We use averages in our business life all the time, and they are usually pretty straightforward. However, when it comes to making business decisions involving customer data, averages can be misleading.

Let’s say that we had a sample of 100 gamblers from your customer re wards system. From your current database analysis tool you can learn that their average income is $55K per year. So from that information, you might assume your typical customer has an income of $55K and act on that assumption, by building a marketing campaign targeting customers with an income of  $55K.  When you imagine averages, you probably think about a curve like this:

The problem is there are other kinds of curves with the same average as the one above, but they have wildly different distributions and implications for your marketing campaign. For example this chart shows a flat or what statisticians call a uniform distribution which would be bad news for your marketing campaign. 

If you are an optimist about your gambling population, you might think you have a narrowly grouped base around $55K like this chart. 

And if you are unlucky, some day you might experience this unfortunate distribution and none of them have an income of $55K as seen in this troth shaped bi-modal chart.

The important thing to note here is that all these graphs have the same averages, so if you were relying on averages alone to make decisions for your business, your success would be at risk. With misleading data, you may be spending thousands of dollars marketing to unprofitable customers and overlooking potentially valuable ones.

Distributions Matter

Averages don’t matter as much as the distribution around the averages, when it comes to finding ideal customers. Distributions give you a fuller picture of where your customers are and just as importantly― where they are not.

The way to the right people is to use more information, specifically, to use all of the distribution and not just the average. Predictive analytics is the clear winner for making more profitable decisions, because it uses all of the information in the distribution. Predictive analytics is a more complex way of looking at potential consumers, taking into account their past behavior and predicting whether or not they would be receptive to the product or service you have to offer.

To use predictive analytics, you could start studying distributions, send your staff to statistics classes or start benefiting immediately from Stics. The professionals at Stics have made it easy for people who aren’t knowledgeable about statistics to get the important information they need for their company. Stics has predictive models that can give you valuable information about your customer information― which will lead to more profitable marketing campaigns.

When evaluating customer wants and needs, there are many ways of looking at data from the sublime to ridiculous. Commonly accepted ways of looking at customer data  include generating a “gut feel” from experience, sampling at random,looking at exceptions, reviewing periodic totals, and SQL selection. SQL, the most common tool used by database marketers, stands for Structured Query Language, but what it boils down to is averages or data segmentation. It gives you general information about groups of people, often by age or income.

Let’s say, for instance, that you want to find people that fit a certain category, such as empty-nesters. To use data segmentation to find these people, you might search for people in the 50 – 60 year age range and within a certain income bracket. SQL would look at your data to find the people who fit both of these parameters.

The problem with SQL is that you’re potentially overlooking the right people. In this example, your data segment would be missing all of the empty nesters who are under 50 as well as those who fall outside your chosen income range. SQL is just a fancy way to put people into buckets. The problem is, not everyone you seek is in the obvious bucket.

People are more complicated than just their income or age, but when analyzing populations, you can become trapped by these segmentation tools and rules.

Where Your Customers Really Are

The truth is that you’re not really looking for empty-nesters within certain parameters (shown in brown on the chart) or even empty-nesters in general.  You are looking for people who will be receptive to what you have to offer (shown in yellow on the chart).

To find these potential customers, you need to stop relying on buckets and start looking at the bigger picture. And to do that, you need statistics. Statistics can help you find the best people that correspond to your potential customer base.

Predictive Analytics: Better than Buckets

The most effective form of selection would be to use the most information and use it optimally. With this light, predictive analytics can be seen as the clear winner for selecting target prospects or customers.

Predicative analytics looks at the bigger picture of marketing. It has the capability to consider all kinds of factors, rather than just one of two. It also looks at patterns in behavior, and makes predictions about future behaviors. This lets you more accurately pinpoint your potential customers, as well as stop marketing to people who are not interested in what you have to offer.

That sounds like a much more effective way to do business, right? The problem is that you can’t do it by yourself. Predictive analytics is a science, and it can take years to develop accurate predictive models. You don’t want to make the top 10 mistakes a novice with predictive analytics would make. That’s why turning to a reputable predictive analytics provider can save you time and money.

At Stics, we have spent year’s fine tuning our software and processes so our customers get extremely accurate predictions. We can take your data and give you insightful information about potential customers and the effectiveness of future marketing campaigns. With Stics predictive analytics solutions you can make your business more efficient and cost-effective.

Fact Gap Graph

As professionals, we all know that technology has changed the way we do business. Whether you find the increased dependence on new technology as good or bad often depends on how effectively the tools are used. Over the years, this problem has been illustrated in many ways by me and by others.  This particular Fact Gap illustration was first attributed to the Gartner Group. It will help me describe how data technologies are, on the one hand, progressing and on the other, creating new data analysis problems.

The Data Fact Gap was created by the explosion of available digital information accumulated in recent years. With technology system advances, increased data storage capacity and Internet usage it is now easy to collect mountains of data. While the volume of retained data has grown exponentially and spread across all industries, so have the data management challenges it created and the even greater marketing opportunity that mostly lays dormant.

This abundance of data creates new problems that force database marketers to devote a lot of time and resources to filtering information into data segments so decision makers can frame a concept, problem or question.  While this approach is intuitive to the human brain, it does limit our ability to make a fully informed decision from all available data.

