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Three Direct Marketing Rules to Apply to your Digital Strategy

February 23rd, 2011 by Heinrich Marketing

The online space has opened up an entirely new way to market to your prospects and customers. Your website, Facebook page, email campaigns and social media strategy provide vast opportunities to build relationships, engage in conversations and encourage sales.

There’s plenty of advice out there from digital experts, content marketers, social media mavericks and email service providers. But it’s been our experience that you don’t necessarily need new ideas for the newer mediums. Instead, you can turn to established direct marketing best practices to get results. Here are three direct marketing rules that can help boost the ROI of your digital marketing efforts.

Rule #1: Make your offer crystal clear.

Best practices for online marketing include customizing your communication to suit the customers’ extremely short online attention span. Emails get scanned, the web gets “surfed”… all the more reason you need to put your offer out there as clearly as possible.

Marketing Sherpa just released its “Best Of” email campaigns from 2010, and it’s a great sampling of what works. In the “best email list growth campaign” category, Honorable Mention went to the email below (the winners were not “offer” emails, so we haven’t included them here). It was the offer that made it a Sherpa favorite. The judges cited “the incentive to re-engage, and the clear call to action” as show-stoppers.

Take a look at how simple it is: just a matter of highlighting the offer through color shading and a design box. Even if you glance at the email, you can’t miss the offer.

View all of the marketing Sherpa Winners here.

Rule #2: Provide a clear call-to-action, and offer it in many channels.

The online call to action is both science and art; companies test, and test again to figure out what works best. Is it a button or a link? At the top of the page or in the middle? And what does the button say?

To get a good sense of the nuances in play, visit the website of award-winning marketer and founder of Marketing Sherpa, Anne Holland. Called Which Test Won, the site lifts the curtain off A/B email testing, and reveals not only the creative output, but the results as well. But first, she makes you take a guess!

Visit Which Test Won right now to see what works. Will your gut instinct guide you to the winners?

One more note about your online call to action. Be sure you also offer your customers other ways — offline ways — to respond. Just because they’re online doesn’t mean that’s the way they want to contact you. Always provide a phone number, too.

Rule #3: Be clear about who you are and what you do.

Whether your website is ecommerce or just brand informative, it’s a crucial point of contact between you and your customers. What kind of message does it send? The words and visuals on your site should quickly explain what you offer, and what sets you apart from others in the industry. Don’t let the visuals overpower the message and benefits.
Each year, the Web Marketing Association selects the best websites in 96 categories. Take a look and see what you think makes them great.

Visit WebAward.org

As you revisit your online marketing efforts, perhaps you already see areas that need direct marketing’s best practice applications. When you’re ready to take action, we’re here to help.

Category: Copywriting / Creative, Digital Marketing, Integrated Direct Marketing | Tags: Call-To-Action, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Direct Marketing | No Comments

Heinrich’s Secret to Great Creative That Meets Your Marketing Goals

October 25th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

Direct marketing remains the loyal workhorse of integrated marketing campaigns, delivering measurable results that digital and social media communications just can’t match. But sometimes a campaign needs a new creative concept to boost a sluggish response rate or refresh the fatigued control, and that requires a substantial budget investment. With so much at stake, new creative concepts must have the total confidence of all teams involved, including strategy, creative and client (even an internal client). To ensure you build your campaign on a mutually agreed upon, solid foundation, draw up a creative brief.
Effective campaigns begin with a creative brief
The chances of your creative campaign’s success increase exponentially with a well-thought-out creative brief. Here’s why:

A brief keeps your creative team focused on the business problem at hand. Think of a brief as a checkpoint. As your creative team plows full-speed ahead, they’ll always have a reference to ensure they’re staying on track. The brief becomes the reliable central repository for all relevant information, identifying the must-haves and the can’t-dos that creative teams need to create a clear path from the business problem to the creative solution.
A brief takes the guesswork out of the client “liking” the finished creative. If a client agrees on a brief, they’re more likely to agree on final creative — provided your brief is articulate and thorough. It’s not something that’s thrown together with just a few sentences, or even a few paragraphs. A great brief is four to five pages long and reads like a synopsis. There’s a background story, a problem to solve, the desired customer action, possibly statistics, and most essential, the single important message you want the campaign to communicate. That’s right, single message. Expect a lot of back and forth with the client on that point at the beginning of the process, but a satisfied client at the end.

Add creative briefs to your campaign-planning phase

Sometimes it seems no amount of discussion can ensure everybody’s on the same page when it comes to creative strategies and goals. With a creative brief, you can clarify everything in writing and provide a roadmap for the creative team and client to follow — one that leads to success.

