One of the biggest challenges faced by local (and for that matter, national) retailers is having the ability to segment the market based on a consumer’s need for products and/or services. To help solve this issue, many businesses are turning to targeted promotions to help identify and market to their target consumers. The basic concept is this: Traditional advertising (radio, television, print) has one main goal – to create movement toward a specific business in a given market. The expected rate of return on traditional advertising is one half of one percent – so, if you’re advertising to 400,000 people via radio, television, or print, you can reasonably expect to see movement from about 2,000 of them. Whether or not the consumer purchases from a particular business after the initial movement is up to the quality of the product being sold and the staff representing that product, and anything above 2,000 ‘movements’ is to be considered a bonus or the ‘icing on the cake’. There’s not a business owner out there that would scoff at acquiring 2,000 potential new customers, and traditional advertising strategies have a huge impact on businesses foot traffic, revenue, and top-of-mind awareness.
But, what if a business was able to segment that same 400,000 person audience in a way that pre-qualifies them for specific products and/or services, and find those consumers in the market who are pre-disposed to purchase these products and/or services? With targeted, incentive-based promotions, this is completely possible and will yield tremendous results when properly executed. The three main keys to this strategy are incentive, data, and follow up.
Incentive is something that drives many consumers. People work hard at their jobs in order to get a raise or promotion; kids behave in the grocery store based on the promise of a toy or reward afterward; consumers interested in certain products enter contests to win them. The third example is the key area of focus, as this is something businesses can use to help segment the market and identify qualified consumers. Incentive-based promotions will bring potential customers to a business by offering something that those specific consumers want.
Data is the next component to a successful Targeted Promotion. Once a business has incentive for consumers, they can use that to gather important marketing data about that consumer. For example, if a business is offering a large grand prize for entry into a contest, contestants will give you information far beyond email address and age. A business can ask questions to help qualify consumers based on many factors, and use this data for months (and even years) to come in their follow-up marketing efforts.
Follow Up is the third component for the business to keep in mind. Now that you’ve acquired this actionable data, you HAVE to use it and grow it! Learn more about your email database. Get to know the person who actually reads the emails sent to that address. While you’re gathering this information, send specials and deals to the database you have, based on the information you’ve already acquired. Knowing simple things like age and location can be enough to help a business begin to segment their local markets to find the right customers. When more information is acquired, a business can really begin to drill down and target consumers with products that will fit their needs.
As always, I’m happy to answer any of your questions, and show you how 2501 Interactive can help multimedia work for your business! Please feel free to contact us for more info!
Charles
