Every business wants to see massive growth, right? And as you already know, reaching the right audience for your company is crucial in creating that growth and success in your marketing efforts. But reaching the right audience isn’t effectively done by just guessing what types of consumers may be interested in your product or service. So, what if you could use an essential tool that you already have to create a list of consumers who are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer?

Yes, that's right, a tool that you already have. Your current customers!

What makes up the core of your already built customer base? With Look-Alike Analysis you can discover this answer and use the characteristics of your current customers to find potential ones who match their same attributes.

Interested in learning more about your customers so you can target an audience who matches them? We have everything you need to know about Look-Alike Analysis so you can create real success and massive growth in your next marketing campaign.

What is Look-Alike Analysis

Look-Alike Analysis—also known as Look-Alike Mailing, Look-Alike Modeling, or Look-Alike Reporting—is a marketing tactic where data from your most successful customers is analyzed to determine the key characteristics of your current clientele. This analysis takes a unique approach in locating records of potential customers based on your best customers. And then creates a mailing list which includes a Look-Alike Audience of consumers who match the same key attributes.

Essentially Look-Alike Analysis finds and creates a list of an audience who “look like” and have identical actions and interests as your ideal and most profitable clientele.

How do I create a Look-Alike report for a mailing list?

To create a Look-Alike Audience, your print and marketing provider needs to analyze your current customers to determine which customer datasets are the most effective. Depending on your desired marketing outcome—if you want to reach consumers through a national or local campaign—this could be from 1,000 customer records to 10,000. That may sound like a lot of data to analyze, but the more data that can be processed, the more accurate your new audience list will be in matching your most valuable customers.

These customer records are individuals who represent the kinds of people who are interested in your product or service and will determine your target audience. This includes consumers with certain demographics, incomes, current life events and other elements.

What are the benefits of Look-Alike Analysis?

The main benefit of Look-Alike Analysis is that it allows you to reach an audience that you have a better chance of converting into customers. This is because the types of customers you already have are the exact type of new audience you want to reach.

Not convinced? If your current customer base is interested in your product or service, then an individual who has the same key attributes and demographics as your customers will be interested as well. If your analysis comes back showing that the majority of your customers are middle-aged men, who are married, have a household income of around 100k, has at least one child present in their home and shows interest in high end vehicles, that is the audience you want to reach. That is what Look-Alike Analysis does. You are able to target an audience with the same demographics, incomes, interests and more as your best clientele.

Not only does the benefits of Look-Alike Analysis or Look-Alike Mailing help you reach a more accurately targeted audience, but it also saves you money.

This marketing strategy saves you money by providing you access to an audience that is more likely to be interested in your company. By gaining this access, you eliminate the wasted time and money spent on marketing efforts that reach an audience who the majority is simply uninterested.

How does Look-Alike Analysis help with growth?

Imagine your most valuable customer, who opens every marketing email, engages with every catalog in your direct mail marketing campaigns, makes frequent purchases or wrote a great review about your services you provided. Now imagine reaching 100s or 1000s of consumers who are just like this customer. Your business sales would exceed your goals and your businesses growth would be astronomical!

That is exactly what Look-Alike Analysis does.

Let’s look at an example. If your company is looking to promote a new deal on their health food meal subscription and you decide to mail out postcards to 3,000 households that are made up of married couples who are interested in healthy eating, you may get impressive results! But, you may also only get 50 new customers. Now if you take a look at the data making up your current and best customers through Look-Alike Analysis, you may find that the majority of your current customers are in fact married couples who are interested in healthy eating, but do not have children present, live in or are close to the city and have a household income or 50k-100k.

If you mail to 3,000 of those households who match those exact credentials, you're looking at a more filtered and targeted audience who match the same characteristics as your best clientele. Thus, turning your previous 50 new customers into 2,000 new customers.

With Look-Alike Analysis, businesses can take advantage of data that they already have to grow their customer base and their business into something much larger. Interested in learning more or want to get started on your Look-Alike Report? Click below to visit and explore our Look-Alike Analysis page or talk with one of Look-Alike experts today!