The Direct Marketing Voice » Database Marketing

How Many Times Should I Advertise?

by Luis Paez | June 23rd, 2010

I’ve been thinking alot about this question, as some who are new to direct marketing have a hard time understanding the time-tested methods that result in positive return on investment. It might be a generational or technological culture of instant gratification that makes us want to see our first marketing campaign rake in the dough. It might even be the direct marketing companies that tempt those new to the field with the DMA’s latest ROI metric (and if you haven’t heard it, it’s essentially “For each $1 spent on DM advertising, it results in $10+ of ROI”). I just feel it needs some more context, to put it in the correct light.

If you send only 1 Ad / Impression, then Give Away the Farm

First off, most marketing campaigns require more than 1 touch. (If you haven’t heard the term “touch”, touch = impression = ad; but it can also be a phone call or other interaction.) In fact, marketing campaigns require multiple touches over time to a given customer before they’re ready to buy – just think of any relationship you’ve made in the past – you’re more likely to buy from someone who you’ve had multiple interactions with, than someone you’ve met for the first time (given that choice). The only exceptions to this marketing rule, are in those cases where a product or service is incredibly cheap or incredibly scarce. In terms of offers, think $10 round-trip airfare specials or a seller with an experimental iPhone not available to the public…. you get the picture.

Most of Us Like Balanced Offers

However these extreme types of offers are the exception, not the rule. Most marketing campaigns balance an offer with a description of marketing features/benefits. Consequently, both your brand (if you have a new/unknown brand) and your specific offer needs time for consumers to recognize the brand, then hone in on your exact message.

Many clients ask – how many times do I send out my mailing / advertisement? This question is relevant across marketing disciplines, whether you use TV, Radio, Direct Mail or any other outbound method. I get the sense that most people are looking for a definitive number – an absolute truth in marketing that they can rely on, to do the marketing for them. It’s good then that people step up to the plate: some advertising students say 5 impressions is required, Creative Directors say 8 impressions, and others say 27 times. I’m glad they step up with these firm numbers, as I am not sure I would ever float a definitive number, because it really depends on all the demographic and psychological factors that go into a specific brand & offer being marketed to a specific audience. Even the proponents of the renowned professor John Philip Jones who asserts that in the end, a single ad impression can influence a buyer, have to consider the observable, historical fact, that “enough concentration of media weight” must be placed to that buyer, for it to cross the necessary threshold with her for a purchase decision. So for many campaigns, this means that one impression won’t cut it.

O.M.G. – Is this going to be a drain on my marketing budget?

Most companies see ROI fairly quickly if they know how to approach their campaign. Instead of asking “How many times do I send out this ad?”, it might be better to ask “How many minimum touches do I need to send in order to start seeing returns?” This takes into account all the factors that I mentioned above. Your ROI trendline will probably look more like a bell curve anyway, so expect that there will be a ramp up period and a period of ongoing positive returns that will make up for the startup cost of branding your impressions on a given audience. Just make sure you send out your ads for repeated impressions.

Your 5th Ad should not be a Clone of your 1st Ad

I cannot tell you how many times companies take it for granted that they have designed the best possible piece – and never consider improving it as they go along. Do research on how to do A/B Testing (sometimes called Split Testing). The same audience demographic should be getting two different versions of your ad. Pay close attention which performs better. Typically you need a large mailing to prove statistically which one wins, but even if you do two small mailings side by side – if you get zero responses from one and 7 from the other, I think you can feel secure to judge a winner. (Caveat: there may not always be a winner). The point is that you are increasing the effectiveness of your ad in measurable ways, and by the 6th, 7th, or 8th impression your piece will have matured enough to make the appropriate impact with your prospect.

As a closing thought to the number of times one should advertise – in most cases if your campaign is a direct order campaign, and you can link positive ROI from one of your “Nth” mailings, then watch that ROI percentage closely. That metric will tell you better than any marketing veteran when to stop advertising. If you’ve sent out your 20th mailing and there is still positive ROI from the marketing campaign, then ask yourself – is there any reason to stop?

Data, Data and Oh Yeah, More Data

by Jamie Matusek | May 7th, 2010

In the midst of outlining strategy for a new marketing campaign and summarizing the metrics I need to track on said campaign, I happened across an interesting article on adage.com, “The Case for Less Data and More Vision.” Near the end of the article, the author, Jonathan Salem Baskin writes,

We need to stop embracing the latest variable or dashboard VU meter and demand a better, bigger, more thoughtful perspective on how to measure the ways marketing outreach meshes with consumer needs and expectations.

His statement confirmed my direction on the true goals of my upcoming campaign – to capture relevant market data, giving me a clear picture of the challenges that my prospective clients are facing, creating a relationship with said prospects based on their terms and needs, and adding them as a new customer by selling them a direct marketing solution that works…well, for THEM.

We too often get caught up in tracking numbers – hits, clicks, usage – and forget the main reason we are in business: to truly understand the client and customer challenges, needs and business goals by asking key questions; thereby increasing sales.

Imagine if you had data on an individual, not just a name and address, but what they are challenged with in their businesses (for BtoB). Your direct mail and email campaigns would take on a new light. They’d be personalized and relevant.

Ultimately, we should all develop better technologies, products and services that meet those relevant needs and see an increase in repeat sales — a metric worth tracking.

