Many businesses tell us they don’t have much customer data, but as data is the key to unlocking the ROI of your next print campaign, it’s time to look again at what insights your company might be unwittingly sitting on.
Spray and pray versus divide and conquer
You’re likely to be familiar with the concept of spray and pray – the idea that you market to as many people as possible and hope that your messages somehow land with a few interested parties. It’s an expensive and inefficient way to market your business, with questionable ROI.
The opposite of this technique is what we like to think of as divide and conquer. It rests on the data you have about your customers and cleverly segmenting it so that you can target people with messages that are most likely to resonate.
As we highlighted in last month’s blog, many consumers are predominantly at home, making them the perfect target for a direct mail campaign. But the key to maximising success is your data, so what data do you already have that you could put to good use?
The data you think you have – and what you actually have access to
Although companies might not have collected data with the intention of segmenting it for this purpose (and bonus points if you do!), many actually have access to much more insight than they first believe.
Let’s take a good example, a hotel. You already have contact details for previous guests. You can legitimately use these to send them a mailshot (unless they’ve expressly asked you not to). But what else do you know about them?
It’s likely you can analyse your data to figure out:
– Party size – were they having a couple’s night away, or bringing the whole family for a weekend escape?
– Frequency of visit – have they just stayed with you once, or have they been repeat guests?
– Time of year – when did they stay with you? And is this a regular pattern?
– Other services – did they dine in your restaurant? Or book spa treatments?
Understanding this more granular detail about previous guests allows you to build a series of campaigns.
For guests who travelled as a pair, target them with an offer for the perfect couple’s weekend. This might include a dinner, bed and breakfast deal perhaps with some drinks thrown in.
For guests who travelled with children maybe you can offer a discount on a family room, or adjoining rooms if you have them. You could also highlight family friendly activities nearby, showcasing what there is to explore using your hotel as the base. If they asked for a travel cot you’ll know they have young kids in the party, which might also inform the types of activities you suggest.
If some guests always stay with you at the same time of year, maybe a discount at an alternative time would tempt them back. And for people who used the spa or restaurant, a tailored offer around those services might be enough to generate some new business.
Even more clever would be to combine a direct mail offer with similarly bespoke social media marketing for the same guest profiles. It’s not our specialism, but we know some cracking people who can help you do this.
So many businesses hold reams of data about their customers which, if they can interrogate it properly, could unlock a surprising amount of insight into customer behaviour and what kind of marketing or promotion might encourage a repeat sale. It’s cheaper to sell more products and services to existing customers than to spend money acquiring new ones, so why not use this incredibly valuable resource to focus your next campaign?
For help to think through what data you have as the key to unlocking the ROI of your next direct mail campaign, give the friendly PMG team a call on 01924 284330.
Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash
