Face-to-face branch interactions: Is your staff required to make notations after they meet with a member? What products did they purchase or inquire about? Did they mention they are considering buying a home in the near future? What about a new car? While in-branch interactions have declined, they still remain one of the most valuable sources of member data available…as long you're capturing and integrating this information into your database.

Email click-through: While it's great to know a member has opened your email, it's not enough to take real action. Click-through rates provide insights into what your members are most interested in and then allow us to take action and customize content for subsequent email campaigns. Do your email communications generate decent click-through rates? If not, you may need to modify your emails to make them more contextually relevant for the member. Emails can be both data-driven and data generating.

Web traffic: Where are your members spending most of their time on your site? What products and services are they investigating? How much time are they spending on each product page? Can you track site visits at the individual consumer level? If not, this should be high on your priority list. Tracking this behavior creates valuable insights to inform a more holistic view of the member.

I understand sorting through and dealing with all this data can seem overwhelming. It can be daunting to figure out where to start, determine what data you have and identify what you might still need. The key is to dedicate time and resources to pulling this all together to identify opportunities latent in your current data…or just on the periphery of your data you could easily collect. The payoff is the creation of insights that can increase ROI on your marketing campaigns by making them more relevant. The bottom line is, relevance boosts response. Just like a branch associate needs to be able to shift gears and talk about everything from car loans to a line of home equity, your marketing needs to be adaptable and significant in order to drive sales.

Data, when stored and used in the appropriate way, can be your biggest ally in a highly competitive marketplace. You can learn more about your members, have the ability to deliver highly relevant and personalized information about your products and services and create a more positive member experience while building loyalty. So jump into your customer data a bit deeper. You might just find some amazing treasures buried in there!

Michele Fitzpatrick is vice president for Harte Hanks. She can be reached at 215-944-9688 or [email protected].