Enhanced Database Improves Direct Marketing Efficiency and Accuracy

The Challenge: 

Our client, Pitney Bowes, needed help to streamline internal client databases and match processes. We had to integrate:

  • Internal customer billing databases (3.5 million business customers, 10s of millions of records)
  • SAS Institute database marketing module
  • Purchased contact list (100s of 1000s of corporate officer names).
  • Matching and business “householding” that left too many clients, even in the Fortune 500, without adequate contact matches.
  • Major corporations billing data that was split across business “households”.
  • Large analytical variances and direct marketing conflicts.
Our Solution: 

PNT addressed Pitney’s data integration and direct marketing challenges by 

  • Creating custom matching and household algorithms including:
    • Improving householding by a combination of better matching techniques, use of more matching keys, and purchase of lists which contained match keys not in the Pitney data
    • Improving match to contact lists by a combination of better matching techniques and changing the suite of lists purchased to acquire more matchable data
  • Enhancing the database loaded into the SAS module monthly
  • Supporting direct marketing image campaigns in multiple channels, including: events, mail, phone, email, and sales officer calls.
The Results: 

Within a year of implementation, PNT helped Pitney decrease data fragmentation and increase the effectiveness and accuracy of direct marketing programs by:

  • Increasing matching to external lists by > 50 percent
  • Reducing under-householding by > 15 percent
  • Increasing the quality of householding using internal organization charts to discover additional matches
Key Results: 

Improved direct marketing efficiency and accuracy by improving match rates to external lists by over 50 percent and reducing under-householding by over 15 percent