Rational Marketing

Category: Advertising

  • The “WOW!” Number

    A recent Harvard Business Review Blog asked, “What Surprising Number Will Change Your Business?”

    Numbers are the universal language of business. We use them to win approval for product introductions, to attract investors for our startup ideas, to make the case for expanding into new markets or entering new categories. In other words, numbers, when used well, tell a compelling story.

    Marketing and advertising is about big ideas. But it is also very much about numbers: budgets, ratings, impressions, ROI. Which brings us to the search for the “Wow!” Number, and why one piece of data may be worth a thousand words.

    Here are a few such numbers.

    • 70% of teens who abuse prescription drugs get them from home.
    • 80% of women plan to exclusively breastfeed; only 20% actually do.
    • Many are in front of whiteboards 4 hours a day, but only use them for 4 minutes.
    • 80% of people age 45+ consider changing careers; only 6% actually do.

    Why do these numbers tell a story? Because they’re simple and easy to understand. Because they’re human and easily relatable. Because they surprise us, and/or capture the gap between intentions and actions.

    And how do you get to such numbers? Juxtapose: “Put related numbers together to create new information.” Try different contexts: “What’s the social angle? The green angle? Put it in terms of time, or length, or volume.” Turn them over: “2% one way might not be as interesting as 98% the other way.”

    However you choose to rethink your approach to numbers, it’s an important way to address a huge missed opportunity. Business isn’t just a battle of products and services. It’s a battle of ideas about priorities, opportunities, values, and value. Ultimately, those competing ideas get reduced to competing numbers. So, if you can arrive at numbers that matter, you’ve got a better chance at winning the battle of ideas.

    We have told you some surprising numbers about mail in the last few months:

    More than 70% of Gen Yers (born 1977-1994) and Gen Xers (born 1965-1976) sort their mail immediately

    76% of internet users were directly influenced to buy an item or service thanks to direct mail

    78% of email recipients do not open the message, so that means that 94.1% of email recipients are not clicking through to landing page

  • Direct Mail Works

    Smart Money Magazine published an article in the June issue with the title “Why Your Mailbox Runneth Over”. The article stated that charities still rely heavily on direct mail as a fund-raising tool. Nonprofits spent $1.8 billion on direct-mail solicitations in 2009.

    Pasadena, Calif., marketing consultancy Russ Reid Co. found that fund-raising campaigns with 12 to 18 mailings a year were twice as profitable as those based on just three to six mailings. Donors are surprised when they receive a rapid request for another gift after making a first time donation. The tactic is effective because donors feel the strongest connection with a nonprofit immediately after their first donation.

    We can help you put these findings to work for you in your profit or non-profit organization. Even if people say they only want to hear from you a few times a year, they may respond much more when you triple or quadruple the number of times your customers hear from you. What about a plan to send something to your customers very soon after their first purchase? Can we help you with a multichannel communication plan, integrating direct mail and email?

  • The Future of Advertising Agencies

    Forrester is selling a report titled, “The Future Of Agency Relationships” with a subtitle of “Marketers Need To Lead Agency Change In The Adaptive Marketing Era”.

    The report encourages marketing leaders to re-evaluate their relationships with advertising agencies and in the process suggest that agencies should continually reinvent themselves to serve their clients. They suggest that we are entering an “Adaptive Marketing” era and must quickly adapt to changes in marketing strategy, media, technology, and society. In this era, mass media may no longer be the foundation of marketing communication, forcing yet more changes in the expectations of what marketing agencies can and should deliver.

    Dean’s Mailing has many ideas and resources to help you use technology to be found and communicate with your customers and likely buyers in a way that they will appreciate and not view as an annoyance.

  • Writing About Intangibles

    To help you create messages that sell more of what can’t be seen, we are sharing an article by Pat Friesen that appeared in Target Marketing Magazine. Whether you sell insurance, toilet tune-ups, home loans, teleconferencing, investment services or other intangibles, we hope these tips help.

