1. Mass Marketing is Dead
Mass marketing is old school marketing. No longer can businesses afford to blindly send large volumes of the same messages to unqualified recipients. Nor can they afford to treat each customer the same way. Yet many businesses still practice these useless exercises. I know of a pizza parlor that complained the return on their post-card mailing was dismal. They were sending discount coupons to hundreds of homeowners and were getting a very poor response.
It turned out they were sending the postcards to everyone, within a 25 mile radius, regardless of any profiling information.
The problem with this method was that there was no selection process for the recipients. So their offer was ignored by many, particularly those to whom it did not appeal (i.e., Atkins? dieters, etc). The other problem was with their geographic selection (or lack thereof). Who would travel 25 miles for a pizza when there are half a dozen choices within a few miles of their home -- regardless of how good the discount was? Their target market was poorly defined.
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SMART MARKETING – SEGMENTING CUSTOMERS FOR SUCCESSFUL ACQUISITION & RETENTION
Like the pizza parlor, plenty of businesses practice bad marketing on a regular basis. It’ wasteful and it produces s negative effects. With an unfocused target market, the wrong people will get the wrong message. As a result, marketing dollars will be wasted. Prospective clients may look unfavorably on your business because you appear to be careless, desperate, or just plain clueless, and no one wants to work with a business like that. Customers can’ be treated anonymously. Hence the t quest for personalized marketing. One of the keys to successful marketing and sales is understanding your customers’needs and pains, and how to better serve them. Personalized marketing will help businesses address these