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Archive for the ‘Integrated Direct Marketing’ Category

Marketing Integration: More Than You Think

February 15th, 2012 by

Integration gets a lot of lip service. Most companies claim to have adopted an integrated approach to their marketing, but few understand what it really entails or know how to do it well. The usual definition of integration — multi-channel message distribution — is only one part of the equation. Although marketers are often most concerned with getting the right “media mix,” that aspect of an integrated strategy is arguably the least important.

The most effective and successful integration strategies consider three layers of influence: internal, external, and tactical.

Internal: Team Accord

Agreement and collaboration between team members creates a strong foundation for integration. The internal team can include leadership and management, sales and marketing, internal resources, and external partners. In the same way that maturing digital channels are converging with more traditional media, the various players on your marketing team need to come together around key messages and marketing goals. The objectives are to ensure everyone is on the same page about big picture plans and to provide context for individual campaign elements.

It’s important to remember that your customers do not view your brand as a series of individual pieces: sales vs. marketing vs. PR vs. social media. They are not interested in which “arm” of your marketing team is winning the most leads or making the biggest splash in the marketplace. Although some amount of inter-departmental competition is natural and even healthy, the most effective way to improve results across the board is to encourage open and coordinated development of ideas, campaigns, and measurement methods.

Benefit: Efficient momentum. When your whole team is aligned, you realize greater efficiency by reducing redundancies and pooling resources. In addition, the combined efforts of your team feed off each other, building momentum toward shared goals.

External: Customer-Centric Focus

An outside-in approach is the second critical element of true integration. This is about integrating your marketing with your customer’s wants, needs, and behaviors. Creating a customer-centric focus goes beyond the typical branding exercise of knowing who your customer is. True customer-centricity takes a holistic look at all the ways in which prospects and customers interact with your brand, including how you:

  • Solve their problems
  • Make your brand relevant
  • Initiate and nurture relationships
  • Create a need-based engagement path

In this mindset, your customers are not “targets.” They are your most valuable asset and as such drive all your marketing decisions.

Benefit: Greater affinity and loyalty. Marketing that is closely integrated with the needs and behaviors of your primary audience demonstrates that you understand their problems and know how to solve them.

Tactical: Multi-Channel Message Distribution

Lastly, we come to the tactical piece. Diversity and coordination are crucial elements of an effective media mix. You want to offer your prospects and customers a variety of ways to engage with and learn about your brand — a dynamic website, an informative and entertaining blog, conversational social media, and appropriate print and other traditional media. Different people prefer different types of content. Some people prefer text-based materials like blogs, white papers, and e-books; others would rather listen to a podcast or watch a webinar. Once you’ve decided on your mix, you can work on weaving the individual pieces together into an experience that offers continuity and consistency — guiding the prospect or customer smoothly through a series of touch points that ultimately lead to conversion.

Benefit: Delivering your message via a variety of platforms and media extends your reach through increased exposure (because you’re reaching more people) and more consistent engagement (because you’re giving them more options around how to interact with your brand). Ultimately, the additional exposure and engagement translate into higher response rates and conversions.

Team accord, a customer-centric philosophy, and a diversified and coordinated marketing mix — these are the three key elements to truly effective integrated marketing. Is your team hitting the mark in all three areas? Are you stronger in some areas than in others? How do you think a more comprehensive integrated strategy might strengthen your brand and your business?

 

 

Category:  Integrated Direct Marketing, Integrated Marketing  |  Tags:   |  No Comments

Choosing the Right Medium for Your B2C Audience — Part I

September 22nd, 2011 by

In today’s economy, business owners and marketers need to get the most from their marketing dollars. In an era of shrinking budgets, marketers are putting more dollars into online marketing. Online marketing is less expensive than traditional marketing, and it can be targeted to specific groups. It’s also easy to measure; there are many tools available to report on almost every aspect of your online marketing efforts (unlike traditional marketing where you place an ad in the paper and hope for the best). Does that mean you should put your entire budget into online tactics? No, it means you should do some research, get the right mix of traditional and online mediums, and integrate your message across them all.

In Part One of this article, I’ll cover how to choose and integrate the right mediums. In Part Two, I’ll present a specific case study of a consumer brand that markets across many channels.

Do some research when developing your campaigns

It’s easy to say that traditional marketing methods are dead and focus solely on online (especially social media), yet according to research, many “maligned” marketing channels, including newspapers and TV, are still quite viable — with marketers increasing spend for 2011.

