Master the Art of Crafting Effective Mail
In direct mail, capturing the recipient’s attention in just a quarter of a second is essential. Imagine this: after a long, exhausting day, the recipient comes home with a list of things to do before they can relax. As they sort through their mail, they aren’t likely to linger on each piece. Your mailer must grab their attention within the average adult’s 8-second window—or risk being discarded.
To ensure your direct mail is impactful and effective, here are nine essential tips and tricks to create a design that truly stands out.
- Make a Bold Visual Statement:
First impressions matter, especially in direct mail. To capture attention immediately, focus on creating a bold visual impact. Use vivid colors and high-quality images that stand out in the pile of mail. Consider incorporating unique textures, like embossing or debossing, and special papers to engage the recipient’s sense of touch. These visual and tactile elements make your mailer memorable and increase the likelihood it will be noticed and opened.
For example, if you’re promoting travel planning services, use breathtaking images that highlight the destination’s uniqueness, accompanied by elements like personalized QRs and PURLs that showcase the ease of using your services. - Design for the Target Audience
Your design must resonate with your target audience. Tailor it to the unique preferences of each generation—modern, eye-catching graphics for younger audiences and classic, easy-to-navigate designs for older generations.
For example, if you’re marketing a health and wellness product, consider how each generation might respond differently. For younger audiences, such as millennials, incorporate bold colors, dynamic visuals, and language that emphasizes self-care and innovation. For older generations, such as baby boomers, use a more traditional layout with larger, easy-to-read fonts and a focus on long-term wellness benefits. Adjusting design choices to match generational preferences ensures your message resonates effectively with each segment. - Optimize Front and Back Design
Consistency is key when designing. Ensure both sides of your mailer are visually cohesive and impactful. Use consistent colors, fonts, and imagery to create a unified look. Prioritize key information with larger text and clear calls to action (CTAs), so recipients can easily grasp your message. To make it even more engaging, consider incorporating additional elements such as magnets that can be adhered to your mail and include essential information.
For example, if you’re a healthcare provider using direct mail for a new mover campaign, include a magnet displaying emergency contact information for the local health network. A well-designed mailer with clear messaging makes it easier for recipients to process and respond to your offer. - Align Imagery with Messaging
Effective imagery should complement and enhance your message. Choose images that directly relate to what you’re promoting.
For instance, if you’re advertising a cleaning service, use images of a clean and happy home. If your service includes various offerings, a collage of images can effectively showcase these services. Relevant imagery minimizes the need for extensive text, making your mailer more engaging. - Be Specific and Direct
Clear and precise messaging is crucial to capture the recipient’s attention. Avoid vague statements and instead, focus on specific benefits. Additionally, avoid highlighting prices without context, as this may lead to immediate dismissal if the value isn’t clear. Clearly state what the recipient can achieve by participating in your service or offer.
For example, “A well-nourished dog leads to years of pet and owner happiness” is more compelling than “Happy pets, happy life” when promoting premium dog food. - Strategic Logo Placement and Use
Effective logo placement reinforces your brand message. Confirm that your logo is positioned in a way that complements your overall design and doesn’t clash with the text or imagery. Strategic placement helps in building brand recognition and value to your clear and cohesive message. Place your logo where it supports and amplifies the message, such as near service descriptions or key offers.
For instance, if you’re promoting an eco-friendly product line, position your logo near key environmental benefits, such as “100% Recycled Materials” or “Sustainable Production Practices.” On one side of your mailer, include a phrase about your service or product, then place the logo nearby so the message resonates more—this strategy builds brand recognition. - Leverage Customer Testimonials
Customer testimonials can significantly boost credibility. Incorporate brief, powerful testimonials that highlight customer satisfaction and support your message.
Visual testimonials, such as star ratings or customer photos, can make these endorsements stand out and lend additional credibility to your mailer. - Include Engaging Coupons & CTAs
Adding coupons and interactive elements like QR codes and personalized URLs (PURLs) can drive immediate action. Offer compelling discounts or special offers to incentivize recipients. QR codes and PURLs create an interactive experience by directing recipients to personalized landing pages, tracking responses, and providing an easy way to redeem offers.
For a bookstore, for example, you could offer a discount like “Get 15% Off Your Next Purchase” with a QR code leading to a special promo page. You can add an even more creative element by making the coupon a bookmark that adheres to your mail. These elements create an engaging experience and can significantly boost response rates. - Tailor Your Approach to Your Brand Size
Finally, consider your brand’s scale and market position when designing your direct mail. For small, local businesses, focus on personalized and relevant messaging rather than imitating larger brands. Emphasize what sets your business apart and the unique advantages you offer. Highlight your unique selling points and local benefits.
For example, a small local car repair shop should focus on its personalized service rather than mimicking the direct mail of a large, national chain. Tailoring your design to reflect your brand’s size and market position ensures your direct mail resonates with your audience and differentiates you from larger competitors.
