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LEAD GENERATION
From
funnel
to filter
Nick Martin, managing director of Acxiom,
economy since the recession hit provide us
with a clue. Consumer information is moving
describes the need for lead-generation
incredibly quickly, particularly in terms of
disposable income or customer preference. A
processes that can keep up with customers.
relevant marketing campaign from a year ago
might well seem irrelevant or even insensitive
now, with individual and household
circumstances changing rapidly. Do you know
ccurate data is the So organisations that energetically partake which of the individuals in your list of leads
A
cornerstone of effective lead in lead generation – confident that the had a major and recent change to their
generation. Even the best strategy represents good value for money – lifestyle? And would you target them with the
thought-out marketing are left with duplicated, inaccurate, out of date same campaigns if you knew about it?
campaign will fall flat if the records or worse… Those that are simply Acxiom Affordability is a new pack of data
recipient information is out of unlikely to convert to sales. Building up large solutions aimed at understanding consumer
date or provides unexpected low conversion. volumes of leads is fine for a while, but once spending potential, particularly given the recent
With a renewed focus on attracting and the conversion figures are published the economic troubles. The tools include household-
retaining customers, the quality of lead- novelty can wear off quickly, and you’re left level segmentation that splits household spending
generation information is more important than with the task of sifting and analysing the potential into 40 clusters. Around this segmentation,
ever before. And as every marketer knows, mountain of consumer data. which will be regularly rebuilt to reflect dynamic
prospect details require robust response That’s why Acxiom developed the PersonicX changes in behaviour, a range of other factors can be
mechanisms that can engage and satisfy the behaviourally optimised segmentation suite of profiled at household level. These include total
consumer quickly and with ultimate relevance. products. If you understand the benefits of market outgoings, with comparisons to the UK average,
For too long, however, companies have put segmentation but want to know the best method, discretionary spending and pension contributions.
their trust in buying vast amounts of lead-gen you have come to the right place. PersonicX is a Indulgences, such as holidays and eating out, can be
data – sticking to the age-old strategy of filling highly effective, scientific approach to out-marketing ranked from one to 20 for affordability.
the marketing funnel as full as possible. your competition, taking your demographic The advances in online tools have also had
Similarly, enterprise data management has all segmentation to a new level through our a significant effect. Web and personalisation
too often involved a spring-cleaning mentality. household-level analysis techniques. technology has allowed businesses to keep an
Data stores are built up – representing large eye on their website’s visitors, whether they’re
portions of marketing budget – which then INFORMATIONDRIVEN EFFICIENCY buyers or simply browsers. But without the full
remain static until they are cleaned. The fact At a time when efficiency is at the top of every picture, creating meaningful customer profiles
that many companies have to call up their corporate agenda, marketers need to spend and tailoring marketing activity accordingly is
prospects to see if they’re still alive illustrates their time doing what they do best: marketing. almost impossible. So companies have to sift
the pitfalls of the iterative approach to data. So what has changed? The movements in the through ever increasing banks of information
4 OPINIONS ON DATA | MAY 2009
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