Comments on: Data Flexibility: To Range or Not to Range http://markitechture.com/2008/07/18/data-flexibility-to-range-or-not-to-range/ Marketing In The Age Of Intelligence Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:54:17 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Markitecht http://markitechture.com/2008/07/18/data-flexibility-to-range-or-not-to-range/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Markitecht Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:41:31 +0000 http://markitechture.com/2008/07/18/data-flexibility-to-range-or-not-to-range/#comment-11 Great points! Actually there are plenty of opportunities to touch base with the lead. Lead gen is usually a marketing and sales process. So once marketing has got the lead and qualified it, there is most likely some live follow-up process by sales where some of this information can be verified. Ideally the follow-up happens very close to the date the lead was generated and the information is not stale. Let's say the contact was not interested in purchasing product at the time, it is marketing's responsibility to maintain a relationship with the contact and ensure that over time the contact refreshes their info. This can be implicit through another offer form, or explicitly by saying something like: "We're updating our DB and want to make sure we have your correct info on file". Great points! Actually there are plenty of opportunities to touch base with the lead. Lead gen is usually a marketing and sales process. So once marketing has got the lead and qualified it, there is most likely some live follow-up process by sales where some of this information can be verified. Ideally the follow-up happens very close to the date the lead was generated and the information is not stale.

Let’s say the contact was not interested in purchasing product at the time, it is marketing’s responsibility to maintain a relationship with the contact and ensure that over time the contact refreshes their info.

This can be implicit through another offer form, or explicitly by saying something like: “We’re updating our DB and want to make sure we have your correct info on file”.

]]> By: HM http://markitechture.com/2008/07/18/data-flexibility-to-range-or-not-to-range/comment-page-1/#comment-10 HM Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:06:09 +0000 http://markitechture.com/2008/07/18/data-flexibility-to-range-or-not-to-range/#comment-10 There's also the dynamic nature of this data to consider. Presumably there's a lag between when the data is collected and the actual communication to the lead. In cases of sustained communication (newsletters, mailers etc) this lag is implicit. The data will certainly change during the course of this lag, possibly shifting it between the categories you talk about above. My present employer had a staff of 25 in February, has one of 40 right now and plans to grow to 65 by the end of the year. Many category leaps in the course of a year, no? The point I'm trying to make is that if the datapoint truly matters, you ought formulate ways to monitor over the course of your relationship. This is akin to your Salesforce database cleanup activity. I wonder if lead-gen companies actually provide such refreshes on the data they supply, or if they even do such refreshes for their own data. Food for thought. There’s also the dynamic nature of this data to consider. Presumably there’s a lag between when the data is collected and the actual communication to the lead. In cases of sustained communication (newsletters, mailers etc) this lag is implicit. The data will certainly change during the course of this lag, possibly shifting it between the categories you talk about above. My present employer had a staff of 25 in February, has one of 40 right now and plans to grow to 65 by the end of the year. Many category leaps in the course of a year, no? The point I’m trying to make is that if the datapoint truly matters, you ought formulate ways to monitor over the course of your relationship. This is akin to your Salesforce database cleanup activity. I wonder if lead-gen companies actually provide such refreshes on the data they supply, or if they even do such refreshes for their own data. Food for thought.

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