    • Call to action. This is basic, but often overlooked and undervalued. Tell people what you want them to do and why they should do it. What action do you want your customer to take as a result of receiving your message? What can you do to motivate your customer to call, click or complete an application?
    • Humanize benefits. Show people enjoying the end benefit of what you sell. For example, most parents want their children to get an education. So, if you market loans or insurance, show a smiling graduate in cap and gown with a benefit caption below it.
    • “You can’t say that.” The next time your attorney or compliance officer utters these words after reading your copy, respond with, “OK, what can I say?” It may mean changing just one or two words, and may make your copy even stronger.
    • Engage them with something unusual. Providing toilet tune-ups is more attention-grabbing than saying you check for leaks and rusted parts.
    • Focus on customer benefits, not company history. Nobody really cares that you are headquartered in Omaha, Neb., and have been in business for more than a hundred years unless you tell them why it’s important. Such as, you have a hundred-year history of paying claims promptly, and customer service calls are all taken in the heart of America, not offshore.
    • Create an offer with value that supports what you sell. Instead of giving away pricey tangibles such as iPods or free dinners, provide an easy-to-use calculator or a free checklist. Consumers value information that educates and empowers.
    • Keep it simple. Intangibles are often perceived as being difficult to understand. Confusion slows down decision making and results in avoidance. Your marketing mission is to make your product simple and understandable.
    • Never use the words “applying is easy” … unless it’s true. When was the last time you completed your company’s application? Give it to five people who fit your customer profile but don’t work for your company, and ask them to fill it out. Watch them do it. Simple-to-complete applications/forms combine the right words with good design, simple organization and readable typefaces.
    • Write in plain English. Yes, insurance and financial services do have regulatory content that must be included. However, don’t pepper your marketing copy with killer words like “undersigned” and “the party of the first part”. Instead, use plain English that’s easily understood.
    • Have your creative team work as a team. No matter which media you use, you get the best, most effective end product when you have your writer, designer, programmer and others involved in the creative process work together. Don’t isolate them.
    • Cross-sell. Cross-sell to both customers and prospects.
    • Reactivate. Policy holders lapse and account owners close their accounts, but this doesn’t mean they don’t want to do business with you again. Did you know that customers that previously had a relationship with you are more likely to buy than cold prospects? However, they need reassurance that you still love them. And they need to be asked. This applies across all industries, all products and services, tangible and intangible. In economic times like these, reactivation is one of the most cost-effective ways to generate new business.

    How can we help you deliver a message about the intangible benefits that you bring to your customers?

  • The “Down Sell”

    BNET posted an article by Jeremy Quittner suggesting a new strategy. We are very familiar with “up-selling”, the practice of giving a product premium characteristics and a premium price too. There are success stories of luxury brands that began as basics all over the place. Think of what Starbucks has done to the 50-cent cup of coffee.

    In this economy, down-selling might be a worthy strategy. Consumers may be spending again, but they’re doing so cautiously and with a newfound resolve to stick to a budget. If they’re giving up the bells and whistles in favor of more basic and affordable products, why not follow suit and take the “premium” out of your premium products?

    It’s a much trickier proposition — that’s why. If you go too cheap, you risk, among other dangers, killing your profit margins and diluting your brand.

    Ways to try this strategy:

    Give Customers Something New
    You could simplify an existing product by stripping it down to its essentials, or invent a completely new, cheaper product. Go to your customers for clues about what they’re looking for and what they’re willing to buy. Just make sure you don’t give them exactly what they say they want — your customers probably only know what’s already out there. It’s your job to figure out what’s new.

    Pitch the Value
    Marketing non-premium products in a down economy requires a different kind of sales pitch. Convey that they are still getting a valuable product, but it’s priced for this economy, and the value may not last. That way, customers get the message that you are looking out for their needs and you are still providing the high quality that they associate with your brand.

    Know Your Brand
    Down-selling customers won’t work for every company, particularly if your image depends on an air of high-end exclusivity to differentiate it from your competitors. Don’t cannibalize your core (business, products, brands or customer base) to stimulate sales in the short term without thinking long term and strategically.

    When you are ready to introduce your new ideas, direct mail is a great way to test messages, approaches and innovations.

  • Media Choices

    The multitude of media choices available to target and deliver  messages is amazing. And there are more options headed our way. This means that readers are strapped for time and bombarded with marketing communications, great writing alone probably won’t get your messages opened and read. Pat Friesen offered some understanding of how to deliver the message at the right time and in the right place in Target Marketing Magazine.

    Tips for delivering maximum impact from a direct marketing writer.

    • Don’t be overwhelmed by choices. Remember what’s worked in the past, and test new options that make strategic sense for reaching your audience and meeting your business objectives.

    • Apply common sense and basic direct marketing principles. Measure and evaluate results, including initial response, closure rates, average order size (dollars and units), abandon/cancellation rates, lifetime value, etc. Remember, direct marketers track and measure the level of response.

    • Cheaper on the front end isn’t necessarily more cost-effective on the back end. Track, measure and compare results.