Even though newspaper readership is declining, it’s still relatively high for the age 50+ crowd, according to the Pew Research Center, with 38 percent of 50-to-65-year-olds reading the news and 47 percent of those over age 65 doing so.

Television advertising had a strong year in 2010, with spending jumping 10.3 percent over 2009. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

Spot TV ad spending got a 24.2 percent boost in 2010, making it the biggest percentage gainer, while network TV rose 5.3 percent, and cable TV recorded a 9.8 percent gain, according to Kantar Media.

And, although direct mail saw a decrease in spend in 2009, “Bruce Biegel, managing director of the Winterberry Group, told the Direct Marketing Club of New York on January 13, 2011, that . . . direct mail spending will grow 5.8% to $47.8 billion this year, driven by acquisition mail increases.” (Source: Direct Marketing News)

According to Biegel, “Direct mail still really works well for acquisition [marketing] because it’s easier to target [than other channels] . . . and because digital as an acquisition tool is still finding its way, direct mail will be an important tool for direct marketers.”

Integrate your selected mediums

Once you’ve identified which mediums you’ll use in your campaign, you’ll want to develop a strategy to make sure your customers can move seamlessly from medium to medium. To make this happen, you need to have consistent “creative” and cross-medium information:

Creative — A coupon delivered via email needs to look good on both a smartphone and a desktop computer Internet browser. This same coupon — along with its message — may need to be modified if delivered through Facebook and modified yet again if you distribute hardcopy versions in-store.

Cross-medium information — Every medium you use should contain information about where to find you in other mediums. If you have an in-store coupon display, for example, you’ll want to include your Facebook URL (and not just the icon!) in the creative — and maybe even give an immediate incentive for “Liking” your page. When you “Like” Naked Pizza’s page, for example, you’re sent a discount coupon that can be used at any of its stores.

Finally, before adopting any medium, be sure to get permission from your customers to contact them via that medium. Do they want email and text messages from you? A younger audience may appreciate the immediacy of your SMS messages; older demographics may get annoyed, especially if they have limited texting plans. Don’t assume — ask!

Even though your marketing resources are limited, you can maximize the impact of every dollar by spending a little time researching which mediums are best for you and then integrating them.

Do you have some great (or not-so-great) examples of integrated marketing campaigns — your own or others? Post them below.

 

Category:  Digital Marketing, Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Insights  |  Tags: , ,   |  No Comments

Practical Tips for Incorporating Social Media into Direct Mail

May 17th, 2011 by

In my last post, Direct Mail Should Be Like Social Media — Yes or No?, I raised the question of whether marketers should be adding some of social media’s innovative aspects to direct mail in order to increase response rates and better engage prospects.

In this post, I cover some practical tips for incorporating social into your direct mail pieces. The first three of these tips are fairly simple. The last two, augmented reality and “checking in,” are to inspire your creativity.

1. Add social media calls-to-action.

According to a 2010 DMA research study that quoted Nielsen findings, consumers are spending 43% more time on social media than they did in 2009, with social media and blogs topping online games and email.

In addition, the research study points out that marketers are spending more on social media to help increase brand loyalty and brand awareness.

Whether you’re doing postcards or traditional direct response letters, you can easily add “Like Us on Facebook” or “Follow Us on Twitter” calls-to-action to your outer envelopes, the letters themselves, lift notes, and even statements and other “official” mail. According to Jay Baer, publisher of the Convince and Convert blog, you’ll get more traction if you tell people why they should “like” your page, e.g., to receive discounts, etc.

If your budget allows, consider giving people an incentive to “like” your page the way BankAtlantic does. For each “like,” the bank gives $1 to that person’s favorite local charity. (To read the full story, download our free special report, “Attract and Retain Customers with Content Marketing.”)

2. Add QR codes.

I covered QR codes a few weeks ago in my post, “Use QR Codes to Boost Business Response.” As with adding social media calls-to-action, adding a QR code to any of your direct mail pieces is relatively simple:

  • Create the offer or piece of content — You’ll need to create something that people can download, whether it’s a landing page for a free report or a video.
  • Produce the QR code — A simple iPhone app, such as quiQR, will allow you to quickly generate a simple QR code. For more complex codes, or to create thousands of individual codes for PURLs, you’ll need a more robust application.
  • Add the QR code to your printed piece — I’ve seen QR codes on everything from catalogs and postcards to credit card offers and even mortgage statements!

