Matchback Processing
If you do any kind of direct marketing, whether to your house file or prospects, you should be running matchback analysis. A matchback shows how each segment of your marketing database performed by comparing actual sales data back to the original list. This is especially useful to help you understand how your direct marketing drives your online sales. Even if you use source codes in your mailing, only a small percentage of those codes ever come back to you at the point of sale.
A matchback will:
- Show you how each segment of your list performed overall
- Allow you to compare different segments of your target market to each other
- Show you the best, and worst, performers in your marketing lists
- Tie your online sales back to your other marketing channels
- Quantify how your direct mail is driving your online sales
The secret to an accurate matchback is proper attribution. Or, to state it another way: matching the sale to the correct marketing piece that generated that sale. To achieve this you need clean, properly formatted data going into the process, so all possible matches are made. We apply our decades of data experience when preparing your files for the matchback, giving you the highest levels of attribution and accuracy.
Questions a matchback can answer:
- Which lists performed the best? Worst? So-so?
- Which lists hit your break-even?
- What was your average order for each list or segment?
- Which channel produced the best results from each list or segment?
- And lots more…
Armed with a solid understanding of what is working in your marketing, and what isn’t, you will be able to continually improve your efforts and enjoy higher ROIs and greater profitability.