How to Use Precise Geospatial Data to Effectively Target Your Market
Location matters and understanding how to leverage geospatial information can make or break your marketing tactics, especially when using direct mail. In this blog, we’ll review the most commonly used form of geospatial targeting, discuss its limitations, and propose accessible alternatives that take a more practical and data-driven approach to ensure that every dollar spent is contributing to the ROI of your marketing and communications efforts.
The Importance of Precision in Geo-Targeting
Precise geotargeting is a pivotal step towards maximizing return on investment (ROI) while minimizing financial waste – that’s because qualifying based on geographic proximity is the easiest and most effective way to ensure that every dollar spent contributes directly to reaching qualified audiences. This is especially true when using direct mail, which is one of the most expensive direct marketing channels. Using imprecise geotargeting always results in unnecessary overspending of marketing budget and artificially capping ROI potential.
The problem with Zip Codes
Zip codes, although the most used geographical targeting tool, are quite the opposite of precise and often contribute to spending significant budget on unqualified prospects. Contrary to popular belief, zip codes serve the postal service merely as logical groupings of mail carrier routes, essentially a collection of disconnected neighborhoods and streets versus a cohesive geographic shape with determined boundaries. The United States Postal Service (USPS) assigns zip codes to addresses to create abstract spaces for delivery locations, ensuring optimization of carrier routes. This means that households throughout one zip code can have a completely different zip code than their surrounding neighbors, making zip codes one of the least precise methods for geographic segmentation. As a result, zip code targeting often misses valid prospects while spending budget on invalid ones.
Now that we’re on the same page about how crucial precise geotargeting is, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. How do you do it?
How to Leverage Precision in your Geotargeting
The most precise tool for geographic targeting is defining and creating geospatial objects, often simply referred to as “custom shapes”. This is exactly what companies like Zillow allow their users to do: build a custom shape by dropping points on the map to precisely configure the geospatial object you’d like to target. So, all that’s really needed to get started with more precise geotargeting is simple: a provider that can give you such an interface to query their available lists. What’s more challenging is figuring out exactly how to craft your custom shapes.
Using Custom Shapes
Picture this: instead of casting a wide net with zip codes, custom shapes enable you to tailor your campaigns to hyper-qualified audiences. Your message reaches individuals who are not just interested in your products but are also strategically positioned in the regions where your offerings are most relevant. The result? A higher return on investment and an increase in campaign success rate. By making the strategic switch from zip codes to custom shapes, you’re not just sending messages; you’re crafting laser-focused narratives that resonate with your audience, eliminating the noise and ensuring that every dollar spent contributes to meaningful engagement.
The goal of using a custom shape can vary significantly based on your business and industry. For brick-and-mortar marketing, the sole goal of your custom shape might be to capture everyone within a specific drive time of a store location. For a tree-service company, custom shapes might be used to target households within a service perimeter that borders wooded areas. Regardless of the business model however, data providers that accept geospatial objects as list criteria can eliminate significant budget waste.
More Ways to Use Custom Shapes
Highways, Rivers and Neighborhoods
Recognizing neighborhoods, rivers, and highways, often defined by local communities, city planning departments, or geographical features, offer tangible and community-driven bases for segmentation. Particularly relevant in urban and natural landscapes, this method allows businesses to align their marketing strategies with the distinct characteristics and preferences of specific neighborhoods, water bodies like rivers, and transportation routes such as highways. Fostering a more localized and community-centric approach, this approach enables a comprehensive understanding and connection with the unique qualities of diverse environments.
Competitor Locations
By customizing geotargeting shapes around competitor areas, you can strategically tailor your marketing efforts to capture the attention of their audience. This allows for a nuanced and targeted approach, enticing potential customers in proximity to competitors and creating a strong presence in key market zones. It’s a savvy way to outshine the competition and make your brand stand out in the crowd.
Complimentary Locations
Consider strategically aligning with complimentary locations. Picture tailoring your marketing approach to complement areas that resonate with your brand. This intentional move aims to resonate with potential customers in locations that naturally align with your offerings, presenting your brand as a harmonious choice. It’s a sophisticated strategy that positions your brand presence with purposeful precision, creating meaningful connections in the market.
Geo-Demographic Segmentation
The integration of demographic data with geographic locations forms the foundation of geo-demographic segmentation. This approach leverages sophisticated algorithms to combine lifestyle, behavior, and location data, resulting in more precise target segments, allowing businesses to tailor their messaging to resonate with the unique characteristics of each audience. In fact, here at Strata we use our proprietary geo-targeting software, to do just this, specifically targeting key customers with relatable and relevant messaging.
