New E-segmentation System from KnowledgeBase

KnowledgeBase Marketing and its parent company Wunderman have recently unveiled Digital Neighborhoods, a unique tool that segments consumers by their online behaviour - the amount of time they spend online and the purpose for which they use the Internet.

Digital Neighborhoods segments consumers into 17 clusters giving marketers an innovative way to customize their offers and messages to increase response to targeted marketing programmes. These Digital Neighborhoods segments are immediately available for data enhancement and list rental.

Digital Neighborhoods examines consumers in their terrestrial world and in cyber space. By combining online intelligence gleaned from actual click stream data with demographic, lifestyle and transactional data from KnowledgeBase Marketing's AmeriLINK national consumer database, statistical analysts classified consumers into segments by e-involvement - their presence, relationships and transactions online. The resulting Digital Neighborhoods predictive model offers 17 clusters that describe consumer digital behaviour from sporadic surfing to a propensity to visit secure sites.

'Digital Neighborhoods reveals unique insight into how and why consumers embrace the Internet. Once you understand what digital neighborhood your customers and prospects live in, it's easier for you to communicate with them in a meaningful way,' says Heidi Lanford, senior vice president of analytics at KnowledgeBase Marketing. 'Your messages become more relevant and targeted in the channel they prefer.'

Joint research conducted by KnowledgeBase Marketing and Wunderman revealed that direct marketers face increasing challenges optimizing responses to email campaigns due to:

• Increased volume causing consumer dissatisfaction
  
• Higher bounce rates due to list age and churn
  
• Multiple addresses resulting in mail duplication and reader fatigue
  
• Lack of relevancy from not recognizing different online behaviour.

To combat these marketing challenges, KnowledgeBase Marketing and Wunderman developed Digital Neighborhoods to help marketers understand and address both the terrestrial and digital aspects of consumer behaviour. 'Email is still a great way to reach out to your customers and prospects cost-effectively,' says Chip Walker, executive vice president for strategy and business development at Wunderman. 'But to optimise your email campaigns, you must understand what drives a consumer to the Internet and what he does - and doesn't do - when he logs on. Digital Neighborhoods is the first segmentation tool on the market that takes both offline and online behaviour into consideration.'

Digital Neighborhoods helps marketers to identify customers who can be easily migrated to an online relationship and to find prospects or customers who use the Internet for specific activities. With this intelligence, marketers can further engage their audience through customised messaging, recognise individuals who would consider a technology or Internet-related product, and identify segments likely to respond to an email campaign targeted to their stage of life.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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