A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

When you make the investment in a catalog, make sure you have a strategy in place to improve your return on investment. Here are some tactics to consider:

• Bring the catalog experience online through the creation of a shop by catalog on your website.
• Optimize the catalog with the utilization of different covers for various contact opportunities such as a pack-in at time of shipment, catalog request, best customers or unique customer segments. Develop exclusive offers on the cover based on the point of contact.
• Offer a catalog request on your website to build your database.
• Welcome new customers who sign up for your email the chance to receive your catalog.
• Utilize the catalog as a prospecting tool for list rental and other opportunities to engage new customers.

Have you ever wondered how you could analyze your web site to learn if you are connecting with your customers? Below are several diagnostic questions to help you get up to speed on usability and conversion basics before you take on improvements to your site.

Home Page
An effective homepage will answer the following questions in seconds:
1) What can I do on this site?
2) Why would I do it here?
3) How do I start?

Navigation
Is the number of choices manageable or overwhelming? Research shows more than seven links is too much. When you drill down, do you always know where you are and where you can go?

Category page
Is the content formatted for natural search? Does each page on the site have its own unique title tag? Does the site use properly formatted HTML headlines to help search engines find the most important ideas?

Site Search
Search for featured products on your site in a variety of ways. Does each of your searches produce accurate and useful results? Does the site avoid serving dead-end pages, always suggesting an alternative?

Product Detail Page
If you are selling direct online, how quickly can you find the add-to-cart button on the product detail page? Is this the most prominent element on the page? Is it free of competition from other page elements? Look at the product copy. Is it formatted for the Web, with subheads, short paragraphs and bullets? Is the most important information first?

Shopping Cart
Does the cart tempt you? Does it highlight your relevant savings and offers? Does it show you that your item is in-stock and let you know how soon you can get it? Does the cart reassure you? Does it highlight guarantees, security certifications and shopping and return information?

Checkout
Does the process look trustworthy? Are the reassurances highlighted by the shopping cart still visible, and is contextual help available if you need it? Is it clear exactly what you need to do next to move forward in the process? Does this first page show you that the order process can be completed in a reasonable number of steps – ideally nor more than five?

Embracing User Generated Content Dramatically Increases Results

If you're wondering whether or not all the buzz about user generated content is worth embracing, it is. And the most impactful tactic is customer reviews. Marketing Sherpa data shows that 58% of consumers prefer web sites with peer written reviews.

Chief Marketer recently sited these astounding case studies:

• The President of Awinestore.com claims adding customer reviews was one of the critical factors that helped his e-commerce sales jump 80% in a single year. (The industry average is 20% growth.)
• After adding reviews, Petco's top rated products were converting at a 49% higher rate.
• Libida.com, an e-commerce site for women, considers reviews so critical to conversions that they developed an insert for fulfillment packages offering $25 off on the next order for reviews.

B2B marketers can also benefit from customer reviews by utilizing them in White Papers or webinars.

Loblaws, Inc., a Canadian grocer, took user generated content to the next level by making ratings and reviews part of a multi-channel strategy. Reviews and ratings are on store shelves, in product displays, on employee T-Shirts and in their monthly in-store magazine. Overall, stores have flourished and their website is busier than ever.

Brand loyalists want to write reviews and potential customers love to read them!

According to a recent survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council, the majority of marketers feel their top goal in 2007 is to quantify and measure the value of marketing programs and investments. Other top challenges include:

• Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the marketing organization
• Grow customer knowledge, insight and conversions
• Improve the allocation and ROI of the marketing spend
• Extract greater value and profitability from customer relationships

Measuring marketing programs in itself is a challenge. Indicators such as sales, market share, gross impressions, cost per impression, cost per lead, etc. are the standards and are still good indicators. However, they are “lagging indicators”. Marketers really need to think about “leading indicators” to measure the true success of marketing programs. Examples of leading indicators include:

• Search Engine Rankings
• Web site traffic
• Store traffic
• Email Sign-up and click through
• Inquiries
• Brand likeability
• Willingness to recommend a friend
• Trends

By utilizing leading indicators, marketing programs can be measured and adjusted accordingly to improve the ROI of programs and allocate marketing dollars appropriately.

According to a recent economic impact study by The Direct Marketing Association, the ROI for e-mail marketing was an amazing $57.25 for every dollar spent while the ROI for non-e-mail related online marketing was $22.52. Our experience has also proven more targeted e-mail campaigns generate a higher ROI than general campaigns. Media Post makes a good point in that marketers spent approximately $300 million on e-mail marketing efforts, compared to $12 billion for non-e-mail related marketing which generates half the return.

