As in Life, Timing is Everything

July, 2007

“DM News” just published a Direct Marketing Association (DMA) study: Timing key for consumers not buying via DM.

Essentially, the DMA surveyed a panel of consumers and asked them why they did NOT respond to a direct marketing offer. The primary reason was that it wasn’t the right time to make that particular puchase.

From the article: “According to the DMA’s “DM Consumer Response Study,” a national survey of multichannel direct marketing sent to 1,000 U.S. consumers that was conducted between October 2006 and January 2007, 24.4 percent of respondents cited “not the right time” as the main reason for not buying during the two-day diary period of the study.”

Now, if we direct marketers only had that crystal ball, we’d know EXACTLY when to present an offer. Response rates would go through the roof. Our customers and prospects would be so pleased that we were serving them so well. We’d save money on not marketing to people not in the market. Life would be good.

Sadly, it’s not that easy. However, with a clever look at available data, there are some cases when you can hit that need head-on; when you can anticipate exactly when your prospect will be needing your product and hit them with an offer right at that moment. Here is a real-life example of a campaign done right. Needless to say, results from this “just-in-time” campaign were spectacular.

Use credit data to trigger shoppers. For a mortgage client, we used a credit bureau to monitor their prospect universe of homeowners. Anytime one of those prospects applied for a mortgage loan through one of their competitors, our client would send them a compelling offer, via first class mail. Since the mortgage process can be lengthy, in many instances, our client was able to take the sale away from its competitor. This marketing program served the consumer as well; they now had a few competitive loan offers to review.

So, in a nutshell, while we Direct Marketers don’t always have that crystal ball to understand exactly when our prospects and customers need to buy from us, we do have lots of data and tools at our disposal to implement what RRW terms “Just-In-Time Marketing.” We’ve written a white paper with more ideas and tactics to make this happen. We’d be happy to share.

Of course, if you’d prefer to chat with us directly about your marketing strategy, just call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.