MindFireInc Spotlight
MindFireInc Spotlight is a monthly newsletter prepared and edited by Ted Raymond of Allegra.February 2010
Fast Fact
Sales Tip
How many of your clients have a website? Almost all of them I bet. Any company that is trying to conduct business today has to have a presence on the web. But how many of those companies would consider their website their best sales person? Many companies do not begin to leverage the marketing opportunities available on their website. Here are a few tips on integrating the MindFireInc solution into a corporate website:
Almost any website will have a form that captures information about a prospect. Often these forms are integrated with some type of offer, perhaps an offer of a free white paper or recorded webinar. The challenge that most companies face is, once the information is captured on the web there is very little follow up. However, as a MindFireInc service provider you have the ability to create a powerful solution to this. This solution will also generate an ongoing stream of monthly revenue for you.
Let’s examine a possible solution. Imagine that a B-2-B software company wanted to use the web to capture leads for their software products. Prospects from the web come to the website and research the product. When they decide that they would like more information they fill out a form to download a case study. While this form has the look and feel of the corporate website it is in fact a customized profile page that is part of the standard attract blue print. The data that is captured now resides in the LWC (LookWhosClicking) database.
By having the data captured in the LWC system you now have the ability to use the follow up triggers to create a powerful experience for the respondent. Let’s take this example a step further. Let’s assume that the form included a pull down that asked for the respondents industry. After the respondent has filled out the form they are then redirected to a versioned Thank You page where they can download an industry specific white paper. Simultaneously, a lead can be routed to a sales person alerting them to the fact that a white paper has been downloaded. This automated lead routing is far more efficient than a typical website that would only write to a database.
In addition to the ability to create a powerful logic based lead routing system, you can also use the micro-site to begin a lead nurturing campaign. In our example let’s assume the salesperson calls the prospect, but they are not ready to buy. The LWC system can have a series of predefined email follow ups that will continue to educate the prospect. These emails can be created when the campaign is initially developed. From there a series of weekly follow-ups emails can be sent with relevant communication that helps build the companies brand and educate the client.
This process is important because most prospects are not ready to buy when they first hit a corporate website. In addition, by automating the process for the client they can be assured that execution will be flawless. This simple type of nurturing can significantly increase the conversion rate when the prospect is ready to buy.
Tech Tip
Since the recent tragedy in
Short codes have been around for years, but began to reach heighten consumer awareness when they began to be used as a way to create interactions with television shows like American Idol. Today we see short codes in multiple industries. So what is a short code? In simple terms it is a “phone number” that you can send a text to. Marketers can create a call to action by publishing messages such as, “text your vote to 99503”. Short codes can be expensive to set up since they must be configured to work across many different wireless carriers. However, as a marketing service provider you have the ability to work with a consolidator that allows you to “rent” a shared or common short code number.
The other type of mobile marketing that has reached critical mass is the SMS text message. This is a short message that can be sent to almost any mobile device on the market today. The LookWhosClicking system has the ability to manage this type of mobile communication from within a campaign. However, there are a number of important considerations when using this type of functionality.
When beginning to design a mobile marketing campaign you must remember that mobile users have a right to privacy. You must obtain permission to market to them using SMS text messaging. Much like email marketing there are some common practices that should be observed. These include things like a clear opt in process. It is also important that you include clear instructions on how to opt out of a campaign. In most cases this is managed by texting back a simple key word. It is also important that marketers think about the end user experience. By sending messages too often or messages that do not have value, a marketer may create a poor brand experience for the recipient.
Much of the mobile industry is currently self-regulated. This has been acceptable since many service providers have observed common best practices. The web has several sources to obtain information on mobile marketing protocols including the Mobile Marketing Association guide to best practices that can be downloaded at
www.mmaglobal.com/bestpractices.pdf.
Data Management
Everyone in the direct marketing business has to deal with a data list. Often these will be a purchased list, but sometimes they will come from the client. Streamlining the workflow around these lists can provide a simpler way to manage data in your cross media workflow. Here are a few tips that many service providers use to maintain an efficient workflow:
Tip 1 – Create a schema. Many service providers have developed a schema for data. This is simply a standard way of organizing data in the template. This may be done in a complex relational database or in a simple Excel format. Simply put, it is a map of where data will appear. For example, First Name will always appear in the first column, last name in the second column and so on. Often this schema will be provided to clients so they can prepare the data in this format. When data comes in that is not in this layout, the first task of the data manager will be to “normalize” the file. The benefit to this process is that everyone that touches the project down the line will now know what to expect from the data.
Tip 2 – Build templates for mapping data. Because you have normalized data as outlined above, you now have the ability to create templates in other applications that may use this information. For example, if the data is going to be uploaded to the MindFireInc LookWhosClicking site you can create an upload template that will significantly shorten the amount of time it takes to generate the appended URL’s. This same theory holds true for importing data into mail processing software and VDP composition software. By taking a few minutes on the front end you can streamline each step of data management from that point on.