In our own consumer insight studies, we have found that 37% of respondents wanted to receive more e-mail communications. It only makes sense for marketers to take a hard look at their budgets for 2007, and make sure there are more funds allocated to one-to-one marketing programs that generate a higher ROI.

List rental from traditional list rental companies may be the easiest source to find names to build a database. However, you may have to implement guerilla tactics to find customers that will really connect with your brand and buy. First of all, the best source for building a database is a company's own website. Marketers must do whatever they can to capture names of customers visiting their site. Web analytics should be reviewed to identify referral sites. Find out where visitors are coming from and implement strategies to drive more traffic from those sites. Form alliances with non-competing industry related companies and swap lists. Explore list exchanges with web sites that are compatible to your brand such as online newsletter lists, brand enthusiast web site lists, industry trade publication lists, etc. Negotiate with event sponsors to obtain their lists if you're going to sponsor their event. Finally, co-registration is among the fastest growing area for list development. Investigate co-registration opportunities with partner web sites so that when users register on web site for e-mail, they see an offer from your brand and by merely checking and additional box, co-register to receive communications from both companies.

MailChimp analyzed over 40 million emails sent from its customers and found those with the highest open rates (ranging from 60-87%) had the most straight forward subject lines. Those with the lowest open rates (1-14%) tried to be more creative.

Here is a few of the most effective and ineffective subject lines

Creativity does not always correlate to low open rates. Subject lines should also be developed with the target audience in mind. Those expecting a newsletter will not respond well to an email detailing a special promotion. Newsletters are more about building relationships and warming the customer up to your company. However, individuals who signed up for sales and promotional emails would respond to subject lines with an offer. They will be expecting more of hard sell.

More and more manufacturers are benefiting by taking their merchandise direct to consumers via e-commerce and catalogs. What’s behind this trend that is reaching critical mass?

• The retail landscape has changed. Manufacturers are under a great amount of pressure to provide retailers better margin, yet provide lower prices. The result is lower margins for manufacturers. Manufacturers see the opportunity to improve margins with direct to consumer sales.
• Consumers expect to be able to go to a manufacturer’s website and buy.

However, manufacturers do want to keep the retail channel alive and well. When they go direct, they are looking for retail partnerships. Some manufacturers are partnering with a group of select retailers to fulfill orders from their e-commerce site. Then, if a retailer cannot fulfill an order, the manufacturer takes over. Others feel that a direct to consumer catalog is an ad vehicle for their retailers as much as a sales channel. Sure, some consumers will buy direct, but a large portion will go to the manufacturer’s retail partner to buy as well.

There is no doubt that the multi-channel approach works. According to an article in the Harvard Business review, customers that interact with a brand using three or more channels, spend four times as much. That’s a compelling reason to embrace the multi-channel approach from both a manufacturer and retailer perspective.

Marketers are under fire to increase effectiveness of their marketing programs. There's also a lot of buzz on measuring ROI. Here are 3 key tactics to increase effectiveness of E-Marketing campaigns.

1. Eye tracking results show people spend a few seconds gliding over the most prominent information on the page. Make sure you have a clear information hierarchy. Monitor results to learn which information delivers not more clicks but more sales.
2. Design e-mails with the Preview Pane in mind. A recent study by Loren McDonald states 69 percent of people "always" or "frequently" view e-mail in a preview pane. Make sure the your most compelling message is at the top of the e-mail.

Integrate your web and e-mail data. This allows you to send targeted messages to consumers based on products they are considering now, rather than those they have purchased in the past. Don't ignore abandoned shopping cart data. Consider sending consumers an e-mail with a special offer on the item(s) they abandoned. Or, send a targeted offer to a consumer who has viewed a product category online.

Targeted e-mail campaigns can have a significant impact on growing a business. Take for example, Texas-based Studio Movie Grill. E-mail marketing is the ticket to filling seats. According to founder, Brian Schultz, the chain has achieved nearly a 70% open rate for its weekly e-mail blasts, leading to a 20% leap in online ticket sales and an overall increase in attendance.

The company has been able to develop a customer base of over 40,000 through opt-ins for an e-newsletter.

Why has the company's e-campaigns been successful?

1) The key is to start with a compelling, measurable offer. Studio Movie Grill offers movie goers discounted food and beverages. Utilizing these offers on slow midweek nights has helped the company fill seats, sell dinners and cultivate long-term customer relationships.

