Use Your Marketing Database as a Repository For Enhancement Data
- By Jeff Barela
- Published 09/21/2011
- Marketing
- Unrated
The topic focus for this article is on marketing data obtained from outside your organization: enhancement data. For purposes of this article, we broadly define enhancement data as any third-party sourced data that is appended to your existing internal consumer or business data. This article provides a back-to-the-basics overview of the primary types of enhancement data available in the marketplace.
There are many types of enhancement data available in the marketplace. Many companies offer enhancement data sliced and diced in different ways, using different aggregation techniques, and created for different applications. Although not comprehensive, the following describes many of the commonly available enhancement data types in the marketplace today.
Demographics
Data on consumers such as age, income, marital status, and presence of children
Lifestyles
Data on consumers such as hobbies, travel interests, and sports activities
Psychographics
Data on consumers such as social opinions on education, environment, healthcare, and political orientation; sometimes referred to as Attitudinal data.
Firmographics
Data on businesses such as number of employees, facility square footage, annual revenue, and number of locations.
Clustering/Segmentation
Predefined homogeneous segments determined to be marketable by business entities that assemble data on demographics, lifestyles, psychographics, and purchase behaviors.
National Change of Address (NCOA)
Obtaining new addresses for consumers or businesses that change locations, assuming those entities have registered their address change with the USPS.
Enhanced NCOA
This goes beyond standard NCOA and identifies businesses or consumers that have changed locations via channels other than the USPS, such as phone connect records, cable connect records, and power utility company records.
Phone Append
If a name and street address exists for an individual, the associated phone number is appended to that individual.
Reverse Phone Append
If a phone number exists for an individual, the associated name and street address is appended to that phone number.
Email Append
If a name and street address exists for an individual, the associated email address is appended to that individual.
Reverse Email Append
If an email address exists for an individual, the associated name and street address is appended to that email address.
Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) Append
If a business name and address exists, the business type/industry is appended to that business.
Designated Marketing Areas (DMA).
A DMA is a group of counties associated with a specific major metropolitan television market.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)
A MSA is a core metropolitan city area of at least 50,000 in population and includes surrounding counties which are closely related to the core city; essentially, each MSA corresponds to a major U.S. city.
Various Postal Processing
Processes such as Delivery Sequence File (DSF2), Delivery Point Validation (DPV), and Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) are performed to increase deliverability and the amount of information regarding specific street addresses. For instance, address attributes such as seasonal, residence/business, and deliverable confirmation are provided.
Deceased Identifiers
Persons that have recently become deceased are identified for suppression purposes.
Prison, Military, Federal Building Identifiers
Street addresses for prisons, military installations, and federal buildings are identified for suppression purposes.
Disaster-Stricken Areas
Street addresses, typically within applicable zip codes, are identified for suppression purposes.
Do Not Call
Various Do Not Call lists are used to suppress individuals who have opted out of telemarketing.
Do Not Mail
Various Do Not Mail lists are used to suppress individuals who have opted out of receiving direct mail.
It goes beyond the purview of this article to determine which enhancements should be enacted and which provide value. Suffice it to say that no two situations are the same, but in various business-to-consumer and business-to-business direct marketing endeavors, these types of enhancements should be thoughtfully considered and applied when deemed beneficial. Large providers of these types of services include organizations such as Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet to name a few. Additionally, there are many smaller providers that package and re-package data for specific verticals, applications, and convenience of use.
Your marketing database provides the ideal centralized repository to effectively manage and maintain your enhancement data.
There are many types of enhancement data available in the marketplace. Many companies offer enhancement data sliced and diced in different ways, using different aggregation techniques, and created for different applications. Although not comprehensive, the following describes many of the commonly available enhancement data types in the marketplace today.
Demographics
Data on consumers such as age, income, marital status, and presence of children
Lifestyles
Data on consumers such as hobbies, travel interests, and sports activities
Psychographics
Data on consumers such as social opinions on education, environment, healthcare, and political orientation; sometimes referred to as Attitudinal data.
Firmographics
Data on businesses such as number of employees, facility square footage, annual revenue, and number of locations.
Clustering/Segmentation
Predefined homogeneous segments determined to be marketable by business entities that assemble data on demographics, lifestyles, psychographics, and purchase behaviors.
National Change of Address (NCOA)
Obtaining new addresses for consumers or businesses that change locations, assuming those entities have registered their address change with the USPS.
Enhanced NCOA
This goes beyond standard NCOA and identifies businesses or consumers that have changed locations via channels other than the USPS, such as phone connect records, cable connect records, and power utility company records.
Phone Append
If a name and street address exists for an individual, the associated phone number is appended to that individual.
Reverse Phone Append
If a phone number exists for an individual, the associated name and street address is appended to that phone number.
Email Append
If a name and street address exists for an individual, the associated email address is appended to that individual.
Reverse Email Append
If an email address exists for an individual, the associated name and street address is appended to that email address.
Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) Append
If a business name and address exists, the business type/industry is appended to that business.
Designated Marketing Areas (DMA).
A DMA is a group of counties associated with a specific major metropolitan television market.
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA)
A MSA is a core metropolitan city area of at least 50,000 in population and includes surrounding counties which are closely related to the core city; essentially, each MSA corresponds to a major U.S. city.
Various Postal Processing
Processes such as Delivery Sequence File (DSF2), Delivery Point Validation (DPV), and Locatable Address Conversion System (LACS) are performed to increase deliverability and the amount of information regarding specific street addresses. For instance, address attributes such as seasonal, residence/business, and deliverable confirmation are provided.
Deceased Identifiers
Persons that have recently become deceased are identified for suppression purposes.
Prison, Military, Federal Building Identifiers
Street addresses for prisons, military installations, and federal buildings are identified for suppression purposes.
Disaster-Stricken Areas
Street addresses, typically within applicable zip codes, are identified for suppression purposes.
Do Not Call
Various Do Not Call lists are used to suppress individuals who have opted out of telemarketing.
Do Not Mail
Various Do Not Mail lists are used to suppress individuals who have opted out of receiving direct mail.
It goes beyond the purview of this article to determine which enhancements should be enacted and which provide value. Suffice it to say that no two situations are the same, but in various business-to-consumer and business-to-business direct marketing endeavors, these types of enhancements should be thoughtfully considered and applied when deemed beneficial. Large providers of these types of services include organizations such as Experian, Equifax, and Dun & Bradstreet to name a few. Additionally, there are many smaller providers that package and re-package data for specific verticals, applications, and convenience of use.
Your marketing database provides the ideal centralized repository to effectively manage and maintain your enhancement data.
Jeff Barela
Jeff Barela Jeff is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for Dovetail. Jeff has been in the database marketing industry for over 9 years and the database industry for over 15 years. He has helped Dovetail grow its marketing database solutions to span all of North America. Dovetail-The Marketing Database Company Jeff Barela jeff@dovetaildatabase.com 303.904.4771 www.dovetaildatabase.com
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