Marketing Agility in a Risk-Adverse Economy

Author: Bryan Formhals, Senior Marketing Specialist 

Being a marketer in today’s economy likely produces some trepidation and maybe some nervous laughter. You might not be confident that your well-thought-out marketing plans will unfold as expected in 2023.  

Everyone under the sun has heard of the looming economic uncertainty, many of which are calling the most telegraphed recession in history. There’s a lot of angst in this economy, especially in the marketing industry.  

We feel the pressures of the economy, but view the challenge as a great opportunity for the direct mail channel.  

Why?  

When you create an agile framework and embrace new ideas, you can find growth while others act out of fear and face growth decline. 

Nahan is here to help you create an agile framework for your direct marketing program to help ensure it remains nimble and profitable during uncertain times. 

Remember that Avoiding Risk At All Cost Can Be Costly

When businesses face uncertainty, the natural tendency is to take a more cautious approach to new initiatives and scrutinize spending more closely. Caution is recommended when it is coupled with strategy to find opportunities.  

The key is to not withdraw and become entirely risk avoidant. Avoiding all risk can actually become a bigger risk.  

In our opinion, the riskiest decision direct mail marketers can make in 2023 is pulling back on testing – completely missing out on the opportunity to learn and improve their programs.  

To help marketers build a testing strategy that will limit risk and provide the most performance improvement, we’ve published a Guide to Direct Mail Testing. Warning: we get a little geeky and deep into the data models…but that’s what we like. We believe it’s through testing that marketers will find the most success in direct mail, and ultimately the best ROI.  

You can leverage Nahan as an extension of your marketing team. We’ll bring our decades of data and testing expertise to help you continue to test and learn in 2023, while avoiding unnecessary risk. Turning to in-depth industry expertise is critical when there’s less room for error. In challenging times, leaning on strong expertise matters. 

Find Partners That Embrace Agility

During challenging times, marketers need to be flexible. We understand the need for adaptability as your strategies, offers, promotions, and competitive environment are rapidly changing. 

Throughout the past several years, we’ve prioritized agility in our upgrades and evolution as a company. We’ve built a dynamic platform with the capability to produce a wide range of direct mail formats, increase efficiency, improve change management, and allow for more dynamic personalization, just to name a few.  

We have an end-to-end trigger platform that takes advantage of the fact that best results are driven by human behavior – whether it’s consumer credit inquiries or web abandoners – and everything else in between. Results are 40-140% higher than business as usual mail. 

We love connecting the dots for our customers, from data to creative to digital integrations, and helping find ways to improve speed to market. We’ve learned that every job is unique and requires a unique solution. And that’s why Nahan makes agility a top priority. 

Ensure Stability For Your Direct Marketing Program

When the market is uncertain, you want a trusted and reliable partner at your side. Nahan has been in business for over 60 years and is a thriving, financially stable organization.  

Our leadership team is filled with direct marketing veterans, each with over 25 years of experience in the industry. We’ve weathered many economic ups and downs over the years, and have made investments along the way that ensure continuity and efficiency for our clients.  

We’ve invested in dual production facilities –  one in Minnesota, and another in Pennsylvania. These two facilities not only drive production and logistics benefits for our customers, but also provide enhanced disaster-relief continuity to our clients’ programs.  

Another example is our strategic relationship with supply chain partners such as those that supply paper and ink. Through these decades-long relationships, we’re able to gain unique visibility into supply chain strategies and challenges before they become a problem. This allows us to plan further ahead to mitigate challenges with availability and pricing of materials.  

Lean Into Data

Fresh and accurate data is the single most important factor in driving direct mail performance improvement. We make it our business to deliver the right data solution for your unique targeting needs.  

Not only can we access credit data from the 3 main credit bureaus when a client is eligible, but we can also access supplemental and alternate credit data sources and demographics to provide complete asset targeting and identify under-banked individuals.  

Due to our overall volume and contractual agreements, we can obtain data at a price lower than clients can obtain on their own. Credit data itself is more accurate than traditional demographic data, leading to higher rates of deliverability and improved targeting, both of which save our clients substantial marketing dollars. 

Using data, we can create predictive “meta-models” that combine many source-specific sub-models, making them more powerful and flexible than traditional single-source models.  

Ensuring your offers are being sent to the right audience is crucial to success, especially when budget dollars are tight. 

Make Agility Your Approach in 2023

2023 is a year for refining and opportunity-seeking amidst uncertainty, not a year for staying stagnant. Maintaining an emphasis on flexibility, adaptability, and continual improvement is the name of the game.  

Responding to market conditions in a cautious, but wise way that takes strategic risks, will set your business up to thrive in the future. 

Ready to up your agility? Download our “Guide To Direct Mail Testing Today” white paper. 

In this white paper, we provide an insiders guide to effective direct mail testing for programs of all sizes and across industries. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started with testing or a seasoned pro, our guide will provide you with actionable insights you can implement today.

Learn how the four phases of the testing process work together to drive optimization.

• Research
• Pre-Testing
• Testing
• Post-Campaign Assessment

If you’re ready to test smarter and drive ROI for your program, fill out the form below for the full guide to direct mail testing today!