Back in the day (and by that I mean waayyy back in 2008), driving new business through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was a straightforward nut to crack. Find your keywords, optimize your website, start a blog and wait for the orders to roll in. Customers were plentiful and looking to buy. Demand was high and leads almost always converted.

It’s the Economy, Stupid

Then the economy crashed (and stuttered and spurted) while the social web exploded. Consumers were still looking to buy. Increasingly, though, questions of value began to creep up the backs of buyers as they considered price tags. Never before had price (think Amazon) and value (think Apple) become so heavily weighted in the customer purchase process. While SEO was still effective in connecting customers to products, it could not, in itself, improve perceptions of value.

Conversions in the Value Economy

“Direct mail Vancouver” is still a great search term to optimize our site for. Leads from search start a conversation that helps us understand where we can add value. But being found in a Google search is far from enough to convert a sale. When someone searches “direct mail Vancouver” there are always bigger issues at play such as a drop in repeat purchases, a need to increase new customer acquisition, or a desire to understand where the opportunities lie. If you don’t address these issues, then there is no value – price breaks alone won’t solve a business problem – and so there is also no sale.

As Gary Vaynerchuk, author of the The Thank You Economy, said in a recent tweet “If you don’t bring value, then you shouldn’t exist”. Extending his argument, if you don’t bring value then you probably won’t exist. SEO alone won’t save you.

Everybody likes to win stuff. Or, at minimum, they like to know they are getting a good deal. This is a basic consumer principle and it carries over into the business world as well. Given the ease with which the social networks, and in particular Facebook, allow you to run contests and promotions there has never been an easier method to tap into one’s desire for a deal. In fact, when polled, most individuals on Facebook will say that they connect with businesses and brands on the network specifically for deals. Based on a recent eMarketer study, 44% of people connect with a brand on Facebook for deals and discounts.

The end result for these activities is always the same. You gain additional exposure (and Likes) for your brand. There are a few different approaches you can take as a Facebook page owner. Here are the most popular.

1. Coupons and Discounts

The savvy digital marketer knows that you can spend ad dollars sponsoring an email marketing campaign and net decent results. This is a one-time activity. Giving away a coupon or discount in exchange for a Like on your Facebook page gives you the ability to continue the conversation with prospects and customers even after the coupon has expired. In this case, you are trading dollars (in the form of coupons or discounts) directly for relationships (the Like).

2. Giveaways

I am going to tell you a secret but you have to promise to keep it to yourself. Do you want to grow your Facebook presence significantly and in short period of time? Give away an iPad. You might not reach the desired audience but, if targeted properly, the number of entrants (and, by default, increased Likes on your page) will surprise you. Running a giveaway on your Facebook page is not difficult as there are several third party apps which will handle the technical details for you.

3. Voting Contests

Are you launching a new product? Or maybe publishing a new trade magazine? Whatever the effort, you’re going to need a name. Let your Facebook community vote on some suggestions in a winner takes all contest. If you have an active audience on your Facebook page this is a great way to give them a voice and feel as though they helped (even a small amount) with your success.

In any of the examples above the investment is small and your Facebook presence will grow if executed correctly. There are smarter people than me out there and I’m sure that, given some creative thinking, you can use these ideas to generate something great!

Your “House” List

The data that you have on your own customers is the most useful list you have and contains all sorts of data insights that can lead to stronger marketing campaigns. Not only do you know who your customers are, you can use that information to both find new customers like them and to target your marketing so it is more relevant – and relevance is the key to acceptance.

It is important to complete your list analysis at least every 1-2 years in order to maintain an accurate view of who your customers are, how they buy and why they buy. If you don’t have an internal customer list yet, it’s never too late to start. With basic information like postal codes and purchase history, the insights available are endless!

=> ROI: using your House List to create relationships with your customers can help increase your ROI. A great example is a furniture retailer that used their internal list to profile what types of furniture people buy and in what cycle. Using this information, they were able to provide more useful offers to their clients; promoting items they didn’t even know they wanted yet!

