Download Internet Direct Mail Campaign From Development To

Internet Direct Mail Campaign
From Development To
Results Analysis
A recent study reported that 40% of the Internet users change their opinion
due to the information they gathered online. In this terms it is very
important to pay a special attention to the brand image you create using
online advertising and e-mail maerketing campaigns.
TreeWorks
Blvd. Coposu nr. 4
bl. 105 A sc. A ap. 1
Bucureşti, România
Phone: +40.213.260.602
Fax: +40.213.267.233
www.tree.ro
[email protected]
Content
Definition
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Benefits
___________________________________________________________________________
Elements Of An E-mail Marketing Campaign
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List Of Subscribers _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 4
Develop The Content And Format Of The Message _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 5
Evaluation And Review Of The Campaign _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 8
Avoiding Spam Messages
Conclusion
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Definition
Internet direct mail is an e-mail advertising a
product or service and soliciting orders, which is
sent to a large number of potential customers.
Direct Mail permits the marketer to design marketing pieces in many different formats like:
•
•
•
Sales Letters: Often personalized, the sales letter pursuades the recipient to buy the
product or service.
Response Device: This can be an order form, opinion survey or applications used to buy the
product or service. This piece involves the recipient.
Lift Note: The lift note is extremely effective in boosting the response to an email. You can
highlift an important to buy, incorporate a testimonial or print an endorsement by a
celebrity.
Benefits
1. Inexpensive
2.Measurable Results
The email is less expensive than other
advertising options, such as the banner ads,
outdoor and telemarketing. The price of
sending a single B2C email marketing message
is less than 1 cent, the Association of
Interactive Marketing shows in their reports.
There is software designed to measure
campaign success. These programs generate
reports on the number of emails opened by
your recipients (open-ups) and the number of
times your clicks were clicked (click-through).
Being able to quantify the success of
campaigns in progress, marketers can quickly
adjust their strategies to increase response
rates.
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3. Wide Reach
6. Emails can be highly customized
Email became already a part of many people's
daily routine. It is a communication medium
with an exceptional large audience and allows
recipients to immediately respond the
message. An email can be sent in a few
seconds, anywhere in the world.
When email list works together customer
database, even the large volume campaigns
can be customized so that messages include
specific customer data.
Database integration also allows select
customer groups to receive messages
appropriate for only a portion database entries
(for example, ZIP Code, gender etc.).
4. Drives website traffic and registration
You can include in your messages links that
direct the consumers to your website. This will
increase site traffic and the will lead to
increase website registration. You may then
follow up by providing your customers with
personalized and targeted content.
5. Strengthnes Brand Awareness
Regularly delivered emails that contain
important subjects and logos reinforce
company' and product awareness. Email
creates an interactive connection with
customers and nurtures long lasting, quality
relationships.
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7. Time saving
According to the Association of Interactive
Marketing, companies that use email
marketing to administrate campaigns rather
than traditional direct mailings save 60% of
their time.
8. Email is easy to implement and requirers
limited resources.
Email campaigns can be easy implemented and
realized with only minimal software, hardware
and personnel investments.
Elements Of An E-mail
Marketing Campaign
1. List Of Subscribers
First step in an email marketing campaign is
compiling a list of email addresses from those
who have agreed to receive your messages.
This is known as an opt-in email marketing and
is a very important part of the campaign. A
recent study reported that only 6 percent of
permission-based e-mail is deleted unopened,
while 59 percent of opt-out e-mail is deleted
unopened.
Start gathering addresses with:
Current Customers who may have given you
their e-mail addresses and permission to send
messages. Depending on how your business
operates, there may be multiple opportunities
to collect clients' email addresses (order forms
etc.). Or, perhaps e-mail communication may
already be the most common way you
correspond to your clients and therefore the
perfect opportunity exists to ask them if they
would like to receive newletters or other
offers.
Prospective Customers
These e-mail addressed can be obtained
through sign-ups on your website or in-store
locations. There are e-mail list management
softwares that can interact with your site and
your visitors may automatically subscribe to
newsletters without having to perform this
function manually.
List Brokers – companies specialized in
compiling opt-in mailing list. To make sure you
will get quality opt-in lists, ask your brokers
these questions:
• What is the website's method for opting
in the people on its lists?
• What type of relationship does the site
have with the people in its list?
• How old are the names?
• How is the e-list maintained?
• What selections are available on the elist?
• Does the e-list owner offer any valueadded services?
These questions can help you determine which
lists can produce profitable results for your
product or service.
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2. Developing the Content and Format of the
Message
Messages should be created according to the
results you wish to achieve. Establish your
campaign goals and then create a strong
message that reinforces your brand, describes
your products and clearly establishes how the
consumers can contact you. The subject line is
possibly the most important part of an e-mail
message. Write a powerful line, by combining
an action phrase with a response-boosting
incentive.
