A big theme for upcoming 2016 print industry events continues to be integration of digital methods into traditional direct mail programs to achieve maximum results from print programs. In just 3 months at the 2016 National Postal Forum March 20-23 in Nashville, Rhea Friederichs, will be conducting a workshop dedicated to common sense principles and proven best practices to cross-channel campaigning for career direct mailers ready for a little digital diversion.
Rhea is Wallace Carlson Printing’s Vice President of Business Development. With over 25 years of experience in the print and direct marketing industry she is an invaluable asset. She has been the lead consultant on over 100 different marketing campaigns that combine both print and online marketing.
Here are key cross-channel marketing do’s and don’ts gathered from her years of experience:
DO create a cross channel marketing campaign flowchart.
Lay out the timing of the various channel components before the effort launches. What are the behavior-based touchpoints and when will interactions there take place? Is fulfillment part of the program and, if so, when and how will it occur?
DON’T leave any stakeholders in your organization out of the cross-channel campaign planning.
Have your project leader call a planning meeting of key players from IT, customer service, sales, and any other unit that will be involved with the campaign. Recipients who visit personalized URLs often think they’ve landed on the main company website, so Web managers, for instance, need to be brought into the process to ensure a relevant and clear customer experience.
DO define your primary and secondary marketing goals.
At the outset of the campaign, define primary and secondary goals for projected revenue, customer actions, and data acquisition like email and phone number. While you’re at it, define success for the overall campaign and for each individual channel. It’s impossible to know with certainty if you’re successful without first defining what success is, and assigning a key metric. For example, if your goal was 5% and you hit 15%, there’s going to be excitement at the next stakeholders meeting – this is especially valuable to create cohesion between traditional silos within the organization.
DON’T email a copy of your direct mail piece.
Using email to send recipients a digital facsimile of the direct mail piece they’ve already received is unnecessary. The average length of consumer interaction with a direct mail piece is 1.7 minutes. Use digital methods to “add a smile” to your print pieces with personalized appeals that will make recipients want to re-engage.
DO test all your cross-channel campaigns.
See what combinations of channels are delivering the best results. An average direct mail response rate of 3% can be increased by as much as 15% using refined multi-touchpoint strategies.
DON’T deploy a refer-a-friend campaign.
A refer-a-friend campaign incentivizes current customers to recruit friends and family via email and social media. It is often used when a company is experiencing troubling service issues. People respond negatively to a request for referrals when they’re having problems with your products and/or services.
DO regroup and analyze your campaign metrics.
Gather your cross-channel team when the final reporting is in and review results by channel. Take a close look at metrics for sources of engagement. Document the behavior-based results in each channel and disseminate them internally to inform future campaigns. Avoid the one-and-done syndrome.
Do you have questions about your cross-channel marketing campaign? Rhea is available for additional dialogue to help craft a winning campaign. She can be reached at [email protected].