Compiled Lists

A compiled list is one that contains all available public information for consumers and/or businesses. Think the Yellow Pages; but now you can get a soft copy list instead of wading through a giant yellow book. Plus, you use any targeting criteria that are relevant including geographic areas, household income, age, etc to refine your list to make it even more accurate.

Compiled lists are widely available but CAUTION – if you do not have a target going into the list rental, it is highly unlikely that you will receive a high return. Of course, you could get lucky, but the best way to choose a list is to use your internal data as a guide.

=> ROI: using a Compiled List can help increase your ROI by bolstering your “House” List and increasing the number of people you can reach. For more information on the types of results you can see by using a Compiled List, please see our Case Study on Vanguard Painting.

Opt-in Lists

An opt-in list is one that consumers have agreed to be on; and, most of the time, they have agreed to receive advertisements from related companies. Although generally more expensive to use, these lists provide a good option for reaching targeted consumers.

For example, if you have a product you advertise in Women’s Day or on HGTV, you could rent a subscriber list from those companies to do a targeted, personalized direct mail campaign. If you are targeting customers who already have an interest in similar products, your offer will be more relevant and therefore more people will act on it.

=> ROI: using an Opt-in List can help increase your ROI because the people on these lists are ready and waiting for an offer. A great example of this is a non-profit client using the Canadian Multi-Donors Rental List – a list of people who have donated and are interested in continuing to donate to charities. That’s EXACTLY the type of people they are looking for!

Different lists have different pros and cons, so it’s best to talk to your list supplier or a direct marketing expert before going ahead with any rentals. They can help give you the best options for your business and your customers.

New Years is a time for lists and resolutions. Why not combine the 2 with a ‘list resolution’? Talk to your DM expert and make one today!

Direct Marketing Tip #7:

There is one very important thing to know when promoting your brand: you do not determine your brand – your customers do. What your customers think about your brand is key to promoting your products or services as effectively as possible.  So you have to listen-up and ask yourself:

• What is important to my customers?

• What do they like about my company / brand?

• What do they dislike about my company / brand?

Once you understand what your customers think of your brand  you can use that knowledge and insight to create successful promotions.

What is the best strategy for both promoting your brand and converting that promotion into sales? Richard G. Rosen aptly uses the term “convergence” to describe the combination of branding and strong sales copy that, in his words, “successfully combines the best of brand and direct into something more powerful and effective than either can be on its own”.

The equation comes back to value creation.  A strong brand creates higher perceived value which means you can charge more, increase your margins, and build customer loyalty.  Similarly, promotions need to strike at the wants and needs of your target market in order to truly be viewed as a value exchange for the customer.

The quest for knowledge is never ending. Listen to your customers.  Accept that they are in control.   And you’ll be #winning in no time.

Prior to the financial collapse in 2009, there were a handful of bond traders buying insurance against subprime mortgages. These traders were buying insurance bonds that would payout if subprime mortgages fell into default (and by extension the housing market crashed). In other words, in a time when everyone was trying to make money off growth in the housing market and trading subprime loans like hockey cards in the school yard, these guys were laying major bets that there would be a spectacular failure*.

In hindsight, it seems like either genius or extreme luck. But in fact what lead these traders to ‘short’ the market lay, effectively, in the numbers. These traders looked carefully at key financial indicators, such as the default rates of individual mortgages, % of zero payment mortgages (yes they existed), mortgage fraud rates, and other factors that virtually guaranteed the subprime mortgage market was not sustainable. They quickly realized that it was a matter of when, not if, the subprime mortgage market would experience a colossal default.

Lessons Learned from Betting on the Crash

As you might imagine, these traders had a tough go trying to convince investors of what they were doing, despite their excellent investment records. Why? Because they were doing something that 1) People didn’t really understand and 2) Ran against the general consensus.