Message Content
•
Ensure your message reaches the
target audience needs. Make sure the
offer of your products and services
reaches the needs of the recipient of
the mailing.
•
Get to the point quickly. Do not start
the e-mail with general information,
get to the point from the beginning. It
is important to make your point in the
first five lines.
•
Keep most direct e-mails short. The
message should be short, clear and to
the point. On the Internet people want
information and the want it right away.
•
Mention sell benefits. If you want to
sell don't forget to tell potential buyers
about the benefit of using your product
or service. Before starting to write,
make a list with all the benefits this
maight bring. When you write the
copy, be sure to start with the first
three major benefits.
•
Use an impersonal style. It is
recommended to personalize each
letter you send in the direct e-mail
campaign. Write like you are talking to
the recipient of the letter. Be
conversational, informal, but be sure
not to use a too familiar language.
Message format: text, HTML (text and
graphics) or multi-part format.
HTML mail has the ability to strengthen the
message, by combining fully graphic images
(like your company's logo) with text.
Studies show that less experienced internet
users tend to desire HTML e-mail, while the
experienced ones prefer text-only. It is
advisable to allow subscribers to choose their
desired format. Recipient format preferences
can be stored in the data base, just like other
preferences and demographic information.
A multi-part specification allows you to send
email in both text and HTML format, while the
email program of the recipient will expose
only the desired format.
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● Use letters to generate leads, not
sales
A one-page letter is an excellent tool to
generate interest, but is much to short
to effectively sell. Your goal is to
generate a response, either it is a
return mail card, an email, a phone or a
fax. You just want an opportunity, you
cannot get the sail from the first direct
mail.
•
•
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Use a P.S. A response rate survey
showed that often recipent's eye moves
down the page to the P.S before they
read the entire letter. If possible,
restate your selling proposition in the
P.S.
Use white space. It is difficult for a
user to read a block of text. Use short
paragraphs, bulleted or numbered lists
. These will help the recipient read
your message.
•
Include a call to action. Do not let the
recipients wonder what to do. It is not
enough to tell them to check your home
page. Include in your message a special
URL that people can click on to go to
your site and fill out a form to request
additional information.
•
Make a no risk offer. Offer the
recipient something and make it no
risk. A free trial and a money back
guarantee are will work when your
buyer is uncertain about accepting your
offer. Make sure it is clear there is no
risk or obligation on their part.
•
Create a deadline. Even if it is a real or
an imaginative one, be sure to include it
in the email. Usually, the imposition of
deadline increases the rate of answers
because the recipients understand they
only have a limited time to act.
•
Include a guarantee. If you can offer a
quarantee, do it. Some products or
services do not easily lend themselves to
the offer of a guarantee. In this case you
can guarantee the delivery, the service
or the best price. By offering a
guarantee, you offer credibility to your
products and services.
•
Include testimonials. Testimonials from
satisfied clients are the strongest way to
bring credibility to your copy. Also,
recommandations from a celebrity can
lend a note of credibility.
•
Include all your contact information.
Include in the message your name, phone
number, fax and e-mail. People respond
differently, so offer them the possibility
to choose.
3. Evaluation And Review Of The Campaign
Create a pilot campaign that tests the
efficiency of the message on a selected
portion of your database. Measure the results
from the trial, make adjustments and test it
on another group. Refine your message until
you think it is good enough to launch a full
campaign.
Once you have sent your final message to the
recipients you may start measuring the results
of the campaign. Monitoring responses enables
you to determine the quality of your recipient
lists and the effectiveness of the message.
E-mail marketing programs are capable of
recording if the recipients open or not your
message, if they click or not on the URL that
links to your website. Being able to quantify
these activities you can measure the succes of
the campaigns and make adjustments to
achieve a higher conversion rate. This is the
key of an e-mail marketing campaign.
Response Analysis
There are three main measurement ways
currently used:
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•
•
Campaign success is measured through ROI
(return of investment). Other standard
measurements, such as cost per piece or cost
per lead are useful, but they will not provide
the “big picture” view given by the ROI
analysis. The most accurate ROI calculation
takes into account the amount of sales
generated by the consumers over the time.
The first step is to run small tests mailings to
get a feel for your baseline response rates.
Subsequent mailings can try different things,
such as: a different design of the mail, a
different text or a new mailing lists. When you
are confident of your results you can extend
the campaign at a larger group, assuring that
the return of investment will be positive.
While the standard profile of a subscriber does
not assume a minimum rate of response, each
effort must be made to achieve the biggest
answer rate possible, using the following
procedures.
