Be a Good Data Steward

A corollary to the subject of sourcing involves intelligent use of information on prospects and customers in your marketing efforts. One of the data issues of particular concern to Mastria is the existence of records on marketers’ files that either can’t be attributed to a source or that came from the Web but the original source driving the online response—e.g., direct mail, television—cannot be traced. In these instances, there is a danger to treating these respondents as part of the overall housefile, he explains, since you don’t know enough about them to develop a relevant contact strategy. In addition, your list rental clients won’t have much to go on for their marketing efforts, either. Implementing a sound matchback process is critical to identifying these unknowns in your promotions process so you can better determine how to engage them in the larger direct marketing process, Mastria states. Otherwise, he emphasizes, the industry is going to continue to see declining response rates due to ineffective marketing communications.