Social 'scraping' can augment direct mail offers
While many marketing professionals have supplemented their address verification software with other digital marketing tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, many businesses are still struggling to marry the two channels.
Facebook, especially, is a goldmine for consumer information, opening up possibilities for more finely honed direct mail offers and promotions. However, companies are finding that without some creativity - or extra help - it can be difficult to monetize their social efforts.
One solution is to hire an agency or employee to "scrape" fans' profile pages, Advertising Age suggests. What does this entail? It can be anything from collecting email addresses to monitoring engagement on other online forums and clicks on ads so as to provide users with offers more targeted to their needs and interests through direct mail or other marketing channels.
For Yoram Greener, head of analytics at social media agency Big Fuel, analytics centers around this very principle. Monitoring creates the opportunity for businesses to "communicate with [consumers] effectively before they get into and after they leave Facebook," Greener explains to the source.
Especially as consumers are feeling the pressures of offer overload from many businesses, the more personalized companies can make their direct marketing solutions, the better the result may be for them.