Before you begin planning a new marketing communications activity or campaign, you will need to: 1) build a market profile that includes your customer or prospect "universe," and 2) define your media options. Failing to clearly define your target markets will limit your opportunities for successfully delivering your marketing messages to your key audiences. Following is a closer look at potential data sources:
Business-to-Consumer
• Wikipedia.org- type in your city/state in the search bar
• AccuData at www.acculeads.com - counts by geography or demographics (age, gender, income, etc.)
• Hugo Dunhill Lists at www.hdml.com - counts by geography or demographics
• American FactFinder at www.factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en (a fact sheet for your community based on census data)
Business-to-Business
• County Business Patterns at www.census.gov/econ/cbp/index.html
• InfoUSA at www.infousa.com - find data counts by geography or demographics (industry, employee size, sales volume, etc.)
• Dun & Bradstreet at www.zapdata.com - find data counts by geography or demographics
• Local Chambers of Commerce
• Industry Trade Associations
• Trade Magazine Publishers
Media Options
For information on prominent local media outlets, take a look at:
• Wikipedia.org (offers information on print and broadcast media per city/metro area)
• Mondotimes.com covers newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations in most major markets (Click on "USA Local Media" one left side; click on your city or state)
• Chamber of Commerce sites often list major media outlets
• City Web sites often have a section dedicated to a review of local media
For research information on the price/performance of various media types, go to:
• Web Marketing Association at www.webmarketingassociation.org
• Direct Marketing Association at www.the-dma.org
• American Teleservices Association at www.ataconnect.org
• Constant Contact Email Marketing at www.constantcontact.com
• Newspaper Association of America at www.naa.org
• Magazine Publishers of America at www.magazine.org
• Yellow Pages Association at www.buyyellow.com
• Radio Advertising Bureau at www.rab.com
• Cable Television Advertising Bureau at www.onetvworld.org