Author Archives: Sherin

How to Deliver a One-Two Lead-Gen Punch

Posted on by

This week, a client reminded me of a very important lesson, direct mail still works! While digital marketing has certainly taken off, direct mail is still a fantastic marketing tool – when well-targeted.

In fact, the stats are startling. The 2010 USPS Household Diary Study found that 81% of consumers will either read or scan advertising mail sent to their household. Compare that with findings from the Email Experience Council’s 2012: Email in Action study that report the 2011 average open rate for a B2C sales email at 18%, and you can see why direct mail is still swimming swiftly along.

Direct mail’s performance is even further augmented when used in tandem with email. To get you started, here are a couple of ways the two can work together in harmony, merging the cost-effectiveness of email with the tangible impact of direct mail:

  • Send out an email campaign promoting your new product or service, then re-target the opens and clicks with a postal campaign. This lets you engage prospects through multiple channels.
  • Send out a postal and email campaign simultaneously.  Experiencing the brand and offer through multiple channels can increase brand recognition and encourage action on the recipients’ end.

Creativity is vital to a successful direct mail campaign. It has to catch eyes, lift spirits, engage, and inspire. We all know we toss (or recycle!) the standard coupons, offers, etc. that don’t interest us. Just like in email, it’s important to stand out!

Recently, a fellow marketer shared an interesting tactic with me: consider putting some sort of object inside the envelope with your offer. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just something that’ll be enough to peak a person’s interest. Physical objects that people can touch and feel are interesting, and people will often open an envelope out of curiosity alone. Additionally, bright, bold mailing pieces stand out from the crowd, and will further encourage engagement.

Hopefully you’ve found some direct marketing inspiration, now go out and engage with those prospects.

 

P.S. Be sure to check out all the multi-channel possibilities Marketfish offers here.

3 Ways to Re-engage Leads Through Testing

Posted on by

Testing is one of the most important parts of digital marketing.  With email marketing in particular, success is all about finding the right audience, tailoring a relevant offer, and reaching that audience at the right time.  One of the questions many Marketfish advertisers have is that they’re unsure about how to re-engage populations that have already received their offers.   Just keep reading, and I’ll share a couple of ways that you can go about making the most of your 2nd, 3rd, and next 100 sends.

  • Re-send to populations that didn’t engage (open or click) on the first send.  So, you have your target population, but you didn’t get the response you wanted from your first offer.  This doesn’t mean they aren’t the right audience; maybe your offer just didn’t resonate.  Try reworking the offer. You could even A/B split test a few offers to that population, and measure the response to your various offers.  Roll out the most successful offer on a larger scale.
  • Re-send to the openers and clickers that didn’t convert.  This can be a highly effective tactic to use, especially if you make the offer slightly more compelling or time sensitive.  These populations are usually more engaged the second time around, because they were already interested and now have even more reason to connect with the offer .
  • Send steady sends on a schedule.  So, you know you have a good target population that’s engaged with each send.  The next step is to schedule monthly sends to that population with new offers.  These new offers will allow you to continue to engage current customers, as well as engage new customers. For this tactic, it’s important that you don’t send offers too close together (as this will cause list fatigue), and also be sure to scrub out opt-outs and individuals that have already converted as customers.

These testing tactics can help you continue to make the most out of your list rental activities, as well as grow your house list and customer database!  If you have any advice for marketers looking to reengage leads through their email channel, please share them in the comments.

 

Set Your Sights on the Right Target

Posted on by

Insufficient targeting is a common pitfall facing inexperienced email marketers. If you want a successful campaign, the first steps are defining and reaching the right audience.  This is especially true with an acquisition campaign where the message recipient doesn’t know your brand yet. So, in order to prove your likelihood of success, it’s essential that you send compelling messages to the audience that is most likely to be receptive.

You’re probably asking, “How do I pull this off?”  I’ll outline some best practices for using marketing automation tools, like Marketfish, to help you do this with ease:

  1. Try one of our Customer Insights reports.  Almost every company has a house list that they regularly mail offers to. These are current customers that you know are already interested in your products.  Guess what? We probably know something about them too!  Within the Marketfish platform, you can now upload a house list of your current customers and receive a report with rich demographic data that profiles trends within your house list.  You can then take that information and target similar segments within the Marketfish platform.  Other list marketing companies offer similar services, but their products lack both the power and automation of our platform.
  2. Test multiple lists. This is a central tenant of list marketing. You need to test your campaigns across many lists and different audiences.  The best thing about the Marketfish platform is that you have access to over 200 million records in one place.  This allows you the flexibility to test multiple audiences within one campaign.  With over 150 ways to slice and dice the data, there’s no shortage of possibilities. So don’t be shy, target away!
  3. Test and learn with our demographic reports.  Marketers know that marketing is a process of testing and learning.  Marketing automation tools facilitate this through their campaign performance reports.  At Marketfish, after your campaign runs, we will give you a campaign performance report, as well as a demographic trends report.  These reports give you detailed insight into your campaign.  The demographic report is of particular interest.  This report tells you the vital attributes of the audience that opened and clicked on your offer. You can then apply this analysis to your next campaign.

