A conversation with a client today prompted me to write this post. She kept saying that her management team was saying the data wasn’t working. After asking a lot of questions about the data, the message, the target, the channel of execution, I concluded – and I told her as well – that they were throwing the proverbial “crap” against the wall to see what sticks. She said, “you’re right!” It’s like saying the computer made a mistake, when computers (for the most part) don’t think but are fed information or programmed to respond a certain way. If you don’t give it the right information, you’ll get the wrong outcome. Same with marketing, start with incomplete data, add generic offers and content, send it to everyone and your marketing efforts and ultimately your sales are going to tank.

To deliver your customers or prospects content and offers that leaves them confused or aggravated, or worse not interested will make a huge difference in how you’re perceived and where your sales will end up. To get there, you must understand your customer and what it is they want in the first place. Profile, Segment, Target, Deliver.

Develop the Profile.

The way people shop, interact with a product, and eventually buy has changed. Buyers are more educated now and are making decisions across multiple channels whether that’s direct mail, email, social, etc. Therefore, brands must understand these personas, niches and nuances. They need to uncover all the information that goes into an individual’s shopping behavior and decision making. What will drive them to make the purchase from YOU? You need to spark interest and hit the emotions and behaviors that drive these emotions to make a purchase. Every person has a profile and a persona. If your company has an active customer database, it’s as simple as identifying who your existing customer is.

1. Start with Household Demographics:

• Where do they live?
• Age?
• Marital Status?
• Income?

If you don’t have it, it is easily appended. Some of this information is relevant to your business, some of it may not be, but it allows you to identify the easiest portion of your customer.

2. Identify or Append Psychographic or Behavioral Data.

• What makes them tick?
• Where do they spend their money?
• What are their interests?

This is the type of information that allows you to completely customize your marketing campaign and drive customized relevant offers to your existing customers. But now with this

type of information appended to your data, look alike models are easy to build for acquisition and prospecting.

Segment & Target your data.

Let’s assume that an athletic shoe company knows that there are a few profiles that resonate across all their data. For this example, we’ll focus on one. Maybe they’re between the ages of 38-45, income levels of $100K+, enjoy running, live primarily in the southwest, take active vacations. They shop at Nordstrom’s and enjoy designer labels. Would you send them offers for a tennis shoe that is in the lower price range? No, you’d send them your top-of-the-line shoe that can retail for $150+. You’d also show them the nicest running apparel you have in the stores currently. You may have many customer profiles, but 4-5 will bubble to the top that we will start to dissect and develop our campaigns and offers around. The creative, content and offers must resonate with them or you’ll lose them. We know that personalized content is 4x more likely to get a better response than generic content that isn’t tailored to that segment of your data. This will enable you to create awareness of your brand if it’s an acquisition campaign, or awareness of a need or want if it’s for an existing customer, interest for both acquisition or loyalty – allows them to research further online – increasing their contact with you, consideration for both – interact again, allow conversation, and decision to purchase for both.

Communicate the Experience & Deliver through the correct Channel.

Having all the relevant data points on your customer or prospects, allows you to customize their shopping experience. Give them what they’re looking for. Speak to them in the way they want to be communicated with. You have to remember who you’re talking to and what THEY want and WHY they want it. There’s always an emotion or thought process to a purchase and a decision. Why am I taking that vacation? What do I want to do there? What running shoe is best for me? Channel designation is so important and not stand alone anymore. This should be in your data so use it!

The data you use will determine how you structure your offer and how relevant your content will be perceived by your customer or prospect. It will also affect how they will interact with the various methods of communication between you and them. The more information you have, the more targeted you can be and more relevant your marketing message will be. As always, if you need help or have any questions, give a holler!