Resonse Rate can be calculated as it follows:
 substract the non-deliverables from the
Click-through rate. This tells you how many
amount of sent messages to determine
people who received the message clicked
the net mail-out;
on a link in the e-mail to a specific site,
 substract the incomplete or non-usable
page or form on the web.
returns from total returns to determine
Replies of the people who clicked though
net-returns;
to a response form, how many completed
 divide net returns by net mail-out to
the form and submited it to you.
determine the response rate.
Sales or inquires. How many people who
completed the form actually ordered a
product or requested more information.
Your e-list manager should provide log reports
that summarize the results. Such a report
should include the data of transmission, the
number of promotional email transmitted,
click-through response rate, undeliverable
messages and opt-outs.
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Measuring Results
The following example illustrates how the
response rate must be calculated:
To increase the response to your next
mailings, watch out the next factors:
Total mail-out ................................. 1,000
Campaign Goal
Establish the campaign goal: rise awareness,
generate leads or generate website traffic.
Once you have decided, establish a baseline
and track responses again. For instance,
determine the average number of phones
received during a month and compare it to the
number of phones you get the following month
after your mailing. Alternatively, if you take
order through a website, your mail piece can
ask customers to enter a discount code when
placing the order by which you can track the
sales associated with your mailings.
Non-deliverables .................................. 99
Net mail-out ...................................... 901
Total returned ................................... 541
Net returns with completed Demographic
questions* ......................................... 500
Response Rate ....................................55%
*A questionnaire is considered complete only when two
thirds of the mandatory demographic questions have
been answered.
Target Audience
Identify consumers and their social,
pshychological and demographic
One way of maximizing ROI is to drive out
hidden costs throughout the process of sending characteristics. This will help you build a
targeted prospect list to gain more customers.
mail. For example, there are direct mail
services that allows you to achieve greater
The Offer
operational efficiencies by having all the
Concentrate your campaign on selling the
processes under one roof and minimizing
benefits of receiving and responding the offer.
administration costs.
Do not forget the goal is to convince your
target purchase your product and increase
A good rule in strategy is to test between
your ROI. If you succeed in making them
1000-5000 pieces before strating. In this way
interested enough to respond to the offer,
you will get a sufficient number of answers
then you could get them to buy.
back from your mailing to determine what
your response rate will be.
The Mailing List
Without
testing your mailing list, offer or
The response rate will vary depending on your
design
you
will never know if the success of
product, industry, target market and other
factors, no general rules apply. For instance, a the campaign was due to an attractive offer,
eye catching graphics and enticing text or a
sub 0.2 percent response rate is common in
the credit card industry, while a response note great list. Consequently, without testing you
will not know which aspect of your campaign
higher than 50 percent is common for the
needs improvement.
nonprofit companies. This should not
discourage you; on the contrary, it highlights
the necessity of tracking your response rate
for your prospecting customers list. If you do
not do this, you will only get a vague idea of
the real chances of your campaign and you risk
wasting money.
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Avoiding Spam Messages
" A Spam" is an unsollicited message, usually
promotional, sent out to multiple recipients.
If you are developing a promotional email
campaign, ask costumers for consent. Remind
them in every message that they can opt out
To generate spam special programs that can
from receiving future messages and give them
scan the text and recognize your email address the chance to make this simple, just by
are being used. They add the email address in clicking “Remove” or “Unsubscribe”.
a database and it is possible to buy such a list.
The Direct Marketing Association launched an
The spam is considered unethical and its risks
email preferences service which allows
are considerable: using it you can loss the
consumers to register for free at www.einternet services and also affect your
mps.org for an opt-out list indicating they
company's reputation. The voice of internet
don't want to receive promotional emails.
users is a strong one and your company could
Marketers can download the list online and
be labeled as a “spam advertiser”).
eliminate these names from their own mailing
list.
The golden rule for preventing spam is the
“opt-out” possibility.
Also, you should not try to deceive customers
into thinking your e-mail marketing message is
not a promotional one.
Conclusion
Email marketing is an effective communication method with customers, prospective customers
and business partners. The main objective is increasing products and services sales, but also the
improval of company's image and clients' reports. Being an easy-to-use tool that creates a
powerful bond between the clients and the brand, it allows the testing and retesting
campaigns and offers an accurate image of the results. The email marketing is used by a fifth of
the European marketers. The actual tendency is rising, in America the use rate is a lot higher.
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Resources
Robert W. Bly, Michelle Feit, Steve Roberts, ”Internet Direct Mail - The Complete Guide to Successful
E-mail Marketing Campaigns”; NTC Business Books - NTC Contemporary Publishing Group INC; 2001.
http://www.zairmail.com/direct_mail_articles.asp
http://www.lsoft.com/
http://www.kochgroup.com/directmail.html
http://www.accessabc.com/
TreeWorks
Blvd. Coposu nr. 4
bl. 105 A sc. A ap. 1
Bucureşti, România
Phone: +40.213.260.602
Fax: +40.213.267.233
www.tree.ro
[email protected]