Scientific Advertising Part Three
OK so we have had our database profiled and discovered where most of our clients come from. That has enabled us to place our advertising in an area, which will bring us the most rewards.
Having established that my most of my clients came from say... Basingstoke and concluded that my best place to advertise was the Basingstoke Sentinel in May, how I asked myself, could I find more similar people to promote my business to?
I started thinking about the direct mail aspect of my marketing and wondering how if I knew where most of my clients came from and what demographic profiles they had where could I find more of these 'prospects'.
I approached a List Broker. For those not familiar with that terminology these businesses provide, for a charge, lists of name and addresses of people who might in this instance like to spend a short break at my place.
We discussed how many classifications they could overlay on their lists to allow us to hone in on our potential market place. They talked around 80 to 100!
I list some of the criteria I asked them overlay below and I could have listed a lot more.
- Come from Basingstoke (and surrounding area)
- Liked to take 4/5 short breaks per annum.
- Have a significant disposable income.
- Are empty nesters (concluded from out profiling).
- Are prepared to travel xxx miles for a short break.
- Like walking/touring/visiting heritage sites. (again concluded from out profiling)
- And like Spring!
If you don't know by now let me tell you I never jump in with both feet! I'll test, test and test again to get things right. I have done this with the lists I have bought. Testing is a slow process as you can never really change more than one thing on a mail shot or your comparisons go out of the window. What I have discovered is:
If you want a targeted mail shot, with a lot better than average chance of success, this method of acquiring new customers does bring rewards.
Finally what I hoped to demonstrate here was that by examining quite a large item of expenditure could I get a better than average result for the money I spent? I proved that I did. I also realise that the three pages on this topic can only give the broad outlines of what I achieved and how.
I have tried to keep 'jargon' to a minimum but inevitably some has crept in, so.. if you are unclear about any aspect of this article, email me with your questions OR BETTER STILL post it up on the discussion board it is precisely what its there for!
As a footnote all regional Tourist Boards offer this service, I believe they each hold a license to use the same software. To enquire further ask your regional board mentioning Database Profiling.