The world of mailing lists continues to offer more and more targeting options, which means marketers have a great shot of finding the households they want to reach.
The main players in the Industry have really fine-tuned their direct mail lists by adding information for each household record gleaned from a variety of sources, both traditional and digital. While a lot of the data adds new information into the household record it is also used to confirm & improve what’s already there.
For example, I recently bought some beautiful (and expensive) wellness floor mats for my newly remodeled kitchen from Williams & Sonoma on-line. Though a co-op program with on-line retailers, I have now been added to a Transactional Data mailing list of individuals who purchased High-Priced Home Décor. The date of my transaction was shared (which allows marketers to select me by recency – i.e. purchased high –priced home décor in the past 3 months), Frequency (made several purchases) as well as actual dollar amount ($100+)
The entire concept of Transactional Data is tailoring a list based on what consumers purchased in the past because this gives us some insight into what they may be buying again in the future.
Because of these purchases, I have been “sold” to many marketers looking for High-Priced Home Décor buyers. I now get catalogues from a whole host of home decor companies and it’s my choice as to whether I want to look at them or not.
I want to make it clear that whether I want to look at these catalogues is My Choice. As opposed to what’s currently happening to me by way of Digital Remarketing.
We all know that remarketing technology allows marketers to track consumer visits to a website or app – or even what they search for. This allows advertisers to re-contact them. Some marketers user this thoughtfully; others bombard visitors with messaging.
The fact is sometimes remarketing works and sometimes this backfires on the advertiser. While it’s true that the right amount of remarketing, skillfully delivered, can improve a campaign’s overall conversion rates, it’s a fine line between appealing and annoying. Too much remarketing or the wrong kind turns off potential customers.
While I am OK with getting catalogues in the mail that I may or may not want to look at, I am not OK with getting ads in my face on my Facebook account or when I click on something on my Linked In Pulse Must-Reads email.
With Direct Mail it’s My Choice. With Remarketing, it’s out of my hands.