3. Create offers based on what people are talking about on social media.

Many social media gurus advocate that you “listen in” on social media conversations. What this means is that if you’re on Twitter, use hashtags to follow discussions in your industry, including those that revolve around a conference or workshop or specific topic (e.g., #dma, #direct mail, #b2b). Listen to the questions people are asking. Can you use this information to create content, such as an e-book or report, that you can then offer via a direct mail lead generation campaign?

Ditto for Facebook. If your company has an active Facebook page, analyze which posts elicit comments and pay attention to what people are talking about to see if any ideas jump out at you for creating content offers.

4. Consider the future opportunities of augmented reality.

A very new and very cool technology, augmented reality (AR) apps add a virtual object into the real world. You view the “real world” through your smartphone camera, and the AR application adds virtual objects to what you see.

Although it might sound like a “so what” application, the implications are huge for marketers. A new iPad AR app, Magic Mirror, for example, scans your head and face and then adds virtual objects, such as a wig or a mask, to make it look like you’re actually wearing the item!

Total Immersion, developers of the app, is “a company known for the way it incorporates AR into online and print ads,” according to The Wall Street Journal article, “Why Smart Phones Can See More Than We Can”:

One online ad includes an interactive driving game that made users feel like they were driving the Volvo S60 through whatever their iPhone or Android camera displayed as AR obstacles fell into the road. In another campaign, people printed out a PDF of the Olympus PEN digital camera, held it to a webcam and saw animated demonstrations of the camera’s features, as if the camera — not a piece of paper — was in their hands.

Although a new and unproven application, augmented reality, if it plays out, could add tremendous innovation to your direct mail campaigns.

5. Let people “check in.”

The media world is abuzz that Pepsi let TV viewers check into its TV commercial — and win a free Diet Pepsi — using the new IntoNow app. (See the Ad Age article, “On TV Now: Watch an Ad, Get a Free Pepsi,” for details on how this works.)

Although relatively new, “checking in” has reached the tipping point. All kinds of companies here in the Denver area, including banks, let customers check in via Foursquare. And of course, you can let your friends know where you are with Facebook’s Places feature.

If people can check into TV commercials, why not your direct mail piece? You can easily encourage people to use Foursquare or Facebook Places in your direct mail. Going even further, you could find a way to literally let people check into your direct mail campaign — the same way Pepsi let people check into its TV commercial.

As with augmented reality, this tactic is sophisticated and requires some real research and planning. But the implications for direct mail are huge and bear watching.

As you can see, adding some of social media’s creativity and innovation to direct mail is fairly easy, and you don’t have to worry about displacing proven formats and formulas. Adding “Like” buttons, calls-to-action and QR codes can potentially increase engagement with your brand as consumers connect with you online.

If you test these ideas, let me know your results. I’d love to feature your campaign here on the Heinrich Report blog.

Category:  Direct Mail, Innovation, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Research, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: ,   |  2 Comments

Use QR Codes to Boost Business Response

April 12th, 2011 by

You’ve heard the buzz — QR codes are the hot new thing marketers are talking about. Heinrich clients have certainly noticed them and want to know, “How can we use them in our business?”

Short for “Quick Response,” QR codes are also known as “2D datamatrix” codes. In fact, QR codes are simply barcodes that have been supersized. A standard barcode is limited in the amount of information it can hold: Typically a barcode holds up to 40 characters in ASCII or “text” format.

Datamatrix codes, on the other hand, can hold up to 2600 characters in non-ASCII format, which means that you can include a URL (and lots of other info!) in your QR code.

Quick QR code how-tos

To scan a QR code, you need a smartphone and a scanner app. I use quiQR, an iPhone app (cost: $1.99). Whichever app you choose, I recommend that you read the reviews as the quality level and ease of use varies greatly among apps.

Once you’ve downloaded your app, simply scan the QR code to be taken to a web page. Because Heinrich clients want to know how QR codes work, I developed a quick video showing how to scan a QR code using one I had printed on the back of my business card.

To make your own QR codes, you can use quiQR, bit.ly, which generates a QR code whenever you shorten a link, or Kaywa, an application developed by Datamatrix, the pioneers in datamatrix codes.

