Demographic - Target Marketing

PINPOINT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE WITH DEMOGRAPHIC SEARCH - AGE, GENDER, INCOME, ETHIC AND MUCH MORE...

Geographic Search -
Basic search with ZIP DOE, CITY, STATE, RADIUS FROM YOUR STORE ADDRESS

Geographic Search - Target Marketing

Let's select and send it to one specific zone where your service is most needed. First problem in the process of sending direct mail is to choose which area to dispatch mails, from most basic way of using zip-code or city to a way of only selecting the area with your interest. If you are located in population-crowded area or even if you are not in such area, the following carrier route selection is a significant method of deciding on especially small area where you would send direct mails. Once again, I will explain what carrier route is in subsequent sentence. Carrier Route is a terminology used in post office which describes a zone which one mailman delivers mails to. There are about 30 carrier routes in one zip code. Of course, the more populated the neighborhood is, the smaller the area of each carrier route. Below is the map of Manhattan , which is one of the areas with high density of population in eastern part of the US .

Using Carrier Route map properly can bring forth carrier route method as a very effective marketing source. The following is the approach you can take.

Let's assume that your businesses' customers are clustered in zone A, and only small numbers are populated in zones B, C, and D. (If you are running a business in a highly populated area, most of your customers are ought to be clustered in one section.) Also, I am sure you are aware of the fact that, pretending that your annual sales are $500,000, $400,000 of sales is coming from 20% of your predominant customers. Subsequently, if you can bring 1% of predominant customers from targeting area B, there will be noticeable increase in sales, which gives sufficient purpose to attempt direct mail. After selecting the area in aforementioned way, next step is to determine which mailing list to use, which can be broken down to two types. First, there is a mailing list with just addresses, without residents' names. This primarily is replacing individual's name with Current Resident, which is most affordable way while having the option to select from all households as an advantage. However, you won't be able to select certain people demographically. Obtaining a mailing list demographically means specifying and selecting by categories of age, income, occupation, gender, etc. Also, another type of mailing list is demographic one that selects precise target, which is of course more costly than above way. Ability to narrow down by categories of age, income, occupation, and gender is certain, but furthermore can identify those households of certain age group by whether or not they have children. When we plan direct mail, the reason why we act with prudence is to spend minimal cost while resulting in maximum efficacy.

Following is a map of carrier route units in corresponding areas.

Each zone has numbers such as C001~2, which is Carrier Route number in that corresponding area. Of course there are same carrier route numbers in other zip codes. Therefore, you must always record carrier route number along with zip code. Looking at above map will allow you to roughly choose which areas to send direct mails to. For example, you can say “from zip code 10024, Carrier Route numbers C011, C009, C007, C006, C009, and C051”. This way you can minimize the purchase of mailing list, and also minimize the number of dispatch, therefore unnecessary expenses can be eliminated. But, there still can be number of households larger than you expected even if you select the areas you want. Then, next best process may be to select residents with high-income only.

This area for example has about 30,000~40,000 households in one zip code, which consists of 10 times the average population in the US . If you are either running a business or planning one in these areas, it will be difficult for you to decide where to start when starting direct mail. Where you are located is the red dot in the center of the picture, and are planning to direct mail to areas only within the thick border line. You can't expect to get a clear-cut answer if you try to explain this criterion to a mailing list company or employees at post office. In worst circumstances, they may unreasonably require you to purchase the mailing list of the whole corresponding zip code.