- It is purchased by newer customers, average customers, or loyal customers.
- It either adds to the future value of customers, is neutral, or detracts from the future value of customers.
Kevin Hillstrom: MineThatData
Helping CEOs Understand How Customers Interact With Advertising, Products, Brands, and Channels
April 29, 2025
Merchandise Residual Value
April 28, 2025
A/B/C/D/F Channel Grade Opportunity
Let's try something low-cost to help you plan better for Q3/Q4.
- For $9,000 I will grade every customer in your database (A/B/C/D/F where "A" is best and "F" is non-responsive) for every large marketing channel you employ.
- You will receive a list of all 60-month buyers, all customers graded.
- I will update the list for you with data through August 1, and again with data through October 1 ... or alternatively, I'll update the list for you on September 1 ... whatever works best for you.
- This allows you to save $$$ by not mailing customers with D/F designations, especially among those with A/B/C email grades.
April 27, 2025
Making Good Decisions
Those of you deciding to save money in upcoming months ... especially those of you in the print world ... will need to make good decisions. Really good decisions. Like not killing customer acquisition efforts. Like finding ways to keep customers buying whatever is available without spending a lot of money telling customers to buy stuff.
A good decision? Not mailing email buyers. Not mailing digital buyers. Not mailing 25+ month buyers. I've been telling many of you this for nearly twenty years. A fair number of you listened, hiring me to cut back on wasteful variable marketing dollars.
Now the rest of you are going to be forced down this path. Or not. Who knows?
But if you are forced down this path, score every darn customer in your database for propensity to purchase from different marketing channels.
Example:
- Print Customers ... top 5% = "A", 6% - 15% = "B", 16% - 35% = "C", 36% - 60% = "D", 61% to bottom of file = "F".
- Apply Same Modeling Logic to "Omnichannel" Customers (respond to print online), Website Customers, Email Customers, "Digital Marketing" Customers, and Social Customers.
- "F" for Print.
- "D" for Omnichannel (Print via the Website).
- "C" for Website.
- "B" for Email.
- "B" for Digital Marketing.
April 24, 2025
Solving Two Problems At Once
- We need tariffs to even the playing field and not be taken advantage of anymore.
- My business is about to be clobbered for no good reason, my own Government is killing us.
April 23, 2025
A Couple of Scenarios - Stop Wasting Marketing Variable Costs
When customers become less productive (as happened in April), decisions need to be made. Especially among lapsed buyers. These customers are, by definition ... lapsed ... and therefore are not terribly responsive.
When a customer is not terribly responsive, the last thing you want to do is spend a ton of money on the customer. It's just dumb. You can spend the money elsewhere ... find a new customer, make the best video about widgets ever.
Here's an example.
You could send a direct mail piece to the customer (assuming the customer is 60+ years old). Or, you could send an email campaign to the customer. One tool creates a good amount of lift, one tool creates very little lift. Take a look.
It's common for outsiders to look at the lift observed in print and say "Look at that, you moved the needle!" And you did ... the customer (in the example above) would have averaged $1.60 in the two weeks after the piece was mailed ... but instead spends $2.40. You did move the needle ... a lot.
Outsiders will look at the $0.23 profit generated by the audience mailed and say, "see, that's a lot of profit". And they are right. But they are measuring things wrong. Compare the mailed group to the holdout group ... $0.23 (mailed) vs. $0.69 (not mailed). Which strategy yields more profit? NOT MAILING THE CUSTOMER!!
Now look at email marketing ... it barely moves the needle ($1.70 vs. $1.60). But ... but ... the end result is MORE PROFIT.
In 2025, it is FOOLISH to waste marketing dollars on customers not likely to respond. Go ahead and spend $$$ on customers who are responsive ... if the lapsed customer just visited your website, have at it, because the customer is temporarily responsive.
In 2025, you don't spend marketing dollars ... you spend marketing effort. Sure, pay for that silly click because the customer is responsive. Otherwise, leverage your YouTube presence, your social media presence, and your email marketing program to teach customers why they should buy from you at minimal/no variable cost.
We're not wasting variable costs anymore, got it?
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