Change the Rules on Direct Marketing Responses

When it comes to direct marketing there is clearly a distinction between approaches to how you spend your marketing dollar and the return you expect to obtain. Few have the budget to follow multiple paths. I am talking about Reach or Frequency. Both are wonderful examples of the Law of Averages and depending on the path you choose (Reach or Frequency) will determine the expected return based on the Law of Averages. I say change the rules by deploying some cross-channel marketing campaigns that create a new bell curve on expected returns on the direct marketing dollar. Let me explain…

The Law of Averages is defined as a law affirming that in the long run probabilities will determine performance; the statistical tendency toward a fixed proportion in the results when an experiment is repeated a large number of times; the law of large numbers. So let’s see how this works between the two approaches.

A “Reach” approach means to target a larger audience with less frequent marketing messages. The law of averages says that the probability of the recipient wanting to rid themselves of the problem that you can solve at the time they receive your marketing message decreases rapidly the fewer the messages you send. Many companies use the reach method. For example, a typical reach campaign may broadcast out 10,000 messages in the hopes that some have that perfect timing. In the direct mail world, that perfect timing yields a response rate from 1.5 to 3% at best. 10,000 mailings at $0.35/piece is $3,500. With a response rate of 2% (200 responses) equates to a cost per response of $17.50.

The “Frequency” approach proves for better returns based on the same Law of Averages. Send more frequent, more relevant, more personalized marketing messages to a smaller recipient list. Instead of 10,000, send 1,000 personalized messages once a month for 6 months combined with a Personal URL (vip.ABCCompany.com/JohnTarget). 6,000 combined messages at $1.00/piece costs $6,000. More relevance, more personalization, along with better call to action tools such as PURL’s, generates response rates that range from 6% to 10%. If using 6% as a response rate for the life of the campaign, this translates to a 50% increase in conversion opportunities (200 to 360) and a 5% reduction in the cost per response ($17.50 to $16.67). Personalization makes the per piece cost more expensive but the higher response rate results in a lower cost per response and substantially more opportunities to convert the response to an actual sell.

Now here comes the game changer. Combine the frequency approach with targeted personalized emails and follow on SMS (text messages) as part of the same campaign and move the response rate and the conversion rate needles to the outer edges of the bell curve. Only cross-channel marketing campaigns allow you to achieve this. It is possible without creating a labor intensive wrinkle generator. Use a cross-channel campaign provider, like MediaDyme to build better campaigns.

Single Channel Campaigns Are Sooo “1.0”

There comes a time when returning to “back to basics” is necessary. However, in today’s technology and marketing world, the speed of buzz, the way of the viral, and explosion of interactivity in the market place constantly redefines “basic.” Granted, some industries like healthcare and construction are stuck in 2nd gear when it comes to adopting new levels of technology and capability resulting in a slower shift plan to new and better ways of reaching and interacting with their marketplace. For the rest of us, we have been traveling at light speed across time with ever advancing campaign management capability. From direct mail to twitters, the conversation is multi-faceted now and if you are not keeping pace with the multiple languages required then your marketing voice will quickly fade from the conversation. A relic you will be.

Single channel marketing campaigns are cool for basics, and for those who are just learning to talk, and there are plenty of campaign tools out there that can help you speak only one language whether it be direct mail, email, SMS, voice mail, fax, RSS, etc. The effectiveness of these campaign tools are good as they all assist in creating, delivering, and managing personal and relevant marketing messages. However, using only one direct marketing channel is like only speaking Portuguese at a UN convention and expecting everyone to not only understand you, but take action on what you say. Your audience becomes narrower than you intended.

Ok, so you get it. Use more direct marketing channels as part of an integrated marketing campaign. How do you do that without pulling your hair out and crowding the sea of marketing campaign providers to achieve even the simplest of cross channels marketing? Worse yet, how do you actually understand and measure effectiveness collectively as part of the integrated campaign without piecing together spreadsheets from as many channels and providers involved?

Your decoder ring is simple. Use a single vendor that is capable of creating, delivering, and managing multi-faceted direct marketing campaigns all in one place. That’s what MediaDyme has set out to provide. Remove the roadblocks to building campaigns that cross channels in an integrated fashion. Sometimes you get ahead by mastering the rules of the game. It’s more fun to get ahead by changing the rules of the game.