Methods of data capture

What is already available?

With advancements in modern technology, businesses are now shifting away from manual data entry towards automated data capture, both demographic and behavioural. Fast, accurate and largely inexpensive, automated data capture can save businesses a lot of time and money. So what are some of the methods currently available to companies?

Forms

• Website/newsletter sign up forms
• Social media sign up forms
• Multi stage forms
• Progressive profiling
• Gated content
• Point of sale sign ups

Behavioural tracking

• Website behavioural tracking
• Post purchase data

Promotion and advertising

• PPC advert extensions
• Competitions, viral campaigns and surveys
• SMS sign up
• In store or at events

Character recognition

• Optical character recognition (OCR)
• Intelligent character recognition (ICR)

Don’t forget...

• Your account management or customer service team!

Challenges of data capture

When implementing a data capture strategy, there are several challenges which must be overcome. Aside from the fundamental issues of capturing data including missing pages, blank fields, spelling mistakes and incorrect variables, issues with the setup of the forms can lead to collection of inaccurate data. Free text fields in web forms require manual, real-time validation and should be avoided where possible as they allow for numerous variations in their responses. Questionable data quality can render the data as null and void, or alternatively result in expensive cleansing campaigns.

Stages 1 + 2

Broadcasters & Segmenters

For the Broadcasters and Segmenters who may still rely on manual data entry, a robust training program and template is required to ensure consistency of data collected and maintain the accuracy of transcribed data.

Stages 3 + 4

Recommenders & Predictors

Recommenders and Predictors have issues with their data collection too, as data erosion has implications for not only the collection but also the maintenance of data. This is usually overcome through the utilisation of data management software.

A final challenge comes in the form of the practicalities of data collection, which must always be done in-line with privacy regulations. Regardless of in which stage of the Maturity Model a company is placed, there is still a need to identify the way in which companies will incentivise customers to provide their data. Offering a reward or discount in exchange for an email address is the most frequently used tactic.

How the Pure360 Email Maturity Model can help you

Our Email Maturity Model can help you to identify appropriate data capture strategies based on your level of email sophistication and industry. Using benchmarks set against industry standards, utilise it to provide you with a structured journey to more sophisticated data capture and email marketing campaigns.

By identifying which stage of Maturity you are at, you can follow the below advice to ensure you are practicing all appropriate data capture techniques, and look ahead to grow in your email and data capture sophistication.

[Download PDF to see Diagram of the Stages of the Email Maturity Model]

The Broadcaster

Currently utilised data capture methods

Single point such as a website or newsletter sign up forms, promotional emails or social media signup form.

Limitations of these data capture methods

• Unable to segment emails based on predetermined variables such as demographics.
• Provides a steady flow of data but Broadcasters may lack the resource to interpret this data.
• Limited data means Broadcasters will have difficulty in anticipating customers’ needs.

Recommendations

Broadcasters will benefit most from data capture methods that are low cost and easy to implement, such as:

• Website or newsletter sign up forms
• Point of sign up/sale data capture
• Telephone data capture from account managers or customer service team

The benefit of these data capture methods is that they easy to implement, manage and maintain, meaning you can start building relevant data with little resource.

A key recommendation for the Broadcasters is to regularly review your web forms to determine whether the data you are capturing is relevant to your business needs. Often, simple data capture forms will only contain one or two fields (such as name and email address), by adding just one extra field such as location, you will be provided with lots of additional information to help with simple segmentation of your email campaigns.

The Segmenter

Currently utilised data capture methods

• Website and social media signup forms
• Welcome campaigns
• Past purchase data
• Instore data capture, using store cards for example
• Competitions and viral campaigns
• Potentially utilising technologies such as OCR, ICR, barcode and verbal recognition

Limitations of these data capture methods

• Relies on accuracy of those capturing data, leaving a large margin for error.
• Lack of multi-channel integration means single customer view resulting from fully integrated data is not possible at this stage.
• Use of OCR technologies requires specialist staff training and can still be labour intensive.

Recommendations

At this stage, customised signup forms which do not redirect customers away from the main web page creates more purposeful data collection; providing more meaningful data. It is important to recognise what data is relevant to your company, and implement strategies to capture this data.

You will likely be sending email campaigns that are based on past purchase data or completed forms; use this data to really increase the targeting of your emails, such as suggesting related purchases or add-on items. We would also suggest you investigate the use of multistage, dynamic forms that would allow for progressive profiling.

Audience engagement should be a focus at this stage, so trial more creative and fun data capture techniques such as online competitions and viral campaigns.

The Recommender

Currently utilised data capture methods

• Website behavioural tracking
• Multistage forms
• Progressive profiling
• Hidden fields
• Intelligent data extraction
• PPC advertising
• Facebook

Limitations using these data capture methods

• Real-time data storing does not allow for any system downtime and so software issues or system failures can prevent data capture.
• Data platforms are required which fosters a reliance on IT or agencies as a specialist skill set is required to interpret the data.
• Multistage forms often require closed questions which provide a limited range of data.

Recommendations

One of the challenges facing Recommenders is the lack of data platform that offers a single customer view. To remedy this, Recommenders will benefit most from integrating more advanced data capture methods such as website behavioural tracking (such as abandoned basket, multistage forms and progressive profiling) as well as seeking to integrate all data capture channels for better CRM.

Investigating the implementation of a single data hub can successfully integrate these heterogeneous data sources; allowing you to conduct a more meaningful analysis of your data and what this means for your company.

These forms of data capture allow for retroactive, historical and predictive analysis which will increase the success of your engagement and re-engagement campaigns.

The Predictor

Currently utilised data capture methods

• Multistage forms
• Multistage capture campaigns
• Progressive profiling
• Commercial and third party data capture via adverts or links in their email newsletters
• Combining of online and offline data using single data hubs such as Customer Intelligence

Limitations of these data capture methods

• Specialist equipment is required to prepare and analyse the data which is a significant expense for a company that may struggle with a lack of resource or specialist skill set.
• Forms must be completed within clear zones which can cause interference in the machine recognition.

Recommendations

Nearing the gold standard of data capture, data capture methods for Predictors enable large quantities of data to be read quickly without human intervention. At this stage, your progressive profiling and multistage forms will be generating meaningful data, it is likely that you have carefully set-up of these forms to reduce the chances of “turning off” customers.

Predictors can consider methods such as PPC advert extensions which allows for data capture without requiring customers to click-through. This generates data based on purchase intent and pinpoints your customers stage in the buying journey, further advancing your single customer view with minimum input from the customers themselves.

At this stage, you can also begin to introduce new data capture strategies as they emerge by utilising the flexibility of a pre-existing data management tool or single data hub.

Conclusion

Regardless of your position in the Email Maturity Model, there are always new methods which can be utilised for data capture. As you progress up the Email Maturity Model, you will become increasingly aware of any gaps in your data and become better able to identify data capture opportunities and how missing data could be obtained.

To begin implementing a strong, successful data capture strategy, review and benchmark your current methods against industry leaders to identify where improvements could be made and ensure that you are competitive in your industry.

Data collection and capture is just the first step in your data journey. The next step is to be able to make sense of this data to ensure you are able to fully understand it and then find trends and patterns that can drive actions to improve your customer conversations.

If you’re not sure where to go next, get in touch with us! We are experts in helping guide you through the steps needed to advance your data capture strategies and move you up the Email Maturity Model. Look out for our next guide in your Data journey.