Database Marketing Service Providers, Database Marketing Analytics, Back-End Database Marketing, Database Marketing Seminars And Database Marketing Software

5/23/2008 7:34:34 PM

The List, Copy and Offer are the three major components of every database marketing campaign. In order for a campaign to succeed, it must first reach an audience predisposed to purchasing your products or services. Therefore, the selection of an audience – the list, is by far the most important aspect of any database marketing campaign.

You can sell almost anything to a good list, you can barely sell a thing to a bad list.

To choose the right list, regardless of whether you’re selling business to business, business to consumer or both, you should first discard the lists with groups who are least likely to buy your products or services while identifying the lists with groups who are most likely to become your customers. How? By performing a Penetration Analysis.

A Penetration Analysis is the categorical elimination of the majority of lists containing the people or companies who aren’t likely to buy your products or services. Performing this procedure results in the purchase of lists which contain the people or companies who are most likely to become your new customers thus reducing your cost per lead and cost per sale, and increasing your campaign’s profits.

To begin a Penetration Analysis, take a complete inventory of all your customers and their most common characteristics. Next, apply Pareto’s 80/20 rule. You’ll find roughly 80% of your revenue comes from approximately 20% of your customers. After having identified the 20% who are your “best customers” and the traits they share in common, then make their similarities the common denominator of your list selection process. Discretionary income is an important factor in selecting consumer lists while SIC Codes and sales volume per employee are good starting points for choosing business lists.

For a database marketing campaign to succeed, it must reach and convert the maximum number of prospects into customers for the least amount of money.

Eliminating lists with the traits most obviously dissimilar to the traits of your best customers before commencing a campaign can prove to be the difference in whether your next database direct mail campaign succeeds or fails.

To learn more about Database Marketing Service Providers, Database Marketing Analytics, Back-End Database Marketing, Database Marketing Seminars and Database Marketing Software visit the Marketing Strategies section of this site.

Tim Cohn is a Google Advertising Professional and author of the book For Sale By Google.