There are 2 key lessons marketers can take away from this fascinating case study:

1. Numbers can lead to useful and obvious insights that are counter-intuitive to prevailing wisdom.
2. No matter how strongly the numbers indicate a particular outcome, most people exhibit surprisingly little trust or belief in them.

Applying the Lessons of Subprime

To apply these lessons, think about how marketers use data. Consider, for example, a case where purchase patterns in transaction data reveal an insight that runs against the prevailing belief of the client – one that they may be heavily invested in, such as store design. Without the right context, the right story, the client may not either believe or understand how to use the insights correctly. No matter how obvious it seems they should turn right, people sometimes insist on turning left.

When a data insight seems obvious to us, the researcher, we sometimes rush to bring our findings to our clients. Direct marketing is fraught with this issue since it involves interpreting both historical data and real-time results. Direct, after all, is supposed to be measureable. But if during your analysis or measurement you discover something that runs against the prevailing train of thought, you might want to put some time into the story behind the insight before you try to turn the train.

Peter Gruber gives a great explanation of the importance of story in business here. In summary, he says it’s not about what the facts are, but how you push them across the table that determines whether or not people ‘buy into’ your idea.

Believers vs. Non-Believers

At the end of the day, there will believers and non believers. Ironically, solid research or measurement metrics may generate great insight, but few believers. A great story, on the other hand, has the best chance of creating believers of the same message. And believers are the key to connecting insights, to action, to results, since it’s typically the client or the investor who holds the cash.

Ideas, as they say, are a dime a dozen. Until, that is, the idea leads to an action that makes a million dimes. Focus on results and the actions needed to get you there. Count your dimes. Use story to get there.

Then place your bets.

*The financial case study information here is based on Michael Lewis’ “The Big Short”. For an excellent review and summary of the book, click here.

Spring Forward…of the economy!

While we slowly make our way out of this recession it is important to understand that most businesses have smaller budgets to spend on advertising. Nevertheless, customer acquisition remains top of mind with marketers. The challenge is how can you stay ahead of the curve in this fiscally conservative economy?

Direct marketing has always appealed to results-orientated marketers, and it’s now finding its feet with a broader audience in this new economy. Businesses are looking for a measurable ROI with less expenditure and better results. Using direct marketing techniques can help you target your advertising in order to decrease or maintain your expenditure while increasing your return. And direct marketing campaigns are scaleable, allowing you to limit risk and fit campaign budgets within constraints as they shrink or expand.

Spring Forward…of your competition!

Those pesky competitors are always nipping away at your current customers and prospects…how can you stop them? Your customers are looking for VALUE – whether that is selection, service or great prices. Think about what your value proposition is and make sure your customers know it.

By effectively communicating your value proposition to your customer, you give yourself a competitive advantage over the other providers in your industry. If your customers clearly understand the benefits of doing business with you instead of your competitors, you can leave your competition in the dust! Direct marketing techniques can help you target your value proposition at the right customers at the right time to help you capitalize on your competitive advantage.

Spring Forward…of your customers!

Think your customers know exactly what they want? No way! A customer can’t make an educated decision about a purchase if they don’t have all the information. The most important point here is to make sure that you are giving customers the information THEY want – not just the information you want to give them. Better yet, give them information on an offer for something they didn’t even know they wanted!

Data analytics can help you determine your customer’s behavioral and purchasing profiles. If my client bought Product A, what product will they be most likely to purchase next? Find out and give them a special offer. Customer data is so rich with insights – don’t let that data go to waste!

These strategies will allow you to more effectively communicate with your customers, and in the long run, will help you create brand loyalty – turning your customers into brand ambassadors – the best type of marketing you can get!

So when you are basking in that extra hour of daylight, give some thought to implementing some direct marketing strategies – and keep your company Springing Forward!

