Matchbacks: New Challenges for Matchbacks in 2010

Matchbacks were once more science than art. When customers called or mailed in their orders, or bought in stores, accurately matching back sales was simple. Now the process requires you to blend technology and marketing for statistical validity.

Because marketers want to create more effective and efficient marketing plans with limited budgets, and ensure high degrees of confidence before implementing costly testing and roll-out strategies, they must be sure to do the following:

• allocate demand to appropriate campaign/promotional effort/marketing strategy (e.g., catalog/phone, paid and organic search, affiliates, email, in-store, bouncebacks, Facebook, Twitter, mobile, other nonmail);
• allocate accurate marketing costs to each order, since variable costs continue to rise; and
• show return on investment accurately by campaign/promotional effort/marketing strategy.

The matchback process seeks to understand customers' paths to purchase by source and channel. In order to be most effective, the process must do the following:

1. Determine which orders that don't match source codes should be included in matchbacks, namely: retail, internet, email, paid search, mobile and affiliate orders.

2. Create business rules that allow the allocation of credit for a sale among multiple contact vehicles as appropriate to understanding the number and mix of contact. For this, do the following:

• determine if you want to match email orders back to a catalog or to the email that triggered the orders;
• determine how much you want to allocate to supporting mediums (e.g., blogs, Facebook fan clubs); and
• tailor the process to the specific brands' business needs and practices, with each brand having unique characteristics (contact strategy, merchandising and business objectives).

The explosion of media and contact methodologies today makes it essential that marketers understand the interaction of all consumer touchpoints and each one's role in delivering the final sale.

One retailer developed a Facebook page to determine its effectiveness as a store driver. It used an email campaign to send recipients to the Facebook page, then offered promotions on Facebook. It continued to email the customer list as well. Of the customers who received the email invitation to Facebook, 32 percent signed up as fans.