As you can see, there’s a whole bunch of different ways that marketing automation tools like Marketfish can help you target the best audience. So next time you are pondering whether or not you’re hitting the right target, don’t fret.  Let Marketfish help!

How do you use marketing automation tools to improve campaign analysis or to gain a greater understanding of your engaged customers? 

The Second Date

Posted on by

In my last post I discussed acquisition email marketing.  To illustrate my point, I drew a comparison between customer acquisition and dating.  I’m going to continue that analogy in this companion piece.  This time we’ll focus on the second date.

So, you’ve sent your first campaign.  Now what? Do you stop there? Of course not, you try again!  Like dating, you have to keep putting yourself out there in order to learn what works and what doesn’t.  Here are some ideas for your second date:

  1. Revisit interested parties.  Sometimes it takes more than one date to win someone over. It’s the same way with email marketing.  Try re-targeting the opens and clicks from your first campaign.  Since these individuals already showed interest, they are more likely to open again and potentially convert.
  2. Try another approach.  Sometimes you just need to present yourself differently in order get someone’s attention. In your first campaign, there is likely a decent segment of well-targeted individuals that didn’t engage with your offer.  This doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested, it may mean they just need a different message and offer to peak their interest.   Try reaching out to those who didn’t engage the first time around with a new offer that is well targeted to them.
  3. Change direction.  When you know you’ve picked a wrong choice, sometimes the best thing to do is to learn from the experience and re focus your efforts elsewhere. This applies to email marketing as well.  All your campaigns won’t be a success, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take valuable information away from them.  You now know what audience isn’t the best fit for your offer, and you can try testing another audience.

The most important lesson in acquisition email marketing (and dating) is to not give up after the first shot.  It’s important to learn from every send, and optimize accordingly.  Even the not-so-successful campaigns are great opportunities for brands to understand and gauge audience response.  So what are you waiting for? Start testing!

The Customer Dating Game

Posted on by

Acquisition email marketing is like dating.  Better yet, it’s like blind dating.  It can be awkward, uncomfortable, and irritating if not approached in the right way. On the other hand, if a connection is made, it could result in a pleasant and welcome surprise.   Making a connection is only the first step though.  You really want the phone number at the end of the night.  In marketing terms, this is called the conversion.

Retention email marketing is like a marriage.  You’ve known each other for a long time, and you’re there through the good times and the bad.  There is a mutual trust, and an established relationship.  Similarly, your existing customer base is composed of customers that have already engaged with your brand and are eager to hear more.  Conversely, new customers don’t know you yet, and in order to convert them into regular customers, it’s important to position your brand accordingly.

So, how do you end up marrying your next blind date? It’s simple.  You just need to understand your audience.  Here are a few things to keep in mind when planning your next acquisition email marketing campaign:

  • Introduce Yourself- You wouldn’t hug your blind date the first time you meet that person, would you?  Similarly, with acquisition email, you want to ease into the relationship.  Provide some background about your brand, and introduce yourself to your prospective customer.
  • Short and Sweet – Saying too much right off the bat is like talking about your exes on your first date.  That conversation is for later.  Give prospects the best you have to offer, and keep it relevant.  They can hear all the dirty details once a connection is established.
  • Keep it Simple – Pulling out a flashy, image heavy, email creative is like showing up to your first date wearing sequins head-to-toe.  Sure, it gets you noticed, but not necessarily in a good way.  ISPs operate the same way.  A third-party marketing email that is image heavy will likely be flagged as SPAM and end up in the junk folder.  However, once you have established a relationship, ISPs will be much more lenient in regard to the types of creatives that end up in the inbox.
  • Be Confident – This is your time to make an impression.  Develop a strong offer that pulls in new customers. Be clear about your intentions, and have a primary call-to-action.  This will eliminate confusion on the user’s end, and route them appropriately to your landing page.

All great relationships start with a wonderful first date (well, most of them).  So, make your next acquisition campaign count.  Happy dating!

If you have any other tips for developing a stellar acquisition email campaign, please leave a comment.  We always love to hear from our readers.