Marketing with Simply Contacts

Introduction

Earlier we looked at a number of tasks a marketer needs to perform in order to run Database Marketing successfully. To review, these steps are:

• Analyse your existing customer base and understand what the common characteristics of your best customers are
• Accumulate a large database of well-qualified prospects
• Stay in touch with them at least once every 90 days
• Send tailored communications relevant to these prospects
• Follow-up persistently
• Collect feedback and adjust your marketing accordingly

This article discusses how these tasks can be performed with Simply Contacts Database and covers the following subjects:

• The database parameters
• Accumulation of the database
• De-duplication
• Manual entry of postal addresses
• Staying in touch
• Following-up
• Collecting and analysing feedback

The Database Parameters

Database marketing requires the ability to store a number of separate parameters to create a thorough profile for each customer or prospect in the database. Examples of parameters include gender, age group, home ownership, business type, number of employees and so on. These parameters vary from business to business and ease and flexibility are required to help the marketer set up the database without assistance from an IT professional.

Simply Contacts Database allows you to do just that. The Add/Remove Fields function allows the user to add extra or custom parameters (fields) or remove existing ones.  Each new field can be specified by type, size, whether it should be mandatory, whether the system should maintain the list of values for this field and how those values are maintained, and whether fields should be included in the record filter. Once the required fields have been entered, and the ‘Applied New Structure’ function has been activated, the program not only modifies the database, but then automatically includes all new fields into its screens and reports.

For example, to group your prospects by income, add a field called “Income Group” to the database with a managed list of values. To ensure your operators enter this information, mark the field as mandatory. After applying the changes, you will note this new field has appeared on the customer screen. In the Set-up Department of the program, there is a function to maintain the lists of values for income groups and you can specify what groups you want to use, eg: 10000-20000, 20001-40000, 40001-90000, over 90000. Now, when entering the data, the operator can select from that list.

If you engage in B2B marketing, you may need to track multiple contacts within the same company. There are 2 ways to do that:

1. The easiest method is to add the fields ‘Company Name’ and, optionally, ‘Position’ to the list of contact fields and assign them Historical lists of values. In this scenario, all information (including address details, website address and so on) would still apply to individual contacts, however, you can easily select all contacts from the same company by filtering your contact records by the company name. Likewise, you will be able to select contacts by their position, or position in conjunction with the company name.
2. If there is a lot of company-related information which you do not wish to replicate for each contact, one method is to install the Org. Structure add-on module. This will allow you to specify information at a company level (including addresses) and link individual contacts to their companies. This module adds an Organisation View screen that displays all organisation-level information and contacts under an organisation. All organisation-level information will be automatically visible for contacts.

Accumulation of the database

Having a single, comprehensive database of prospects is essential for database marketing and Simply Contacts Database can help you create it.

Simply Contacts Database reads information from different sources and matches it to existing records in the database. If a record exists, then Simply Contacts Database program only updates the fields in this record, if no record exists, a new one is created. This feature allows you to collate disparate pieces of information about a contact into a single complete record.

For example, you may have some basic information about your existing customers from an accounting system. You email your customers asking them to supply additional information through your Website. Part of the reference link includes Contact ID automatically assigned by Simply Contacts Database which is used as a unique record identifier, enabling the program to then match the answers with the customer records.

Such systems are often used for both collecting information, and verifying the contact will welcome further communications from you.

This is called ‘double opt-in’ because of the additional confirmation step. If the contact does not respond, they are excluded from further communications.

In Simply Contacts Database, Contact ID is not the only possible unique identifier. The user can specify any field or combination of fields as a unique identifier. For example, a combination of first name, last name and address could be used.

De-duplication

Often prospect information is collated from multiple spreadsheets. There is no customer id available, and the combination of first name, last name and address might be the only suitable unique identifier to indicate to the system whether two input lines correspond to the same or different individuals. Naturally, in this scenario, there is a chance that misspelling a name or an address will cause the program to create duplicate records.

For example:

John Smith, 2/186 Old South Rd
John Smith, 2/186 Old Sth Rd

To help overcome this problem, SCD has a de-duplication function.

Firstly, this function lists all “suspect” duplicates according to its own criteria. This may differ from the main de-duplication criteria. Typical criteria would be a combination of first and last names, which will flag the two John Smiths from the example above as suspect duplicates.

The user can then use their judgement to determine if the two records are in fact duplicates, and if they are, the merge function is used to combine the records.

De-duplication can then be repeated using other criteria, such as email or mailing addresses, gradually cleansing the database.

Manual entry of postal addresses

When data is manually entered into Simply Contacts Database, it will intuit addresses based on previously entered information. For example, if the database contains a record with the postcode 33176 (Miami, Florida), then entering this postcode in a new record will see the system enter Miami, Florida, into the City and State fields respectively. If Miami is entered into the City field, the drop down list of postcodes will include all postcodes for Miami from its database.

This basic system of address verifications can be enhanced by using the postal code database add-ons, which are available free of charge for Australia and UK courtesy of their postal services.

Staying in Touch

For prospects to remember you, you need to stay in touch with them at least once every 90 days. Write to them, fax them, email them or simply call them – but make your communication relevant to their needs.

How can this system help ensure relevancy? There are two approaches to this requirement; Segmentation and subscription.

Assumptions will often be made about the likely interests of prospects based on the information known about them. For example, when selling financial products, different products appeal to different age groups. By knowing the age of your prospects, the database can be segmented into different groups and offers tailored accordingly.

