Online Web Research Services & Data Research, Data mining

In an earlier article I briefly described how data mining and RFM analysis can help marketers be more efficient (read... increased marketing ROI!). These marketing analytics tools can significantly help with all direct marketing efforts (multichannel campaign management efforts using direct mail, email and call center) and some interactive marketing efforts as well. So, why aren't all companies using it today? Well, typically it comes down to a lack of data and/or statistical expertise. Even if you don't have data mining expertise, YOU can benefit from data mining by using a consultant. With that in mind, let's tackle the first problem -- collecting and developing the data that is useful for data mining.

The most important data to collect for data mining include:

•Transaction data - For every sale, you at least need to know the product and the amount and date of the purchase.

•Past campaign response data - For every campaign you've run, you need to identify who responded and who didn't. You may need to use direct and indirect response attribution.

•Geo-demographic data - This is optional, but you may want to append your customer file/database with consumer overlay data from companies like Acxiom.

•Lifestyle data - This is also an optional append of indicators of socio-economic lifestyle that are developed by companies like Claritas. All of the above data may or may not exist in the same data source. Some companies have a single holistic view of the customer in a database and some don't. If you don't, you'll have to make sure all data sources that contain customer data have the same customer ID/key. That way, all of the needed data can be brought together for data mining.

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