marketing : collecting data
Collecting Data
Data is one of the most expensive commodities in the world. Forget the industrial age, we are now in the information age. From supermarket reward cards, to heart-rending emails that you must pass on to ten friends - companies are recording your data everyday. Whether you think it is right or wrong, the boot is the other foot now so you need to capture data to make you property more sellable. Now, when we talk about data capture, all we are basically saying is that you must record various details about various aspects of your selling proposition, analyse it and then act upon the results.
Isn't It Intrusive?
That depends on the level of permission you have from the customer. Don't take - Ask! If they say no, accept that and move on but by all means incentivise them because you are building up a valuable database of knowledge.
Why Collect Data?
You may think you know what type of people you want to appeal to with your holiday property proposition, but are you hitting the mark? By capturing data you can begin to see patterns of the real story:
Who is renting your property?
What ages?
Families, couples, groups?
What part of the UK are they from?
When you know who your customers are, you can direct your marketing efforts into finding 'more of the same'. Take the supermarket reward card - When they swipe your card they know exactly what you have bought and they can tally that up with every shopping trip you have made in the store. They can then build a picture of your shopping habits and you can bet that the offers that you recieve on your statement are appropriate for you.
The Message is Specific and Personalised! Why send a generalised offer of baby food to a pensioner? In your case, why try to rent out a third floor, one-bedroom apartment to an affluent family with three children when it won't suit them?
How Should You Store The Data?
The best way is to keep data is to use a computerised database. This could be in Access, Filemaker or Excel. You could keep you records on written cards, you probably won't be working with lots of data, but, if you can store the data electronically it is easier to work with and easier to cross-reference and see patterns. Running reports and seeing trends is a lot easier and quicker.