Data-Driven Marketing (a.k.a., Database Marketing) Data Checklist

Data-driven marketing (Database Marketing) is the most sophisticated selling process in the world today. It's the foundation of the highest level of direct marketing – "1 to 1" made truly possible. There's a catch though, you start with individuals and then find ways to organize them in groups.

Database Marketing requires the creation and maintenance of a "marketing database." What is a "marketing database"? A marketing database is a collection of information which helps you to spend your marketing budgets more efficiently. It allows you to focus your resource upon the superior opportunities and helps you to develop longer more profitable relationships with your customers.

Having a database allows you to analyze the behavior of your customers and identify their key characteristics. This enables you to:

• Communicate more relevantly with your existing customers and make more profitable sales to them over time.
• Use your knowledge of the "profiles" of your existing customers to finesse your targeting of new prospects.
• Increase the productivity of your marketing budget through better targeting and less waste.
• Improve your forecasting and measurement making all your marketing activities more accountable.
• Provide accurate business reports.
• Improve the effectiveness of all contact with customers by giving access to data to employees who are interacting directly with customers. This improves customer service and helps keep customers loyal.
• Develop more relevant products and services through dialogue with your customers.

So what kind of data should you capture in this marketing database, how will you use it, and where do you get the information from? The following table outlines the types of data that should be captured for both a consumer and business-to-business marketing database.