You Beta, You Beta, You Bet

A FEW TRENDS have come to light in our semiannual roundup of new database products. Most strikingly, the advent of increasingly powerful desktop computers has allowed companies with small and midsize databases to bring management in-house.

Second, when commenting on purchased programs, beta testers cited the ability to use the programs right out of the box-often reading the instructions only after they had mastered the basics through trial and error. Finally, database and campaign management functions are becoming increasing ly intertwined, both in off-the-shelf and customized programs.

Almost as interesting as the products are the reasons why companies are using them. As such, we have let beta testers and new customers speak about their experiences.

Market Strategist, a demographic market analysis tool from Waltham, MA-based iMarket Inc., debuted in May. The software’s strength is business-to-business sales support. Strategist overlays a business’s existing customer locations and behavior with 11 million Dun & Bradstreet company profiles, allowing users to gauge market penetration against the potential market.

The D&B data also gives marketers ready-made lists of prospects within the target areas. Strategist’s profiling features allow users to analyze characteristics of their best customers against comparable businesses. A conversion analysis feature allows marketers to follow their leads from initial contact to full-fledged customer status.

The program was beta tested by Community Newspaper Co., Needham, MA, a publisher of 111 periodicals throughout eastern Massachusetts. Community Newspaper was looking for a way to rate and increase the efficiency of its sales staff. Management realized that a high performer in an area replete with sales opportunities might actually be outdone by a rep who brought in slightly less in an area with many fewer targets.

Community Newspaper used Strategist to identify the top 25 business types in each market that traditional community newspaper advertisers target, including home improvement stores, automobile dealers, banks and furniture. Each was evaluated as to its potential, whether a current advertiser, a non-advertiser, or a business that advertises with a competitor. Targeted sales material went to each based on its status.

Was the test successful? “We decided to buy the damn thing,” says vice president, research and marketing David Larson.

The sales program is being expanded from the initial test to across the company. Larson hopes to convert 10% of the identifiable prospects in each target area.

MarketFirst MarketFirst, Santa Clara, CA, has released a suite of applications that enables marketers to combine Web marketing with analysis functions. The program features campaign management modules that allow marketers to create interactive documents supporting e-mail attachments, HTML content, online surveys and mail merge functions.

Information within the database can be viewed as lists, segment cross-sections or profile reports. A contact manager module allows captured survey results to be viewed at a glance, as well as marketing campaign activity and result tracking.

Deepak Natarajan, vice president of marketing for Seeker Software in Oakland, CA, saw results from the program within weeks of installation. After gathering lists of prospects, an initial set of questions sent by e-mail allowed the company to determine which level of contact was most appropriate, either through a live agent or through invitation to a seminar. “We [no longer] have to leverage the company to the entire field sales operation,” says Natarajan.

Once qualified, the campaign manager feature further allows Seeker to boost response rates to its sales seminars. Seeker found that if it did not leave enough time between its direct mail solicitation and the event, the invitation might languish at the bottom of an executive’s in-box. However, a solicitation mailed too far in advance caused respondents to sign up, and then either forget about the seminar or schedule something over it. The immediacy of an e-mail campaign eliminated these timing problems. Seeker began to send out e-mail solicitations 72 hours in advance of its seminars, and immediately realized a 16% jump in “show up” rates.

Metromail Metromail’s COIN (Computer Online Information Network) has been used by nonprofit fundraisers since 1984. Two new features of the 1998 version are a Windows-based interface and its ability to take advantage of the nonprofit industry’s free Internet access.

But it is the donor management functions that drive the usefulness of this application. Fundraisers need to consolidate-yet still distinguish between-various types of donors, including time volunteers, those who have responded to direct mail solicitations, and those who have named the nonprofit organization as a beneficiary in their will.

“Old COIN wasn’t very user-friendly,” says Chris Cleghorn, senior vice president of DM at Chicago-based Easter Seals. “The new one is point and click, and the old one was menu driven.” On top of that, the new system, designed with the input of fundraisers, features data fields that didn’t exist in earlier versions, such as number of children or grandchildren, education level and employment status.

“The key really is that the database is the tool to store more information,” says Cleghorn. With data provided by an age overlay, donors who would previously have been noted only for their contribution profiles can be targeted for planned giving programs or estate gifts.

But the online nature of the system, which is housed at Metromail’s Lombard, IL headquarters, also allows for instantaneous report generation, as opposed to waiting a month or more between updates on an offline system.

MySoftware MySoftware Co., Palo Alto, CA, may be the firm that brings database marketing to what Leona Helmsley termed “the little people.” The company has released MyDataBase, an off-the-shelf program capable of storing up to 5,000 records, with 250 data fields per record. Preformatted templates include customer contacts, membership lists and home inventories-for a suggested retail price of under $30 each.

The Baton Rouge, LA division of Toughlove International had the need for a database thrust upon it by Ann Landers, who mentioned the nonprofit parent support group in one of her advice columns. Denise Emmons, who coordinates southern U.S. regional activities for Toughlove, thought her region would receive 100 or so requests for information, allowing her to continue using her rudimentary database and mailing list, which she had created in Microsoft Word’s mail merge feature. Of the 8,000 responses the Doylestown, PA headquarters received, 1,000 fell within the southern United States.

“They came to me in a microwave box,” she remembers.

Emmons headed to a local office supply store for help. “I was going to rent a geek, but none of the kids could do it.”

But one of them did steer her to MyDataBase. After inputting queries from concerned parents across the Southeast, Emmons was able to make location recommendations for new chapters of Toughlove and coordinate a member reactivation campaign for her division. A postcard-based donor solicitation program capable of tracking responses is in the works.

Paragren Technologies One-by-One Application Server (the system formerly known as Racer) is a “relationship builder” that combs through data warehouses and creates segments appropriate for targeting purposes. These segments are then viewable by custom-generated criteria, which can be created without extensive querying and changed at will. The segmentation and the querying can be done at a single pass, reducing both programming and running time.

The legacy system used by Arbella Insurance Group, Quincy, MA, could not provide the relationship analysis needed for a new launch: automobile insurance marketed directly to the consumer. Paragren’s program allowed Arbella to develop models and apply them to a prospect and consumer list.

Theoretically, Arbella’s direct marketing manager Karen Gross says, all 1 million households in Connecticut-the company’s test market for its direct-sold auto insurance-are potential customers. The program allows them to profile the 4,000 policies the company currently has in hand and apply a predictive model against that base-not only for appropriate candidates for the product but for those with a propensity to buy direct.

Historically, Arbella has sold insurance through its agents. “With an agent sales force, you have a salesperson sizing up risk. Since we don’t have the sales force [for this program] we rely solely on the data collected at the quote process, along with demographic augmentation from outside sources.”