USING DIRECT MAIL TO DEVELOP A LOCAL MARKETING STRATEGY

IDENTIFYING YOUR PRESENT CUSTOMERS

Geodemographics: Neighbourhood Profiling

A successful direct mail campaign is all about getting your message in to the hands of the "right" sort of customer for your products or services. The right sort of customer of course is someone who has a need, or perceived need for your product or service.

Think about the type of people that are most likely to buy your products, or services. You know your products and services better than anyone, so you will have a good idea of the types of customers who currently purchase from you. What you need to do is locate more customers like your present ones and so expand your customer base and increase sales.

If your business is locally based and takes customers and clients from within the local population you will need to do some elementary research to find out about your local neighbourhoods, and the people who live there. This research will enable you to identify the types of areas and lifestyles of your present customers. This is called Profiling.

Geodemographics is a field of study that involves the classification of consumers according to the type of neighbourhood in which they live. Marketing companies have classified all of the urban and rural areas of the UK into about sixty distinct neighbourhood types.

The point is, when you have built a good accurate customer profile use this profile as a blueprint to find similar types of neighbourhood and prospects to promote too. What you find out about past and present customers can point you in the right direction for future marketing campaigns.

There is now a mass of information available on the Internet (much of it free) that can help you research and identify target groups within neighbourhoods. If you have an address database of past and present customers you can match it to one of the sixty or so profiles that have been developed by marketing companies.

Our FREE e-book: "Neighbourhood Marketing Strategies" covers the topic in more detail. Go and download yourself a copy.

If you want to reach individuals who have reached a particular stage in the life-cycle: affluent older, shareholder, executives and professionals, lists are available for these and many other categories.

Over the next few weeks this page will be expanded to include shot articles, tips and advice regarding local direct marketing campaigns. So,drop in regularly to see what's available.  

Some sites to visit to find out more information:

www.marketingfile2.com This site offers several free reports on direct mail marketing, and has a large consumer and business mailing list library. You have to register to download the free info, but registration is quick and simple.