David M. Raab is a Principal at Raab Associates Inc., a consultancy specializing in marketing technology and analytics. Raab is also the author of the book The Marketing Performance Measurement Toolkit (Racom Communications). He can be reached at draab@raabassociates.com or via his blog at http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/.

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Marketing Data Quality Enters a New Stage
September 13, 2011 Marketing must accept a new definition of data quality and what it means for their databases and programs

Marketing Attribution Beyond the Last Click
July 1, 2011 IT and marketing must capture data in ways that are both useful and respectful of their customers’ privacy

How to Select a New Marketing Automation System
May 5, 2011 Tips to find a system that meets your needs, has the right features and will grow with you

Acquisitions Reshape the Marketing Automation Landscape
March 1, 2011 Unica and Aprimo have new corporate parents, but they are not your only choices

Why Marketing and IT Don’t Get Along
January 18, 2011 The CMO Council researched the misalignment, and found isolation and mutual distrust in both camps

New Techniques for Marketing Measurement
November 1, 2010 A combination of behavior tracking and testing allows marketers to correlate changes in actions with changes in their programs

Autonomous Marketing Messages
July 1, 2010 Messages that can track their own movement provide important insights into the connection between messages sent and resulting...

Bridging the Gap Between Online and Database Marketing
May 1, 2010 Centralizing information is valuable even when it cannot be tied to a specific individual

Marketing Systems for Online Media
March 1, 2010 If a single common problem threatens the outbound campaign systems, it's the need to handle unstructured data

Marketing Infrastructure for a Customer-Driven World
January 2, 2010 Marketers must adjust to changing expectations and communication challenges

The Reinvention of BI as We Know It
December 1, 2009 Total cost of ownership analyses must be expanded to properly capture the savings of new analytical technologies

Balancing End Users and IT Costs/Benefits
November 1, 2009 Shifting work from IT to business users will reduce IT costs, though a conventional TCO analysis may not show this

Business Intelligence and the New Analytical Databases
September 14, 2009 What would BI apps look like if they weren't designed around the constraints of relational databases?

Where On-Demand Business Intelligence Makes Sense
July 16, 2009 Assess the requirements for each project and match it against the alternatives to select the most suitable approach

An About Face on the Database
May 19, 2009 Marketers may shift from analytical to transactional databases as focus on real-time interactions increases

Tools to Support Social Media Marketing
April 16, 2009 Choose an application within the framework of an enterprise strategy

Interface: Missing Measures in Marketing
February 11, 2009 The Internet helps measure online and offline campaigns

Does On-Demand BI Make Sense?
January 29, 2009 Strategies to increase the viability of outsourced solutions

Assessing Demand Generation Usability
November 6, 2008 How do you measure “ease of use”?

Demand Generation System Requirements
October 29, 2008 What to look for in products to attract and nurture leads

How to Judge a Columnar Database, Revisited
September 22, 2008 An update on the strengths and functionality of columnar databases

Demand Generation versus Marketing Automation
August 21, 2008 This column describes lead scoring and demand generation systems.

Lead Scoring Takes Center Stage
July 23, 2008 In case you haven’t noticed, the Internet has fundamentally changed how people gather information. This has affected...

Analytical Database Options
June 20, 2008 Relational databases are ill-suited for analytical processing. Until recently, database developers were able to overcome the...

Technical Measures for Data Quality Investments
May 20, 2008 This column looks at technical measures of data quality for the cases presented in my May column.

Calculating the Return on Data Quality Investments
April 14, 2008 Everyone agrees that data quality is important, but that doesn’t make them willing to pay for it.

Revamping the Software Selection Process, Part 2
March 18, 2008 The first part of this series showed why the traditional approach of comparing software products against each other is less...

Revamping the Software Selection Process, Part 1
February 21, 2008 To make a truly sound decision, buyers must know how software will impact their company.

Software Selection Mistakes
January 17, 2008 Selecting the right software cannot guarantee the success of a project, but picking the wrong system can ensure failure. This...

Single View of the Truth
January 3, 2008 Achieving a single version of the truth takes more than a unified data model: it means a thorough change in how companies...

How to Judge a Columnar Database
November 29, 2007 Columnar databases are an idea whose time has come - again.

Internet Systems Compete for Marketers’ Dollars
October 29, 2007 Vendors provide services dedicated primarily to Internet marketing.

Building a Basic Marketing Dashboard
October 1, 2007 Marketers face a more fundamental challenge: how to make the best use of the information available today, while getting ready...

