The principals at Drake Direct have a solid foundation in both data analytics and marketing to bring the best perspective to your business issues. Before any solution is proposed, the business problem is carefully considered by team members, individually and collectively, to ensure all aspects of the business issue are considered.

In addition, we strive to experience the dialogue with your brand as consumers, to find leverage points other quantitative firms might miss. By immersing ourselves in your brand we hope to find clues, and in the data we seek to find the answers. All with the goal of making your business stronger.

CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

A robust acquisition strategy is key to the health of any business. Drake Direct consults on a number of acquisition strategies from the management of online affiliate companies, to the development of prospect databases, to modeling strategies for customer acquisition.

With respect to modeling strategies Drake Direct can outline a couple of basic approaches :

– Clone modeling your best customers
– Test and regressing a target group

The specifics of these approaches vary by client with respect to other considerations such as the number of distinct consumer segmentsand the data available for consideration in the modeling process.

LIFETIME VALUE ANALYSIS & ROI

Lifetime Value Analysis (LTV) is essential in understanding the health of a customer file, yet it is an often overlooked analysis. LTV can provide an enterprise the ability to properly allocate their acquisition dollars so that the most valuable customer sources can be funded accordingly.

In addition to allowing the appropriate allocation of promotional dollars, LTV can be a kind of early warning metric. It can be a signal to address retention issues, or identify new acquisition sources where the LTV may be stronger.

Lifetime Value Analysis is even more valuable if the data from your customer file is robust enough to allow for the development of a predictive methodology for LTV. Such a process can provide an excellent means for the financial forecast of a business. Drake Direct has developed a methodology to predict LTV which provides enterprises the ability to successfully set an appropriate advertising mix to ensure an adequate ROI for all channels

RETENTION MANAGEMENT

Management of existing customers is much more cost efficient than continually acquiring new customers. The retention of customers begins by defining an expected or average tenure for a customer and then identifying how to extend it. In general retention management requires an initial benchmark by customer segment and is monitored for improvement or decline by ongoing reporting.

The effective retention of customers requires a combined approach of analysis and testing to first understand key groups who would be receptive to an extended relationship, and then testing the appropriate offer at the optimal time.

WEB ANALYTICS & DASHBOARDING

Today, it is a routine part of the purchase process to conduct internet searches online. Consumers regularly compare price and selection for products online. Even if their initial exposure to an offer is through Television or the mail, the next step in the sales process is investigation online. As one can image the old sales funnel from years ago has changed and is much more complex. Understanding at what point in the consideration phase the prospect is will help ensure success in obtaining that conversion.

This means that optimizing a website for search is critical. Optimizing for search means that pages are tagged with keywords that have meaning and pictures and images are tagged meaningfully as well. In addition, Drake Direct can evaluate your link strategy to assess whether your website is optimized for organic search. A competitive landscaping study can also prove valuable to understand where opportunities might exist.

Drake Direct can also help build reports, identify your companies KPI’s, and establish an effective dashboard for monitoring your web traffic on an ongoing basis. We use all software including Google Analytics and Omniture Sitecatalyst.

DATABASE CONSULTING

A customer database equipped with information for marketing is a corporate asset. Drake Direct consults with clients in the development and ongoing usage of marketing databases.

As power users of data, the consultants at Drake Direct can meet with your organization to understand what functions should drive off of a database. Following a needs assessment, Drake Direct can develop a list of requirements and assist client organizations in the development and managment of an RFP.

In addition, Drake Direct can conduct important database analyses while the database is being built so that when delivered, key findings and strategic direction can be communicated to key stakeholders shortening the time from database delivery to the return on investment of the project.

Drake Direct is sensitive to the issues surrounding an organization’s adoption of a database. When we partner with an organization on database development, we focus our attention on showing the value of the data.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND ANALYTICS

By the sheer growth of Facebook and Twitter, social media has quickly become a dominant element in direct to consumer marketing. Not only can a brand begin a dialogue with a consumer, but consumers who are highly engaged with a brand can become advocates on behalf of their favorite brands. These brand advocates offer huge opportunities for marketers, if only their influence is understood and harnessed properly. Drake Direct has been monitoring Social Media and measurement techniques as they relate to marketing organizations. The result is that although this is a dynamic media, there are particular use cases emerging and best practices associated with business model.

Drake Direct can provide insights and reporting to ensure that Social Media initiatives are focused and drive to a positive return on investment.

CORPORATE TRAINING

Through our ongoing work in teaching, both directly with clients and through our affliation with NYU, we at Drake Direct feel that the best way to improve the level of marketing expertise in our industry is through training the next generation of marketers.

Drake Direct will create custom training sessions for clients in the areas of our expertise:

– Analytic techniques
– SAS Programming
– Google Analytics
– Social Media Tools and Metrics
– Test design & Analysis
– Web Analytics & Dashboarding
– Omniture Sitecatalyst

Drake Direct can create custom content for your organization. Any of these topics can be presented from an introductory format to a more advanced and best practices format. We have years of effective and recognized training experience.

To learn more about training progrms offered by Drake Direct click here.