In partnership with Michigan Blood we are hosting a blood drive to help keep our blood banks filled for those in need.  Find out all you ever wanted to know about blood here http://miblood.org/about_blood/facts.html

From employees to family and friends we’re all getting involved in some way and we would love it if you could come join us. 

When: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 from 7.45am – 12.30pm
Where: DDS offices 5300 Corporate Grove SE, Ste 200, Grand Rapids, MI 49512-9512 (Get Directions)
How:  Call or email Staci to reserve your space and confirm your time. 616.247.1161 or staci@div-data.com

To discover more about giving blood: www.miblood.org 

The biggest challenges we encounter in our direct mail strategies is always starting with the end in mind. There are many great looking direct mail designs that we see every day but had they been designed with the end in mind there could have been massive cost savings in postage and possible increased returns in response rates.

It’s not enough for something to look good and be within budget, it must serve its purpose first and foremost.

In direct marketing the purpose we have to serve is meeting the need of a customer in a timely and hassle free way.  To the customer it should be intuitive and easy.  But for that ease to happen we have to push ourselves to think and preempt their needs and desires.

With direct mail it’s easy to continue and play the low cost numbers game.  Sending X at X cost will net me X in response rates and X in conversion rates.  It’s important that we pay attention to the financial implications but doing so at the cost of WOWing the customer can sometimes be a zero sum game.

Focusing on the long-term relationship you want to build with the customer and the life-time value of such a relationship should dictate better how much time and money you spend on your acquisition strategy.

You can run some numbers for yourself using the HarvardBusinessSchool– Customer Lifetime Vale Calculator http://hbsp.harvard.edu/multimedia/flashtools/cltv/index.html

To really move the needle in response rates and return on investment for direct mail marketing we have to use all the tools available, print to web, variable data, quality materials and processes but the most important thing we must use is the discipline and focus to understand what the customer wants…even before the customer knows.  If we can go through the complex and sometimes tedious process of discerning that, the numbers will simply look after themselves.

 Make the data do the work!

Most organizations we meet today are structured around what works for them.  Their databases are usually grouped in silos by products or departments and not by the customer. 

Take a college or university as an example.  Admissions have their database for prospecting, Alumni Relations have their database for post-graduation contact and college advancement might have a third database for fundraising.  Although these databases are powerful in their own right the true value can never be realized until there is a complete 360 degree view of all the databases in one.  That begins with centering your database on the customer and not your organization. 

Take the example of a university.  If admissions needs to recruit more students who do you think is the best advocate for the college, usually alumni. If admissions don’t have access to that data it’s not able to access its best recruiters. Accessing and analyzing alumni data can be a great way to build key strategies for growth and truly involve the past student body.  This is just the beginning. We know that being a customer focused organization drives long-term growth. It becomes a lot easier when you have a full picture of your customers and can send relevant personalized information.

Although it can be overwhelming to integrate large database systems and change working habits within a culture there are some less daunting starting points that can help to make a great case for the larger picture.  Every organization is different and every product or service group has different objectives and goals. Let’s go back to the college example for a moment.  What if you determined that 30% of your current college students were the children or grandchildren of past alumni?  What would happen if you could analyze the alumni database to show past students in the 40 – 50+ age bracket with children who are age 16-17?  Would you want to build a personal relationship with those alumni as their children make a decision about college?  The key is to decide on one piece of valuable information that could drive returns. It might be completely different from this example, but once you have identified a key influencer then get the data and merge it manually to conduct a test.  If the test works you build the case for having the data be accessible and integrated in a real-time basis.

Getting a return on your data is the key to driving profitability and customer growth.  Don’t let your data sit on the shelf start using it today.  Make the data do the work!

1. Brand Integrity
2. Efficiency
3. Economies of Scale
4. Relevant Content

1. Brand Integrity

Decentralize ordering responsibility while protecting your identity.  Giving users and individual locations the flexibility to order what they need when they need it is a key ingredient of an effective print-procurement plan.  However, doing so without brand control in place will lead to inconsistency in your identity and confusion among your customers.  Web-to-print allows for an effective ordering model while protecting your brand.

2. Efficiency

Once you have all your brand standards locked-in and your templates created, the ROI begins.  Each person with access to the system can create their marketing piece in minutes.  Let them approve on-the-spot, or route the final approval through another person or group within the organization.  Once approved your pieces are automatically scheduled to print, and if mailing is part of the project, the opportunity to integrate variable data is presented once the artwork is created. From concept to completion, your order will be delivered within 24 hours with only a few minutes of time spent by the user in creating the order.

3. Economies of Scale

For organizations that are fast-growing, have multiple locations or remote employees, it’s important that your people have the tools they need when they need them.  Web-to-print is the best tool for on-demand printing, because it allows for all of the small orders to be considered as the sum of their individual parts.

4. Relevant Content

In a business climate where personalization and microtargeting are the keys to getting your message through, web-to-print allows for the creation of content that is most relevant to the intended recipient.  When integrated with a PURL, web-to-print can help not only create keep content relevant to a particular group of people, but all the way down to an individual level.

Click on the image to see a full size picture that you can read.

The antithesis of Henry Ford’s production model is here and now.  Mass customization trumps mass production.  We help clients move from the “Spray and Pray” method of marketing to a highly targeted and relevant-content approach.  The results?  In recently helping two key clients re-think their 2009 Fall appeal projects, we were able to reduce overall project costs by an average of 30%, while increasing total donations over last year by 20%.  That is big ROI resulting in billions of dollars of additional revenue for these clients.  OK, maybe not billions, but you get the drift.

Less money spent and more revenue generated, now that is so very 2020.

Historically in direct response marketing the three avenues of measuring response has been either:

1. Receiving something back in the mail
2. Having somebody phone your call center
3. Having somebody bring a coupon into your store or place of business

Thankfully the internet has allowed a fourth more consumer friendly and marketing friendly option.  Driving prospects online as a next step is one of the most cost effective and easily trackable response mechanisms for marketers. Not to mention the incredible results that a well planned and executed campaign can generate.

The positives from a consumer side is they stay in control going online and can engage more with a brand or offer in an unthreatening environment.  The benefits to marketers is a lot more information can be shared more cost effectively online and feedback and information from the respondent can be gathered more easily and reported in real-time.

The keys to a well run campaign are:

1. A convincing and valuable offer that makes the next step highly desirable.
2. An accurate and trageted database that is profiled to match the offer
3. A compellling and well designed website
4. An easy and intuitive user experience

To find out more how we can help your organization drive results and measure responses with an integrated online and offline campaign call us today or email john@div-data.com

As a data driven direct marketing company we like to help our clients stop playing the numbers game. 

Old School Thinking:  If i want 75 new customers and i know i will get a 1.5% response rate and i will convert 5% of those responses then i need to market to 100,000 people….aggghhhhhh!!

Diversified Data Services Thinking: If i want 75 new customers i should analyze my current customer database to build a profile and develop a new customer acquisition model that delivers the right message to the right person at the right time.  The pro’s call it predictive modeling we call it doing what you would if you had the time….Yeeaaahhhh!

Call us today and find out about how we helped one of our customers increase their income by 20% and reduce their costs by almost 40% in 2009.