Scientific Advertising Part Two

Clive Taylor

Having delivered my database to my local tourist board to help me target my advertising they initially filled in the missing postcodes, which came back with my database when it was returned, and then ran the list though a number of different 'screens'.

From those screens they were able to establish some key marketing information:

What postcodes different percentages of my clients came from.
I saw this as step one in finding out where the majority of my clients came from. I could see what proportion of my clients came from what postal regions.

What counties provided me with the most clients.
Whilst postcodes are now the norm for any type of profiling I also find it useful to note the counties from which my clients emanate.  In rural areas certain publications will span several postcodes and its good to have a traditional method of checking the regions of the Country which are best for me.

When clients preferred to come and stay.
In the database information the date of the clients last visit was listed in one of the fields.  This provided the peaks and troughs of my clients comings and goings.  OK so I already knew when I was busy and when I was quiet but cross reference this information with other parts of the profiling and the jigsaw starts to come together.

What demographic profiles my clients fitted A, A1 B, etc.
This demographic bit of the information seemed at first a little unnecessary. I really did not think at the time that I needed to know whether my visitor was white collar or blue collar but again the jigsaw analogy stands.

So all the above 'profiling' provided me with immediate benefit to my advertising strategy. How? Just by looking at the four points above I could see:

Where to advertise?:
What publications covered those postcodes? If the area was very rural which 'County' publications would it be best to place my advertising?

What time of year to advertise?
If clients came from a county, postcode or region at a particular time of year wouldn't this tell me when to advertise?

Who do I advertise to?
The demographic profiling of my clients provided me with the 'type' of person I was trying to reach further refining the publications in which I might advertise.

So from the Database Profiling I got: A where? A when? And a who? to help me decide to spend my meagre budget. I provided the 'why' (advertising copy) making it abundantly clear in that copy 'how' to contact me.

This was a success story for me, saving me money and time on a high cost business item, adverting.

Having an inquisitive mind though I am always seeking spin offs and hidden benefits and I found a great one here!

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