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A common-sense approach
to marketing data
We assume you have come to this
page because you:
Need better
marketing data
Need more prospect data
Need data for a specific campaign or project
All of the above
Data Optimization: A
key concept for most projects
The quality of your data will
directly affect the results of your projects -
especially lead generation campaigns. So, before starting execution of
any project you should optimize the data. Simply stated,
optimization means assembling the most
cost-effective set of data to support your
objectives. Everyone tries to do it; but
not everyone knows how to do it quickly and cost
effectively.
Data Optimization: A
structured approach
Here is a defined, repeatable and
affordable data optimization process developed
by KMA and used on many of our clients projects;
use of this approach has often doubled the
effectiveness of lead generation projects.
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Let's look at each
stage in turn: Click on the diagram if you want
to jump to a stage
We'll describe each stage to tell
you how to do it yourself and show you alongside
how KMA could add value by doing it for you.
We assume the data is being used for a lead generation project - but many
of the techniques work for other projects. |
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Stage 1: Assess your
current data
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| Do
it yourself |
KMA's added value |
Having defined the target for the
campaign you need to analyze your current data
and find out:
 | Does it cover enough of
the target market? |
| Is it accurate enough? |
| Is it complete enough? |
| Do you have appropriate
contacts? |
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We can help you do this more
completely and thoroughly because:
| We do it all the time, so
we are good at it |
| We have our XPerience
database as a vital resource |
 Our
XPerience database is a huge collection of
metadata that has been collected from millions
of calls and mailers over several years. Among other things,
it tells us what type and level of contact has
actually worked in past projects that have goals
similar to yours. So, when we assess your
current data we have this immensely valuable
resource against which to benchmark your data.
By the way, we don't charge for assessing your
data - if it is part of preparing to execute a
project for you. |
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Stage 2: Acquire
partner data
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| Do
it yourself |
KMA's added value |
You have partners who can
help you! If the stage 1 assessment shows
you have holes in your data, perhaps your
partners can help to plug them. You should
approach the following:
| IBM (if you are an IBM
BP) |
| Your distributor (if you
are an SP2) |
| ISVs who will benefit
from the leads you generate in the project
(if you are an SP, or vice versa if you are
an ISV) |
Very few of your partners will
give you their data. So, you will need to be
ready to show them that their data will be
handled by a trusted third party and not mingled
with yours. |
We can help you do this more
completely and thoroughly because:
| From hundreds of these
projects we see all the ingenious ways used
to "borrow" data. |
| We have been hosting and
using IBM and distributor data in
cooperative projects for over a decade. So,
you won't have to jump through the many
hoops needed to prove that your partner's
data asset will be properly managed and
secured. |
In fact, how can you assess
the value of your partners' data if they won't
even let you see it?! As an independent
third party, we can get it and run it through
stage 1 assessment in hours. So, you will know
very quickly if your partner(s) have been able
to fill the holes in your data.
Did we mention that we don't
charge for this advice - if it is part of
preparing to execute a project for you? |
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Stage 3: Optimize the
data
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| Do
it yourself |
KMA's added value |
Take all the "free" data (your
own plus any partner data) and:
| Select the enterprises
that fit your target |
| Select from the available
contacts for each enterprise the ones that
will be most effective for your goal. |
| For records where data is
missing (contact name, telephone number)
decide whether to discard the records or
invest in data discovery. |
| If you have more records
than are needed to meet your goals, select
the most productive ones. |
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We can help you do this more
completely and thoroughly because:
| We do it all the time, so
we are good at it. |
| We have our XPerience
database as a vital resource |
The
results of millions of calls tells us - for your
sort of project:
What size of enterprise will work best.
What level and type of contact to target
What job titles will work
Plus many other things that will both select the
best data and improve the
accuracy/completeness of it.
Did we mention that we don't
charge for optimizing data - if it is part of
preparing to execute a project for you? |
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Stage 4: Buy extra data
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| Do
it yourself |
KMA's added value |
So, you have done the best job
you can to find and optimize data available for
"free". If you still judge it to be inadequate
to meet the goals of your project you could
acquire additional data by:
| Reviewing the
commercially available data sources |
| Selecting ones that
supplement or completely replace your "free"
data |
| Renting appropriate
amounts from each source to support your
goals. |
Because of the wide range of
sources and the complexities of agreements you
would normally have to seek the assistance of a
broker. |
The biggest value KMA provides is
to eliminate this step completely for many of
our clients. By finding the diamonds in their
existing data we avoid the delays and expense of
renting new data. Our
XPerience database takes the emotion out of
assessing the effectiveness of your current data
and replaces it with historical benchmarking.
We regularly have the pleasure of telling our
clients that their "free" data is good enough -
once it has been optimized.
However, there are cases where
specialized data can increase results and should
be acquired. We can help by:
| Writing tight
specifications for the required data |
| Interfacing with the data
providers/brokers |
| Handling the mechanics of
data receipt/merge |
| Ensuring you abide by
complex usage agreements |
| Avoiding the worst
mistakes |
We never charge a mark up on
the cost of the data itself. We would rather
avoid this cost - and use the money saved to
generate more leads. Depending on the complexity of
the data acquisition, we may have to charge for
our time. |
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