The Power of Profiling Your Data and 3 Easy Steps to Get Started

Fortunately, with the right data points and analysis, it's possible to tailor your marketing and connect with your audience in a way that resonates and converts. It's all about understanding who your customer is, and painting a full picture through data around where they're located, their age, gender, preferences.

To understand exactly how this works and the best ways to leverage data, we sat down with our resident Analytics Manager, Ksenia Kiykova and dove into the intricacies - from letter box targeting to canvassing your audience as a whole. Read her insights, below.

What is Data Profiling?

Data profiling is the process of collecting various data points relevant to your audience, analysing this data to build a 'profile' of your audience and then creating relevant audience segments that you can then market to.

This data can come from multiple sources, such as purchased databases, nationally collected census information, mobile data, Wi-Fi & beacon data, as well as demographic information. The multiple data points create a layering of information and data ecosystem that can then be used to build audience profiles.

As Ksenia notes, often companies have an intuitive idea of who they're marketing to, but data profiling allows us to really drill down into what those people look like, where they live, their behavioral patterns and subsequently tailor your messaging and mailer drops in a way that connects better.

How does REACH use Data Profiling?

On it's own, each data set is typically unstructured and doesn't provide information specific or useful to businesses in isolation, but through analysis and structuring the data, then weaving the information provided together, we're able to give the data context and create a 'story' around customers that can be used to inform marketing decisions.

The most common way we're able to use this method to create audience segmentation that delivers ROI for our clients here at REACH, is through a layering of location and census data.

If a client is currently sending unaddressed mailers or flyers to a number of areas, but they find that their conversion rates from these drops are low and they're looking to increase their return on investment from letterbox marketing, our first step would be to layer together location data on where their audience is based, as well as census data to understand what types of people live within these areas, and make strategic decisions on which specific addresses to send marketing collateral to.

Using census data, we'd be able to paint a picture of who the audience is, potentially tailor multiple versions of a mailer to speak to different demographics accordingly, and then implement an 'addressed send' to targeted households.

While sending tailored mailers to specific addresses based on data driven audience segmentation can be more expensive than an unaddressed broad send, more often than not, the ROI and conversion rate is significantly higher. It's fair to say that in our experience, data driven marketing that ensures the right messaging reaches the right audience will always trump casting the net wide!

How Can Businesses Use Data Profiling to Maximise ROI?

Visualisation of Data

One of the biggest challenges companies are faced with when it comes to harnessing the power of data and marketing, is finding an effective way to visualise data and make key decisions off the back of it. In order to truly maximise ROI from data profiling, it's important to make sure that data is communicated clearly.

Data visualisation is something we live and breathe here at REACH. We take all of the unstructured data points, give them structure and context, and transform spreadsheets into easy to understands roadmaps and graphics that allow businesses to understand the data and make decisions quickly and effectively.

Making Data Based Decisions

Understanding every angle of your ideal customer allows businesses to make decisions that can entirely change the way they operate, from marketing to logistics.

• Through understanding who is buying your products and services, how often they're making purchases and the why behind their consumer behaviours, businesses we work with have an opportunity to understand churn, exactly where their conversions are dropping off - as well as where their marketing efforts are soaring. This allows our clients to maximise opportunity within their existing database and look for opportunities to grow.
• It's not just about marketing - through data analytics we've been fortunate enough to help businesses to determine where their next franchise should be and the best catchment areas to build and develop territories around. Data helps companies to translate what they're seeing in spreadsheets into real life, logistical and growth decisions.
• A huge challenge for traditional letterbox marketing has always been wastage. With mass, unaddressed sends, there's always going to be a portion of your audience who picks up your mailer and takes it straight to the recycling bin. Through data analysis, businesses are able to significantly reduce wastage.
• Similarly with digital solutions such as e-Catalogues and mobile advertising, using layered data we are able to target specific audiences with custom advertisements, and use analytics to continually improve who your ads are served to, and the messaging behind them - as well as how these can work hand in hand with traditional letterbox solutions as a marketing one-two punch.

Spend Efficacy

Data profiling allows businesses to make decisions that cost less, but deliver the maximum return. It's all about turning hypothesis about your audience into data-based facts, and using that information to leverage your marketing efforts and drive ROI.

Three Easy Steps to Get Started with Data

If you're not sure where to start when it comes to data and analytics, here are fist three steps we'd recommend taking. If you have any questions at all, please do get in touch! We'd be happy to help.

1. Define your ideal state

The first step we'd recommend is taking some time to define your ideal state for you business and marketing efforts.

• How do you want to grow?
• What does success look like?
• What are the industry benchmarks?
• What ROI would you like to see?

The  best way to profile data is to first have an understanding of what you'd like to achieve, so you're able to tailor your efforts and analysis accordingly.

2. Understanding where you are now through 'gap analysis'

A gap analysis is an examination and assessment of your current performance for the purpose of identifying the differences between your current state of business and where you’d like to be. We'd recommend doing a stock take of how your current business model is performing and marketing efforts are going. This way, you'll be able to identify areas to improve quickly, and measure improvement and growth along the way.

3. Test your hypothesis and begin to use data to make decisions

Once you have a solid understanding of how your business is performing and areas where you can improve, and well as a fully formed idea of the direction you'd like to head, it's time to engage in data analysis to test your hypothesis about your current audiences and make data driven decisions.

We know that good strategy starts with the facts, and there are some many sources of data that can be used to paint a vivid picture of your audience and inform strategic decision making.

If you'd like to find out how we can help you to harness the power of data profiling and super charge your marketing ROI, get in touch below.