Want to Keep Customers? Ask Their Opinion (Then Act on It)

Want to keep your customers loyal and continuing to shop from you? Ask their opinion . . . then act on what you learn.

One of the most important ways you can value someone is to ask their opinion. When you ask what they think, it makes them feel important. From a marketing perspective, this deepens customer engagement and solidifies their loyalty.  If you actually act on what you learn from those customers, so much the better.

Let’s look at an example. A regional grocery store chain was experiencing increased competitive pressure from a large national chain and wanted to preserve its most valuable customer relationships. The chain sent two personalized surveys to its top 400 customers: one in the fall and one in the spring.

The first survey included six survey questions and a letter addressed to the shopper, signed by the store manager. The second was a follow-up to find out how well the chain had addressed the concerns raised in the first survey. Recipients of the second mailer also received a personalized cover letter from the store manager.

The surveys received a 52% response rate. While specific data on customer retention was not provided, a research study conducted by Rice University and published in Harvard Business Review found that, over the course of a year, customers who received similar customer surveys were twice as likely to continue their relationship with the company than those who did not.[1] We can assume a similar result here.

Once people have made a purchase from you, they are your customers to lose. Show them that you care what they think, that their opinions are valuable, and that you will act on information they share with you. They will reward you with their loyalty.

Need help designing a customer survey to incorporate into your next mailing? Let us help!

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[1] “Sending out a Survey to Customers Can Double Sales,” by Vivek Bhaskaran, www.questionpro.com.

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3 Approaches to Measuring Results

When you invest in any marketing effort, you want to know if it’s working. There are many approaches to results measurement, and the right choice for any marketing campaign will depend on your marketing goals. For numerous marketers, response rates are the first measurement they use. But there are other measures that are more telling.

Let’s look at three of them. 

1. CPL (cost per lead). When you are developing a mail campaign, it’s easy to focus on the price per piece. It’s hard for personalized mailers to compete with high-volume static mail on a cost basis, but everything changes when you look at what your program costs per lead.

If you mail 100,000 postcards at $.25 each (including postage), that’s a project cost of $25,000. If that campaign achieves a 1% response rate, that’s 250 leads at the cost of $100 per lead. On the other hand, if you mail 25,000 personalized mailers at $1.00 each, that is still a project cost of $25,000. However, if you achieve a 12% response rate, that’s 3,000 leads. Now your cost per lead drops to $8.33!

2. CPS (cost per sale). Not all leads translate into sales. To find out what it costs you to actually close a sale, divide the number of people who make a purchase into your total costs. If only 33% of respondents to the above campaign make a purchase, for example, your cost per sale is $300 for the static campaign, while for the personalized campaign, it is $25.00.

3. LCV (lifetime customer value). The value of the sale often goes beyond the initial purchase. If personalized communications woo the buyer of one automaker to another, and if that customer becomes loyal to that brand, the return on investment from that mailing piece includes the value of every car purchased by that customer over his or her lifetime. This is an important metric for marketers of long-term purchases, such as automobiles, financial products, and insurance.

The bottom line? Before you measure your results in any print campaign, make sure you understand all of the available measuring sticks, then use the one(s) that are the most meaningful to you.

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Should You Gamify Direct Mail?

As you brainstorm ideas for making your direct mail more engaging, have you considered gamification? In this strategy, you turn your direct mail pieces into components of a game. You might deliver game boards, tokens, or pieces of a puzzle. Gamification creates an element of fun and engages your target audience in a fresh and interesting way.

In an article written for Marketing magazine, Jennifer Browers, director of loyalty marketing, Epsilon, listed four benefits of gamification. We added number five.

1. Takes the dull out of onboarding.

Introduce your products by letting recipients learn about them by adding pieces to a game board. Or mail out a series of surveys over a period of time, allowing you to gather data on your customers while they earn prizes for the surveys they complete.

2. Get your competition on.

Create competition between household members or colleagues in the same organization.  Or create a group challenge for members of a team.

3. Bidder, bidder, bidder! 

Browers points out that auctions are a form of gamification, too. Nonprofits can really benefit from this strategy.

4. Buddy up for a good cause. 

Rewards earned in games can be used for a variety of purposes. Consider allowing recipients to donate the prizes they earn to programs and causes they care about.

5. Create long-term engagement.

Games create engagement that lasts over time.  It gives you an opportunity to send a marketing touch every few days or week.  These are contacts that your customers and prospects will not only tolerate, but actually look forward to. That’s marketing gold!

Are you ready for marketing gold? Let’s get your gamification on!

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Securing Your Customers’ Loyalty

Your customers are a hot commodity. Everybody wants them. So how do you keep them loyal to you? Make your relationship so great that they don’t want to go anywhere else.

1. Market in the age of “me.”  

Know your customers well enough to give them a personalized experience. This goes beyond targeting with basic demographics like gender, age, and household income. Look at the channels your customers respond to, when they make purchases, and what they buy. Acting on this data helps your customers see that you know and care about them. It helps with cross-sells and upsells, too!

2. Coupons galore!

Consumers have a love affair with coupons, including mobile. According to Juniper Research, mobile coupons are 10x more likely to be used than printed coupons.

