Hi

Are you wasting your marketing budget on people who aren't interested in your message?

In the 1930s radio was the new way of communicating with the masses. U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt campaigned on the radio by creating something known as ‘the fireside chat’ to speak directly to voters about the issues that mattered to them. This was revolutionary at the time as it leveraged a national network of radio stations that carried Roosevelt’s message.

Roosevelt was the first president to harness the power of radio which in the following decade became the marketing channel of choice for big brands.

In 1960 John F Kennedy went head-to-head with Richard Nixon in a live televised debate. On television Nixon looked nervous whereas Kennedy seemed relaxed. People who listened to the debate on the radio thought that Nixon had won but the majority of the population had watched it on TV and favoured the candidate who had performed best on screen. Brands moved their budgets from radio to television. 

In 2008 Barack Obama used social media as a way to engage with voters. He uploaded more, shared more, and responded more than all of the other candidates and won more votes. As a result, social media became the marketing platforms for big brands.

In 2016 Donald Trump created a marketing campaign driven by data analytics that was able to get vast amounts of data about voters, and then deliver uniquely targeted campaigns to them. He understood that American presidential elections are decided by very few voters. By ignoring all but the swing states, and the marginal voters in those states, Trump was able to deliver his message to the relatively few voters who would decide the election. Data informed every decision about what to say to those people who would elect him to the White House.

Regardless of your political opinion, the clear message from the Trump campaign is that data analytics is as powerful a tool in marketing as it is in accounting. By gathering as much data about people as you can, and then targeting your marketing messages to people based on their preferences, marketing budgets can be invested more wisely.

It won't be long before every marketing campaign will speak directly to the person who's seeing it. Today, whatever business you think you are in you are also a data analytics business. 

Customers want things to be personal to them and that requires data. The more data you collect now the more sales you will make. Data is cutting through the noise and connecting with people. 

The more data you collect the less you need to spend on marketing and sales, and the easier it is to make sales and charge what you are worth. 

Data allows you to customise and target your message to the right people, in the right place and at the right time. You will no longer have to waste your marketing budget on people who aren't interested in your message. 

Interestingly, consumer trends indicate strongly that people want personalisation and that they're willing to give up information about themselves to get it. Collecting names and e-mail addresses is no longer enough; your business must conduct surveys, scorecards and quizzes to have access to unique data insights and create marketing campaigns in which each individual sees what is uniquely relevant to them.

Noel Guilford 

PS If you have been missing Sunday Supplement during the past few weeks you haven't missed anything. I had covid in March  which knocked me off my stride and it's taken me several weeks to get back to normal.