Posted on

The direct marketing channel war revisited

These days the debate over direct mail versus email seems to be over.  The conventional wisdom is that direct mail is too expensive and takes too long.  If a retailer has had bad sales over the weekend, they want to take action now and not wait a month or two to get a direct mail piece delivered to their customers’ mailboxes.

However, this approach could ignore some valuable customers.  What about your customers who are not emailable either because you don’t have their email address or they have opted out of email communications?  Also, sending an email doesn’t mean it will actually be seen by the consumer.  Google’s use of the promotion inbox makes it easier for consumers to ignore marketing communications.  In addition, plenty of people have secondary email addresses that they use just for these types of communications and which they check only rarely.

In addition, there is the question of whether email is always the best channel for the message.  A recent study found that physical ads were better than digital ads in some respects.  See here: http://www.dmnews.com/postal/direct-mail-has-a-greater-effect-on-purchase-than-digital-ads/article/423292/

In the end, it may be a multichannel strategy that works best for you.  Through a test and learn approach you can determine what generates the best return on your marketing investment.

Posted on

Welcome!

How important is it welcome customers to your brand?  If you are a brand manager with a welcome program for new customers, you may be asking yourself this very question.

Welcome programs run the gamut from a simple email that confirms someone has signed up for an e-newsletter or thanks a customer for making a purchase to  a coordinated series of communications across a range of channels (for example, telephone, direct mail and email).  The best welcome programs are integrated across channels and feature tailored messages based on the customer and the product or service purchased. These communications begin shortly after a customer has made a purchase, registered on a website, etc.  They can span as little time as a week to several months depending on the product.

Welcome programs are important for many reasons.  They enable you to:

  • Thank customers.  Let the customer know that you appreciate their business and it reinforces the good feeling they have about purchasing from you
  • Promote new products.  These communications can be used to make customers aware of additional products and services they may want based on what they have already purchased
  • Educate customers.  It is a way for you to communicate with your customers about product features that some may find confusing.  Proactively sharing with them how to access or use a feature could reduce future calls for technical support, saving your brand money and reducing customer frustration down the road
  • Understand your customers better.  It is an opportunity for you to gather information about the purchase process at a time when customers are most likely to talk to you

I have found that customers are most responsive to communications just after they have purchased a product and just before they are about to purchase again.  Take advantage of this opportunity to begin a dialogue with your customers.

Posted on

Happy New Year

The new year has begun. Now is the time to measure the success of your holiday campaigns. How did your campaigns perform? This is an opportunity to look at their effectiveness in terms of building awareness, generating revenue, increasing retention and aiding customer acquisition? How do your metrics compare to industry benchmarks as well as internal benchmarks? How much revenue did they generate and were they profitable? In addition, what worked and what didn’t? Now is the time to evaluate any tests that were done – date/time, subject line, creative, etc. Finally, compare the results of this past holiday campaign to the one before and analyze the differences. The insights from the holidays can inform your strategy for 2012.

Posted on

Direct mail is not dead

A colleague of mine recently told me, “direct mail is dead.”  I can certainly understand why he would say this.  First, mail volume has been falling.  Unsolicited direct mail by the financial industry has declined due to concerns about the credit markets for example.  Given the continued economic challenges in the United States, mail volumes are expected to continue to fall.  Second, direct mail is viewed as junk mail that quickly goes into the waste bin.  Add to that concerns about the environment and waste.  Sending multiple mailings to the same customers or prospects can alienate them. Third, e-mail is an attractive alternative where e-mail addresses exist, as it is cheaper and offers many of the same advantages of direct mail.

However, as an article in the New York Times yesterday detailed, direct mail is not dead but undergoing a transformation.   The return on investment from direct mail is too high for it to be abandoned.  When direct mail is targeted to the right person at the right time, it can be incredibly effective.  I know because it worked on me.  A few years ago I was involved in a volunteer committee that donated company funds to non-profit organizations.  One of the other volunteers suggested that we give money to Doctors without Borders and in the process educated us about the organization.  Around the same time, I read about their mission and efforts to help individuals in the Middle East in the New York Times.  Thus, when an unsolicited letter requesting a donation arrived in my mailbox shortly thereafter, I gladly gave to the organization. 

Direct marketers are pushing for direct mail processes to be more efficient, for the offers to be more targeted and the pieces themselves to be more environmentally friendly.  The DMA and others are pushing for all sorts of improvements including cleaning or purging purchased and house lists of undeliverable addresses, using soy inks and recycled paper in mail pieces, and recycling waste materials.  It remains to be seen how effective they will be; however, it is in their best interest to develop standards.  They run the risk that future legislation will dictate what they can and cannot mail.

Direct mail is not dead but rather will be used more sparingly and in concert with other channels, especially e-mail.