Data Capture - 12 tips

2011 THE DETAIL, ARTWORK AND INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION REMAIN THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF CFL UNAUTHORISED COPYING OR REPRODUCTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, WILL RESULT IN PROSECUTION CFL MARKETING Data Capture - 12 Tips!

Contents
Overview - Data Capture
1 What to Collect
2 What Mechanic?
3 Form Best Practice
4. Avoid Free Text
5 Additional Options
6 Contact Data Fields
7 Avoid Gummed Forms
8 Creative and Layout
9 URN's
10 Incentives
11 Paper Stock
12 Go Online
About Us
Clients
Contact us

Overview - Data Capture CFL have processed millions of Data Capture forms over the past 25 years, from employee and customer satisfaction surveys, to free tickets, loyalty schemes or preference forms. We have compiled 12 essential tips for compiling data capture for your company or project. Following these guidelines will help ensure accurate results, save you money and provide accuracy during data entry.

1. What to Collect? Ideally you want to be collecting as much information as possible on your customers. The more you collect the more marketing channels you open, creating a fully integrated communication. If you ask for everything (name, address, DOB, email, phone) people can fill in the parts they want and leave those they don’t Don’t fall into the trap of just collecting email & phone on the assumption people won’t complete the rest.

Feedback forms – are an ideal way of collecting data, but they MUST be incentivised to maximise the response Biz card fishbowl – great way of collecting business data. Place an empty fishbowl on the bar, ‘put your biz card in here to enter our monthly draw’ and give away a monthly prize – make it a decent prize and word will soon get round! Newspaper ads – piggyback any press ads with a data form to turn an awareness mechanic into a response mechanic Privilege/Locals cards – sign up for a card and get cardholder only deals. 2. What Mechanic?

The design of the data capture form should be simple, clear and easy to follow.
Keep text on the left and response boxes on the right. Where possible, align the response boxes vertically to assist data Capture.
Ideally, the data capture mechanic should be no smaller than credit card size.
3. Form Best Practice

Free text responses, where opinions or personal preferences can be hand-written, should be kept to a minimum. They tend to be less accurate and more time-consuming to complete, requiring a higher degree of interpretation (and therefore cost) during data entry. An alternative to free text is to provide a tick-box or list of options/ choices. Tick box responses provide unambiguous data which is easy to capture, evaluate and segment.
4. Avoid Free text responses

When seeking an opinion, for example "strongly agree", "agree", "indifferent", "disagree", "strongly disagree", consider adding "other" which can be interpreted as "Other", "N/A" or "Don't Know" during data entry processing
5. Additional Options

When seeking to capture name and address details, ensure that you leave adequate space for long surnames and addresses. This is also very important when collect email addresses which are generally quite long Always "fence-off" sufficient space for the postcode, especially if it is hand-written. 6. Contact data fields!

Avoid response forms with gummed edges. (where a batch of forms are bound on one edge with a glue or gummed tape) If data is too close to the gummed edge, the information is at risk when the edges are separated. Opening gummed responses forms adds extra cost and can often cause response forms to stick together. The use of tear off perforations may help 7. Avoid gummed forms!

Make sure the design and creative is fit for purpose. Not just pretty to look at but easy to read, and inline with the target audience. Keep plenty of space around and between question text and response boxes. This not only helps initial legibility, but assists with accurate data capture. 8. Creative and layout

Where possible, provide a unique reference number for each data capture set, to assist with analysis, show where the data capture has come from, or what promotion it relates to. In cases where the form runs into multiple pages, keep the page format the same way up in order to avoid the need for awkward page turning. This will add to your data processing costs. 9. URN’s!

10. Incentives! Generally people will avoid filling in forms, especially with their personal details as they fear they may be bombarded with messages. This is why an incentive has to be used (20% off, free drink,free entry etc) entry into a draw for a prize is not usually enough!

11. What paper stock? Which ever mechanic you use, make sure the stock used is easy to write on. Avoid glossy stock where possible and use a mat Finish. This will avoid smudging and will improve legibility in the data entry process

Data capture does not have to be paper based, a form on the internet is also a great vehicle to capture data, this avoids data entry costs, and data can be automatically added to a data base, CRM package or simply as an alert email. Using the Internet can not only capture the data the individual enters (the Overt Method) but also data on the individual they do not enter such as IP addresses, search preferences, browsers etc (the Covert method) 12. Go online!

About Us Having been around since 1984, there isn't much we don't know about direct marketing and to the leisure industry in particular. We've seen the industry go through some major changes in our time. CFL have provided unique, effective and relevant direct marketing solutions to our customers, using a product portfolio covering all aspects of direct marketing - from Direct Mail to Digital Marketing. We have developed an extensive client portfolio by adapting our marketing solutions for industries as varied as Recruitment Consultants, Charities and Retail Chains - consistently providing outstanding response. Possessing that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Clients - Pub/bar Chains

Clients - Nightclubs

Clients - Independent Venues

Clients - Leisure

Clients - Enterprise Brands

Clients - SME’s/Charities

Web: www.cflmarketing.co.uk Email: sales@cflmarketing.co.uk Phone: +0044 (0)1225 782699 Contact Us

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Data Capture - 12 tips

by CFL Marketing on Feb 28, 2011

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Data Capture - 12 tips — Presentation Transcript