Episode 6: Direct Mail Campaign Fail
Hi! š Welcome to the next episode of The CMA Newsletter where 250+ marketers get better at building Customer Marketing programs and strengthening relationships inside organizations in less than 5 minutes.
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First, I just want to say that Iām not trying to sell you Sendoso in this post but itās going to come up because I believe Iām trying things with direct mail & gifting that hasnāt been done yet. Plus, these campaigns are fun to talk about even if I did fail on this one!
So last week I mentioned 8 ways to find advocates. Letās dig into the 8th bullet; a simple ABM approach to target advocates you want to join your program.
To begin, Iād say you should do some research on your current advocates and what characteristics your top advocates possess. Do a deep dive on those folks.
Here is a great example of my top advocates profile. (Hid their names for privacy) Having these two personas at the same company make for extreme power users of Sendoso. A Head of Marketing and a Marketing Operation Manager is my ideal combo. Leadership & strategy meet automation & integrations. Chefās kiss right there š
Next, run an Accounts & Contacts SFDC report on the companies you would like to target and who the main point of contact is. (Typically if you would tier the gifts based on the size of account) We have profiles like Admin, Day to Day user, & Champion. Pull those folks in with any kind of usage metric and you should have a nice list to work from.
Conception: The Campaign
Purpose: To send a low dollar/high impact direct mailer that educates 100 target advocates on the SuperSender program and get at least 50 to sign up.
What to Send: I didnāt have much budget so I looked at inventory we already had. The warehouse showed 400 Whereās Waldo books! At first I was like NO WAY but after working with my team on messaging, it really grew on me.
Messaging: āItās time you found your peopleā š Nailed it! (We have a community aspect to our advocate program)
Make it Awesome: I packaged the book into a bright orange bubble mailer with a QR code post card with a CTA to its very own Landing Page.
Postcard inside the package with a CTA to scan the QR code. Another pun ā>āWeāre Excited to Find a Partnership!ā I meanā¦ come on.. so good! š¤£
QR code took them here https://sendoso.com/superwaldo/ š
The Flow:
I uploaded my target account list into Sendoso to send out the Address Confirmations (game changer btw). When they confirmed their address, the package is sent from the Sendoso warehouse and our platform sends me an email that itās on the way.
Here is the best part. Sendoso sends me an email when UPS scans the delivery! Then you are able to trigger emails off of a status in SFDC. (The Waldo Book touch in Sendoso is synced to a SFDC campaign) If status equals āDeliveredā then the email fires out.
Triggered email when package is delivered š
Results
Amazing right?!
I started to see the automated emails going out aaaaaandā¦
Nothing!
NO ONE EVEN SCANNED THE FREAKING QR CODE!! I think maybe 2 people.
Iām still unsure why they didnāt even scan the code just to see the whole experience (them being marketers and all š¤·š»āāļø).
Perhaps they were expecting something else when they confirmed their address and then all they got was a lousy book.
I attempted to send 94. I got a 50% response rate on the Address Confirmations so thats decent. Out of 46 that got delivered, 7 people signed up from the follow up email.
I will say that those 7 accounts that did get into the program increased their spend in the platform by 2X within 3 months of joining the program. So the ROI on this was pretty great.
Iterate
Still, I was not happy with those numbers. I really felt strongly about the gift and the messaging (plus all the work I did on this). I didnāt want to just accept it and move on.
I decided to work with the CSM of the other 48 (who didnāt respond to the Address Confirmation).
This time, I sent an actual email from the CSM to the recipient giving them the heads up that a small gift with a special invitation is being sent their way. (You can imbed the Address Confirmation feature in a personal email btw)
Out of the 48 that we re-reached out to, 35 of them confirmed their address and 27 of them signed up for the program! Phew š
*Side note*- The messaging that always kills it is more along the lines of a nomination from the CSM. š
Subject line: Youāve been nominated!
Hello X,
As your CSM, I am so proud of (Company name).
I am nominating you to get rewarded for this milestone. We have an excellent advocacy program called the SuperSenders. Check it out, if you are interested in becoming a member, just enter your email at the bottom of the page.Ā
Outside of this campaign, I use messaging like this ^.
Lessons:
Receiving a blind Address Confirmation or email from me (potentially someone they donāt know) does not work. Yes, I send nurture emails during onboarding so they should know me BUT a lot of these target contacts may not have gone through the initial onboarding. Plus, that could have been 5-6 months ago.
CSMs are working pretty heavily on these big whale accounts and they should be treated with more personalization.
Turns out a low dollar gift does move the needle if itās paired with the right messaging coming from the right person!
Love your CMA Soulmate,
Leslie
Hope you enjoyed this episode! Next week, I will have my very first guest. Iāll give you a hintā¦ itās a never ending program and is your most transactional advocacy act. š
Happy 4th of July šš See you next Saturday.
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