Integrating online and offline marketing

So how do you use QR codes in your marketing? I recommend using them to connect online with offline marketing tactics.

Remember, people don’t readily recall a URL and they aren’t always near a computer — but many of us don’t go anywhere (at least intentionally) without our smartphones and carry them everywhere with us. QR codes allow you to engage with people where they are — whether they’re standing in the grocery aisle or walking past your storefront — as they’re very mobile friendly.

While adding a QR code to a business card is pretty cool, you’re limited only by your imagination in how you can use these fascinating codes. Here are a few of the ways we’re seeing businesses use QR codes to integrate offline with online:

Direct mail lead generation: Many banks and financial institutions still communicate with their prospect and customer audiences using direct mail. Using QR codes can add an element of digital interactivity to their direct mail campaigns, connecting customers and prospects to the online channel — and moving them further along the sales cycle.

Store signage: For businesses with “brick and mortar” locations, adding a QR code to a store window sign allows passersby and store customers to access a coupon via their mobile device, encouraging people to stop in and browse or make a purchase.

One-to-one marketing: In a March 30, 2011, interview with B2B Magazine, Martha Willis, CMO of Oppenheimer Funds, discusses how her firm is using QR codes to great advantage. When you scan a QR code found in an Oppenheimer print ad, it pulls up a video of a fund manager talking about investment opportunities. Says Willis, “From my perspective an advisor looking for an asset manager wants somebody on the forefront of knowledge. If they’re using dated instruments or tools, they don’t look like they’re on the forefront of knowledge.” Amen!

From “Cool!” to “How did we live without them?”

Although QR codes are benefiting from the coolness factor at the moment, their potential for powering truly integrated marketing is huge — and something you as a direct marketer don’t want to dismiss. My colleague Neal Sceva, an Integrated Solutions Specialist at CPC Solutions, recently commented,

“I sat back not knowing what to do a decade ago while the Internet and email marketing virtually decimated direct mail and now I believe there’s a huge opportunity for direct marketers to become thought leaders with new mobile-driven marketing efforts such as QR codes. I’m really excited!”

The key to realizing the potential for QR codes is to understand that they give people the ability to click on something flat and then get taken to a rich interactive experience — anything from a website to a video.

We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes on this exciting technology and bringing you updates as they occur.

What do you think? Have you used QR codes in any of your campaigns? Are you thinking about it? Do you have other questions that I or someone else at Heinrich can answer for you? Post your comments below.

 

Category:  Digital Marketing, Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: , , , ,   |  3 Comments

Three Direct Marketing Rules to Apply to your Digital Strategy

February 23rd, 2011 by

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: , , ,   |  No Comments

The Email Clutter Cure: Direct Mail

February 23rd, 2011 by

Just for a minute, take a look at your own email inbox. Hundreds (if not thousands) of unopened emails await your attention, consideration and action. Yet in all likelihood, they’ll sink further down in the queue, where they’ll sit in the “black hole” of your inbox and remain there unopened. As marketers, we still love email for its immediacy, cost efficiency, testing ease and rapid ROI. It’s just getting tougher these days to compete with all the other brands and messages in the channel.
So, it’s no surprise that marketers have returned to the direct mail channel. A look at some of the recent statistics on direct mail’s resurgence may make a good case for you to consider it for your own campaigns to help you engage your customers this year.

What’s behind this resurgence?

Three reasons direct mail works.

One person who’s not surprised by all this is John Schlagel, Strategic Director at Heinrich Marketing. He cites a few reasons why direct mail is enjoying a renaissance.

1) Hands-on medium.

People still sort through their mail, trying to determine which pieces are useful and which are not. There’s more potential for the message to get in front of the customer.

“Even if it’s just sitting on the table, sorted into a pile, it’s there,” says John. “It’s not like email, where you can delete it without even looking.” Think about how you sort your mail. Even if you’re going to throw something out, you’ll check and make sure it’s not important. Direct mail offers more opportunity to capture someone’s attention.

2) New innovations in formats.

Advancements in technology and personalization have come together to create attention-grabbing packages at affordable prices. Expect to see more die-cuts, tip-in cards and even QR codes — all tactics that interrupt the customer, and encourage interaction. Once you take advantage of what print can do, you can craft your message in a way that piques reader interest and consideration — and drive response with a compelling offer. “These days, people get so much email,” says John. “It’s overwhelming. Just by sending them something they wouldn’t see in the digital format, you can get attention.”

