Do you Database? Do it Right!

Do you Database?  Do it Right!

 

 

 

 

Database marketing is precision. Plain and simple.

 
 

“The foundations of virtually all the capabilities that differentiate  direct response marketing from mass media marketing reside in the marketing database.”

 – Page 101 Internet Marketing – Integrating Offline and Online strategies

 

 

 

 

Effective use of your customer database allows for more precise market segmentation, and accurate prediction of customer and prospect behavior.

 

“I have a very comprehensive database with more demographic and lifestyle data on my customers than I will ever need!”

Here's the thing, as marketers, we need to take a holistic approach to our decision making process. The information we use to make decisions must follow suit. Thus, the database we need is not JUST demographic and lifestyle data about our customers.

 

We need EVERYTHING.

This database MUST combine several individual databases into one, functional data warehouse that depicts a total landscape of your business. If not, you are missing a large part of the picture:

Take, for example, Mohawk College.

Mohawk College is a large organization with many departments that use separate databases and, in some cases, even utilize different software packages.

 

Just to name a few...

 

College Staff:

Administration, Support Staff and Faculty

Students:
Current Students, Co-op Students, Gradute Students, Mohawk Students Association, Banner, Co-op/Job Centre, Program Specific, Disability Services, Continuing Education, Locker systems.

Alumni:

Alumni Association database, Graduate Employment Rates

Marketing and Recruitment Prospects:

High Schools, Guidance Counselors,   Community Centres, Continuing education Prospects, Full Time,   Post Graduate Prospects

Other Business Areas:
Program enrollment trends, Residence information and Trends, Meal sales (meal plans etc), Book Sales

External Data Sources

Census data per geographic region
Highschool graduate data

....and this is not even close to the whole picture. This is not a complete listing by any means, but all of these data are useful to each other with regard to effective decision making…and the relentless attention to the needs of your target market.

Think about all of the information contained in these databases. Think of how cumbersome the decision making process would be if we couldn’t make them work together.

How would Mohawk make decisions regarding additional residence space without comparing geographical demographics? How would Mohawk make program and course ordering decisions without cross referencing enrollment? 

Obviously, making all these databases talk to one another is a technical challenge. And as marketers, we are not generally responsible for creating the database, but it is our job to decide what information is valuable for the decision making process, and drive its creation, based on that information.

 

How do you think Mohawk is doing? Do you think we can do better?