Expanding Our Portfolio of Services – Introducing Marketing Services

Posted on by Bryan.Formhals

Author: Alan Sherman

For almost 60 years, Nahan has been known for an emphasis on high quality production, distribution, and design. Our clients are a blue-chip group of direct mail and catalog marketers.

In a marketing climate that is increasingly competitive and further challenged by a global pandemic, we are building upon our success and offering clients a true end-to-end omnichannel marketing solution, driven by a team of experts across strategy, data, and creative.

Crafting a Solution Around What Works

In doing so, we are positioning our marketing services around what drives client success. In direct mail, response is driven by 3 top-line components: the data, creative, and the offer. Supporting and “orchestrating” all of this is the strategy, with an overall plan of action that often optimizes all three of these elements for best results.

Targeting Crucial for Success

Research indicates that the right data or list, is the single most important factor in prospect or customer response. An investment in direct mail is wasted against the wrong audience. Proper data selection, whether it is a targeted list selection or through the application of predictive analytics, is essential for success.  We can drive enhanced performance via additional, proven sources often priced at levels that clients cannot obtain on their own.

Creative Designed Specifically to Drive Response

Our skilled and experienced team is highly focused on applying a series of creative best practices that get respondents to take action. High performance creative is much more than small, iterative changes to an existing creative control. It means re-tooled responsive design, copy and often the introduction of new direct mail formats. This is where the big gains in response are realized.  Depending on the client, it may mean development of a rotation of creative controls, especially when targeting an audience more than once.

Hooking Them With a Well-Written and Properly Located Offer

The creative offer is what hooks potential customers. Offers themselves may sometimes be limited by what a client is able to provide, but how they are presented, messaged and supported by benefits is key to response success. A well-constructed offer with supporting benefits is compelling, hooks the reader, establishes credibility, reverses perceived risk, and includes a strong, urgent call to action.

Tying It All Together with Strategy

Well-developed strategy effectively brings these key components together. It may include analyzing past performance, scoping and ranking the right universe, putting an A/B or multivariate test plan together, providing guidance on the campaign, measuring the results and then applying the learning for continued, ongoing performance improvement. This may mean expanding the marketing plan, utilizing various approaches to reach the same people with multiple contacts across additional, integrated marketing channels. We have long known that omnichannel programs perform best.

An End-to-End Solution Makes for Cost Efficiencies and Higher ROI

Pairing some or all of your direct marketing efforts with high-quality production and smart postal strategies produces cost and time efficiencies, which leads to greater Return on Investment. We are already hard at work helping clients achieve better results for 2021 and are eager to help you be successful as well! Please reach out to me at alan.sherman@nahan.com if you would like to learn more about our marketing services.

Bio: Alan Sherman is our Vice President of Marketing Strategy. Alan enhances Nahan’s current value proposition with strategy solutions that support new/existing client relationships. For clients, he leverages market, customer, and competitive intelligence to build achievable strategies for omnichannel marketing success. His marketing plan strategies include targeted data, predictive analytics, testing and creative that drive ongoing client performance improvement. In his spare time, Alan enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, going to concerts, watching sports (he’s a fan of the NY Giants, Boston Red Sox and Celtics) and walking the dog, even though it was just out.

How to Show ROI on Your Next Print Project

Posted on by Bryan.Formhals

Author: Melissa Fransen, Marketing Manager

Hello fellow marketers! Whether you are new to marketing or have been in the field your entire career, there is one thing that we are all probably familiar with measuring for the campaigns we develop and execute; ROI. For social media marketing, the data is right at our fingertips as we can see impressions, click through rates, and engagement %. For email marketing, we can see open rates, clicks, and conversions. In Google Analytics, we can see website traffic driven from organic, direct, and referral sources, but what about print as a part of an omni-channel strategy? Here are some great ways to measure and show ROI on your next print project!

1. Use the Power of Your Data

 

Have you heard the term Variable Data Printing or sometimes referred to as VDP? If not, variable data printing allows your printed piece to be customized to the individual. Basically, it’s the opportunity for 1:1 marketing using print. With VDP, you can personalize the printed piece based on data, including everything from personalized imagery to custom offers. On a recent case study with one of our customers, when they personalized their mailing to the individuals they saw a 3X sales lift compared to a control group that was not personalized. What a huge success!

When you think about your next campaign, think about ways you might be able to use the power of your data. I know as a consumer, I love when marketing is tailored directly to me and my interests. I want offers and coupons that are relevant to what I purchase vs. a generic offer where I have no interest.

If you are using a coupon on your next print project, be sure to use an individualized offer code so you know the coupon was redeemed. This will also allow you to track redemption rates and sales per mailer.

Here are a few ideas for your next project:

  • Maps to the nearest store location
  • Abandoned cart item coupon
  • Offers specific to something your customer has purchased in the past
  • Special incentive for birthdays

 

2. Unique Landing Pages

 

By creating specific landing pages for your mailings, you can track the ROI from your landing page perspective and will be able to see how many people visit that particular page  There are a number of ways to drive consumers to your page; it might be a QR code or listing the URL in your text. To take it even further, you can also create a PURL (Personalized URL). To maximize your impact, create a compelling incentive for the recipient to visit the page to drive the biggest result.

 

3. Informed Delivery

 

Have you heard of Informed Delivery? If not, to sum it up, this is a relatively new FREE service from the USPS where individuals can sign up for daily emails of what is being delivered to them in the mail each day. I am personally signed up and I really like it since it gives me a glimpse of what to expect in my mailbox when I arrive home.

From a marketer’s perspective, when we set up Informed Delivery campaigns, we are able to attach an image to the printed piece (they call it a ride-along image) and a URL of your choice will also be attached to the campaign. In a nutshell, the individual that receives the email will see the URL and can click on the link to drive them to your site before they even receive the mail piece at home! The USPS will then provide a report of opens and click through for the campaign. When using this service, a marketer can drive a response before the mail even arrives in the mailbox – a great ROI advantage! Contact us to learn more about this great offering and the best part is that we can even help you get the campaign set up. The USPS offers postal incentives each year, and there have been a number of postal incentives for Informed Delivery recently, so be sure to check out the incentives as well, to see if you can qualify for a postal discount!

Are you interested in reviewing the case study that we referenced above? Contact us today for a copy! Also, if you are interested in learning how our customers are utilizing variable data to maximize their campaigns, request a sample pack today.

Bio: Melissa Fransen is our Marketing Manager. She started with Nahan in May of 2017. Melissa is responsible for Nahan’s marketing initiatives, which includes everything from conference planning to social media initiatives. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys spending time with her husband and enjoying time in the outdoors with family and friends.