Neighborhood Focus
So, what does all this mean? Industries like healthcare, grocery, restaurants, retail and more increasingly find value in location-based marketing that transcends traditional zip code constraints. This strategy, extending beyond geographical boundaries, proves cost-effective in direct mail campaigns where postage is usually the largest expense. By using geospatial boundaries and targeted shapes, businesses strategically cut unwanted recipients, significantly reducing postage costs and maximizing the impact of their marketing efforts.
In the digital era, personalized and targeted advertising is paramount, and geospatial intelligence creates a more efficient and tailored connection with the audience. Beyond cost savings, businesses can enhance customer engagement by delivering location-specific promotions, fostering brand loyalty. Overall, this approach allows for the reallocation of resources, optimizing both cost and quality of marketing, and represents a transformative shift in elevating the overall efficacy of marketing initiatives.
In navigating the landscape of targeted marketing, the key lies in harnessing the right technologies to bring your strategies to life. Achieving precision through custom shapes, geo-demographic segmentation, and other advanced alternatives requires a tool that empowers you to draw those custom shapes on a map.
Looking to learn a bit more? Connect with a Strata expert today to hear more about our cutting-edge services that enable you to draw custom shapes with ease and reach the full potential of your direct mail and other marketing campaigns.
A Strata YouTube Original Series
Attribution is (or at least, should be) a vital part of your marketing. If you’re not sure where to start or are unsure how attribution works, we’re here to help out. Which is why we interviewed Harrison Sammak, Strata’s Director of R&D, to answer some of the most frequently asked attribution questions. Here’s a snippet out of the full YouTube video…
What is attribution?
In the context of marketing, attribution refers to the concept of knowing what activities your marketing team performed that had a material effect on someone engaging with you or your company.
Why is attribution so important when it comes to sales and marketing?
The goal of marketing is to generate and spread awareness, inform relevant audiences of your product or service’s value, and create opportunities for those audience members to enter your sales funnel. Without attribution, you can’t be sure your marketing is doing these things effectively (or not doing these things).
What is the biggest challenge associated with attribution?
The biggest challenge facing marketers that holds them back from a truly strong and accurate attribution system, is when their MarTech or attribution model doesn’t support a channel, and consequently, they avoid using this channel for marketing efforts (when it could be very successful).
Head over to Strata’s YouTube channel to watch the rest of the video and – hopefully, get all your attribution questions answered.
Harrison also answers:
- How do you solve for these challenges?
- What does attribution done right look like?
Click the image below to view the full video!
If you have any additional questions, want to learn more about attribution, or are looking to elevate and better understand your marketing, contact our team today. Our experts are ready to help you make smart happen.
Prior to Campaign Launch
Prior to launching your marketing campaign, it’s important to know who your audience is and what your audience wants and needs. Understanding the various methods of sampling – and which option will work best for your campaign – is key to increasing your ROI. There are two main categories of sampling: Probability and Non-probability. As probability sampling is used to determine the outcome of many different scenarios, it isn’t the most cost-effective method for exploring your consumer base. We recommend focusing on non-probability sampling, instead. We’ll lightly explore both kinds of sampling methods, but we’re honing in on two specific methods today, specifically: Stratified and Quota. From there, we’ll talk more about why it’s so important to test your audience prior to launching your campaign.
A Quick Recap: Understanding Your Audience
As we’ve mentioned before, knowing your audience and why you’re targeting them is a great way to avoid frustration when communicating with and advertising to your market. When you properly use your audience data, you can make better choices for your marketing plan. Here are some key areas you’ll want to assess when determining who and where you’ll sample from.
- Consumer Behavior: How are people buying and using your goods and services?
- Demographics: Who exactly is your target customer? Characteristics to narrow down include age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, education level, marital status, and geographic location.
- Psychographics: Introduced in 2016, psychographics is the study of consumers based on their activities, interest, and opinions.
With these three areas identified, you can identify your market(s). Then, it’s time to select the best method of sampling for your audience.
Probability Sampling
Probability sampling follows two rules. Everyone within the population you’re pulling from must have an equal chance of being selected, and it’s imperative that you know what the chance of any one person being selected is.
With those basics set, here is a brief overview of 4 types of probability sampling you may encounter.
- Simple Random Sampling is as it sounds. It’s a sample where anyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected.
- Systematic Sampling uses a predetermined interval to choose members of a population to represent a sample.
- Cluster Sampling divides the population into smaller portions – clusters – to make a random selection within each.
- Stratified Sampling divides the population into mutually exclusive subgroups – referred to as strata – based on previously acquired data.
Non-Probability Sampling
On the other hand, non–probability sampling uses specific criteria – such as availability or geographic information – to identify a population before narrowing down the population size. Unlike probability sampling, each person within the target population doesn’t have to have an equal chance of being selected. With non-probability sampling, you take a small portion of your target audience and see what they like and dislike based on laid-out parameters.
