Just this week, I was on the receiving end of the best B2B campaign I’ve seen in years – and had to fire off this posting to you without delay, given the valuable marketing lessons to be learned from it.

A seemingly hand addressed brown paper envelope was delivered to me.

Inside… a hotel key and a note offering a web address. It intrigued me – had I won a prize? (Of course I knew I hadn’t. But nevertheless, I was impressed by the mystery. How could anyone not be?)

So I took the bait and visited the site. It was a hotel micro-site inviting me to review a simple hotel restaurant menu and “construct” my perfect meal. Very cool interactive content.

Once I completed this menu , the true nature of the campaign was revealed. Both mailer and site were a demonstration of the prowess of VLG - clearly a very interesting interactive agency! VLG pointed out that I had not only engaged with the site, but revealed critical information about myself along the way (steak, not chicken!).

Moments after completing the site’s online form I received a call from VLG.

So what can you take away from this top-flight campaign? Five key components:

1. Accurate Targeting: I lead sales and marketing at AccuData. I’m the perfect target for this agency

2. Attention-Getting Opener: Marketers know unusual mail pieces have a better chance of being opened. Boxes are the best but a hand-addressed brown paper envelope is very good.

3. Irresistible call-to-action: the hotel key was a unique way to spur the desired response… my visit to the URL.

4. Show, don’t tell: The mailer didn’t tell me what VLG could do. It showed me the proof in a memorable way. And that made all the difference.

5. Fast follow-up: By calling just moments after my site visit, VLG reached me at the peak of my interest when they were still top-of-mind. Definitely a best practice.

Was the campaign expensive? Sure. But VLG could never have driven that response from me with email or a more traditional mail piece. B2B direct marketing can often support more expensive promotional costs because of the relatively large value of a sale.

Check out another great mail piece I’ve reviewed: “Dear Mr. Goff” isn’t even close - let’s get variable

About six months ago I returned a call to a customer who asked to speak with me.  This customer works for a small agency that typically buys various types of data from AccuData.  The call went something like this:

Customer:  “I’d like to keep working with AccuData but a competitor is offering a loyalty program if I go with them.”

Me:  “I certainly would like to keep serving your company, tell me about the program.”

Customer:  “It’s a points program and I can cash in points for things I want or that my company needs.”

Me:  “Can you please give me an example?”

Customer:  “They have a cookie of the month club…”

Buying direct marketing services = cookies? 

It struck me then that as far as loyalty programs go, the bar had been set fairly low in the direct marketing services business.  This was the spark that kindled the eventual development of AccuPortal, a set of services and benefits we’ve just launched to help our reseller customers.

Click here to read the press release.

We wanted to build something that would materially help our reseller customers thrive as well as reward them for their business.  AccuPortal offers our customers proven sales and marketing tools and data cards – all of which can be customized and private labeled.  The system offers professional sales training as good as anything offered by any of the well known sales training consultants out there.

Beyond this, we’ve introduced the industry’s first Money-Back Data Guarantee and AccuCash, our own loyalty program.  But AccuCash pays just that – cash, not cookies.

I’ll report back on progress we’re having enrolling members and maybe we’ll be able to get a customer or two to offer up a case study or two to demonstrate how this tool increased their business.

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 AccuData team is home after a very productive week at the DMA and I have to say that this year’s show was a great success.  This seemed to be a far more serious crowd than last year.  Perhaps it was San Diego vs. Vegas or maybe CFOs simply didn’t approve non-essential travel.  While the reason is a mystery, the floor and the sessions were filled with a healthy crowd looking for solutions and to learn.  Good stuff.

The Brain enjoyed the show as well and several hundred t-shirts and Twitter followers later he’s developed quite a following.  Next year we may have to provide a bit of security for him - there were some unruly groupies and a couple of reporters that tried to sneak into his hotel room.  I just saw his last Tweet - I guess the show was a bit much and he’s tired.  So no new Tweets for at least a week I’d guess.  We’ll see.

Booths are always fun to evaluate.  On the “what were they thinking” scale, one company bought a 10×20 space and had only a chair and small round cocktail table along with minimal signage.   But this company DID hire an actor, dressed and painted to look like a bronze statue, to jab people as they passed by the booth, scaring some of them, amusing others and baffling me.  But this company’s booth traffic seemed good and I hope the show went well for them.  None of the booths really wowed me but there were many good ones and it was clear that most companies put a good deal of effort into their show presence.

