The Science of Making a Good Marketing Offer

From TV to digital ads to social media content, Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 marketing messages each day. There have never been more channels available to reach your desired audience. But don’t forget: everyone else wants to reach them, too.

Cutting through clutter is more than putting out content to see what sticks. Ninety-one percent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers specific and relevant to them. Follow this process when creating a marketing offer to optimize your chances of success. 

First: Is Your Data Ready?

Nearly 79 percent of consumers said they are only likely to engage with a brand if those offers are directly tied to how they have interacted with the brand previously. There’s no need to make a best guess or go with your gut. Marketers today should let customer data guide which customers should receive which offer and when. But, the data insights can only be as good as the underlying data. 

Even when armed with best intentions to use data wisely, dirty data or the wrong kind of data can lead to bad decisions. Inaccurate data can lead to subpar analysis, poor customer relations, and faulty business decisions – which ultimately cost your business money. (And no one wants that!)

The first step in your process should be ensure your campaign is built on solid ground. Give your data a tune up before you launch your next marketing campaign. 

• Collect and combine your data into a single source.
• Perform regular data maintenance to keep it current.
• Organize your data.
• Store your data in an easy-to-read format for immediate analysis.

Segment Your Audiences

Behind each of your data points is an individual with specific wants and needs. These individuals can be clustered by similar characteristics in order to communicate with them in more personalized and relevant ways. 

There are four main types of segmentation you can put to work for you: geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. 

• Geographic segmentation involves identifying contacts based on their locations or physical environment such as state, county, zip code or climate. 
• Demographic segmentation is based on factors such as age, marital status, occupation, education level, income, or family structure.
• Psychographic segmentation considers emotional aspects such as personality traits, beliefs, interests, and lifestyle.
• Behavioral segmentation targets based on consumer behaviors such as online shopping habits or how someone has interacted with your site (how long they stay on, types of content they click, etc.).

To keep your segments organized and make the data more actionable, customized dashboards can be a very useful tool. 

Implementing Highly Targeted Digital Campaigns

When planning your next campaign, use tools that further target your audiences and define the most valuable segments. If you’re planning a digital campaign, new tools like geomarketing, the use of MAIDs, and IP targeting are essential to further targeting your prospects and customers.

Choose Your Offer Wisely

Now it’s time to formulate the right message. 

Here it’s easy to make a mistake. Don’t make a hasty decision about what to offer, because ultimately, it will drive the response rate and return on investment. 

What are your customers’ pain points? What do they need to hear to make them act? A good offer must be so compelling that recipients will act. It should:

• Address a problem.
• Show why the recipient needs your product or service. 
• Clearly communicate what they’re receiving and how they will benefit. 
• Differentiate you from the competition.
• Include a strong call-to-action and deadline.

Remember to include only one offer per promotion to avoid confusing your customers.

Use Creative that Enhances the Offer 

Ninety percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Your marketing campaign’s creative design – no matter if it’s print, digital, or social – will be the first to gain and keep the prospect or customer’s attention. 

More than just words and images on a piece, effective design can guide your customer to key messages you want them to read.

Tips for effective design: 

• Your design should align with your brand’s standards. 
• Copy should be concise.
• It should be simple and easy to read.
• Any accompanying imagery should be high quality and relate to the offer.
• The offer should appear a minimum of two times somewhere on your campaign piece.

One word of caution: attention-getting visuals are important, but don’t let your offer get lost in the design.

Test and Track Your Results

You’ve spent a significant amount of time and money in developing your marketing campaign. Before you launch, test your offers and creative to see which produces better response rates. The flexibility of digital advertising makes it much easier to test and optimize your offers before deploying on a larger scale. 

After you’ve executed your campaign, make sure to measure your final results to see what was effective and what may need refined. Digital advertising yields an abundance of metrics, but take steps to ensure all aspects of your campaign are measurable by incorporating elements such as a unique landing page, trackable phone number, campaign-specific email, or exclusive promotion code.

For nearly 20 years, B2E Data has been offering clients data-driven marketing solutions that with proven results. Our data marketing experts will ensure your next marketing campaign is the most effective yet.