Why Targeted Lists Are Key to Dimensional Mail Success
Prospecting with dimensional mail is both attractive because of high response rates and risky because of high costs. So what’s the key ingredient of success? Mailing lists that are appropriately and tightly targeted, answers a recent Entrepreneur magazine article on dimensional mail. That’s certainly in line with our proprietary list research and years of list brokerage success delivering highly targeted lists for business and nonprofit mailers.
High Response Can Offset High CPM
Here are the facts: The Direct Marketing Association’s 2015 “Response Rate Report” shows dimensional prospecting mail earns a median 2.8% response that betters the 1% of a letter envelope and postcard, or even the 2% of an oversized envelope. Dimensional mail works because it’s often lumpy, bumpy, unusually shaped and/or weightier, which grabs attention in the mailbox and sparks a curiosity about internal rewards that leads to opens. However, while dimensional mail may earn top response rates, it also has the highest cost per thousand, at an average $1,205 compared with a standard letter envelope package’s $583, per the DMA report. This raises the stakes but does not disqualify dimensional mail as an acquisition tool. Overall, dimensional mail for prospecting still comes in at the lowest $43 cost per response, compared with the highest cost per response turned in by catalogs ($112) and oversized mail ($105), per DMA stats.
Targeted Lists Are Key
Success in this response-cost balancing act depends on another ingredient: list targeting. In his recent Entrepreneur article, Craig Simpson, owner of Simpson Direct, Inc., explains why dimensional mail works best with “a small, highly targeted group of prospects.” It is also “invaluable” with “hard-to-reach niches,” especially business-to-business promotions that need to get past office “gatekeepers,” he notes. Beware the broadly targeted list likely to produce a lower response rate that will “not bring in enough customers to offset the higher production cost of dimensional mail,” advises Simpson.
Reduce Risk With Testing
So if you think dimensional mail could work for you in generating more response from a highly targeted group of prospects, reduce the inherent cost risk by starting small, as Simpson suggests, with list and creative testing. Results tracking can pave the way to rollout of a winning dimensional package. Read Simpson’s article at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276555
Direct Mail Still Stars in Multichannel Subscription Campaigns
As multichannel publishing evolves, traditional direct mail, long a staple of subscription acquisition campaigns, has evolved as well and retains a key role in audience building. Because AccuList USA supports multichannel subscription campaigns for clients’ business and consumer publications, as well as catalogs, a recent Target Marketing magazine article by Paul Bobnak, director of Who’s Mailing What!, caught our eye. The article provided an interesting example of how an established print publication brand successfully used targeted direct mail to promote multiplatform content and expand reach to a younger, digital-first audience.
Leveraging a Tightly Targeted Market
Bobnak shares how The Economist, one of the world’s most respected magazines and a “big user of direct mail,” created a new mail piece to promote its brand to an academic target market of college professors–and secondarily their students. The piece used a recent issue’s eye-catching magazine cover as the non-address side of the outer portion of a brochure mailer, taking advantage of the visual, tactile and guaranteed-mailbox-delivery of direct mail. There were additional cover examples inside–up to 25 on its first page alone–to reinforce the value of its invitation to academics, at a “special academic rate,” to join “one million leaders” in keeping abreast of significant international political, business, finance, scientific and technical news and trends. Plus, the professors were encouraged to pass along the informational benefits of the magazine to their students, who could subscribe at a special individual rate or via a group subscription provided by the teacher.
Using Print to Push Digital Benefits
Recognizing that many academics, especially younger students, are digital-first today, a full page of the brochure highlighted a digital package. That package included options such as a weekly digital or audio edition sent to tablet or smartphone, and a “Daily Espresso” of top stories shot to the subscriber’s device. So while the promotion was delivered via printed direct mail, the stress was on desirable content delivery–regardless of platform.
Bobnak’s takeaway: “For long-standing brands to adapt to a digital age, it’s necessary to appeal to audiences in a variety of channels.”
To see the actual mail example, go to http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/economist-new-direct-mail/
Cautionary Tales: Marketing Pros Share E-mail Mistakes and Fixes
To err is human, even for the best direct marketers. So it is instructive to learn from marketing pros when they admit mistakes and then share corrections and prevention advice. A recent Direct Marketing News magazine article asked 13 experienced marketers to share their biggest goofs, how they fixed them and lessons learned. Here we’ll share just their e-mail marketing stories since we have experience helping clients address the same issues via our e-mail list brokerage support and data services.
Data Blindness: Missing Segment Crossover Creates Confusing E-mail Flood
Guillaume Cabane, vice president of growth at Internet software firm Segment, relates how he failed to take segment crossover and duplication into account. He ended up e-mailing the same user five times in a week because the user appeared in multiple different data sets of people. The subscriber was not only irritated by the flood of e-mail but also confused by “similar but different” messages. The solution? Cabane notes that using data services to exclude recipients who have recently received other communications is one way to avoid the problem.
Honesty’s the Best Policy: Making Lemonade From Subject Line Lemons
The team at Return Path, a leading e-mail data solutions provider, cites several lessons from a failure to update an e-mailed webinar promotion post-testing so that the subject line “TEST” went to the entire subscriber list. The team needed to come up with an immediate fix. They decided to send a follow-up e-mail with the subject line “Oops,” and it performed so well they ended up doubling registrations. Besides learning the importance of double-checking subject line and content, the experience also showed that an unexpected subject line can sometimes intrigue and prompt more opens, and that subscribers appreciate honesty about errors (although it’s better to avoid them).
E-mail Etiquette: Avoiding Confusing, Frustrating Shortcuts
Melody Gambino, director of marketing at Grapeshot, which improves online ad targeting via advanced keyword technology, reminds that, in crafting e-mail content, the basics of e-mail etiquette count. Using acronyms, slang, abbreviated names/personalization, and shortcut instructions or explanations can cause confusion and frustration. Gambino is especially focused on the problem further down the B2B sales funnel, when customers or prospects may get a speedy but inadequate response from a company rep instead of the clear, thorough answer they seek. She advises a conscientious effort at being thorough in e-mail questions and instructions and limiting e-mail responses from mobile devices, where the shortcut temptation is greater.
To read about 10 more marketing mistakes and their fixes, go to http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-strategy/marketers-share-their-biggest-mistakes-and-how-they-fixed-them/article/505042/
