With all the messages that people receive every day how
can your message stand out from the crowd?
 | First, know your
customers and your prospects.
Until you really understand their
needs and desires, you won't be able
to connect with them. Example:
I love to take trips, especially out
West. If my travel agency
knows my interest, then they can
reach me by connecting their
offering to my interests. |
| Secondly, if you
are not tracking your customers'
habits, make that a priority.
There are many programs out there
designed to do that. We've
listed a few at the bottom of this
page. |
| Collect your
customers' emails. You can use
them to create customized marketing
messages separately or in
conjunction with direct mail. |
| With the
information above, you are now in a
position to connect to your
customers and reach new prospects. |
| The methods
available to reach your customers
are: telemarketing, direct
mail and email. We will be
examining direct mail and email
here. |
| For direct mail,
you can use bulk direct mail,
segmented direct mail and one-to-one
marketing. You can use
standard size mail pieces or customized designs,
including die-cut shapes. |
| Bulk mail is
where you send the same message to
all customers. It is the least
expensive to produce, but also
generally gets the lowest return
rates. Standard return rates
are generally around 2%.
However, the message that you are
conveying to your customer has a big
effect on the return rate. The
challenge is knowing your customer,
what their interests are and how to
tailor a message that connects with
them. As with all mailings, we
recommend testing prior to rolling
out a message to your entire mailing
list. |
| Segmented direct
mail pieces are where you create
several messages depending on your
customers' interests. In order
to do this, you must have developed
some sort of way to capture data
about who your customer is and the
various things they are interested
in. |
| One-to-one
marketing allows you to create
custom pieces based on information
that you have collected that is
unique to each customer. |
| Die cut and
irregular shaped pieces allow your
product to stand out. Since
this has only recently been allowed,
we are still collecting data, but
one recent mailing produced a 16%
increase in the response rate versus the
same mailing in conventional form. |
| Finally, where
possible tie the mailing into a
customized web page. It allows
you to expand your message and
provides better feedback. |
HP also has developed a guide to
one to one marketing that we recommend.
Get marketing manual.
We partner with Advanced Mailing
Services to handle your mailing. We have
found that allows us to bring the best of both
companies together to serve you.
Advanced Mailing website.
Resources
for Customer Relation Management
Customer Management Community
Contact Manager for Outlook
Email is also a great
way to reach out to your customers.
We use a company called Constant
Contact, which makes it really simple.
Email and direct mail together seem to
get the best results. We have seen
very good results by using email to
notify customers to check their
mailboxes and then having the direct
mail link to a customized landing
page.
Constant Contact's webpage.
|
|
|
|
