Unless you’re a high schooler preparing to take the SATs, testing may be the last thing on your mind right now. The economy is volatile, at best, and your first instinct may be to tighten your fists and retreat to more conservative marketing tactics.
But all of these factors make testing an even more crucial part of your direct marketing strategy.
You have a constant need to refine and improve. And at times when you don’t have an unlimited marketing budget surplus, crossing your fingers and jumping into a new program with both feet is probably not an option. But mindfully testing is.
Remember that 40/40/20 rule that says 40% of your success rests on the offer, 40% on the list and/or target, and 20% on the creative. With that in mind, you have a lot of routes you can take in testing.
Define your end objective first, then consider testing one of these aspects of your direct marketing program:
1. Creative includes the copy, the format (Card? Self-mailer? Letter pack?), and design.
2. Offers. Free shipping? Half off? Buy one get one free?
3. Timing encompasses seasonality, beginning / middle / end of the month, hitting mailboxes during the week versus on the weekend, etc. It also accounts for frequency, e.g. should you reach the same people once a month or quarterly?
4. Lists. What if you profiled your customer database and segmented it based on the results? What if you rented a specialty list?
Pick one, pick two, combine three… what fits for you?
Need some help strategizing? Or are you ready to start? Give us a call.
I’ve been waiting nearly a year to tell you about this.
While Marketing Informatics has always been in the business of using analytics and information-industry resources to provide better direct mail targeting, for the last 11 months, we’ve been developing a more specific tool.
It’s called Smart Proximity Marketing™. And it’s ready now.
It’s a makeover for your new customer acquisition program, using direct mail marketing and the natural psychology of consumers’ buying habits. Who can most benefit from SPM™? Any company that operates its business from a brick-and-mortar location, whether that be one building or dozens.
It’s all about location, location, location.
When you think, “Where do we go for dinner tonight?” you begin processing your options by thinking directionally. You think in terms of the areas that naturally fall into your day-to-day thinking. A certain side of town. A particular cluster of restaurants.
Your customers think the same way. So SPM uses the natural distribution of YOUR customers to develop a smarter direct mail plan for targeting new prospects. It goes beyond both the radius approach and even zip code marketing to define a “catchment” area from which your customers flow.
You get Customers from an Envelope™.
Ready to learn more? Just reply to this email or give me a call. I can’t wait to fill you in on more of the details.
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Let’s have a conversation and explore.
SPM™ isn’t for everyone. If we don’t think we can impact your business — we won’t be shy — we will let you know. It’s time to do something different — not because it’s trendy, but because it works. Put it to the test.
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Find and win new customers
That is one of the great challenges for business. Finding and winning new customers with a measurable and scalable program is an even greater challenge. That’s exactly why we created Smart Proximity Marketing™. [Read more]
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Zero in on high propensity targets
Precisely define the market area for each bricks and mortar location and then employ a direct mail contact strategy to drive results!
[Read more]