Final Thoughts
In the competitive world of direct mail, capturing attention in just a split second is key. By using bold visuals, targeted design, and clear messaging, you can guarantee your mail stands out and drives action. Focus on what makes your mail unique and relevant to your audience to make a lasting impression.
Ready to enhance your direct mail strategy? Contact Strata today to create designs that make a real impact!
Turning Narratives into Results
In today’s saturated marketing landscape, capturing attention and driving engagement can be daunting. Yet, storytelling remains a timeless and powerful tool that can set your direct mail apart. Remember the lure of childhood story time? Those stories did more than entertain; they built connections and delivered messages in a way that stayed with us. While we’ve outgrown story time, we can still use personalized storytelling to craft direct mail campaigns that captivate and convert.
The Power of Storytelling
Storytelling in direct mail isn’t just a creative luxury; it’s a strategic advantage, especially when the story is personalized to the recipient. According to a 2024 report by McKinsey, 71% of customers expect personalized experiences from brands, and 76% express frustration when they don’t receive it. Personalizing your direct mail with a well-crafted story can enhance engagement, improve response rates, and build long-term loyalty while creating an emotional connection that makes your message stand out.
How to Craft Compelling Narratives
1. Understand Your Audience’s Needs and Preferences
Before crafting your story, you’ll need to gain a deep understanding of your audience’s specific needs, pain points, desires, and interests. From there, you can use both first-party and third-party data and insights to tailor your narrative so that it feels personal and relevant. By aligning your message with what truly matters to your audience, you create stories that resonate on a deeper level and drive engagement.
- Example: For a direct mail campaign promoting a fitness service, start by analyzing data to identify your audience’s primary fitness challenges and goals, such as overcoming exercise plateaus, finding motivation, or achieving specific health milestones. Then, create a series of mail pieces that address these needs by featuring real customer success stories. For instance, one piece might detail how a client overcame a workout plateau with the help of personalized training programs and support from the service, while another could show how a different client found renewed motivation through specialized classes. Make sure to tailor each story to reflect the audience’s pain points and aspirations, using relatable images and testimonials.
2. Develop Relatable Personas and Plotlines
Create characters and scenarios that your audience can identify with. By developing relatable personas and compelling plotlines, you can create an emotional connection that makes your message not only memorable but also impactful.
- Example: For a campaign promoting a pet care brand, design a series of postcards featuring a heartwarming story about a beloved pet navigating its journey to wellness with the help of your products. Each postcard could follow a different chapter of the pet’s journey, tailoring each story to reflect common challenges and triumphs faced by pet owners in your target market —starting with a concern, showcasing the benefits of your products, and ending with the pet’s transformation. This approach builds empathy and connects with pet owners while also clearly showing the value of your products.
3. Enhance Stories with Personalized Visuals
Visual elements can make your story more impactful. Studies show that our brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than text, making pictures a powerful tool for quickly communicating your desired message. By using variable data printing to match the visuals to your audience’s specific demographics or locations, you can elevate the receiver’s experience and make your message much more relatable and engaging.
- Example: For a direct mail piece promoting a realtor, use before-and-after photos of homes to showcase successful property sales and renovations. Tailor these images to reflect local neighborhoods or common home styles in the area within the recipients budget based on income. This helps potential clients envision how the realtor could help them with their own properties, making the message more engaging and effective. Personalized visuals not only grab attention but also strengthen the connection with your audience, leading to better results.
4. Include a Clear and Compelling CTA
Every story should lead to a clear call to action (CTA). Ensure your CTA includes specific details, prompts the recipient to take an actionable step, and aligns with the narrative you’ve created.
- Example: If your story centers around a limited-time offer, make sure your CTA emphasizes urgency and provides easy instructions on how to take advantage of the offer. For example, use, “Get 20% off your first purchase! Scan the QR code to apply the discount at checkout.” This CTA is direct and ensures the recipient knows exactly how to act quickly.
Best Practices for Integrating Storytelling
1. Maintain Brand Consistency
Make sure your brand voice and message are consistent throughout your storytelling. Consistent branding builds trust and reinforces your identity, making your stories more credible and convincing. Additionally, consistency helps your audience easily recognize and relate to your brand, which is crucial for long-term engagement. In fact, brands that present themselves consistently across various platforms are 3-4 times more likely to achieve strong visibility. This consistency enhances brand recognition, making it easier for consumers to recognize and engage with the brand amidst market noise.
2. Personalize Based on Data
Leverage recipient data to tailor your narratives. Personalization increases relevance and engagement, as stories that address specific interests and needs are more likely to resonate. By using data to craft stories that speak directly to your audience’s motivations, you enhance the effectiveness of your campaigns. Data-driven personalization can boost engagement rates by up to 25%, proving the importance of using recipient data to create targeted and impactful stories.