- Convenience Sampling is done at the convenience of the researcher. Some example factors for identifying your sample group include location, ease of access, and existing contact within the population of interest.
- Snowball Sampling, also known as chain/network sampling, is defined by the way new units are added to the sample by referrals from a base group of participants.
- Purposive (Judgmental) Sampling runs a high risk of running into research biases. The population sampled only includes those characteristics that you are inherently looking for.
- Quota Sampling is, of all the sampling methods we’ve laid out, the one we’d recommend
Quota vs. Stratified
It’s important to define the distinction between stratified sampling and quota sampling because – at face value – the two are extremely similar. Both focus on dividing the population into subgroups and then selecting a certain number of units from each. However, the key difference is that stratified sampling relies on an additional random sampling technique like cluster or simple random. While – put simply – quota sampling involves selecting a predetermined number prior to evaluating your sample population. We advise quota sampling because it’ s more time- and cost-effective. When used, it provides a great deal of insight into how an overall market will perform (and at a fraction of the cost of sampling an entire population).
Why Sample?
With 74% of consumers annoyed by irrelevant marketing, it’s important to make sure your campaigns remain fresh and relevant to your target audience. Analyzing the data you received from sampling allows for creative optimization based on your key demographic. Knowing what your audience is looking for, what they like to see, and where they’re coming from “tells stories about customer intentions and motivations. Consumer insights are key to building creative campaigns that speak to and resonate with your audience and potential customers.” There’s also the element of personalization that allows you to address the specific inquiries or needs of your potential and current customers.
How Does it Work?
Let’s say, for example, that you’re a grocery in Southeastern Pennsylvania, and you’re seeking to connect with new movers. In theory, you could get the demographic data for your region and make assumptions based on the information provided. The marketing team could then send out two print mailers – a brochure and a postcard, to everyone in the market, and gauge which piece received better feedback through tracking coupons or QR codes. However, not only would that be a large amount of collateral, but the cost could also be exorbitant to get all those pieces in front of customers without really knowing if they’d respond to either at all.
This is where quota sampling comes in handy. Defining your subgroup (for example, moved into the zip code within the last 6 months, age 21-65, median income), and selecting the number of units to mail out before launching your campaign is key. As those groups begin to shop at your stores, you can track how they found you, using coupon redemption or QR codes, and once this data is received, you can determine which mailer had the better ROI. With all of this information, you can begin a more informed rollout for the rest of your campaign.
We highly recommend quota sampling to help better inform your marketing tactics. If you’re not sure where to start, no problem. You can contact us today to get started on your next marketing campaign, and we’ll work with you every step of the way.
A Smarter, More Strategic Approach to Direct Mail Targeting
We love talking with our customers—especially when those conversations challenge us to dig deeper into the why behind our work. Lately, we’ve been having some great discussions around data—what makes it valuable, and how it impacts campaign performance. One thing is clear: in direct mail, data is everything. And when it comes to data, we’re not focused on the most. We’re focused on the best.
Our Data Philosophy: Precision > Volume
Direct mail isn’t the cheapest channel—but it is one of the most effective. In fact, 61% of consumers say direct mail has influenced a purchase. And while an email’s lifespan is just a couple of seconds, direct mail sticks around—an average of 17 days. It’s tactile, visible, and more trusted.
But even the most eye-catching mailer won’t work if it lands in the wrong hands. Great creative still needs great targeting. That’s where data quality comes in—and it’s why we believe in reaching the right people, not all the people.
Our focus is on performance, not padding your list. While others may prioritize volume, we’re here to help you generate real results—and long-term ROI. That means more precision, less waste, and a better experience for your audience.
Why Fewer Contacts Can Mean Better Results
When we deliver data for a campaign, our lists may be smaller than what you’d get from others in the industry—and that’s intentional. Here’s what we don’t do:
- We don’t overload you with contacts who won’t convert.
- We don’t push volume at the expense of targeting.
- And we don’t waste your budget sending mail that ends up in the trash.
Instead, we give you a list built for impact. Every name has been vetted, verified, and strategically selected—so your message reaches people who are more likely to engage, respond, and convert. It’s not about quantity. It’s about outcome.
So next time you see a massive prospect list, pause before you’re impressed. Ask: Who are these people? Do they align with my goals? Will they actually respond? If the answer is “probably not,” then more is just more—not better.
Why Our Data Delivers
At Strata, we’ve spent decades fine-tuning how we source, clean, and curate data. Our team works with trusted providers and continuously evaluates every input for relevance, accuracy, and performance. We don’t set it and forget it. We actively optimize.
Like everything we do, our data strategy is built on flexibility, responsiveness, and results. Because we know that successful direct mail starts long before the press runs—it starts with the right list.
Looking for a smarter approach to direct mail? Let’s talk.
Contact us to learn how we can help you get more from your data—and your campaigns.