    • Not all media is direct response media … but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use it. Public relations, special events, and social media are marketing tools with the power to influence buying decisions. Use them accordingly.

    • Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Even with a successful 15 percent to 20 percent e-mail open rate, you still are not reaching 80 percent to 85 percent of your highly qualified buyers. Common sense dictates using both e-mail and postal mail to maximize results.

    • Just because you know your offer is on your Web site or featured in your organization’s magazine, that doesn’t mean your customer knows it. A targeted phone call, e-mail, letter or even a postcard may be appropriate to communicate your offer.

    • Not all messages are appropriate for all media. A letter still looks more personal, more valuable and more confidential than e-mail. It’s also less easily “trashed” by mistake or intentionally. If you offer financial services or other products of personal importance (e.g., legal, medical, upscale travel), don’t forgo postal mail for e-mail without testing.

    • Put your message with a measurable call to action on your shipping box or packing materials. Create a product insert (not package) that encourages a second purchase. Be creative, be inventive and put your message in multiple places where your customer will see it.

    • Some market segments respond better to specific types of media than others. For example, mature audiences 75-plus years old remain more comfortable with postal mail even if they have e-mail addresses.

    • Test. Studies, case histories and anecdotal reports confirm that marketers who are most successful across the board using all types of media follow the direct marketer’s mantra of test, test, test.

    • Don’t take a message written for one medium and plop it into another without careful review. Be aware that e-newsletters are different than ink-on-paper newsletters. Web ads are read differently than space ads. Readers’ expectations after opening an e-mail are different than after pulling a letter out of an envelope.

    • All messages (no matter which type of media delivers them) have hot spots. Know where they are, and use them to your advantage.

    • Consider the appropriateness of your media. The media you use for prospecting may not be the same as you use for communicating with your customers.

    • Use different media to communicate with different customer segments. Just because you send a personal First Class letter with a 44-cent stamp to the top 20 percent of your customers who generate 80 percent of your sales doesn’t mean you have to mail First Class letters to all your customers.

    • Save money; prospect within your own database. Cross-sell, upgrade, reactivate. They are very cost-effective ways to generate new business.

    • If you limit yourself to using only one medium, you limit your opportunity for success. The more places consumers see you and the more ways they hear from you, the better they know you, the more they like you and the better they trust you.

    • When your contact strategy includes a series of messages, have a strategy for your mix of media. Do what is appropriate for your message, audience and business objective. It could be an initial phone call, followed by a personal letter, then e-mail communications.

    • No matter how cheap it is, media isn’t a good investment if it doesn’t generate the cost-effective results you need. Weigh the pros and cons of any media choice including cost, open rates, security concerns, deliverability rates, recipients’ perceptions of the medium, how it supports your brand, etc.

    • Timing is as important as the media and message. Factor in time of delivery, holidays, how soon is too soon and how often is too often.

  • Inexpensive Marketing Maneuvers

    Forbes Magazine featured a story about some marketing ideas. Our favorite was to make your customer the star.

    Using a classic cooperative strategy, you could create their marketing for them. If you provide services or products to other businesses, can you help them with creative marketing featuring your products. Do you sell framing materials to frame shops, create postcards featuring finished frames.

    To feed egos of your customers, feature a few them enjoying your products and services. Make them look really good, help them say smart, witty things or touch on their vanity with great lighting, hair and makeup.

    To draw your customers into your creative process, what about a creative writing, illustration or visual contest? The contest could be tied to something new like a product launch and the reward for submitting an entry could be a sample of the new product. Contests are also great opportunities for publicity and free media coverage. Since you really want to stay in touch with your current and past customers, sending them a postcard or letter explaining the contest accomplishes many goals at once.

  • Postcard Design Idea Sparks

    We found some ideas about postcard design at this site from Chuck Green on Ideabook.com.

    What is the purpose of a post card?

    “Greetings from” and rotating racks decorated with pictures of places great and small—those are the type of messages associated with post cards. The marketing potential of a simple card is unbounded. You can show something such as a photograph of a new product, a remodeled showroom or the impressive gear you use to provide your service. You can double your advertising impact by sending cards to your mailing list with a reprint of your magazine ad. Send a reminder of an upcoming event. Ask for an appointment and follow up with a phone call. Step one? Establish a clear mission for your card.

    Why is it done the way it’s done

    Why are post cards designed the way they are? For reasons of cost and contact. First, since private postal cards were authorized by Congress in the late 1800’s, they have been the among the least expensive way to put a printed piece in the hands of your prospect. And because a standard post card can’t be smaller than 3 1/2 by 5 inches or larger than 4 1/4 by 6 inches it is easy to handle, sort, and deliver. Plus, the design improves your odds of making contact. A post card message is out in the open, eliminating the real possibility your prospect might toss a sealed envelope.

