Customer Intelligence Blog
Evolving relationships for business growth![Optimization step 5: putting everything together](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/09/MO_Journey_step5.png)
We have finally arrived to our last stop in this Journey Towards Direct Marketing Optimization. If you have read the entire series of articles, you are now ready to understand what optimization means and how to perform it. For those who have not read the previous articles, I suggest you
![#Internet of Things awakens marketers to the force The internet of things is about interconnectedness.](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/10/IoT-Interconnectedness.jpg)
Two topics seem to be top of mind this year…the long awaited “Star Wars, The Force Awakens” and the “Internet of Things.” Being a fan of both, I think there are some striking parallels to think about. So here is a mashup of Star Wars references to describe the Internet
![Optimization step 4: setting the right boundaries](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/10/MO_Journey_step4.png)
Over this blog series: “The Journey toward direct marketing optimization” I have covered all the topics that are part of the optimization process. As said before, however, the most impactful part in an optimization problem is to set the constraints. If a company does not have any type of boundaries when selecting
![Optimization step 3: setting the goal](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/09/MO_Journey_step3.png)
We are now in one of the most interesting stops in our journey towards marketing optimization. We have been talking about optimization on the assumption that we have an optimization goal, however, as strange as it might sound, companies do not always know the overall goal of their direct marketing activities,
![Gartner names SAS a Leader in digital marketing analytics SAS shown in Gartner's leaders quadrant.](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/09/Gartner_DMA_MQ_2015.png)
Digital marketing analytics has evolved over nearly two decades, per Gartner, and has beginnings with Web analytics developed to analyze server logs. Much has changed and a broader digital marketing analytics ecosystem has evolved into its own right, so Gartner saw the need to evaluate providers of digital marketing analytics solutions. In their inaugural Magic Quadrant for
![Optimization step 2: designing campaigns Image depicting a step 2 on a 5-step journey.](https://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/files/2015/09/MO_Journey_step2.png)
In this journey to direct marketing optimization, we have already gone through two important concepts: understanding what optimization means and differentiating customers through analytics for optimization. It is now time to make a stop to think about the campaign design process. We will describe how we need to plan our