3) A reliable delivery channel.

Even in a digital age, the USPS continues to be a relevant marketing delivery channel. And with recent advances in bar coding and postal efficiencies, marketers have more opportunities to deliver a relevant message to the right audience and generate response. What’s more, you have a better chance of getting your message to the recipient; a person can have multiple email accounts, and they might not always check them all. But they likely only have one mailing address.

The benefits of using the direct mail channel are put to action in a recent case study published in BtoB, The Magazine for Marketing Strategists. Here’s how AT&T capitalizes on the “surprise” factor of direct mail.
In 2010, AT&T was looking to promote its WiFi service to hotels in an unexpected way, so they created what marketing manager Jennifer Young called “a high-impact piece that prospects would appreciate and would pass along to colleagues.” And they did it with direct mail.

AT&T combined a unique concept with a highly creative two-touch strategy. Sent via FedEx (signature required!) to just 75 people at major hotel chains, the piece included two parts:

> “A real WiFi locator device, complete with a personalized sticker attached saying, ‘Locating WiFi at [insert chain name here].’ Sales reps followed up with calls to check on the item’s receipt and request a meeting.”

> Then, non-responders to the first mailing received “a custom dimensional piece consisting of a cardboard mockup of a netbook-like computer … [that] featured video-in-print technology that, when opened, played a 2-minute video customized for each hotel brand.”

The campaign resulted in a face-to-face meeting ratio of 9% — seven meetings with key “hotel decision-makers.”

Hard to miss, an unexpected delivery method for a digital product, and a very targeted audience … that’s direct mail that works.

Your key takeaways.

We’re not saying that your customers are jumping offline. Digital technology has undoubtedly created so many impactful marketing channels for us all. But as a computer monitor becomes a more essential part of our lives, direct mail can present a nice change of pace — especially if there’s a relevant message or rewarding offer attached to it.

Will it work or you? Ask us.

Category:  Integrated Direct Marketing  |  Tags: , , , ,   |  No Comments

Direct Response Insights to Help Engage Your Hispanic Audience

October 25th, 2010 by

Last month in The Heinrich Report, we discussed the indisputable influence of the Hispanic audience in the prepaid market. But as the largest minority audience in the U.S. and the fastest-growing subset of the overall population, Hispanic consumers influence every category. Advertisers get it: In 2009, they dedicated 5.4% of their ad spending to the goal of reaching Hispanic customers, an increase from 5.1% in 2008. (Direct Marketing News)

Heinrich’s Hispanic division, Hispanidad, helps clients reach their Hispanic audience. Managing Director and Senior Strategist Laura Sonderup leads the way in these efforts, and we caught up with her fresh off her session at DMA 2010.

Stick to the marketing basics: Know your audience

The keys to successfully engaging a Hispanic audience include strategic modeling, segmentation and localization — all in the name of maintaining relevancy in your marketing campaign. After all, U.S. Hispanics hail from 22 different countries and have “varying levels of acculturation, income and education.” (Direct Marketing News)

So, how do you connect with such a diverse group in a meaningful way? Laura explains, “Robust response comes with knowing how your Hispanic audience will use your product. What value will they see in it?” It’s not as simple as taking a piece of collateral you’ve already used and translating it; in fact, many Hispanic segments don’t respond to translated communication, because they prefer English.

Leverage cultural insights to your marketing advantage

Since language isn’t always the issue, turn to cultural insights to make the difference in your results. Research shows that U.S.-born Hispanics maintain strong ties to their culture, so campaigns that draw on cultural insights to create relevance prove to be attention-getters. Hispanidad, for example, creates ads rich in embedded cultural cues to help create results-oriented messaging. “It’s like an insider reference,” explains Laura. “It’s a message that a Latino would recognize and say, ‘Oh, this is for me.’”

Here are just a few examples of cultural cues:

Can Hispanidad help you?

When Laura works with her clients, she starts by helping them appeal to all aspects of the consumer, not just their ethnicity. From there, she creates integrated marketing campaigns that can include out-of-home, print, radio, TV, and direct mail. You can learn more about Hispanidad’s approach online or call Laura at 303-239-5235.

