If you want to be competitive and grow your business then you must know everything you can about your customers.  Understanding the “profile” of your current customers is the best tool to improve your prospecting efforts for new customers.

What is a Customer Profile?

A customer profile is an analysis that uses internal and external marketing data to develop a profile of who your customers are. A customer profile provides valuable insights into the key factors that determine who buys your product, what they are like, and how you
can reach them.

Not all customers are alike, so a profile analysis will help you define different customer segments that might be based on products purchased, purchasing behavior, or external demographic and lifestyle information.  With a customer profile, your customers will begin to look more like real people with personalities who you can develop a marketing dialogue with.

A customer profile can be based a wide variety of data from multiple sources, both internal and external.  Here are some of the most common elements used:

• Internal Information:
• Geographic Data: Physical Address
• Transaction Data: Products Purchased, Recency/Frequency of Purchase, Value of Purchase, Sales Channel
• External Information:
• Demographic Data: Age, Gender, Income, Marital Status, Presence of Children, Ethnicity
• Lifestyle Data: Interests, Hobbies, Occupation, Education
• Purchasing Data:  Mail Order Buyer, Purchase Categories, Purchase Channel
• Trigger-Event Data: Change in Marital Status, Birth of a Child, Relocation, Birthday

A profile analysis combines all of this information to yield valuable information to better understand your customers, predict future buying behavior, and increase sales from existing and new customers.

Getting Started

Creating a customer profile can be accomplished by working with a list or database company with experience in data enhancement and analytics.  All that is required is for you to provide a copy of your customer file that includes your customer contact information and transaction history. 

The profile is created by matching the records on your customer file against a national consumer or household database.  Once the match is completed, the computer-generated  profile is created.  It is the profile report that opens the door to an in-depth understanding of your customers.  It identifies key attributes that influence purchasing decisions for your products, and helps you to see your customers as coherent individuals.  Most importantly, it can help you understand discreet customer segments.  For instance, your online customers may have a very different profile than your mail order customers.

A customer profile generates a wealth of data that can be used for analysis and also to directly impact your marketing efforts and results.  Here are some of the ways you can use the data:

• Identify unique customer segments for more targeted marketing campaigns.

• Append the data to your customer records and import it back into your customer database to enhance your internal marketing to your customer file.
• Improve your marketing efforts to find new customers by using information on prime geography for local advertising, the types of ad publications with the best affinity for your product, and better list selections to increase your mailing and email results.

• Append additional contact information such as phone number and email address to extend the reach of your multi-channel marketing efforts.
• Take advantage of data hygiene services offered by your data partner to NCOA and CASS-certify your file.  This will give you more accurate and deliverable mailing addresses and reduce your postage costs.

Creating a customer profile is often one of the most overlooked yet cost-effective ways to boost revenue and increase profitability. By applying these proven marketing methods to your own marketing program, you will…

• Gain an in-depth understanding of your customers
• Increase the response to your marketing campaigns
• Reduced your marketing costs
• Increase your sales revenue
• Increase your ROI

For additional information on creating a customer profile, contact your Acxiom IBLE Express Account Team at 866-977-6018 or email us at IBLExpress@Acxiom.com.

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