Critical Factors in Building a Marketing Database

Source: Anchor Computer Blog

5 Part Blog Series: Summary

The decision to build a marketing database is critical for any organization today. The volume of information that is available on both consumer and business records affords marketers a tremendous opportunity to streamline and better target their promotional efforts resulting in an increased ROI for the company.

The trick for marketers is collecting the right information and making it available to the appropriate decision maker in a timely and responsive manner that will allow your company to react to, and take advantage of, changes in the customer environment.

Here’s a quick recap of the major points of this post.

Clearly define your objectives! By defining how you will use the database, what types of reporting and analysis you wish to support, you will find it much easier to achieve your objective in the end.

Simplify the database as much as possible. Some databases are very simple and some are very complex due to the programs they need to support. Just don’t make yours any more complicated than it needs to be!

Building the database represents your best opportunity to standardize your data. But don’t kid yourself; there are hard decisions that will have to be made on every level of standardization.

When creating the budget for your database, utilize the quotes you received from the vendors in your RFP. It’s ok to amalgamate expenses from multiple quotes as each individual quote may not be comprehensive. If you haven’t reached the RFP stage yet, talk to vendors and peers who have built a database and work from their experience.

While ease of use is a laudable goal, it is not the primary objective of the database. Return on Investment, measured in quantifiable improvements in the marketing program is!

The successful implementation of the marketing database is the first step to taking advantage of the changing marketing environment.

Read Complete Blog Series: Critical Factors in Building a Marketing Database

Part 1 – Begin at the End! Define Your Objectives

Part 2 – KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Part 3 – Standardize/Normalize Your Data

Part 4 – Create An Accurate Budget

Part 5 – Set Measurable Objectives

Summary