Tablets, iPads, and e-readers abound. Mobile adoption and penetration rates continue to climb. Environmentalists decry the use of paper, ready to handout seals of approval to any business that even hints at an immediate reduction of paper use. Surely, as I write this on a soggy Monday and commuters peer through the downpour at a string of red tail lights inching along the soaked roads the last thought on their minds is, “what’s in my mail box?”

And while one imagines letter carriers across Vancouver slogging through puddles and admiring the tidy gardens from beneath the brim of their dripping caps, it begs the question:

Are their efforts for naught – is direct mail dead?

Oh, of course, there is the small matter of the 10.6 billion pieces of mail, parcels and messages that Canada Post delivered to more than 15 million residential and business addresses in 2010. But this nothing compared to the number of emails Canadians send in a year. 10.6 billion? Pushaw.

And wouldn’t it be a fitting end to the summer?

Because none of us needs to read a magazine printed on 80lb productolith matte paper, perfect bound, soft to the touch, yet emitting a satisfying ‘twap’ at the pluck of the thumb. Nor need we tire ourselves as we lick our index fingers and flip the glossy pages of the latest Ikea catalogue. And we certainly don’t need to sit hunched over the kitchen table in the evening, writing out a cheque to the hospital we thank every day for saving a loved one.

Why bother, when a web form would have done just as well?

Surely the writing is on the wall. In fact, it’s time to take down the wall. Download it. Convert it into ones and zeroes. After all, tactile experiences are redundant – everything is going digital.

Isn’t it?

Here we go…Direct Marketing Tip #34:

#34. Think Multi-Channel

Thinking multi-channel means doing two things:

1) Making sure that your message is consistent within all your advertising, and

2) Using more than a single channel as part of your campaign.

Let’s break each of these down a little further…

Making sure that your message is consistent within all your advertising is critical to maintaining your brand image – mixed messages gives your consumers mixed messages about your brand. It helps cut down on market confusion for customers who may be seeing your marketing messages across a variety of media. In addition, it can help you better manage your marketing plans internally – helping you make sure that you don’t have conflicting offers running at the same time. Anything that is going to help you cut out confusion about your brand is a benefit in the long run and increases brand recognition and loyalty.

Using more than a single channel as part of your campaigns can help you to connect with a variety of consumers with different affinities towards different marketing media. For example, email in particular works very well when combined with direct mail and almost always increases response rates. Why? Because you are putting in the effort to communicate with your customers in their preferred media. Using multiple channels can also help reduce costs – by allowing your customers to opt in to only the marketing that they WANT to receive, you can cut down substantially on the costs of communicating with them in more expensive media.

So remember to Think Multi-Channel…because who wants to watch the same channel all the time?

In January 2012, Canada Post will introduce new address accuracy requirements for commercial mail within Canada. The new requirements will mean that a typical mailing list will see a small increase in records that are identified as ‘invalid’ and therefore undeliverable.

Invalid addresses need to be removed from your database or you will pay the postage for mail that will never be delivered. Furthermore, if the address accuracy rate on your list drops below the 95% you will also pay a postage penalty.

To check for undeliverable addresses you can run address correction on your mailing list, a service which is already required by Canada Post on any mailings over 5,000 pieces (and which we routinely run for our clients).

Why will I get more invalid addresses?

Previously, address correction software could only check for a range of addresses, meaning that if house numbers on Main Street started at 1000 and ended at 1999 then any house number that fell within that range would be processed as valid, even if the physical address did not actually exist.

Changes to Canada Post’s database have made it possible to check for valid addresses down to the individual household. So now address correction software will know, down to the house or unit number, whether an address actually exists.

How does this affect my direct mail?

As stated above, in January your list will likely see a small increase in the number of undeliverable addresses found when running address correction. Databases with a large number of apartments will likely see the greatest increase, since Canada Post was previously not able to verify individual apartment numbers. There are two important implications that impact your direct mail:

1. Better Visibility of Undeliverable Addresses
Undeliverable mail negatively impacts your ROI because most undeliverable Addressed Admail is recycled by Canada Post at the delivery end. It does not get returned to the sender. Many mailers have no idea how many of their pieces are being recycled. Now you will be able to identify and remove a greater number of invalid addresses, resulting in increased deliverability and higher response rates.

2. Postage Penalties
Some mailing lists may see accuracy rates fall below 95%. If the bad addresses are not updated or removed a penalty will be applied, increasing the postage costs for the entire job.

Sorry, I’m not a Canada Post expert, what does address correction do again?

Address correction does the following:

1. Formats your mailing list so that commas, periods, abbreviations, spacing etc. are all in the accepted Canada Post format.

2. Updates and corrects records with missing or incorrect postal codes. In some instances it will also add or correct the street name.

3. Identifies records that do not have valid or complete addresses and that cannot be updated. Left unchanged, these records will be undeliverable, meaning that if you don’t remove them from your list they will not be delivered and you will still pay postage and processing costs.

Do I still need to run NCOA if I’m already doing Address Correction?

Yes. NCOA (National Change of Address) is not related to address correction and should be run as part of regular data hygiene, as it targets a person, not a physical address. Address Correction verifies the validity of a physical address, regardless of whether you customer still lives there or not. Canada Post reports that nearly 20% of Canadians move each year and they recommend running NCOA twice a year for active lists.

Just as testing is crucial to a successful performance it’s just as important to your direct mail and email marketing campaigns. It’s 100 times better to have your campaign fully tested before show time than to cross your fingers and hope everything goes alright.

One of the greatest advantages of direct marketing over mass marketing is that it can be tracked. By building testing mechanisms into your direct mail and email campaigns, you will be able to understand what works and what doesn’t – and most importantly, what proportion of your marketing spend is giving you your best ROI. You don’t have to worry about which half of your advertising spend is wasted anymore John Wanamaker…you’ll know!

What kind of testing are we talking about? The possibilities are almost endless. But let’s start with some simple questions to get you going:

Testing…1. What should you test?

I will answer this question with another question – what do you want to learn? What you want to learn about your customers or your mail pieces will determine what you should test. Really, the first step with any test is to determine what you want to learn – the goal of your testing. It’s all well and good to test a letter vs. a postcard, but WHY are you doing it? Once you get that figured out, you are on your way!

To give you a jump start, check out this list of things to test that fall under the 3 pillars of successful direct marketing campaigns (creative, list and offer):

 What format works better for a given message?
 What message/offers works best for a single group of customers?
 What target audience responds most to your campaign?

These types of tests can help you build a strong foundation for your direct marketing programs – add some imagination, and you can test almost anything!

Testing…2. How often should you test?

A good program will be continually testing something new – this is how you determine your most effective campaign. A word of caution though – NEVER test more than one variable at a time. If you are testing more than one variable (format + message + target audience), you will never know which one of those variables is contributing to low or high ROI.

Testing…3. What are you going to do with the results?

Don’t forget to use what you learn to determine what to do with your marketing program going forward – your customers are moving targets and to keep up with them you need to evolve with them. There is no point in building a test into your marketing campaigns if you have no intention of using your results to make changes to the program in the future – so make sure that you have buy-in from the outset that your test may affect your future programs and subsequent budgets.

Hopefully, at this point in our discussion, you’ve been fully convinced that testing in direct marketing is crucial to future campaign success. But if you are asking yourself, “Why bother? I already know what works for my industry and my customers,” I implore you to think again and explore some of the benefits testing can provide:

 Testing allows you to find out what works and what doesn’t before you go big.
 If your program is somewhat controversial, you can see how a segment of your customers will respond before launching to everyone.
 It can also help you get budget approval for bigger projects – we all know the finance department will want to see some backup to show your idea will work.

And if the above benefits still haven’t got you thinking, here is the kicker: IF YOU DON’T TEST, HOW WILL YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNS ARE?

So start testing today – your stage crew is waiting – and don’t let the band on stage until your tests are complete!