3. Test and Optimize
Continuously test different storytelling approaches to find what resonates most with your audience. Experimentation is crucial for refining your strategy and enhancing results. By testing various narrative elements—such as story angles, visuals, and CTAs—you gain valuable insights into what drives engagement. In direct mail campaigns, where every detail counts, A/B testing different elements allow marketers to adapt and optimize their strategies effectively. For instance, A/B testing can increase conversion rates by up to 49%, boosting ROI and ensuring each campaign variant is as impactful as possible.
Final Thoughts
Integrating personalized storytelling into your direct mail campaigns can transform your marketing efforts, making them more captivating and effective. By crafting narratives that resonate emotionally with your audience, you enhance engagement, increase response rates, and build lasting loyalty.
Ready to harness the power of storytelling? Contact Strata to get started on creating narratives that leave a lasting impression and drive your marketing success.
and Get the Results You’re Looking For
Writing direct mail content may seem fairly simple, but in reality – it takes planning, drafting, and analysis to yield results. If you’re hoping to create concise, creative, and intriguing copy for your next direct mail campaign, follow along as we lead you through the top tips, from knowing your audience to crafting appealing incentives.
Know Your Recipient
Before even beginning to craft a direct mail piece, it’s pertinent you know who you’re sending to. Not just the list of contacts – but who they REALLY are. Their geographics, demographics, and even their psychographics. Learn about them through surveys, by research into customer trends and data, through your team (especially customer service), and so on. There are many steps you can take to get to know your current and potential audience – but make sure you take one of them before writing. The more you know about who you’re sending to, the better you can cater your content. And, keep in mind that using this understanding to not only cater – but personalize, is key.
Keep it Short & Simple
When it comes to direct mail, you want to keep text as short and simple as possible. These days, viewers have fatigue from constantly being bombarded with promotional content. Not only are they sometimes too tired to look at an ad with minimal text, but they’re also surely too tired to read large blocks of content. Keep your piece at a maximum of 3-4 sentences, with 20-25 words per sentence (if possible). Show the reader (that you know and care for according to step one, above) respect their time. Make it easy with bullet points, text hierarchy, and so on to help guide the viewer along a path.
Be direct and avoid the fluff. Direct sentences not only show respect for the viewer’s time, but establish more trust and in turn, authority, as you’re not being wishy washy or trying to confuse the recipient. Additionally, only be repetitive in your text if it’s meaningful and helpful to the overall message.
Lastly, and this one’s important – only include what’s necessary. If more information must be provided, lead the recipient to a QR code or a URL with additional content.
Write Intriguing Headers & Sub-Headers
Even if the recipient doesn’t care about your direct mail – they’re still going to (very likely) read the headline. So, make sure it’s an intriguing one, as it could make or break your piece. And make sure it’s legible and appealing, and that it tells your recipient exactly what they should expect from your mailer.
Include a Clear Call to Action
The call to action is what you want the recipient to do, and it should be obvious. This is just as important, if not more important, than the header of your piece, and many of the same rules apply to writing it. It’s important to not only make sure it’s intriguing, legible, appealing, and concise, but to include it on both sides of the mailer (if possible). You should also try to create FOMO (the fear of missing out) through a sense of urgency or scarcity. For example: “Only 20 spaces left” or “Expires in 30 days!”.
With that said, keep in mind that you should only have one call to action on your piece to not confuse the reader and make sure they know just what action you want them to take.
Incentivize
Although not always needed, incentives can be very effective when it comes to direct mail. Including a discount or exclusive opportunity can entice the reader to act, or at least finish reading the copy or flip the mailer over.
Incentives can contribute to something we touched on above, FOMO, by making the recipient feel that the mailer is exclusive and that they’ll miss out if they don’t take the next step or keep the piece handy. Like the call to action, it’s best to include the incentive on both sides.
One additional benefit to incentives? They’re great for tracking. For instance, if someone uses a discount code or coupon, you can easily tell if the campaign effectively caught their attention.
Show Proof
Including a review or testimonial on your mail piece can often increase credibility and show you have loyal, happy customers.
If you’d like to take an even easier route, simply including a recognizable, associated logo or a star rating can show your expertise and credibility and can quickly build trust.
Proofread
Even if you have amazing, well-crafted, direct content and beautiful design – if there’s even just one or two errors on your mail piece, your credibility goes down immediately.
With that said, make sure you have at least a few proofreading eyes on your piece (or even utilize a tool like Chat GPT) before sending it out.
Think Through the Format
It’s important that the right copy be in and on the right format – whether that’s a classic postcard, package, newsletter, flyer, brochure, dimensional mailer, or something else. But keep in mind – just because your mailer is bigger, doesn’t mean you should fill it all up with more even copy. Like we said before, short, sweet, and to the point is best.
Design with Purpose
We’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you that design is just as important as the copy when it comes to direct mail. Be sure to think through branding, colors, textures, graphics, images, and so on to make the best impression and appeal to your audience.
