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.

Mobile Marketing

June, 2007

Remember when people were saying that the Internet would never catch on? That people would never buy things over the Web and that no-one could ever make money… Those nay-sayers couldn’t have been more wrong.

RRW believes that the next big trend (and it’s already upon us) will be widespread adoption of Mobile Marketing. We attended the Sixth Annual Global Mobility Round-table held this past week where wireless industry experts talked about just how far Mobile Marketing has come.

Citing examples from Japan’s success, Bruce Hawver from Motorola talked about how his company is starting to change the marketplace in the US for data services delivered through a wireless phone. The three markets (Consumer, Prosumer and Enterprise) are starting to move from early adoption into the growth stage.

For Consumers, there is an upswing in the use of mobile entertainment. This is no longer just associated with younger users. In fact, many consumers are checking sports scores, following their favorite reality TV show heroes and downloading and listening to music with their wireless phones.

For Prosumers, there is a spike in the use of productivity services, such as simple calendaring and day-planning, to managing their stock portfolios and retirement accounts.

For Enterprise, there is high demand for going beyond email and calendaring uses to more enterprise-wide applications like access to intranets, internal databases and management dashboards.

This is occurring because data coverage is so much better than it used to be with mobile phones and because wireless equipment providers are supplying devices that are small and feature-rich, and they have improved user interface and initial setup requirements.

However, there are some areas that still need to be improved. Wireless companies need to continue to help consumers to understand pricing schemes. Many consumers use only a tenth of their wireless capabilities because they believe (sometimes mistakenly) that the real cost for all services is too high. Also, they need to continue to work on making the handsets less technical and more user-friendly. Finally, they need to work on battery performance – particularly when using the phone for data services.

All said, Mobile Marketing will continue to grow to become a leading marketing channel. Those who jump on the bandwagon today and embrace this technology will have the ability to become leaders in their environments. Currently, there are 2.6 billion mobile customers and this number is currently growing at 20% per year. World handset sales are currently at 1 billion and are growing by 22% per year. Mobile services will surpass broadband services worldwide by 2008 (that’s next year folks!).

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has published a nifty set of guidelines that pertain to Mobile Advertising. Just let us know if you’d like us to send you a copy of these guidelines. Of course, if you’d prefer to chat with us directly about your multi-channel marketing strategy, just call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

RRW Every Day!

May, 2007

This months’ newsletter topic will be short and, hopefully, sweet!

RRW is pleased to announce our new Direct Marketing Blog.

We decided it was time to practice what we preach–namely the concept of providing value, without any clear return on the investment. We’ve spoken on the topic of Web 2.0 and Direct Marketing 2.0 many times in this newsletter.

We’re two weeks strong in our daily posts. So far, blog topics have included: Direct Mail and the Environment, Raising Postal Costs, Customer Data Integration and E-mail Marketing (to name just a few).

We’re having fun writing about things that interest us and we believe that you’ll enjoy visiting our blog. And, if you have any input you’d like to comment on, please do so. We welcome feedback! Plus, for any service providers to the database marketing industry, if you have a new product or great case study, share it with us–we may be so interested, we’ll include it in an upcoming blog, or link over to your site.

Enjoy our Direct Marketing Blog!

To contact RRW, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

Proving the Value of Analytics

April, 2007

How important would it be to you to have the ability to test-drive your marketing campaign prior to investing cash, resources and time implementing it? Wouldn’t you love to have a crystal ball that would predict how a campaign would perform? Well, with analytics, you can, essentially, do just that.

Analysis can predict response and sale rates. Research can project the impact of your campaign, hence predicting success (or failure). It can help you hone in on your target market and hit the right segments with the right message, every time.

Seems like employing an analytical strategy would be a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately, we’ve seen organizations that have a hard time embracing statistical and analysis tools to help guide marketing strategy. Maybe they feel that their market is changing too quickly to take the time to learn from past behavior. Or, resources are tight and spending $5-20,000+ on an analytical project just doesn’t seem to make sense.

But, what if you could prove that the investment would more than pay itself off? We’ve found that if we can identify savings and clearly articulate benefits and deliverables from analysis, then senior management is much more apt to embrace and employ an analytical strategy.

Justifying analytical expenses is certainly not rocket science and, is in fact, fairly straightforward. RRW has put together a workbook that identifies areas that will help you make the case for including analytics in your marketing tool-kit. We’ve used it successfully with clients from numerous industries.

If you believe that your firm could benefit from more/improved analytical services and would like to see our ideas on how to build and present a solid case proving the ROI of your efforts, we’d be happy to send you the RRW Analytics Workbook.

Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly, or would like to know more about RRW’s capabilities, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

Knock-Your-Socks-Off Customer Service

March, 2007

People buy from people they like and trust. They DON’T buy from someone who is rude, someone who doesn’t listen, or someone who seems to know NOTHING about the product or service he or she is representing. We may buy one time from a rep with a bad attitude, but we’ll never return. What a shame.

