Jay Schwedelson
Corporate VP, Worldata
If you want to promote a lifestyle-oriented event in a particular city or venue, you’ll want to use a number of different lists. You’ll be lucky if you have a handful of lists that perform very well. When you do, you’ll want to go in and test different segments within those lists to fine-tune which is best for you.
Obviously, you should look at how the data is sourced: For instance, if you want to drive responses online, you may want a list that’s been generated via the Internet. You want to cater to the audience with the type of response vehicle that you’re using.
Also, every marketer will have some sort of a season, such as travel. If you want to reach people taking long summer vacations, targeting teachers at their home address is going to be a no-brainer, because those are the people able to take those types of vacations. If you’re targeting recent college grads, that’s based not on the seasonality, but on lifestyle change. So, major events throughout the year, or major lifestyle changes, will affect you as a marketer. Both cases play a dramatic part in response rates.
The Takeaway
Seasonal events that affect your marketing play a part in sourcing the right lists
Jane Giles
Director, business development, Cambey & West
I believe subscription lists are the best sources for lifestyle demographics, which are gathered for ad sales even if not solicited on an order form. Publishers can pull down the data, append demographics from many sources, and return the files to their fulfillment providers. Another advantage of subscription lists is their frequency of updates with renewals and address changes, so stick with active subscriber records.
Make sure you know your audience, as well as when they buy. A marketer for a luxury yachting magazine targets her subscription mailings for January when northern boaters begin to dream.
Nothing beats a keen knowledge of your target audience; and nothing tells you more about your audience than what they read.
The Takeaway
Make sure you know when your audience is most likely to buy
Richard Apel
Creative director, GSD&M’s Idea City
One of the greatest opportunities to trigger purchase response is while people are enjoying leisure activities. That’s when they are already in a spending mood.
How would you go about reaching people who, like me, enjoy bass fishing? You need to know your customers, including where they like to hang out and their past purchasing habits.
Finding an outstanding data-programming house capable of locating the right data resources and building a response model is critical. For example, processing houses might acquire subscriber files from homeowners and renters living near bodies of water or fishing and outdoor magazines. It’s best to avoid using compiled lists because the data simply is not as accurate, appropriate or thorough.
The Takeaway
Find a data house that is capable of locating the right data resources
Justin Jarvinen
CEO, VerveLife
The mostsuccessful campaigns are typically those that provide instant reward. Give your target audience a way to do something they enjoy, and they will happily trade information about themselves in return.
We ran a program for Anheuser-Busch a year ago — it wanted to know about drinkers of the new Bud Select. We went to bars around the country and passed out VIP backstage passes with a Web site address on it to get five free downloads. So when the beer drinkers went to the Web site, they answered questions — we wanted to find out if these beer drinkers were conservative, going for a more sophisticated beer, or if they were motorcycle riders.
The primary challenge is to decide whether we just market to this data, or, is there a very specific message that we can deliver? Did we collect information that can help us make a new product?
Technology affords us the ability to speak to consumers one-to-one – they’re no longer just part of a list they’ve opted into. We’re not building an experience that’s one size anymore; once we’ve learned something about someone we can push a customized experience.
The Takeaway
Consumers are likely to give information about themselves when rewarded
