This Direct Mail Lead Gen Is Budget-Friendly

Many direct marketing articles tout digital tactics for generating sales leads, but we can attest to the continued lead-gen effectiveness of traditional direct mail for a range of our clients, including online retail and publications. Direct mail has higher response rates while avoiding some of the challenges of SEO, social media and e-mail, such as rapidly changing rules, deliverability/visibility issues and a crowded competitive space. But what about the cost of direct mail? As a recent MarketingProfs post highlighted, there are direct mail options that can effectively deliver leads without busting the marketing budget! A No. 10 envelope that includes a one- or two-page letter and a reply card is an expensive, simple and effective way to reach prospects with something likely to be opened and read (unlike many e-mails). Of course, response depends on the proper targeting of the prospect lists and the personalized content of the letter. The letter should identify a problem, present a solution and offer a "freebie" of value, such as a brochure, sample, demo, evaluation, information kit or anything else that will get a response so that salespeople can follow up with qualified prospects. A postcard is an inexpensive alternative to a letter, with low print costs and lower postage rates than letters as long as you stay within USPS minimum and maximum sizes. Because there is less room for the sales message, offer copy needs to be simple with a clear call to action. And because there is no additional response device, postcards need to stress a website address or a phone number. To drive traffic to a retail store, make room for directions or a map. Similarly, flyers are cheap and great options for local small businesses. Printed on ordinary paper, folded in thirds with a tab to hold it closed, and addressed with a mailing label and stamp, the result doesn't have to be beautiful to be effective. An invitation also doesn't have to be printed in formal lettering on cream card stock in a fancy hand-addressed envelope. You can draw people to an event or offer in a way that seems more personal and important just by using the words "You are invited..." An invitation can use a letter, a postcard or a flyer for an open house, special sale, product demonstration, etc. The key is to make the event seem exclusive and the invitees special in some way. Another way to make a mailing seem special is to use FedEx or other quick delivery service. The package content can range from a simple personal letter to a video or product sample. A special delivery package is a guaranteed open, but, because the delivery method is more expensive, it is usually limited to a smaller group of select targets. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/direct-mail-lead-gen-doesnt-have-to-bust-the-budget/

Power Holiday E-mail With Segmentation, Offers

E-commerce and multi-channel retailers are beginning their holiday e-mail campaigns. What strategies will make for optimum results? From decades as data brokers and e-mail support providers, we can attest that targeting and smart segmentation are essential to holiday e-mail success. Of course, the house list can single out the active buyers and segment by basics such as location (no ice to Eskimos) and gender. But more sophisticated segmentation looks at purchase history in terms of product interest, in-store vs. web store, abandoned carts, purchase frequency, etc. For example, to maximize customer value, you can segment by average purchase (separating high-priced buyers from discount buyers) and send targeted e-mails with offers slightly over average order value. You can also reward and stimulate more sales from the most loyal buyers, segmented by purchase frequency or referrals etc., by e-mailing them unique holiday specials and freebies. The holiday season is also a great time to revive inactive customers, such as the previous year's holiday buyers who haven't been active since. Send them special offers to woo them back to the brand. Prior-holiday gift card buyers are a good sub-segment for a reminder e-mail about this convenient option. You can also target the most recent opt-ins who haven't converted to buyers with offers and creative most likely inspire clicks. And don't neglect to match your e-mail list to Facebook, YouTube or third-party newsletters to extend your reach via those vehicles! Although rented e-mail lists will not have the same intimate customer knowledge, you can still select by location, gender, age, product interest, and more. Holiday e-mails have to grab attention in crowded inboxes, and that means you need to get creative with offers that drive opens and clicks, too. Constant Contact recently surveyed its small business clients and gathered 30 successful holiday e-mail ideas that may help inspire your marketing. For a link to all 30 ideas, go to our full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/power-up-holiday-e-mail-with-segmentation-offers/

