iPost Puts New Twist on RFM

Read more commentary from Ken Magill

E-mail service provider iPost today announced it has upgraded its Autotarget predictive analytic technology to include targeting by one of the most commonly used metrics in traditional direct marketing: RFM analysis.

But where RFM stands for recency, frequency and monetary value of customer purchases in traditional cataloging, iPost has broadened it to mean recency of last interaction, frequency of interaction and monetary value of the customer.

“For decades RFM has been used by state-of-the-art catalogers to minimize cost and maximize profits,” the company said in a statement. “With Autotarget 2.0 any company can now use RFM to easily improve their financial bottom-line.”

First unveiled in March, Autotarget analyzes customer information from companies’ various sales channels and segments them into so-called “personas,” or segments of like-minded potential buyers, according to iPost. It lets marketers send targeted emails to those specific personas to improve e-mail engagement, profitability and retention, according to the company.