In Direct Mail, What's Old Is New (& Effective) Again

Keeping up with the latest direct mail options combining print and digital technologies doesn't mean ignoring the tried-and-true, pre-digital tactics that still deliver mail response! Thank Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, for sifting through mail volumes to spot some successful new takes on old tricks for attention-getting envelopes. In a recent Target Marketing magazine article, he noted the reappearance of four "old-school" tactics. One is an envelope highlighting Yes-No-Maybe stickers, once a favorite of subscription drives; Bobnak cites a recent mail piece from UPMC, a healthcare system, with the Yes-No stickers visible in an outer envelope window. Posting an outer envelope quiz is another proven way to intrigue prospects into opening--a ploy often used for health care and financial services offers. Bobnak shows how a few qualifying envelope questions work well today for the Harvard Health Letter. The interoffice-routing-style envelope is an old trick for catching the attention of office workers and has been a go-to for B2B. Despite e-mail's workplace dominance, interoffice paper still exists, and Bobnak notes the recent engaging nonprofit marketing use of an interoffice envelope by Sacred Heart Southern Missions, a social ministry. Then there's the photo lab envelope, seemingly obsolete in this digital photo age. But high-quality printed photos still come in envelopes, Bobnak reminds, and that syncs with the message of Dissolve, a stock footage agency, which recently prospected with a photo lab envelope containing quality photos from its collections. Once recipients open the envelope, the old-school marketing basics of the letter copy offer still matter, too. Thus, in another recent Target Marketing magazine article, Summer Gould highlighted seven items required for a great direct mail letter: a first sentence that hooks the reader; an offer that is attractive; a story line that pulls important emotional triggers; flattery that convinces the reader he or she is special and appreciated, which today requires personalization; questions that qualify; a problem solved by your product or service; and benefits that matter to the prospect or customer. For more detail and links to real-life examples, see http://www.acculistusa.com/for-direct-mail-whats-old-can-be-new-effective-again/

Amid Digital Clutter, 'Simple' Mail Wins Notice

With multiple digital channels now used to communicate with customers--e-mail, online, mobile and social--businesses risk creating so much marketing clutter that they bury message and response. We've found that targeted direct mail is one way to cut through that marketing noise--and sometimes the simplest mail message speaks the loudest. Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!, provides a good example in a recent Target Marketing magazine article. Independence Blue Cross, a healthcare insurer, wanted to contact members ahead of a deadline for renewal of 2016 health plan coverage. Since e-mails may be ignored in busy inboxes, the insurer decided to gather text opt-ins for renewal communications with members via a single, easy response channel--their ever-present mobile phones. And then Independent turned to a direct mail postcard as an outreach device that was sure to be delivered and "opened." The company mailed a two-sided 6-inch-by-11-inch postcard prompting mobile phone sign-ups for its text-messaging service. The front of the postcard simply announced "2016 health care coverage" and "Right from your phone," and drove home the point visually with a photo of a cell phone with a big "easy" text message bubble displayed. The reverse side of the postcard laid out the few steps, via a single call, to opt-in to insurer text alerts. For a look at the actual piece, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/ibx-keeps-mail-simple/

Top E-Mail Marketers Widen Lead in CTRs, Opens

In e-mail marketing, there's a widening gap between top and bottom performers. A 2014 E-mail Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study from Silverpop found that the top-performing quartile of e-mail marketers scored a 9.5% click-through rate (CTR), six times higher than the overall median click-through rate of 1.5%, per a summary report in Marketing Land. Meanwhile, bottom-quartile performers mustered CTRs of just 0.2%. Analyzing marketing e-mails sent by 3,000 brands from 40 different countries during 2013, Silverpop calculated mean and median benchmarks for various e-mail metrics, including click-through rates, open rates and bounce rates. Evaluating the CTRs of fourteen different industries, the study found real estate, construction, health care, consumer services and nonprofits generated the highest median CTRs. According to the study, transactional e-mails – messages triggered automatically by events such as purchases, subscriptions and account activity – earned a median CTR of 4.2%, compared to a median CTR of 1.5% for non-transactional emails. The study also reported that unique open rates for the top-performing quartile of e-mail marketers stood at 39.4%, more than double the median for all marketers and way above the bottom-quartile performance of 6.5%. Health care, nonprofits and education represented industries earning the highest median unique open rates. For a summary of Silverpop's study in terms of CTRs and open rates by industry, go to http://marketingland.com/study-top-performing-email-marketers-see-60-higher-click-rates-87025