Direct Marketing Requires Effective Data Management | Data Ladder

Let?s say you?re a small to medium business and a direct mail marketing campaign is part of your strategic plan for 2013.? The budget has been insanely tight because of cash flow, but you know these campaigns get results for your company. You and your team spent the past two weekends developing the layout and graphics to perfection.? Everyone is in agreement that this project will exceed all expectations and give your bottom line a bump up.? Now you?re ready to deliver your baby to the printer and have several mailing lists for them to use to get out the good word!? Just before leaving the office to deliver the goods to your friendly printer, you check your email and see a marketing note about fuzzy data and data matching. At first, you want to hit the ?X? in the upper right corner, but words ?mailing lists? jump out of the message. You freeze in your tracks and then take in the entire message in front of you, learning a great deal about fuzzy data and data matching. Wow man, is this project doomed?!? Am I going to take a hit on the bottom line and have a panic at the CPA?s office?

Well, there is both good news and bad news in response to your question.? If you followed around Google Chrome learning about the buzzword ?big data,? undoubtedly you found some interesting and daunting facts that affect your project. Browsing through those Google links, you find three facts that are real eye-openers:

1. U.S. business lose over $600 billion each year because of bad data or poor data quality
2. Poor data or ?lack of understanding the data? are cited as the main reasons for overrunning project costs
3. Poor data can cost businesses 20%?35% of their operating revenue

Those three factoids, courtesy of Google, reminded you of the dicey burrito you had for lunch and sent you reaching for some relief in your top desk drawer.

As you enter your printer?s office, your panic rises about data matching and a lack of relief from the dicey burrito. To your surprise, your old printer buddy is on his game! He quickly calms your nerves and assures you he is on top of his game. He has been on top of the data matching game for the past couple of years.? Being a pro in his business, he learned quickly the importance of managing big data issues. Your printer did that same panic Google search, but quickly found answers. Since that epiphany, his printing business has tackled his issues with fuzzy matching and data cleansing tools. And since that fateful day, he has improved productivity, customer satisfaction and fiscal performance.? He also found he could open another line of service to his clients to resolve all those data matching issues they bring him with their projects. In the end, it has been a win-win for everyone involved.

To learn more about how your printer friend solved his issues with fuzzy data and data matching, go to Data Ladder and find solutions that will let you keep the antacids in the top drawer and your bottom line on the upswing.

Source: http://www.dataladder.com/blog/2013/02/12/direct-marketing-requires-effective-data-management/

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