Summer GouldFinding the right prospects is the fastest way to gain new customers. This has been a big challenge. There are several ways to do this but today we will focus on list profiling. Basically, you take your current customer list and profile them. Then you find prospects who look like your current customers so that you can send direct mail pieces to them. We will look at two popular profiling tools below.
Claritas PRIZM Premier – Identifies over 68 different segments. Segments are defined according to socioeconomic rank, including income, education, occupation, and home value as well as 11 Lifestage Groups and 14 Social Groups. LifeStage groups are based on age, affluence, and the presence of children. The Social Groups are based on affluence and whether they live in a city, second-tier city, the suburbs, or small towns and rural areas. Then they take into account behaviors.
Purchase Behaviors Include:
- Apparel
- Appliances
- Automotive
- Communications
- Consumer Package Goods
- Financial Services & Wealth
- Home Furnishings
- Media Usage
- Travel
- Technology
Media Behaviors Include:
- TV
- Cable
- Internet
- Social
- Podcast
- Mobile
- Audio
SnapShot – Statistically profiles your best customers. Your data is matched against a comprehensive database of U.S. consumers or businesses to create a customized market penetration analysis. The strength of SnapShot lies in the demographic and firmographic overlays that reveal more detailed information about your customers. The consumer attributes it looks at are:
- Age Range
- Gender
- Marital Status
- Ethnic Group
- Education
- Occupation
- Number of Children
- Age of Children
- Household Income
- Home Ownership
- Dwelling Type
- Length of Residence
- Home Value
- Investment Types
- Lifestyle Dimensions
- Credit Card Types
- Net Worth
The business attributes it looks at are:
- Employee Size (Company)
- SOHO
- Credit Code
- Years in Business
- Owner/Renter
- Credit Grade
- Woman Owned
- Square Footage
- Advertising Expenses
- Public/Private Indicator
- SIC Division
- Location Type
- Import/Export Indicator
- SIC2 Code
- Annual Sales (Company Total)
- Franchise Code Indicator
- SIC4 Code
- Rent/Lease Expenses
- Computer Expenses
- Utility Expenses
There are other data profiling services, so if you feel these are not right for you make sure to check out all your options. The benefits of profiling your data are enormous. It not only gives you valuable information on your current customers, but allows you to find prospects that are most like them for easier conversion into customers. You can also use the profiles to create more customized offers on your mail pieces. The more personalized the offer, the better your response rate is going to be.
You can defiantly exploit the power of profiling by using variable data printing. It does not matter what format of mail piece you are using since VDP can be used for letters as well as mailers and postcards. A fully VDP piece will not only have copy changing, but also images and offers. Harness the power of direct mail and list profiling to increase your response rates by sending the right offer to the right person.
Typically, you can expect an increase in response rates of between 10% to 50% when you are targeting prospects based on profiling. Your offer and design factor into the response rate so your lift is also dependent on them. One of the common misconceptions about data profiling is that it is expensive. However, when you factor in your increased response rates, you will have easily paid for it and then some. Are you ready to get started?