With that in mind, are you to send carefully crafted, effective direct mail pieces that include concise copy and enticing CTA? We’d be happy to help you set up and execute your next performance-driven campaign. Reach out to the experts at Strata.
As we’ve noted in other blogs, and tell our customers day in and day out – asset management is key to business success and reputation management. Not only is it key, but poor asset management can truly be the downfall of your marketing, and even of other aspects of your company. Asset management isn’t just the use of the right logo or letterhead. It’s fully utilizing all of your available, valuable content and resources across the board to get the most out of your messaging and produce the highest possible ROI. Failing to use materials isn’t just a waste – it’s a loss! In this blog, we’re outlining the real cost of poor asset management, and what leads to it.
What is Asset Management
When it comes to business marketing and communications, asset management is the organization, distribution, and utilization of all marketing and communications resources, from logos to sales sheets. It’s the process a company uses to execute, keep track of, and share resources that are pertinent to a company’s proceedings. If you’re interested in further understanding the importance of asset management, feel free to check out our blog “Managing Your Marketing Assets to Protect & Reinforce Your Brand”.
How Does Poor Asset Management Happen?
Bad asset management can happen, and continue to happen, for a variety of reasons. Here are the most common ones:
Too Many Communication Channels
When too many channels are used to communicate, distribute, use, and edit materials, it can be really confusing for your team! This confusion can cause a loss in productivity. Plus, when there are several versions on numerous channels – it’s easier to make mistakes and share or use the wrong materials.
Lack of Processes/Organization
As you may know, when it comes to many business practices, SOPs are vital, and asset management is no exception. If your company doesn’t have a system of processes for managing marketing and communication assets, how can employees be expected to know about materials, and to use the right materials? With SOPs, employees know what to use, when to use it, how to use it, and so on (and don’t have to play any guessing games). When employees have to guess and search, a lot of valuable time gets wasted (and, as you know, time = money).
Additionally, SOPs for the actual naming and organization of assets is just as important – as files can be labeled and sorted in a way that makes them easier to find.
No Versioning Control
If how you create, edit, update, and delete asset versions is not communicated and well-established, the wrong versions of marketing assets end up getting distributed and used.
Additionally, if there’s no standard for when assets get thrown out, things can get trashed too soon – causing a huge time waste of having to recreate already-created materials.
Using a Bad Platform (or No Platform at All)
It’s important that employees are able to find what they need, and that it’s easy for them to create, manage, and adhere to processes, communication, and organization. Sometimes, it’s not within budget to have a specific employee managing and creating these processes, and even if your company does have the money for this – one person likely doesn’t have the bandwidth to manage it all. We’d recommend an asset management platform, like the ones Strata creates and customizes, to store and distribute your company’s assets.
No matter what platform you choose, make sure it makes sense for your company’s individual needs, as they likely don’t call for a one-size-fits-all approach!
Costs of Poor Asset Management
As noted above, bad asset management can cause a variety of unwanted, unnecessary costs for your company. Let’s discuss some of the big ones.
Money
Of course, we’d be remiss to talk about how poor asset management can cost you, in general, lots of money – impacting your bottom line. “51% of marketers waste money producing or recreating assets that go unused because people don’t know they exist or can’t find them. In addition, 46% waste time downloading and uploading assets into different tools.” – Demand Metric.
Additionally, turnover is more likely to increase if employees feel confused, out of control, and lost, and it becomes more difficult to keep good talent (which you can’t truly put a price on). This difficulty hiring and keeping employees also impacts all the expenses used to hire – from recruitment and onboarding to training and corporate culture.
Lastly, when assets are unorganized, it’s much harder for teams to accurately measure the ROI of marketing materials. In turn, teams waste time making materials that don’t produce ROI, or miss out on creating materials that would be highly impactful.
Time
As mentioned above, poor asset management causes confusion and reduces employee productivity. Tons of time gets wasted when employees can’t find materials, or when employees are forced to frequently fix mistakes and re-create. Poor asset management often causes a lot of additional, unnecessary effort from the marketing team, who are more likely to create duplicate content due to a lack of organization.
Credibility
This one is fairly self-explanatory, but can be highly detrimental. If assets are unorganized and poorly managed, and wrong or old materials are distributed, customers are more likely to lose trust in your company. Inconsistency in messaging and branding can even cause and otherwise happy customer to begin to lose faith in your business.
Inability to Scale
If assets and materials are well-communicated throughout an organization, scaling to support new verticals and brands is much easier and more seamless. But, if your assets and materials are poorly stored and not up-to-date, new pieces often require starting from scratch – or at least close to it. Poor asset management makes it almost impossible for marketing teams to quickly adapt to meet changing business needs.
Opportunity Costs
Last but definitely not least, if an organization’s teams don’t have the right assets for sales, customer service, recruitment and other initiatives, opportunities get missed.
Speed is especially important when it comes to sales and conversions. If your team doesn’t have the right materials and assets right away, your competitors will win customers over.