Alternatively, you can offer a menu of interests to choose from. This approach is taken by Hotmail and other free email service providers who ask about your possible interests when you subscribe to their service. Some realtors maintain separate newsletters for investors, renters and prospective home-buyers.

Simply Contacts Database supports both options.

Segmentation

The program's flexible selection mechanism allows for selecting records by any combination of parameters captured in the database. In the financial example, it would be very easy to select prospects by age group, or by a combination of age and income, providing this information is recorded in the database.

Sometimes the segmentation criteria can become too complex to keep entering every time you need to send a message. In this case, you might create a new field called ‘Market Segment’ and use the Bulk Update function to select contacts by flexible criteria, and assign them to a specific market segment. Then, instead of filtering by complex criteria, prospects can be simply selected by market segment.

Subscription

There are several methods to handle subscriptions:

• If you allow each contact to subscribe to a single publication, you can simply create a new field called ‘Newsletter’ with Managed list of values, and use it to record which contacts have subscribed
• If each contact can subscribe to several publications, but there are only a small number of options, the best way is to create subscription flag for each publication such as ‘Subscribed to newsletter 1?’, ‘Subscribed to newsletter 2?’ etc. Such flags are ‘Yes/No’ fields of type, and can be created using the function Add/Remove Fields.
• If the number of subscriptions is large or unknown, use the add-on module Multiple Contacts List Management. This will add functions and modify the contacts screen to allow the inclusion of a contact onto multiple lists. You can then select contacts included on a particular list, or combine list selections with other criteria, such as ‘contacts subscribing to newsletter 1 aged 50-65’.

Note that when a contact is included into a list, the system includes a reference to an existing contact record rather than creating a new record. Therefore any changes in the contact’s details will be automatically reflected in the list.

Personalisation

Having designed Simply Contacts Database with communication in mind, we have also included personalisation functionality to allow you to personally address all of your client and prospect communication.

For example:

“Dear Edward,
In this issue of our newsletter: ….”

Simply Contacts Database allows you to put placeholders in the body of the letter which are then populated with contact names and other details available in the database.

Sending the message out

After everything is ready, Simply Contacts Database can assist you sending the messages out by email, fax, or post. You can also use the mix of different communication media by specifying preferred communication methods for each of your contacts.

• Emailing – can be done via Outlook or directly using a built-in email program
• Faxing – uses the Windows faxing system included in Windows 2000 Pro or Windows XP Pro. The program simply submits the jobs to the Windows fax engine, leaving it to the operating system to manage the process
• Posting – the program prints the letters and mailing labels.

Following-up

Whether following up with a phone call or with a written message. Simply Contacts Database offers several methods to track follow-up communication:

• Storing follow-up dates in the contact record. If all you need to remember is when to make contact, this could be the easiest way of tracking follow-up. Add a new field called ‘Follow-up date’ to the contact record and use this field for filtering contacts with whom you need to follow-up.
• Reminders. Good for scenarios where one-on-one follow-up is required such as sales and telemarketing. You can record the date, communication type (phone, mail, email, dinner, etc) and a note. In a multi-user system, a manager could create such reminders for his or her staff. Users could see their own individual reminders or the full list depending on security settings. There is also a free add-on which allows the system to display users’ reminders automatically when the program starts.
• Call Cycle add-on – allows the implementation of complex personalised follow-up programs, such as
• Call prospect 10 days after initial contact
• Send ‘letter’ A 15 days after initial contact
• Send ‘letter B’ 15 after letter ‘A’ is sent
• Make follow-up call 5 days later

The program can create any number of, and assign prospects to call plans either individually, or as selected by flexible criteria. Users can start communication cycles from the current or selected date in the contact records (which vary from contact to contact). Call cycles can also be manually modified for individual users.

Collecting and Analysing Feedback

There are many types of feedback you may need to record in the database, including:

• Non-deliverable mails/emails
• Person requesting not to be contacted
• Customer enquiries
• Moving a prospect through the sales cycle
• Sale 

For the most part, recording feedback is a manual operation requiring an operator to locate corresponding contact records and enter or correct information.

However, data fed from websites and/or other information systems can be automated with standard data loading functions available in Simply Contacts Database, or by writing custom procedures.

SCD can aggregate individual contact, communication, sales, or other designated records to provide management with valuable performance information. You can easily explore the profile of a ‘typical customer’, or a ‘typical prospect’, evaluate the performance of your telemarketers, or even check the value of sales various promotions generated (in number and dollar terms).

This wealth of information can then be retrieved with standard reports included in Simply Contacts Database such as the Contact Summary report pictured below.

To get access to the full power of management reporting, we recommend the add-on modules Statistical Reports or the Ad-hoc Report Generator. These modules enable you to filter available data using flexible criteria, and aggregate to any level available. For example, if you capture demographic parameters such as age and occupation, these modules can display the distribution of the entire contact base according to these two parameters. You could also choose to profile contacts who have contacted you last month only.

This ability is indispensable for a professional marketer with a large database, or a manager who wants to keep an eye on his or her business.

The Statistical Reports module allows you to create new reports and save them on the database, and is a cost effective solution to focussing on a relatively small number of pre-defined reports.

The Ad-Hoc Report Generator is more expensive but allows instant ad-hoc creation of reports and ‘no holds barred’ interrogation of the data, as well as including full functionality of Statistical Reports.