The latest news from DataHQ. http://www.datahq.co.uk Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:25:21 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.datahq.co.uk/blog/customer-profiling-and-analysis-part-2-a-step-by-step-guide.html Customer Profiling & Analysis: Part 2 A Step-by-Step Guide With the Festive Season approaching, many Direct Marketers will be thinking about their strategy for 2010. In the last half of this year the first "green-shoots" have appeared in the Economy and the trend will hopefully continue into next year and beyond. The up-turn in the Economy has encouraged many Direct Marketers to acquire additional prospect data ready to capitalise on potential new business. However, Return on Investment (ROI) is still playing an integral role in Direct Marketers New Year strategies. As a result, there has been an increase in Marketers requesting Customer Profiles to assist in the prospect selection. The following gives an overview of the process involved in producing a basic Customer Profile. Stage 1: Data Cleansing & Enhancement The first step is to enhance the Customer File with a number of standard business variables that will be used to produce the Profile Report. The amount of data that can be enhanced is maximised by cleansing Customer File standardising the address format using the Postal Address File (PAF). In general for a basic profile the Customer File is enhanced with the following data fields: 2003 Digit SIC Code/Description Industry Code/Description Employee Band Turnover Band Location Indicator - Head Office, Single Site & Branch Stage 2: Individual Variable Profiling Once the Customer File has been enhanced with these variables the file can be compared against the Business Universe to identify the best areas within each variable to select prospect data from. The profiling works on a penetration basis and looks for segments within each variable that are over or under represented compared to the Business Universe. The above is an example of a profile using the variable Employee Band. The Penetration bar gives a visual indication as to the strength of the various employee sizes in comparison to the Business Universe. Essentially the further to the right this bar is the stronger the segment. The Market Potential bar provides a visual indication as to the amount of prospect data within that segment. This process is repeated and tables are compiled for each variable. This gives a good idea of how the prospect data should be selected. Stage 3: Combining the Profile Results & Scoring the Universe In order to score the Business Universe with a propensity score (propensity to convert to a Customer) the variables need to be ranked according to the respective influence. For some businesses the profile will show that the size of the company is the most important indicator whereas other businesses may be more dependent on the Industry of their customers. The above table shows an example of how the variables are ranked. The variables with the highest Mean PWE (Predicted Weight of Evidence) have the highest bearing on the propensity score. The findings of Stage 2 and Stage 3 are combined and a numeric propensity score is calculated for each and every record on the Business Universe. The scores range from minus to positive figures and the ranger of scored is dependent on the strength of the profile. Once the scores have been calculated and applied they can then be used to select the prospects based on their propensity to convert to a Customer. Because the propensity score is derived from the knowledge gained on the Existing Customers of your Company, prospect selection becomes very targeted and this results in significantly increased ROI. For more information on Customer Profiling - http://www.datahq.co.uk/crm/customer-profiling.html (http://www.datahq.co.uk/crm/customer-profiling.html) David Battson Production Manager Data HQ Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:05:42 +0100 http://www.datahq.co.uk/blog/identifying-your-most-profitable-customers-through-profiling-and-analysis.html Customer Profiling and Analysis: Part 1 - An Introduction Direct Marketing has always been about maximising the Return on Investment (ROI), however, in both the past and present many Direct Marketers have lost sight of this objective in the Customer Acquisition race. The current financial climate and 'Credit Crunch Britain' may just see the resurgence of ROI at the heart of Direct Marketing (DM) plans being developed by Marketing Departments across the country. The single most significant way of maximising your ROI is to take advantage of the knowledge you hold on your existing Customer Database. Profiling and Analysis can take many forms from a simple comparison of your Customers against a Universe of Data to in-depth Transactional and Basket Analysis. A simple Customer Profile is most commonly used to aid the acquisition of data, enabling the Marketing Department to pinpoint with more accuracy the best prospects to target. This reduces the cost of Prospect Acquisition without dramatically reducing the number of responses received, and therefore, increasing the ROI. Direct Marketing Agencies holding a Universe of UK Businesses are able to enhance your Customer file with information such as SIC Code, Employee Size and Turnover etc. By comparing these variables with the same Universe file we are able to establish the types of businesses you have succeeded in attracting as customers and apply this knowledge to prospect selection. A strong Customer Profile combines complicated calculations, which take into account statistical anomalies, with easy to view and easy to understand reporting for the client. The main benefits of a Customer Profile are: Increased understanding of your Customer Database Easy to understand reporting Improved Prospect Acquisition Reduction in cost of Prospect Acquisition Higher Response Rates Maximising the ROI This entry-level Customer Profiling is ideal for small-medium companies looking to increase ROI whilst reducing costs in these economically difficult conditions. Rather than "retreating to the trenches" in these times of economic uncertainty, carrying out well targeted DM campaigns could see this period turn into one of opportunity. In the next few weeks I will be looking at more detailed Customer Profiling, Customer Segmentation and Transactional Analysis. David Battson Production Manager Data HQ Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:51:08 +0100 http://www.datahq.co.uk/blog/datahq-launch-new-online-list-shop.html DataHQ Launch New Online List Shop Following on from the success of our first Online List Shop (http://datahq-online.co.uk), DataHQ have developed a new and improved version to allow for a better customer experience, more data than before and the ability to build up your own list to give you more choice and flexibility in what you buy. We have taken a list of the top 3000 UK companies from our main Business Mailing List, tele-researched it to add more contacts, E-Mail Addresses, Telephone numbers and to ensure the most recent information you can buy. Within our Online List Shop (http://datahq-online.co.uk), you can select on the following: Contact Type Industry Sector Region Employee Turnover Once you have made your selections you can choose to add Telephone numbers and E-Mail Addresses to your order and then go onto pay for your list online with our payment partner RBS Worldpay and once payment is complete you can instantly download your list. The benefits of using our Online List Shop (http://datahq-online.co.uk) are: High Quality Data Thousands of E-Mail Addresses No Minimum Spend Entire Order conducted Online from end to end High Recency Visit http://dathq-online.co.uk (http://datahq-online.co.uk) to purchase your UK Mailing Lists and UK E-Mail Lists today! Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:18:33 +0100 http://www.datahq.co.uk/blog/welcome-to-the-datahq-blog.html Welcome to the DataHQ Blog! At DataHQ we like to have happy customers and we like to know that our Direct Marketing products have enabled our customers to increase their revenue as much as possible. To assist you in making more of your marketing spend, we will provide information over the coming weeks on tips and techniques to make your marketing spend go further, and show you how you can explore other marketing channels to increase the range of your marketing message. From ideas on better use of UK Business Mailing Lists to getting the most out of buying UK E-Mail lists we plan on letting you know inside knowledge of what works best. Look out for the coming articles: DataHQ Launch New Online List Shop Identifying your most profitable customers through profiling and analysis The Pros and Cons of buying UK E-Mail Lists The benefits of having a Single Customer View E-Mail Broadcasting tips and tricks The true worth of Search Engine Optimisation Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:06:48 +0100