Direct Mail With Social Sharing Revs Response

Taking social media and direct mail from parallel tracks to integrated teamwork delivers added response power to multi-channel marketing campaigns. For those who are scratching their heads over mail-social integration, we recommend a Target Marketing magazine article by Summer Gould, including two case studies as templates. Gould boils a successful mail-social marriage down to a simple formula: Use the power of social sharing to expand mail response. Basically, start with an existing direct mail campaign that is working well. Create landing pages for the target audience to visit and direct recipients to those pages in the mail piece. Ask the audience to provide the information that you want on the landing pages. Finally, to get your offer, ask people to share with others. Marketers don't have to reinvent the wheel to get this done, but they do need to remember to include vital spokes! Gould starts with the basics: Define objectives and the target market. Then adjust direct mail design to include landing pages and social media sharing. Make sure that the offer is the same for both direct mail and social media, and be sure to effectively incentivize sharing. Focus carefully on the data capture required in return for the offer, including social media accounts so you can reward those who share! Finally, make sure you have the social media monitoring software to track results. Gould's article offers two case studies that should inspire emulation. First, Chick-fil-A, which wanted to both build its customer database and increase store traffic, launched a direct mail campaign of 5,000 plastic postcards that included social sharing. Thanks to the viral impact, the campaign gained a 279.8% response! Second, Stein Mart wanted to increase store redemption through a referral program. The discount retailer mailed 20,000 postcards with a social sharing component, and the campaign gained a total response of 150.58%. For more, including links to the case studies for details, see our web blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/drive-response-by-integrating-direct-mail-and-social-sharing/

AccuList USA Fetes 20 Years As Data Broker

AccuList USA® celebrates a 20th anniversary this June in a very different place from its start as a traditional direct mail list broker and manager. As a member of the Data & Marketing Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and as an SRDS-recognized mailing list and insert media broker and manager, it has successfully adapted to successive marketing challenges—including the rise of e-mail and social media, the digital flood of “big data,” and today’s complex omnichannel marketing strategies. AccuList USA has distinguished itself by embracing new marketing tactics and by identifying rentable prospect lists that conventional data brokers ignore, including exclusive second-party data on active customers and donors. Its clients also benefit from first-party data enhancement for improved monetization. AccuList USA relies on predictive analytics and proprietary mailing research to select the best names from individual lists as well as from multimillion-name compiled “big data” and modeled cooperative databases. AccuList USA goes beyond merely supplying data and helps business and fundraising clients attribute omnichannel marketing results, so that they can effectively measure campaign success and the costs to acquire a new customer or donor. The focus is always on sales or gifts, not just open rates, page views, and clicks. Its data pros even track which postal and e-mail lists perform best for leading marketers in designated vertical markets. Over the past two decades, AccuList USA has helped 1,000s of companies and non-profit organizations to further monetize their data and acquire new customers and donors in the following verticals: Catalog & Ecommerce; Fundraising; Insurance; Museums & Zoos; Performing Arts; Pet Owners; Publishing; and Trade Shows & Conferences. AccuList USA and its corporate parent AccuList, Inc., are headquartered in San Antonio, TX, but serve clients targeting businesses, institutions, and affluent consumers nationwide and in several foreign countries. For more on AccuList USA and its omnichannel postal, e-mail, and digital marketing services, visit http://www.acculistusa.com/