Do you really know your Customers?

Data segmentation process is about segmenting your data so that it can be used efficiently in marketing and business operations.

After data segmentation, you can use the segmented data to communicate relevant message to each segmented audience. This allows you to use differential marketing strategies to unique customer segments. Segmented data allow you to tailor campaigns based on demographic characteristics, buying and communication preferences and purchase preferences.

Data segmentation allows you to

• Develop new strategies to acquire, retain, and cross-sell customers
• Gain good grasp of activities that drive buying decisions
• Segment and target customers precisely
• Understand customer and prospect base
• Improve customer retention
• Send offers that resonate with your target audience
• Add business intelligence to customer files

Data Check Central delivers in-depth data segmentation through accurate analysis of your data based on your business plans. Data segmentation from DCC allows our clients to execute selective marketing plan.

Find out more on how best we can tailor your data. Contact us today

Email Winner or Loser?

Is your email campaign a winner or a loser?

Every business millions of b2b and b2c emails fly across our digital network, communication, prospecting, interacting with potential customers. But how many of these millions will succeed in this email adventurer.

Before we analyze the email success or failure rate, lets to school once again and learn on how we can use web-analytic too for a short review of your existing email

Landing-page bounce rates

For some reason, visitors who arrive on your landing page from email links immediately leave your page. It would befitting to use the cliché, avoided like a plague.

Such immediate bounces are a cause for concern. Figures from landing page bounces should be analyzed and your landing page page should be under scanner. Dig on the main reason for high abandonment. Tweak changes in the template to reduce web page attrition rates.

Trace Visual Distraction

Very often, visitors wader off from the desired conversion path. They lend to visit pages like career, about us page, privacy policy and then wander away. Such online behavior could be the result of some distraction in your web page. In such cases, try to change the position of links, remove images or graphics in the landing page to connect more visitors to your conversion path.

Discover, Discover new Markets!

How can small business gain knowledge and market information through right market segments?

Answer to this question lies with your data. Data along with required parameters can form the bedrock of your research in customer markets. The following two steps can work to define and understand on your target markets.

Step I

Gain input from quantitative research to assimilate good knowledge of your markets and customers. Research data can be resourced from the following points

• Trade shows, conferences and business publications
• Government research reports or key Industry or biz reports

Step – II

Gather input form the market space.

• Track competitors marketing efforts (online & offline) and emulate them
• Discuss with trade association or groups about your products/services
• Research your target customers (e-surveys, polls, questionnaires)

Aim of this exercise is to divide the markets into niche segments. Such segmentation will allow you to create targeted marketing campaigns to specific markets and in the process, discover new markets.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Clive

What is an Data Audit?

What is an Data Audit?

Data audit involves systematic and independent examination of your data to determine whether your business data are maintained accordance with an organization goal, objective and policies. Data audit is a litmus test for the organization and addresses key issues around improving the quality of data.

The key objective of Data Audit is to ensure that your data is:

• Maintained as per required business rules
• Organized for business use across all departments.
• Stored consistently

Data Check Central's data audit service provides real insight on the quality of your data. Through our proprietary process we report on the accuracy and validity of data. We scan and flag your data to track changes on the following:

• Identify duplicate Records
• Find deceased Individuals records
• Find Gone-Away persons records
• Flags inaccurate postal addresses & Zip Codes
• Flags inconsistent data
• Identify additional data components

Basic Benefits from Auditing

The basic benefits of b2b data audit for organization can be summed in five points. Data audit can:

• Facilitates data storage according to data compliance norms
• Measure and manage customer data
• Find best way to protect data loss
• Improves CRM results with best use of data
• Prioritize resources for efficient storage of business data

Contact us to find more about our fantastic 'data audit' process. Our process and solution are best fit for small biz. We can drastically improve data quality and improve ROI on database marketing. Talk to our representative for more information.

Four Steps To Generate More Email Clicks

Thanks to e-mail, b2b marketers have the option to reach customers across national boundaries in an instant with targeted communication. But this benefit has been robbed by unsolicited email campaigners who has engineered a new word - Spam mails.

