Marketers today must touch consumers with consistent and relevant messages across multiple channels. Consumers expect their interactions with individual businesses to have consistent experiences, whether that interaction is via a smartphone, retail store, a company’s webpage or a direct mail communication. Moreover, consumers expect interactions to be relevant to their individual preferences and interests.

A reflection of this growing consumer demand for relevancy is found in a 2015 InfoTrends’ survey of US consumers. The top two reasons why consumers open direct mail are first an interest in the specific services or products being sold and second the inclusion of information that reflect personal needs and interests. For marketers, data is a key enabling factor behind efforts towards consistent and relevant consumer experiences.

Increasingly, marketing professionals, and indeed enterprises as a whole, are striving to find more effective ways to manage vast amounts of ever growing customer data. InfoTrends’ new multi-client study entitled Lead with Data: Follow with Print will deliver insights into the data driven strategies required to reach consumers. It will analyze marketing requirements for an array of data services and the skills required for delivery. It will identify essential services and technologies for vendors and providers in a data driven world.

Overarching goals of the study include:

• Building awareness with print service providers of importance of data services as a critical component of the print/marketing services providers overall business model
• Educating print/marketing services providers on the technology, partners, skills and investments required for participation in data services; outline pricing strategy and business models
• Providing a framework for equipment and software suppliers to provide appropriate tools and resources to support print/marketing services provider success in a data driven world; deliver more print volume.

“This study will provide insights for vendors and service providers that compete in the direct marketing marketplace,” says Barb Pellow, group director at InfoTrends. “It will help them understand how data is changing marketing initiatives and campaigns, evolving business models, unmet needs and how to position themselves to exploit opportunities that arise from data driven change.”