Personalization, Omnichannel Drive 2020 Direct Mail

Direct mail marketers embrace a channel that, despite perennial death notices, continues to outperform in terms of response, but mailers need to rely on evolving strategies for success in 2020. Research consistently shows that personalization bumps up response. Most recently, in a 2019 NAPCO Research report on direct mail personalization, 44% of respondents saw personalized print marketing campaigns increase response by 16% on average, while Canon Solutions research found that adding a person’s name and other personalized database information can increase the response rate of direct mail campaigns by up to 500%! So it's no wonder that the recent Printing Impressions article by senior editor Toni McQuilken finds a number of leading marketing and print industry leaders stressing that data-driven personalization is the route to 2020 direct mail success. For example, Maureen Powers, president, Direct Marketing Group at RR Donnelley, asserts, "Personalization is more important than ever before, including with direct mail...We are using the direct mail channel to drive the customer experience through communications such as coupons and personalized offers. We’re also changing how we help our clients message their clients based on individual customer preferences and their point in the customer journey." Likewise, Jim Andersen, executive chairman of IWCO Direct, stresses the shift toward variable data printing of smaller runs of targeted, personalized direct mail with digital tie-ins: “Today’s direct mail is more effective, relevant, and timely thanks to more sophisticated audience selection and segmentation. This technology uses digital print to personalize every component of a mail piece, including letters, inserts, cards, and call-to-action reply devices that connect the physical mail to an online, digital marketing experience." For Andersen, mail personalization must be part of the omnichannel approach that customers demand today: "One of the biggest opportunities in the direct mail space is providing effective and efficient solutions to consumer demand for personalized, relevant messaging integrated across all channels. Insightful use of data, combined with the flexibility of digital print production, allows marketers to seamlessly integrate tactile marketing in their omnichannel campaigns." Summer Gould, of Target Marketing magazine, has cited three already-proven ways to combine mail and digital: 1) online display ads that match direct mail data files to an IP address to target specific people by displaying cookie-free banner ads on web pages; 2) Facebook ads that match direct mail data with Facebook data to send targeted ads; and 3) e-mail matched with direct mail audience targeting to keep offers fresh, deliver response reminders and make added special offers. These trends to more personalization and omnichannel integration rely on quality marketing data for segmentation and targeting, of course. For links to AccuList Digital2Direct programs combining mail with e-mail and Facebook, as well as data-quality strategy advice, see https://www.acculist.com/personalization-omnichannel-strategies-drive-2020-direct-mail/

Use Predictive Analytics to Harness Big Data Power

Predictive analytics, meaning scientific analysis that leverages customer and donor data to predict future prospect and customer actions, can scientifically "cherry-pick" names from overwhelming "big data" lists and other files. For example, at AccuList, experienced statisticians build customized Good Customer Match Models and Mail Match Models to optimize direct mail results for prospect lists, as well as one-on-one models for list owners to help acquire more new customers or donors. Plus, predictive models can aid other marketing goals, such as retention, relationship management, reactivation, cross-sell, upsell and content marketing. One of the benefits of analytics is improved lead scoring, for example. Lead scoring is too often a sales and marketing collaboration, in which salespeople provide marketers with their criteria for a "good" lead and marketers score incoming responses, either automatically or manually, for contact or further nurturing. Predictive analytics will remove anecdotal/gut evaluation in favor of more accurate scoring based on data such as demographics/firmographics, actual behavior and sales value. It also speeds the scoring process, especially when combined with automation, so that "hot" leads get more immediate contact. And it allows for segmentation of scored leads so that they can be put on custom nurturing tracks more likely to promote conversion and sales. In fact, with predictive analytics, list records can be segmented to achieve multiple goals. The most likely to respond can be prioritized in a direct mail campaign to increase cost-efficiency. Even more helpful for campaign ROI, predictive analytics can look at the lifetime value of current customers or donors and develop prospect matching so mailings capture higher-value new customers. Predictive analytics also can tailor content marketing and creative by analyzing which messages and images resonate with which customer segments, identified by demographics and behavior, in order to send the right creative to the right audience. Finally, analytics can develop house file segmentation for retention and reduced churn, looking at lapsed customers or donors to identify the data profiles, timing inflection points and warning signs that trigger outreach and nurturing campaigns. Data analysis and modeling can also be used to improve future marketing ROI in terms of channel preferences and even product/services development. Of course, reliable predictions require a database of clean, updated existing customer or donor records, which AccuList also supports via its list hygiene and enhancement services. For helpful links, see https://www.acculist.com/predictive-analytics-harnesses-data-for-marketing-roi/

2018 Direct Mail Surges in Usage, Response, ROI

Direct mail marketers received lots of encouraging news in the 2018 “ANA-DMA Response Rate Report.” Direct mail improved its usage ranking to tie with social media as the second most-used medium (57%), for example, and continued to deliver the best response rates of any medium. In fact, “snail mail” even improved on its response success by doubling median response rates over last year to 9% for house lists and 4.9% for prospect lists in 2018. Mail’s Return on Investment (ROI) also leaped by 12 percentage points to beat out online display this year. The only negative in the report is that those surveyed continue to doubt the future of direct mail, with 19% saying they plan to decrease usage in the coming 12 months. But if the report participants follow their behavior after previous surveys, which similarly predicted mail declines, direct mail usage will remain buoyant, which allowed it to rise in 2018 despite planned cuts. One drag on direct mail continues to be its Cost Per Action/Acquisition, which is the highest CPA of any medium and puts budget pressure on mail volume, which did decline for both house and prospect lists compared with the 2017 study. However, high response rates, competitive ROI, online tracking and print-tech advances are keeping marketers loyal to “traditional” mail in a digital world. In fact, direct mail usage for marketing campaigns equals or exceeds 50% for most of the 11 industry segments cited in the study. In usage, direct mail leaders were travel or hospitality (80%), nonprofits (75%), publishing or media (71%), and financial services/banks/credit (67%). Only Technology (44%), Retail (44%), and B2B Services (34%) came in below the 50% usage mark. But when it comes to tracking those response rates, marketers have definitely gone digital, with over half of surveyed marketers (53%) saying they use online tracking capabilities, such as PURLs, followed in popularity by the use of codes or coupons (45%) and call center or telephone inquiries (41%). For data comparing response rates by type of format and B2B vs. B2B campaigns, see our website blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/despite-doubters-2018-direct-mail-ups-response-roi-usage/