By now you know that on April 1^st, AccuData issues the world’s first data card of known vampires.  We made this announcement via email to our customers and on Twitter and Facebook.

I’m thrilled to say the response has been tremendous and we are busy processing counts and orders.  Visit Born Into Darkness for more information on the data card, or The Big Fat Marketing Blog, which features a post by Beth Negus of Chief Marketer about this sultry list.

Now anyone in the data business will appreciate the challenge of locating this file.  Let me tell you, travel to Transylvania isn’t cheap (especially from Miami via Rio), easy (our vampire friends over there put the “C” in customs) or convenient (night flights only at Transylvania International Airport).  But we got ‘er done.

What is it about vampires?  How did they get to be so cool?  Before New Moon and the recent vampire renaissance the most popular vampire was “The Count” on Sesame Street, or maybe “Count Chocula” cereal character from General Mills.  I guess I’m just not cool!

Oh, well – you want specialty data?  You got it!

April Fool's!!!

Consider a general store from the 1800s – the kind of store you might have seen on the Frontier in early 1800s. In those days, this was virtually the only place you could buy supplies. When you walked in, you’d find piles of blankets, bags of wheat and bottles of “snake oil.”

The shopkeeper would know you because it’s the only place in town. He would know what you bought, how much you bought and how you paid — he even knew your family. In fact, the clerk knew ALL about you because you lived in a small town and bought everything you needed at the store; furthermore, the shopkeeper was a prominent figure in town, right in the middle of all the town gossip.

Of course, there were no computers but he DID have a ledger book, which held the account balances for everyone in town — in those days, folks were able to buy on credit just like we do today. But this was a smart shopkeeper and there was much more in the ledger. I’ve seen several 1800s-era ledger books. One held a variety of notations about customers, like their likes and dislikes, their children’s birthdays, even a notation about a customer’s horse that had died (“might need new tack”).

In essence I was looking at a 1800s-style customer database and a really comprehensive 360-degree customer profile. But more importantly, the shopkeeper was able to interact with each customer on the shop floor, using all the information available in real time.

Three points:

1. What many of us are trying to do today — craft personalized communications and understand our customer — is literally a concept and practice that has been around as long as merchants have been doing business.

2. What changed over time was the scale of commerce and hence the complexity of what we now call “database marketing” or “CRM” across thousands and even millions of customers.

3. Although the technology needed to collect and manage data at this scale developed, particularly since 1995, marketers have generally NOT been able to make the data usable on the shop floor. The “marketing data” was typically not made operational because of a missing link between the data in the back-end marketing database and the shop floor. In the case of the general store the linkage was there - because the shopkeeper managed the data in the ledger and interacted with the customers.

Here is an example of how this linkage can work today, although VERY few companies are doing it:

I recently boarded a plane, as I’ve done hundreds of times. The flight attendant approached me just after takeoff to offer me a small bottle of champagne and thank me for attaining elite flight status. Wow! Now of course I had received a mailing from the airline — the direct marketing team had done their job well. They knew I achieved the flight status, ran a “trigger” campaign, and mailed me a nice thank-you note. I was able to board early due to my flight status, which of course is great. But emotionally, these benefits paled in comparison to that little bottle of champagne and the in-plane thank you.

In this case, the airline extended its customer data, and my flight status in particular, to the airplane and created an in-plane program to make the data operational. This is hard to do and I only had this experience once. But some companies are all about developing real-time, operational database marketing programs. Casinos for example (maybe I’ll talk about this in another post).

How do you do it?

In most cases, the marketing database exists, as does the customer facing POS and other systems. What’s missing is simply the linkage between the two and this is where web services come in. Today it’s quite straightforward to develop web services that link “back-end” customer databases to front line systems.

This approach allows data-enabled operational programs like:

1. Distributing coupons online or through the mail and then monitoring redemptions in real time, providing data to yet other real-time CRM trigger programs

2. Creating data-enabled experiences on planes, hotel rooms, restaurants

3. Linking to social media campaigns, like recording Facebook enrollments and reacting via email in real time.

This is really fun stuff.

The economy is turning around. How do I know? My mail told me so. Maybe not in so many words but it certainly insinuated a recovery. Of course I won’t hold the mail or the mail carrier responsible if this prediction falls flat but yes, I do believe all signs point to better days ahead. So you may be asking, “What on earth could have brought about such an epiphany?” Was it a vision? A dream? Nah, it was a piece of direct mail. But not just any direct mail – it was a piece offering timeshares.

The direct mail in question, for The Hilton Grand Vacations Club, was beautifully done and very high quality. It showed – and spoke to – all of the right things and it certainly stood out amongst the mounds of mail I received.

So how does this signal a return to prosperity? Simply by the fact that the timeshare market, Hilton in particular, feels that some people are at a better place, a point where they may be willing to invest in a relatively expensive discretionary purchase.  Let’s not forget that timeshares, along with real estate in general, are big reminders of the banking and mortgage crisis. If a brand like Hilton is comfortable selling timeshares to audiences again, things must be getting better…even if just a little bit, right?

