Monthly Archives: November 2008

Offline Engagement Modeling

DataBase Marketing, Measuring Engagement, Newsletters,

Jim answers more questions from fellow Drillers

Want to see additional questions & answers from fellow Drillers?

Here’s the blog archive; the pre-blog email newsletter archives are here.

Q:  In our business (airline) – particularly on the loyalty side – we’ve been using both RFM as well as lifetime and current cumulative totals.  For instance in our mileage program, we look at both lifetime miles earned and used as well as current balance. 

Does that seem appropriate?

A:  Well, I guess the question is appropriate for what purpose, what action are you driving to?

For example, if you were to divide metrics into “strategic” and “tactical”, meaning “for management / long-term planning” and “for campaigns / taking short-term action” then you get different answers.

Continue reading Offline Engagement Modeling →

Webcast on Web Intelligence 11/19

Analytical Culture, Analytics Education, DataBase Marketing, Web Analytics

Speaking of Web Intelligence, if you are interested in experiencing what the world of web analytics looks like when it meets Business Intelligence, the WAA and our Certificate partner for Web Intelligence, UC Irvine, are doing a Free webcast on this topic. 

Jim Humphrys has the research on salaries and demand in the sector, Shaina Boone of Critical Mass is the practitioner who has both taken the Certificate classes and is applying this knowledge in the real world, and Bernie Jeltema is a UCI Instructor for the Certificate classes.

Here’s the official description:

UCI Webinar: Certificate in Web Intelligence
Wednesday 19-Nov-08 2:30 PM to 3:30 PM EDT

Web Intelligence is a combination of web analytics and business intelligence. As companies expand their reach into the global marketplace, the need to analyze how customers use their web sites to learn about products and make buying decisions is becoming increasingly critical for survival and success.  Wondering how to position yourself for these career opportunities and how specific coursework can be valuable?  This planning session will provide pre-registration educational and career advancement advisement. Also learn more about the web intelligence certificate program, courses being offered in upcoming quarters, and career planning resources available through the UC Irvine Extension and the University of British Columbia, Continuing Studies

  • Jim Humphrys, WL Gore, co-chair, WAA Research Committee
  • Shaina Boone, Critical Mass
  • Bernie Jeltema, Instructor in Business Intelligence, consultant in field

    • To register visit: http://unex.uci.edu/certificates/it/web_intel/

    On this page, you can either sign up to “Stay Informed” about the program (green bar) or Register for the webcast in the box below this bar, which is called Web Intelligence Education Planning Session.

    Lab Store: Frequent Buyer Analysis

    DataBase Marketing, Lab Store

    Every year just before the holiday season we take a look at the customer database for the Lab Store – the online retail biz my wife runs – and see what’s up with 10x or more buyers.

    I often prefer to look at “worst case” data when doing customer analysis; this way you don’t over-estimate the Potential Value of the business going forward.  The beginning of the 4th Quarter is a good time to do this since “holiday” really hasn’t kicked in yet, so you don’t have those buying influences skewing the natural activity in the customer database.

    At the end of September, we took a look at all customers, no matter when they became customers,  who have purchased from us at least 10 times - a best customer analysis.  Considering a “year” to be 9/30 to 9/29,  we bucketed them by when their last purchase was – past year, 2 years ago, 3 years ago, 4 or more years ago (the business started 5 years ago).

    Here are the results:

    Last purchase date was in               Percentage of all 10x or more Buyers

    9/30/07 -  9/29/08                                 75%

    9/30/06 -  9/29/07                                 12%

    9/30/05 -  9/29/06                                   8%

    9/30/04 -  9/29/05                                   5%

    If this data is still confusing, the second line above would read, “Of all customers who have ever bought 10x or more, 12% last purchased in the period 9/30/06 -  9/29/07.

    Continue reading Lab Store: Frequent Buyer Analysis →