Five ways data is transforming the brand-agency relationship

Infogroup is an intelligence company that offers a variety of data-driven products and services for agencies, marketers, and brands. The company—soon to be renamed Data Axle—provides data solutions to enterprise-level companies, SMBs, nonprofits, agencies and more.

Headquartered in Texas, Infogroup was founded over 45 years ago. During that time, they’ve built two of the industry’s most robust business and consumer databases. Some of their top-tier clients include Aetna, eBay, Allstate, and March of Dimes.

Infogroup recently published a paper aimed at helping agencies clarify their role within today’s data-driven and ever-changing marketing landscape.

With brands increasingly moving what were once considered traditional agency services in-house, Infogroup’s use cases help define some emerging opportunities for agencies.

Content created in partnership with Infogroup.

The use cases include:

1. How a behavioral marketing agency uses data to creating better client pitches
2. How a sports retailer used consumer info to create targeted customer personas.
3. How a home technology provider used data to improve campaign performance.
4. How a candy manufacturer and distributor used info to enhance customer analytics and insights.
5. How a direct home goods marketer used enhanced data to achieve great results from a targeted Facebook campaign.

Note that this post is a summary of the Infogroup paper. You can download the full report, for (Read more...) from here.

Use case #1: How a behavioral marketing agency uses data to creating better client pitches

This first use case highlights a pitch to a regional insurance company from a behavioral marketing agency. The agency used Infogroup’s data to analyze a prospect file of hundreds of thousands of consumers, identifying custom audiences based on this data.

By using this info, the agency was able to demonstrate their ability to generate more leads. They won the business and went on to help the client achieve A 72% email append rate and an 11% lift in match rate over the control.

The insurance company ultimately exceeded their forecasted goals by 25%.

Understanding consumer behavior and audience insights is more important than ever. Savvy brands are looking for agency partners who have a deep understanding of the consumers they want to target.

To this end, Infogroup recommends that agencies pull as much audience data into the pitch process as possible by tapping into consumer data which can then be leveraged for the project if the business is won.

Use case #2: How a sports retailer used consumer data to create targeted customer personas

The second use case highlights how Infogroup worked with a luxury boating and water sports retailer to get a better understanding of their audience.

Using psychographic data, the retailer built customer personas that mirrored their target audiences’ preferences in yachting, boating and kayaking then developed relevant content based on these personas.

The company achieved remarkable results with this approach, with a 35% lift in repeat purchase rate, a 24% growth of their multichannel shopper segment and a 14% increase in active customers.

Customer data that includes qualifiers such as age, marital status, financial standing, location, and life events can help brands build strong personas to improve customer experience, make the right channel investment, and develop relevant messaging.

Use case #3: How a home technology provider used info to improve campaign performance

Yes Marketing, a division of Infogroup, worked with this connected home technology provider to create multichannel campaigns using existing customer data aimed at targeting audiences most likely to buy.

The goal of the campaign was to reach end consumers, rather than focusing on professional installers as they had in the past. The home tech provider further refined targeting using additional info including geography, weather, and other data points (e.g., a recent move).

Writes Infogroup, “To make retention models more accurate and effective, they should be supplemented with additional consumer data such as age, gender, presence of children, income, interests, and other insights to help build more comprehensive models. When these models are put into action, they should be monitored carefully and updated regularly to continually improve performance.”

This highly data-driven targeting approach yielded 78% more acquisitions for the home tech provider versus the previous year, with 40% of activations coming from professionally installed devices, bypassing “installers” of the technology and going straight to the homeowner—a key goal for the provider.

Creating customer acquisition and retention campaigns using a combination of third-party and first-party data including demographic, psychographic, geo-location, transactional, and life event data can help streamline campaign targeting, ensuring a more efficient and optimized campaign.

Use case #4: How a candy manufacturer and distributor used data to enhance customer analytics and insights

The manufacturer worked with Infogroup to enhance their existing customer info with third-party demographic info, enabling them to develop unique marketing strategies for three of their customer segments—Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandma.

They also identified a previously unrecognized male segment (e.g., the gift giver). By defining distinct segments within their customer base, they were able to make their content and messaging more relevant. The result was a 4% increase in email opens and a 25% increase in purchases.

One way that agencies can set themselves apart from their competitors, is to help their clients gain access to datasets and tools that enhance the client’s existing analytics capabilities.

By overlaying third-party data with campaign analytics, companies can gain insights that help optimize their campaigns, ensuring better results.

Use case #5: A direct home goods marketer uses enhanced data to achieve great results from a targeted Facebook campaign

A direct marketer of gift and home goods worked with Infogroup to gain insights from their customer data with the goal of increasing ROI from a holiday direct mail campaign. Their goal was to add an online component to their marketing outreach.

Infogroup worked with the retailer to define the audience, channel, and messaging for the online component of the campaign.

They did this by using their MGEN transactional database to identify online buyers within the company’s consumer database, creating lists that were uploaded to Facebook.

The resulting campaign achieved a 600% ROI on ad spend, 40% lift in reactivations, and a $127,000 increase in sales.

Most companies struggle with poor data quality which includes inaccurate, outdated, and inconsistent data as well as ineffective data management. Bad data is info that cannot be used for actionable intelligence.

Thus, providing data enrichment and processing services is an area where agencies can deliver value to their clients.

Data-smart agencies offer value

One of the best ways that agencies can offer value to their clients is by leveraging their expertise to help with the issues addressed in the above use cases—creating data-driven, intelligent pitches, developing personas, improving campaign performance, improving targeting to specific customer segments, and enhancing analytics and insights for better campaign planning and deployment.

Agencies that embrace data-driven marketing, analytics, and other services, will stand out from their competitors, and become true partners with brands and clients.

For more in-depth information about the above use cases, download Infogroup’s free guide from here.