MindFireInc Spotlight
In selling cross media solutions many professionals get caught in the trap of price. It is not uncommon for a customer to ask "how much per piece?" It is essential that you position yourself as a consultant and take a value base approach to cross media.
How do you best avoid the cost per piece conversation? Simply put, you need to ask consultative questions. When beginning to talk with a cross media prospect, be sure that you have done research to understand their key business issues. Ask probing questions that can help you define a measurement of success. Value based questions that reframe your conversation will help you avoid price objections. Ask questions like what is your current cost per response? What is your current cost per acquisition? What do you invest in customer loyalty? These questions will provide you powerful insight, and give you the foundation of a value based conversation.
Let’s take an example. Perhaps you are talking with a marketing director who currently uses direct mail to generate leads for his sales team. He works with a printer that is positioned as a price competitive provider. In the current environment he invests $5000 per month to send out 7500 postcards. Each month he generates a 1% response (75 leads). This means that that he invests $66.66 for each lead he generates.
Let’s now compare that to cross media using direct mail, email, and Personalized URLs. A solution-based sales person that is a marketing service provider, rather than a vendor, will take the time to understand the customers’ needs. After looking at the ability to segment the prospect data and target the message more effectively, they recognize that they can easily generate a 2.75% response. This will be achieved by "cutting through the clutter" of direct mail by engaging customers with a Personalized URL.
In order to generate a cross media campaign, the investment is significantly higher. In this case, let's say that the program cost a total of $12,000 to produce 7500 direct mail postcards with a personalized URL as a response channel. Is this really more expensive? Not at all, in fact it is quite the opposite. Based on this scenario it is actually less expensive. A $12,000 investment with a 2.75% response would yield a total of 206 leads. This would make the cost per response $58.25, a savings of almost 13%.
By understanding the true business objectives and articulating the value in terms that the customer can relate to, a sales person can avoid getting pushed to the lowest common denominator of cost per piece.
Best Practice - Leverage Buyer Psychology
As many direct marketers know, clear and concise copy writing is critical to the success of any campaign both in print and online. Here are four tips to help you create powerful copy for your direct mail piece.
Best Practice Tip #1 - Build a Feeling Consensus
This is a simple concept that can be conveyed in your direct mail piece. This is the "everybody is doing it" approach to selling. Your copy might include headlines that read "record sales", or "unprecedented response". By creating a feeling that a large number of people are responding, consumers will feel more comfortable to respond themselves.
Best Practice Tip #2 - Create a Concern about Scarcity
Have you ever heard a radio advertisement for the hot new concert coming to town? "Seats are limited, so order today." This is a classic approach to creating scarcity. It is very easy to include copy that conveys either a scarcity of time, or the product itself. For example, "Order now, supplies are limited," or "Order by January 1st and receive a free special offer."
Best Practice Tip #3 - Command Authority
In this approach, you move your prospect closer to taking action by building credibility in what you are offering. For example, "Four out of five doctors prescribe MindFireInc for marketing headaches."
Best Practice Tip #4 - Develop a Feeling of Reciprocity
This is perhaps the most common use of copywriting in cross media marketing today. This approach gives the respondent something of value for their response. Offers of reciprocity can vary greatly. We all have seen the offer of a free cell phone with a commitment of a one year contract. It is also common to see a free giveaway for responding. Many cross media marketing providers will also use things like white papers, drawings, or premium gifts as a way to generate reciprocity.
There are dozens of methods to generate response to your cross media campaign, but the above are a few examples of some of the most common methods. Great campaigns are built on a foundation of data, strategy, creative, and offers. Engaging copy is an important element of your creative. Take time to think about what you want to convey to your recipients.
Data Appending - Gaining Consumer Insight
In today’s world of data-driven communications, it is very likely that as a marketing services provider you will be asked to help drive better results. This can often be achieved through the use of data management. Service providers have often sourced lists for clients, and many are also in the business of cleansing databases to prepare them for mailing. However, there is much more that can be done to enhance the quality of a list. There are a number of data compilers that have the ability to "append" information to your client’s database.
For example, a company that has done a high volume of mail order fulfillment may have up-to-date address information about their customers; however, they may not have any information on demographics. Any number of data compilers has the ability to take that database and "append" or add information where available. Now a marketer could look at their client base and understand demographics like home owners vs. renters. Compiling companies also have the ability to provide estimated income, age, gender information, etc. There is a significant opportunity to leverage this information into more relevant communication. This more focused communication can be delivered by a number of channels including the MindFireInc LookWho’sClicking system.
Driving Trade Show Traffic
Cross media marketing and Personalized URLs are an excellent way to drive interest in trade show exhibits. Many services providers have reported significant success in helping their clients generate interest prior to a trade show. For our study today, we will highlight a human resources trade organization that uses cross media with personalized URLs to drive booth traffic at a national trade show. The organization was targeting HR generalists across all company sizes. The primary goal was to drive attendees of the trade show to an exhibit booth in an effort to educate them on the professional development services that they could access by becoming a member. The secondary goal was to gather information about the specific career path within HR for each of the attendees.
The cross media campaign consisted of three main components. The first was a direct mail postcard. This piece went out three weeks in advance of the trade show. Each postcard drove recipients back to a Personalized URL. After one week an email blast was sent out to each recipient that encouraged them to respond to the same personalized URL that was on the direct mail postcard. A second email blast was sent out one week prior to the trade show for those non-responders. The Personalized URL was used to engage the prospect attention, and gather information. The online experience gave highlights of what would be available in the booth, and asked responders about specific areas of interest. By versioning "thank you" pages, content was driven to the area of interest that was highlighted on the survey page by the respondent. By using this information, a more meaningful and relevant experience occurred.
The results were impressive. The response rate more than tripled from the prior year. By adding cross media, the response rate rose to an impressive 4.75%. In addition, the organization gathered critical information about what is important to each of the responders. Booth traffic was greater than any other time in the organization’s history. Additionally, they expanded their database to include several hundred hot new prospects.