Category: Copywriting / Creative, Integrated Direct Marketing | Tags: Creative Brief, Creative Strategy, Integrated Direct Marketing | No Comments

Copywriting Refresh: Tips Every Marketer Should Know

October 15th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

We’re all marketing professionals, but every once in a while it’s smart to stop for a moment and get a refresher on the basics. Today, let’s focus on copywriting in your collateral. After all, that’s your brand talking to your customers. Have you done all you can to get a strong customer response?

Writing a direct response piece isn’t as simple as putting pen to paper. Professional direct response copywriters employ specific techniques that can increase response. Metta Miller, a Boston-based Heinrich copywriting partner with over 20 years experience, took time out to share some tips.

1) Include a call to action on every piece of your DM. If you invest in a DM mail package with multiple components, like a letter, a buckslip, and a brochure, make sure your call to action appears on them all. You can’t expect the customer to 1) Seek out the call to action where it appears and save it, and 2) Keep track of every component in the package, especially the one with the CTA.

2) Don’t assume that the recipient will absorb your messages sequentially. Direct mail is usually unsolicited mail, so you have to make your point fast wherever you can. You can’t rely on a gimmick like starting a message in the outer envelope teaser and finishing it inside, as the header of a letter. People read out of sequence, and often, they just scan. So make your point completely and clearly in multiple places.

3) Provide a single phone number and URL, then repeat. The goal of every DM touch is to get the recipient to make the call or visit the website, above all else. So keep the presentation of the phone number or web address simple, yet prominent. Don’t confuse consumers with one number for one action (like an offer), and another for something else (like questions). One number and one URL only! Give your calls to action good real estate on the piece, and mention them several times (as many as three times for a letter).

4) Remember: There’s no “back” or “front” on a postcard. Reminder postcards are a great way to boost results. But when you’re writing your message, keep in mind that there’s a good chance your recipient will check out the side with the address first since his/her name is there — and that’s usually not the side with an engaging visual concept and catchy line. Make sure both sides of your postcards work hard to convey your message and bring you great results.

5) Everyone reads the P.S. in the letter! Seriously, everyone. It’s smart to put your call to action there, along with your key message or value prop. A “P.S.” pops off a page, and gets the attention of a scanner who might not actually read much else in the piece.

Direct response writing is much more than correct grammar and a friendly voice. Professional copywriters know what inspires customer action, what catches a customer’s eye, and what doesn’t. When you’re mindful of that, you’re on your way to powerful creative that can bring you great results.

Category: Copywriting / Creative, Integrated Direct Marketing | Tags: Call-To-Action, Copywriting, Direct Response | No Comments

Case Study: A MultiChannel Marketing Campaign

July 15th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

How a MultiChannel Marketing Campaign Combined with Promotional Marketing Boosts Traffic

Summary: Heinrich Marketing created a campaign for a regional bank, which didn’t just throw money at customers, but instead showed how the client cared about customers and their plights during difficult economic times.

The challenges:

Attract new customers to the bank
Get them to open a new account — or switch accounts — during a recession.
Convey the bank’s 150-year history of trust in the region, and show how customer trust remained a priority in a tough economic environment.

When it comes to getting new customers, banks have always been particularly competitive. “It’s always been a very aggressive grab,” says Jay Rael, account director at Heinrich Marketing. “Free checking accounts and cash giveaways to open accounts were the standard.” During the recession, banks have had to turn it up a notch (or 10).

The solution: Heinrich Marketing took a different approach and created a multichannel “Have a night out on us” campaign, which offered free meals and movies for families to enjoy at home. It was a way for the bank to tell the customer, “It’s been tough. You deserve this.” Direct mail, print, TV, radio, branch promotions and email were all coordinated to encourage a strong call to action.

“This was really fun,” according to Jay, “because we brought in an extra level of promotion that touched a different chord for customers.” Heinrich leveraged its partnerships with a regional Papa John’s and KFC to offer the free meals (at no extra cost to the bank), and created cross-promotion opportunities that benefitted customers and partners, too.

The results: The bank enjoyed a substantial increase in new accounts over the year before. Although “free food and a movie” was at the heart of the promotion, it’s important to recognize the emotional influences of the campaign, including:

Sympathizing with the customer during tough times
Placing value on family and relationships
Showing the customer that the bank made the effort to partner with stores that interest them

In the end, the campaign came down to understanding the customer and taking the time to understand the economic climate. Showing that you know your customers — and what they’re going through — can give your campaigns legs, and position your brand as more customer-friendly, too.

What’s your marketing challenge? We can help.

