It’s lonely online. Hard to believe, in this age of online dating, marriages, shopping, banking and everything else, isn’t it? And yet, a survey conducted in Australia found that customers are increasingly feeling isolated from their favorite brands. Why? You guessed it—because the online marketing component has grown so big there’s no longer “personal” interaction.
That’s where your direct mail campaign can make a difference, because it has the golden touch that online marketing sometimes lacks.
Here’s how your direct marketing programs can help to re-establish your personal relationships with clients:
Develop Your Personality
Having a specific brand personality is vital for all aspects of marketing, but it’s even more important to help distinguish your direct mail campaign from the competition. There are so many companies still using every method available to try and reach prospects, the only way to make your material stand out from the rest is to make it unique. Develop a strong personality that shines through unmistakably and positions your products and services firmly in your niche market.
Allocate Brand Representatives
Part of the reason personal relationships are dwindling is because online commerce doesn’t have real people behind it. Don’t just set up your automated systems for processing incoming leads from each direct mail campaign; allocate brand representatives to review and connect with prospects. This could be based on the category of product, the cost value of an inquiry, or the profile of the prospect.
Apple gets it right, as always: Customers can complete an online form and, depending on the items checked off on the form, within a certain amount of time an Apple representative is calling them to take the process further. If the contact is as a result of a direct mail campaign, it becomes seamless to integrate the online and offline components and follow them up with a service call.
Use CRM the Right Way
Client relationship management software can help you to track your clients’ demographics, purchases and payments for the purpose of your campaign, but you can use the data to integrate your efforts better. Here’s how:
- Make contact with customers after they’ve made a purchase.
- Ask them to rate their satisfaction with the product and service, and record their responses.
- Analyze the records each year to identify purchase patterns and satisfaction trends, which will help you to understand the customers’ needs and wants.
- Pass this information on to your brand representatives to use in their connection with clients.
Focus on the Overall Customer Experience
“Customer experience” is one of the newer buzzwords currently, but it truly encompasses a whole lot into those two words. By focusing on the way your company reaches clients, you can identify and address the areas where frustration and isolation are occurring. Pay attention to the number of touch points a client has to navigate before getting an answer. If it’s too many, you’re likely to lose him along the way. Wherever possible, try and ensure that once the client acts according to the CTA in your direct mail campaign, he only has to do it once and all systems click into place to make his experience a pleasurable one.
These methods might not be practical if you’re selling products that go for $10 each, but if you’re offering big ticket or ongoing purchase items, it’s worth building up your relationships and keeping your customers loyal. After all, one bird in the hand definitely beats several in the bush. Or so “they” say!