Category:  Hispanic Marketing, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Research  |  Tags: ,   |  No Comments

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

October 25th, 2010 by

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: , ,   |  No Comments

Copywriting Refresh: Tips Every Marketer Should Know

October 15th, 2010 by

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: , ,   |  No Comments

DMA 2010: Three Key Takeaways That Caught Our Eye

October 15th, 2010 by

This year’s DMA conference in San Francisco was jam-packed with informative panels, new insights, and an energetic keynote speech from the new DMA CEO, Larry Kimmel. Heinrich Marketing owner George Eddy was there, and reported back to us on three takeaways that can help your business.

1) Start thinking about social media as a form of direct marketing.

The linking of social media and direct marketing dominated panel discussions and casual conversations. Says George, “Even though some speakers struggled with how to link the two, I’d say the overall theme was that social media and direct marketing have more similarities than differences.” For example:

  • Direct marketing talks to a customer, and social media invites the customer to join the conversation. The lesson: Taking cues from social media’s approach, direct marketing should make company/customer dialogue a habit, with the goal of becoming more socially-oriented overall. Read a great overview about the benefits of this approach at Brass Tack Thinking.
  • Direct marketing relies on ROI to gauge success, while social media is perceived as having no way to measure its impact. The reality: Just because the typical apples-to-apples DM ROI equation doesn’t apply, doesn’t mean that no metrics exist. You can see solid examples of social metrics here.
  • The biggest similarity between direct and social: data. Direct marketers rely on it, and social media easily collects it. As George puts it, “The amount of data Facebook has would have seemed impossible five or six years ago. As a direct marketer, you can’t help but look with envy at the incredible amount of consumer information gathered (quite easily) by Facebook, and wonder how to tap into it.”

In all, the conference went further than ever before toward creating a discourse around linking social and direct, and it’s a conversation we’ve been having at Heinrich for a while. Our take:

Social is an essential channel that helps produce a robust response in any integrated marketing campaign.

If you do social right, the customer feels like they have more control and interaction with your brand. That leads to happy customers, which leads to customer loyalty and, ultimately, sales. We’re not alone in our thinking. Augustine Fou over at ClickZ has a term that can help agencies and clients understand how to quantify the impact social can have on a brand. She calls it “social media total value of ownership”:

“Companies should think of the longer-term ‘total value of ownership’ for social media.…Examples of the social media assets that are ‘owned’ after longer-term investment may include fan pages on Facebook, followers on Twitter earned over time, collections of videos on YouTube, etc.”

When social media builds an established following of customers or potential customers, companies have an opportunity to promote offers and issue announcements on these pages, instead of exclusively through direct marketing. In that way, social becomes another channel that markets your message.

2) Consider the economy as an opportunity, not an obstacle.

To many at the DMA, the state of the economy crystallized the relevance of direct marketing. Because today’s consumers are more careful with their money and their purchases, there’s an even greater need to establish trust — to talk to customers and understand their individual needs. Direct marketing does that. “It’s the secret sauce direct marketers have known for a long time,” says George.

One of the most exciting trends George heard about at the DMA supports his observation. In a dramatic reversal of the way it used to be, digital shops are acquiring traditional shops. There’s no single channel that rules the roost. All remain relevant, and smart marketers realize it.

Direct marketing’s relevance is never in question at Heinrich. A down economy is a great breeding ground for innovation in the field. Just start with the right questions: What’s your company’s business problem? What does your audience need to hear right now? As your marketing partner, Heinrich can help you figure all that out. In fact, these past few months in The Heinrich Report, we’ve identified a host of ways you can gain insights into your customer, and deliver a smart, relevant marketing piece that gets results. Take a look at these articles:

Five Ways to Market Smart in What’s Left of 2010

Testing: The Science Behind Your Marketing Campaign

Planning a Post-Recession Marketing Campaign?

3) Bring it all together.

We put George on the spot, and asked: If you could only tell us one thing about what you learned at the DMA, what would it be?

“It became very clear that, as marketers, the value we bring to the table must include taking on the role as strategic advisor to our clients. There are new tactics, tools and channels popping up all the time, and the key is to know how to make them all work together.”

Indeed, the marketing landscape can seem like a giant puzzle. As your partner in success, your agency needs to know how the pieces fit together, explain what the finished picture is, and understand what it means to you and your company.

