As your database has grown over the years, names have undoubtedly been added in a variety of ways.  Perhaps one of your sales people picked up a business card at a convention or a memorial donation was made in honor of a friend.  Unfortunately, a lot of the people in your database will never make another donation or buy your product.  How do you separate the names that are worth continuing to contact from those that aren’t?

Enter data enhancement.  Modeling organizations have built massive databases containing data on billions of transactions.  One way you can take advantage of this treasure trove of information is to append useful data to your database, such as demographic information or email addresses, which would allow you to better personalize your marketing campaigns and possibly extend them across multiple channels.

You can also utilize the data in these powerful databases for predictive purposes.  Modeling analyses can identify the factors that people donating to particular causes tend to have in common.  These factors may include demographic characteristics such as age, sex, occupation, education or geographic location, but also may include product use patterns or a person’s interests.  So, in addition to fleshing out the data in your database, a modeling company can analyze each record in your database and predict how likely this person is to respond to a mailing from you.

Modeling companies can take things even further.  In addition to telling you which names are not likely to contribute, they can also recommend records to replace them with that are much more likely to be responsive to your appeal.

Data enhancement can be a powerful way to increase the response rate of your mailings.  If you’d like help navigating this exciting area, please contact John Bell at (310) 372-9010 or ask us to contact you.

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