It’s good to know human beings are nowhere near as predictable as marketers like to think we are. 

Despite the vast amount of data sites like Facebook hold about members, the social network’s data-driven adverts are still way off target.

OK, I may be in my forties and engaged to be married. But that doesn’t mean I’m into anti-ageing products. I don’t want a massive great meringue of a wedding dress either. Nor am I interested in celebrities or concerned about my weight: I couldn’t give a stuff how much blubber Cheryl Cole has lost!

These days marketers have access to ‘big data’, which by rights should make targeting offers tightly to people’s needs, preferences and lifestyles much easier. But in real life, it doesn’t. The conclusions they come to are still far too simplistic.

In reality Facebook’s efforts are no better than thirty years ago, when data driven targeting was the direct marketer’s holy grail and we only had postcode, sex and buying history to play with.

If Facebook filled my account with adverts for stuff  I’m really interested in, things like 1950s German art pottery, ’60s and ’70s oil paintings, antique rugs, craft materials, tickets for Radio 4 comedies, garden stuff, wood carving gear and good books, I’d be a happy bunny and would probably click through. That’s what I’d call targeting!

I fell into direct marketing more or less by accident back in 1989. Part creative, part logical, the bit I found most exciting was the concept of targeting: tailoring your offer to a carefully-chosen bunch of people who should be more likely than average to respond. 

Targeting makes sense in principle. For example, I love gardening. So when I get an offer from a gardening-related business, by rights I should be more likely than average to buy. On the other hand I don’t drive – I never have – so firms who send me information about breakdown services are on a big, fat hiding to nowhere.

While it’s a logical concept, we’ve been banging on about targeting for more than two decades. So why is effective targeting still the holy grail for so many marketers, more than twenty years down the line?

I suspect targeting might have a relatively small part to play in marketing success. It’s handy. It helps maximise your chances of conversion, along with numerous other common sense factors. But it ain’t – and will never be – a magic marketing silver bullet.

Why? Economists are currently busy revising the world’s financial models, taking human frailty and lack of logic into account for the first time. Perhaps it’s time to admit that it’s equally difficult – if not impossible – to accurately second guess individuals’ buying behaviour. While I love grubbing about in the garden my buying triggers are multi-factoral, involving much more than just a general need for garden-related stuff. However fantastic your offer, if I don’t need or want it at the point you contact me, for whatever reason, I won’t buy.

Having said that, there’s a shiny new kid on the block. ‘Big Data’ is here, born of the mind-boggling amounts of information collected online. Fingers crossed the sheer volume and depth of data will help marketers unravel fresh information about what motivates us to buy. But I won’t be too surprised to see another twenty years of self-congratulation and pseudo-science, prettily wrapped around a tiny core of common sense just big enough to perpetuate the myth.

Yes, targeting helps. Without doubt it’s better than nothing. But will Big Data deliver astounding practical insights that marketers can use to increase sales? We’ll see.

These days when you hunt for something online, Google and co. tailor the results according to your search  and click history.

We tend to click on stuff we like, approve of, enjoy and are familiar with. Search engines assume we want more of the same, which has its advantages. But the downsides are clear. We’re either being deprived of a whole load of potentially interesting stuff because it’s demoted and we never see it. Or being deluged with so much of the same kind of stuff we get stale, bored and frustrated.

Facebook does it too, applying invisible algorithmic editing to what we see. As does Ebay, which recently provided a case in point. I donate every time I buy something and Ebay throws up an animal charity button during the process. Fine so far. But when they started tailoring the ads that appear next to my Ebay searches to animal charities I disabled the targeting straight away.

How come? Having to scroll past a steady stream of charity banner ads showing horrific images of animal cruelty was sickening. So despite Ebay’s best efforts it was an example of targeting gone wrong. I still give to animal charities. But there’s no way I’ll authorise Ebay to tailor ads for me again.

Is the net’s personalisation a bad thing? Are we missing out on the richness and variety of information online because search engines and so on filter it so heavily… and so heavy handedly? It’s a hot debate right now and the jury’s still out. But if I was God of Google I’d give people the choice of switching filtering on or off. And I’d be very wary of making sweeping generalisations and assumptions. We humans don’t work logically like algorithms. We’re natural explorers – we enjoy roaming free-range!

Here’s some food for thought on the subject: http://www.webpronews.com/facebook-google-filter-bubble-2011-06#comments

What is segmentation?

Segmentation means splitting your prospect or customer data into chunks – segments – so you can send a specially tailored marketing message to each.

How can you segment your data?

Here’s a few examples:

• customers / prospects
• recent buyers / frequent buyers / people who haven’t bought for ages
• marketing responders / non responders
• people who have bought specific goods (useful for tightly targeted up-selling and cross selling campaigns)

Why segment your data?