And, when it comes to other departments, such as marketing, if your team doesn’t have the right assets to create, for example, an on-the-fly email or a quick social media post, they may miss opportunities to join the conversation, send news of a last-minute promotion, effectively manage your company’s reputation, and so on.
Interested in better managing your assets and avoiding the above costs? Contact our team or visit our Integrated Marcom Tech page for more information.
Measure Your Marketing Success with Confidence
As a marketing professional, someone in the marketing space, or a key player that works with marketers, you’re likely aware of different ways to assess success when it comes to your company’s marketing campaigns and strategies. Even if these measurements aren’t always said by name (or acronym), it’s probable you talk about sales through marketing, customer conversions, marketing spend, and so on.
With that said, if you want to ensure your marketing team is hitting the mark(s) and knows all the most important and telling marketing KPIs, look no further. In this blog, we’re giving you our top 10 marketing KPIs that we think marketers, marketing teams, and other key players should be aware of. These help us (and can help you) ensure your company’s marketing efforts are working.
What are Marketing KPIs?
Marketing KPIs, or Marketing Key Performance Indicators, are measurements that help you gauge the success of your tactics and make business decisions. Without specific measurements like these, it can be difficult to stand back with the full picture in view.
If you want to strategize and execute quality marketing tactics, it’s important to pay attention to KPIs – especially those that help you build a quality marketing framework and set of plans. With the right KPIs in focus, your business can identify which practices are working, which are not, and which ones have the biggest impact on your goals.
Top 10 Marketing KPIs (You Should Know)
Sales Revenue
Although “Marketing” isn’t in the title of this metric – knowing sales is key to understanding if your marketing tactics are working. “Reporting for the sake of reporting is pointless. Reporting should lead to increased profits.” Your sales revenue should be higher (if not much higher) than your marketing expenses.
Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI = (Sales Revenue – Marketing Investment) / Marketing Investment
Although it’s not the only metric to focus on, return on marketing investment is very important to keep track of. This is a general KPI that helps you understand how to go ahead with your marketing budget and plans.
Although this metric is important, it’s not the most cut-and-dry. What do we mean by this? Often, sales members must turn your marketing leads into successful customers to have a successful ROI. Additionally, “it can be hard to directly attribute sales growth to a marketing campaign.” If so, “subtract your average organic sales growth and marketing cost from your sales growth and then divide it by your marketing cost.”
Marketing Revenue Attribution
This metric measures the revenue that your marketing campaigns have brought to your company. It’s key, because it helps you understand if and how much your campaigns are contributing to your overall revenue. To better understand attribution as a whole, check out this Strata YouTube original video.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Spend / Customers = $CAC
This measurement is the total cost of acquiring a single customer and includes both sales and marketing costs. It’s important to calculate this cost for all marketing tactics – including outbound, print, digital marketing, and so on.
If the CAC is too high, you may want to reevaluate your tactics, focus on specific ones, and stop conducting practices that don’t acquire customers.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Specific Calculation: Spend x Expected Years = CLV
Generic Calculation: CLV = Avg. Sale Per Customer x Avg. # of Times a Customer Buys Per Year x Avg. Lifetime of a customer
The CLV is an estimate of the total revenue expected from just one customer over their entire relationship with your business.
This metric is also not as cut and dry as other measurements, as it’s usually (as stated previously) an estimate, but it can really aid in business decisions and help you decide where it’s best to use your marketing and sales resources, and what resources are most important.
Additionally, the more revenue you can get out of existing customers, the more you can put into acquiring new ones, so understanding this metric can give you a better idea of where to focus your budget (whether that’s customer retention tactics and lead nurturing campaigns, customer acquisition strategies, or something else).
Conversion Rates
A conversion rate is the percentage of potential or current customers that complete a desired action – whether that’s filling out a form, providing an email, clicking through to a company page, adding items to a cart, or buying.
For example, if out of 100 website visitors, 20 make a purchase, your conversion rate is 20%.
As mentioned, a conversion rate can be a measurement of many things, including:
- Purchases
- Ad Clicks
- Website Visits
- Follows
- Sign Ups
- Email Opens
- Social Media Engagement
High or low conversion rates can help you decide where to allocate marketing spend, what practices to continue, and what marketing tactics to possibly stop all together. Additionally, A/B testing can always help you to understand what causes conversions, so if you’re unsure why something isn’t working, always test first.
Churn Rate
This metric is the rate that customers drop off from buying your products or using your services. For example, if your business has 30 regular clients, and 3 stop working with you (over the span of a year), your company’s churn rate is 10%.
A high churn rate is obviously a negative thing, but a churn rate in general, is bound to happen. No matter how hard you try, it’s unlikely you’ll keep all your customers forever.With that said, a high churn rate can call for larger conversations and big changes for marketing and sales tactics.
Lead-to-Customer Ratio
Leads just aren’t that important if they don’t turn into customers. This ratio is the percentage of leads that become customers. If your lead-to-customer ratio isn’t looking good, you likely want to ask yourself and your team:
- Are the marketing tactics we’re using bringing in the right leads?
