Posts Tagged ‘database’

How Can Spatial Data Can Improve A Marketing Campaign

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Using aspects of geography such as GIS data and spatial data can help a business in several different ways, and one of the greatest is with marketing. Marketing campaigns are a crucial part of any business to attract new customers and provide new offers to existing ones. A lot of the marketing process has traveled online in recent years, but traditional forms of marketing are still an integral part of the success of any business. The use of geocoding software to produce geospatial data helps a business pinpoint the exact locations of current and potential customers, in order to send more accurate marketing information. No business wants to market its products and services to people who don’t want them, and using spatial data can help to minimize such occurrences.

With a geocoder and geospatial data, a business can basically gain on their competition by showing their message through several different platforms. Spatial data can help show which newspapers are more likely to reach your existing and future customers. Spatial data can tell you which billboards to advertise on so they’re more likely to be seen by your potential customers. Spatial data can even help you to determine which radio stations you should advertise on to reach the demographic of a given area. You can even use geospatial data to decide which city buses to advertise on so you can be sure they’ll make regular trips right through the neighborhoods of your target markets. Spatial data helps to uncover buying behaviors so you can refine your target audience based on location.

Aside from finding the right customers and providing them with the messages they want to hear, you can also save quite a bit of money by using geocoding software to produce GIS data. Direct mail can be a costly endeavor that typically yields a relatively low response rate. By using geospatial data, you can determine with greater accuracy, where response rates will be higher and only mail to those areas. This cuts down on production costs of the marketing pieces, as well as the mailing costs. And since the mailings are a lot more targeted, the influx of discarded ‘junk mail’ will also be lessened.

Keeping accurate and targeted customer files and databases is the primary benefit of using GIS data in a business. Spatial data management allows a company to have a deeper understanding of their customer base, so they can tailor marketing messages that have a much higher chance of striking a chord.

Basically, GIS data helps to take a lot of the guesswork out of the marketing process. Instead of sending out marketing material to a general area that may contain people in your target market, the process is much more exact. You can figure out who your customers are, where they are, what they like to buy, where they like to buy and how they prefer to buy. Once you know all of the information, you just have to reach them in a way that will speak to their wants and needs.

Where your customers are located matters. Use cutting edge GIS data tools to improve customer relations and drive revenue.

An Introduction to GIS Data

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Businesses and organizations that need use data that involves geographic locations are turning to geographic information systems, or GIS, to create and update maps, interpret mapped data, and to integrate multiple types of data with a geographic element. A typical GIS will basically enhance the concept of the traditional map to include encoding, processing, analyzing and storing of GIS data. GIS data is an incredibly useful tool in all sorts of different industries and for all sorts of different processes. With the help of GIS data, a mining or oil company can decide where to dig, a courier company can map the best route for its drivers and a direct mail company can send ultra-targeted marketing messages to prospective customers.

GIS data often uses geocoding software as part of the process of integrating address and map information with one another. GIS data encompasses all forms of geographically referenced information to let businesspeople and scientists understand what is happening on or beneath the surface of the earth. Whether for scientific or business reasons, GIS data helps people identify trends and patterns that may help to solve particular, real-world problems. GIS data is typically easily understood and easily shared among different parties. GIS data that is gathered at a drilling or excavation site can be shared with other members at a different location, quickly and efficiently.

Since GIS data can be shared easily, decision-making is enhanced, which benefits all aspects of the project. The key element in GIS data is the geographical element, as it references specific locations on the earth. This element is what sets GIS data apart from other mapping techniques or informational data. Combining the geography aspect with other important data means customers can be identified easier, trucking routes planned out easier or oil deposits identified easier. Any business or activity that relies on the earth, or locations on the earth as an important part of the process will benefit from the use of GIS data. If a truck with an important shipment is lost, GIS data can help get it back on the proper route. If a multi-national company wants to know if oil or a certain mineral exists in a specific region, GIS data can help map the area in such a way that exploratory drilling isn’t necessary.

GIS data is represented on maps with x and y coordinates, rather than the dots and lines of a typical map. The lines are a set of connected points and specific data like soil type is identified using a list of coordinates. GIS data represented on maps is complex mathematically, but it appears familiar when you look at it, because the lines are similar to those on traditional maps. GIS can enhance address management by assigning geographical locations to those addresses.

GIS is a technology that is transforming the way many businesses are run and how many earth exploration processes are designed and managed. The use of GIS and GIS data will likely continue to further earth exploration in all areas.

Where your customers are located matters. Use cutting edge geocoding software tools to improve customer relations and drive revenue.