Use Social Sharing to Rev Direct Mail Response

Integrating the targeted power of direct mail with the viral power of social media can turbocharge results, and a recent article in Target Marketing magazine offers some good case studies as models for how direct mailers can harness social sharing to significantly boost response. Article author Summer Gould cites two examples: 1) Chick-fil-A, which integrated social sharing with a mailing of 5,000 plastic postcards for a whopping 279.8% response to grow its store traffic and customer database, and 2) Stein Mart, which used viral social sharing with a 20,000-postcard mailing to earn 150.58% response for a referral program and in-store redemption. Put simply, the formula involves directing the target audience of a proven direct mail package to a landing page/social page to provide data, get a reward and share the promotion. But of course, it's not simple. The secret to success lies in executing the details, starting with eye-catching, call-to-action design for the direct mail and the landing page and social media creatives. The goal is to not only push response but capture customer data for reward delivery and database growth. It means defining the objectives, the target audience and the desired data capture carefully. Most of all, it means developing a killer offer, which has to be the same for mail and social venues. It has to be the right offer for the right audience at the right time. It must grab attention, drive action, and inspire viral sharing. Of course, sharing is helped by extra incentives offered to any who share, from coupons to freebies to whatever wows the target audience. Although the case studies both come from retail marketing, the lessons can apply to other verticals, including nonprofits. For links to the case studies, see our post at http://www.acculistusa.com/social-sharing-can-turbocharge-direct-mail-response/

Research Offers Five Clues to E-mail Success

While chasing the holy grail of e-mail response, marketers can get lost in a forest of subject line and offer gimmicks.  Here's some helpful guidance that Direct Marketing News shared from a recent study by Retention Science, a marketing platform provider. Based on Retention Science's analysis of one billion e-mails, the article can distill five tips for success. Tip No. 1 is that percent signs trump dollar signs: According to Retention Science, 38% of customers are more likely to click on e-mails containing percent-off offers than on dollar-off deals, and 47% are more likely to convert in response to percent-off. Tip No. 2 is that mystery is better than excitement in subject line punctuation: Subject lines containing question marks have a 44% higher open rate than those containing exclamation marks. Tip No. 3 is that brevity is the soul of response: Retention Science found that e-mails containing subject lines with six to 10 words generated the highest open rates, at 21%, compared with a 14% open rate for messages with 11- to 15-word subject lines. Tip No. 4 is that timing matters--depending on whether the goal is click-through, conversion or retention. While open rates are fairly consistent year-round, click-through rates jump during the early holiday months, rising to 30% in October and 27% in November, and conversion peaks in July, with a rate 21% higher than average. But then e-mail list retention hits its nadir in August, with unsubscribes at a 28% rate. And Tip No. 5 is that novelty may spur opens, but familiarity breeds clicks. A novelty item in the subject line yields a 6% lift in open rates, but necessities in the e-mail body (such as groceries) earn a 10% higher click-through rate than featuring specialty items, even if those special items won an open for the subject line. For more on the Retention Science study, read http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing/how-to-send-the-almost-perfect-email/article/449482/

First E-tail Visit Predicts Future Buying Behavior

Online retailers can judge shoppers by their very first e-tail transactions, according to recent research from Optimove. As reported by Direct Marketing News magazine, Optimove found that one of the best indicators of future transactions is the number of items purchased on the first website visit. Shoppers who buy two or three items are 30% more likely to place a second order than those who bought only one item, per Optimove's two-year study of over a million transactions in varied product categories. In fact, shoppers who purchase more items in their first order are also more likely to join a retailer's top 10% of customers in terms of overall purchases. Wooing more first-time purchases to cultivate repeat customers is especially vital in an online environment where 62% of first-time buyers never place another order, per Optimove data. So how can e-tailers convince new shoppers to buy more? Optimove's research found the follow strategies were the most effective: data-based personalized recommendations before checkout; offers of impulse items during checkout; offers of discounts and promotions for purchase of additional items; encouragement of social sharing about purchases; and gaming mechanics, such as punch cards to earn discounts or freebies on the next order. For more data from the study, go to http://www.dmnews.com/e-commerce/first-transactions-can-predict-future-buying-behaviors/article/447997/

