AMiable Solution #86: When Good News Goes Bad

What started out as good news for direct marketers turned out bad in 2013.  Although Congress saved Saturday deliveries from being eliminated by the U.S. Postal Service, it brought on our third “not good for marketers” news story of the year…

3.  Increasing postal rates for 2014.  In an effort to generate revenue--and to make up for the loss of the money-saving five-day plan-- the USPS proposed, in September, to increase postage rates above the ordinary cap: the rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index.  Last month, the Postal Regulatory Commission approved the proposed rates, to take effect January 26, 2014, as long as the Postal Service doesn’t implement its Full Service IMb requirements at the same time.

While this news isn’t a reflection of the efforts of marketers, it is an issue for them.  Postal rates for both first class mail and standard mail will increase, adding more burden to many already-taxed marketing programs. 

The good news?  Adapting to change and finding ways to maximize impact on a fixed budget are two things marketers do well.

AMiable Solution #85: More Motivation for the New Year

Last week we started revisiting this year’s news stories and using the not-so-great ones as motivation for a better 2014.  We started with the need to know the market better.  This week it’s all about…

2.       Delayed responses.  When you want answers from a company or organization that you support, how quickly do you expect a response to your inquiry or request?  As a marketer, how quickly do you give one?  On October 2, customer-service solutions provider KANA reported that 59% of companies take more than eight hours to respond to emailed customer inquiries.  Nearly half that many--26.5% of those surveyed--take 24 hours or more to reply (“Email Response Found to be Delivering Second-Class Customer Service”).

Should you really worry about monitoring emailed correspondence?  Absolutely.  According to the report, email is the most common channel customers use to complain to a company (42%, followed by phone at 36%).  When complaints go unanswered, you risk not only losing the dissatisfied customer, but you also risk alienating the customer’s friends and associates: frustrations bounce around social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter faster than a tennis ball on a court.

But with so many other tasks already on hand and so many people already multi-tasking more than they can handle, how can you give client communication more attention?  Not surprisingly, that’s the biggest reason for the delay, according to the survey.  Out of all the organizations questions, the majority--64%--don’t have a system for classifying and assigning email.  Among those who do, only 40% say the system speeds up response times to common customer questions.

So what’s a marketer to do?  Just realizing the problem exists and recognizing it is a good start.  Identifying your available resources and researching possible automated solutions is a good goal for 2014.

AMiable Solution #84: When Bad News is Good News

This year we, as an industry, have had good reason to celebrate.  After all, despite the furloughs and shutdowns, we’re still here. 

But the news hasn’t all been good.  We did stumble a little along the way on both new and well-travelled paths. To close out the year, we’d like to revisit some of the past year’s less-than-positive news stories in the hope that they will give us a little insight into our shortfalls and provide motivation to do better next year. 

And the first story is…

        Knowing the market.  In August, DM News reported that only 20% of marketers know their customers in detail: who they are, what they buy, which channels they prefer, how involved they are in social media, what their households look like, etc.  Most marketers (53% of those surveyed) said they excel in understanding their customers’ purchasing history only but would be able to understand their customers better if they had better customer data.   For the full article, click here.

The lesson and goal for 2014: Use every opportunity possible to request or capture information and make sure your system enables you to access, understand, and capitalize on it.  Each data point you gather not only deepens your understanding of your customers and clients and helps you create smarter marketing campaigns, but it also distances your organization from your competitors.

Want a reminder of what marketing did right this year?  Look for our enewsletter, available mid-month, to revisit news stories that celebrated our community’s marketing successes. 

AMiable Solution #83: Brrrringing on the Sales

With anything set of traditions, there’s always one that gets a bad rap.  With Christmas, it’s fruitcake.  With marketing, it’s telemarketing.  But telemarketing, like fruitcake, isn’t all that bad when it’s made up of good things.

What it is: Unsolicited sales calls made via the phone

How it got started: Although DialAmerica opened its phone lines in 1957, Roman Murray is generally given credit for popularizing the telephone sales effort in the 1970s.  Murray’s Manhattan telemarketing agency, Campaign Communications, Inc., reportedly hired actors for their ability to “read scripts with feeling.”

Why it still works: Despite the negative connotations telemarketing has suffered, many organizations still use telemarketing to gain new customers, retain existing customers, and make new sales or acquire new donations.  Why?

Telemarketing increases coverage area, particularly for small businesses that may not have the resources to market on a large scale.  It’s also more budget-friendly than a traveling salesperson and more flexible in delivery than a direct mail piece: you can choose the exact date you want to make the calls, and you can call throughout the day.

Telemarketing also provides immediate consumer feedback and personal, one-on-one interaction.  What organization doesn’t want to build relationships?

AMiable Solution #82: The Hits Keep on Coming

Long before people LOLed or IMed one another, mail was the standard way to correspond.  While those days may be in the past, mail is still a viable and important tradition for businesses and organizations.

What it is: Direct mail

How it got started: The first U.S. pamphlet was reportedly published by William Penn in 1681.  Aaron Montgomery Ward started his catalog business nearly 200 years later, in 1872.  It was in 1835, however, that the first direct mail campaign, according to the National Postal Museum, was created.  Devised by the American Anti-Slavery Society, the campaign contained anti-slavery newspapers and printed materials and was targeted to southern religious and civic leaders, whose names were selected from newspapers, city directories, and other publically-available lists.

Why it still works: The advantages of mailing someone a printed letter, catalog, brochure, or package are just as relevant--if not more so--today as they were in the 1800s. Despite our growing and evolving technology, just about everyone has a permanent address, a place they call home.  You can’t say the same about landline phones or mobile phones or internet access or television sets.

Furthermore, direct mail offers some of the most trackable testing.  It can be targeted and personalized.  It can change its appearance and size and shape to offer a variety of looks and achieve a variety a goals, a flexibility that other forms of marketing don’t have.  Direct mail is also the most effective way to reach existing customers.

And although direct mail has earned the unflattering nickname “junk mail,” it is still perceived as being less intrusive than our next subject…telemarketing.