As a direct marketer, our focus is typically on the business of acquiring new customers–supplying leads to a sales-force, making those phones ring or causing response rates to rise. Of course, if our leads never result in new sales – even though we marketers may have done our best to bring in the business – then our overall goal of increasing profits is not going to be realized. Or, even worse, if the focus is on maximizing customer value through up-sell and loyalty revenues, then an inferior customer experience will KILL all of your well-intentioned and executed retention campaigns.

Hence today’s focus on creating Knock-Your-Socks-Off customer service.

The first step is to take a look at the processes in place in your organization. Review each and every customer touch-point (from web to call-center to outside sales). This review will point out areas where service could improve–where you could isolate concrete ways to improve each customer’s experience. This, in turn, increases your number of closed sales and loyalty within your customer base – two very important keys to any company’s success.

In our experience, we’ve seen spectacular changes result after such a process review. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that are isolated as breakdowns in your process – and with some small changes, great improvements can be made. Oftentimes, these changes can be implemented very quickly – and for little cost to the bottom line.

RRW brings an outside perspective and a focus on the customer to help clients understand where they may be able to make positive changes. Sometimes these changes seem obvious (where you just want to kick yourself and wonder why policy wasn’t changed sooner!). But, sometimes, the problems are not so apparent. And, you’re so immersed in your daily work, it can be difficult to see those things that need to be changed.

Let us know if you’re interested in a real-life example of the sort of process review that resulted in a more positive customer experience. We’ll e-mail you the RRW Consulting Case Study titled: Call Center Review. Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly, or would like to know more about RRW’s capabilities, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

Partnering is Key

February, 2007

AT&T and Apple just announced their new partnership to market the much-anticipated iPhone. While these two corporate giants definitely have very different cultures, we tend to believe that this is a partnership that will work–simply because the product makes so much sense.

With this partnership fresh in our mind, we started thinking about how important partnerships are in our business. Have you given any thought lately to forging a new partner relationship? Maybe it’s time for some creative thinking around how working with a competitor (!) or a complementary firm may allow you to exploit a market need. Would partnering enable you to offer a product or service that your company alone could not deliver? Or, maybe it’s time to consider partnering with a vendor who may bring fresh ideas and an objective viewpoint to your business.

Once you’ve identified potential partners, done your research to determine if the partnership benefits both partners (a necessity if you want it to succeed), the real hard work is ahead of you. We’ve found that exploring the following types of questions will help you forge the most productive partnership.

What level of support will your potential partner bring to the initiative? What type of team have they assigned to the project? Is your partner proactive in assessing your needs, do they listen carefully to you as you outline your needs and are they able to articulate what they need out of the partnership? Do they provide you with specific timelines for key deliverables, and then stick to them? Finally (if you are evaluating a vendor partner), are they able to share other client success stories?

These questions may seem like “no-brainers” but if you’ve ever managed a complex project, you know how important communication and responsiveness are. And (surprisingly) even some of the largest, most reputable firms fall short in these areas. In fact, it’s been our experience that oftentimes smaller companies are actually a better choice, primarily due to the commitment and support that they’ll bring to the partnership.

If you are considering a new partnership or are about to launch a new initiative, RRW has written a White Paper that will help. Just let us know if you’d like a copy of our White Paper titled: “Creating the Best Partnerships.“

Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly about your upcoming projects, please call us at (503) 206-5255 or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com.

Happy Holidays! Time for Evaluation

December, 2006

This goes under the category of “no rest for the wicked.” As the Holiday Season gets into full swing, we need to take the time to re-assess what we’ve accomplished this year, and what we’d like to change for next year.

We recommend pondering topics such as:

• Do we have a strategy in place to move our sales process to a customer-initiated or customer preference approach? We see this trend only continuing to grow. Causing your customers to seek you out and come to you for information (and purchasing!) is definitely a worthy goal.
• Are we effectively using all of the channels available to us today? And, have we integrated them so that the message we’re presenting to our customers is clear and compelling?
• Have we benchmarked our acquisition efforts recently? Is that control package still as effective as it once was? Do we need to implement some new creative, offer or list tests?
• Have we examined our customer retention programs lately? Do we understand if we are reaching out to ‘save’ the most profitable customers, AND those who are likely to leave us?

RRW Consulting has prepared a short list of RRW Holiday Tips that may help you more formally address questions like those above. At a minimum, we’re sure that they’ll pique your interest and inspire some new ideas. The RRW Holiday Tip-Sheet is a listing of the areas that we feel are critical to examine now to prepare you for the future. We’ve included some industry best-practices and some information about new and interesting solutions available today.

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

Most importantly, RRW would like to extend our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a successful New Year!

Continued Growth in Direct Marketing

November, 2006

Like many of you, we’ve just returned from the DMA’s Annual Conference in San Francisco. And, like every year, it was an exhilarating and exhausting experience. At the opening keynote address, DMA CEO John Greco spoke of what is happening in our industry today. Here are some of the exciting statistics from that speech:

• DM jobs increased by 7.5% this year – to 110 million
• There is an overall 6% increase in DM spending
• DM sales growth is greater than the overall economy – at 7.4% growth equating to $1.939 trillion in sales.

