Blog: analytics

Showing blogs: 1–12 of 12

Analytics: 2011 in Review and 2012 Predictions

Jan 2 2012

Now that the New Year is upon us it is time to review analytics in 2011 and look ahead to 2012.

2011 in review:

Analytics became a Sport: Several analytic competition sites became highly visible in 2011, the most prominent being Kaggle.com. These sites host analytic competitions that anyone can enter and provide a rich learning environment for both new and seasoned analytic professionals. The winners are not just those who place in the money - the winners are everyone who participates and learns within the community environment.

Moneyball and Analytics Hype: Speaking of sports, I'm a baseball fan so I naturally enjoyed the movie Moneyball. Analytics hype continued to climb in 2011 with the help of that movie. See this recent post for more on my thoughts on the state of analytics hype in 2011.

2011 was the year of R (an open sourced analytic solution widely regarded as one of the most powerful analytic tools available): Corporate adoption gained momentum in 2011, as the corporate analytic community continued to understand the power of the solution and myths such as it is not a tool for production environments were quickly debunked.
- 50% of the Kaggle.com winners used R

Customer Analytics, Hype or Reality?

Nov 30 2011

Customer Analytics seems to be one of the hottest topics in business today, with the newly coined 'Data Scientist' role in high demand. And with all hot topics there is hype and reality. The reality is that analytics can provide a big impact on bottom line profits. The hype is that it can provide a significant ROI in all environments. In most environments, you need three critical components for customer analytics to provide a significant impact:

The Case for End to End Enterprise Analytics

Oct 27 2011

There has been a lot of chatter in the analytics circles about the need for a Chief Analytics Officer (CAO). Increased focus on data driving insights that drive corporate revenue has brought this to the surface. However, the case for CAO highlights the need for End to End Enterprise Analytics. Organizations that have not been focused on analytics in the past see analytics as a system that spans operations to finance to marketing.

Customer Analytics > Optimizing Your Collection Efforts Part 3

Oct 25 2011

In a previous post I laid out the process to create the collections database and initial collections analytics during acquisition. This post will focus on how to utilize the database and analytics within proactive communications in order to optimize collection efforts then the ongoing tracking and enhancements required.

1. Treatment Strategies: Analytics alone will not enhance collections efforts. The predictive analytics and segmentation systems must be converted into actionable treatment strategies which will 1)reduce the cost of collections and 2)ultimately, minimize the outstanding debt through increased collection payments. Treatment examples which need to be setup and tied to each individual collections customers include (again, these are examples)

Turning audience data into revenue: Part I

May 6 2011

A few weeks ago Forrester released a case study on our efforts with client ESPN to maximize their audience data to drive marketing revenue. That prompted a post outlining what we believe to be the four fundamental drivers of value in the media industry, categorically (1) data volume, quality and value (2) targeted ad packages that are easy to sell (3) value models that prioritize your CRM efforts, and of course (4) the right supporting infrastructure.

The most critical advice we can give is, do not be overwhelmed by the amount or distributed nature of your data. You have to build on what's in place first, and in some instances you can have an actionable segmentation within 12-16 weeks. The consolidation and analysis of existing data alone can produce immediate insight while you lay the foundation for more scalable programs and packages. For instance, if you have minimal self-reported audience data to work with, there is still valuable information about behavior, affinity, and level of engagement in your anonymous data that can be used to deliver distinct segments of value. But how?

Increasing Marketing Complexity Demands Smart Outsourcing

Mar 23 2011

In an article in the Harvard Business Review a few years ago, Gail McGovern and John Quelch argued that outsourcing marketing can lead to better quality and lower costs. They were arguing this primarily in the context of analytics and direct marketing, since most companies did not have in-depth expertise within their organizations to scale and manage these functions effectively and efficiently.

Large Analytic Data Environments: What are your options?

Apr 15 2010

In a recently published article Online Analytics in Action I provided options for building and maintaining large online environments that allows you to analyze the date efficiently, and make the results actionable within all channels. The options presented may be extended to any large analytic data environment, and not just one that incorporates online data.

Fewer metrics, greater result

Feb 18 2010

Most marketers typically have mountains of data at their fingertips but often struggle to translate the stream of reports in their in-box to actionable outcomes for their business. These reports often reflect the competing interests of internal stakeholders. That's why when overhauling your measurement system we think it's critical to start by focusing the organization on one critical business metric.... one that marketing, sales, finance, and customer service can rally around. This might be a customer value or share of wallet metric, something each member of the organization feels it can move the needle on. Your entire framework should cascade from this clear corporate priority.

Offer Optimization Engine

Feb 4 2010

You may already have robust analytics that predict value, churn, bad debt & future customer interests. You may also have a robust customer database that may be used to glean additional insights and make the analytics actionable. That's great, but how do you determine which offer a customer should receive in all inbound and outbound channels (CSR, Web, direct mail,..)?

Care Not Cash

Oct 19 2009

We work with a fortune 100 financial services company that has over 10 million customers and a strong focus on marketing through their call centers. We were working with them on a contact management strategy for their high value segments, with particular emphasis on the call center where they'd been unable to translate some of the analytics insight they'd rolled into their direct mail and online programs. Call center reps were taught to sell, sell, sell and this mentality was actually hurting the firm with their most valuable customers.

Analytics > Brainpower versus Software power

Sep 30 2009

I have been asked my opinion many times by clients on whether to hire strong analytic talent or spend that money on GUI-based semi-automated analytic software that the business users may use. Both are costly so the answer should be based on ROI.

Campaign Attribution - Three Essential Links

Jun 17 2009

Campaign attribution analysis (i.e. figuring out which campaign is responsible for a sale) is one of the most difficult challenges in marketing. The links below should help you in your quest to understand the challenge and figure out an approach.

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