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Category: Copywriting / Creative, Customer Acquisition / Retention, Integrated Direct Marketing | No Comments

How to Make Your Content King

July 15th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

How to Make Your Content King

As consumers ease their way back into spending post-recession, they’re more careful, both with their money and with the choices they make. In this cautious state, information is their friend — they’re hungry for it, and empowered by it. Is your business ready for them?

Honesty. Really the best policy.
Great content opportunities can arise from the most challenging of business situations. For example, in a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, Robin Sidel highlighted banks’ efforts to replace old fees with new ones in their now strongly regulated industry:

“Making matters trickier, while the banks must disclose the new fees fully, they likely will do so only in the ordinary-looking correspondence that most consumers toss in the trash without reading. The result: Many people will learn of the new charges only after opening their monthly statements.” (The new Bank Fees: How to Fight Back” June 19^th, 2010)

Instead of viewing fees as a hazard to customer retention, consider them an opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the customer. That’s what makes a great tweet, blog post or Facebook post.

Just think about the benefits that can come from prominently displaying difficult news in a more customer-friendly communication:

Build trust through transparency. Honest content can make a great customer retention tactic, and give you a venue to explain reasons behind a decision. It’s a way to control your message when it’s bad news.

Evolve your brand into a service that provides valuable information. Content that takes the customer behind the scenes of the industry could prove especially helpful to other consumers simply seeking information online — and subsequently turn them into customers, too.

Start with a strategy.

Creating content is not a creative process, it’s a strategic one. Make sure every communication you put out there supports your marketing strategy and states your brand message consistently. Here are a few helpful tactics:

Attract potential customers through search results. Whether it’s Google, Yahoo or Bing, customers rely on search engines to help them sift through the mountains of information out there. And that’s great news for you — an opportunity to connect with an already-interested audience.

Connect consumers to high-quality content. It’s information overload out there, but quality can be the differentiator. When potential customers reach your blog, website or Facebook page, give them content that’s knowledgeable, well written and relevant to what they’re looking for. You’ll set your brand apart online.

This newsletter you’re reading right now is content marketing in action! Spend an hour with us to learn more about how we can help you make your content king. Let’s talk.

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Category: Content Marketing, Copywriting / Creative, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Trends | No Comments

Planning a Post-Recession Marketing Campaign?

July 15th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

Find the Right Marketing Strategy to Support Your Brand and Your Plan.

Now that the economy’s picking up, there’s the temptation to entice customers any way possible, with any offer, any tactic. Don’t do it! Now more than ever, you need a well-thought-out strategy, one that employs smart tactics to solve your specific business problems, and that stays true to your brand message.

When it comes to strategy, the quickest way there is with a brief.

At Heinrich Marketing, we begin every marketing program with a thorough creative brief process. It’s like a road map that helps guide us toward a marketing strategy that can quickly solve our client’s business problems. While they may seem to take extra time and slow the timeline, the payoff is big. A well-written brief will:

Reflect your brand personality

Speak to your target audience

Define a key single insight that will drive response

Clients reap benefits from a creative brief.

Taking the time to complete a creative brief, or respond to one that’s been completed for you, can help rally support for a more measured marketing approach in the face of tight schedules and internal marketing demands.

Brief benefit #1: An answer to the “need-results-now” crowd.

A well-thought-out strategy that supports the brand includes built-in benefits:

Retention. When customers see that you understand them, and that you used a well-thought-out approach to determine their needs, you earn their trust and time. See this month’s case study as an example.

Acquisition. Consistent messaging will more efficiently express your value propositions, and communicate who you are and how you can help potential customers.

Brief benefit #2: An easier way to stay on brand, anywhere.

Bring your strategy wherever your campaign appears, including online. Technology evolves so fast, it might feel like there are no rules on the Web. Don’t believe it:

Strong, simple brand messages do better online. Customers scan online content. They glance at banners, they skim emails. The brands with clear, strong, concise messages breaks through.

Creativity + brand thrive online. The need for “short and sweet” messaging online sets a perfect stage for a well-thought-out, visual concept that supports your brand.

It all sounds simple, right? But for companies of all sizes, brand consistency in the face of economic downturns and overly-ambitious (and anxious) campaigns can be the biggest challenge.

Now more than ever, it’s time for a well-thought out campaign that solves your business problem and supports your brand message across every medium. Then, when the economy runs at full steam again, your brand will be in the lead.

Want to craft a brief to fit your business? Call Sandi McCann for more ideas.

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Category: Copywriting / Creative, Marketing Strategy, Segmentation | No Comments

Personalization: Responding to Consumers with Relevance

June 9th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

The “R” word is pretty hot these days. Whether it’s your blog, your book or your tweet, it’s gotta be relevant to today’s consumer. But when it comes to marketing, it’s about getting it right on multiple levels. The right message, the right channel, the right timing and the right features. When you do this, consumers feel like your offer has been designed specifically for them, and that’s real relevance.