- Are leads being successfully passed off to sales (at the right time)?
- How is our close rate?
Although this is an important marketing KPI, this measurement is often more about sales than it is about marketing. It’s important to periodically assess your company’s sales and lead qualification processes to ensure you’re getting the best possible lead-to-customer ratio.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
This metric is used to measure the success of your ad campaigns. It usually appears as a ratio of the revenue per dollar spent on a campaign and tells you how well the specific campaign performed (and if the investment was worth the outcome).
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Your NPS measures customer satisfaction, and more specifically, the likelihood of customers recommending your business to others.
It’s vital to listen to what your customers have to say and understand their wants, needs, opinions, and so on. After all, they’re your company’s lifeblood – and if you support them, they’ll support you.
Notable Mentions
While traditional KPIs play a crucial role in measuring specific aspects of your marketing campaigns, there are also some honorable mentions that serve as overarching indicators of success, particularly within digital channels.
Website Traffic
This encompasses the number of visitors to your website and can be further segmented into metrics such as total visits, unique visitors, and page views. Monitoring website traffic provides a foundational understanding of your online presence and audience engagement.
Organic Search Traffic
This metric measures the volume of visitors who reach your website through unpaid (organic) search results. It serves as a barometer for the effectiveness of your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies in improving your website’s visibility and relevance in search engine results pages.
Social Media Engagement
Engagement metrics on social media platforms, including likes, shares, comments, and follows, reflect the level of interaction and interest generated by your brand’s content. Monitoring social media engagement helps gauge the resonance of your messaging and the strength of your community.
Brand Awareness
Metrics related to brand mentions, social media mentions, and brand sentiment provide insights into the awareness and perception of your brand among your target audience. Understanding brand awareness metrics helps evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in building recognition and fostering positive associations with your brand.
While these metrics may not fit neatly into the traditional definition of KPIs, they are important to consider when assessing the holistic impact of your marketing campaigns and guiding strategic decision-making in the digital landscape. Hoping to gain a better understanding of the success of your marketing, or better yet – are you interested in working with the experts to achieve greater marketing success? Reach out today.
Why Effective Marketing Asset Management Matters
What is Marketing or Brand Asset Management?
Marketing Asset Management, also referred to as “Brand Asset” or “Brand Resource” Management, is the strategic approach by organizations to organize, store, and distribute their marketing assets – such as logos, fonts, brand guidelines, presentation templates, and so on – efficiently.
Marketing Asset Management Compliance is the effective handling of these assets by management, employees, vendors, and anyone else in or involved with the company.
Why is it So Important?
Managing, providing, and using organized and up-to-date marketing resources is crucial for enhancing your company’s effectiveness and enables those within your company to confidently deliver lawful, consistent, on-brand messages to your audience(s). Additionally, it ensures consistency of campaign content and designs, strengthening and unifying your marketing messages – which is extremely important, as 70% of consumers visit, use, or see three or more marketing channels before making a purchase. This, in turn, improves your reach and helps to convert customers.
If not managed, communicated, and used correctly, things can go quite awry – even as awry as ruining your brand’s reputation or causing legal trouble. With that said, let’s get into the main reasons for ensuring top-notch asset management efforts.
1. Quality & Operational Control
Mitigating Legal Risks: Marketing asset compliance influences how consumers, competitors, and peers perceive your brand – and sometimes parts of your brand can be subject to legal compliance. Management and compliance ensure that your company adheres to industry laws, regulations, and policies concerning your assets. While this is more commonly observed in specific industries, particularly within the financial sector, it’s best to stay on the safe side by checking and abiding by your respective industries’ guidelines.
For example: Your company has no asset management, but one of your sales associates really needs to send a product image to a potential customer. Since they don’t know where to find the asset they need, they find one online that’s actually (accidentally) a competitor’s product that looks almost the same. At the very least, this will likely cause the customer to lose trust in your company. At the very worst – it could cause legal issues down the road.
Protecting Reputation: Noncompliant assets can harm your brand’s reputation, portraying it as careless or deceptive, making compliance vital for protecting your brand image and maintaining a positive reputation.
For example: Without asset management, due to a lack of branding and voice guidelines, an Account Manager creates a poorly branded presentation and sends out communication that doesn’t properly represent your company.
Preventing Downtime: Implementing asset management compliance saves time and money by avoiding the need to remove noncompliant materials from the market, which can be a time-consuming process when it comes to both digital and physical assets.
For example: Without asset management, because of a lack of asset communication surrounding branding and product language, your Social Media Specialist adds a non-asset-compliant photo and caption to your social media platforms. Now, the post has been shared to other profiles and has gained a lot of traction – which will take time, energy, back-peddling, and explaining to take back and recover from later.
