In my work with new customers I often find myself having to referee (sorry, facilitate) discussions between different bits of the organisation about what data they want to import into their email marketing system.

Many other companies get mired in the idea that if they’re going to have a system that can store lots of data then they should bring in every single piece of information they have about their customers. So the process moves incredibly slowly because everything gets put on hold until the master plan can be completed.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been told about the exciting new data warehouse project that’s in the pipeline and how it will mean that everything that anyone knows about customers will be automatically uploaded to a single location which can then be used for profiling and marketing. The trouble is that I don’t think I’ve yet encountered a single organisation that has actually accomplished it. There are so many kinks that have to be ironed out – particularly when things hinge on the idea that data has to flow through the system without any human intervention, which means throwing secure communications channels into the pot too.

It strikes me that too few companies take the pragmatic approach and work out what data is actually useful and not just interesting. Whenever I’m advising people now, I suggest that they try to work out the minimum that they need in order to achieve a significant proportion of their requirements. So if doing 100% of what someone wants would require an impossible data project, is it actually feasible to do 80% of the job instead if that means that the data can be easily sorted?

It’s always possible to add more data later – either pulled from back office systems or collected from customers themselves – and, to use another well-worn phrase, companies don’t want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good: in many cases they’d be much better off starting small and experimenting with just how well they can refine their online marketing with the minimum of data for personalisation and segmentation.

In this day and age, it is increasingly important for organisations to make good use of data for targeting in order to stand out from the crowd, but it is much more important just to get on with it rather than waiting for the perfect solution to arrive.

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About the Author

Kieran Cooper is a senior account manager for Lyris' UK office. Located in London, he is responsible for account management, implementation and support of Lyris online and email marketing solutions.

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