Tracking down goneaways is a recognised problem for the marketer but it is rarely acted upon. Now Equifax Plc is launching Database Advance, a powerful new tool designed to tackle the issue. Embracing technology used to create Equifax's recently launched Lifestyle Advance*, Database Advance not only puts marketers back in touch with gone-away customers and prospects, it provides additional means for businesses to tailor communications to that customer.
Through Equifax's Database Advance finding gone-aways could not be simpler. First Equifax helps businesses identify which of their customers have gone away from their last known address by using the 2004 Edited Electoral Roll, Rolling Register data or other opted-in** data sources. With its vast database of information, Equifax can then find address links, alias names and individual level match-keys to find the new address of the goneaway and, uniquely, the new name if it has changed. Once the data is cleansed it provides the company with a unique database tailored to their own marketing needs.
Graham Arrowsmith, market development director of Equifax comments, "Database Advance offers businesses a chance to communicate with customers or former prospects about which they may hold all kinds of information except - critically - where they live now.
"Never before have marketers had the opportunity to communicate with people who have gone-away and been re-found in such numbers."
Once Equifax returns a cleansed database, the company can opt to enhance the data by matching back information such as transactional and lifestyle data. This means companies are able to tailor marketing messages, making communications far more relevant to a customer's current position, avoiding the trap of treating these individuals as virtual strangers. Moreover, CRM return on investment is vastly improved by reconnecting businesses with customers and prospects, releasing otherwise lost investment in data previously filed on that customer at their previous address.
Graham Arrowsmith continues; "This product is a real breakthrough for marketers. The age of "recovery marketing" is upon us. The power of Database Advance means direct marketers can now effectively communicate with people who have migrated from customer or prospect databases and this will create a new brand of marketing communication to recent goneaways."
*Database Advance was created from processes used to create Equifax's successful Lifestyle Advance product, a joint lifestyle data product developed with Claritas Acxiom. By integrating data from Claritas Acxiom's extensive consumer data resource Equifax identified over 6 million previous survey respondents and has made some of these available in the list rental and data enhancement arena.
**Public opt-in confirmation provides full consent for marketing purposes.
