A leading Agency specialising in the charity sector found that much of the data for their client’s mailings was not performing.

They also established that whilst a wider selection of data sources and providers was being used they were often ending up with the same Prospects being mailed.

Whilst some discounts had been negotiated with data suppliers the costs for the data being purchased was not receiving any significant discounts.

It was agreed that a new solution was required that would address these issues.

 
 
A Prospect Pool was needed that would contain a large number of records along with key selectors and discriminators.

Working with a media buyer, 30 million records from three of the UK's main data providers were sourced.

The data suppliers were not chosen based on coverage but different types of data.

One provided comprehensive lifestyle and demographic information, the second contained mail order purchasing information and the third, financial and wealth data.

All data was consolidated into one database, the Prospect Pool.

By matching files of the Agency’s clients against the Prospect Pool all current donor’s could be excluded but more importantly the data was Profiled, key selectors identified and models created for scoring purposes.

The Scored data was then output and used for prospect mailings.

In some cases ‘control cells’ were output that contained records with low scores for testing purposes to ensure the accuracy of the models being applied.

Details of previous outputs (Order History) were factored into the models and ensured that multiple outputs of the same record were minimised.

Results of each mailing were analysed and used to further enhance the models and scoring.

 
 
a)  Bottom line response rates to campaigns increased.
b)  Contracts for client’s account’s were extended.
c)  The actual cost per Prospect reduced, meaning the overall cost per item mailed also reduced.
d)  By having a greater control over the data being used it meant the Agency’s clients could target different prospects.
e)  Response Analysis was not just simplified but provided more pertinent and actionable information.
f)  A single source of Prospects, which gave a significant reduction in time the Agency’s personnel had previously spent with data suppliers. In addition the subsequent invoicing and payments for data was simplified.
g)  The Profiling gave the charity client’s greater insight into their own data.
h)  Case studies, based on using the Prospect Pool, were presented to prospective clients and helped win new business.
 
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