GRAPHIC
ADVISOR
ISSUE THIRTY-ONE
Should You Be Customer Profiling?
Add A New Dimension To Direct Mail
QR Code Use Trending Toward Women
SHOULD YOU
BE CUSTOMER
How does it work?
To create targeted campaigns, marketers typically do a basic select by some kind of relevant demographic. A travel agency might select consumers of retirement age, for example, because they tend to have more leisure time. Customer profiles take this a step further, layering on home ownership, median home value and other factors that provide insight into disposable income. It might include whether or not they have purchased a vacation in the past.
How do you develop a profile of your
customers? Smaller marketers often have little data to work with, but tools for getting around this are exploding.
1. You can purchase data cuts of increased detail.
For a few more dollars per thousand, you can purchase a more refined data select than a single cut. In the earlier example, this might be a list of consumers aged 65 or older who own homes worth at least $150,000 and have purchased at least one vacation in the past 12 months. The trick is to balance the increased cost of the data with the likelihood that it will bring a greater return. This is where testing
becomes critical. The more you test, the more you know what brings additional value and what does not.
2. You can append your existing list with additional data.
If you have an existing customer list, you can do what is called an “append,” or purchase additional data on those same customers that will create a relevant customer profile. You can do this even if you have nothing but an e-mail list. It’s called a “reverse append.”
3. You can purchase complete customer profiles from list companies like
Accudata, Nielsen and Dun & Bradstreet.
These companies are increasingly providing packaged solutions aimed at helping small and mid-sized business owners with an overall demographic overview of customers who spend the most money in their markets. These include both standard selects like median household income and business standard industrial classification (SIC), as well as proprietary categories like “wealth scores” and “super niches.”
Customer profiling sounds like a scary word, but even for smaller marketers, it doesn’t have to be. Talk to us about creating a customer profile and taking your targeted and personalized marketing to the next level.
I
n casual conversation, the word “profiling” often has a negative connotation,
but in marketing, it is a driving force behind success. Building a customer profile
helps you understand your customers’ attitudes, interests and preferences, and
tailor your marketing to these and other factors relevant to their buying behavior.
Understand your customers’
attitudes, interests and
preferences with profiling and
tailor your marketing to these
and other factors relevant to
their buying behavior.
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To that end, there has been
a growing trend toward
“dimensional” mail.
Dimensional mail is also known by the more descriptive term “lumpy mail,” indicating that the idea is to provide something a bit more substantial—or “lumpier”—than a flat postcard or letter. The “lump” itself—the object(s) included in the package—is an integral part of the “design” of the campaign.Examples of lumpy mail can include:
• an envelope containing a pen or other useful item bearing the client’s logo • a package containing product samples • candies or other treats or gifts
accompanying promotional material • a physical object that ties into, perhaps
symbolically, the campaign’s marketing message
• basically, any object the designer and client see fit to include
The idea is that everyone likes receiving something unique—especially when there is an appealing gift in the box aside from something promotional. This increases the likelihood that the recipient will not only open the package but also respond to the package’s message. The nature of the lump
can either be literal (a product sample) or symbolic (say, a foam rubber brain, tied into the promotional message, “Working with us is a no-brainer”).
Obviously, a dimensional campaign will cost more per unit to produce, assemble, and mail than a regular direct mail campaign, so it’s important to narrow down and target the recipients more carefully. Dimensional mailing campaigns are best suited for trying to generate sales of something fairly expensive—a long-term consulting contract, an insurance policy, a real estate transaction, an expensive piece of equipment, etc.
Another challenge, especially in this time of heightened security, is to not frighten a recipient with an unmarked package, lest it be perceived as containing something dangerous. Be sure that recipients are not in a business (government, for example) that might have concerns with mysterious packages. One way around this is to integrate the marketing message on the outside of the envelope or package. Be sure to check with us if you have any questions about producing, assembling, or shipping a lumpy mail campaign.
Obviously, a dimensional campaign will cost more per unit to produce, assemble, and mail than a regular direct mail campaign, so it’s important to narrow down and target the recipients more carefully.
