did. The static campaign brought in $33.33 per customer, while the personalized campaign brought in $44.36, more than onethird more. “When we first pitched the idea to the client, the owner said, ‘This will never work,’ so I said, ‘Let’s prove it,’” recalled Jason Ellis, president of the e.f. marketing group. “We went out with both static and personalized pieces. Both went to the same audience and mailed at the same time. The difference in results speaks for itself.” Despite the proven value of 1:1 mailings in most market verticals, Ellis said that where his company finds the most traction is in the nonprofit and educational markets, where the lifetime value of new donors is extremely high and clients have a more intuitive understanding of the value of customer profiles and investing in customer or donor analytics. Personalized Mapping One of the other trends we are seeing in personalized direct marketing is the use of personalized maps. Based on the recipient’s location, software such as locr will auto-generate maps to the desired destination. This technology was recently used to help an Oklahoma-based restaurant generate maps to each recipient’s nearest location. McNellie’s, a casual dining restaurant based in Tulsa, OK, opened a second restaurant and wanted to build a localized following that was as strong as the one they have at its original location. Its service provider, TPSi Tulsa, created the direct mail campaign. The mailer announced the new location, provided instructions on how to the information these institutions need to encourage students to at least commit to a site visit. “We send students to a landing page to fill out a survey such as providing extra-curricular activities, desired area of study in exchange for entering a drawing for a laptop,” said Mike Antonucci, president of CPC Solutions. “If students fill out the survey, they qualify for an incentive, such as a Starbucks card, VISA card, or other gift card.” Although the incentive changes from campaign to campaign, every one has an offer. “In our experience, you have to give them something to take the extra step to register and go onto the URL,” Antonucci said. “If there is no incentive, they just Google it and get to the website that way.” When this happens, the school loses the opportunity to survey the student and the warm leads do not materialize. While students respond to QR Codes, boosting response comes in many shapes and forms. As long as it’s interactive, it works. But students like QR Codes and personalized URLs for their ease of use. “It’s quicker,” Antonucci said, “and they don’t have to be in front of a computer. They can do it on the fly.” CPC Solutions has used AR, as well, and the response rates are even higher. In the end, personalization doesn’t look the same across the board. Printers are finding that, while data-driven personalization in print is an important part of the marketing toolbox, the approaches, the level of sophistication, and the vertical markets can’t be determined by looking at you’re your competitors are doing. It requires knowing what will work for its individual client base and target audience. find it, and offered an incentive to visit. A customized locr map was created for each recipient and included a $10 coupon. The response rate was an impressive 24 percent, with 600 of the 2,500 coupons redeemed. The restaurant was so happy with the results that it asked TPSi to create a similar campaign for another one of its restaurants, Yokozuna, also in Tulsa. “Both restaurants are hopping,” noted Fadel Iskander, vice president and co-owner of TPSi. “One of our children happened to be on the purchased list, so our whole family went to check it out. We couldn’t get through the parking lot! We had the same experience at Yokozuna.” Iskander is a big fan of personalized mapping and has used it for years. “We don’t just use this technique for restaurants,” he said. “Banks and credit unions love it, as well.” Variable QR Codes Also growing in popularity is the use of personalized QR Codes, or QR Codes that send recipients to personalized URLs. CPC Solutions (Grand Junction, CO) is a big fan of both QR Codes and AR for creating interactivity, particularly in the education vertical. Working within its MindFire solution, CPC sends personalized mailers to upcoming high school graduates asking them to fill out a survey via personalized URL. Those responses become warm leads for the college’s warm lead “closers.” The surveys are a critical piece of the sales funnel since they provide MyPRINTResource.com Quick Printing | April 2015 17
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