Talk to Me Like You Know Me

What produces the best marketing results in today’s sphere of ever-connected consumers with shorter attention spans than ever?  Talk to me like you know me, give me content I’m interested in and offers that resonate.

But that’s easier said than done.

Even if I’ve purchased from a retailer numerous times, how well do they really know me? Although savvy businesses can use transactional purchasing data to serve up relevant coupons and offers to me, do they really know anything more about me and what led me to my buying decision?

And most importantly, why should businesses want to learn more about their customers? It’s simple: the more you know, the better results marketing efforts produce.

Without understanding your customers’ needs and buying habits, it’s difficult to identify your best prospects.  Many times, I’ve registered for free coupons on a restaurant or retailer’s website.  I’ve freely given them my email address and name.  Large retailers and restaurants amass a database of thousands, probably millions, of names and email addresses.  Some collect phone numbers and mailing addresses, making it easier to identify their customers when they do make a purchase.

But with just that information, those merchants know very little about who their customers really are and what demographic attributes make them unique.

Here’s an example of a retailer who didn’t understand who I was because they used only transactional data in determining my interests: Last Christmas, I purchased some infant clothes for a family I had adopted from the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.  I used my rewards credit card for a well-known retailer whom I’ve been shopping with for years.  To this day, I’m still targeted with special offers for baby gear and children’s clothing.  Had the retailer understood that my husband and I are actually soon-to-be empty nesters, they’d have realized those were one-time purchases.  Since then, I continue to respond to offers for shoes and adult-sized clothing, but I’ve never used one of their baby coupons.

But wait, some businesses do get it.  These marketers have profiled their customer database using AccuData’s modeling services, which can provide hundreds of demographic overlays to reveal information about their customers.  What demographic and interest group do their best customers fit into? Our predictive analytics go beyond the basic profile and can help determine people most likely to respond to your marketing efforts and product offerings.

Are your best customers mostly women with an interest in gardening that have young children living at home? Analytics, modeling and AccuData’s demographic data can give you all of those rich details about a customer who was previously only identifiable by name and address and previous purchases.

Armed with this information, companies have a formidable tool to create targeted marketing messages that produce results.  That’s the real power of data, segmentation and targeted marketing.  Contact us today, if you’d like to learn more about how to harness the power of data!

Written by AccuData Integrated Marketing

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