Planning marketing campaigns is a challenge, and it isn’t getting any easier. There are new types of communications, new channels, fickle and saturated customers, and fierce competition. On top of that, there are limiting factors such as budget caps, campaign volumes and channel capacities that affect how communications are planned and deployed. Knowing what to offer and how often to communicate with your customers is very important. If your customers opt out, you’ll lose the ability to communicate with them on a regular basis – a very serious problem. However, communications often can’t be anticipated until a trigger-based or real-time interaction uncovers a need and the opportunity for an additional communication.

This paper is not about how to implement more effective campaign strategies. It is about a way to plan campaigns in a smarter way. As always in marketing, it can never be perfect, and it has to be understandable. Any successful process should utilize the latest analytical techniques and consider your company’s corporate objectives and business rules. The process discussed in this paper is called adaptive contact planning.