Make Holiday Marketing a Gift That Keeps Giving

The holidays are not only a key time for boosting immediate sales, they are also one of the most important periods for gathering data and customers that will generate profit in the year ahead. A new infographic from the Marketo blog provides some good tips on how to optimize your holiday marketing investment for future ROI. First, look at the "ghost of holidays past" and note that both online sales per shopper climbed between 2014 and 2015 and offline purchases (in-store and mail order, for example) also went up. In fact, industries such as apparel saw 11.1% offline sales growth, technology rose 6.5%, and health and beauty climbed 5.1% in offline sales. A strong multichannel data gathering and marketing investment is required if you want to maximize sales moving forward. Meanwhile, in digital marketing, there is no denying the growing importance of social media, with 55% of respondents saying a brand’s social presence has at least some influence on their decision-making during the holiday season. So your strategy should not only boost social efforts during the holidays but keep them strong all year to capitalize on customer relationships. What if you succeed in driving more online traffic but don't reap the conversions desired over the holidays? Don't accept marketing defeat; capture customer information and retarget! This is especially true for industries with "considered purchases," those that are high-cost, high-involvement and life-cycle oriented, the Marketo researchers point out. Just using a Facebook retargeting campaign, marketers report an average 92% increase in impressions, 33% lower cost per action and 26% lower cost per click, for example. And a key goal should be to turn as many new customers captured with those holiday sales into repeat customers. That means a well-thought-out, multichannel retention strategy. The payoff: The average repeat customer spends 67% more 2.5 to 3 years into a shopping relationship than in the first 6 months. For more tips, see the article and infographic: http://blog.marketo.com/2016/11/reap-the-benefits-of-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-all-year-long-infographic.html

Survey Shows Holiday Shoppers' Offline-Online Mix

Heading into the holiday season, what should retail marketers do to maximize 2016 holiday sales? Start by asking the shoppers. Global marketing firm Epsilon has just released the findings of its 2016 holiday shopping survey. More buyers are likely to be in-store than online this year; 87% of Epsilon's 2016 respondents say they are “very likely” or "somewhat likely" to purchase at brick-and-mortar stores, compared with the 76% who say they are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to purchase online. However, the shopping journey will probably involve a mix of channels from marketing trigger to final purchase. More than half (55%) of respondents are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to look at a product online and then go to a store to buy, for example, while almost the same percentage (54%) are "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to look in store for a product and go online to find the best deal. Clearly, retailers will want to integrate messaging and create a seamless customer journey across channels to prevent dollars from slipping through the cracks in this multichannel environment. Since DBM Designs specializes in direct mail and supporting data services, we're happy to report surveyed shoppers cite direct mail as a potent offline marketing channel, with a big 77% of respondents saying advertisements received by mail will have at least “some influence” on their buying decisions this holiday shopping season. That's a lot more than the 41% who say banner advertisements will have “some influence” on buying decisions. Why does direct mail work so well in an increasingly "digital-first" world? No surprises: Respondents say they are influenced by direct mail because it usually contains an offer or discount, and the format allows for leisurely review time. Retail marketers can't afford to neglect online ads, e-mail and social media, of course; most respondents (90%) say they plan to access online sites or e-mails to learn about the best deals before starting to shop, and that's up from 88% of respondents in 2015. For more data from the survey, go to http://pressroom.epsilon.com/survey-results-indicate-consumers-more-likely-to-shop-in-store-than-online-this-holiday-season/

When Mail Budgets Hold Steady, Innovators Spur Ahead

In a marketing landscape of digital growth, direct mail spending is holding its own, with 69% of marketers planning to increase or hold steady 2016 direct mail budgets, according to Target Marketing magazine's annual "Media Usage Survey." But direct mail success isn't guaranteed by simply staying the course, and marketers who want to break away from the pack can look for inspiration from a recent post by Tech.Co, a media company and events organization for startups, entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts, which suggests five innovative ways to use direct mail in 2016, including some real-life examples. Tech.Co's five areas for mail innovation: 1) use Augmented Reality (AR) apps to give 3D reality to products via videos and demos (or consider other mobile-enabled options like QR codes and Near Field Communication); 2) leverage free incentives and sampling opportunities, with eye-catching examples from the www.cloribus.com archives; 3) wow with great copy, as showcased by the D&AD agency's decade of award-winning examples; 4) grab mailbox attention with innovative design, going beyond No. 10 envelopes and postcards to oversized, dimensional or interactive mailers, as illustrated by a recent World Water Day piece only readable when wet; 5) finally, and most important in a digital-dominated marketing world, integrate direct mail into multichannel campaigns, avoiding the tendency to silo by channel. For the post and its examples, go to http://tech.co/innovative-ways-use-direct-mail-marketing-2016-01

Creating Loyalty: Using Retail's Most Valuable Data

Growing a loyal customer base is the holy grail of business, especially retail. A recent MarketingProfs infographic illustrates why: Existing retail customers spend 67% more than new customers, and increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by up to 95%. One solution is a great loyalty program. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between consumers (73% say programs should show the business's loyalty) and marketing execs (66% seek consumer loyalty, read dollars), which is why 97% of loyalty programs are about transaction rewards, and 77% of transaction-based programs fail in the first two years. The bottom line is that retailers need to better profile and segment loyal customers and then develop programs around their needs, not just their transactions--and that means improved data gathering and analytics. A Forbes magazine article by Bryan Pearson, president of LoyaltyOne, highlights nine loyalty trends for 2016 that we think can help refocus data efforts, especially since loyalty program engagement is getting tougher, with the average American household enrolling in 29 loyalty programs but active in only 12. Standard transaction-based points and discounts aren't going to cut through a crowded field to woo loyalty, so watch for a 2016 shift toward using data insights to offer high-value experiences, such as special events or early VIP access to sales, per Pearson. Plus, he notes that even transaction-based loyalty programs are changing shape; it's not just about cards and memberships now that there are apps to gather data and deliver personalized offers, including mobile one-to-one in-store specials (underscoring the need for integrated, multichannel data strategy). Indeed, retailers who truly maximize the value of loyalty data in 2016 will be those who use its insights across the business, not just in a retention silo, to align pricing, promotions and merchandise assortments to better address consumer needs, suggests Pearson. And he adds another way retailers can leverage data investment: Data generated by loyalty programs is a valuable product in itself, as evidenced by The Kroger Co.'s 2014 sale of $100 million in data to product suppliers. For the whole article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanpearson/2016/01/04/9-things-you-dont-know-about-retail-loyalty-programs-in-2016/#3cafb0d94c05

Turn Aging Behavioral Data From Problem to Opportunity

Database marketers focused on quick response to customer behavior tend to discount aging or expired behavioral data, creating an ongoing "data atrophy" problem. And that's a mistake in our experience. We agree with veteran database marketer Stephen Yu's recent Target Marketing magazine post, which argues that marketers need to see their aging and expired behavioral data as an opportunity rather than a problem. Issues arise because while targeting is improved when demographic or "firm-ographic" data is combined with behavioral data (transactions and clicks, for example), behavioral data is both harder to collect than geo-demographic data, which can be appended to fill gaps, and has a shorter shelf-life. The value of a hotline list evaporates quickly, and delayed response to real-time mobile or online actions can misfire, even backfire. But aging behavioral data still has value, and formerly hot data can be warmed up--especially if handled appropriately as Yu suggests. One way is to go from simple time stamps to measurements of intervals between events. How many weeks have elapsed since the last purchase? What are the average number of days between transactions? What is the average number of weeks between new product release and actual purchase? Marketers should also measure by channel to catch when an in-store or catalog buyer becomes an online buyer, and for which items. Yu points out that by collecting, maintaining and transforming historical behavioral data, marketers can use it for more effective targeting and personalization. Scored behavioral data become predictors in models identifying “cutting-edge buyers,” “bargain seekers,” “online buyers of repeat items,” “infrequent high-value customers,” “frequent small-item buyers,” for example. Yu concludes: "Today’s data become historical data in a blink, but we still have a lot to mine there. And such mining is possible, only if we arrange the data properly and let it age gracefully using statistical techniques. That is the way to personalize messages constantly for everyone, instead of reacting to real-time data only sporadically for a fraction of your audience." For the whole post, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/data-atrophy/

