Bulk or First Class?

Trying to decide whether to print and send your mail bulk or first class mail? It can be quite the dilemma: how long will it take to print, how long will it take to mail, etc?

In general, it takes the same amount of time to print either bulk or first class but volume affects the timing. Delivery times vary, but as a rule, first class takes about 1-5 business days (anywhere in the domestic U.S.), and bulk mail can take up to 2 weeks or more depending on the location.

So in the end, it's up to you and what works best for your client. If they need to send mail out right away, first class is your best bet. If their pieces can wait, go bulk.

Here's more information about bulk mail.

6 Benefits of Webforms

Do you use webforms, landing pages, or squeeze pages in your marketing strategy? Here are some reasons why you should and how they can optimize your campaign strategy.

Webforms are kind of like “questionnaire” pages you get when you land on a website. They typically include first-time qualifying questions to determine whether your visitor is a fit for your client.

Here are the key reasons you should use webforms:

1. As already mentioned, they serve to qualify new prospects.
   
   
2. Webforms save money. Instead of paying someone to make cold calls to find out what you want to know, set up a webform instead.
   
   
3. Webforms are a convenient way to communicate with prospects. Direct prospects to your webform via email or direct mail and the webform does the rest.
   
   
4. Webforms allow you to personalize information. Prospects’ birthdays, intention to purchase, company information, etc will allow you send personalized communication via email and direct mail to make communication more relevant.
   
   
5. Webforms trigger multi-channel campaigns. Once prospects fill out the webform and click “send,” you’re on your way to multi-channel communication and furthering the relationship.
   
   
6. Webforms allow prospects to opt-in. Ask respondents whether they want to receive your newsletter, your weekly email, updates, or additional communication from you.
   

Do you use webforms as part of your marketing strategy? Why or why not? What other benefits have you experienced from using webforms?

4 Reasons not to use Email

A lot of companies have jumped on the email bandwagon to communicate with their customers and prospects – in fact, in a recent survey, we found 90% of companies use only email to communicate.

Sure, email is faster and cheaper, but is it better?

Consider these facts:

• Nearly 70% of respondents said they had multiple email accounts. - AOL/Beta Research Corporation (2008)
• 60% of users employ two or more personal email addresses, giving a different address to entities they do not trust while maintaining separate accounts for trustworthy sources. - Habeas (2008)
• 60% of people who read an email only see or read 50 percent of the message. - Jeanniey Mullen ClickZ (2005)
• 46% of internet users say commercial emails they receive are not targeted to their needs. - eMarketer (2006)
  

The key to getting customer and prospect attention is through an integrated marketing approach using both email and direct mail. This ensures your message will be seen and heard.
Do you agree with this post or disagree? Tell us about your preferred methods of communication.

5 Ways to Get Started with Relationship Marketing

Admit it. We’ve all tried the “spray and pray” method of direct marketing - yours truly included - and received marginal results. But now's the time to move forward fearlessly to achieve a higher ROI using relationship marketing strategies.

To some marketers, however, the word "relationship" conjures up fears of all the hand holding they'll have to do with their client, and how much time and energy it could take (that they don't have) to successfully execute a relationship marketing campaign.

Here's the good news: relationship marketing doesn't have to be that way if you have the right approach and right tools to get started. Even better, some companies can automate all your direct mail and email campaigns for you, so you can focus on your business and clients and not the mundane and time-consuming side of campaign management. Plus you’ll experience greater ROI.

Here are five ways to get started with relationship marketing:

1. Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Repeat after me: I will never do “spray and pray” marketing again. We know from experience that it doesn’t work, so don’t keep doing it. Embrace segmentation and personalization in your direct marketing campaigns.
   
   
2. Implement a multi-touch, multi-media strategy. Get in touch and stay in touch with a combination of direct mail, email, phone calls, social media and text messaging. Don’t rely on one media type to get your message through to your targeted audience. There’s no silver bullet of media, an integrated approach using various outlets will produce greater results.
   
   
3. Present relevant, personalized offers. Engage your audience with content tailored to them using individualized direct mail, email and text messages to keep them interested in your products or services. Present to them what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them.
   