Tip 3 – Include record numbers in each record of the database. This may seem basic, but many service providers neglect this step. This is an essential quality control process that can be used throughout the production process. This number can be printed on any direct mail piece and can then be referenced throughout the entire manufacturing process. Many providers will print this number on both sides of a VDP printed piece. This allows for a QC check to ensure that images are backing up correctly. In addition, should a piece need to be reprinted it is easy to pull just that record.
Case Study
One of the best ways to generate ideas on how to use the MindFireInc application is by reading case studies. This month we don’t just have one case study, we have eleven. Each year PODI (Digital Printing Initiative) publishes a series of case studies and recognizes the best use of direct marketing in the industry. This year MindFireInc service providers were highlighted with the publication of eleven cross media campaigns including a PODI best practice campaign for direct marketing. This clearly reflects the ongoing commitment to success that both MindFireInc and their partners have. These eleven case studies are just the most recent addition to more than forty case studies that have been highlighted by PODI since 2007.
Each of these case studies is available FREE to PODI members, and can also be purchased individually by visiting www.podi.org . Listed below is a PODI synopsis of each of the published campaigns that used the MindFireInc solution.
Allegheny College, a national liberal arts college, wanted to engage its young alumni and increase their participation in an annual college fundraising drive. The marketing strategy was to create competition among young alumni to see which class year would have the highest participation rate (number of donors). The campaign used direct mail, email, and PURLs with personalized landing pages.
NewPage Uses Personalization to Drive Event Booth Traffic
NewPage wanted to drive people to its booth at the HOW Design Conference and demonstrate the quality of their paper with a real digital print campaign. A personalized direct marketing campaign was developed that encouraged people to visit their personalized URL (PURL) to claim a free gift for pick-up at the conference booth. NewPage achieved a direct mail response rate of 35%.
Girls Scouts Raise Funds with Support the Sash Campaign
The Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus Pine Council (GSACPC), which serves Girl Scouts through Arizona, was seeing a decline in donations and needed a way to cultivate new donors who might participate in an upcoming fundraising campaign. A cross media direct marketing campaign was developed including variable data direct mail, email, personalized URLs (PURLs), social media and telemarketing. The campaign saw an overall response rate of 8.2% and average donation amounts rose from $50 to 250.
The Junior Statesmen Foundation Boosts Symposia Enrollment
The Junior Statesmen Foundation (JSF) is a non-profit educational corporation. The JSF had experienced a significant enrollment decline over several years in its summer programs. Postal Systems approached JSF with an idea to improve responses and tracking by using personalization, relevant imagery and personalized URLs (PURLs). The personalized postcards outperformed offset postcards and overall symposia enrollment increased over 130%.
The VMI Foundation Engages Alumni
The VMI Foundation is a private, non-profit corporation that annually raises millions of dollars in gifts and commitments for the Virginia Military Institute. DENMAR Information Technologies developed a direct marketing campaign that would engage VMI Alumni in a new and relevant manner and gather key information about alumni to be used in future fundraising campaigns. The campaign included email, direct mail, personalized URLs (PURLs) and video and achieved an overall direct marketing response rate of 23%.
Budco Educates Customers with
PDQ Post Group and Forum Group use PURLs to Promote Services to Canadian Real Estate Agents
The Forum Group used a direct marketing campaign to promote their designation as a preferred supplier of print and marketing services for the agents of the RE/MAX Crest Westside group. The campaign, developed by PDQ Post Group, incorporated personalized postcards that were hand delivered by sales agents. The postcards directed recipients to a personalized URL (PURL) for more information and a chance to win 250 in print services.
Beef 'O' Brady's Gathers Valuable Customer Information
A Beef 'O' Brady's restaurant franchise was searching for a cost effective way to reach out to existing customers. Marketing services provider CustomXM proposed the GetNTheGame.com program as a solution that would help the restaurant conduct customer feedback surveys. CustomXM used variable data printing (VDP) to create cards branded with Beef 'O' Brady's theme that were distributed to patrons. Each card contained a unique URL and password and encouraged patrons to visit a landing page in order to win a guaranteed prize. Over 27% of restaurant patrons completed an online survey.
The
The Dixie Café is a chain of family restaurants in
My Sports Dreams Raises Interest in a New Market
My Sports Dreams is a fundraising organization that targets schools and other not-for-profit agencies with a solution that includes professionally crafted sponsorship letters. Their primary market is college sports teams but they were eager to enter a market new to them - high school sports teams. Working with Foley Graphics, they developed a direct mail campaign incorporating personalized URLs (PURLs) that would introduce the My Sports Dreams product to high school football coaches. The personalized postcards contained a high degree of variable data that attracted the attention of coaches.
