Keeping Pace With Your Customer

At one point or another, we marketing professionals are asked to come up with a cross-channel marketing plan. What we propose and how we formulate the proposal is the secret to our success (or possibly our failure). As marketing professionals we never, ever use the F word though. Campaign “F”ailure is always relabeled as testing. And testing is never failure because we can always gain valuable insight from customer and transactional data to apply towards the next marketing plan. Therefore, our marketing water glass can always be declared as half full (and never half empty) thanks to the data gleaned.

Unlocking customer data and activating the power of content marketing is how the brave direct marketers of today will succeed in a cross-channel environment. The facts are: consumers are empowered, everyone is a competitor, and your customer expects to be communicated to with solutions for their problems…and let’s add in transparency between sales and service.

For this reason, direct mail should continue to be one of the pillars within your brand’s marketing plan. According to the DMA 2014 fact book, 66% of marketers believe that data-driven marketing drives positive value to their company’s brand and 93% believe it will in the future. Let’s take a look at how to practically apply this to your direct mail campaigns.

Direct Mail Campaign Tips

• Direct mail has a long shelf life, longer than email or digital—so ensure your printed offer and website’s campaign landing page is active for weeks after the mailing. Offers should be time sensitive, but make sure you give potential customers a clear expiration date and enough decision making and response time.

• Consumers want content-driven marketing; try adding a specific URL to your next mail piece to give buyers the option of researching your offer or products and even buying online. If online purchasing isn’t your goal, direct the consumer to their local dealership or store location containing contact information.

• Your next direct mail campaign doesn’t have to be expensive to be effective. Postcards of any size are cost effective and targeted data can be used to deliver your message directly to your targeted prospect or your highly-valuable customer data list. The USPS has found that postcards are the mail format most likely to be read, possibly because it doesn’t take much time to read. Your customer or prospect can understand your offer within seconds to see if it applies to their household.

• Timing can be everything, and consistency of showing up inside the consumer’s mail box is key to keeping your company’s brand top of mind for consideration. Test the timing of deliver on your mail piece alongside the performance of a well-executed customer email deployment.

• Get personal with your customer, but using their first name is just the beginning. Today’s savvy customer wants to feel like your brand knows their phase of life, purchasing habits and even the life-span of a previously purchased product through your company.  Personalized direct mail can start a conversation with a customer and Strategic America can help you continue to nurture the customer with content and frequency of delivery.