May 02, 2008

Starting Right from the Beginning

Marketing efforts are impacted more by the conversion of records from the source than many companies realize. Many companies don't even know how their provider's convert works.

For many years the direct marketing industry has accepted the fact that when converting incoming files from one layout to another only a certain percentage of the information will be successfully captured. It may be the result of a human error when entering the data to begin with or it may be a result of an error when processing the data at its source. Even with today's modern technology, the 90-10 rule still holds true. Many companies that receive files the blame the provider, some go the extra mile to make corrections, and some fall in between. This portion of the overall solution is not glamorous and does not appear significant but upon further review the impact of a proper conversion is exponential. Moving data from one layout to another is mostly a manual process, dependant on human examination of the layout generated from the source company providing the list. But even the cleanest lists have instances where data doesn't match the layout exactly; street directionals can easily be omitted, titles can be misidentified, and personal names and business names can be transposed. Small inaccuracies may not seem unimportant on the surface but a deeper look at traditional processing exposes the truth.

Inaccurate information at the source affects all aspects of traditional data preparation. Data that is not in the proper field or is missing completely affects the match rates to postal and proprietary hygiene services. The National Change of Address file is strictly supervised, the matching logic utilized follows rigid regulations. A small deviation will cause a record to be classified as a NIXIE, a "likely" but unconfirmed match to the NCOA database. Most companies drop NIXIE's from their prospecting efforts. If an NCOA match had been returned the record could have been mailed.

Additionally, these inaccuracies will impact how the mail files match each other in a merge purge environment and how they match demographic databases in append processes. Mailing duplicates or not properly recognizing a household can damage response rates. Without proper demographics, model scoring can be impacted and basic targeting decisions are made without proper information.

Finally, postal savings are lost when records cannot be sorted to the proper levels due to missing or inaccurate information. Carrier route walk sequence discounts or saturation discounts can be lost as a result. These costs along with the loss in revenue from lower response rates are much greater than any additional cost for properly loading and converting a file. Furthermore, this attitude cuts against the spirit of one to one marketing. If a mailer doesn't care enough to properly identify who they are mailing at the outset, the financial impact can be significant. HoweverHealth Fitness Articles, the psychological impact can be much greater if a customer or prospect doesn't feel the company is invested in a one to one marketing strategy. Taking this first step at the beginning of a project is more significant that many businesses realize.

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Justin Jackson is an Account Executive with Donnelley Marketing with over 10 years of experience in consultative sales in the multi-channel arena. Email any questions to Justin.Jackson@Donnelleymarketing.com or check out the website: www.workone2one.com. Sign up for a free e-newsletter and you can be entered into a drawing for a free business profile.

5 Tips to Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Website

So are you looking to improve your affiliate marketing? It is always a good idea. You can never make too much money and with these affiliate marketing website tips, you can be on your way to more money fast.

If you are looking to improve your affiliate marketing business it is always a good idea. With these affiliate marketing website tips you can begin to make money fast because you never can have too much money.

1. Websites look much more attractive when they have an overall theme to their pages. If you have a good theme and have it set throughout your entire site you will catch the eye of those surfing through pages. What that means is you will need to have the logo and all the graphics blend well to give your site a professional look.

2. One of the best things you can do to make people continue to come back to your affiliate marketing website in the future is to have good content. If you place good, unique content, that is targeted to help others, you will hook them in and keep them coming back for more. Posting relevant articles on your site is one of the best ways to add a fresh content.

3. Your site should have website links pasted onto it and it is important to make sure that these links are clickable. One thing that can cost you businesses broken links on your site for you need to go through and make sure that everything is working properly.

4. People not only want to view the content on your website, but they also want to be able to get hold of you if they have any questions or need answered. Many websites do not want to be bothered, so you can pass them up by providing the contact page, which provides a more personal connection to your visitors.

5. One way to get a rate more traffic to your site is to exchange links with other quality websites. If you put someone's link on your site and they place yours on theirsFree Web Content, you are getting traffic to your site that you normally would not get. As long as the site you link with is good you will get good traffic to your site.

If you have an affiliate marketing business it makes no sense to sit back and hope you make money. Looking for ways to improve your affiliate marketing business is always a good idea. With the five tips listed in this article you should be able to improve your affiliate marketing website which will ultimately improve your business and make you more money.

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William Hutchinson invites you to visit his internet affiliate marketing website for the top affiliate programs online today. Yes you can make money and he can show you how. If you need help starting your own business at home or a few work from home ideas please visit his website here now:===> http://www.hutchesaffiliatemarketing.com