3. Don’t be channel agnostic.

Know which channels your customers are most likely to respond to, then use them. If a customer requires two emails to respond but responds the first time to direct mail, get them on the “mail first” list. If someone else is more likely to respond to an email than a printed newsletter, get them on the “email first” list. Keep your branding, message, and imaging consistent regardless of channel.

4. Ask their opinion.

Use response cards, personalized URLs, and other survey mechanisms to get your customers’ opinion on products, services, and potential business changes. When one specialty retailer wanted to give its location a facelift, it used a targeted direct mail piece with personalized URLs to ask its customers about products and services they wanted but the company didn’t offer. It got an earful! The retailer incorporated the most popular suggestions, and its sales soared.

5. Remember to say “thank you.”

Everyone likes to be appreciated. Send a personalized “thank you” letter, postcard, or other mailer once in a while. Attach a no-strings coupon or discount just to engender their goodwill . . . and you will.

Gaining customer loyalty doesn’t have to be rocket science. You just have to put in the effort.  

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
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Don't Let Print Buying Stress You Out

Does print buying stress you out? There are so many details that can make or break a print job. Then you have finishing, mailing lists, dealing with the USPS. . . . and oh, yes, schedules. Print buying can be a daunting task. Try these common sense strategies to make your experience more predictable and (hopefully) stress-free.

1. Get into our ears. By involving us early in your project, you will get a high quality result while saving time and money. Tell us your concept, then we will suggest colors, papers, layouts, and finishes that can minimize production time at the best cost.

Plan backwards. Given today’s advances in printing technology, buyers often underestimate the time required to deliver a job. Sure, we may be printing on a digital press, but you still have prepress, proofing, special order requirements, and finishing. Providing ample lead time will save money by preventing rush charges.

Know your specs. The more explicit your instructions, the more likely you are to be happy with the quality and cost of the end product. One missing piece of information or last-minute change can delay a cost estimate, proof, or final production.

Proof everything. We will alert you if we identify errors in your file, but we aren’t experts in your marketing copy—you are. Your print job cannot move into the next stage of production until you sign off on the proof, and that includes your copy.

Even if you do not have a job to submit today, give us a call so we can start preplanning your next project. Together, we can create a stress-free print buying experience that will exceed your expectations for quality, efficiency, and cost.

Please give us a call at 440-946-0606
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5 Stats that Show Print Still Matters (A Lot)

Think print is starting to “lose its cool” in the age of digital marketing? Actually, the opposite is true. With the growth of digital, print has solidified its place as a channel that marketers cannot ignore. Here are five print marketing statistics that every marketer should know.

1. Some customers can only be reached by print. Even in today's digital age, there are still large groups of consumers who cannot be reached through digital channels. According to the Pew Research Center, 11% of Americans have no Internet access at all, and among certain populations, such as older Americans, rural Americans, and those without high school diplomas, this number is significantly higher. (Source: Pew Research Center, 2018)

2. Many consumers use print and digital coupons equally. Who doesn't like a deal? While some consumers prefer digital coupons for their convenience and immediacy, 41% of shoppers use print and digital coupons equally. (Valassis, 2017).

3. Direct mail is the number one driver for online fundraising.  According to MobileCause, donors are three times more likely to give online in response to a direct mail appeal than an e-appeal. (MobileCause 2018)

4. Consumers spend more time with direct mail. According to a widely cited study on the neuroscience of print, people spend 118% more time considering direct mail than they do digital mail. (CanadaPost, 2016)

5. Millennials love direct mail. Nearly half (47%) of Millennials look forward to checking their mail every day. In a digital world, even the most digitally embedded crave human connection.  (United States Postal Service, 2016)

There is a reason that print remains the bedrock of today’s most successful marketing campaigns. Email, mobile, and social media all have important places in the mix, but print remains the cornerstone of truly successful multichannel marketing for a reason.

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Got Relationship? It’s the Key to Nonprofit Fundraising

Pop quiz: What is the factor most likely to impact a person’s willingness to donate to a nonprofit organization? According to a survey by YouGov, it’s relationship. Key to this relationship is helping donors feel great about their donations and see how their giving is making a difference.

How do you deepen your donors’ relationships with you? Get to know them. Use surveys, third-party data sources, pop-up web forms, and other methods to gather information about your donors that you may not already have. This information can be used to tailor your communications in ways that are most effective. 

Say you are providing services to underprivileged children around the world. If your survey reveals that potential donors are in the medical field, for example, you might emphasize the value of their donations to fight disease or provide clean water. If, on the other hand, donors are teachers, you might highlight the ability to give the children good educations. Or you could provide the same messaging to both groups, but use different imagery.

Not everyone wants to take the time out of their day to fill out a survey, so if you are going to ask people to do so, give them something of value in return. “Value” doesn’t have to mean a monetary incentive, such as a gift card or entrance into a drawing. It can be something as simple as exclusive insight into a project you are funding ("Respond to our survey and receive a link to an exclusive behind-the-scenes video of our volunteers at work").

Donors give because it makes them feel good. The response incentive needs to reflect that motivation, and it will be different for every organization.

Need help creating a donor survey to further the mission of your organization? 
Give us a call at 440-946-0606.
Or visit our website here for more information.

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