Data: The Silver Bullet for Driving Sales
Although data-driven marketing is not a new concept, the explosion of sales channels and rising consumer expectations mean that marketers and marketing service providers must leverage data to deliver a more personalized experience. According to InfoTrends’ Group Director Barb Pellow, “The challenge today is that it’s not just about collecting traditional offline data anymore. These days, you need to take that data and connect it with online data, including browsing behaviors and social networks. Once all of the data is analyzed, it can be used to produce a highly personalized marketing campaign that is tailor-made for a specific customer, creating a truly unique experience.”
Canon Solutions America sponsored a webinar entitled The Silver Bullet for Driving Sales and Impressions: Data that was presented by Printing Impressions and Target Marketing. In this webinar, Pellow explains that data capture and analytics are no longer optional marketing tactics. 
Marketers are seeking business partners that can convert information into actions through effective and personalized communications. Organizations have more data than ever before, but they need help analyzing, segmenting, and crafting their messages to ensure that relevant content can reach the right target at the right time.
Pellow continues, “All consumers, regardless of the age group, expect a customized experience.” According to InfoTrends’ research, more than 60% of consumers are demanding a personalized experience.
At the same time, however, it’s not enough for the experience to be personalized—it must cut across all channels. While traditional tactics haven’t been completely ignored over the last decade, they haven’t necessarily been the focus of conversation. Marketers were instead concentrating on newer, trendier digital tactics and channels. Traditional media types (for example, print) will make something of a comeback during 2015, particularly in the business-to-business space. In today’s era of shrinking attention spans, email deliverability challenges, and digital overload, marketers are finding that leveraging print in the right way can actually help engage audiences and differentiate a business.
Joining Pellow in the webinar is Luke Heffron, Senior Vice President of EMPIRICALinsights at SG360° (Wheeling, IL). Setting the example for print service providers, Heffron describes how SG360° has embarked on expanding its data skills by adding new staff members, forming partnerships, and partaking in mergers/acquisitions. At the beginning of 2014, SG360° launched a data and analysis service called EMPIRICALinsights. This service is supported through a partnership with iNovum, a company that was founded by Harvard-educated author and research scientist Dr. Howard Moskowitz. 
EMPIRICALinsights enables clients to identify the unique individual preferences (for example, likes and dislikes) of their customers by applying a model developed by Moskowitz that combines psychology, marketing, and mathematics. With this service, SG360° customers can achieve significant improvements in sales, profitability, and client loyalty.
When differentiating your business to better serve customers, Heffron offers several key pieces of advice. First he stresses the importance of understanding where direct marketing is today and where it is going. Heffron continues, “Once you have developed this level of understanding, you must identify where holes exist and then find solutions.” At the same time, you must become an expert, form selective partnerships, and sell actionable solutions. Throughout The Silver Bullet for Driving Sales and Impressions: Data webinar, Heffron shares specific data-driven and results-based examples for each of these actionable tips. He also provides insights for businesses that want to get started right away.
Join Pellow and Heffron as they uncover the trends in data and personalized direct mail, explore the need for marketers to deliver a personalized experience, and share how service providers and marketers are collaborating to leverage data and drive sales.