Big Data Hurdles to Overcome in Direct Mail: Consistency
Have you considered how many departments within your organization touch your customers on a regular basis? The next Big Data hurdle you must address is ensuring you are working with a consistent view of your customers. Data consistency has always been an issue, but when the amount of data you are managing increases, consistency becomes even more important to your success.
Big Data is collected from multiple channels today, but the small data that makes up Big Data is used by every department within your organization to connect or communicate with your customers across all channels. Data that is siloed or managed and utilized by single departments within your company has the propensity to create inconsistent messages to clients. This leads to customer frustration and, in extreme cases, the loss of their business. For example, if your customer service department keeps customer information separate from your marketing department, you can never really provide a customer-centric experience for the client. You will not know how many times that customer has been “touched” by your organization, when or why it happened, and what the outcome was.
If you are investing in Big Data, your company will need to develop a single view of your customer relationships so that all your business units can share a single version of the truth. These systems are commonly referred to as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems.
How does this impact direct mail?
Successful direct mail campaigns are sent to the right person, at the right time, through the right channel, and with the right offer. To do this well requires up-to-date and accurate data. Data from your company’s relationship management system offers the means to allow your direct mail messages to truly be one-to-one conversations.
- With access to every customer transaction and activity, the personalization possibilities are endless
- Reference your customer’s last purchased product and offer an upgrade, or feature the customer’s most viewed product from your website and offer a discount.
- Enhance your brand through effective multichannel campaigns. Touch your consumers more frequently and give them more opportunities to interact and respond. In retail marketing this is referred to as “omnichannel” – delivering your message everywhere the consumer is.
More to come on the next Big Data hurdle - ensuring you maintain Momentum.