Archives for May 2009

The Direct Marketing Voice Links 5-29-2009

May 29th, 2009 | by admin

The Death of Direct Mail… or a Huge Opportunity?

via www.kikabink.com Borrell says direct mail is ’spiraling into what we believe is a precipitous decline from which it will never fully recover.’ Even if true… is this really bad news for marketers? Or actually a huge opportunity?

Frankly, research like this makes me excited about the opportunities in direct mail. Who would you rather be? One of hundreds of emails in someone’s email inbox… or the only one in their mail box?

So while I’m a big fan of email marketing, I’ll be advising my clients to take a closer look at direct mail…

Essential Marketing Principle: Give Before You Try to Get

via www.doshdosh.com Every marketing guru has spoken about this topic. I’m sick of hearing it. But it STILL bears repeating. Because some people still don’t get it. What’s the underlying principle for successful online marketing, selling or networking? The art of giving before you try to get. Before you get something from someone, you need to first give them a reason for them to give it to you.

Online response route key to personalised direct mail success – report

via www.printweek.com Telephone-based systems fared significantly less favourably with interviewees 17% less likely than average to respond. In contrast, the level of personalisation in direct mail rated highly, with respondents 14% more likely than average to respond and purchase. The company cited digital print driven by using variable data to accurately and relevantly target individuals, combined with personalised URLs, as reasons behind the effectiveness of direct mail.

Turning a New Leaf on Cross-Channel Communications

via www.crm-guru.com Consumers have become less loyal and much more demanding of the businesses they purchase goods or services from. But it’s not just quality and convenience they want; consumers are ever more interested in the experience provided by organisations and the customer service they are receiving.

Direct Mail Isn’t Dead

May 29th, 2009 | by Jamie Matusek

I am seeing a lot of chatter these days on Twitter indicating that direct mail is a dying medium. Not dying; however, the landscape has been changing and that is where I want to focus. Many of the businesses I have spoken to this year indicate they’ve had a bad experience with direct mail in the past — stating that multiple vendors were required, the purchase of expensive demographic lists hit their marketing budget, and long delivery times which left a bad taste in their mouth.

Others, who have participated in “group mailings” that are sent to every known address in a zip code, found it was hard to track results and the lack of reporting made it difficult for them to even know who received their pieces.

So how has direct mail changed? With technology. Digital print technology has made it possible to easily streamline direct mail marketing campaigns ensuring you get the right message/offer to the right audience.

Now, everything from design creation, list selection, to demographic selection can all be done online through one account. From the time you hit submit on your campaign, your pieces are in the mail stream next business day. There is the wow factor that many small businesses just aren’t aware of. Variable data printing has made it easy for businesses to ensure their marketing messages are personalized to the recipient and PURLs (personalized landing pages) provide a mechanism for businesses to capture further information from their prospective clients and track their campaign results.

Consider these statistics:

  • A recent survey conducted by Prospectiv and published in Brand Week revealed that 80% of consumers stated that personalized coupons tailored to their interest would increase the likelihood of coupon use and 39% of consumers want coupons delivered to them via direct mail
  • 42% of consumers read direct mail that addressed their unique needs (Vertis Customer Focus®: DM 2007)
  • 50% of marketers will increase spending on targeted direct mail and email marketing with the intended purpose of acquiring more qualified leads, followed by brand awareness and customer retention (BtoB Magazine 2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans)

See the trend? Targeted, personalized and used in conjunction with email marketing. That combination is the winning combination to see success on your direct mail campaigns.

As a marketer, I personally have seen success on campaigns when using a mix of mediums. Our clients have found success sending personalized pieces, whether it is one direct mail piece as a follow-up to a conversation or 200 mail pieces touting a new product or offer for a service.

So, in the spirit of direct mail living on, I’ve outlined a few tips that small business can use to help make campaigns more successful.

1) Use Targeted Direct Mail For Prospects: target a fewer number of recipients (200-400 per mailing) by selecting demographic attributes of those most in need of your services. Lead prospects to your website for more information and provide an easy way for them to enter additional contact information, like their email address. Past Customers: Use direct mail to send special offers or events, rewarding them for past purchases.

Send more than one piece! It is more effective to send 3-5 touches to the same list vs. one mailing to thousands. You want to stay top of mind so start a consistent campaign.

