Real Data - What it's got.
So what is Real Data? It's data that has been collected on an individual or household basis and gives actual information about that individual or household. In essence, it tells you what somebody is like, what they have, have not or have done...
Why can we provide it? Because we're responsible for collecting and aggregating data from a wide variety of sources, such as the electoral roll. We hold a wealth of data specific to individuals and are constantly on the lookout for additional real datasets that complement our core offering. All data undergoes a thorough evaluation by our award-winning Predictive Sciences team who verify the quality and predictiveness of the data.
Why is it so special? Real data is special because it tells you more about the customer that any other type of data. This allows you to build up a more accurate picture of your customer base and allows you to start segmenting customers and planning campaigns based on those specific attributes. It's pointless segmenting your customers for example, by the types of loans and credit cards they have unless you can measure those characteristics.
And once you can measure characteristics accurately and segment your customers, you can start thinking about event based marketing; tracking changes in Real Data (what we call Dynamic Real Data) and using those changes to position product. Do this effectively and there's a huge potential for increasing campaign returns.
What sort of Real Data do we hold? At Equifax we hold Real Data on people, household composition, credit information subject to the access permissions, information on house movers, people who are considering moving, those who were unsuccessful in moving and the movers anniversary, information on life-stage which we call attainers and rich consumer transactional data.
What it's not.
If we've got Real Data, what has everybody else got? The alternative to Real Data is what we call inferred data. It's formulated from information provided by a relatively small sample of respondents and is then extrapolated over the UK marketing universe using a set of sophisticated modelling techniques.
So why is inferred data different to real data? Inferred data may well be predictive - that's the purpose of the overlay modelling, but the fundamental difference is that with inferred data, any particular customer might not conform to the data attribute. It is not possible to successfully deliver event based marketing with inferred data, as inferred data does not tell you that a specific event has happened to a particular person - Real Data does. We're not saying that you shouldn't use inferred data; just that it has its limitations and you should recognise them.
Dynamic Real Data - the Holy Grail of marketing
What's the difference between Real Data and Dynamic Real Data? Dynamic Real Data is all about change. Say you had a database built with real data that told you your customer's address. Wouldn't you be interested in knowing if they were about to or had recently moved? The data elements that update the home status of the customer are Real Data, but they are highly valuable right now or in other words have a high time value - we call this data Dynamic Real Data.
OK so it's up to the minute Real Data, so what? Dynamic Real Data is valuable to marketers as it is one of the few resources available that supports event-based marketing campaigns. Event-based marketing campaigns rely on positioning a product or service as a result of a particular event or insight about a customer. Pitching products where they're relevant gives you a far better chance of the customer buying and less of a chance that somebody else will be making the same pitch. Because of this we call our Dynamic Real Data Marketing Alerts and Triggers.
Does this mean that in a few years time everybody will be selling Marketing Alerts and Triggers? Actually not. Delivering Alerts and Triggers isn't easy. You need the ability to collect and manipulate large amounts of Real Data on a daily basis, then the processing power to work out what attributes have changed and finally the technology to deliver the appropriate data to clients on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. That's no mean feat in terms of competency but it's something we're used to doing with our credit risk business.
Find out how real data can solve your marketing issues.
