What do I need all that data for?
By David R Webb
Businesses who are concerned about the amount of data they are collecting or are looking for an informed way in which to make marketing decisions need to think about this from two aspects. These are:
Can I save the information I need in a more effective way?
How can I use the information I currently have in a more effective way?
From the day we start thinking about beginning a business we start collecting data. As our business grows we collect more data. Then we take on staff and they start collecting data as well. Before we know it we have developed vast resources of data. And we are probably duplicating how we store this data. We have a database of customers, we have a separate database of contacts in Outlook, we have a contact list in our mobile and our accounts team are keeping a separate list. Each of these is fulfilling a need within the business, yet when a company contact changes there are potentially five records which need to be updated.
This is not very efficient from your company’s point of view. There are ways in which you can streamline some of the processes, such as regular synchronisation between mobile and Outlook.
The most effective tool can be a strategic overview of the data storage procedures.
· Decide what information is really required and who should store it.
· Decide on which information is most important.
· Look at what the data is used for look at how it is helping to develop the business.
This process can be used to deliver administrative savings to the company.
Once we have decided what information we are going to keep and look at what the data tells us about our customers and how we can use this to formulate future strategy. Some popular concepts to be considered here are:
· How much does my average customer spend in a year?
· What is the average age of my customers?
· What is the geographical spread of my customers?
· What are the most effective sources of advertising and marketing?
If we know the value of a customer it is a simple process to assess the potential value of any new customers generated by marketing or promotional campaigns.
This part of the process can be used to help companies develop business and marketing plan strategies.
David Webb has been working with data and databases since 1990.
DNJ Solutions
February 2008
www.dnjsolutions.co.uk