Somebody once told me that half their marketing budget is wasted. They just wished they knew which half it was.

It’s an old joke. But with the rise of data driven marketing campaigns it’s becoming easier than ever to target your marketing dollars more effectively – and eliminate a lot of waste..

Today campaigns rely on client data from multiple sources. This can include data collected from call centres, website order forms or e-commerce portals. Bringing this data together and executing effectively upon that data can make a big difference. This is particularly useful when it comes to tourism marketing.

But most organizations don’t have capability in-house to deliver data-driven logistics campaigns. So they rely on 3PL (third party logistics) to execute upon the data they have and incorporate it into their marketing strategy.

We actually work with a provincial tourism agency here in Canada. And how they turn data into visitors is actually a very good case study for other agencies to emulate.

First they gather information from their call centre and website enquiries. This is then used to create personalized packages of printed materials using the interests of the potential tourists to drive content.

How? The data is sent to us daily with names, addresses and pick and pack instructions for maps, and tourism brochures. The content is created based on  language specific and is “interest” specific. So someone interested fishing and hunting  doesn’t get generalized information on sightseeing and bird watching. Using variable digital print technology we switch out images and text in these printed materials, so that the package has more appeal to the prospective tourist.

This type of highly personalized marketing ensures that our client is communicating in a way that speaks to the individual rather than a generalized market segment.

And who does not get super excited about a vacation once they have some maps and brochures in their hands that appeal to their specific interests.