Here are some general
guidelines for dimensional mail campaigns:
• Be relevant. The lump should be practical (a product sample) or relate directly to the marketing message. Bewilderment is not the sort of attention you want. • Research production and mailing
costs. Return on investment is crucial, and when developing a dimensional mail strategy, be realistic in your expectations. Case studies can provide guidance and offer an idea of the response rates obtained by the kind of campaign you are considering.
• Consult with the Post Office to ensure that you are not violating regulations or mailing something the USPS (or other carrier) would deem unshippable, or that you are paying more to ship something than you should. Your campaign should be postally economical. • Test your campaign by mailing test samples to yourself or to colleagues to gauge the impact and condition of the package. Does it get wedged into a small mailbox and mutilated? Does it survive the mail stream at all? • Track and measure the results.
Establish a realistic benchmark for success.
• Be creative!
Obviously, a dimensional campaign
direct mail campaign, so it’s important
for success. • Be creative!
photos
©dreamstime.com
One of the hottest topics
in print these days is the
use of quick response (QR)
codes. When scanned with a
smartphone, these codes take
people directly to the Web.
This gives smartphone users
an immediate way to respond
to your marketing pieces, even
if they aren’t at home or in
the office. It also increases
the relevance of your print
materials in the lives of today’s
busy mobile consumers.
QR Code Use
W
e’re seeing QR codes more and more. We see them on posters, POP displays, direct mail, and other print marketing. Just look on the shelves of Best Buy, Home Depot, or Lowe’s sometime. Or on the door to the Post Office, the direct mail on your kitchen counter, or the table tent of your favorite restaurant. QR codes are everywhere.But who’s scanning these codes and why? When QR codes first began gaining popularity, they were primarily being scanned by men. Today, that usage is shifting toward women. That says something about how these codes are being used.
Let’s look at some data.
A survey conducted on behalf of MGH, a Maryland-based ad agency, found QR code users to be nearly equally split between men and women (49% women, 51% men).
ScanBuy, which offers a platform for creating and reading mobile barcodes, found those scanning mobile barcodes to be primarily men (57%).
comScore’s annual “Survey of the American Consumer” also found 60.5% of QR code scanners to be men.
Mobio Identity Systems, a mobile payments company, however, found the majority of QR scanners to be women (64%).
What does this data mean?
Studies consistently show that one of the primary motivators for scanning QR codes is to get product information or to obtain some kind of deal. According to Mobio, 89% of those scanning QR codes in Q2 2011 did so to make an information request. In the MGH 2011 “QR Code Interest and Usage” study, 56% of those scanning QR codes did so to obtain some kind of discount.
QR scanning is heavily motivated by shopping behavior, and who are the primary shoppers for American households? Women!
Although the percentage of people scanning QR codes is currently weighted toward men, mobile payments are increasing. According to a new study from Gartner, more than 141.1 million people will use mobile payment services in 2011,
up 38.2% from one year ago. Consistent with this data, the percentage of men scanning QR codes is falling. In Q2 2011, ScanBuy found that 70% of those scanning mobile barcodes were men. By Q3 2011, that had dropped to 57%. At Mobio, the mobile payments company, nearly two-thirds (64%) of its mobile barcode scans are from women.
As QR codes become more accepted for shopping and as a method for obtaining coupons, discounts, and deals, we see their use among women growing. So follow the trend.
When you think “shopping,” think QR codes. Integrate them into your retail marketing, packaging, and shelf presentation. Add them to POP, brochures, and direct mail. Use them to send your target audience to product reviews, product comparisons, installation instructions, and coupons. Think about what type of information people might be looking for to help with a purchase decision, then give them what they are looking for.
It’s all about the shopping . . . and the art of the deal.
PERCENTAGE OF
MEN
VS.
WOMEN
USING QR CODES
51%
visit us at: www.hartynet.com
Phone: (203) 562-5112 Fax: (203) 782-9168 www.hartynet.com 25 James Street P.O. Box 324 New Haven, CT 06513About this issue
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