There are volumes written on this topic, but a lot of our clients have been experimenting with the combination between sending direct marketing pieces such as postcards with their online marketing strategies. There is tremendous interplay between catalogs and postcards and what folks do once they are ready to sit down and consider the offering.
According to the DMA’s integrated marketing media mix report, marketers are complimenting digital media with email (79%) and direct mail (75%).
Instead of using postcards that mention a website, use what is called a Personalized URL. Folks in the industry like to say that you always remember your first! Here are three reasons to give this a try using 1:1 marketing. Anything that improves the prospects experience is bound to offer your marketing results a lift.
1. Personalized URLs increase responses. Send postcards that have a personalized URL prominently displayed in the call to action. For example, if you are a B2B marketer promoting translation services to multi-national corporations, you may consider using a URL such as http://www.[prospective-company-name].[your-company-name].com. So for one of our clients the URL would read www.Kathleen-Reyes.Parlex.com. Prospects will respond at a higher rate than a generic company name such as www.Merck.Parlex.com.
2. Personalized URLs increase conversions. Because prospects will key in their name in the URL, the database will populate the other fields that you know about them to save them time (such as the email you have for them, or their address). Because you’ve saved them time, they are merely confirming the accuracy of the information you have about them from the list you may have purchased or from other entries your sales team may have made in your CRM. And as we all know, it’s much easier to edit than to add information.
3. Marketers can track results with more accuracy. Because prospects are also typing their name in the URL, or clicking on a link in the URL, we know how they found us. Attribute the marketing source to the lead to determine the Return on Investment of your marketing initiatives.
Lima Consulting Group develops, deploys and measures campaigns that use Personalized URLs. Our clients report higher traffic, higher conversion rates, and improved ROI for these campaigns compared to previous integrated marketing efforts.
