Context is data about your customers and prospects. Data is a continuum of current information on people from what their interests are (Search) to what they have purchased (Behavioral). There are many data points in the middle that also need context themselves.

Say your prospect purchased eye glasses and visited a Lasik’s eye surgeon. Which came first? Either they don’t need glasses anymore or they need legal services. The challenge for marketers is again the profile. How does one identify the timeline?

If a prospect is a Weight Watchers customer and a health club member are they health oriented or on a diet? Do you Send them an ad for a new bike or discount at a clothing store? Interest data, read search engine and behavioral data, read purchase data can be deceptive as we as human beings have aspirations and realities. This data put to work with what we consume from an information perspective and how often we consume that information can tell a better story of what we are doing and aspiring to, in that order.

Marketers who think about how data is clustered and “Profile” of their customer/prospect is way ahead of the game. Yes I did say customers, today we build community through activity that adds value and listening to our customers online. Not only what they are saying about us to us, but how they are speaking of us to others.

For years in the wireless industry we worked to predict churn based on our own data. Trial and error taught us a lot but was never enough to prevent the most valuable of customers so we resort to long contracts and literally buying that customer back every two years. If we connect their interest data to the customer profile we have a new strong trigger.

Power users do a lot of reading on devices and service roadmaps before they churn. Let’s try to add the behavioral and media activity data to that profile and perhaps a new segment can be retained through proactive customer marketing.