Knowing where your customer is in their customer lifecycle can be the difference between a good direct mail campaign and great direct mail campaign. There are 5 steps in a customer lifecycle, Awareness, Interest, Conversion, Retention, and Loyalty. Each of these steps offer great opportunities to integrate direct mail into your customer’s journey.
Step 1: Awareness
Getting your business’s information across in your mailing is the most important step in this first stage. Your customer needs to know who you are and what you offer. Strong copy and engaging artwork are encouraged – QR codes, links that drive to your website or social media, or even a phone number. Gauging interest is critical as these responses can create warm leads for you to follow up on in later steps. Sourcing a data list that layers on certain firmographic elements is also critical. You can source new data, and/or use your house list to create a customer profile that would help generate the best list for your mailing. Snowball is happy to help with your data needs!
Step 2: Acquisition
Now that you’ve informed your customers on who you are and what you do, you’ll want to provide them with specific information that is relevant to their needs. How can you solve their problem? Personalization would be a great way to grab their attention. Adding a personalized URL, salutation, QR code, or even a map to their closest store is highly effective. Nurture campaigns help customers consider all of the information that is provided to them – adding a comparison chart to show your pricing vs your competitors pricing, or encouraging them to visit your website that shares a video on your business’s best features might be a good way to help them with their selection. It may also be a good idea to include a vanity URL for tracking purposes. Abandoned Carts or Retargeting campaigns are a few other great programs to consider in this stage. With these campaigns, you see that your hopefully soon-to-be customers are engaging with your business online but for whatever reason, they decide not to go through with the sale. Snowball can help retain the information needed to send these individuals a direct mail piece and get their attention back on your business!
Step 3: Conversion
Your potential customer has debated, contemplated, and deliberated…and it’s almost decision time when they see one more piece of mail sitting on their desk. This is the time to hit them with your best incentive to win them over and get them to choose you. Use a unique promo code, an exclusive discount, or a limited-time offer they just can’t refuse. Aside from a great offer, customers also want to find a business they can trust. Again, it’s time to highlight the solutions you’re offering as well as information that spotlights your credibility in the industry you’re in. Add testimonials of recent clients and gain their trust so your customers can see what others are thinking. Snowball can also help guide you in choosing the best-performing, incentive-forward formats.
Step 4: Retention
You did it! You won over your customer and they’ve endorsed you as a reliable business, but don’t stop there! Customers are almost 30% more likely to buy from you again if they bought from you before (Direct Mail Timing). Once you’ve made a sale, this is a great opportunity to send out a mail piece telling your customer they made a great decision and use your customer’s information to make improvements to your products and services. Another great opportunity to keep your customers coming back is to keep them in the loop about product updates, and event announcements, or have them sign up for membership renewals. You may even consider your customer’s other needs by creating a Cross-Sell program with additional products. If you can predict your customer’s needs, the better chance they’ll stay within your brand. According to the ANA, 70% of Americans feel that receiving direct mail is more personal than digital mail, so why not send them what makes them feel the most unique? Snowball can help with your strategy needs on each of these potential direct mail programs!
Step 4: Loyalty
Brand loyalty is of the utmost importance and your customer reaches this stage after being influenced by the previous four stages. This takes time and needs to be nurtured and instilled throughout your customer’s journey. A Referral program can be a great way to market your brand while also giving your customers a chance to cash in their reward. A Loyalty program is a great opportunity to get your customers to buy over and over again. Ask Snowball how to build out a direct mail referral or loyalty program for your brand!
Direct mail can play a huge role in your customer’s lifecycle, from the first sale to their continuous relationship. The best companies build mutually beneficial relationships with customers that equate to a higher customer lifetime value — in other words, they ensure that their customers are going to stick around for a while (Customer Lifecycle Management). The more you know about where your customer is in their buying journey, the more effective your next direct mail campaign can be!
Contact us at info@snowballpm.com to find out how you can start integrating DM into your customer’s lifecycle.
Written by: Amanda Ornelas
Sources:
Mail Retargeting, Direct Mail Timing, Customer Lifecycle Management, Customer Journey Maps, Hubspot CLM
