Essential Reading for Marketing & Business ProfessionalsWednesday August 6th 2008Insights in this issue:
* Companies diverting marketing spend to data
* MI Announces Joint Venture with MarketDeveloper
* The 5th Annual Privacy & Data Protection UK 2008 Conference

More and more companies are looking to
maximise their marketing ROI and, according
to the latest research from AMR, they are
doing this by investing more into their
databases. Why? Because when times are
challenging nothing but nothing works better
than Direct Marketing. And, when things are
changing fast, keeping better tabs on your
customers really pays off!.

James Pearson - Editor

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Companies diverting marketing spend to data

The latest research from Gartner and AMR
shows that companies are increasing their
investment in their databases, despite the
downturn in many other areas. Year on year,
the increase is over 20%. AMR expects that
companies will learn the lesson from the last
recession where companies that failed to
invest in data suffered massively when the
market improved.

Steal your competitors customers

So why should you be investing now when times
are tight? Well, everyone will be chasing a
diminishing pool of people who have money to
spend. If you don't have a handle on who in
your customer base or potential customer base
is still able to spend you run the risk that
they will be enticed away to your competitor.
In stagnant or declining markets the only
strategy is to win sales from your
competition. And good databases enable you to
do this for a fraction of the cost of other
strategies

Talking directly to your customers makes them
feel more wanted and can make it much harder
for your competitors to "steal" them away.
But, most importantly, it is far easier to
encourage customers to spend more with you
than it is to get new customers. And good
data tells you which customers are worth
keeping - and which ones you really want your
competitors to have.

Drop the dead wood

Believe it or not, 20-40% of your customers
are costing you money. That is, when you add
up the cost of recruiting them and the cost
of servicing them it turns out that it
exceeds the profit you can make from them.
And when times are hard it is dangerously
easy to acquire low value customers that
literally suck profit from your business.

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MI Announces Joint Venture with MarketDeveloper

MI has joined forces with Market Developer to
bring its data consultancy and management
skills to bear on those companies who want a
web-based CRM database solution. Unlike most
solutions, Market Developer was created
specifically for the UK and European markets
(no ZipCode here!). And unlike other online
services the data is hosted exclusively in
the UK - something that is increasingly
important to companies and consumers.

Simon Davis of Market Developer said "we
compare very favourably with other on-line
solutions - except that, unlike them, we have
a fully integrated suite of services that
make building and managing the database our
problem, not our clients". Simon went on to
explain that the problem with all databases
is the dull, boring day-to-day management of
the data to keep it clean, de-duplicated,
current and correct. "MI and MD both believe
that any database needs a service element
delivered with it if it is to remain an
effective tool for marketers".

The Market Developer platform includes full
CRM capabilities, tight integration with both
web and email and extensive campaign
management capabilities. Tim Beadle of
Marketing Improvement said "we are very
excited by this new development. Many of our
clients want an alternative to the US CRM
vendors who just don't understand either the
UK or Europe and we are delighted to be able
to bring such and elegant and cost-effective
solution to them - frankly it is cheaper,
faster and better than the alternatives!"

Click here to find out more

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The 5th Annual Privacy & Data Protection UK 2008 Conference

"Data Protection:
CRM, Web 2.0 & Social Networking "
3rd of September 2008 4th of September 2008
The Law Society, London

This year's event is spread over two days -
Day 1 being for the lawyers and compliance
officers with Day 2 being devoted to
marketers. It features a fascinating lineup
of speakers and if past years are anything to
go by, this really is a "must attend"
conference for anyone concerned with managing
CRM, Web 2.0 initiatives and social networking.

There is a discount of £50 for readers of
Insight making the event, at just £300
extremely good value. To download the full
Agenda and booking form, just click on the
link below.

Click here for the full Agenda