10 Step Guide to Buying Direct Marketing Data
Data buying guide
1. Know your own customers
It is important that you understand your existing customer base, this will help your targeting for future campaigns.
2. Establish your needs
Before embarking on any direct marketing campaign you need to clearly set out your budget what response you need to make it cost effective, establish the number of records your company can handle.
3. Look at past campaigns and performance
By looking back at previous campaigns you can learn from your mistakes and improve on future campaigns.
4. Realise your expectations
Understanding your expectations is essential these should be based on facts, only then can you agree on the best solution for your situation
5. What is your standard AVO and conversion rates
This is a must for anyone embarking on a direct marketing campaign to ensure that you understand the level of response you need to achieve an ROI.
6. How many records/leads can you deal with effectively
This information will be based upon how many staff you have dedicated to dealing with the enquiry and the average sales cycle for dealing with these enquiries.
7. Establish what medium you want to use and your criteria
There are 4 main mediums you can choose, mail, telephone, email and fax. Ultimately the medium you use will depend on budgets and objectives. Once these have been established you can then establish the correct medium
8. Establish how the data is collected and cleansed
This is very important when choosing a data company. The single most important aspect of data is the accuracy, without this then you campaign is unlikely to be successful.
9. Know how up to date the information is
By looking at the sources and how often the data is updated you can make informed decision on how up-to-date it is likely to be. Always look for a min accuracy guarantee.
10. Look at any guarantees offered with the data
Ultimately a company who offers guarantees with the data are a more attractive prospect. By offering guarantees this gives you assurances on accuracy however it cannot be used as an indicator or performance and results. This will ultimately be dependent on the medium, your targeting and your message/offering.
