Data. It’s a simple word but a complex subject. If you meet me and ask what I do, I would tell you I leverage the power of data to help my clients succeed. It’s a good sound bite and true, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Since it’s one of my favorite subjects (second only to my family), I’d love to explain what data is and how it can help make your marketing campaigns more successful.
Data Finds the Right People
Every single marketing campaign you run has, at its core, a desire to get more people to engage with your brand. Whether you’re selling amazing coffee or skilled nursing services, your marketing campaign needs to be focused on people who are searching for coffee or your nursing services. But most marketing campaigns fail to reach their fullest potential because they don’t reach the right people. To be fair, there are a host of reasons why campaigns aren’t successful. The content might be poorly written, the message is on the wrong platform, the email or direct mail addresses are outdated. And so on. But more often than not, it’s because your message is reaching the wrong audience.
In the US, the entire advertising spend for 2023 is projected to be 303.6 billion dollars. As every vertical ramps in an Olympics and pre-election year, that number is going to continue to increase. No matter what size of budget you have, the most important question you should be asking is whether you’re getting your money’s worth. Is your messaging rising above the noise and competition for your audience’s attention?
The right data gives you the power to put your message in front of an audience that most closely mirrors your current best customers.
Meet Louise and Lynda
I’d like to introduce you to Louise and Lynda. Think of them as potential audience personas for your senior living community. Why do I want you to meet them? Because if you’re sharing the same marketing messaging with both of them and on the same channels, you’re wasting time, energy and budget resources on the wrong audience. Why? This short video demonstrates the power of data.
More importantly, I want you to understand that data is no longer simply a postal address and maybe an email address. Louise and Lynda are not one-size-fits-all personas to be used by every senior living community in the US. They’re unique to a specific dataset for a specific community. But Sabal Group’s proprietary data modeling can provide you with your very own Louise and Lynda, Gene and Gordon, or Charlene and Charles. Because each community and individual brand should be speaking to a unique audience, not to the entire world. Or as I like to say, you should be marketing to the household and not the ZIP code.
Data Facts not Guesses
Using proprietary data modeling, we look at thousands of variables and comb through hundreds of databases to develop a comprehensive report on your Louise and Lynda, where they consume content, and dozens of demographic factors that can help you frame a customized and persuasive message to each audience.
For example, data modeling for a specific senior living community tells us:
- 94% of the target audience shops online
- 92.5% do not have any children at home
- 91% are homeowners
- 85% are married
- 67% have a college degree; 16% hold an advanced degree
- 48% have lived in their home for more than 20 years
Data can also tells us which of the following interests are prized by this audience:
- Donating to charitable and wildlife/environmental causes
- Enjoying classical music, sewing, needlework, and knitting
- Ordering books online
- Taking cruises
- Enjoying gourmet food and cooking
- Traveling, especially in the US
We can identify an audience that self-reports for specific ailments based on:
- Adult child living with elderly parent or parents
- Age
- Income, net worth and assets
- Lifestyle
- Marital status
Data Delivers
Armed with a custom data list that is the cleanest possible, your marketing campaign can focus on the right messaging and imagery to convert an audience interested in what you have to offer them.
If you’re investing in a campaign, it only makes good sense to ensure its success by starting with the RIGHT data. I hope you’ll reach out to me to discuss how the right data can supercharge your next email or direct mail campaign. I’d love to chat about how Sabal Group can help you understand your audience more completely.