In 2016, Celebrate the Marriage of Mail and Mobile

The B2C and B2B purchasing journey increasingly starts on a mobile phone. For example, 65% of consumers start their digital purchase path on a mobile device and 42% of business researchers use mobile in their purchase process, per Google. So what does that mean for non-digital direct mailers? It means it's time to marry mail and mobile! The response synergy between direct mail and digital is already proven. Direct mail will influence 76% of Internet users to buy online, per Exact Target. The first step to a mail-mobile marriage is incorporating gateways to smartphones in your printed pieces. This can be done via QR codes linked to a landing page offer, Augmented Reality (AR) to deliver a persuasive experience such as video, Near Field Communication (NFC) to drive mobile traffic with a tap between phone and embedded chip, and Personalized URL (PURL) to send the recipient to a personalized landing page. Research how U.S. Post Office programs support and reward this technology use. The next step is to make sure your landing pages are optimized for mobile. Tips include use of larger text for viewing on small mobile screens and placement of the call-to-action device "above the fold" of the mobile screen to avoid scrolling. Marketo reports that making these and other mobile-friendly changes to its e-mail templates led to a 28% increase in click-through! The final step is to measure response and ROI across channels. For example, with a QR code, you can create a unique campaign landing page, an individually personalized landing page, or use a special landing page offer to gather contact info. If you are using PURLs, you can embed a campaign identifier or create a unique identifier for each individual. If you send prospects to a landing page, you can create unique offer identifiers or activation codes. If you need more ideas for boosting mail performance, check out the 2016 direct mail predictions of the gurus at C.TRAC interactive marketing: http://www.ctrac.com/2015/12/direct-mail-marketing-predictions-for-2016/

Don't Let Data Glitches Stymie B2B Lead Efforts

Business-to-business marketers dedicate chunks of budget and time to gathering qualified leads. Unfortunately, we've seen basic data problems undermine the effectiveness of hard-won B2B prospect and customer databases. So we'd like to pass along a recent MarketingProfs article alerting marketers to six of the most common data pitfalls. No. 1 on the list posted by Rob Manser, acting director of marketing at contact validation firm Service Objects, is relying on a single contact method in lead data. Focusing solely on e-mail outreach, for example, increases failure from address errors or poor channel response. By gathering or appending multichannel contact options--phone, e-mail and mailing address--the chances of connection climb. As Manser points out: "An e-mail or a phone call might never be returned, but a clever direct mail piece may catch a prospect's eye." Problem No. 2 arises from incorrect data gathering--incomplete, typo-riddled, misformatted or just plain bogus contact information. It doesn't mean all bad-data contacts must be tossed; many can be cost-effectively salvaged today via data verification, validation and appending software. Pitfall No. 3 is out-of-date information. Valuable contacts change companies, move to other locations in the same company, change titles and departments, etc. Frequent and thorough contact-data updating is required. That said, even when info is technically correct, Pitfall No. 4 occurs because data is not contact-specific enough; using a headquarters phone and address instead of the contact's division location will miss response in a geo-targeted campaign, for example. No. 5 on Manser's list of prospecting mistakes: Lead data that doesn't include a company's key targeting criteria--such as title or company size--which creates costly sales and marketing misfires. The final error compounds all others: allowing a contact database to become a pool of wasted opportunities by failing to fix data problems. Manser argues that there is no excuse now that marketers can turn to database services for quick, automated data-appending, data-verification and data-validation programs for clean-up--and we agree!  For more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/opinions/2015/28978/six-huge-lead-generation-pitfalls-that-are-hurting-your-business 

