Guest post by Anna Barcelos, co-moderator of #IMCChat.

Many organizations have an abundance of data. The big question is how are they using it to better communicate with customers and prospects? Additionally, some of this valuable information resides outside of marketing, making it a challenge for effective, relevant marketing and communications.

From an integrated marketing communications (IMC) perspective, the best use of customer/prospect data is aggregating it into behavioral groups; for example, aggregating information on existing customers based on how, when, and how often they buy the company’s products and services. This is more valuable than traditional segmentation methods that classify customers into categories according to demographic, geographic, or psychographic types. Once behavioral groups are established, the organization can more effectively tailor its messages to customer/prospect needs. Most importantly, customers and prospects are treated as individuals, not markets. (more…)