AMiable Solution #207: Treat Marketing

Last week, I got a personalized pen in the mail.  I didn’t order it, and I’d never heard of the company before, but there it was.  A nice, ball-point pen with my company’s name on it.

You’ve most likely experienced something similar.  A set of free Christmas cards here.  A calendar with your name on it there.  You have to wonder: does it work?  Do free samples really bring in business?

Yes, they do.

Sampling does what no four-color catalog, no exquisitely written email, no multi-piece envelop mailer can do: it lets customers see, feel, and use a product instead of just reading about it.  And it’s a practice you can implement through direct mail, at trade shows, and in retail facilities.

YA, an engagement marketing and promotions company in Minneapolis, made the following conclusions through its own research:

·        92% of consumers will try a product sample

·        53% bought the product sample they tried

·        42% have switched their brand preference based on trying a product sample

·        56% like product samples because they are looking for alternatives

·        77% say that receiving product sample would motivate them to try another from that brand

If you choose to send free samples, however, make sure they’re just that: free samples. 

According to U.S. Title 39, your company can mail unsolicited merchandise to someone if it’s clearly identified as a free sample or if you’re a charitable organization soliciting contributions.  It is not legal to send something to someone with the intention of collecting payment later.  Your recipients may contact you for more.  They may not.  They may throw your samples away.  In any case, that’s the risk you take.

Did I order more pens?  No, but I did put it in my drawer.  You just never know when you’ll need one.

AMiable Solution #206: Return to Sender

Sometimes the problem with a mailing address isn’t yours: it’s your customer’s.

You might not think that a customer, donor, or member would have trouble addressing mail to you.  After all, you have your mailing address plastered all over your website, your marketing collateral, and your social media sites.  But it happens.

For starters, if you have multiple locations or segregated offices (a corporate headquarters location, a fulfillment location, a customer service location, etc.) your customers might not know which address to use and send their inquiries, donations, or orders to the wrong address, delaying the process.

In addition, if you don’t provide pre-addressed envelopes, labels, or reply cards and rely on your audience handwriting your address, you risk that handwriting being illegible.  Although the Postal Service has advanced scanning technology that allows its machines to “read” nearly 160 billion pieces of mail every year, the system isn’t completely foolproof.  In 2015, the USPS’s Salt Lake City Remote Encoding Center--the last of what once was a 55-building strong “fleet” of facilities--processed more than 2 billion pieces of mail that post offices around the country identified as indecipherable.  While the “keyers” at the center are able to fill in the gaps and complete or identify the illegible addresses on the mail, the process takes time and delays your receipt.

So how can you make sure you get your mail on time?  First of all, make your mailing address large and clear on every order form and every page of every promotion.  Leave no doubt about where your customers’ responses should go.  Then, if your department can afford it, include a mailing label, reply card, or envelope with all of your campaigns.  If that’s not practical or possible, include a mailing label that customers can print or cut out and mail.

Your offers should inspire your market to respond.  Make sure your campaigns make it easy to do so.

AMiable Solution #205: KO the UAA

The United State Postal Service identifies mail as undeliverable for one of seven reasons:

• ·        no postage
• ·        incomplete, illegible, or incorrect address
• ·        addressee not at address
• ·        mail unclaimed
• ·        mail refused by the addressee at the time of delivery
• ·        mail refused by addressee after delivery when permitted
• ·        minimum criteria for mailability not met.

You can eliminate or at least greatly reduce the occurrence of two of those reasons-- incomplete, illegible, or incorrect address; addressee not at address--by keeping your mailing list clean.

Clean lists start with careful input.  No matter who’s entering the information, whether customer service, marketing, or sales, that information has to be accurate from the get-go.  That sometimes means taking longer than usual to enter a name and address into the system, and it sometimes takes a phone call or other follow-up to verify the information with the client or member. 

But that’s time well spent.  Horizontech Inc., a global information technology services organization, reported in its May 2011 “HTI Base Statistics on UAA Mail” report that the USPS receives 6.9 billion pieces of Undeliverable-As-Addressed (UAA) mail every year at a cost of approximately $1.4 billion annually. 

Why waste money developing, printing, and mailing something that’s never going to get anywhere?

Once a contact is in your database, keeping it current is key.  Out-of-date or inaccurate addresses accounted for more than 68% of UAA mail in July 2016, according to the USPS’s online report of nixie volume by mailing industry. 

Keep your addresses deliverable by running a merge purge on your house list, and any big mailings with multiple rentals, at least once a year.  You can buy your own software, but your best bet is to let a data processing company run the merge purge for you.  Your data processing company may be your mailhouse or an independent provider, but it should have the resources and tools (NCOA, LACS, and CASS) you need to clean up your list and take advantage of postage discounts.

As the saying goes, you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, and you can’t deliver sales from an undeliverable mailpiece.  A clean database is a happy place.

AMiable Solution #204: Falling for It?

Fall is here, and with it comes cooler evenings and brisk mornings, back-to-school, and football.  It’s brought longer pants, shorter attention spans, and thoughts of the end of the year.

Fall has also brought the opportunity to create season-specific campaigns and promotions.

Did you send out fall-themed marketing last week?  Do you have others currently in production?  According to Brielle Jaekel, you may want to review them closely before you let them drop.

In her September 25, 2015, Mobile Marketer article, “Marketers Largely Fail With First-Day-of-Fall Social Campaigns,” Brielle says that brands are constantly incorporating national events and holidays into their social feeds.  The result?  Seasonal overkill.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  You can “fall” into your marketing, but you have to use it wisely. 

How?  Highlight only the events--seasonal and otherwise--that are relevant to your organization.  For example, if you release a signature product every fall, incorporating the fall season into your marketing makes sense.  Slapping a few leaves on a promotion with no tie to the season or the content of your offer does not.

How else can you make sensational seasonal marketing?  If your organization doesn’t have a natural tie to this time of year, create one:

• ·        Plan an open house/career fair for local students.  Invite them to come in and ask questions, talk to your experts, and learn about the important contributions your industry makes to the community and how they can get involved.  Make it an annual event.
• ·        Organize a donation drive that compliments your company’s mission.  The holidays are coming.  If you’re in the restaurant business, collect canned goods for the local food bank.  If you’re a retailer, collect sweaters for a local homeless shelter.  If you’re a service business, organize a company-wide volunteer opportunity.  You get the idea.
• ·        Host a pumpkin decorating contest.  Ask customers to decorate a pumpkin based on one of your organization’s key missions or on a particular product line or service.  Offer a coffee-and-doughnuts celebration for the winning entry’s office.  Be sure to post all photo submissions online to share the fun and recognize participating customers.

Making your fall promotions relevant to the needs and interests of your market not only makes them more effective, but it also makes them more memorable, something your customers will look forward to year after year.