line or one
division.
• Data overlays. There is the data that you can and
should be purchasing to append to your database. You
should be buying and collecting as much as you can,
as long as it’s going to relate back and give you a
fuller understanding of your customer.
• Demographics. If you are just collecting activity,
that will give you an understanding. But until you
put that into an overall picture of how old or how
young your customer is, whether or not there are
children in the household … what his or her
purchasing habits with other companies are, it’s
only going to give you half the picture. … The more
you understand your customer groups, the more
effective you can be.
- By Tracy A.
Gill, editor, Inside Direct Mail; senior writer,
Target Marketing
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