Customer Loyalty Part 8: Know Your Customer
We spend a good deal of our marketing efforts incenting customers to be loyal to us; to be our brand advocates. But doesn’t loyalty go both ways? Don’t we, in turn, need to demonstrate our commitment to our customers? It’s a two-way street, after all—a dialogue. One way to display your commitment—or loyalty—to your customers is to show them you know them: who they are, where they are, what they buy, and what they want. We all experience this kind of dialogue daily online: ads served up to us reflect our searches from 5 minutes ago; recommender engines tell us what else we’d like based on what is in our baskets. These days, it’s expected. Ubiquitous, almost.
But what about in print? I’d posit that sending a targeted, relevant print mail piece audience conveys a more authentic investment to your customer. The real impact comes from using data and understanding your customers’ behavior. Variable data printing allows us to create powerful, relevant direct mail that speaks to individuals on a truly 1:1 basis. Personalization allows us to move beyond mass mailings and “spray-and-pray” direct mail. Instead, we can create messages and offers based on customers’ demographics, preferences, and histories… and show them we know them.
Let’s revisit a few ways to consider showing your customers you know them in print. I’ve written about them before: they are the Three Ps.
Personalize by Place:
The first thing you know about your customer is where they live. Consider localizing your mail piece to resonate more with your customers. This can be done overtly (showing a local landmark on the cover to demonstrate your brand is at home where your customers are) or in more indirect ways. Another technique to show your customer that you care: call out upcoming, brand-relevant local events on the cover or back cover. Have a brick-and-mortar store in the area? Take advantage of geo-targeting your customers and listing the nearest store to them—you can even tell them how many miles away it is from their home. (Creepy, maybe. But helpful.) Other simple data points to tap are gender, age, and income, but personalizing by place is an easy and benign way to add relevance to your piece through data.
Personalize by Product:
What we can learn and know about our customers’ product preferences can vary widely depending on the breadth of our offering, the depth of our analytics, and the longevity of the customer. But to the degree you can, consider using data to version your print piece by curated products in the category your customer shops most from you. This goes one step beyond the merchandising decision to lead with your best seller, newest style, or seasonal favorite. Instead, send each segment in your list a cover with the top product for that segment. Your piece will speak to them more directly, and their purchase will speak to your bottom line. It’s a win-win.
Personalize by Promotion:
Finally, you can power up your personalization by delivering the right offer to the right customer. If a history of testing has provided insight into who responds to what, your promotion can be versioned and tailored to fit multiple segments. Reap the highest response rates across your segments, knowing you are providing a percentage off, free shipping, or the right BOGO to the right customer. A versioned dot whack, headline, or inkjet message can deliver a layer of messaging that varies with your customer list. Consider also that the promotion itself doesn’t need to be versioned, but the positioning of it can be tailored. Free Shipping for your entire audience can be positioned as a “Welcome” gift to new customers and a “Come back” message to lapsed customers.
So, remember to lean on the power of data in print when recognizing your customers. While digital is perhaps the nimblest of tools in your arsenal, a mailer can resonate with your customers at the 1:1 level, engage them and show them you know them.
Want to get to know your customer better? Shoot me a note to chat at micheled@jschmid.com.
Tags: business, customer loyalty, customers, marketing, marketing solution, opportunity, product