Why You Need Good Data

Intuitively we often think we already know what our customers want. However, that is not always the case.  When we make business decisions by filtering our data down to a few variables we miss the more accurate and complete view of the data.  Without hard data, there’s no way to be sure truly objective decisions are being made. Worse, because we think we’re making objective decisions, we often don’t seek outside an perspective.

What we really need is an objective analysis, wielding as many customer factors and data points as possible. This approach helps us see the potential hidden below the common database marketing analysis.

Statistical Predictive Analytics Solves the Problem

One way to harness the data explosion and make better marketing and business decisions is to use predictive analytics. Predictive analytics uses the science of statistics and is capable of considering unlimited facets of a situation. Predictive analytics for marketing can increase a marketing campaigns return on investment by ten times compared to a typical SQL analysis that might only evaluates about five variables. It takes the data that you already have and give you information you can use in your marketing campaigns, such as:

• Customers you are currently marketing to, who are unprofitable
• High value customers or prospects you are not marketing to
• More profitable marketing programs
• Respective value of various members in your customer base

Statistical modeling with predictive analytics is proven to help make more informed decisions and increase profit margins.

In my business, we live on the front lines of customer data knowledge generation and have a deep understanding of the problems and opportunities created by the data explosion. For that reason, we discourage installing expensive applications that might not provide quick answers to important questions that drive revenue and profitability. We know that with seasoned expertise, a leading statistical technology platform and focused services like ours, it is possible to bridge the data gap and quickly and easily improve the performance of your marketing campaigns.

Stics offers innovative solutions that provide deeper insight into your customer and loyalty database for greater marketing return on investment. We welcome inquiries and are happy to answer questions.

Solving the Data Paralysis Problem with Predictive Analytics

Data driven decisions are a proven key to successful outcomes. But, when the size and scope of the data itself become the problem, the system fails. Problems resulting from data complexity are not new, but the implications are serious and growing at an exponential rate as a result of operational factors such as:

• Acquiring data at accelerated complexity and speed
• Storing large quantities of data in numerous unrelated sources
• Capturing data in a wide variety of media formats Utilizing multiple versions of the data simultaneously

Traditional data analysis cannot effectively analyze this fast changing volume and scope of data. Stics’ statistical process can. We make it easy to clean, organize, interpret, and rank all your data.  Our results mean more effective use of the information you have, so you can make well-informed decisions that solve your problems.

Woman Owned Small Business

Stics is a woman-owned San Diego-based small business. We offer advanced predictive analytical science services, helping you quickly assess and interpret vast quantities of varied and rapidly changing data.

Our solutions empower you with tools to amplify your view. We simultaneously evaluate the impact of unlimited dimensions upon an outcome, from multiple data sources and formats, including:

• Text
• Data
• Photos
• Numeric
• Alpha numeric
• Hexadecimal
• Binary choice
• Categorical

Stics’ statistical processes enable you to quickly find exceptions, threats, or problems. Our solutions also help you learn from your data. With Stics, you continuously improve your understanding and assessment of situations, while refining the appropriateness of your responses.

Stics’ patented and patent-pending Decision Science® technology is available as embeddable analytical engines, as a stand-alone application or through an efficient, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

Stics’ predictive analytics can be implemented as a full service solution or in stages that you control— for high value results maximizing your resources.

Extensive Identity Evaluation Experience

Stics’ principals were previously approved for classified work and have developed identity evaluation technologies now widely used by the government. We have extensive identity evaluation experience predicting:

• Identity fraud
• Financial fraud
• Transactional fraud
• Application/ identity fraud
• Healthcare fraud
• Criminal activity

Our technology has been integrated and used by numerous organizations and clients, including: the United States Federal Government, Boyd Gaming, MGM Mirage, The Direct Marketing Association, ESRI, Electronic Arts, and the San Diego Museum of Art.

Government Advantages of Using Stics’ Predictive Analytics

Stics partners with you to predict future outcomes from the vital information locked in your databases. Our predictive technology solutions―and complementary consulting services― help you bridge the gap between a non-statistical approach and a more effective, automated statistical approach. With Stics as your predictive analytics partner, you can unlock the potential in your data to:

• Quickly and easily implement a robust predictive analytics solution
• Simultaneously evaluate multiple data sources and formats
• Dramatically increase the usefulness of your information databases
• Make quicker, better informed decisions
• Weed out the imposters or security threats
• Apply continuous learning from your data
• Allocate your resources to higher value— strategic work

Call Stics today to effectively analyze your rapidly changing volume and scope of data.

(877) 847-8427

Harness the Potential in Your Loyalty Database− for Greater ROI

In these challenging economic times, we can all use some extra help. Our direct-marketing optimization solutions can quickly turn your customer loyalty data into actionable information, helping you increase revenue and campaign profitability.

Stics makes it easy for your Marketing team to become Heroes with:

1. High ROI- 10X monthly
2. No capital expenditures
3. Fast and easy implementation
4. No IT support required
5. Industry expertise
6. Turnkey service

Complete the Form Below or Call Now for More Information

858-547-8427 x 210

Office Hours:

Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Pacific Time

Phone:

Toll Free:    877.847.8427
Main:     858.547.8427
Fax:    858.547. 8432

Office Location:

10650 Treena Street, Suite 303
San Diego, CA 92131

Mailing Address:

13223 Black Mountain Road # 306
San Diego, CA 92129

Directions:

Link to directions: Get Directions

Contact Form