Using the Right Kind of Data (2,213 words)

Sprague is a strong proponent of cutting the wasteful names in catalog mailings. "Some marketers still have the mind set that you have to mail a certain size drop, say 50,000, every time when a smaller, more targeted campaign would be more successful.

On the b-to-b side, RFM scoring is most useful, especially for companies that sell commodities, says Sprague. Once the database has been broken up into deciles of the best customers to the worst, then the goal is to move marginal customers up from one decile to the next.