The other thing that stood out was the medium itself – direct mail. During a time when email and digital technology are heralded as the best bang for your direct marketing buck, it is proof once again that direct mail does have its advantages. When done properly, it informs and generates a positive emotional response, which makes a huge difference in prompting a buying decision or developing customer loyalty. Plus, direct mail is tangible – a piece can lay around a home or office for months, garnering numerous views from the recipient or passive viewers, making your messaging shelf-life a long one.

So, things are looking up. Let’s keep our minds moving forward and an eye on the future – in the meantime I’ve got a Hilton Mini-Vacation to book…

I’ve written about see-through envelopes and a general deterioration in the level of effort many companies are putting into their direct mail efforts.  But not all companies are letting their direct mail languish - and they are still generating very strong results despite today’s poor economic conditions.

How are they doing it?  Sharp targeting and (increasingly) variable digital printing. 

Regarding the latter, I received a mail piece a few weeks ago that illustrates the level of customization some direct marketers are now achieving in their direct mail.  The piece offered an extended warranty for my vehicle.  I’ve been receiving a number of these lately but this one was different. 

Beyond the usual “Dear Mr. Goff”  the piece included a list of the top 5 repairs I could expect over the next 36 months with their corresponding costs (for my vehicle) and a map showing the location of three nearby garages that not only accepted the warranty company’s coverage, but also waived the deductable.  Impressive.

The information was important because it gave me specific information that I could weigh in my decision making process.  In fact, I even visited one of the listed garages to get a reference on the warranty company.

Out of curiosity I tracked down the direct marketing manager for the warranty company and she was quite open about their approach.  The company had been sending out increasingly less expensive pieces with generic offers and (yes!) see-through envelops.  After some internal debate and experimentation with prospect email, the company decided to double-down on direct mail and address the fundamental issues that had been limiting their response - the lack of “monetization,” that is the lack of data that enabled a consumer to weigh the cost of the warranty against the cost of repairs and the lack of specifics around garages that accepted the coverage.

After building the databases powering the cost and garage data and fully taking advantage of variable digital printing (and upgrading their paper stock), response rates had almost doubled and direct mail became the companies second most effective channel…(can anyone guess what was always and still is their most effective direct response channel?).

The truth is, this example doesn’t come close to illustrating the amazing things possible with variable digital printing, but it does illustrate how a company with a common product can use data very surgically to drive very impressive direct mail results and economics - and it was not all that hard to do.

Last time I talked about Direct Mail, a passion of mine and a marketing tactic some think is dying. 

Despite record postage and the state of the economy, direct mail is still extremely effective.   How do I know?  Hundreds of AccuData customers as well as the direct mail I personally recieve tell me so.  If you are reading this and thinking, “not mine” then it’s time to think hard about how your company funds, develops and executes your direct mail.  It’s time to look inward, not outward at the economy or the USPS.

I recently received a direct mail piece from one of the nation’s largest insurance companies.  To my amazement, I could see through the outer envelope, could see the offer through the paper.  I wondered at the time if this was intentional, after all this company is a large, sophisticated marketer.  Surely every aspect of their direct mail must be tested thoroughly.  Well maybe this was, but I don’t think so.  This was an attempt to shave a fraction of a cent from each mail piece.  Paper is expensive right?  Let’s save some money by reducing paper weight! 

“Boss, maybe we should move our budget to pay per click, direct mail isn’t working anymore!”  As my good English friend and marketing guru Doug Bewsher might say “Bollock”!

First things first - what is the purpose of an outer envelope?  To convince the recipient to open it of course!  Now I have received mailers that were designed to be see-through and a few of them were fantastic.  Not this piece.  This was just lazy.  If I can see through the outer envelope to the content within, if I can see the offer then I don’t have to open the package.  I won’t read the letter, won’t read the brochure,  won’t give the company a chance - particularly if the offer is just so-so.

Large insurance company - you know who you are.  Put on some weight please.  I like em’ heavy!

As a follow-up to the “Odd Couple” post, here I’ll talk about Channel Switching as a way to effectively marry direct mail and email in a multi-channel campaign.

First recall the key point of the “Odd Couple” post.  Multi-channel marketing, particularly simultaneous direct mail and email, can reduce campaign ROI because the incremental channel, often the email channel, doesn’t always result in enough incremental response to recoup its cost.

Channel Switching  can solve this problem by effectively utilizing both channels.  Here is how it works:  The idea is to run a multi-channel campaign, email and direct mail in this case, in stages beginning with the most cost-effective channel (email) and then SWITCHING to the less effective channel (mail).

First, use email to generate as much low cost response as possible.  Since Email is typically less expensive than direct mail the ROI on this first round is attractive.  However since email response rates are often poor it’s important to use direct mail as a follow-up to increase the total response to your campaign (or you may not hit your overall response target).

Second, follow-up the email drop with a direct mail drop to the email non-responders, preferably using a predictive response model to maximize your response rate.  It’s often the case that prospects tend to respond to different channels and so you may find that your direct mail response rate is unaffected by the previous email drop.  In fact you may find that the email helps to increase your direct mail response rate although this is not always the case.

The combination of the two drops increases overall sales while reducing the cost per sale since the cost of the email generated response is less on a unit basis.