SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF ENHANCING LEADS

• US 20080109445A1
• Filed: 02/05/2007
• Published: 05/08/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions, LLC (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Experian Marketing Solutions Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Williams, Richard, Hughes, Lawrence J., Kirgan, Maria Luisa, Hajikhani, Rasoul, Panigrahi, Damodar, Kong, Jacob
• Granted Patent: US 8,027,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities

Abstract

A client transmits one or more lead records to a lead enhancement module that is configured to enhance the received lead records and return enhanced lead records to the client. The lead enhancement module may return a contactability score for each lead record, indicating a likelihood that the individual identified in the lead may be contacted using the contact information provided in the lead record and/or additional contract information located by the lead enhancement module. The lead enhancement module may also receive additional data items associated with leads from one or more data sources. Additionally, statistical models that may be customized for each client may be applied to information associated with lead records in order to determine one or more propensity scores for each of the lead records, where a propensity score indicates a likelihood that an individual will take a particular action, such as purchasing particular goods or services.

Claims

1. A method of enhancing a lead record, the method comprising:

receiving a lead record from a requesting entity, the lead record comprising a plurality of data items including at least a surname field for storing a surname data item and a contact field for storing a contact information data item;

determining a contactability score associated with the lead record, wherein the score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between the contact information data item that is associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record;

selecting a data bundle indicating one or more additional data items associated with the lead record that are to be retrieved from one or more of the data sources;

transmitting the data bundle to one or more of the data sources;

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items indicated in the data bundle;

applying a customized model that is configured to generate a propensity score based on at least one of the data items of the received lead record or the additional data items received from one or more of the data sources, wherein the customized model indicates a propensity of the individual that is of interest to the requesting entity;

generating an enhanced lead record comprising at least a portion of the lead record received from the client, at least a portion of the additional data items received from the one or more data sources, and the generated propensity score; and

transmitting the enhanced lead record to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the propensity score indicates a propensity to purchase a particular product offered by the requesting entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises an educational institution and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to enroll at the educational institution.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises a product retailer and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to purchase one or more products offered by the product retailer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting entity comprises a service provider and the propensity score indicates the individual'"'"'s propensity to request one or more services offered by the service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the customized model based at least partly upon requirement specifications from the requesting entity; and

applying the customized model to lead records received from the requesting entity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a personalized data bundle to be associated with the lead record, the personalized data bundle comprising indicators of one or more additional data items to be requested from one or more data sources, the indicators being selected by the requesting entity;

transmitting the personalized data bundle to the one or more data sources;

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items indicated in the personalized data bundle.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the personalized data bundle comprises indicators associated with additional data items that are not included in the default data bundle.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the contact information data item comprises at least one of:

a telephone number, a facsimile number, a pager number, and an email address.

10. A method of enhancing a lead record, the method comprising:

receiving from a requesting entity a lead recording comprising a plurality of fields and data items associated with at least some of the fields;

performing at least one of;

(i) determining whether at least a first subset of the fields each comprise data items;

(ii) determining whether data items in each of a second subset of fields include any of a plurality of spoof strings; and

(iii) determining a contactability score associated with the lead record, wherein the contactability score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between a telephone number data item that is associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record;

determining one or more additional data item indicators to include on an enhancement list, the enhancement list being configured for transmission to one or more data sources;

receiving from the one or more data sources at least some of the additional data items corresponding to the indicators on the enhancement list;

generating a propensity score for an entity associated with the received lead record, the propensity score being generated using one or more statistical models that are customized for the requesting entity; and

transmitting at least the propensity score to the requesting entity.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the propensity score indicates a propensity of an entity associated with the lead record to purchase one or more goods or services offered by the requesting entity.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the entity associated with the lead record comprises one of:

an individual, one or more individuals, a business, and a family group.

13. The method of claim 10, the requesting entity is a client of an enhancement provider that performs one or more of the performing, determining, receiving, generating, and transmitting steps.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional data item indicators are determined based on one or more of:

an identification of the requesting entity, content of one or more data fields of the lead record, and information included in a header of the lead record.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional data item indicators are determined based on a vertical business market of the requesting entity such that the additional data items included on the enhancement list are relevant to entities in the vertical business market.

16. A computerized system for enhancing a lead record comprising a plurality of data items, the system comprising:

a data source comprising information regarding an individual associated with the lead record, the data source in data communication with a network;

a computing device comprising

a processing unit,

a storage device, and

an input/output interface in data communication with the network and configured to receive a lead record from the requesting entity;

an output bundling module configured to determine one or more additional data items to be requested from the data source, based at least partly on one or more attributes associated with the lead record, and to transmit a request for the determined additional data items to the data source via the input/output interface, the output bundling module further configured to receive one or more of the requested additional data items from the data source and to generate an enhanced lead record comprising at least some of the additional data items; and

a custom model module configured to apply a custom model to data associated with the lead record, including at least one of the data items included in the received lead record and additional data items, the custom model module being configured to generate a score indicating a propensity of an individual associated with the lead record.

17. The computerized system of claim 16, further comprising:

a hygiene module configured to perform one or more of;

determining whether a first group of data items are valid, determining whether a second group of data items comprise one or more spoof words, retrieving additional contactability information associated with the lead record, and determining a contactability score for the lead record, the contactability score indicating a likelihood that the individual associated with the lead record is associated with one or more telephone numbers.

18. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein the network comprises both private and public based networks.

19. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein indicators of the one or more additional data items are included in a data bundle that is selected by the output bundling module based at least partly on a vertical business market of the requesting entity.

20. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein indicators of the one or more additional data items are included in a data bundle that is customized by the requesting entity.

21. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein at least some of the additional data items to be requested from the data source are determined according to rules that are based at least partly on an attribute of the received lead record.

22. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein the attributes of the received lead record comprise one or more of:

a contactability score of the lead record, a geographic residence location indicated in the received lead record, a source of the lead record, in-the-market data associated with the lead record, a gender of an individual associated with the lead record, and an age of the individual associated with the lead record.

23. The computerized system of claim 16, wherein the output bundling module is configured to receive inputs from the client indicating additional data items to be requested from the one or more data source.

24. A system of enhancing a lead record, the system comprising:

means for receiving a lead record comprising information regarding an individual;

means for determining that at least a portion of a plurality of data fields of the lead record comprise valid data items;

means for determining, based at least partly on one or more attributes associated with the lead record, indicators of one or more additional data items to include on an enhancement list, the enhancement list being configured for transmission to one or more data sources;

means for determining a score associated with the lead record, the score being indicative of the individual'"'"'s tendency to request one or more goods or services offered by a requesting entity; and

means for transmitting at least a portion of the additional data items to the requesting entity.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the means for determining that at least a portion of a plurality of data fields of the lead record comprise valid data items comprises:

means for determining whether at least a first subset of the fields each comprise data items; and

means for determining whether data items in each of a second subset of fields include any of a plurality of spoof strings.

26. The system of claim 24, further comprising:

means for determining a contactability score associated with the lead record, wherein the contactability score is based at least partly on information received from one or more data sources regarding a relationship between a telephone number data item that is associated with the lead record and other data items associated with the lead record;

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the additional data items comprise at least one of:

additional information regarding the individual identified in the lead record, information regarding a household of which the individual resides, general information regarding individuals residing near the individual'"'"'s residence, and information regarding individuals residing in one or more expanded geographical areas including the individual'"'"'s residence.