Due to these riding issues, and to the technological complexities, today's email marketers face daunting task to reach in-box of prospective customers. Most of the email communication fail to reach the recipient or get waylaid by spam filters. In order to cut across digital traps, email marketer has to use the latest know-how and leading practices in email marketing.

This short four tips detail on the best practices for high quality email campaigns for b2b marketing

Best fit email template - build around 600 Pixels Wide

Most email client set standards and impose some limitation on the width of the email template. Since it varies from email client to other, design Email templates around 600 pixels wide. Next time when your team designs, instruct them to be mindful of this limitation.

Test preview pane rendering issues in popular email clients

2007 Microsoft Outlook came with a host of changes that ripped off the look and feel of email templates. Likewise, most of the major email clients render emails differently. Due to such distortion, diligent email marketers test email in major email clients before they fire the e-epistles

Make Your Email readable with Images Disabled

By default, most email clients disable images. The email newsletters designed in the best fitting color & design can be ripped off by these heartless third-party email clients. Since, this is a fact we have to live with, make your email readable with images disabled.

Send Plain Text along with HTML mails

HTML email enable you to flex your design capabilities and align your message to the exact match of your clients. But many recipients system do not support HTML emails. You can subvert such hiccups, by attaching plan text version along with HTML mail. Another technique to optimize email template is to design HTML email messages within in the rage of 20 to 40 kb.

Customer Life Cycle - Stages

The customer life cycle starts from the prospect stage and passes through the lead conversion pipeline to end as a customer. This each point in the path is given an obvious name.

In a simple way we understand the whole process by dividing into five phases.

Reach:

Initial phase is the attention seeking time. How to woo prospects to be your customer. How to reach prospect through their mode of communication.

Acquisition:

Capturing the prospect with relevant influence. At this stage your communication should touch on the valid interest point of your customer.

Conversion:

At this stage, you'll be establishing a definite relationship with your customer. It's when customer decides to get into biz relationship with you. Buy news in the air!

Retention:

Retaining existing customers is the most rewarding way to create more revenue for your company. Establish good rapport with your current clients and promote new offers. This cross-selling, up-selling in-turn bring more revenue from your customers.

Loyalty:

Customers voice is ten times more valued than your corporate slogans. Your next plan should focus to get more mileage from your existing clients by turning them to your brand ambassador. In order to foster loyalty from customer banks, you should melt preferential offers/discounts etc., to long term loyal customers.

How to influence customers through Online Behavior Segments

Market segmentation based on online behavior allows organizations to group consumers on silos based on their online behavior. Using this information, you can assemble marketing promotions to audience based on their online behavior.

As per the July 2009 b2b marketing survey, 67% of b2b online vendors who tied email campaigns based on the behavioral segments reported 46% increase in response and 23% more conversion.

How?

Marketing to recipients based on their behavioral traits allow marketers to pinpoint offers based on their interest. Moreover, now UK consumers demand customer loyalty schemes based on their online behavior. This tally with the thought that consumers are expecting online marketing to be 'convenience and relevant'.

Behavioral-based segmentation can be based to those recipients: Following are few popular behavioral points used by online marketers:

• who regularly opens your email
• Who have not opened your email for some time
• who have clicked on a specific link/article/offer
• who visits specific pages in your web site
• who purchased a specific product/solution
• Does behavioral segmenting sound daunting?

Even though it involves tracking of users on your website or campaign, it actually follow a systematic approach that vary from business to business.

Each business follows an unique segmenting device that include the following process:

(a) Define relevant segments for categorizing consumers

(b) Define triggers for placing the consumers into the segments

(c) Defining the right content for each defined segment,

(d) Identify a behavior for the consumer visiting the web site

(e) Categorize consumers into a segments based on interests

(g) Reassign consumers based on consumer behavior in selecting content, or links clicked on the web site.

Conclusion

The most important focus for behavioral segmenting is to understand the behavior aspect of the online visitors. Determine their entry point, hot zones and determines their exit touch points across multiple channels.

As we are approach 2009 holiday season, its the season to rhyme online promotion to the right to reach most receptive customer.