Credit cards are a perfect product to lead the charge, so to speak. Consumers are spending again, albeit cautiously. Mintel Compremedia, a direct-mail tracing company reported that lenders sent out 398.5 million credit card offers in Q4 of ’09 — a 46% increase over the third quarter.

As you start marketing again, keep in mind that consumers are calling the shots in a whole new way. In an age of choice, they know they can find a product to suit them perfectly. Amidst economic chaos, they know they can demand a deeper level of communication and trust. But perhaps convenience is their highest priority — keeping it all at their fingertips with smart tools is absolutely crucial. Because if you don’t deliver, someone else will.

Three Points to Personalization

1. Crack customer intelligence. Whether it’s an urban single who buys dry clean-only suits and organic dog food, or an empty-nester who relies on your line of cosmetics, anticipate their activities and be there when they buy.

2. Identify benefits in a new light. Make features and benefits speak more directly to your customers and deliver rewards in a more meaningful, relevant way. How can your tools work for the engaged girl who needs a low interest rate on her gown, text message alerts reminding her about the deposit for the caterer and rewards points to cash in on for the honeymoon flight to the Poconos?

3. Create a connection. This means marketing to a smaller set of customers, but when it feels more 1:1, they’re more likely to listen. This is where innovative CRM tools such as print on demand come in.

Recognizing Your Customers. Responding to Your Customers.
Like putting a face to a name, personas translate numbers into needs. They inspire genuine empathy for the people who buy your products and force you to prepare multiple approaches. At all levels, your response says: We know you, we understand you, we’re there for you. Three personas here show you the way:

Frugalista: Ready for Benefits, Rewards and Real Value
This hip chick is still shopping, but she’s now far more attuned to maximizing rewards. She avoids annual fees, but earns points like a pro. Frugalista puts energy into finding the best price-value match. For her, there’s even a sense of pride to her task. When making a decision, she breezes right past the standard messages in search of bonus benefits. We know she shops. Make her want to shop with you.

Watchful One: Prudent and Waiting for the Perfect Offer
Like a late adopter, this consumer is cautious, but observant. He’s focused on keeping his credit score, building his savings account and staying smart, so he’ll likely respond to a low interest rate and honest, direct messages. A solid sign-up discount or first-purchase reward presented at just the right moment could help him ease into smart, yet steady card usage. Slow and steady wins this consumer. He will spend again.

A Couple of Leisure: Liberated and Living Well
These two have worked hard and feel like they deserve the rewards, vacations and an occasional splurge that come with retirement. They pay off their credit card monthly, so low interest rates aren’t important. But purchasing power is huge. Miles, points and access to upscale spas and hotels encourage the Couple of Leisure to choose your card. If luxury at a low cost is available, they’re interested.

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Category: Copywriting / Creative, Customer Acquisition / Retention, Integrated Direct Marketing, Payment Card Marketing, Segmentation | No Comments

Heinrich's Adam Reker on Art, Deliberation and Delivery

April 26th, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

Adam Reker on Art, Deliberation and Delivery

This is a guy who spends his time negotiating print estimates, correcting dot gain and monitoring quality control pulls. But it turns out Adam is part print professional, part artist and part designer husband. From deer antlers to ink density and lace to letter sign-offs, here are the disparate details of his world and how he dishes out inspiration in every ‘sphere.

On Adam’s artistic style: The genre is pop surrealism. It’s the combination of natural or antiquated elements with pop imagery and colors. It makes for very unexpected and often ironic visuals.

On his creative process: There’s really just two steps: sketch and start. I have a vision and then I dive in. But from there, the complexity increases. Creating anything, whether I’m at the drawing board or my desk, is about multiple layers and levels of detail.

On blending worlds: My work and my art go together pretty well. As a print production specialist, I’m required to have an eye for detail and consistency. If you look at my artwork from a distance, it may appear spontaneous or scattered, but there are deliberate details everywhere. In both art and say, a direct mail project, it takes careful selection of paper, material and dye to create the desired effect and really deliver for the client.

On his favorite materials: I use everything—lace, wood, old photographs, stencils, the works. Sometimes I find stuff at Home Depot or even on the street. This makes it a more tactile experience. I love working with fabrics for large screen prints, banners, even t-shirts (on a recent Hispanidad project) gives me the ability to experiment with the layers of vibrant colors.

On finding inspiration: It often comes from graffiti, street art and the patterns and colors you’ll find in an urban neighborhood. I’m really attracted to bright colors.