More information on the use of targeted direct mail: Understanding Direct Mail Impact and ROI

2) Focus on the design Don’t be afraid to get help here if you are not a designer. Your piece is a direct reflection of your business and you! I know a great agency that can help you define a clear marketing strategy and create a compelling campaign design. Other tips include:

  • Each side should be able to stand alone
  • Place the call-to-action near the address area
  • Keep it simple and clean
  • Use bold colors and high quality images that connect with core motivations

3) Be careful with content – Less is more in this case:

  • Make an impact with a strong headline
  • Choose ONE idea or goal and drive that point throughout the piece
  • Be explicit in identifying the next step for the reader
  • Include contact information clearly
  • Use bullets, not long paragraphs

4) Include a compelling offer on your piece. “Free consultation, $ or % off, enter to win x, etc.” Including a coupon or a special offer with an expiration date creates a sense of urgency.

5) Follow-up with Email:

  • Sprinkle email in with your direct mail campaigns
  • Use the same design in your email as you did on your direct mail piece to forge memory

More on email best practices: Understanding Email Marketing’s Impact and ROI

Let me know if you need assistance in getting a campaign started. We are here to help.

Best,

Jamie

Starting Small With SMS

May 28th, 2009 | by Robert "Dude" Spellings, Jr.

Due to the expected explosion in mobile users worldwide, there is a huge rush to jump on the Mobile/SMS band wagon these days. It seems that every company is rushing to create some new mobile application or SMS service that will rival the almost instant ubiquity of Twitter.

Instead of expending enormous resources trying to topple Twitter before anyone even knows if they have a viable business model, why not start small with SMS messaging?

Start asking for your customers’ cell phone numbers and ask them if they’d like to receive “exclusive SMS-only” offers. For those customers that opt-in, send them deals that can only be obtained via SMS.

Once you have a sufficient number of cell phone numbers, locate a 3rd party to send out your SMS-only offers to your list of cell phone numbers. Make sure that the firm will not steal the phone numbers and start spamming your customers (make sure its in writing). That is a really good way to destroy the trust between you and your customers. Also make sure that the 3rd party can offer metrics on the results of the campaign so that you can monitor the effectiveness and determine if it is working for you.

Right off the bat, the first few campaigns will tell you some things about your customer base that should be very helpful with determining how much of your limited resources should be devoted to developing a mobile offering:
1. The percentage of customers who opt-in to the program will tell you the interest level that your customers have with mobile devices and platforms (not everyone is interested in mobile).
2. The response rate of the SMS-only promotions will also tell you about the interest level that your customers have with mobile apps, but it will also give you a little more info about how well the mobile platform fits with your existing products and services (not everything can be sold via mobile).

Setting up a program like this should be very easy and take minimal resources (essentially, build a web form and locate a vendor, and you are done), yet will reveal how much opportunity SMS and mobile applications may offer your company. If you decide to try it, come back and post a comment about your discoveries.

The Direct Marketing Voice Links 5-28-2009

May 28th, 2009 | by admin

Deliverability.com: Ask my wife – She’s always right…

via blog.deliverability.com We all know what will happen if marketers get a whiff of the potential here. A good chunk of them will try this technology and cram even more information into an already overloaded email and not take the time even understanding its impact on the user. Are we REALLY ready for video in email? Most of us haven’t figured out marketing best practices on what we have already in our hands.

Direct Mail: Tips To Make It Work For You

via blog.hirezdigital.com Direct mail is undisputedly the most tried and true effective marketing strategy around. It’s been around long enough for strategists to determine this fact. Here are some tips on how to make sure you are maximizing direct mail’s potential.

Is the internet set to slay direct mail? | Blog | Econsultancy

via econsultancy.com The list of industries that have been impacted greatly by the internet is a long one. The internet pretty much impacts everyone today.

Recession Marketing Example 3 – Focus on Value

May 27th, 2009 | by Luis Paez

Our next example in the recession marketing series of posts, is one that everyone is very familiar with – that of value statements.  They may appear as dollar amounts in a relative sense to comparable products.  They may appear as simple lists of features that aren’t typically included in a product/service.  Or the value statement may just recite the obvious fact that there is value.  All of these, alone or combined, comprise an approach that focuses “relentlessly on value” as the BillShrink blog outlined.

If you recall the burger joint you may have passed driving in the morning, they may have had a special on their low end burgers calling out “2 for the price of 1“.  This is a classic example of focusing on the value that a purchase made at this particular store has for customers.  Another related example would be an ad that I recently saw for a website hosting company.  The ad basically said:

Web Hosting
Free SSL, 99.9% Uptime, &
Free Domain Name
www.website.net

Even though there was no price mentioned, the value was there.  Free goodies and reliable performance focuses squarely on the value inherent in that, and can comprise the entire message, especially on a direct marketing piece.  The focus on value often is the hook, and your sales team and customer experience is the clincher.   We hope to continue more examples of recession marketing and perhaps next time I’ll post more photos of marketing spotted in the wild.