That last part is the key. It’s not just about numbers. How you gauge success depends on your company and your marketing problem. For example, a DMA panel about Twitter included a statistic that said 70% of tweets go unread. “There was a collective gasp from the audience,” says George. “But then you think: I know plenty of clients that would be thrilled if ‘only’ 30% of their tweets were read! It’s not the right result for everybody, but for some, it works.”

Lessons learned, and an exciting year ahead

Events like the DMA 2010 serve as great reminders that marketing is alive, always in flux and always revealing new insights. To George and the rest of us at Heinrich Marketing, that might be the most exciting takeaway of all.

Category:  Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Trends, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: , ,   |  No Comments

Three Ways a QR Code or Barcode Boosts Direct Mail Response Rate

September 29th, 2010 by

QR Code Boosts Response

When we think about creative work, we think about big ideas, visual concepts, and even catchy taglines. But technology has hatched new creative tools that can help you add a “wow” factor to your creative campaigns, and boost response along the way.

Rob McPhee, creative director here at Heinrich Marketing says these new tools offer more choices for consumers: “They’re giving people a chance to respond in their own individual way, while staying in a controlled environment…there’s just more than one path to the call to action.”

According to Rob, the tools to keep your eye on are any that involve smartphone applications — but especially barcodes or QR codes. A code can work in two ways:

  • As an engagement tool. The recipient can scan a mobile device over the code to receive information.
  • As an attention-getting visual element more likely to get a second look in a stack of mail.

And the benefits just get better from here.

Satisfy consumer needs fast

Barcodes and QR codes can help you bridge the gap between direct mail and digital technology, and unite the best benefits of both. That’s key when you’re up against today’s consumer, characterized by a “need-it-now” attitude and a desire to research online before making purchase decisions. A direct mail recipient can simply swipe their smartphone against a code to receive information on their personal device. It’s fast, easy and a great way for you to satisfy their desire to know more while still controlling the content.

Simplify the response process

Think of a barcode/QR code as an engagement tool that pushes consumers along the sales cycle more quickly. Your response channel is built right into the direct mail piece, so the recipient doesn’t have to type in a web address or call a number. They don’t even have to go to a computer. All they need to do is scan their phone to respond. The call to action becomes an almost effortless step for the consumer, and an invaluable lead generator for you.

Deliver personalized information to a personal device

A barcode/QR code can make you a better communicator. It enhances your ability to deliver more personalized content immediately, and continue the conversation your direct mail began with your consumer. There’s no unique (and possibly complicated) URL for your recipient to type in. With just a quick smartphone scan, they can go directly to a customized landing page that speaks to them.

Summary: When it’s easy to respond, more consumers will do it

A simpler response process makes a world of difference to today’s busy and more discriminating consumer. A barcode/QR code speeds up the delivery of customized information. It can help you foster a relationship built on trust and reliability — and turn a “response” into a sale, fast.

Heinrich can help you create a code strategy. Email us today.


 

Category:  Customer Acquisition / Retention, Digital Marketing, Integrated Direct Marketing, Marketing Trends, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Marketing  |  Tags: ,   |  No Comments

Testing: The Science Behind Your Marketing Campaign

August 23rd, 2010 by

Testing: The Science Behind Your Marketing Campaign

Do you test? We’re big supporters of the concept here at Heinrich Marketing, because it helps solve the most basic of marketing problems: What do customers want, and how do they want it? Testing can strengthen your online and offline communications, and bring greater clarity to your marketing strategy.

Identify your testing needs and capabilities

Like everything else in your marketing strategy, testing requires planning. At a recent conference, the co-author of Successful Direct Marketing Methods, Ron Jacobs, offered a checklist of questions that we at Heinrich think every marketer should be able to answer before deciding to test:

What are you testing?
Why is it being tested?
What audience segments are being tested?
Describe the expectation of the test (e.g., success, failure)
Identify the measures of success for the test.
Are there risks associated with running the test?
What are the internal resources required to run the test?
Who are the stakeholders requesting the test?
When are results needed?

If you can’t answer all these questions, our in-house testing guru John Schlagel can help you fill in the blanks.

Test, learn, test, learn

As director of Strategy at Heinrich Marketing, John preaches the benefits of testing to clients every chance he gets, and his message is clear: Testing is a critical learning tool.

“Testing is knowledge, and knowledge helps identify what the learning objectives for a marketing campaign should be,” says John.

