Database marketing used to be about assembling a subscriber list from a favored trade publisher to multiply the power of display ads via complementary direct mail. The approach worked well then, as it does now; but the level of sophistication has increased dramatically.
Today, b2b database marketing is being transformed, not only by a multiplicity of new channels but also by behavioral analytics, psychographic segmentation and precise overlays.
“There is a sea change under way at the macro level, operating in a fairly consistent way for a long time,” said Michael Bird, chief revenue officer for list-building company NetProspex. “In particular, it's about refining the sales process. People are moving a way from hope and luck.”
That's certainly the case with Kronos Inc., whose work force management solutions address its customers' labor costs, compliance risk and work force productivity. The company uses a marketing database solution that feeds into a Siebel CRM On Demand deployment, augmenting its prospect list with enriched contact data from ZoomInfo, which scrubs the Internet for titles and email. Kronos adds more prospect names by sponsoring white papers and exhibiting at trade shows.
From this comprehensive approach, Jackie Terry, Kronos senior manager-marketing demand programs, has her team develop “grids” of 20 to 25 contacts at each prospect company, based on various work force management disciplines and the decision-makers responsible for each.
“We're trying to focus on putting as many names as possible at the top of the funnel, so conversions at the end are higher,” Terry said. “But we don't want to put more people at the top just for the sake of doing it.”
Database segmentation may be one of the more profound trends in modern database marketing.
“There are some people who just know who they want to go after, like Steve Jobs at Apple [Inc.],” said Adam Sarner, research director at Gartner Inc. “But for others, they're using analytics to find segments, then noticing how those segments change over time to act fast on that data.”
Sarner said segmentation begins with general categories but then can move into more sophisticated parsing, such as an understanding of “segment hopping.” Here, one group may begin to act like another. Marketing techniques can be used either to push one group into another category or help keep it where it is, he said.
Sarner also said that database segmentation is relying less on such demographics as age, gender and locale, and more on such psychographics as feelings, beliefs and customer connections. These often are revealed through social media, he said.
“Marketers today are becoming familiar with sociology and anthropology, and looking at data in a different way to get to the intent of people,” Sarner said.
One of the biggest changes in database marketing is having the ability to monitor and measure customer interactions on websites at a much deeper level.
“It's not just our ability to track what people are doing online but bringing that back to the customer database and integrating it with other data,” said Kevin Kerner, managing director-U.S. at agency Mason Zimbler, a division of direct-marketing company Harte-Hanks Inc.
“With this in place, it's now possible to make decisions based not only on profiles and transactional data but also on behavioral data,” Kerner said. “Never before have we had the ability to understand the customer at such a detailed level.”
Databases that are informed by such behavioral information, Kerner said, can outperform lists assembled in other ways.
“Behavioral information trumps self-reported data,” he said.
Behavioral information also is being uncovered by social media. The jury is still out on social media's effectiveness as a lead-generation tool, but its impact on influencing and better understanding the discussion with prospects is undisputed.
“There are five reasons people won't buy from you—no need, no money, no desire, no urgency or no trust,” said Barry Trailer, managing partner of consultancy CSO Insights. “But of these, the lack of trust will kill more deals than the other four combined.
“That's why Kodak hired a chief listening officer,” he said. “It's become how cleverly and accurately you can put your messages together, and deliver them.”
Eastman Kodak Co. hired Beth LaPierre as its chief listening officer in March.
Among other transformations affecting database marketing is the increasing importance placed on list hygiene. Marketers' attention has been riveted by how the recession wreaked havoc on business contacts and their postal and email addresses. But even the normal drift of employment and responsibilities causes databases to steadily lose accuracy.
“The first thing you can't count on is an email being delivered,” Bird said. “Way too many companies are giving themselves a sense of false security. There may be no hard bounce but, when you step back and look at any company, you'll see a bunch of desks that used to have people at them. And they all had email addresses.”
Vendors and technology are moving quickly to address this particular pain point. This was exemplified last month when email marketing solutions company e-Dialog Inc. announced its pending acquisition of MBS, a direct marketing database services company, for $22.5 million.
Among its technologies, MBS specializes in list hygiene. But it also analyzes customer behavioral patterns to inform relevant messaging in email, direct mail, mobile devices, social network, e-commerce and telemarketing.
For the future, database marketers, like Kronos' Terry, will continue to “move all the levers” in turning what used to be a fairly straightforward discipline into a more sophisticated, and effective, process. M
