Boost Responses; Increase ROI; Repeat

Want to boost response rates? Think “multi-touch, multi-channel.” These campaigns increase awareness and retention and boost response rates, too.

When one manufacturer wanted to introduce a new product, for example, it created a snazzy, four-color mailer addressing recipients by name and encouraging them to log into a personalized URL to sign up for a sweepstakes and learn more about the product.

Knowing that multiple recipients within the same company often received its mailers, the marketer created three versions of this particular mailer, each with different graphics. This way, when employees shared their mailers with others, they would see the variation, discuss it, and create a buzz.

As a reminder to those who had not yet responded, the company sent a personalized follow-up e-mail with the same branding and imagery as the print mailer.

Sales of the product jumped 79% and exceeded projections by 11%.

While it might seem that using multiple touches and channels will significantly increase your print and postage costs, this isn’t necessarily the case, especially if you are reducing the size of the mailing to a highly targeted audience or using e-mail or text messaging as the “pump primer” or follow-up vehicle.

Also consider the higher return on investment these programs can provide. You can have a low-cost campaign, but if it returns dismal results, what does it gain you? Conversely, if a multi-touch, multi-channel campaign takes your response rates from 4% to 18%, with a higher donation or per-sale value, what is the value of that? Instead of looking at the upfront cost per piece, focus on ROI.