Want More Data for Targeted Documents? Let Customers Help!
Today’s data management applications allow you to reach in and then across the organization to data that has historically been inaccessible --- usually because of proprietary formats. Now it’s possible to take data from a variety of sources and bounce it against a set of business rules resulting in highly relevant messages that can added to printed documents, presented on their web-based counterparts, and used across other applications. This ability to access and utilize all available data means it’s possible for a marketing promotion to target both customers and non-customers in one campaign. If the recipient is a customer then their past purchase history can be used in the promotion, but if the recipient is a prospective customer, other data would be used such as demographics.
But access to every database only means you can retrieve and use the data that you have which is almost always gathered as a result of the purchase process, customer support and other systems integral to the company’s main line of business products and services.
But what if you could target the messages in a more personal way?
For example, knowing about a person’s hobbies or interests could allow you to create a message that resonates with the individual even though that information may have nothing to do with your product. The challenge is the type of information needed is not automatically gathered during any of the traditional processes that involve the customer.
The solution is to get customers and non-customers engaged in ways where they provide the type of information you want. This could be done in several ways including periodic surveys or tracking the pages they visit on your website. Keep in mind that the audience considers their personal information valuable so consider giving something in return. Run a monthly survey that has a prize for a certain number of respondents. Only folks who submit complete and valid surveys are eligible so you’re all but guaranteed that the data will be useful.
There’s a wealth of knowledge that you cannot know without the participation of your customers and when it comes to creating personalized messages for your documents, the more data the better.
Visit Elixir to see a wide range of software applications that can enable any level of rules-based publishing and communication. www.elixir.com