Data management is a key priority and competency for marketers. It is a critical component for client marketing success, so it is important for businesses to excel in this arena. However, there is a distinct difference between managing and utilizing data, and both are needed.
As important as it is to have the data, it is equally as important to protect it. It is essential to maintain robust security and privacy controls in compliance with our financial services, insurance, and healthcare clients’ contractually mandated PCI, PHI, PHII and HIPAA regulatory requirements.
The development of a corporate environment that safeguards the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of client and company information must be a priority. Best practices for data center security are about more than just certifications and compliance, although they do help. In addition to the certifications, build security awareness into work culture with new-hire training, ongoing messaging that highlights best practices, and annual security refresher training. Comprehensive security practices ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of clients’ information.
However, properly managed data does nothing if it is not put to use in the appropriate manner. Some marketers walk away from marketing channels, such as direct mail, because it “didn’t work” for them. But most of the time, it didn’t work for them because they did not optimize all the necessary components for success—precise, targeted data, effective creative that drives the desired customer action, relevant and powerful messaging/offer and quality, timely and error free production—all of which, depending on the scope of the client engagement, data can help deliver upon.
Personalization is much more than using someone’s first name in the greeting. It can be mentioning how many other residents of their town use the product or service offered by a regional bank, or including localized crime statistics when selling a home security system.
It can be mentioning a recipient’s industry when sending direct mail to a small business. Or it can be using images of other product users who resemble the recipient in terms of demographics. Many data-driven marketing campaigns use some degree of dynamic content (images, logos or other pre-built content) for more personalized messaging. This leads to more relevant offers. Done right, it can lift response rates anywhere from 10–30%.
In a marketing landscape where everyone is targeting 1-to-1 messaging, workflows and technology are required to support building marketing content driven by audience data. Digital printing and variable data allow multiple messages and versions powered by data and segments to be personalized in one print run.
As more variations can lead to greater success, this also leads to greater challenges associated with content management and quality assurance processes.
An advanced system is needed to design, manage, build, and review the content prior to production. A dynamic content management (DCM) system uses demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioristic data to logically select images, messaging, and layouts, and combine them into targeted versions of the letter.
Watch the video to view David Klempe of IWCO present Dynamic Content Management (DCM)