It's Friday the 13th. I'm closing up. Ready to go home and enjoy the weekend with my family.
Perhaps we'll see re-runs tonight of the old slasher movie which has memorialized this infamous Friday. Is it Freddie Kruger or Michael Meyers? I don't know which one to worry about. That's my problem I guess.
It's also true that I may be running the risk of appearing contrary to e-mail marketing and the chase for data supremacy. This 'losing the forest through the trees' stuff in my last post may make some you smile at me as naive and out of step. Especially with my last posting to this space. But, I've got to follow up once more. The subject of harvesting data, perhaps at the expense of strategy, remains unresolved. Which is probably useful to me in continuing to pique my curiosity.
Today I found one more "Email Insider" article from Media Post (11/16/06, by Amy D'Oliveira entitled "Going On A Data Diet") while wandering through my little binder of good stuff. She brings three points to the table on how to differentiate between the "interesting 'so what' and the actionable 'now what'... when looking at all the performance data, and how to tell the difference. Here's her key action points...
• Define program succss measures upfront and identify the relevant metrics.
• Track these metrics over time and keep them consistent.
• When data mining, ask the hard question: "what will we do with this information to improve our program?"
With more information coming along so quickly and readily through the digital dashboard on emailings, you have a choice of how to analyze your data and what you're going to pay attention to it, based on your strategic goals. In essence, you still need an overall strategy to guide you in digesting all this information and fine tuning your program.
The abundance of data, now so quickly harvested, easily accessed and analyzed (correctly we hope) brings real prospects for automated marketing. But the essential questions shall always start with the customer and the individuality of their relationship to the product.
That's it. That part isn't going to go away any time soon. We're dealing with people and not just data. There is an essential level of psychology and understanding which must preceed, any key stragegy decision.
To investigate and ask questions, even if they're rhetorical, is compelling to my interest in writing these entries.
So, who's it going to be: Kruger or Meyers?
Which slasher do you fear the most?
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