The Role of Geocoding Software in Reaching Customers

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

As new technologies are developed, businesses are discovering new ways to keep track of their customers and their needs. For many businesses, where their customers live, work and shop are crucial details for ensuring their marketing strategies are the right ones for reaching the right market. GIS, or geographic information systems, are growing in popularity among organizations who need to to enhance their location intelligence.

Every business seeks to understand the wants and needs of its clients and customers on a deeper level, and using GIS data is one way to accomplish that. When businesses understand their customers on the deepest level, everyone ends up winning in the end. Geocoding is a technology that matches records in two different databases, such as your basic address database and a reference street map. The process of geocoding is enabled by the use of geocoding software.

Geocoding software, sometimes called a geocoder, is used to link the data or information in the two different databases. It does this by connecting the street names to the appropriate address numbers. Once the information is linked correctly, the geocoding software will tag your records with the proper map positions, meaning you will have position information that you can map out without using either of the two original databases. Geocoding software simplifies the entire process and enables a business to establish detailed coordinates of where their customers are exactly. When working with a postal code map, larger areas are mapped and the precise coordinates may not be available.

Using geocoding software enables you to have a more detailed understanding of the location patterns, because all of the addresses aren’t just thrown under the same postal code. When a company uses a geocoder to link all of their customer addresses, the practice of customer retention is made easier. When the geocoder does its job, a business can start to identify patterns and habits of their customers that will help to improve the customer experience in the future and increase sales. Certain types of businesses that rely on addresses for their survival would find a geocoder particularly useful. Being able to pinpoint specific demographics at the street level gives marketers a distinct advantage, because they can focus on sending extremely targeted messages that increase the likelihood of a sale.

Geocoding software can help the consumer too, as many of the junk mail kind of messages that are so common will no longer be sent. In the end, geocoding software ends up helping both the business and the consumer. The business can spend marketing dollars with greater accuracy, and the consumer can receive messages and offers that he actually cares about and may respond to. The geocoder works to match the right message to the right customer, which is ultimately the goal of every marketer. Neither party wants the wrong message getting through to someone who doesn’t want to read it, and geocoding software can help to ensure that happens less and less.

With industry leading geocoder tools, leverage your customers’ location data to make intelligent decisions and impact your bottom line.

Spatial Data and the Transportation Industry

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Spatial data, also known as geospatial data, is technology that integrates elements of geography with other essential data to give businesses and other organizations an edge in their operations. The military uses spatial data to identify enemy positions and enhance missions, and businesses like direct mail companies use spatial data to deliver more targeted messages to potential customers.

Another industry that uses geospatial data on a regular basis is the transportation industry. This may include trucking companies, couriers, taxis, buses and any other business that relies on a fleet of vehicles for the bulk of its operation. When spatial data is included in the business plan of a transportation-based business using a geocoder or geocoding software, several benefits are realized that would be absent without it.

One way that spatial data enhances the transportation industry is through mapping. In the trucking industry and with couriers and other delivery drivers, thousands of dollars can be lost each year simply because of inaccurate routing to the destination. With geospatial data, dispatchers can relay the most accurate and efficient routes to the drivers, so they won’t get off track and will save on fuel and maintenance costs. This is especially true for vehicles that have to travel longer distances with more wear and tear on the vehicles.

Another way that geospatial data can help with the mapping of delivery routes and all driving routes is the ability to warn of upcoming problems. If a serious accident, flooding of the roadway or other problem has closed a road down and the driver needs to be at his destination at a specific time, the dispatcher can suggest an alternate route to keep everything on schedule. Sometimes, as in the case of delivering parts to an assembly line, even a few minutes of lateness can represent a lot of money lost. If a company has large fleets of vehicles on the road at any given time, spatial data can help to keep them all organized and on target, so every one of them ends up where it is supposed to be.

If situations have occurred in the past where a driver has taken advantage of company time and alleged he was lost, spatial data can reduce these occurrences in the future. With spatial data, the driver can be given directions with pinpoint accuracy, so there is no cause for any type of delay. Geo spatial data allows a transportation company to tighten up the overall operation, which results in financial savings for the company and increased customer satisfaction. Even with businesses like taxi services or pizza delivery, making people wait less is always a good thing. Once you gain the reputation for showing up on time all the time, people will use your company more often and talk to others about it.

Taking advantage of geospatial data allows transportation-based businesses of all shapes and sizes take a lot of the “unforeseen problems” out of the business operation and use a more scientific approach.

Know where your customers are with state-of-the-art spatial data tools from DMTI Spatial Inc 15 Allstate Pkwy, Markham, ON L3R 5B4 (905) 948-2000 +1 877-477-3684 (905) 948-9404.