Direct Mail for 2016: Personalized, Mobilized, Analyzed

The holidays are whizzing by, and those 2016 direct mail plans are on the launch pad. Are you sure you're using the right fuel to reach direct mail heights? We like the way a recent blog post by IWCO Direct's Senior Customer Engagement Manager Krista Black boiled down that question into the three top trends to include in any plan for mail success: targeted personalization, mobile phone impact and multichannel analysis. When it comes to personalized mail, simplistic first-name fills aren't enough to generate customer response anymore. Effective personalization, Black points out, is about targeting with the right offer, right audience and right timing--to segment audience by demographics, geography, purchase history and psychographics for best response; to tailor a compelling offer to audience needs and likely objections; and to time mailings to fit recipient buying cycles. Next, mailers must accept that mobile has become the "first screen" of the majority of the target audience, Black advises. Recipients are likely to go first to their mobile phone after reading a mailer to search for a product, service or retail location. Leverage that trend in printed mail by including QR codes, PURLs, and keywords integrated with SEO/SEM. Finally, today's marketing is multichannel, and that presents a challenge in response and conversion analysis and attribution, Black warns. Marketing analysis needs to account for both direct and "halo" effects across channels--such as direct mail sending respondents via mobile to web pages. We would add a key fourth element for 2016 direct mail success: quality data. Marketers will need accurate, complete, up-to-date, verified, integrated multichannel data to achieve all three of Black's goals in direct mail plans next year--and we can help with that! For the complete post: http://www.iwco.com/blog/2015/12/11/direct-marketing-trends-2016/

Research Comes Together to Champion Direct Mail

Database marketing and direct mail are the focus of our business at DBM Designs, but we still encounter marketers who are dubious about fully embracing "junk mail." Our thanks to industry colleague UnitedMail for a handy infographic, just published in Target Marketing magazine, which uses research to make the case for direct mail in terms of its response, ROI and value in a multichannel strategy. Among the highlights: 70%-80% of consumers say they open almost all of their mail, including "junk mail," and 79% of consumers say they act on direct mail immediately (compared with 45% for e-mail). In terms of response rates, direct mail campaigns to customers average over 3% (e-mail campaigns get just 0.1%). Plus, combining mail with other channels significantly boosts marketing results; for example, research shows consumers who receive both direct mail and e-mail spend 25% more money. The infographic also offers insights on mail creative and print-to-online technology. See http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/direct-mail-roi-infographic/

Study Shows Bad Data Undermining Marketers

If you worry that customer data problems are hurting your marketing results, join the crowd. Poor data quality continues to drag down ROI for the majority of U.S. businesses. In fact, the average U.S. organization believes that one-third of its data is inaccurate, and a whopping 91% of companies believe revenue is being negatively affected by inaccurate data in terms of wasted resources, lost productivity, or wasted marketing and communications spending, according to the Experian Data Quality study released this year. One of the most common culprits cited was poor address data quality. The study definitely reflects the kind of data quality challenges that direct mailers (and their list brokers, printers and agencies) bring to DBM Designs' database marketing services. What are the tasks that usually need to be tackled? Data processing prior to mailing provides address format standardization for proper mail sorting, postal discounts, avoidance of invalid addresses, and removal of wasteful duplicate records from all sources. And with 17% of Americans moving each year, a mailing list check against the National Change of Address (NCOA) database is essential to avoid costly wrong addresses and duplicates. Thorough data processing also helps to detect other data problems, such as missing, incomplete or miscoded customer information, and to create a single-customer view across channels for better segmentation, targeting by channel, and response tracking. For more on the results of the Experian Data Quality study, go to http://www.experian.com/blogs/news/2015/01/29/data-quality-research-study/