How Far Would You Go to Keep a Customer Happy?

Nearly half (49%) of companies say that dollar for dollar; they get a better ROI from their customer retention efforts than from their customer acquisition marketing. How far are you willing to go to retain your customers? How creative are you ready to get? Here are three examples of just how far three direct mail marketers were willing to go and the impressive ROI they received.

1. Metal Mail: Royal Mail was losing customers who mistakenly thought they couldn't mail packages over 5kg. So Royal Mail sent key customers a weighty message—literally. It distributed a metal envelope engraved with the recipient's name and address. Think it was too heavy on the budget? Quite the opposite. The campaign saw an ROI of 23:1.

2. Mystery diaries: As airlines continue to eliminate less-traveled routes to slash costs, ANA Airports wanted to keep its Lisbon airport away from the knife. They created a campaign involving a fictitious traveler, John Smith, who sent the airlines handwritten diaries of his travels explaining why he keeps coming back to Lisbon. The diaries incorporated vital information, including that 75% of Lisbon tourists are repeat visitors, 90% of tourists recommend Lisbon to others, and 80% of visitors state that Lisbon exceeded their expectations. The results? While other airports were losing routes, Lisbon Portela Airport kept 100% of them.

3. Static to interactive: An automotive company had been sending traditional postcard mailings for years. The results were good but not good enough to significantly impact its revenues. The company wondered what would happen if, instead of pulling back on its direct mail efforts, it made that investment even deeper. It replaced its singular postcard with a series of three interactive 3D mailers. The 3D mailers were triple the cost of the 2D postcards, but the results spoke for themselves—a 300% increase in call volume.

While these techniques aren't for everyone, they show just how powerful creative direct mail remains as a customer retention tool. Contact us to brainstorm ways to use direct mail to maintain your customer loyalty and keep those customers coming back.

UV Coating: There Is Nothing Else Like It

 

Some print pieces stand out from all of the others. Maybe the color is more brilliant. Maybe the gloss has a shine that catches your eye. Or perhaps it’s the reverse—the piece has a luxurious matte finish but with brilliant accents that you can’t seem to look away from.

“Wow,” you think. “There is something special about this piece. I wonder what it is?”

The answer is likely UV coating.

Whether you’re looking for a high-impact shine or a more subtle effect, UV coating is a specialty finish cured instantly using ultraviolet light. It creates a brilliant finish that is precise enough to highlight even the fine details of images or text. UV coating is also highly resistant to scuffing and moisture and helps to protect the piece over time.

Whether UV is used to flood the piece or simply to provide highlights, you can’t miss the effect. As soon as light hits the areas where the coating is applied, they dazzle.

·       If you’re an automotive manufacturer, you might add UV spot coating over the entire body of a car to enhance its gloss and shine.

·       On a business card, you might use spot UV coating over the top of your logo to make it leap off the page.

·       If you’re a nonprofit raising money for a clean water project, you might use spot UV over water droplets falling from the spigot on a newly drilled well. Your eye is immediately drawn to those droplets, which sparkle like shimmering rain.

Spot UV can be used on a wide range of stocks, but for maximum impact, try using it on matte-finished paper. Thicker weights are generally preferred. This will create the most remarkable contrast with the glossy coating.

Here’s another benefit of spot UV: The process emits no VOCs, so it does not release toxic compounds into the air. This means it does not contribute to environmental pollution.

Need more reasons to love spot UV? Ask us for samples!

 

Why Aren't Businesses Taking Advantage of Personalization?

We all know that personalization drives results, but what do consumers really want? And does personalization impact all consumers equally?

According to InfoTrends, consumers respond strongly to personalized mail. The research firm found that 84% of consumers say that personalization makes them "much more likely" or "somewhat more likely" to open mail. Yet businesses are not using this to their advantage. How do we know? Because these same consumers say they "rarely" or "infrequently" receive personalized mail.

This is truly a missed opportunity, especially among certain demographic groups. According to InfoTrends, personalization is more motivating to some consumers than others, particularly younger ones. For example, when asked whether personalization makes them more likely to open mail, here is how different groups responded:

• Just over half of all consumers, regardless of age, say personalization makes them "slightly" more likely to open mail.
• Among consumers aged 18–24, 35–49, and 50–65, the percentage saying personalization makes them "much more likely" to open mail is about 30%. 
• Among those aged 25–34, however, the percentage saying personalization makes them "much more likely" to open mail rises to 36%.

You might expect consumers to be inundated with personalized mail with these numbers, but research shows the opposite. Only 24% of consumers say they are "frequently" or "very frequently" receiving highly personalized direct mail. Forty-one percent say they only receive personalized pieces "once in a while." More than one-quarter (27%) say they receive personalized mail "rarely."

Fortunately, missed opportunities by competitors mean open doors for you. If you are already personalizing your mailings, keep it up! Invest in customer profiling. Build the depth of your database. Increase your level of precision. If you are not yet personalizing your mail, jump in. Get started before your competitors do.

Got Leave-Behinds? Here Are Three “Must Haves”

 

When you conclude any important sales meeting, you want to leave more than a good impression. You want to leave behind materials that will continue to sell your company and your products long after you’re gone. Let’s look at three great leave-behinds to leave behind.

1. Sales brochures

Brochures are vital leave-behinds because they continue to tell your story long after the meeting is over. Of course, your competitors are trying to win your prospects’ business, too, so not just any brochure will do. Here are three ways you can make a statement that you should be their top choice:

·       Eye-popping graphics, intriguing finishes, and luxurious coatings. In terms of quality, ensure that your brochure is head and shoulders above everyone else’s.

·       High-quality paper. People tend to associate heavier stocks with higher-quality products and services. Try an excellent 100# stock for your brochure rather than the standard 80# stock.

·       Customize for that client. Take advantage of the short-run capabilities of digital production to craft something that speaks specifically to your prospect’s market vertical and individual needs. Nothing says, “Your company matters!” more than a brochure explicitly created for that prospect, for that meeting, on that day.

2. Printed case studies

Studies on human psychology show that people are influenced by peer behavior. If you can show that your product is being used successfully by your prospect’s competitors, this has a highly motivating effect. This is particularly true if your product is new and innovative. Case studies reduce anxiety and allow purchasers to try new things while feeling secure that they aren’t embarking on something risky or untested.

3. Samples, if available

Bringing samples that you can leave behind extends value to the prospect and helps to build trust. If there are other decision-makers in the process, it gives your prospect something to share with them. Even if there aren’t others in the decision-making process, samples are a great continuation of your sales message and create openings with others in the company who might also need your product.

High-quality leave-behinds continue to tell your story long after you leave the building. What message are you leaving?

Be Your Customer’s First Choice

When it comes to interactions, consumers hold power in their hands. They choose what content they want to see, when they want to see it, and what channels they want to engage with. That’s why successful companies do more than simply build their brands. They motivate their customers to choose them—to choose to engage. How do you get your audience to say yes to your messaging when they could so easily say no?

1. Be authentic. Consumers want their brands to be authentic, and they can sniff out inauthenticity a mile away. 86% of consumers say that authenticity is crucial when deciding what brands they like and support (Stackla). Be honest and transparent in your marketing. Use natural language. Be a brand your customers can relate to.

2. Be respectful. Your audience is bombarded with marketing messages 24 hours a day, so don’t be a pest. Respect their time and the boundaries they choose to set. This is one of the reasons people still love direct mail—it doesn’t intrude in their space, and they decide when and where to engage with it. It’s no wonder Gallup found that 41% of Americans look forward to receiving their mail every day. Make sure your marketing mix includes both digital and traditional mail.

3. Make things easy. Consumers’ lives are busy. They will respond to brands that know who they are and what they are most likely to buy. Ensure that the communications you send are relevant and that, when your customers make purchases, the process is as seamless as possible.

4. Get it right the first time. Research from The Advertising Research Foundation shows that shoppers tune out after receiving a few dozen messages from the same company. So even though people love direct mail, don’t bombard them with it. Be selective about what you send and when.

5. Go beyond demographics. In targeting your messaging, go beyond demographics. Look more deeply at what motivates, interests, and is of the most value to your audience. There are multiple ways to get at this information, so create a plan for getting what you need.

Consumers are savvier than ever, so you have to be savvier, too. Let us help you create a plan for getting filtered in!

5 Tips for Creating a Strong Brand

There are many ways to engage your audience, raise your company's visibility, and define your brand in the marketplace. From drip marketing to event planning to strategic direct mail campaigns, you have many tools at your disposal. Regardless of which tools (or combination of tools), you use, here are five tips to keep in mind.  

1. Plan your timing carefully. Although you want to communicate with your audience frequently using the right channel mix, be strategic in your timing. Some companies bombard their audiences so that those audiences begin to tune them out. Pick your channels—and your moments—and make them count.  

2. Don't complicate your message. It's tempting to load up your communications with every bit of information right out of the gate. The risk, however, is that your audience will get overwhelmed and buy nothing at all. Keep it simple. Let your most compelling points come ringing through.  

3. Don't go it alone. Encourage the departments within your company to work together. Whether in marketing, sales, or customer service, break down the silos and lean into each other's experience. Bring in outside perspectives, as well. Ask objective experts. Do focus groups. By all means, ask your customers! Just because your message is clear to you doesn't mean it's clear to everyone else.  

4. Remember the call to action (CTA). Once recipients have read your communication, tell them what you want them to do. Call for more information? Buy a product? Sign up for a seminar? Without a CTA, the communication can get set aside for later, then be lost or forgotten and never acted upon. We mention it because the CTA gets overlooked more often than you think.  

5. Don't rush. When you've got a great idea, it's tempting to want to take it to market quickly. But take your time to get it right. 

Before planning your next campaign, pick up the phone and call us. We can often offer suggestions on targeting, mailing formats, coatings, and other critical elements of a mailing that you might not have thought of.

Have Lapsed Customers? Win Them Back!

Every business loses customers, but just because customers stop purchasing from you doesn’t mean that they are gone forever. You can win them back! You just need a plan. Here are five tips for re-engaging lapsed customers.

1. Defined “lapsed” customers. At what point do you consider a customer to have lapsed? This will vary based on your type of business. If you are a coffee shop where customers tend to come in every day or multiple times per week, you might consider them “lapsed” if they haven’t purchased after 30 days. If you are a retailer, it might be three to six months before you can be sure these customers have disengaged.

2. Write specifically for this audience. Typically, marketers will use language like, “We miss you!” or “It’s been a while!” But be creative. Other lapsed customer messaging we like includes “You + Us. We miss that.” Or “Breaking up is hard to do.” Then there is the more direct approach: “We’re wondering. Do you still want to get offers from us?”

3. Remind them what they love about you. Do you know what these customers bought in the past? If so, personalize the mailer with images of products you know they’ve purchased before. Remind them what they love (and miss) about shopping with you.

4. Test your offers. You will likely use deeper discounts or more powerful offers to re-engage lapsed customers than active, happy ones—test different offers and messaging to see which ones resonate most strongly with this particular audience.

5. Use direct mail, not email. Email marketing can be powerful, but once someone has already lapsed, they aren’t likely to open your emails anymore. Direct mail goes straight to their mailbox, with no opt-outs or spam filters. Direct mail more easily reaches lapsed customers than email.

When you are coming up with the messaging for the mail piece, remember that these are customers who already know your brand — and they’ve already shown that they like what you have to offer. So get your “win back” on. Sometimes, they just need a little nudge.