5 elements of automated data collection

In addition to the benefits the latest technology offers to nonprofits in getting their message out to a wider audience, new advances make record keeping efficient, as well as secure.

According to the 2008 issue of Direct Marketing Digest, published by EU Services, modern optical and digital scanning technologies provide several advantages over non-digital processing. They allow data to be pulled from printed reply devices and placed into almost any program for easy monitoring and manipulation.

Specifically, the advantages are as follows:

• Time efficiency. Even organizations that outsource their secure response still pull people away from their jobs to manually enter accounting and marketing data. The time spent can mitigate the value of the data collected.
• Cost efficiency. A provider that can handle the secure treatment of responses as the digital scanning and collection of data eliminates the need to outsource both functions.
• Error reduction. Digital scanning technologies offer nearly error-free data input.
• Customer satisfaction. Reply devices that are store digitally provide a fast and easy method of recall.
• Customization of future mailings. Direct marketers can segment the aggregate information for very targeted follow-up mailings by matching the date and amount of payment or donation of a response with the campaign that brought it in.