   
4. Don’t pick only the low hanging fruit. Reach for the opportunities at the top and stay in touch with them over time. Over 80% of sales leads are not ready to buy right now according to Marketing Sherpa, but these same prospects will buy in the future. Don’t ignore these latent prospects and miss sales opportunities. You’ve started a relationship with them, now advance them to a sale.
   
   
5. Expand on your current relationships. Focus on your customers and those prospects who have expressed interest in your product or service, but have not yet purchased. You have an established relationship with these contacts. They are a great source to re-engage and converse with. Create a dialogue with them using online surveys or web forms to capture their needs and interests. Use these data points to educate them about your products and services.
   

Is There Hope for Direct Mail?

In this digital era of ours, direct mail may be seen as something from the past. But you still need direct mail to reach those prospects you’re unable to contact through email. Plus, it’s a cost-effective way to stay in touch.

Mac McIntosh says:

“Reach customers and prospects with direct mail. If your budget is tight, consider personalized, laser-printed letters or postcards. These formats are some of the lowest cost-per-touch mail formats and are a way to reach prospects you can't e-mail. These mail pieces are getting through and getting the attention of your prospective customers. They also are cost effective (if the other tips are followed) on a cost-per-lead basis.”

Now it's time to hear from you: Do you agree that direct mail is still effective? Or do you think email marketing is a better way to go?

Don't Make this Common Email Mistake

Have you ever received an email that relied on images to carry the message? I received one the other day and here’s what it looked like:



As a marketer, of course I want to know what’s behind the brown curtain, but what about the others who don’t?

What happens when this same message is viewed via a Smartphone? Here’s what it looks like:


The one saving grace is the option to view this email a browser, but that’s an extra step customers and prospects need to take in order to get your message. And in these days of faster, quicker, better, don’t count on them making the effort. Simpler is better.

Are You Ignoring Your “Just-Interested” Prospects?

Here’s what a typical lead database looks like according to Marketing Sherpa:

• 11% are mid-term
• 73% are long-term
• 7% are sales-ready
• 9% are duds

This means that 84% of prospects in your database are interested but not ready to buy, yet. Make sure you stay in touch with them and send relevant follow-up personalized communications.

5 Tips to Nurture Leads

According to a recent survey, 69% of marketers say nurturing high-quality leads is their #1 challenge. But lead nurturing doesn't have to be as difficult as it seems. Especially if you have the right tools to get there.

Below are five tips to keep in mind when nurturing leads:

1. Do you have an automated way to keep in touch with "just-interested" prospects over time until they are "sales-ready?"
   
   
2. Can you systematically direct prospects to the appropriate next touch based on their response or lack of response?
   
   
3. Do you have an easy way to capture their needs and interests (via a webform or landing page) to help drive future communications?
   
   
4. Are you able to manage different campaigns across each client efficiently and effectively?
   
   
5. Are you capitalizing on new technologies that allow you to be more efficient in campaign management?
   

There are a lot of CRMs out there, but lead nurturing is more than that. It's about creating a dialogue with your prospects and exchanging information to better understand their interests and needs and then respond appropriately to those needs. And in today's market, that's what will set you apart from the rest.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Sell: When Personalization Goes Wrong

The other day, I was talking to a colleague about personalization and how important it is to get it right. He used the example of his wife who recently purchased some new baby items online for her daughter’s new baby boy. Since purchasing these items, the store has sent her numerous offers.

As far as the practice of relationship marketing goes, the store sort of got it right: they continually send his wife postcards and emails for new baby items such as diapers, blankets and strollers. But here’s where they got it wrong: they continue to send his wife/the baby’s grandmother, meaningless offers that don’t pertain to why she purchased those items in the first place. Why? Because they didn’t ask.

Unfortunately, lots of companies make this same mistake. They miss opportunities to provide relevant offers to their customers and prospects based on customer needs and behavior. Asking questions upfront and learning what your customers want and need are the keys to a profitable, long-lasting relationship. Studies show that, “tailored pieces increase response rates by more than 500 percent over a basic, non-personalized piece.” (source: Digital Printing Council Survey)

In this case, here’s how the store could have used personalization to get more sales:

1. Drive respondents to a web form. You can do this with postcards, email, business letters, text messages, etc. The goal is to get prospects to fill out a form and gather their information.
   
