Special Report Matchbacks
By Terrell Sellix
A matchback is the process of matching order records back to mailing-tape records to determine the actual source of those orders. Matchbacks have been used for years on a limited basis to try to pinpoint the source of unknown orders: typically 5 percent to 20 percent of orders. With the advent of the Web and the increase in multichannel marketing, understanding where your orders and customers are coming from has become harder to learn — and yet more critical to know — than ever.
The shift has brought matchbacks into the limelight of customer order-tracking and results analysis. This Special Report will outline for you:
- how multichannel marketers are using matchback techniques today;
- steps to take to perform expert matchbacks; and
- techniques and tools to get matchbacks done in a way that's best for you.
Eight Lessons You Can Learn From a Matchback
As a direct marketer, you have the advantage of measuring your successes (and unfortunately sometimes your mistakes) in ways that general advertising cannot. You meticulously test, code, track and analyze the results of your prospecting efforts. Such tactics have generated accurate metrics that helped guide you in meaningful directions. At least until recently.
Today, knowing from where your orders and customers hail has become increasingly difficult. It's the rare direct marketer who can survive in a single marketing channel, and most have at least two channels: catalog and Internet. Add retail locations, special mailings and opt-in e-mail campaigns, and the task of tracking sales and allocating marketing dollars has become even more challenging.
That's why the topic of matchbacks has been such a hot one in recent years. Simply stated, matchbacks have brought back your ability to connect marketing dollars with marketing results. Or in the case of larger companies with additional marketing channels (e.g., brick and mortar stores), sophisticated solutions have, for the first time, enabled the connection of non-direct revenue with direct-selling channels. This connection gives you the unprecedented ability to effectively allocate resources across channels.
