You don’t have to be a household name to effectively target your marketing campaigns. There are businesses of all sizes that depend on localized research and data to engage with local markets.
Drive local in-store traffic
In fact, we recently helped a client that needed a localized solution to address the unique situation of the pandemic.
With over 170 strategically placed locations in communities across the country, our client needed to find new ways to drive in-store traffic to sell their products, which require tailoring for a precise fit.
Previously, they advertised digitally to drive foot traffic into their stores, but this foot traffic stopped after the retail shutdown.
Even as stores began to reopen, shoppers were not stepping into their stores as they had before. They were looking for a new way to give their local shoppers a safe way to shop with them again.
It was clear that to drive in-store traffic for their tailored products, their stores needed to be set up for appointment-based shopping. This would allow customers to safely show up for an appointment and shop with peace of mind.
Model the data, find the target audience
The question became how to target the individuals near their stores most likely to convert?
Their customers are professionals of a specific income range, who for the most part are working from home and are spending a lot of time online. We modeled data for their customer type and demographics, which allowed us to target only those people likely to be interested in their products.
Through our Intelligent Direct Mail service, we reached them at home, serving digital ads to their households with discount offers tied to booking an appointment at their local store.
We reinforced the online offer with a direct mail piece delivered in the middle of the digital campaign. The direct mail piece directed shoppers to their local store to claim the offer.
We were able to show that an intelligent direct mail campaign could reach customers at home and incentivize them to make an in-store appointment.
Adapting with the changes
Due to the effects of the pandemic, you might be paying for a billboard that a fraction of your local audience is seeing.
Businesses using billboards and other types of broadcast based advertising may find that they need to find other ways to reach localized audiences at home, like in our client’s case.
Our current environment requires that you operate your campaigns using an “analyze and target” model rather than a ‘spray and pray’ model.
The beauty of targeting local audiences is that each campaign can further refine data lists for audiences at other locations. Target audiences can be reached through data modeling based on your customers’ persona.
Other benefits of data modeling and targeting are accuracy and campaign attribution. Targeted campaigns are made for continuous testing, honing and iteration.
The data is out there
Retail is evolving and retailers need ways to evolve in response. Retailers need new ways to offer customized, localized, shopping experiences to encourage shoppers to shop in stores again.
Localized marketing and advertising can work for any retail business and location. You simply need to know your audience and be open to creative solutions to craft and deliver your message to the right people at the right time.
