Do you really know who your customer or fan is? Are you marketing your brand correctly to the right audience? As a property, are you targeting the correct prospects as sponsors? And if you do “know” all this, how are you justified?
For years, we have used the “common sense” approach to prospect research. We went by the fact that people who watch football and hockey drink beer, so let’s target the beer companies. People who go to live theatre and opera have lots of money, so let’s target the wealth management companies. We are probably not off the mark with this, but what are we missing? Are there others that we should be targeting? If so, how do we find them, and more importantly, how do we qualify them?
Recently, we have been working with several clients and partners to help them prospect scientifically. We are working with large and small properties to show them how to use big data and predictive analysis to determine the right sponsor prospects for their properties. The process is quite simple. We first need to know who the property’s audience truly is. From their database, we can narrow in and develop their key characteristics around the property’s donors, fans, clients, subscribers, or whatever. We can learn that they have a large segment of their audience that are diehard “do-it-yourselfers” or that a certain group loves to travel. Through delving into their database, we can deliver so much more than age, income, and typical demographics. We can truly narrow in and build a character profile for the property’s audiences. With over 20,000 data variables on consumer behaviour and preferences (right down to the brands they buy and how much they spend)… we can build key profile characteristics for the organization’s core audience. Once we know exactly what that type of profile is, through predictive analysis we can then determine exactly what industries the property should be targeting and even specific companies! The guessing game is over. Using the technology available to us and our clients, we can help them to prospect more effectively. The real success behind this is that sometimes a prospect comes up that we never thought of. But more importantly, our clients can show the prospect scientifically why they should be aligned with them!
Your financial advisor has been doing this for a long time. Their “suggestions to buy” don’t come from reports from the stocks or gut instinct, it is Quant Trading and predictive analysis. The big successful pro sports teams have been using this for quite a while to target prospect and show potential sponsors how their fan base fits the brand’s objectives. But now, even the small charities, events, municipalities, tournaments, and theatre companies can use this technology. Now the little guys can be as effective as the big guys!
It’s simple. Truly know who your audience is! Once you know that, you can show the appropriate sponsor prospects why they should be aligning their dollars with your property.
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