Gaining Insight from Your Customer Database

One of the first questions we ask the owners and marketers of the destinations, resorts and tourism attractions we work with goes something like this: “What is the one thing that you don’t have today, or don’t have enough of, that could provide you with an undeniable competitive advantage?” Two of the top three answers are usually offered half jokingly: money and time. But the third most common, more serious, and far less elusive answer is “consumer insight.”

With battered budgets and new distractions at every turn, its easy to overlook generally accepted “best practices” and miss out on the wealth of consumer insight virtually every destination already has in their possession. Even more so in a recession, its important to remember your best marketing opportunity—the customer information database.

While many destinations, resorts and attractions have developed sound, reliable strategies for mining consumer insight from their data, others have yet to take advantage of this game-changing undertaking. Simple database analysis programs can deliver improved direct mail results or maybe a few cross-sells, but in-depth evaluation can bring real, meaningful insight to the planning table.

With leaner media budgets and a continuing onslaught of distractions (hello social media), it’s a good time to think about taking advantage of your data in a few profitable ways. In addition to boring old demographic reports, or lists of addresses, your customer data can yield a ton of value that can improve just about any facet of your marketing and sales programs.

The insights hidden in your database can answer questions like: