Email learns another trick from Snail Mail

This isn’t exactly state-of-the-art news for old hands at direct mail, but apparently emailers have discovered that personalization pays.

Duh!

We’re not talking about gratuitous, unnecessary personalization, mind you. (Like the infamous 1960’s piece that blared “YOU’RE THE ONLY HOME IN [NAME OF CITY] TO RECEIVE THIS IMPORTANT LETTER!”) which was a nice showcase for early direct marketers to practice basic personalization skills. It was just a warm up. The encore. But more—and better—was to come.

Personalization should make a difference in the context and flow of the message. Good personalization should sound conversational, not stilted. It should sound natural, not computer generated. And it should allow for records that have null sets or voids in fields from which the data is being pulled.

Using personalization well shows the recipient that the sender has been paying attention. For instance, “Thank you for your gift of $25. With it we have….” Or “Thank you for your recent purchase of ________” or “We’re delighted that you have enrolled in our ____________ program to ___________” etc. Personalization isn’t only about names, places and dollar amounts.

Bottom line: Using personalization well reinforces the relationship between sender and recipient. Using it poorly doesn’t.

Direct mail figured this one out 50 years ago. Welcome aboard, newbies.

…So we ratchet it up!

Just about the time direct marketers got the personalization thing down pat, technology opens new doors. Change is the only constant.

PURLs—the latest and greatest “in thing” in direct marketing—take personalization to the next level.

If LinkedIn is networking on speed, PURLs are personalization on steroids. They are bigger and stronger yet amazingly flexible. Mark Maguire notwithstanding.

Combining the best of individually printed digitally produced direct mail and individually personalized web-based landing pages, PURLs turn one-directional communications into a conversation.

We write you…you are interested in our message…you go to the PURL site we’ve set up specifically for you…you respond, giving us additional information that we can then respond to in our next communication…which drives you to a successive PURL etc.

With each conversational loop we find out more about you—your needs, wants, interests—and we respond to you accordingly. The exchange lets you know we are listening to you…responding to you…building a relationship with you.

And we can do each PURL cycle one-to-one. No mass-produced awkward-sounding personalization…but it is done for the one individual to whom we’re sending it. Yes indeed, PURLs are personalization on the next level.

Want to know more about PURLs? Want to know how they can help you generate business, reduce cost and increase ROI? Call us.

We’ll help you hit one out of the park.

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 3 of 4)

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 3 of 4)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Getting Personal With Housefiles

If direct marketing prospecting is a lot like dating as you sort out whom to approach and how to approach them, direct marketing housefile work is doubly difficult. It’s like being married.

You think you know what makes the person tick…and then voila’…he changes. Yesterday he liked meat and potatoes, followed up with cigars and cognac. Today he is tofu and salads, followed up with spring water and a sprig of mint.

But before we agree to change and grow old together, let’s define where we start the journey. If marriages start at the altar, a housefile starts to build when a prospect says “I do” to your proposal to buy/donate/subscribe, etc.

Hence a housefile is a list of people who like what you do and have supported you. Your organization/company owns and (hopefully) maintains this list. These are people who have donated to your cause, bought from your company, attended your events, subscribed to your publication, joined your organization, or in some way have entered into your sphere. You own these names.

Since you own these names, you’ve got more at stake here. They should be your “bread and butter” since they’ve already opted in at least once before. When you’ve got something to pitch, these should be you’re A#1 go-to-guys. They should know who you are, what you do, and why you are contacting them.

Or maybe not.

You have been sending them marketing pieces that explain your position. Right? You have been asking them to renew. Right again?

Despite your best efforts, brilliant copy and compelling graphics, your housefile returns have been dwindling of late, and you can’t figure out why. (This is the moment when that beef-loving, cognac-sipping spouse says “You’ve totally misunderstood me!”)

But before that ugly wake-up call, consider that maybe you don’t know who they are, why they are on your list or how you should contact them. If this is the case, it is a huge opportunity for you to research your own base so you can get personal with them to the best effect.

In days of yore, you would keep contacting your housefile with the same message over and over again. They would continue to support you, or—in 20% of the typical housefile each year—they would vote with their feet, and leave you behind.

Today there is a lot more competition for their attention. You’ve got to be better—smarter!—than the competition. Unless you know more about who is on your housefile, unless you know what they value, what they believe and think, you may be pitching the wrong message to them.

Maybe their first foray with your company was a fluke or a momentary aberration. (That spray-on hair-in-a-can surely did look great at 2:00 in the morning!) But maybe it was really part of their core values. (They are among the 400,000 balding men in this country who are desperate to find a “cure.”)

You keep trying to sell more hair-in-a-can to the poor guy. But you’re totally missing the deeper need.

Today, you can run your housefile through data filters. You can understand your folks better, and determine what compels them. Then you can understand how to address them.

For instance, a very basic filter is an NCOA—National Change of Address. NCOA runs your data through the most current USPS-approved data to ascertain if your address of record is good, and if your person still lives there.

If there is a problem with the address—(and NCOA will give you almost 40 reasons why an address can fail. Some are fatal, some are merely inconvenient)—NCOA will let you know. If your addressee has moved, NCOA will tell you where they’ve moved if USPS knows. If a business has closed, NCOA will tell you.

You can go a little deeper by running your data against Social Security data. Often “Forwarding Address Unknown” means your party has taken up permanent residence in Heavenly Acres. Running your data against Social Security data will tell you. If he is deceased, there is no point in keeping him on your housefile. The likelihood of him purchasing/donating/subscribing to you any more is nil. He is truly deadwood.

There are other filters, too, that might be invaluable to you. If there’s a possibility your folks may have found their way to a long-term, involuntary residence at Leavenworth, then run your data against prison data.

If knowing the likely net worth or annual income of individuals on your housefile is important to you, we can find out.

If you need to know his hobbies, interests, politics, marital status, etc, the information is there for you.

If knowing that he is losing his hair because he has cancer and is likely in chemotherapy, you can find that out, too. This information is available. For a price.

If you do nothing to find out about your housefile, you’re likely to lose 20% of them each year to moving, changes in their financial situation, and changing interests/motivations.

If you proactively try to learn something about them, you can keep more of them on your active roster because you can address your marketing materials to them specifically, thus building and reinforcing the relationship that you need to have with your housefile.

Here is how several of our clients have used personalization technologies to improve their response rates:

Case Study #1. This non-profit organization helping third world orphans had not cleaned its housefile in over 50 years. Simply by doing a merge/purge to remove duplicate records, then running those addresses through NCOA and Social Security, we were able to determine within days why their response rates were dropping even as their production costs were rising.

Some donors were in the data six times. Hence, every time the organization mailed, these donors would receive 6 messages. At best, 5 would go ignored. At worst, the donors thought the organization was wasting money. And the donors were right!

That is, the donors who were still alive.

After running 153,000 records through Social Security, we had a housefile of about 28,000 unduplicated, still living donors. Only about 18% of their housefile was viable!

The client was devastated. They were sure we had destroyed their fundraising base. When we mailed it, we found something else instead. Printing, production and postage costs plummeted; and return rates skyrocketed. Their ROI improved instantaneously.

But wait! There was more! We asked the client to make a leap of faith by changing their packaging, too.

Instead of mailing one-size-fits-all generic letters with generic asks in window envelopes, we opted for the more expensive but vastly more productive approach of sending personalized letters in closed face envelopes. And of course, we used real stamps.

Hence instead of asking everybody for a gift of $25, $50, $100 or Other $____, we asked for donations commensurate with previous donating history. We also asked donors to increase their giving level, using a simple algorithm. $5 givers were asked to give $5 or upgrade to $7.50 or $10; $100 donors were asked to give $100, $150, $200.

We also learned a little something about each person on the file, so we could personalize the solicitation specifically to that recipient. Was he donating because he was a foster parent to one of the orphans? We mentioned the child by name. Had she visited the orphanage in 2005? We mentioned her visit. Have they been giving since 1995? We mentioned that little fact, too.

The results were astounding. $50 donors upgraded to $100 donors. Multi-givers became the rule, not the exception. Donors responded with personal notes, thanking the organization for the opportunity to help the children.

Bottom line: Several factors played into this success story.
#1- list maintenance.
#2- researching and using information about the donor in his individual letter.
#3- using personalization technology like laser-personalized letters and match mailings (where the recipient’s name and address on the envelope match the name and address on the letter) to create a truly one-on-one experience for each donor.

Case Study #2. A political client sent a solicitation letter to his housefile. In that individually personalized letter, the candidate reiterated his position on various issues, and he thanked each donor for his/her previous gift of $x. He enclosed a small, four-color photograph of himself, his wife, their children and their dog in front of their home. Scrawled across the lower right corner of the picture was the personalized message in blue handwriting, “Dear Joe and Mary, your gift of $x meant the world to Joanne and me. Thank you.” It was “signed” by the candidate.

A simple thank you scrawled on a photo. It didn’t cost much, but the personalized message got attention in a big way.

VDP—Variable Data Printing—made the photo and the message a simple one-step process. Matching the photo to the letter to the reply to the envelope, made it 4-way match mail. It was a personalization tour de force.

Within days, gifts were pouring in. And so were photos of Joe, Mary and their family. By the time the last photo arrived, the staff had wallpapered a room with photos of their supporters, and the campaign went on to victory.

Several factors working together created this success story:

#1- The politician realized that people like to be thanked. And if he can thank them citing their previous gift, it’s even better! It helped reinforce the relationship that is at the heart of every housefile.
#2- Sending the photo of his family made this man real to his audience.
#3- Adding the personal thank you—naming the recipient by name, and citing his specific gift amount—locked in the relationship.

Case Study #3. Another political candidate we helped was running in an ethnically diverse district. There were pockets of Korean speakers; Arabic speakers; Spanish speakers, Vietnamese speakers.

So we ran an ethnicity filter against the district voter file and found out who likely spoke Korean, Arabic, Spanish, or Vietnamese as their first language.

We then prepared materials for each group using appropriate photographs, graphics and language for each. We had skilled translators change the original message in English into the various language groups, and we laser personalized letters to these voters explaining why they should vote for this candidate.

Each voter got several colorful packets of material written in his native language.

For many of these voters, this may have been their first American election. It set a high bar for future efforts.

What does this mean to you?

We'll address that issue in Part IV of this series.

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 3 of 4) Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners

I am soooooo bored...

I am sooo bored. For a workaholic like me, a week at the beach is an eternity away from the excitement of the office. Sunbathing isn’t good for me. Getting sand in my ears and everywhere isn’t my thing. Sipping Pina Coladas before 4:00?—just too decadent. Yes, I am a desperately bored woman.

But I do have my computer, so I’ve decided to turn to you for help.

Send me your questions about postal regulations, direct mail strategies, postage pricing, using personalization, getting the best bang for your direct marketing buck. Or whatever is on your mind. If I can help, I will.

As your own personal downscale Dear Abby, I’ll try to offer advice geared to save you money, minimize your postage outlay, and enhance your response rates.

I want to hear from you. No, I need to hear from you! ellen@paulandpartners.net or 703-996-0800

Save me! My brain is stupefying.

Paul&Partners Direct Marketing
43670 Trade Center Place,
Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
http://www.paulandpartners.net/ sales@paulandpartners

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 2 of 3)

Get Personal. Get Results.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Personalizing Prospect Marketing

First, a definition.

Everyone starts as a prospect, ie someone that a marketer believes might donate/buy/subscribe/join/attend or in some fashion show interest in the sponsoring non-profit/company/magazine/organization, etc.

Not all prospects are created equal. To paraphrase George Orwell, some are more equal than others. Hence the first challenge is to find the right people who might want to donate/buy etc. That effort is called “prospecting.”

Looking for prospects starts with a definition of your optimal buyer. Then you define and refine until you get a many faceted profile.

Like grizzled 49ers of old prospected for gold in them thar hills of California, today’s frazzled marketers prospect for gold in the thousands of lists on the market. With the right list and the right approach, the marketer finds his gold.

Finding good prospects just starts with list selection.

Looking for donors? Go to donor files. Select donors to allied organizations. Simple. Or maybe not.

Looking for business owners? There are a thousand lists. Drill down through company size, gender of owner, location (and number of locations), industry sector, number of employees, type of organization (franchise, LLC, Inc, privately/publicly held, HOBO, etc) to find the list you need.

Now you can use the new technology of “data mining” to get even further into the prospect’s head.

Are you asking for the donors to support a non-profit summer camp for indigent children? Women would probably be your best prospects, and women with children would be even better. Families with household income over $xx would mean the family has expendable income to share, and those who have shown their love of nature and support for children’s causes would improve your “hit” rate.

If you’re looking for business owners who travel a lot, maybe those with multiple office/plant locations would be a starting point. If they have a second home, that’s a plus. If they are pilots or sailors, that helps define them as well.

Now you’re finding out what really makes these people tick.

Simultaneously with extracting the gold from the lists, you need to develop creative copy and design that maximizes the impact of your message. Find out what their individuals needs and interests are, then design your message to emphasize those issues.

New production technologies allow for variable full color graphics and copy. Here is how a few companies are using the latest in personalization technology to enhance their prospecting efforts...

Case Study #1. The exclusive mountain resort community. They sent oversized postcards to married couples with household income over $xx, in a specific geographic region. Artwork was based on the recipient’s ethnicity, age and hobbies.

If the recipients were Caucasian, 40-60 years old, so were the models. If he liked golf and she liked tennis, the male model had golf clubs in his hands; she had a tennis racket in hers. They stood in front of the magnificent clubhouse with a world-class view of receding mountains.

The graphic designer used the recipient’s name in color to eye-catching effect, thus creating a split second opening for the recipients to soak it all in. It wasn’t much of a stretch for the targeted couple to see themselves in the picture as it spoke directly to them and their interests.

Case Study #2. The Long Term Care Insurance provider. His marketing package utilized variable art and copy based on the recipient’s age, gender, ethnicity, physical location, and household income. The photo showed a couple waking on the beach with the statement “Now is the time to think about Long Term Care Insurance.”

The copy speaks to women by name as they tend to outlive their husbands and therefore need this product more, and because women make 70% of insurance decisions for their households. “Hypothetical” tables based on the couple’s age and income show what a plan could cost—and could deliver.

Case Study #3. The real estate agent. In an economy that had produced zero house sales for her the previous year, she opted to mail renters telling them to stop wasting rent money and buy a home.
The renters, selected on geographic proximity to her office as well as their household income, got an oversized postcard showing a photo of a home with a curbside mailbox. The home was in the background in soft focus; the mailbox was center front and crisp. On each mailbox was the name of the targeted family: Ramirez, Wong, Williams, Curtis. Subliminally the recipients could “see” themselves in this picture, in their new home.

These three examples show how the newly available filters can help inventive marketers position themselves in unique ways, to people who are specifically qualified for those messages. All three were working with prospect lists, using new technology and fresh creativity to stand out in the mailbox.

Are these individualized approaches more expensive than a traditional one-shot-fits-all marketing approach? Yep. Each individually prepared piece has a different mix of graphics and copy going to highly selected and qualified targets. That effort does have a price.

Are these personalized approaches more successful? Yep again. People see themselves and they respond.

The result: companies mail smaller quantities and get the same number of leads.

Technically, this extreme personalization process is called VDP or Variable Data Printing. It requires lots of computer power, marketing expertise and a precise mix of people and equipment to pull it off.

However, unlike shot gun marketing, with VDP you can approach only people that you know are the perfect target for your message. So you print less (that’s good green business practice), pay less in postage (that’ll keep the bean counters happy) and generate a higher return rate (that’ll make the boss ecstatic).

As the pharmaceutical ads say, VDP isn’t for everyone. It’s more expensive, it takes more time in development, and it can be nerve wracking waiting for the creative and data processing and programming to come together. But when it works, it’s amazing!

It’s state-of-the-art direct marketing. Until the next new-best-thing comes along.

Part III of this series focuses on personalization in housefiles.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166

Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858

www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners