Boost Your Results: Refresh your direct marketing strategy

Gretchen Scheiman
Boost Your Results:
Refresh Your
Direct Marketing Strategy

2
The burden is on marketing,
especially direct marketing,
to bridge the
communication gap
and drive results
By 2020,
customers will manage 85%* of their
relationship with the enterprise
without talking to a human.
*Gartner Gretchen Scheiman | 551-655-6459 | gretchens@gmail.com

3
“If the notion that
all marketing is direct
hasn't caught on yet—and it
really should have by now—
then the superlative efforts of
these brands should help to
drive the point home.”
– DM News
All Marketing is
Direct Marketing
Gretchen Scheiman | 551-655-6459 | gretchens@gmail.com

4
Just 61% of marketers believe their marketing
strategy is effective. (HubSpot, 2016)
If you suspect your direct marketing could use
some tweaks, maybe it’s time to review your
strategy.
Is It Time to Tweak?

5
Give your results a boost:
refresh your direct marketing
strategy

6
Direct marketing strategies
help brands transform
data and content
into
relevant and helpful
conversations
with their customers
where and when
the customer wants
in order to drive more revenue
What is a Direct
Marketing Strategy?
It’s a revenue-driving
conversation enabler

7
When you refresh your
direct marketing strategy,
you:
Create a
positive cycle
of gathering
and using
customer data
Lift
marketing
and sales
performance
Increase
customer
engagement
and loyalty

8
Ready to boost your results?
GOALS AUDIENCES
DATA CHANNELS CADENCE CONTENT
MEASUREMENT
How do I get
from
HERE
to
THERE
?

9
How do I get
from
HERE
to
THERE
?

10
Many marketers skip this step,
either substituting campaign
objectives or dismissing the
need entirely.
Don’t make this mistake!
Goals
It is impossible to
promote the
importance of your
results if you don’t
have good goals to
start with.

11
5characteristics define good goals.
✓Aligned
✓Socialized
✓Actionable
✓Measurable
✓Impactful
Goals

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Aligned
Direct marketing goals must be aligned with
openly acknowledged brand goals and objectives.
Not all goals need to be about sales or revenue.
Consider what the brand needs to accomplish and
how that aligns with what direct marketing can
achieve. The intersection is where direct marketers
will find goal material.
Goals

13
Socialized
It’s important to make sure senior management
buys off on direct marketing goals. Without that
support, even the best results are simply not valued.
Organizations don’t allocate resources to groups
that aren’t providing valued results.
That’s why marketers need to define goals and
socialize them within the organization early on.
Set
Goals

14
Actionable
Avoid setting goals where direct marketing
is unlikely to get more than a small piece
of the credit.
Instead, set a goal that is actionable by
direct marketing, and which direct
marketing is uniquely qualified to impact.
Goals

15
Measurable
Measuring goals can be tricky,
especially when dealing with legacy
systems or a simple lack of access to
certain data.
Set goals that can be measured with
accuracy, and compared to prior results.
Goals

16
Impactful
Marketers should look for big goals that will
impress senior management when the results
come in.
In other words, focus on goals that will help
win bigger budgets and more staff.
Goals

17
When to prioritize Setting Goals
Goal-setting is critical to success, and this part
of the process can’t be skipped or skimped.
Fortunately, this step will make it easier to talk
about your plans and successes as you move
forward.
Set clear goals before moving on to the next
step.
Goals

Marketing to everyone is like boiling the
ocean: it doesn’t work.
Marketers need to answer the question,
“Who should we talk to?”
3sources help identify the right
target audiences:
❖Analytics
❖Research
❖Profiles
18
Identify
Audiences

19
Identify
Audiences
Analytics
Demographics, along with
psychographics and other information
about target audiences, are key to
developing analytical tools that help
identify audience members
Look for help from analytics partners to
develop propensity models, cluster
analyses, and other tools.
Don’t forget to refresh all analytical tools
regularly, so they stay current

20
Identify
Audiences
Market Research
Marketers need to invest in market
research continuously in order to
better understand audiences and their
needs, especially in the context of
competitors.
Answer basic questions first, such as:
What do my customers want or value or
need from my brand communications?
Who are my brand’s most loyal
customers?
There is always more to learn.

21
Identify
Audiences
Customer Profiles
Personas and customer journeys are
smart investments that help optimize
and focus marketing efforts across
channels and beyond direct
marketing.
Build personas and journeys based on
qualitative and quantitative research.
Use Personas to better understand
customers’ needs, experiences, and goals.
Align relevant content and insights to
each stage of the customer journey.

22
Identify
Audiences
When to prioritize
audience selection
It is always important to know who the
audience is, but audiences tend to change
slowly.
If this is an exercise that has been done
within the last year, and if results suggest
that the audience segmentation has been
working, then marketers may find their
time is better spent on other steps.

23
Data Data is the lifeblood of direct marketing.
Marketers need to pay special attention to
quality, acquisition, and overall capabilities.
Gathering data becomes a significant task when
faced with legacy systems, artificial
intelligence (AI) needs, proper hygiene, and
legalities of collection.

24
Data
3data considerations
impact direct marketing
strategy:
✓Data Quality
✓Data Acquisition
✓Data Capabilities

25
Data Data Quality
The quality of available data impacts every aspect
of direct marketing. In the case of poor data
hygiene, certain segmentation may not be possible,
measurement may be suspect, and the most
powerful tools (such as AI) may be useless.
Marketers must partner within their organizations
to promote accessible high-quality data.

26
Data Data Acquisition
Acquisition comes in many flavors from 3rd party
append to progressive profiling.
Data acquired from customer actions is always
preferred to self-reported data as it is more reliable.
Carefully assess what kinds of data are critical to
direct marketing needs, then identify a source for
each data point.

27
Data Data Capabilities
Even in companies that collect the right data, it
may not be stored in the right place.
Also, highly regulated industries may discover that
while the data exists, it can’t be used as desired.
Marketers need to make sure that the data they
need can be supported by infrastructure as well as
compliance.

28
Data
When to prioritize data
Data is always a priority, but that doesn’t
make it an especially active one for marketers.
Make sure the team has a strong
understanding of what is available, how good
the quality is, and how it can legally (and in
good conscience) be used.
Develop a strong relationship with the team
responsible for maintaining data so that as
needs change, there is an open dialogue
available to discuss the news.

29
Channels
Budget often has the biggest impact on
which direct marketing channels are
available to marketers. However, there are
other considerations that should guide a
thoughtful consideration of the right channel
palette for a brand’s target audience.
4factors influence channel selection:
 Customer preference
 Product type
 Partner capabilities
 Competition

30
Channels
Customer Preference
Some people prefer email, some
prefer phone, and so on. These
preferences can make the difference
between engagement, conversion,
and disinterest.
Identify channel preferences through
customer profiles and engagement data.
Weave channel preference indicators into
segments.
Budget permitting, prioritize channels
that brand audiences prefer for
engagement. Remember, engagement
goes beyond conversion.

31
Channels
Product Type
There are nuances to achieving
conversions for physical products via
digital channels, and vice versa. Most
products or services have a preferred
channel for distribution, even in the
Internet of Things.
Make sure conversion is measurable either
directly or indirectly through each channel
being considered.
Consider that brand goals combined with
customer types may require a specific set of
channels that otherwise might seem unlikely.

32
Channels
Partner Capabilities
Every brand has owned channels (e.g.
the brand’s house list) and partner
channels (e.g. behaviorally targeted
display advertising).
Marketers should still strive for relevance
through segmentation and targeting, so
partners who do not have these capabilities
may not be a good fit for direct marketing
efforts. Good or bad, partners’ reputations
will impact the brand.

33
Channels
Competition
Every channel has many competitors
speaking to a brand’s customers.
Marketers need to pay attention to the
competition in order to stand out.
Keep an eye on competitors’ channel mix,
as this can provide clues to areas of
opportunity.

34
Channels
When to prioritize
channel selection
Regardless of budget, channel selection
needs to consistently be a priority for
marketers. This is a rapidly changing area
of the marketing landscape, and audience
preferences, competitor moves, and
partner capabilities are constantly shifting
as a result. Test new capabilities as they
become available.

35
Cadence
❖Expectations
❖Tolerance
❖Integration

36
Cadence
Expectations
The first question marketers should address is,
what happens next?
Consider the most appropriate response to a
customers action, or indirect action, or inaction.
What is the expectation for communications,
and what are the perils to avoid?

37
Cadence
Tolerance
Every direct marketing channel has a limited
“tolerance” for messaging.
Marketers need to understand how to map
tolerance and response together to identify the
appropriate channel from the channel palette.

38
Cadence
Integration
Cadence relies heavily on the entire channel
palette, not just one channel alone.
Integrating cadence across channels is a delicate
balancing act. Too many limitations, and
customers miss your messages. Not enough
care, and customers feel overwhelmed.

39
Cadence When to prioritize cadence
Cadence is an important consideration
when adding new programs to a direct
marketing strategy.
Similarly, if the direct marketing strategy
has grown recently it may be time to audit
the cadence across all programs to ensure
the brand’s audience isn’t being inundated
with communications.

40
Content
Content and cadence often go hand-in-hand.
Remember to be customer focused, not
brand focused. Marketers need to ask:
“What do our customers
want to hear?”
Guide content from 3perspectives:
• Relevant
• Available
• Unique

41
Content
Relevant
Content should certainly be relevant
and useful to the customer, otherwise
why would they consume it?
Apply the brand’s definition of relevance
rigorously to content choices
Be diligent about removing content that
does not meet brand standards for
relevance.

42
Content
Available
Available means many things: is it in
the CMS? Can an expert or an AI
write it? Can it be bought? Are there
competitors who already own it?
Clearly define budget and resources to
determine what content exists, what
content can be created, and how easily the
content can be used across channels.

43
Content
Unique
Customers look at marketing
communications to tell them
something new or different. How
does your brand make its content
unique?
Brands need to make sure they have a
unique voice, perspective, or piece of
information to offer. Focus on hitting at
least one of these three with every
marketing communication piece.

44
Content When to prioritize content
Content is constantly in need of a refresh,
and a strong strategy will include content
that looks and feels new to the audience.
Partner with peers responsible for content
across the brand so that direct marketing
needs are considered as new content is
curated.

45
Measurement
✓ Measure
✓ Test
✓ Socialize

46
Measurement
Measure
Marketers who set solid goals up front are well
situated to measure results against those goals
along the way.
There’s nothing worse than getting results and
realizing they are not statistically significant, so
plan ahead to avoid or manage this potential
issue.

47
Measurement
Test
The marketers’ mantra is “test, test, test”. There
should always be tests planned.
Testing deserves its own strategy, but should be
integrated with all direct marketing strategies as
well.

48
Measurement
Socialize
Socialize results in the context of the brand’s
organizational structure.
Plan when to release results: newly released
good results may have a positive influence
during budget time, when older results have
been forgotten.

49
Measurement
When to prioritize measurement
Just as with goals, measurement is an important tool
for evaluating results and communicating successes
across the brand organization.
Smart marketers spend extra effort on measurement
plans so their successes are recognized.

Guide to a Comprehensive Direct Marketing Strategy

For help refreshing your direct marketing strategy, contact:
Gretchen Scheiman
551-655-6459
gretchens@gmail.com
Thank You

Boost Your Results: Refresh your direct marketing strategy

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