Greco stated that it is our responsibility and power to continue this trend using “relevance, responsibility and results.” And in this age of concern around data security (189 new bills introduced nationwide!), it is our responsibility to understand and honor consumer preferences and use marketing data carefully and correctly. It is also our responsibility to protect our customers’ and prospects’ information, and thereby to nurture and build a positive image of direct marketing.

When you think about it, we really are very lucky! Direct marketing is all about bringing relevant solutions to our clients that are measurable and results-oriented. Today, there are many different ways to ensure that the solutions that we design for our clients do impact the bottom line. Moreover, we can help them understand customer preferences to better communicate with them, build relationships and maintain loyalty for the long-term.

As direct marketers, we have the opportunity to use all of the channels available to us to communicate with our customers in the way that they prefer. Employing a solid multi-channel marketing approach will allow us to continue the upward trending in DM sales that our industry in currently enjoying, while complying with all of the new data security legislation that will continue to be introduced over time. As stewards of our customer experience, we can grow our customer relationships using data in the proper way, while using those channels that our clients prefer. And, we can do this with measurable, actionable results that are necessary to meet corporate goals. It really is a great time to be a direct marketer!

If you’re interested in our white paper on how to utilize Multi-Channel Marketing effectively in your business or for your valuable clients, let us know and we’ll happily send it to you. Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

Direct Marketing 2.0

October, 2006

The Internet is going through a revolution. As we speak, it is rethinking itself and how people are using it (and how consumers will use the Internet in the future). The new concept is called Web 2.0. While you can find many good definitions of Web 2.0 (especially helpful is O’Reilly’s definition) that focus on the technical aspects, RRW’s take is that, in a nutshell, Web 2.0 is built on the premise of providing value to consumers. If you make your services (primarily web tools that make your life/business easier to manage) readily available to your customers (and usually free of charge) YOUR business will ultimately benefit.

Some examples of companies that epitomize Web 2.0 are:
Wikipedia (free, collaborative online encyclopedia), Flickr (a site that allows you to store, search and share photos) and Sourceforge.net (an open-source software website). All of these web services share a common goal of providing value to consumers and businesses.

In the Direct Marketing world where profits are so closely measured, this concept may seem to be a little crazy. How can we simply give away our service/product and ask nothing from our customers? But, if you think about it, our business has always relied on these type of value offerings. For example, in order to convince customers to order through the mail or over the television (without actually feeling or seeing the product), our industry developed the ’money-back guarantee–try for 30 days or return the product with absolutely no obligation’.

Another classic example of how to implement this concept is to give away a sample of your goods to gain interest from a client (commonly done in the packaged goods industry). As they use your product or service, you learn more about them, and they learn more about you and how great you are. Once you begin to establish that relationship, you can begin a dialogue, expand and build a profitable relationship.

RRW believes that if we provide real value to our customers, we will ultimately reap the benefits of this generosity. We challenge you to extend the Web 2.0 concept to your marketing!

To inspire some ideas of how to embrace this concept (and to illustrate how RRW is putting DM 2.0 to use), we’ve put together a Checklist (free, of course), titled: “Embracing Direct Marketing 2.0”. If you’d like it, we’ll e-mail it to you immediately. Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.

Focus on Testing, and More Testing!

September, 2006

• Have you changed your control piece in the last six months to a year?
• Have you tested new lists lately, or have you been mailing to the same lists/customer segments over and over again?
• Have you tried a new channel? Have you incorporated e-mail or maybe revisited outbound telemarketing?
• What about your offer? Have you compared it to your competitors’?
• Have you tested pricing strategies lately?

If you answered “NO” to any of the above, it’s time to take a good hard look at your testing process.Here are some guidelines that we find helpful as we work with our clients to implement testing strategies:

1. Design your tests to ensure that you’ll be able to act on results. For example, if you are testing a new source of data, make sure that the roll-out universe is large enough for you to make a difference in the long-term. It’s great if you find a new source of leads through the testing process, but not so wonderful if the universe is tiny.
2. A valid control group is crucial. It’s pretty difficult to prove success, if you have nothing to compare results to. Sound direct marketers always maintain a control group (sometimes called a hold-out sample)–a group of customers/prospects who receive no marketing from you. This way, you can benchmark results of the folks marketed to against those who you did not–to develop a deep understanding of results.
3. Always focus on profits as you evaluate test results. Remember that a test is only a success if the return on the test campaign is better than other campaigns. Consider, for example, a test that appeared to be a success because it generated higher than average response rates. A closer look, however, at close rates showed us that although response was great, the test campaign generated less conversions (fewer new customers). Hence, overall the test could not be considered a success.
4. Keep your testing focused. Try not to test too many things at one time. Testing, for example, creative, offer, pricing, lists, etc at the same time muddies the water and makes it virtually impossible to understand true results.

The above is a short-list of testing guidelines. If you’re interested in a deeper-dive into RRW’s philosophy of a continuous-learning approach, we’d be happy to send you “RRW’s Test-and-Learn Approach”. Of course, if you’d prefer to speak with us directly, please call us at (503) 206-5255, or visit our website: www.rrwconsulting.com for more info.