Rational Marketing

Category: Direct Mail

  • The Hare and The Tortoise (or was it a snail)…

    A fable based on tomorrow’s thoughts…

    There once was a speedy hare who bragged about how fast he could run, how many people he could reach in a single mouse click. Tired of hearing him boast, Slow and Steady, the tortoise, (or maybe he was a snail) challenged him to a race. All the animals in the forest gathered to watch.

    Hare ran down the road for a while and then and paused to rest (on his analytical reports of 5 percent open rates and great return on investment because hey even if you make a few sales, sending all that email cost almost nothing). He looked back at Slow and Steady and cried out, “How do you expect to win this race when you are walking along at your slow, slow pace?”

    Hare stretched himself out alongside the road and fell asleep, thinking, “There is plenty of time to relax.” Or perhaps he decided go for a run on a treadmill, just for fun, staying in the same spot but moving furiously fast.

    Slow and Steady walked and walked. He never, ever stopped until he came to the finish line.

    The animals who were watching cheered so loudly for Tortoise (or was it the snail), they woke up Hare or did they scare him to try a different tactic? Hare  began to run on the road again, but it was too late. Tortoise (or was it the snail) was over the finish line, he won and is winning customers, sales and profits.

    The moral of this story is the quick easy fast fix does not exist and the reality is that Slow and Steady direct mail also known as “snail mail” wins.

  • Which Came First?

    We did a study and analysis of our customers and sales over the last 14 years. We found a few surprises.

    Even though we have a passion for helping new businesses get started and grow and love watching people realize their dreams. The average number of years that one of our customer organizations has been operating was almost 20 years. Are organizations more likely to spend more on direct mail the longer they are in business or are they still in business because they spend more money on direct mail?

    The larger a company is in terms of employee size also correlated with average sales. In other words, the more employees that work in a firm, the more the firm spent on direct mail. Again you could ask did the organization grow because they used direct mail more or are they more likely to use direct mail because they have more employees?

  • List selection strategies

    The list could be the most significant factor in the success or failure of a direct mail campaign. Regardless of how strong the creative and message may be, if the message isn’t communicated to the right audience, the impact will be compromised.

    Surprisingly, few marketers spend the time and energy to accurately identify their audience. In an effort to make sure everyone knows about the promotion, they often communicate with people on the fringes, thus lowering the overall performance and value of the campaign.

    One option is to build customer “profiles” for your products or services. If you can determine conversion as a percentage of desirable market segments, you can make an educated decision regarding which segment will produce a positive return on investment. Marketing only to those people with the highest propensity to purchase from you inevitably increases your campaign’s success, performance and value.

  • The Power of Touch

    Real Simple Magazine printed an extract of research results from The University of Wisconsin-Madison that found that 30 seconds is all you need to feel attached to an item after touching it. Research says you are 39 percent more likely to buy an item you touch as opposed to one you never handle.

    Retailers, is there anything you can do to encourage your customers to touch things?

    What about mail? Can you get a sample or a representation into the hands of your next customers?

    University of Wisconsin-Madison Associate Professor of Marketing Joann Peck and Jennifer Wiggins of Kent State University found that the simple addition of a fuzzy dot glued to the cover of a mailing piece encouraged readers to spend more time with the mailer and increased response.

    Talk to us about other ways to include something to touch with your direct mail.

  • Television Ad Spending

    Forrester Research released an excerpt of a study on TV Ad Spending and predicts that TV ad spending will grow by 1% to $69.5 billion in 2010. Forrester Research also released an excerpt of a study on Media Measurement stating that marketers can’t see value in multichannel marketing until they can measure it. TV spending is still the biggest expense for large companies, even as Internet usage increases and mass media audiences fragment. “65% of marketing leaders think Internet measurement is more useful than TV measurement.” Measurement of TV advertising and other media will become more like that of interactive marketing, and branding advertising and activities will be held to the stricter accountability of direct marketing.

    Direct marketing’s measurability is the desired standard.

  • Success

    How would you describe success? I know that a mailing campaign that results in new customers and increased revenue is positively a great thing.

    In thinking about a broader meaning of success it is a joy to think how many of us define success in individual ways. Sometimes outer signs and rewards are delayed, but the great feeling inside that the process was done well is still very real.

    Do any of these words explain what success means to you: achievement, feeling good, living out your priorities, health, satisfaction, hard work, happiness, excitement, helping others, reaching goals, balance, passion, freedom, focus, …?

  • Ideas to Stretch Your Mailing Dollars

    Creating and producing direct mail advertising can get very expensive. But that does not mean you have to spend a fortune. You just need to know how to make the most of your dollars.

    Mail to your best prospects or customers first.

    Don’t drop huge quantities all at once. If you are mailing 50 letters to sell more to your best customers, 250 cards to convert first-time buyers to repeat buyers, or thousands of pieces to find qualified prospects, it’s all direct mail, it is measurable and accountable.

    Maximize your return. Whenever you invest in postage to communicate with your customers, increase your yield on that investment by also asking for referrals, offering an incentive for new product ideas, direct them to a special page on your website or give them a “Yes or No” option to respond (Yes, I’m ready to buy now … No, I’m not ready now but I do want to stay informed about new products and services).

    “Pass-along”. Increase your total exposure without increasing your costs. Ask the recipient to give your mail piece to an interested friend or co-worker. Make sure to provide some kind of a “thank you” for doing it and create a way to track this response too.

    Make the postage stand out. Use a different looking stamp or indicia to gain reader interest and attention.

    Stretch your budget. Use a more expensive printed mailing piece to your best customers or prospects and less expensive postcards to your secondary targets.

    Effective direct mail does not have to cost a fortune.

  • Example of Successful Multichannel Strategy

    Practical Ecommerce tells about Fairytale Brownies’ online sales being primarily powered by printed catalogs mailed to approximately 1.8 million households annually. Fairytale Brownies expects to gross roughly $8 million in 2009, with around 60 percent of its revenue from online sales.

    “The brownie gift catalog really drives a large portion of our business. Although we do most of our revenue through online sales, a lot of those customers find us through receiving our catalog, so I think there is still a big role for the printed catalog and direct mail pieces in the ecommerce business.”

    “We did a total of six mail drops in 2009, and we printed multiple versions of the catalog that are mostly cover change-outs, like the September drop had the first few pages in a Fall theme and Halloween gifts; and the next drop featured Thanksgiving; and the next drop featured Christmas. But the core of the product pages remains the same because it’s less expensive to change out just a few of the outer pages.”

    “A lot of the traditional mailing strategies still work very well for us, such as renting mailing lists and prospecting names. The more catalogs you mail, the more revenue you get, you have to be very careful to mail to targeted lists that are producing positive results, or you can over-mail and end up losing money.”

    The financial results of Fairytale Brownies are excellent implementations of our suggestions of ways to save on printing.

  • Paper Mail?

    Most of the information available to businesses and marketers is currently promoting “digital” communication. What about paper?

    Paper can be touched and felt.

    Print is persuasive. On paper, you can communicate at greater length (due to less eyestrain) and more depth – attention spans are longer for print.

    Paper materials prompt action.  There are examples that printed pieces drive sales through other channels, including web sales.

    Paper gets read when the recipient is in the mood, unlike emails, tweets, texts, or other updates which are usually read immediately or deleted.

    To get through, to stand out, to get read rather than skimmed, to trigger orders, printed postal mail is still a great way to use marketing resources.

  • Reasons to Mail Now

    There are no filters removing printed mail from good old-fashioned mailboxes.

    Nobody likes an empty mailbox! Mail volume has decreased, a really good offer to the right person has a great chance of standing out.