2. Marketing Performance
Brand Awareness: Marketing asset management and compliance ensures consistency in colors, graphics, logos, and fonts across your company, which in turn enhances brand recognition and establishes credibility. With “two-thirds of businesses (saying) brand consistency has contributed to revenue growths of at least 10%”, you truly can’t afford to allow asset variability.
For example: Without asset management resources, your Head of Human Resources sends out paperwork with inconsistent fonts, the wrong logo, and odd colors choices. They weren’t aware of guidelines and didn’t have the right assets at hand, so they “did their best”. Now, all of your employees have poorly branded communication in their inboxes that reinforces brand inconsistencies.
Customer Trust & Satisfaction: A recent study found that 81 percent of consumers need to trust a brand before making a purchase, and another study found that 46% of customers will pay more for products that come from brands they believe in. Inaccurate marketing materials can erode customer trust, making them less likely to buy from a brand they perceive as unreliable. Good asset management and compliant materials allow those in your company accurately depict your products or services through documents, platforms, and communication, aligning customer expectations with reality. This accurate representation leads to higher customer satisfaction – and satisfied customers are more likely to return for future purchases.
For example: These days, scamming claims and instances are running rampant. Without asset management resources, the use of an old logo, incorrect product name, inconsistent brand elements, inaccurate or blurry product image– or anything else (that just seems off) – could scare a customer away. These instances of inaccurate and non-systematic marketing assets can lead to customer distrust and disappointment.
Challenges to Meeting Marketing Asset Management Compliance
Lack of Consistent Updates & Standards
One of the biggest challenges to meeting marketing asset management compliance is upkeep. Consistently updating your resources and ensuring current materials are available, organized, and communicated to teams is extremely important – especially when your business is growing. If employees don’t have or aren’t aware of the most up-to-date materials, you can’t blame them for failure to comply.
Agreed upon brand standards must be reinforced consistently, from the top down. Those lower down in the chain of command will likely only comply with standards if their leaders do. It’s important to ensure that everyone – from CEO to part-time employee, takes marketing asset management and compliance seriously and is reminded of it regularly. Set the standard from the start, and make sure it’s well communicated.
Insufficient Organization & Understanding
If you aren’t aware of a lack of consistency and compliance – you can’t fix it. With that said, if your organization is not well organized and fails to communicate or check in on how assets are being managed and utilized, it’s easier for members to make mistakes and misuse assets.
Consequences of Using Noncompliant Marketing Assets
As we touched on above, non-compliance and lack of asset management can lead to a jumbled, untrustworthy, inconsistent, and less recognizable brand image. Continuous customer exposure without compliance often leads to a lack of brand recognition, or worse – distrust. Lastly, some non-compliant materials can even lead to fines, lawsuits and further legal consequences.
How to Enforce Your Brand Standards and Correct Asset Usage
Educate
The key to enforcing your brand standards is to educate management, marketing teams, employees, partners, stakeholders, and so on. Anyone that can and does communicate for or as your company should be aware of how to access assets and how to communicate in a manner that best represents your brand. Not only does managing and communicating your marketing asset management and compliance to your team keep things consistent – it helps employees feel confident in themselves and in your company! Moreover, it ensures that your teams have the knowledge and tools to create and communicate effectively – and within brand standards.
Implement
As we noted earlier, it’s important for all employees – from the top down – to understand, respect and enforce correct asset management and usage. Companies will often put procedures in place (such as check-ins, checklists, or other specific processes) that your company and employees must practice and adhere to. This way, all your internal and external parties understand the importance of maintaining compliance and not deviating from the company’s brand consistency.
Consult
Dealing with the constant ins and outs of asset management compliance can be a hassle, especially on top of daily operations. In this ever-changing landscape, and with the associated risks to brand reputation, consulting with a professional and/or using a custom portal for all your marketing and brand assets is often the best route.
Looking for an asset management tool or resource? Click here to view Strata’s marketing resource management tools, custom portals, and more. Interested in discussing asset management and compliance or talking through a more specific solution for your company? Contact the Strata team.
Use the Power of Perfect Timing to Boost Online Sales
When it comes to sales, the ticking clock often holds the key to success, and in the fast-paced realm of online, eCommerce retail, timing can be everything. Knowing when and how to conduct sales can make all the difference in business performance. In this blog, we’ll discuss optimal timing tricks and strategies and provide you with tips that will empower your eCommerce business. Whether you’re a seasoned online retailer or just starting out in the digital marketplace, understanding the intricacies of when to offer discounts, promotions, and product launches is vital.
ECommerce Timing Tactics
1. Understand Customer Behavior
Understanding your target audience’s behavior isn’t just about collecting data; it’s about leveraging that information to optimize the timing of your e-commerce strategies. By knowing the demographics, psychographics, and past purchase history of your customers, you can strategically schedule promotions, email campaigns, and product releases to align with the times your audience is most active and receptive. This fine-tuning ensures your marketing efforts are not only data-driven but also well- timed, increasing your chances of capturing your audience’s attention and driving more conversions.
