Posted by Brian Berg Google+
The African-American population is its own unique ethnic group as much as Italians or Germans or the French. They have various classes of affluency, taste, political attitude and lifestyle. Understanding these differences, and the need to speak to these “clusters” of people, will allow you to make great progress in winning the direct mail business within this and any ethnic group. The dangers of pigeon holing As all clusters of the population differ in buyer behavior, regardless of ethnicity, direct mail marketers must take notice of responder patterns and attempt to learn how these response clusters continually evolve.
It’s naïve to assume that all African Americans will react favorably or unfavorably to a direct mail offer that includes photo’s of African American celebrities, just as it’s naïve to assume that all retires will respond the same to a direct mail piece including photo’s of people older than age 65. The beauty of direct mail marketing is that’s its measurable. And the importance of including a track-able response vehicle with every direct mail campaign is paramount.
Your ability to identify the various ethnic groups in your internal mailing list is helpful, but to ignore the various splinter groups within each of these ethnic groups, or worse, to assume that all people of one ethnicity will respond the same is naïve. It’s like saying that all people who speak English respond the same. So how does the modern day, tech savvy direct mail marketer differentiate the various types of people within a common ethnicity? The answer is neither simple, nor quick, but is possible and profitable.
Developing your thread of communication between your brand and the various clusters of response clusters within your internal customers/prospect mailing list is done asking questions and getting answers. You can ask your audience questions through simple questionnaires or by using testing various offers through your direct mail campaigns. You can also get answers from 3rd party sources by appending demographic and psychographic elements to your internal mailing list thus turning the simple names and address on our mailing list into a more enhanced story telling database. What patterns do you see between the various responses?
What differences are you finding between your internal customer mailing list and those residing in your market territory? So as not to belabor this point any further, I will simply conclude that like any ethnic group, there are many many types of people. Be careful in pigeon holing any ethnicity and mail all to them with the same direct mail piece creative. African American mailing list compilation First, a clarification of terminology.
There are African- Americans and other people of African descent residing in the United States, including Ibo, Hausa, Zulu, Xhosa, and many other ethnic groups. We use the term "African American" for convenience, but would work as well with an international mailing list as an "African" list. Traditionally, marketers had to rely upon direct response mailing lists such as subscribers to publications geared to African-American audiences or upon encoding systems which could identify English, Scotch, French, Irish, Welch, and Dutch surnames that resided in traditionally non-white neighborhoods. So you had your choice of either pretty good quality without quantity, or a little more quantity without as much quality. Large numbers of African-Americans are not identified as either they were not subscribers or they could not be identified using the surname approach.
This is where the spelling of the first name drastically improves the quantity. By using first names uniquely given to African-Americans, being able to identify African first and last names, including analysis of Islamic first names used in conjunction with borrowed surnames or African surnames, we are able to identify African-Americans no matter where they live with an accuracy rivaling direct response mailing lists.Name analysis is an art and science when creating an ethnic mailing list. Even when the names on a list are hyphenated, slightly misspelled, or the person is brand new to this country, there is a good chance it can be correctly identified.
Good ethnic mailing list data is crucial to improving direct mail marketing results. Tying it all together There are many “managed” mailing list databases that contain different types of African Americans. Many of which tell a story beyond the color of skin. There are various mailing list databases that have originated from responders who fit a certain profile and would best be classified as Conservative Upscale more than anything else.
There are other mailing lists that might bring to mind the fast and chaotic pace of the youthful “hip-hop” culture full of young adults with passion and hope. Still there are other mailing lists containing African Americans considered to be more mainstream Americans with white picket fences, a dog and a garden and haven’t missed bible study in years. Whatever your product or service, make a decision not of what mailing list cluster most closely resembles the type of people who would be interested in your product, but rather, what do we know about the population available to direct mail advertise to and develop your product and pitch around those specific audience.
Version your direct mail message to speak to the heart of this direct mail audience. Your entire direct mail campaign should be developed with the prospect in mind. So ask the questions, get the answers, and speak relevance. Doing this better than your competition is the key to success.