Measurement of online media and the value (or lack thereof) is an ongoing heated debate that seems not only to be irresolvable, but increasingly one that is missing the primary value proposition of digital marketing completely. Figures to account for the number of unique audience members and how many impressions they generate are metrics based on traditional media reporting ideologies, and are typically nothing more than educated estimates. The same applies to demographic studies, another contentious area.

The solution progressive marketers are rapidly realising, is that their holy grail is available through digital communication�s ability to create detailed, dynamic and highly valuable profiles for each customer. By consolidating each customer�s interactions across all digital touch-points into an individual profile, marketers can now get to know the all important "who" the customer is, and what he or she actually "wants". The view shifts from "audience" to "audience member".

Getting to know the customer personally is just the beginning. The digital communication channels being used to gather the profile data can be integrated to enable far more proactive two-way, as opposed to reactive one-way communications. And since each interaction adds to the growing profile, the result is a far greater ability to build, maintain and retain customer relationships through segmentation, personalization, CRM initiatives and knowledge-driven targeted marketing.

Through consolidated profiling, marketers will not only save money spent otherwise on the classic "shotgun" approach, but their targeted marketing will also generate more revenue through better quality sales, cross-sells and up-sells.

In the world of digital marketing, quantity of audience is not nearly as important or valuable as the quality that comes from actually knowing one�s customers.

About the author: Brent Nestler works for ENVENT, a leading provider of web and e-marketing software. Their flagship product, Ensight, offers an integrated suite of content management, customer profiling, personalisation, and e-mail and SMS solutions in a single marketer-friendly package. For more information, please visit www.envent.co.uk. For more information email Gareth Slaven (gareth.s@envent.co.za)