What Makes Good Software Good, Part 2

Bill Landers — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:12:08 +0000

Tend to Your Marketing Profile Database

Your profile database is a living environment composed of dynamic individuals that should be carefully nurtured. Think of your profile environment as more than a series of static lists consisting of a handful of custom fields; it's composed of real people, and should be capable of evolving over time.

Maintain a vibrant profile environment by consistently adding fresh individuals, following best practice opt-in techniques, and growing each person's value by learning more about the person’s likes, dislikes, activities and inclinations. Tools such as surveys, behavioral tracking and analysis are necessary to flesh these profiles out beyond their skeletal origin in flat lists.

Prune away the dead wood of inactive profiles, and – most importantly – make sure you respect each individual’s privacy preferences by allowing self-removal through simple opt-out mechanisms. Keeping your profile database clear of this overgrowth will bring to light the personalities contained within. You don’t have to discard the inactive profiles; try isolating them and attempting to bring them back to life with special marketing tactics such as incentive programs.

On the flip side, an untended profile database will go the way of nature – into chaos – and will eventually become unmanageable. Software that helps you continually maintain your marketing profile database will help it to bear the fruits of increased loyalty and return on investment.

This is the second of two posts from Bill Landers providing key best practice and work-flow insights from his more than a decade of experience developing software platforms. In case you missed it, check out the first post.

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What Makes Good Software Good, Part 2