Introduction

Welcome to Data Driven Marketing For Dummies!

But … what do I mean by data driven marketing? All marketing disciplines are fundamentally concerned with attracting and retaining customers. They’re also all driven by data, in some sense. Marketers don’t just haphazardly develop communications. They take as much information into account as they have available.

Database marketing, or data driven marketing, is a discipline which takes the use of information to an extreme. Data driven marketing, as I use the term in this book, can be characterized by three things:

It’s a form of direct marketing: Database marketers develop communications that are delivered directly to consumers. This has traditionally been done through direct mail and e-mail. But the principles of direct marketing are being used with increasing sophistication to deliver marketing messages via text messages, social media, web content, and other electronic channels.

It’s fundamentally focused on individual customer information: The database in database marketing refers to a customer database which contains purchase history, demographics, and other information about each customer. This level of detail forms the basis for highly relevant, personalized, and customized messages. This relevance drives the effectiveness of database marketing campaigns.

It’s measurable: And it’s measurable in very precise financial terms. This measurability gives the database marketer the ability to create a marketing laboratory. Audiences, offers, messages, communication channels, and anything else related to a database marketing campaign can be tested to see how well they perform.

About This Book

Database marketing requires a variety of skill sets ranging from the technical to the creative. For this reason, database marketing departments tend to be made up of a diverse set of people. This makes them fun places to work. But it also poses some communication challenges.

I wrote this book partly to help fill that communication gap. I try to address the broad spectrum of work that needs to be done in the day-to-day operations of a database marketing department. In that regard, I’ve written this book with database and direct marketers in mind.

But customer information has grown and continues to grow more central to all sorts of business decisions and strategies. For this reason, this book will appeal to anyone in the business world who takes an interest in customer data and how it can be used to your advantage.

A small note: Within this book, you may see that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply type in the web address exactly as it appears in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just tap or click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

I assume that if you’re reading this, you have an interest in database marketing. Though I try to define marketing-specific terms as I use them, it would be helpful for you to have a passing familiarity with basic marketing terms like target audiences and marketing channels. Plenty of introductory marketing books can give you that basic level of understanding if you don’t already have it, including Alexander Hiam’s Marketing For Dummies (Wiley, 2009).

I also assume that you’re not too put off by numbers. Database marketing involves a great deal of quantitative measurement. That doesn’t mean that you need to have an accounting background, though. Being able to calculate percentages is sufficient.

Though this subject can get somewhat technical, I make no assumptions about your knowledge of either technology or advanced mathematical methods. I attempt to explain in simple terms what the basic ideas are about. My focus is on helping you to communicate with your technical teams and vice versa. If you can add up a column of numbers in a spreadsheet, then you’re more than adequately prepared to read this book.

Some of the subjects in this book, particularly those that relate to building databases, assume that you have a fairly significant technology budget. Databases, software, and even maintenance require some level of investment. But even if this is not the case, the parts of this book that relate to developing and analyzing campaigns will still be relevant.

Icons Used in This Book

Look for these symbols to help you navigate through the text.

I use this icon to highlight specific suggestions for how to deal with a given situation.

This icon is used to point out information that you need to be aware of. I use it sometimes to summarize a point that I’m making in a section. I also use it to point out information that’s fundamental to a given topic.

There are a number of common traps that you can fall into when it comes to database marketing. What you don’t know can hurt you. I use this icon to point out situations where you need to tread carefully.

Beyond the Book

In the Part of Tens, I point out a number of websites and organizations that can provide you with information and support. Because I don’t have room to cover related topics in detail, I also refer through this book to other For Dummies books that do. In particular, Marketing For Dummies, Web Marketing For Dummies, and Social Media Marketing For Dummies (all published by Wiley) contain more detailed discussions of some of the topics in this book.

There is also some juicy, free, extra material for this book online. The cheat sheet and several companion articles can be found at www.dummies.com/extras/datadrivenmarketing/.

Where to Go from Here

I’ve worked hard to make the parts and even chapters of this book self-contained. You should be able to start anywhere in the book and feel comfortable that you haven’t missed too much to grasp what’s going on. Part I provides a good introduction to the topic of database marketing from an infrastructure perspective and might be helpful for Information Technology folks who are trying to understand how to meet the needs of their database marketing group.

In Part III, I focus on tying various database marketing strategies to specific business problems. This is a good place to go if you’re looking for ideas about how to address a specific goal.

Parts II and IV are largely concerned with the analysis of data. These are useful to non-technical marketers who want to better understand what sorts of things can be achieved through data analysis. They’re also useful to technical folks who understand advance statistics but have minimal experience in database marketing applications. For the non-technical marketers, I would recommend starting with Chapter 6 to ground yourself before moving on to other chapters.

To get the full flavor of everything, and for anyone who is starting fresh with this topic, you can go old-school and head directly for Chapter 1.