On his art’s message: No message. In fact, I like it that art is open to the interpretation of the viewer. But I do love taking things that don’t belong together and finding a way to make them fit. I prefer to keep a sense of humor in my pieces. I think people take art a little too seriously, which keeps them from fully appreciating the underground world of design.

On creating in the communication age: Facebook has been great for connecting me with the artist community. I’ve had conversations with people who I never thought I’d get access to. I also post on Flickr, which I’ve found to be an awesome testing ground for new pieces because people post feedback—some positive, some negative—whether you want it or not. It builds your confidence as an artist and reminds you that your audience has a voice, too.

On the Heinrich culture: It’s cool. They’ve managed to create a down-to-earth working environment where I work with big name clients, have a nerf-gun fight and approach the CEO personally. That combination is kind of rare.

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Keeping It Real with Rob McPhee

February 2nd, 2010 by Heinrich Marketing

Keep It Real with Heinrich Creative Director Rob McPhee

Hometown

San Francisco

Client highlights

Hewlett Packard, Bartles & Jaymes, Panera, Dell, Toyota, Mercedes, Apple, San Diego Zoo, Walmart

Definition of a great campaign

Great ads tell the truth, and people believe in the brands behind them; that’s what advertising is all about.

What I do best

Making the client’s product look cool and make sense. A client comes to us with a problem; our job is to problem-solve— and put sheen on it too. Creative for creative’s sake is great for a fine artist, but advertising is a business, and businesses are supposed to make profits. I think a lot of creatives lose sight of that. I start out by thinking, here’s what I would do; then I go find someone who’s the opposite of me and ask what he or she would do.

I also take a scientific approach — learn as much as I can about something first, then try to find the interesting twist or way of looking at it. Clients often come to an agency when they’ve exhausted their own ways of looking at a problem. Then it becomes like painting your house – you could do it, but it will take a long time and be hard and will probably look better if a pro does it. I have to continually look at and ask myself, Are we selling the product? Accomplishing the client goal?

What I wanted to be when I grew up

At first, I wanted to be a doctor. But I could always draw. My mom entered my drawings in competitions, and I won a couple of awards when I was a kid. Then one weekend when I was a teenager, a friend was struggling to finish a drawing assignment for school, so I helped him. His teacher — her name was Ms. Lao — could tell he hadn’t drawn the pictures. She wanted to talk to me. After that I started taking art classes.

I used to make all these ads growing up, but I could never make an ad look like an ad. I went to design school at UCLA. I knew early on I wasn’t a fine artist or modern artist, but I didn’t think I was going to make it in advertising. Then my sister was working at Hal Riney [the ad agency] and got me a job there. They had me write a letter about what I wanted to do. Then they created an art assistant position for me. I was a storyboard guy for a while, then worked my way up to senior art director.

Claims to fame

I answered phones for Hal Riney! People in the ad business always say, “You knew him personally?” I also wrote and illustrated the kid’s book series The May B Farm.

What’s exciting to me right now?

The way the ad landscape is changing. Direct mail is now direct advertising. Instead of just a mailer and a follow-up letter, it’s a mailer and an email, a microsite, a social media campaign, mobile, etc. Traditional advertising isn’t just print and TV anymore either, and commerce has changed too. Financial services are now supermarkets. It’s a good fit for someone who can do everything — all media. Today, multichannel marketing means reaching your market via the media and channels that resonate.

The rise of smaller agencies is exciting too. Big agencies used to control the gateways of advertising. But the days when someone adds up all the hours they worked on a certain client account and it comes out to 50,000 hours are gone. Smaller agencies that have a strong core, smart people and a stable of great freelancers can accomplish much more, a lot more efficiently. We’re using the same tools big agencies use — it’s all in how you apply them.

Pursuits

Right now I’m a slave to my home (there’s lots of sheetrock involved). But I love to play basketball, pool and flag football. I used to play a lot in the Bay Area before moving out to Colorado. If I can find a league or game in town here, I’ll do it!

I’m a big graphic novel fan – right now I have this one called The Umbrella Academy. I’ve always loved bad science fiction too, like Star Wars novels. They’re terrible. Terrible! But I’m a kid of the space age.

Favorite work-related book

Design for the Non-Designer

Things I know for sure

1. If you think you know everything, you don’t know anything.

2. Once you start, it never goes exactly how you think it will. I’m not big on planning everything out exactly. I like to have a rough game plan.

3. Never show anything you wouldn’t produce.

Get Rob on your marketing problem-solving team. Tell us your challenge and let’s turn it into an opportunity. Contact Heinrich now.