AccuData certainly did and while we’ll see how leads and deals play out, the show went well.  I just wish The Direct Marketing Association would allow show exhibitors to do more direct marketing pre-show.  The delegate list was released late, email and telemarketing are prohibited and there are relatively few DMA-sponsored mechanisms for selling.  I don’t get it.  Perhaps this is why the DMA is facing so much emerging competition for mind share and marketing dollars from other associations and companies creating new forums for learning and selling.

DMA09 opened last night.  AccuData is a sponsor this year and it was nice to see the AccuData logo on large banners around the hall as well as the conference notepads.  This year we have a redesigned booth, smaller than last year’s and we believe it is much more effective at communicating with clients and prospects and is less expensive as well. 

Keeping costs down is really important for AccuData because we are one of the most cost-effective providers of database marketing services out there and to keep our prices down we must constantly think about our expenses.

Today is the day we’ll find out if the show is going to be a win or not.  Will we have a show filled with vendors staring at each other or will there be delegates looking for solutions? 

San Diego, the show venue, is an amazing city.  Clean, sleek, easy to navigate - San Diego was a good choice for the show’s venue.

The Brain will be at DMA09 and will be giving away cool concert tees.  He also has been tweeting like crazy about all of our products and services. Check out the latest post about AccuPortal at www.Twitter.com/AccuDataBrain.

At DMA09, stop by booth# 2423, see a demonstration of one of our products or speak to one of our experts. You’ll get a cool ’09-’10 World Tour concert tee just for your time. Want to schedule a meeting? No problem, click here, we’ll get you scheduled and one of our data or analytic specialists will be there to talk to you about 2010 planning or any of your database marketing needs.

'09-'10 World Tour Concert Tee

So, you might have caught a glimpse of the gigantic Brain on AccuData.com.  Think of The Brain as the collective intelligence of the thinkers at AccuData.  He is a big giant 300-pound brain and has some smart things to tell you. And he has even started tweeting: www.Twitter.com/AccuDataBrain.  You also might see The Brain appear in your email box, in Target Marketing Magazine and at DMA09. 

Yes, we’ve decided to have a little bit of fun with The Brain in 4Q, but the message is a serious one. 

Next year the economy will rebound and if you’re like many of AccuData’s customers you hope for better things in ’10 – in fact you are counting on it.  AccuData’s message is:  “Be smart.  Consider AccuData in your 2010 planning.” We say this because all year we’ve shown our customers how to be more effective on the top line and bottom line – and we’d like to show more companies what we can do next year.

To find out more about The Brain and AccuData’s products and services, click here.

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.

Direct mail and email used together in a multi-channel campaign can work wonders for your ROI - or sink it. 

No doubt, email is HOT and AccuData helps many companies develop and execute multi-channel campaigns involving email and direct mail.  But I find myself advising clients quite frequently NOT to marry email and direct mail – at least not in the way we are often asked to do it - which is to simultaneously drop email and direct mail together to the same list. 

Why?

The problem is that a careful economic analysis often shows that while the output metric of such an approach is often better (e.g., response rate), the ROI can be much worse.  Think about this simple math:

Let’s say your champion approach is a direct mail program that generates a 1% response rate at a cost of $0.50 per piece.  Now you layer on email and the cost of doing this is $0.05 or 10% of the direct mail cost.  That means your total response needs to be 1.1% to break even.  Make sense?

But in reality the cost of email can be higher, especially if you are prospecting for businesses or other targets that require you to purchase managed or specialty email lists.  So the cost could be more than 10%, maybe 20% or more.  So now you need a 1.2% response rate to break even.  Now that just covers the cost of the email – we’ve not factored in other costs such as the cost to develop the email creative, the cost to develop an effective website or landing page, etc. 

It is possible to generate incremental lift of 10% or 20% by coupling email with direct mail in the same drop - absolutely.  But in many cases we don’t see this result and the campaign winds up driving more sales, but at a higher cost per sale.

Now there IS a potentially better way to use email effectively in tandem with direct mail.  It’s called channel switching.  I’ll blog about that next time.