Dear FitPregnancy: We’re not pregnant. But thanks for assuming.

by Luis Paez | March 25th, 2010

Some background on me – about 8 months ago my wife and I had a beautiful baby boy. A few months into our pregnancy we found a magazine called FitPregnancy and ordered it. My wife enjoyed several months of reading FitPregnancy’s articles geared toward women who are going through those 9 months of wonderful growth. Fast forward a couple of months, we get our last issue of our subscription period and it has this wrapper on it:

Fit Pregnancy's renewal cover

Now I realize that with almost every other magazine out there, that this wrapper is pretty typical marketing tactic to spur renewals… But think about it for a minute. Your reader was pregnant 12 months ago. That’s why she ordered your magazine – but at this point it’s highly unlikely she’s still pregnant. I know that my wife is not currently pregnant – and if FitPregnancy knows before I do … well, I will need to start a whole other rant – and probably not on this blog

From a marketing perspective, it would make better sense to put this in some context. I researched FitPregnancy’s owner – American Media, Inc. and it seems that they own a wide variety of magazines, including 3 other magazine titles aimed toward health-consicous women, including Shape and Muscle & Fitness Hers. So why couldn’t FitPregnancy cross promote those titles in addition to this renewal call-to-action?

If you stop and back up a moment, this is relevant both from a direct marketing perspective for those with magazines they’re steering but also for the rest of us who aren’t in the magazine game. How unique is your product that perhaps the typical ways of marketing oneself needs to change depending on who you are? Or a better question – what is the end experience that your prospect / customer receives? Do you have the tracking (qualitative and quantitative) that would tell you the moments that your audience has disconnects with your marketing message? Have you invested in people on your marketing team that are “listening” to what your audience is saying?

Companies that are both tuned into what their customers are thinking and saying AND have that feedback loop that enable them to translate those things into tweaks to future marketing touches will mean greater customer engagement and loyalty long term. If you aren’t willing to go the “listening” route, then you better be really good at knowing the moment your customers start “expecting” again…

Tour of the Facility, Explaining Personalized Marketing Collateral

by Luis Paez | September 16th, 2009

Tomorrow’s Marketing Approach to First-Time Home-buyers

by Luis Paez | August 28th, 2009

Real Estate professionals know that today’s market is challenging, but as the market shifts the best thing to do is to learn from the most recent industry data, and focus your marketing on those prospects that will become tomorrow’s clients. But how do you locate those prospects? Recently, Campbell Communications released survey results of data collected this past spring that tells us how the market is moving.

Purchases by Homebuyer Type

The above graph shows that 43% of those buying homes today are first-time home buyers – slightly ahead of the percentage cited by NAR’s 2008 Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers, which reported only 41%. So, if investors and current homeowners are more skittish about buying property today, it gives us a good occasion to focus in on marketing to first-time home buyers, as the stats show that segment is growing this year. Knowing the “type” of buyer may help you gear your collateral and creative a bit, but it doesn’t help you target your demographics & direct marketing toward this buyer.

For this, we have to dig into the characteristics of buyers. NAR makes a point of identifying two interesting stats that we can correlate to actionable demographics:

About 25% of first-time buyers identify themselves as non-white
20% of recent buyers are single women

While it’s true that the converse statistics are larger (75% identify themselves as white; 80% are not single women), NAR includes these as main summary points because they represent a growing shift in the demographics of today’s home buyer. A post on the National Association of Homebuilders website backs up this view saying “virtually every analysis of the demographics shows that in coming years, half or more of first-time home buyers will be from minority or immigrant groups.” In addition, they cite a Harvard study which found that “unmarried women accounted for 30 percent of the growth in homeowners” in past years. All these reports indicate that historical ways of marketing directly to home buyers need to be revised (or at least adjusted by the above referenced proportions) – from the message & offer down to the targeted demographics.

Unmarried women

This is the simplest group to market to, just based on the fact that gender & marital status are basic demographic points that most list companies gather fairly well. So choosing your demographic list selects on a direct mailing is pretty straightforward. What will require more work is thinking through your message. What are the true needs of single women with regard to a home purchase? What are their main drivers? Thinking through these questions will clarify your message and also bring up topics for you or your staff to consider when marketing & communicating with these clients.

Minorities & Immigrants

Though often thought of in the same breadth, to truly tailor your marketing to these distinct groups, we need to dig a bit deeper. While it’s true that immigrants are positively affected when companies market to their minority group, in most cases you can segment immigrants vs. American-born minorities and market to each group more successfully. If you do not have the resources to segment your marketing this far down, then focusing your marketing to a dominant ethnic group makes the most sense. Notice that I say a “dominant ethnic group.” This will be different in every part of the country, so it requires some research on your part.

If you have access to a special market-centric report provided by your broker, that may be your best resource. However, as for the freely available information on a market-by-market basis, some people like to use Wikipedia, but I find more comfort in relying on data provided by the U.S. Census. They have a great FactFinder website that gives a high level overview of the demographics of major cities in the U.S. I’d recommend doing your search by the city, and not the zip code to better understand your area’s demographics as a whole. If your market is a metroplex, like the Dallas-Fort Worth area, then doing several searches is probably necessary. Here’s one example breakdown using the city of Dallas as an example:

From the U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-07 Survey

In this example, it seems that African-Americans and Hispanics are the two larger minority groups. There is also the category “some other race” that is 16%, enough to warrant more investigation. Clicking on “show more” will get you that detail.

Whichever minority groups are large enough to focus on, the main point is that these percentages can serve as a good way to accurately allocate marketing dollars to attract first-time home buyers. By using your own city’s demographic breakdowns, it will take much of the guesswork out of figuring out the right targeted demographics for your own marketing.