eView: A Case for Applying Analytics to Targeting

A few years ago, I purchased a diamond necklace for my mother’s birthday. Ever since making the purchase on a retailer’s website, I’ve received several marketing messages from the company encouraging me to purchase more jewelry.

Despite my lack of responsiveness, the retailer continues to fill my inbox with similar promotions, ranging from discounts on shoes and blowout designer bag sales to in-store cosmetics demonstrations and offers. I think it’s safe to say this retailer has no idea I'm a male. At least not when I'm online.

When it comes to my physical mailbox, however, the store seems to have a better idea of who I am. As a devoted customer of this retailer — I regularly shop in its brick-and-mortar store — I receive catalogs featuring items much more specific to my interests and prior purchases. So, why aren’t the retailer’s emails more in sync with its direct mailings and other channels it uses to market to me? 

All too often, online retailers aren't using traditional customer information to help them paint clearer pictures of their audiences. Online behavior alone can provide terrific insights about customers’ shopping habits, but it doesn’t always do a good job of identifying who those customers actually are demographically. Just because I'm searching for diamond rings on a website doesn't mean I'm a female. And what about those of us who enjoy fantasizing about the finer things in life? Just because I'm searching for multimillion dollar yachts on a website doesn’t mean I can afford one.

A deeper data dive
Clearly, online advertisers can and should access deeper insights for promotional purposes versus simply retargeting campaigns out to customers who clicked or purchased last.

Incorporating data from multiple sources can help marketers get a much truer picture of their actual customers versus interested browsers that aren't qualified. Are the customers you last engaged with married? Do they have children? What are their income ranges? Do they drive new or used cars? Do they rent and/or have debt?

By using customer-provided intelligence across multiple channels, retailers position themselves to maximize their successes. Relevance is driven, and retailers are improving the customer experience by showing that they're paying attention rather than blanketing buyers with offers and promotions that simply don't make sense.

Three ways to deliver for your customers
To make sure you're truly delivering on your customers' wishes, do the following:

1. Commit to using the customer data you already have more effectively, and ensure your marketing vendors or partners are supporting this commitment.
2. Partner with companies that can bring new and more robust data sets to your campaigns, such as data appends, data targeting, audience measurement, etc.
3. Employ an ongoing testing strategy where you're constantly measuring results against previous campaigns.

Next year will be the year of audience discovery. Employ these three simple tactics and you'll find your ideal audience, while creating consumer value through increased relevance.

Sean O'Neal is chief revenue officer for Datran Media, a New York City-based digital marketing technology firm. Reach Sean at sean@datranmedia.com.

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