Outbreak and Opportunity
January 1, 2021 | By Steve Fuller
The onslaught of the pandemic brought forth not only a tragic loss of human life, but the additional losses of being unable to congregate, widespread employment and lost revenue.
According to the Washington State Department of Health, we have lost over 3,500 people. The Employment Security Department noted that we lost 215,600 jobs in Washington state from February to November 2020. Forbes Magazine writes that as of September 2020, nearly 100,000 establishments closed because of the pandemic are now out of business.
As we look towards the demise of the pandemic, we begin to take stock of what we have and how to proceed as we put our lives and businesses back on track. I learned a couple of important things during the pandemic:
- You can never have enough toilet paper
- Human connection is essential
These are lessons I will not soon forget. Companies still doing business are aware of a few things as well:
- E-commerce/digital presence is vastly more important than you believed
- Just hoping that the money you spend on advertising works is no longer acceptable
These are lessons I am sure have become all too apparent.
So, what do we do? The remedy to my problem is easy — buy more toilet paper to put in storage and try to take people’s friendships less for granted. For business, it is almost as simple.
Right about now you are thinking, “No, you want to sell me something.” And you’d be right, I do. I want to sell you on the idea of advertising to the right people and speaking the right language at the right time and place. I do not want you to spend one penny on advertising that does not perform.
How do we begin?
- Know your customer in store, online or both:
- We use Prizm Segmentation and our data management platform Resonate to identify your customers’ behaviors, likes, dislikes, demographics, location, media usage and purchasing habits.
- Spend advertising dollars on specific designated targets:
- Knowing your customer gives us the ability to target your best customers across any platform: print, digital and social. You can be wherever they are.
- Monitor response and behavior:
- Your team of advertising specialists works on a continual basis to monitor and adapt your advertising to manage monthly growth and long-term success.
What does it cost?
Analyzing your entire client base — with a breakdown of who your customers are, their likelihood of buying and the mapping of current and potential clients — would cost between $5,000 and $7,500. However, we are offering this service at no charge to help local business rebound from the pandemic.
Requirement for analysis (one of the following must be available):
- Minimum of 1,000 physical addresses of customers
- Minimum of 4,000 email addresses of customers
- Website with a minimum of 4,000 visitors per month, with access to Google Tag Manager
Audience analysis allows you to focus your budget on the audiences most likely to convert without wasting your budget. The Seattle Times Media Solutions team wants to help.
Contact us at info@stms.seattletimes.com to learn more about this free service.
Steve Fuller is a Strategic Research Analyst for the Seattle Times Media Solutions. He helps local businesses understand their audience and advertising opportunities through customer and website data.