    If cost is less important than impact, you may spend a few cents more to mail a card up to 6 1/8 by 11 1/2 inches—a size that demands more attention.

    How can You do it most effectively?

    With your mission and a strategy established, the challenge is to execute effectively. Let’s say you have a list of a few hundred prospects with whom you hope to establish a relationship. You could use the shotgun approach and run a series of ads in a local publication that you hope they might see. Or you could pinpoint your prospects by printing a half dozen series of post cards, each featuring a different advantage of doing business with you, and mail them, one each month for the next six months. Which would be more effective?

    Start with these post card ideas and create your own variations, see more information about postcards.

    1. Bust the size barrier. Once you exceed the 4 1/4 by 6 inch maximum for a standard-sized card, you may as well take advantage of the 6 1/8 by 11 1/2 inch maximum. You’ll pay extra to mail it, but this super-sized format allows more dramatic graphics and a more detailed message.
    2. Request a response. Every good marketing piece has a specific call to action. Why not ask your prospect to respond on the spot? This post card has two missions—first, to request some survey information. The “How’d we do?” half is detached and returned to the sender by business reply mail. The second half, labeled “Keep this card by your phone,” is a way to keep the company’s name in front of the customer. The postage for this 2-card format may be higher, but the added value can be well worth it.
    3. Work the cliche. The old-fashioned picture post card is a theme you can use to your advantage. This design plays on what you expect a post card to be. But what looks like a souvenir from a museum is actually an announcement from a restaurant. A painting by the Impressionist Monet graces one side, the message, set in elegant type is opposite.
    4. Make contact. The reason direct mail is all dressed up with fonts and graphics is because it wasn’t long ago letters and cards were mostly handwritten—fancy type and pictures were something different. Today, the opposite true? Don’t you pay special attention to a handwritten message? The idea here is to print a supply of post cards on which you can jot down messages that keep you in the front of your customer’s mind.
    5. Create a ticket. When you use a post card as a discount coupon or a ticket to an event, you raise the possibility of a response. The message here is obvious—bring the card in and get a discount.
    6. Publish a mystery. You may have seen this technique used on billboards—pieces are added one at a time until, one day, you drive by and discover the total message. The same type of mystery message can be posted and solved in a series of post cards. You simply divide the finished message into puzzle pieces and sent them in sequence. In most cases, the cost of printing cards drops substantially when you print several different designs at the same time—you may be surprised to find how practical this possibility is.
    7. Make news. Post cards are great for spreading the news. Next time a new captain takes the wheel, you move to a new location, announce a product, or add a new service—publish the news by post card.

  • Try Postcards

    ABC15 ran a story about a family that has been trying to find their lost pet dog. They have put posters up everywhere, taken fliers to area veterinarians, and now they are trying postcards. The story featured a service that creates postcards to saturate the neighborhood with a photo of the lost pet, some basic information and all the ways to contact the pet owner.

    A postcard can reunite families and pets, a simple postcard can do so many good things. A postcard can reach people in the moment when they are open and willing to consider information and offers. We offer more information about postcards and ideas to get you started in using them too.

    It seems like thoughts and trends are going in a circle. People are trying everything to communicate important messages and then they go back to what has been proven to work, direct mail.

  • Copywriting Sparks

    A new simple approach may help you create some new ideas for your next direct mail piece.

    Step 1, Answer these questions:

    • What problem does your product (or service) solve, and for whom?
    • How long has your product (the widget) been selling steadily, and why?
    • What uses or occasions is the widget especially appropriate for?
    • Where would you normally find one of its ingredients or components being used?
    • What doesn’t the widget have, which makes it superior?
    • Is there a flaw to feature?
    • It’s a cross between a what and a what?
    • How will the user feel when using it?
    • What does this widget go well with?
    • What kind of testing went into making the widget?
    • Why might you want more than one widget?
    • Why is the price so reasonable?

    Step 2, Look at your list of answers and choose one or more ideas that provide an appealing angle.

    Step 3, Add the practical facts like how big and how much, and you’re done.

    4 Ways to keep copy fresh

    1. Embrace the customers’ point of view.
    2. Be strategic and ask tough questions about established assumptions.
    3. Watch out for mistakes that can shorten your project’s shelf life or usefulness.
    4. Try not to worry too much about grammar and conventions. Being effective may be more important than being correct.