The Reply Card: Art or Afterthought?

The sales letter, lift letter, and brochure tucked inside your direct mail package all share one purpose – to compel the reader to complete and return the reply card. While most cards may never be returned, every card that is returned represents an interested prospect. The value far outweighs the cost of printing and insertion. When you look at it this way, you begin to view this thin, rectangular piece not as an afterthought, but as an integral component of your direct mail strategy.

Creating an effective reply card is an art. Within the defined space of a few inches, you must capture interest and summarize your selling proposition while leaving room for the respondent’s contact information, your return address, and postage. Graphics should be subtle to avoid confusing or distracting the reader. Coated cardstock won’t work because the respondent needs to write on the piece.

Well-conceived reply cards have several things in common:

·      They get straight to the point about what is being offered and what the reader needs to do.

·      Checkboxes are included with a positive call to action and often an incentive as well: “YES! I accept your free trial offer!”

·      Additional avenues for responding are featured prominently, such as a toll-free telephone number, QR Code, and links to social media.

·      An expiration date is included to create a sense of urgency.

Studies have shown that response rates can be greatly increased when response devices are personalized. In this age of identity theft, however, you must be sensitive to the amount of information that is traveling through the mail on a postcard. If your business requires personal data like date of birth or a credit card number, be sure to include a reply envelope. Whatever approach you take, make sure your piece meets U.S. Postal Service standards for cost-effective processing. 

A reply card is arguably the most important piece inside your direct mail package. Rethink the role this seemingly simple piece plays in your overall direct mail plan.

Personalized Print: Are You Focused on the Right Things?

For customers first getting involved in 1:1 print marketing, the question that inevitably arises is, “How can I maximize my investment?” This question often creates great angst about how much data they have and whether or not that data is sufficient to personalize the document for maximum return. But how much data you have is not the only important factor. The following factors are also critical in getting the results you want.

1. Quality of the database.

Often, marketers get so caught up in volume that they overlook the importance of accuracy. If you have a choice between spending your budget on getting more data and spending it on getting good data, go for quality every time. 

2.  Forget cute. Go for relevant. 

Think “customer motivation.” Many marketers get caught up in creating ads that are cute and memorable, but this doesn’t work with relevance-based targeting. You have about three seconds to catch the recipient’s attention. If the customer has to think too hard or if there is not a clear call to action, your piece will fall short.

3. Include a call to action.

Don’t assume the recipient knows what you want them to do. Make sure the text clearly states the end goal: visit the store, buy a product, attend a seminar.

One mortgage company learned this lesson the hard way. It created a witty postcard whose front showed a pizza slice stuffed with dollar bills. The headline read, “It’s Not Delivery. It’s [Name of Mortgage Company].”  Confusing, right? It showed in the response rate — .5%. On the next go-round, the marketer added the wording, “We deliver the best mortgage in town.” The response rates tripled.

Remember, when crafting 1:1 print marketing, it’s not about how good you are. It’s about how good the message is. Need help? Give us a call. That’s why we’re here.

In B2B Marketing, Experience Matters

When it comes to developing marketing content for the B2B market, targeting by experience level matters. 

This is the conclusion of a survey of 700 global business executives by The Economist Group, which found that B2B prospects from Generation Next (up to 10 years business experience) have very different preferences and motivators than Business Veterans (more than 10 years business experience). In fact, when it comes to marketing content and channel preferences, there can be up to 35 percentage points difference.

Among the differences between the two?

	Generation Next	Business Veterans
Are turned off by content with feels like a sales pitch	46%	69%
Prefer content in the form of articles	69%	91%
Find research reports helpful	30%	65%
Find white papers helpful	12%	37%
Favor video content	21%	12%
Prefer other multimedia such as infographics	12%	24%
Spend at least four hours per week perusing business content	31%	57%

Source: The Economist Group

In other differences, 41% of business veterans think company reputation holds more weight than colleague recommendations (10%). Meanwhile, only 28% of Generation Nexters think company reputation holds more weight than colleague recommendations (27%).

People are people, whether they are in a business context or a home and family context.  When crafting your next B2B campaign, remember that targeting your content by experience demographic matters as much as market vertical, job position, or other traditional demographics.

Need help? Give us a call.

How Do You Spell Success? C-O-N-V-E-R-S-I-O-N

When you think about evaluating the success of a marketing campaign, what comes to mind? For many marketers, it’s response rates. However, that just because someone “responds” by contacting you doesn’t mean that the campaign was profitable. The true measure of success is whether they actually buy something. That’s why one of your most important measures should be conversion rate.

Let’s say you’re a gourmet store in the heart of a college community. You just launched a line of breakfast items that includes pastries, breads, and gourmet omelets. You develop a campaign of 10,000 direct mailers that invite students to request an email- or text-back coupon for 25% off one of the new items. As an incentive, you offer a chance to win concert tickets to see the band Little Mix, which soon will be performing in the area.

Initially, you’re thrilled by the response rate. A whopping 32% of students requested the coupon. Then the excitement fades. Although more than one-third of students responded, only 3% actually visited the store and redeemed the coupon. When you work out your ROI, you didn’t even break even.

Let’s say you had targeted the local community instead. 

