ROI is a top concern for direct mail marketers. With new tools giving insight into what’s working and what’s not, as well as expanded capabilties to personalize mail pieces to individual recipients, it’s finally possible to apply a simple, repeatable formula to plan for the best ROI possible. Here’s the formula:
ROI = Relevance + Personalized Offer + Timing + Channel
Let’s tackle each of these four components one-by-one:
RELEVANCE
Making your mailing “relevant” simply means making a genuine, one-to-one connection with the people you’re sending it to.
Rather than blast everyone with the same generic message, each piece of mail needs to speak to the recipient by name. In order to achieve true personalization, however, your mail has to do more than say hello–it has to deliver a message that not only makes them stop and look, but actually invest the time and energy to take action.
In order to compel that action, you need to engage with recipients on an emotional level. The message shouldn’t just say something, it should elicit an actual feeling.
So, how do you make a piece of mail emotional? It’s simple: Use data customer data to create relevant messaging that will trigger a response from your recipients.
PERSONALIZATION
“Personalization” in this case, is an extension of relevancy. In order to be relevant, you need to personalize. More often than not however, companies set the bar way too low on what counts as “personalized mail.”
Just because it says your name, doesn’t mean much when the message is still the same for everyone.
To create genuinely personalized mail, you have to incorporate a combination of data including one or combinations of:
- Client history
- Customer/prospect preference data
- Predictive Modeling
Whether it’s tracking website traffic and visits, survey results, analyzing campaign response data, or social media monitoring, there is lots of information available to use in marketing.
The key to making it work without the hassle is having system capable of capturing this data and integrating those insights into your marketing materials.
At OneTouchPoint, our U.Connect platform allows you personalize communications by using insights you already have and scaling distribution to effectively increase response rates.
CHANNEL
With consumers jumping between multiple media platforms a day, it’s important your marketing has continuity across channels. It’s up to you to be where your customers are when they are looking for information.
With simple tracking tools in place, it’s easy to identify your customers’ preferred channels and optimize distribution to increase response. But optimization shouldn’t stop there. In order to make your message consistent from one channel to another, you need to get your teams talking to each other.
While it might make sense to let your print team “own” direct mail, they need to be working directly with your digital teams to make sure the message is the same no matter where customers are seeing it. Your online and offline presence should be a reflection of one another.
TIMING
Ask yourself: Is the information I’m presenting available when the customer or prospect wants to access it? In today’s “on-demand” culture, “being there” for your prospects on their time is everything.
Print alone is rarely enough to make an actual impression on consumers who are spending more and more of their day staring at screens. Decide where you customers are most likely to receive your message and expand your efforts to the appropriate channels.
IMPLEMENTATION
While most of us agree these ideas are all well and good, actually executing on them is easier said than done. Here at OneTouchPoint, we see many clients struggle to put data and insights to work for their campaigns all the time.
One way to solve this problem is through customer lifecycles and trigger events.
By tailoring the message to a customer lifecycle or trigger event, you can easily boost the relevancy of your message without putting huge demands on your data team.
WHY 1:1 PERSONALIZATION WORKS
1. IT CUTS THROUGH INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Every day people are inundated with advertising from every direction, which in time, only makes us numb to it. When they come across something that affects them directly, it jumps out at them and piques their curiosity. Consumers are desperate for authentic, genuine messaging.
2. IT’S TARGETED
If you give people what they like, they’ll happy, they’ll respond, and chances are, they’ll purchase. The more you can repeat this simple formula the more business you will generate. It’s really that simple.
3. IT INSTILLS TRUST
A person who is addressed directly feels like they matter to you. This builds trust in both you and your motives. Trust is the cornerstone of all successful relationships and the heart of Customer Intimacy, a core brand value for OneTouchPoint.
OneTouchPoint specializes in multichannel 1:1 communication. If you need help personalizing or integrating your next print or email campaign, talk to us about partnering on your next campaign.