You may think we’re jumping the gun here seeing as though Father’s Day is still over a month away, but as with any annual event, preparation is required. Here at Hopewiser we like to be on top of our game, and you undoubtedly do as well. Even with the best of intentions, mistakes can be made, so that’s why we’ve listed a few bad marketing examples in order for you to mitigate any Father’s Day disasters.
1. Leaving it to the last minute
Time is of the essence when it comes to marketing a big event in your businesses calendar. Leaving it to the last minute could result in poor Father’s Day figures for your company. Planning ahead will pay dividends further down the line.
Preparing in advance doesn’t just mean sending your marketing messages early to make an impression on your target audience. There’s a lot more to it than simply delivering to your mailing list. What about the necessary steps leading to that point? The first question to consider is “have you deduplicated your data to get rid of any duplicate records”?
As businesses we should be thinking of cost-effective ways to operate and reduce unnecessary spending where possible. Due to the various touchpoints that your customers have with your organisation, duplicate entries are likely to crop up here and there. Failing to deduplicate your database before your marketing campaign may result in customers or prospects receiving the same mailing more than once. Not only could this irritate them and hinder any purchases they make with you, but some of your expenditure will be wasted.
2. Not Keeping Track of Your Customers
Whatever the size of your customer base, it’s imperative that you keep on top of it. Did you know on a daily basis 9,590 households move, 1,496 people get married, and 1,500 people die? Whilst all of these events seem quite commonplace, they’re actually quite a big deal. A person’s name, address and living status has the potential to affect your marketing, plus current legislation requires that your data is accurate and handled correctly.
Think about it like this. Under legitimate interest you may decide to send Father’s Day marketing to the same people in your mailing list from last year. However, a lot can change in 365 days, as we’ve already highlighted in the aforementioned statistics. Sending direct marketing to someone who has moved house may irritate the new residents if the intended recipients haven’t paid for a redirect service. Additionally, mailing to someone who has passed away could prove detrimental to your business, as such an event may be a sensitive time of year for some.
3. Forgetting to Prepare Your Ecommerce Website
Neglecting your website can be equally as disastrous for your marketing as the previous two scenarios. Your website is your shop window, therefore, it needs to be up to scratch in order to convert browsers into sales. A bad website could easily lead to cart abandonment, ultimately pushing potential customers towards your competitors.
A very important factor when it comes to having a successful ecommerce website is your address form in the check-out area. If data collection forms are too complicated, retailers run the risk of annoying their customers and putting them off making a purchase. Seeing as though the average cart abandonment rate is 69.57%, it’s important that businesses use address verification software in order to reduce the amount of time the user has to spend keying in their address. After all, your business should be all about the customer experience.
The Solution
In order to ensure your business has a successful Father’s Day, optimise your data to make your marketing the best it can possibly be. Running your database through a data cleansing solution will enhance your data sets by ridding them of any duplicate, mover, or deceased records.
Good-quality data allows staff to be more productive. Instead of spending time validating and fixing data errors, they can focus on their core mission whether that is Customer Service or Marketing. Knowing your customers with clean data means you will reduce fraud which in turn reduces lost revenue.
Hopewiser can facilitate all of your data accuracy needs. We provide an array of data cleansing services, from a handy online tool with a free sample analysis, installed solutions for large quantities of data, to our bespoke Bureau service that cleanses, dedupes, and verifies your data without the need for staff training. Once your marketing data has been enhanced, our easily integrated address lookup tool on your ecommerce site will seal the deal with your customers.
Make sure your business has a profitable Father’s Day this year with Hopewiser.
, updated 31st July 2019.
