Benefits of Real-Time Data Services for Online Marketers

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1 By Kelly Idol, Vice President Regional Sales and Jarom Hagen, Vice President Information Technology

2 Businesses are generating thousands of leads each month by driving traffic to data collection web forms. When speed to market is key, or your organization relies on the information provided to initiate multi-channel marketing campaigns, you need to ensure that the data you are working with is accurate. Prospects entering information into web forms can intentionally or unintentionally provide inaccurate data. This affects a marketer s ability to connect with the lead via all channels. It also results in additional postage and printing costs for leads with bad addresses, wasted time of call center agents when a phone number is inaccurate, and wasted costs for deployment to undeliverable addresses, or even blacklisting issues, if too many undeliverable addresses are sent to individual domains. Real-time validation and append services ensures that the data you add to your marketing database, or for online segmentation and targeting is accurate. What can you verify or append with Relevate real-time services? Many of Relevate s time-tested and trusted Telematch services are available, as well as services newly developed to meet the needs of today s online marketers: Prospects entering information into web forms can intentionally or unintentionally provide inaccurate data. Data Verification and Append Telematch append or verify residential phone numbers Bizmatch append or verify business phone numbers Addressmatch residential or business name and phone number append or verification using a street address and zip code Reversematch append a business name or individual name and address by phone number

3 Address Verify verification and/or correction of a US addresses. The return result is a correct US address with a zip + 4 Area Code Verification verify that the area code provided matches the zip code DNC Verification flag records on the National do-not-call file Disconnect Verification flag records that match the current phone disconnect database Reversematch append a name and address when an address is provided append or verify an address Demographic Append append demographics to consumer records, or firmographics to business records IP Address/ Zip Match submit an IP address and receive the city, state, zip code, longitude and latitude (of the zip code) in return (approximately 50% of IP addresses have an exact city/state/zip code match and the other 50% will be in a zip code nearby) Analytics Relevate Performance Indicator (RPI) append Relevate s RPI indicator to consumer records. RPI distributes any universe into 10 segments based on each record s propensity to respond and propensity to pay. Marketers can select or omit records from the 10 segment scale based on overall objectives. Correct data as it is being captured. Customized Response and/or Good Customer Match regression model scoring. The models are built offline using Relevate s zip + 4 and summarized credit data (using over 400 data variables as input) then applied to the Real Time Data Services menu of options. Scoring using customer s own internally created zip + 4 models. Key Benefits Correct data as it is being captured. Prevent fraudulent data entry. Save postage and printing costs on direct mail make sure you have complete and correct address information so that your mail piece is delivered.

4 Save time and money by ensuring accurate phone numbers for call centers or sales teams. Avoid fines and consumer bad will for telemarketing to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry and to cell phones without permission. service fees and deliverability issues ensure that the address you collect is valid. Create and deliver targeted messages based on the profile of the prospect. Findings As a way to mitigate the large number of people that enter their incorrectly, a number of sites are now requiring users to enter their twice. Others require users to click on a link sent to their address to verify that the address is correct. Typos can be made in all fields of a form. The Name, Address, Telephone and could all have typos. By using a key element such as a telephone number to lookup the data, users do not have to fill in the forms and that will result in fewer mistakes in your marketing database. Here are some findings based on actual data from Relevate real-time services processing: How many ways can you misspell Yahoo.com? At least 50! Our checker programs have caught and corrected misspellings like YAAHOO.COM, YAHHO.COM and YAHOO.CMO In a check of valid (dialable) phone numbers o 92% were valid o 7% did not have enough indicators to confirm a valid number o 1% were invalid How Real-Time Services Work Real-time service transactions occur in sub-second time while your website visitor is on your site. Lead Verification Contact Information: For instance, if a lead comes in for a specific product, a marketing campaign might include an instant acknowledgement with a special offer, followed by a phone call from a sales consultant, while at the same time a catalog is dropped in the mail.

5 The information entered into the web form might look like: First Name Last Name Address 1 Address 2 J Smithson 1821 Elm St. City Evanston State IL Zip smithy@yahoo.com Phone By sending this data in real time for append and verification, the prospect s first name is appended, the zip+4 for his address as well as the missing apartment number are added, an alternate address is identified, and a mistyped phone number is corrected. Data returned would look like: Supplied Data Returned Data First Name J John Last Name Smithson Smithson Address Elm St Elm St. Address 2 Apt. 2B City Evanston Evanston State IL IL Zip smithy@yahoo.com jsmithson@comcast.net Phone Real time web services allow for the validation and/or correction of data in real time as each individual form is submitted.

6 In this case the intelligence gained from the information validation allows the sales consultant to address the prospect on the phone by his first name, ensures that the call goes through since the phone number was corrected, and alerts the sales consultant to confirm a preferred address. In addition, during the phone validation process, if the phone number was identified as a cell phone, or was flagged on the National Do Not Call file, the record could be flagged to bypass a phone call. Plus the catalog stands a better chance of being delivered with the added apartment number. Lead Segmentation Targeted Messaging: Taking the process one step further, marketers may segment follow up messaging based on the target demographics of a prospect. Let s say an insurance company drives traffic to a web page offering life insurance products. Based on the demographics of the prospect, they will send a particular message. The company has worked with a modeling and analytics group and knows that prospects who fall into various categories via a modeled score, respond better to a particular offer: Offer A - ensure that important assets are covered Offer B - ensure that your family is cared for Offer C - life insurance that builds cash value Offer D - low cost life insurance protection Offer E - will your children be able to afford a college education? Married males over age 35 Married males under age 40 with children Married males age 40+ with children Married females with children Females under age 50 Females age 50+ All other males Offer A Offer B Offer E Offer B Offer C Offer D Offer C By sending the data collected in the web services form - which can be as little as a name/ , name/address, or name/phone number - key demographics can be appended and then scored via the model. This transaction occurs in sub-second time so the best message can be sent to the prospect.

7 Technology Integrating real-time services is easy and is operating system neutral. It s as simple as sending a service processing request. Depending on the services you choose, data will be standardized, verified and/or appended, and scored. Data is returned in XML which allows you to use the data as you wish and is secured by using SSL. This insures that you and the Web Services server are the only entities that can see the data which is sent and received. Relevate offers two types of real-time applications: SOAP with an XML request that is embedded in client application software to communicate with our servers in real-time. Clients can login to the Relevate website and use their browser to obtain information in real-time. * * * About Relevate Relevate builds, manages and analyzes marketing data to arm you with behavioral targeting and data drive solutions so you can implement targeted offers that deliver meaningful value to your customer so that they will spend more, buy more and be more responsive. We offer real-time and web-based digital delivery platforms, combined with your unique business rules. Our service is world class.