   
2. Ask them relevant questions about their needs, wants and reason to purchase. In this case, the web form questions would be: why are you here today?, with the following drop-down menu options: I’m shopping for my new baby; I’m a new grandmother; I’m attending a baby shower, etc. Ask what items are the most important, such as strollers, cribs, clothing, etc.
   
   
3. Use the information received from the web form to personalize future multi-media communications. Send out a postcard with the message, “Dear (first name), congratulations on your new (baby, baby girl, grandson)! Here are a few items for your during (her, his) first (few days, few weeks, few months, year) .” The following email could say, “Exclusive offer for new (moms, grandmas, grandparents): (10, 15, 25)% off .
   
   
4. Continue the dialogue with relevant offers. Now that you know why the purchase occurred and for whom, continue to send emails and postcards over time with additional relevant offers.
   
   
5. Don't forget to continue to ask questions. Buyer needs change over time - baby formula today may not equal baby formula tomorrow. Continue to ask what your buyers want and need so you can present relevant offers while continuing the conversation.
   

7 Steps to Relationship Marketing

As a marketer, you’re probably familiar with the concept of relationship marketing. But do you practice it? Here’s why you should and 7 steps to implement relationship marketing– now.

Relationship marketing is about having multi-media, multi-touch programs in place that enable you to stay in touch with prospects, customers, constituents, donors, volunteers and members over time so they eventually convert.

However, as you may be painfully aware, relationship marketing campaigns can be difficult to implement. Staff distractions, time, budget constraints and lack of support are common culprits, plus keeping track of it all can be frustrating. Instead, many marketers go for the “low hanging fruit,” because these folks are ready to buy and they’re an easy sell.

Turns out, this can be a costly mistake. Reaching for low hanging fruit leads to 50% less sales because you ignore the “just-interested” prospects who aren't quite ready to buy right now but will buy from you eventually. Marketing Sherpa estimates that, “more than half of the leads in the typical marketing database are viable, qualified leads – even if those prospects aren't yet ready to buy.”

Ignoring potential leads is like ignoring someone who is “just-looking” in a store. You need to identify what their needs are and help them understand how your products or services can fulfill those needs.

The process of identifying, nurturing, retaining and maintaining customer and prospect relationships may take some work, but it’s worth it.

Here are the 7 steps to a relationship marketing campaign:

1. Realize the need. Let’s say you've been a long-time customer of Frankie’s Pizza, but lately the service has been less than stellar and the pizza isn't as warm and cheesy as it used to be. You want to try another place but you don’t know where to go.
   
   
2. Get in front of your customers. In your mailbox, you get a flyer from Louie’s Pizza, a new pizzeria just down the street. The flyer invites you to visit their website to register to win a free extra large pizza with unlimited toppings. You fire up your laptop, visit the website and register.
   
   
3. Drive them to a webform to get their information. The form asks you for your name, email and address, plus your birthday and favorite kind of pizza, which you say is “pepperoni.”
   
   
4. Reward them for their time with relevant offers. After you fill out the information, you receive a confirmation email and a coupon for 20% off your next order of “pepperoni” pizza. You save the coupon for later because you’re still not sure you want to try it out yet.
   
   
5. Embrace multi-touch, multi-media. In addition to the flyer and email, you also get a postcard a couple days later. Louie's Pizza now has cheesy breadsticks and three different kinds of salads. You’re intrigued, so you save the postcard for later.
   
   
6. Offer immediate gratification. About a week later, you receive an email from Louie himself, the owner of Louie’s Pizza. He’s giving away a free medium “pepperoni” pizza to new customers only, tomorrow from 5-7pm. Bingo! The next evening, you drive to Louie’s Pizza and see Louie at the counter, handing out free medium pizzas to the growing line of his new customers. You also pick up the cheesy breadsticks and a salad for a mere $5.
   
   
7. Continue nurturing your customers. Louie hands you a BOGO coupon for your next visit.
   

Relationship marketing doesn't have to be difficult. You just need to plan ahead, incorporate compelling, relevant offers and use personalized communications to stay in front of those who have raised their hand. And when prospects are ready to buy, they’ll think of you – instead of one of your competitors – first.