• targeted marketing almost always out-performs non-targeted work. Which means you make more money
• targeted campaigns and everyday communications deliver better customer service. Which means prospects are more likely to become customers. And customers are more likely to come back for more

Like all direct marketing principles, targeting is entirely logical.

Yes, the world is your database. But it makes sense to aim your products at the people you know are likely to be interested instead of blatting your message out to everyone in the known universe and beyond.

Offline, targeting has serious cost implications. It saves a bomb on direct mail postage costs by contacting people who are statistically the most likely to buy. Mass email marketing costs less than nothing, but spamming is just lazy when there’s so many great opportunities for intelligent online targeting.

Targeting has SEO implications too. Say you sell freelance copywriting services in Sussex. Instead of choosing the key phrase freelance copywriting, which is very competitive, pick key phrases that directly reflect your niche. These will be longer by nature. Including phrases like freelance copywriting in East Sussex gives you a much better chance of getting your site in front of searchers looking for exactly what you’re selling. Not just something in the ballpark.

How can you tell if people are probably in your target market? If they…

• have bought your products before
• have bought  products like yours before
• have shown an interest in buying your stuff, or stuff like it
• have bought complementary products. For example you might sell a tie to someone who has just bought a smart office shirt
• imply their interest by registering for your newsletter
• enter your competitions 
• have contacted you to ask a question 
• belong to a professional body, forum or network that’s relevant to your products, services or industry
• subscribe to relevant websites or trade magazines

Direct marketing and targeting go hand in hand. As a general rule targeted segments respond better than random segments, delivering a higher ROI. But can targeting be taken too far? 

Facebook and Ebay target their on-site advertising based on your profile and/or previous history. Which sounds reasonable. But life isn’t that simple. Make too many assumptions and you can alienate people. 

I give to animal, wildlife and environmental charities via Ebay’s charity donation system. Which used to mean my Ebay account was stuffed with animal charity ads and not much else. Because I didn’t want Ebay deciding what I could and couldn’t see, I turned the option off. Now I’m enjoying random ads again. That’s better!  

Then there’s Facebook. Based on my profile Facebook ‘thinks’ I’m in the market for wedding dresses and menopause treatments. Hm. Yes, I’m forty eight. Yes, I’m engaged to be married for the first time. But frankly, Facebook’s targeting is more offensive than inspiring.

And there’s Google. Google claims they can use your search history to improve the search results it delivers. But I’d rather Google didn’t make value decisions on my behalf. When I search the internet I want access to everything, not just the bits Google thinks I’ll like. 

OK, it makes total sense to target fishing rod offers to people who enjoy fishing, rather than any old Tom, Dick or Harry. But beyond that, targeting should be handled with great care. Otherwise you risk tipping over the edge into Big Brother territory. 

If you want to stop Google keeping hold of your search history, just hit the little blue spanner in your Google toolbar and switch it off. 

• The golden rule of marketing is – give your customers what they want
• The golden rule of targeting is – go where your customers go

Perfect. If you’d like to get a regular email from Drayton, each packed to the rafters with the best in direct response wisdom, just register on his home page here.

It’s always wise to aim marketing firmly at your target audience.

Advertising your services where you know your prospects hang out is much cleverer than spreading yourself thinly all over the place. It gets better results. It saves time. And it avoids wasted effort.

There’s a growing raft of niche business directories online. Which makes sense from a search engine and user perspective. It means people can rummage happily around a directory bursting with exactly the kind of stuff they’re looking for.

And because search engines recognise niche directories as both authoritative and relevant, there’s an SEO benefit to being part of a targeted directory too.

Seach for niche directories relevant to your site’s key words and key phrases, use those key words and phrases in your submissions and you’ll be bang on target.

Here’s a classic example of copywriting with a distinct target audience in mind.

The Brief: re-write a Pelvic Toner website to encourage more visitors and sales.

As a rule pelvic toners are bought by women who suffer from pelvic floor weakness. But the copy for the original pelvictoner.biz site had been written by a bloke. The product helps women exercise their pelvic floor muscles back to fitness. A side effect is that it enhances your sex life.

The copywriter had majored on the sex angle and used a lot of serious medical-sounding content. A factual approach that, while it works very well for most men, can seem slightly disturbing (and creepy!) to women. So I recommended rewriting the copy with a female focus:

Bringing forward the benefits that most women would focus on: stress incontinence, ageing and post-childbirth weakness.

Putting forward the sales message using a lifestyle angle: feel good, get close to your partner again, release the real you…

The result? Here’s a link to the new site: www.pelvictoner.biz.

Since launch the site owner has seen a significant increase in average orders per day. The moral of the tale? If your target audience is male, write for men. If it’s female, write for women. If it’s both, write for both. If it’s kids, write for kids. Think about who your target audience is. Establish what they want to hear and how they want to hear it. Then give them what they want.