Data

Overview

Good data hygiene and targeting practices are important for business and environmental reasons. Carefully targeted campaigns with relevant messaging resonate with consumers. They welcome such mail into their homes and act on appealing offers. Extra care in planning mail campaigns can result in extra profits for businesses. It also protects the mailer’s brand — consumers who can’t use what is being offered often become critical of the business which sent the irrelevant mail.

Data hygiene and targeting also have an environmental benefit. They eliminate the overproduction of mail pieces. Switching from a poorly targeted, broad campaign to an intensely targeted campaign results in fewer sheets of paper and envelopes that go into recycling centres, fewer raw materials consumed in the production of the mail campaign, and fewer emissions from the transportation sector.

The data hygiene and targeting objective

The Sustainable Mail Group advocates for the adoption of targeted campaigns by businesses and by the marketers and mail service providers who advise them.

SMG recommends targeting an audience based on as many factors as possible and running several small campaigns rather than a single large campaign. Analysing the effectiveness of the initial campaign can lead to refinements which will improve the effectiveness of subsequent campaigns.

First steps

• Analyse your existing information, especially demographics and shopping habits, to identify characteristics of your best customers.
• Audit your customer lists to ensure no duplications or addressing errors are included.
• Increase data accuracy by using targeting tools such as
  • Precision Targeter, at Canada Post tool
  • Kenetic precision targeting
• Engage Canada Post’s specialists to explore targeting possibilities.
• Verify the relevance of your message — make sure the right subject matter is going to the right demographic at the right time