Marketing Performance Measures
September 1, 2007

Trends in Business Intelligence for Marketers
August 1, 2007

Justifying Marketing System Investments
June 1, 2007

Software Selection Methods, Part 2
May 1, 2007

Software Selection Methods
April 1, 2007

Classifying Web Analytics Systems
February 1, 2007

Next Steps for Web Analytics
January 2, 2007

Taking Advantage of Software as a Service for Marketing Systems
December 1, 2006

Behavior Analysis and Lifetime Value
November 1, 2006

New Trends in Predictive Analytics
September 13, 2006 Predictive analytics now practical for broad implementation due to key factors

New Trends in Predictive Analytics
September 1, 2006

Using Lifetime Value
August 1, 2006

Messages in Slots
July 1, 2006

Marketing Systems
June 1, 2006

Putting Customer Data in Context
May 18, 2006 What information should customer data integration systems actually transport?

Putting Customer Data in Context
May 1, 2006

Customer Processes
April 1, 2006

Selecting Customer Value Dashboard Contents, Part 2
March 1, 2006

Selecting Customer Value Dashboard Contents
February 1, 2006

Marketing Systems
January 1, 2006

The Market for Marketing Automation Systems
December 1, 2005

Marketing Performance Metrics
November 1, 2005

Marketing Systems
October 1, 2005

Customer Value Models
September 1, 2005

Marketing in a Data Rich World
August 1, 2005

Comprehensive Customer Metrics
July 1, 2005

Privacy Compliance and Databases
June 1, 2005

Privacy Technology Frameworks
May 1, 2005

Advanced Personalization
April 1, 2005

Privacy Technologies
March 1, 2005

Behavior Monitoring Systems
February 1, 2005

Marketing Management Systems, Part 3
January 14, 2005 The notion of specialized software to help run marketing departments is increasingly popular. In this series, you will learn...

Marketing Management Systems, Part 2
January 7, 2005 The notion of specialized software to help run marketing departments is increasingly popular. In this series, you will learn...

Marketing Management Systems
January 1, 2005

Lessons from the USA PATRIOT Act
December 1, 2004

Marketing Systems
October 1, 2004

New Marketing Systems
September 1, 2004

Business Intelligence Systems for Marketers
August 1, 2004

Marketing Systems
July 1, 2004

Response Attribution, Part 2
June 1, 2004

Marketing Software: Response Attribution
May 1, 2004

Project Management Basics
April 1, 2004

Consistent Customer Views
March 1, 2004

Real-Time Customer Views
February 1, 2004

Trends in Customer Matching Systems
January 1, 2004

Hosted Systems Foster Innovation
December 1, 2003

Marketing Systems
November 1, 2003

Marketing Systems
October 1, 2003

What Marketers Really Want
September 1, 2003

Text Analysis Systems
August 1, 2003

ASP Systems
June 1, 2003

Behavior-Tracking Systems
May 1, 2003

Marketing Systems
April 1, 2003

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 9
March 1, 2003

Marketing Systems
February 1, 2003

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 7
January 1, 2003

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 6
November 1, 2002

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 5
October 1, 2002

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 4
August 1, 2002

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 3
June 1, 2002

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 2
May 1, 2002

Stalking the High-End Campaign Manager, Part 1
April 1, 2002

Business Matching
March 1, 2002

Customer Matching Systems, Part 6: Selecting a System
February 1, 2002

Customer Matching Systems, Part 5: Selecting a System
January 1, 2002

Customer Matching Systems, Part 4
November 1, 2001

Customer Matching Systems, Part 3
October 1, 2001

Customer Matching Systems, Part 2
September 1, 2001

Customer Matching Systems, Part 1
July 1, 2001

Crossing the CRM Reality Gap
May 1, 2001

Content Integration
April 1, 2001

Touchpoint Integration Techniques
March 1, 2001

Interaction Management FAQs
February 1, 2001

Limiting Customer Contacts
January 1, 2001

Low-Cost Campaign Managers, Part 2
December 1, 2000

Low-Cost Campaign Managers, Part 1
November 1, 2000

Who Owns the Interaction Manager?
October 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 12
September 1, 2000

Marketing Systems
August 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 10
July 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 9
June 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 8
May 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 7
April 1, 2000

Marketing Systems
March 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 5
February 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 4
January 1, 2000

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 3
November 1, 1999

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 2
October 1, 1999

Making Sense of Marketing Software, Part 1
September 1, 1999

Six Myths About Database Marketing Systems
June 1, 1999 New statistics reflecting the state of the database marketing software industry indicate that several widely accepted beliefs...

Database Marketing
January 1, 1998 Understanding the unique requirements and special applications users have in mind is essential to a successful database...