New technology enables firm to expand services

Welcomemat boosts data mining for its broad mix of clients

Direct-mail marketer Welcomemat Services Inc. has expanded its technology to give its clients a more in-depth look into their customers' income, buying habits and lifestyles.

Ballantyne-based Welcomemat, which specializes in marketing to new movers, is using more detailed demographic data and giving client restaurants and retailers a clear snapshot of their patrons' neighborhoods and income. The new technology, which Welcomemat calls "lifestyle segmentation," also creates a computerized map that shows where each customer lives.

"If you understand who your clients are, you're smarter about your efforts in marketing," says Brian Mattingly, who operates Welcomemat with his wife, Michelle.

Welcomemat helps its clients target new Charlotte-area residents by sending directmail vouchers for free or reduced-price services. After a customer uses a voucher, the business returns it to Welcomemat. Computer bar codes on the coupon enable the company to track customer traffic and demographics for its clients, including the customer's name, neighborhood and home value.

"Small businesses don't have the funds to go through trial and error," Michelle says. "This helps them minimize any mistake."

In mid-2006, Welcomemat began using information and tools from Claritas Inc., a data-compilation service based in San Diego.

Through its Prizm system, Claritas slices and dices information from sources that include the U.S. Census Bureau and consumer-analysis giant AC Nielsen into categories such as:

•"Digerati" - fashionable and technically
savvy consumers.
•"Money & brains" - highly educated and
high-income consumers.
•And "Blue-blood estates" - retirees who
are affluent.

Welcomemat shares the demographic breakdowns with its clients, who use it to reach their target customers more economically. In some cases, clients also use the information as a basis for remodeling their stores to match their customers' lifestyles.

Welcomemat serves clients in metro Charlotte as well as Atlanta and Charleston, S.C. The client base ranges from the Soda Shop in downtown Davidson to Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Sabina Carr, the botanical gardens' marketing director, says Welcomemat's data has helped the nonprofit gain valued information about its visitors. "No one else does this. As far as we're concerned, Brian and Welcomemat were the only ones that could pull this off."

Welcomemat declines to reveal how much it has invested in the new service. It also doesn't disclose its revenue.

for more information please visit www.welcomematservices.com

This article appeared in the Charlotte Business Journal. Copyrighted 2007 by American City Business Journals, 120 West Morehead St., Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28202, (704) 973-1100.