Combining online and offline customer data to optimize marketing processes is a Herculean task. Despite the inherent difficulty of analyzing data from multiple sources and converting it into usable information, Major League Baseball has stepped up to the plate and swung for the fences.

MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the league’s interactive media and Internet company, now uses marketing automation and advanced customer analytics to improve retention rates and enhance the experience of baseball fans, whether they’re enjoying their favorite sport online or at the ballpark.

MLBAM manages the official league site, www.MLB.com, and each of the 30 individual club sites. Part baseball encyclopedia, part ticket line, MLB.com provided 10 billion page views to over one billion visitors in 2004. That’s right: One billion visitors.

One of MLBAM’s objectives is convincing more of those billion visitors to register so they can be presented targeted offers in real time to enhance their interactions with baseball, both online and offline. By having a greater number of registered visitors, MLB.com can also increase retention rates among users who subscribe to various online services, including live games on MLB.TV and MLB.com Gameday Audio.

“Someone once asked me what we know about the average baseball fan, and the answer was that we know they like baseball!” said Justin Shaffer, MLBAM’s director of operations.

Now they know much more. MLBAM uses sophisticated reporting capabilities and predictive analytics from SAS to “see” an amazingly wide range of data generated by the clubs and the Web. Customer information runs the gamut, from merchandising and ticket sales at the ballpark to everything MLB.com collects via clickstream showing what each customer is doing on the Web site at any given time.

With this kind of in-depth information, the league can target fans with the right offer at the right time and place via the Web site, personalized e-mails, instant messages, and SMS alerts. It also helps with cross-selling and up-selling efforts by enabling MLB.com to suggest products based on what’s in a fan’s shopping cart at checkout, and their previous purchase history.

“Fans don’t have to spend money; we want them to interact with us daily for all their baseball needs,” said Kristen Fergason, MLBAM’s marketing director. “We can learn more about behaviors while still being able to share opportunities with them based on the visitors’ interests, such as a customized jersey or that their favorite players are going to visit their town on a specific day.”

On a typical day during the Major League Baseball season, the site posts hundreds of original news stories. But MLB.com also takes additional steps to encourage fans to visit the site daily. Automatically targeting specific audiences to let them know about information that might interest them is one way to keep them engaged. Instead of sending an e-mail blast to New York Yankees fans with the latest news about third-baseman Alex (A-Rod) Rodriguez, Fergason said she’d rather target anyone who’s ever read an A-Rod story or bought A-Rod merchandise. Specifically targeting those fans increases the likelihood that they’ll respond.

That sounds like a homerun to me. Let’s see if other major league sports follow baseball’s excellent example.

Jeanette Slepian is President of BetterManagement, the comprehensive Internet resource for decisive leadership Company: BetterManagement.com