Survey Reveals Shoppers' Favored Holiday Promos

For online and multi-channel merchants planning their holiday shopping blitz, here's some guidance about what promotions are most likely to drive purchase decisions. Marketing Profs recently reported on the promotional preferences revealed in a survey of 1,000 holiday shoppers and 100 major retailers by commerce marketing platform Bronto and market research firm Ipsos. When it comes to online-only shopping, free shipping is a key draw, with 84% of holiday shoppers saying free shipping influences online purchase decisions and over a third (38%) saying they will not shop an e-commerce site that does not offer free shipping. Overall, including in-store sales, customers rate percent-discount promotions as the top inducement to buy (71%), followed by clearance sales (65%), buy-one-get-one (58%), dollar-off sales (52%) and free gift with purchase (47%). The interesting thing about the survey results is that merchants polled don't have the same promotional preferences; while 72% say they plan to use the percentage discounts popular with shoppers, only 38% plan to embrace BOGO sales, for example. And despite the importance of free shipping to online shoppers, only 18% of online-only merchants say they plan to offer it on all purchases; e-tailers prefer (41%) limiting free shipping to certain order values or times. Some holiday promos also differ in appeal according to consumer age. Limited-time "Flash Sales" appeal most to millennial shoppers (54% say they are more likely to buy) but decline as a purchase inducement with age, down to just 15% of those over 65. For more detail. see http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/28594/the-holiday-promotions-consumers-like-most

These Smart Brands Offer E-Mail Success Lessons

We often pass along articles on common mistakes in e-mail marketing, but how about the positive lessons, the success stories? Kevin Ward, recently posted an inspirational piece for Business2Community about tips gleaned from six well-known brands' e-mail campaigns. All are producing e-mails that have personality, easy readability, user-friendliness, and attention-grabbing appeal  -- plus specific, well-executed tactics to stay ahead of the competition. For example, Ralph Lauren wins sales with its clear, targeted call to action. Amazon leads the field with personalization. Betty Crocker's recipe for success is warm Pinterest-style personality. ThinkGeek thinks about conversions with extra coupons and deals. Huckberry revs up the urgency with limited time offers for its deals. Crate & Barrel has lots to peddle but uses e-mail focus, with a single customer-driven product offer, to funnel sales. For e-mail creative examples: https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/six-brands-doing-email-marketing-175149715.html

Want to Grow Your E-mail List? Turn to Direct Mail

With studies showing the average e-mail list suffers an annual 30% attrition rate, e-mail list growth requires an aggressive lead generation program to do more than just run in place. And direct mail is a great way to rev up that e-mail opt-in acquisition, asserts Cyndie Shaffstall, founder of Spider Trainers, a managed automated e-mail services provider, in a recent Target Marketing blog post. Using direct mail will avoid the risks of e-mail renting, purchasing, borrowing and partnering, risks that run from customer complaints all the way to getting blocked or blacklisted, she points out. Direct-mail lists also are typically less costly than e-mail lists, providing cost savings that can be applied toward mail postage and printing. To execute your mail-to-e-mail conversion campaign, obtain a direct-mail list sans e-mail address but otherwise using list selects for appropriate targeting. The goal is to collect e-mail addresses down the road -- e-mail addresses specifically opted in to your messages. Next craft direct-mail creative that will entice engagement through the use of a high-value offer and drive traffic to a targeted squeeze page and, in many cases, from there to a microsite. The squeeze page and/or microsite will be focused either on introducing the brand or introducing the product, depending on the audience's level of brand recognition. Mail recipients attracted to the squeeze page or microsite will be asked to supply an e-mail address. Visitors may also be asked to respond to a limited number of simple questions for lead scoring. Lead scoring of responses can flag recipients ready for immediate sales follow-up (high scorers), or move respondents into an active nurturing campaign (mid-range scorers), or drop prospects into a drip campaign (low scorers). To maximize e-mail opt-ins, Shaffstall notes two key tactical issues. First, the higher the value of the gift, the higher the conversion rate. Second, the more focused your direct mail list, the more likely it is that the audience will be receptive to your offer. For an example of one company's successful implementation, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/mail-to-email-conversions