Let’s say the response rate is lower—8%—but it’s an affluent community with a high percentage of recipients working in and around the university. Of those who do respond, 32% redeem the coupon and try the new breakfast. From this pool, the number of conversions is 150% higher than the college student pool. Your cost to produce the campaign is the same, but your ROI is vastly different.

This simple example illustrates the power of the conversion rate. Initially, who wouldn’t prefer 32% response rate over 8%? But the conversion on the back end ends up being the deciding factor in the profitability of the campaign.

So don’t think response rate — think conversion!

Personalized Marketing: It’s Mainstream

From personalized coupons arriving in the mailbox to “just for you” recommendations in the inbox, personalized marketing is everywhere.

In fact, in a study of more than 1,000 enterprises, InfoTrends found that not only is personalization occurring more frequently, but when marketers do send out personalized marketing pieces, those pieces have a higher level of complexity. There are more variable pictures and images. More variable blocks of text. More dynamic compositions of the sections of the marketing pieces.

When asked, “What percentage of your customer communications/marketing campaigns fit into the following categories?” InfoTrends found that 62% of campaigns are either fully personalized or segmented:

Audience-Targeting Approaches

Personalized (one to one)	29%
Segmented (one to few)	33%
Mass marketing (one to many)	38%

Source: Understanding Vertical Markets: Enterprises Communication Requirements (InfoTrends)

Think about that for a moment. Nearly two-thirds of campaigns are targeted, if not fully personalized. What does that mean for you? It means that if you are sending static mail pieces, you’re competing with marketers who are speaking (potentially to the same customers and prospects) on a personalized level.

If your competitors are personalizing and you are not, who do you think is going to get the most mind share? Even if your competitors aren’t personalizing today, they might be tomorrow. You want to get there and establish a relationship with those customers or prospects before they do.

Need help planning your next personalized campaign? Give us a call!

Putting 1:1 Printing to Work

When we think of 1:1 printing, we tend to think of dedicated marketing campaigns designed to increase response rates and boost revenues. But smart marketers are taking it even further. They are incorporating 1:1 printing into the very fabric of their customer communications. As they do, they are seeing bottom-line benefits.

Take the example of Disney Destinations LLC, a division of The Walt Disney Company. Like many marketers, when someone contacted Disney Destinations about its services (in this case, business-to-business customers looking to book a business meeting at one of its resorts), it used to overwhelm them with pamphlets with every option, whether relevant to the caller or not. The cost of printing and storing all of those materials was very high, and if any of the information changed, it had to be thrown away and reprinted.

Disney moved to a print-on-demand model for these customers, but this is more than a POD story.

Previously, Disney had utilized 1:1 printing to communicate with individual and family vacationers who booked resort packages. The project was so successful that it decided to use a similar model with B2B inquiries. Now, instead of sending out large, undifferentiated information kits, Disney creates 24-page, full-color, fully personalized information booklets specific to each inquirer's needs. Booklets are 100% variable, with 3,000 potential combinations of text and images, personalized with the prospect's company and meeting information.

The results? Phenomenal. Disney has cut printing and storage costs by 50%. Plus, it more than doubled its response and conversion rates.

Does all this happen automatically just because a marketer switches to 1:1 printing? No. Previously, Disney Destinations admits that it was not following up with inquiries effectively. So at the same time it switched to 1:1 printing, it created a dedicated sales follow-up team. The detailed information gathered for the 1:1 brochures allows the team to follow up more easily with current prospects, as well as with past customers who have become inactive. The resort is also blending in other customer contact vehicles, such as e-mail contacts and personalized URLs, both as follow-ups to inquiries and to generate new inquiries. Together, all of these efforts create a comprehensive approach to prospect communications and existing customer communications that is immensely profitable.

The moral of the story? For world-class marketers, 1:1 printing has become more than a type of marketing campaign. It has become a way to do business. What can you learn from them?

Better Copy Gets Better Results

When writing marketing copy for your direct mail, email, and other marketing communications, do you focus on features and benefits? If so, you might want to think again. Increasingly, marketers are using emotional and psychological triggers instead.

One of the gurus of marketing copywriting is Denny Hatch. In his e-book “Secrets of Emotional, Hot-Button Copywriting,” he looks at seven triggers that tip readers over the edge and get them to act. These are fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, salvation, and flattery.

Let’s look at five of them more closely.

·      Fear is often used to sell insurance products. “What happens if there is a disaster? Will your family be protected?”

·      Anger is a powerful tool in fundraising. “How can millions of children go hungry in right here in America? Isn’t anyone doing anything about it?”

·      Guilt is a powerful motivator for selling to busy moms. “Don’t have time to cook dinner for your family? Our frozen dinners taste so much like homemade your kids will never know!”

·      Exclusivity is staple in selling to affluent consumers. “Become a Platinum member and enjoy exclusive benefits, including our prestigious ‘After Hours’ party on the aquarium grounds!”

·      Flattery appeals to those feeling they are missing out on the good life. “Treat yourself! Don’t you deserve the best?”

These five emotional hot buttons appeal to a wide variety of consumers and can motivate even the most reticent to pull the trigger. Sprinkle them throughout your marketing copy and watch the results pour in.