By homing in on the right message, the right look, the right presentation, testing brings to light customer expectations and desires. It helps answer, “What’s next?”, so you can more easily find a successful path for your marketing campaign. It’s also a sure way to reboot a static ROI or stop a downward slide.

Two ways to test — and they work great together, too

Research testing
Rather than going right to your mailing list, you can get feedback from a focus group or a survey. In this scenario, it’s easier (and cheaper) to present multiple possibilities to customers, and then refine them. It’s also a great way to hear opinions firsthand — and translate those insights into statistical measurements.

In-market testing
When you’ve got your mailing list and are ready to go, you can test by segmentation. Compare headlines, compare designs, compare calls to action…the possibilities are endless. At the end of the day, you’ll get real results and a clear next step.

Consult the test checklist

Whatever you choose to test should fall in line with your marketing goals. In his presentation, Ron Jacobs provides a quick checklist of what could be in play in both online and offline testing:

✔ Headlines
✔ Sub-headlines
✔ Body copy
✔ Offers
✔ Calls to action
✔ Images
✔ Colors
✔ Landing pages
✔ Product attributes
✔ Bounce rate
✔ Lead forms
✔ Testimonials
✔ Price
✔ Bonus offers
✔ Guarantees
✔ Video
✔ Audio
✔ Fonts

Depending on your goals, you could test one variable at a time (for example, use the same creative and just switch out the headline) or multiple variables (different headlines, different images, different offers). The possibilities are endless—but the results are precise measurements that can help you create effective, long-lasting marketing campaigns.

What can testing do for you? Email us so we can discuss the possibilities for your business. 

Coming soon! A podcast with John Schlagel, director of strategy at Heinrich Marketing.

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Category:  Integrated Direct Marketing, Metrics & ROI  |  Tags:   |  No Comments

Four Ways to Save Time and Money With These Direct Mail Innovations

August 23rd, 2010 by

Four Ways to Save Time and Money With These Direct Mail Innovations

Don’t let the constant chatter about digital fool you — direct mail can still be a viable part of any integrated marketing campaign. And thanks to new and exciting innovations popping up in the print production industry, it doesn’t have to break the bank. To learn more, we spoke to Debbie Roth, vice president of Japs-Olson Company, and a trusted Heinrich partner. Here’s her inside scoop.

1) Better quality for cost-efficient paper

Commodity-grade paper looks better than ever. “It’s brighter and doesn’t have that ‘dirty’ look to it,” says Debbie. “I’d say it even rivals the more expensive opaque papers.” She attributes some of this improvement to a consolidation of paper mills over the past few years. “The market went from a paper surplus to a belt-tightening mode,” and while that affects pricing, it also had the happy effect of offering more affordable paper with good quality.

2) The PDF bundle

Software like InDesign and Quark are still most-used among designers. The big difference — one that translates into a benefit for companies and print houses alike — is the way designers ready their files. According to Debbie, “The big increase in the number of designers sending us a PDF bundle results in a print-ready file that we don’t even have to touch. Fonts are embedded, appropriate bleeds and color specs are in place…it all adds up to a big cost savings, thanks to less processing time, less error and faster turnaround.”

3) Postal efficiencies

Postage prices are always on the rise, and it’s a constant thorn in a direct mailer’s side. But as Debbie often reminds her clients, “When it comes to response rates, direct mail is still the most cost-effective way to go. Electronic forms of direct response just can’t compare.” Not surprisingly, new tricks of the trade emerged to combat the rising rates.

To make the price increases less prohibitive, the National Change of Address rules changed. Now, addresses must be updated every 95 days — even for standard and business class mail. The result: cleaner lists, with more current addresses. That’s less waste, better data hygiene.  

4) Inline printing

For medium to large print runs, your format may be a candidate for inline printing. Although inline finishing has been available for years, commercial-quality inline personalization is now also an option. The product comes off the press ready-to-mail, making it more efficient and cost-effective to produce. It’s all thanks to industry-wide improvements to the inline imaging dpi. “The quality of the inline variable imaging is so much better than it used to be,” raves Debbie, who particularly calls out the introduction of the Versamark 600 dpi ink jet as a huge step forward. 

These printing innovations are just the tip of the iceberg. To learn more, revisit some past Heinrich Report articles:  

Five Ways To Get Smarter About Print

The Surprising Perks of Print on Demand  

 

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Category:  Direct Mail, Integrated Direct Marketing  |  No Comments
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