2) Providing relevant information. Examples include up-to-date show times, special programming that's movie related, or information about what's happening at the theater.

3) Linking e-mails to a company's home page for immediate access to information and the ability to buy online.

4) Cultivating relationships. Studio Movie Grill newsletter recipients can watch film trailers, answer trivia questions, view box office results or link to official movie websites. Recipients are also informed of special events at the theater and have the option of purchasing items from the gift store.

Other benefits Studio Movie Grill has experienced from e-marketing linked to on-line ticket sales include:

• Predicting attendance for certain shows in advance to plan meals in advance
• E-mails have cut down on the staggering number of calls to the movie information line.

Studio Movie Grill is a great case study of the success a company can achieve with a clear objective and plan for communicating one to one with customers.

I’ve been doing a lot more shopping on-line, and you can certainly have positive or negative shopping experiences depending how well a site is constructed. For me, it’s usually the “too many pages” reason when I bail a site and look elsewhere.  Here are the main reasons why online shoppers bail:

Source:  Allurent’s 2005 Holiday Shopping – Online Customer Experience Survey

A recent article from AdAge.com really peaked my interest. It highlighted a new way coffee drink maker Wonda is utilizing cell phones to sustain brand awareness. Most cell phones in Japan are now equipped with two-dimensional bar code readers. Wonda ran outdoor panels featuring an I-Mode (Japan’s internet access system) bar code. Anyone who scanned the bar code could access bus timetables as well as the Wonda Web site, which had information and pictures of places of interest in the city as well as facts about their product.

I envision this technology will expand very quickly into the U.S. Can you imagine scanning a bar code with your cell and linking right to the web site of your favorite brand featuring all the information that is relevant just to you?

According to comScore Media Matrix, 60 million U.S. adults use search engines on any given day. Not only have search engines become everyday consumer web tools and a critical way to reach consumers during the purchase cycle, they also offer a valuable source for consumer profiling, segmentation and measurement of product demand. It’s tapping into the new science of search that can give companies a competitive edge.

Marketers can begin by establishing a key word list and conducting a web site review for optimization of the key word list. Then, buying the words and monitoring pay per click can open the portal to a marketer’s dream of relevant data. Adjusting campaigns based on analytics can dramatically improve conversion rates and sales results. We are only beginning to learn about the impact of search.

Relying on numbers and accountability is key in today's one-to-one marketing efforts. We're often asked questions in regards to Return on Investment and specific benchmarks. While every campaign and program is different, here are some basic guidelines to help you measure your ROI.

How often can I mail my catalog?
The answer is very simple, as long as you are profitable. Your agency/consultant should be able to take the size of your database, average response rate, average order and margin %, and quickly develop an analysis to tell you how often you can mail and still make a profit.

What is the average click rate on an e-mail campaign?
The average click rate is 3.5%. However, a campaign to a highly-targeted audience could experience 5%.

What is an average e-mail conversion rate?
The average conversion rate is 1-2%. Again, a targeted campaign could achieve a 5% rate.

What type of ‘lift” in sales can I expect from a targeted e-mail campaign?
An e-mail can boost online sales by close to 15%.

What do B2B customers typically spend to get a lead? Here we have a wide range, but the typical B2B marketer can expect to spend between $50 and $250 each lead.

According to recent articles in USA Today, high-end gift shoppers are expected to reduce spending, providing luxury retailers an estimated 5-10% sales growth compared with the approximate 15% the sector experienced last year. Concerns about a softer real estate market, rising interest rates and a less than stellar performing stock market this year are the cause of the lower spending levels.

However, hunting, fishing and shooting sports are hitting the mass market and attracting upscale consumers at healthy growth rates. Millions of anglers, hunters and target shooters are spending over $4 billion dollars on gear, from $300 fly-fishing rods to $10,000 shotguns. Many of the enthusiasts are baby boomers in their peak earning years. And, according to industry reports, they are bringing their children with them.

Owners of lodges and hunting resorts across the country are renovating their facilities, offering spas, recreational activities for families and enticing more couples with romantic getaways. In the Alaskan Wilderness, The Talon Lodge flies in renowned chefs to cook for guests at the small island resort in Sitka. Packages run from $2,400 to $3,200 a night. It is predicated that there will be more of these upscale environments. People are attracted by the beautiful, relaxed settings.

Sometimes new markets or growth opportunities are found in unexpected places. Who would have guessed 10 years ago that you could find luxury in the great outdoors?!