2. Leverage Seasonal & Holiday Sales
Holidays and seasons offer prime opportunities for e-commerce businesses to optimize sales. These include Christmas, Black Friday, Valentine’s Day, back-to-school season, and even niche holidays like National Pet Day. The key is crafting seasonal campaigns that resonate.
To optimize timing, tailor your products and messaging to align with the current holiday or season. For example, during Christmas, emphasize your products as “perfect gifts” or market your services as “quick and easy, giving you more time with family”. During Valentine’s Day, portray your services as something clients will “fall in love” with, or market your products as ways to “show you care” – whether that’s for themself or a significant other. By tapping into the seasonal sentiment, you can create a stronger connection with your audience, boosting the impact of your e-commerce efforts. Remember, it’s not just about the dates; it’s about capturing the essence and feeling of the season to connect with customers and drive sales and engagement.
3. Run Flash Sales and Limited-Time Offers to Create FOMO
Flash sales capitalize on the psychology of urgency and FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out). When customers fear missing out on a limited-time offer, they’re more inclined to make a purchase. By creating a sense of scarcity and time sensitivity in your sales strategy, you can stimulate immediate action from your customers, and less abandoned carts.
To optimize the timing of flash sales, you can employ several key tactics, such as countdown timers to visually convey the limited-time nature of the offer, clear and compelling CTAs (Calls to Action) that direct customers to act quickly, or highlighting the benefits of acting swiftly and engaging with your limited-time offer.
4.Optimize the Timing of Email and Social Media Marketing
Sending promotional emails at optimal times, typically mornings between Tuesday to Thursday, can greatly enhance open and engagement rates. However, don’t forget to adapt these timings to your audience’s behaviors and time zones for maximum impact.
For social media marketing, figuring out when your audience is most active is essential. Utilize analytics to pinpoint peak engagement times on different platforms, such as evenings for Instagram and Pinterest. With this knowledge, you can schedule your posts and content to align with these windows of heightened activity, ensuring your message reaches your audience when they’re most receptive.
5. A/B Test and Conduct Data Analysis
Running A/B tests allows you to compare the performance of different eCommerce timing strategies. Experiment with variations such as launching sales in the morning versus the evening, and closely analyze the results. This approach provides the insights needed to fine-tune your timing approach and optimize sales.
As testing alone isn’t always enough, it’s important to also utilize data analysis tools like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics to delve deeper into user behavior and preferences. Metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates offer valuable guidance for making informed timing decisions.
6. Keep Shipping and Logistics Considerations in Mind
When it comes to the optimization of your eCommerce timing, it’s not only important to focus on digital aspects, but physical ones as well. Timely delivery is a pivotal component of customer satisfaction in the e-commerce world. While digital marketing and well-timed promotions can pique interest and generate sales, the actual delivery of the product or services can enhance, hinder, or even ruin the overall customer experience.
To ensure you’re optimizing timing in both the digital and physical, consider offering expedited shipping options during promotions. This tactic can attract customers looking for quick deliveries, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive higher conversion rates during peak sales periods (such as flash sales or holiday promotions – when timing is of upmost importance).
7. Conduct Post-Sale Follow-Ups
It’s important to remember that the sale is just the beginning. Post-sale follow-up is paramount in eCommerce. Express swift gratitude and promptly ask for feedback. This approach forms the foundation of long-term customer loyalty, where a timely follow-up can turn a one-time buyer into a loyal, repeat customer.
For more helpful information, as well as customized marketing and eCommerce solutions, reach out the experts at Strata.
A Strata YouTube Original Series
When it comes to direct marketing, quality design is crucial. When you invest time and effort into clean, visually appealing, effective designs, your marketing campaigns can stand out from the competition. We spoke with Courtney Prate, Creative Designer, to get answers to several frequently asked direct marketing design questions. Read on to see what she had to say!
Q: How important is graphic design for direct marketing?
A: If you look at the world around you, marketing is everywhere – and a big key, if not THE key for that marketing is design. Without thinking through design, your direct marketing will very likely be a flop.
Q: What’s the best process/steps when designing direct marketing materials?
A: Although there are key aspects to keep in mind when designing digital and physical direct marketing materials, it’s not one-size-fits-all. Every designer has their own process and way of designing. The most important factors (I believe), are 1 – consistently keeping the end-user in mind, 2 – being open to other opinions and potential options (you never know what might work), and 3 – ensuring the call to action (what you want the customer to do) is top of mind and clear.
Q: What is the most important thing to focus on when designing direct marketing?
A: It’s always important to focus on the call to action, ensuring that it’s clear, obvious, and…actionable! After all, you could have amazing content and imagery, but if the customer doesn’t know what to do, is the piece really worth it?
Courtney goes more in-depth and answers a variety of other design-related questions in our latest YouTube channel release. View the whole video by clicking the image below. Here are the other questions she answers:
- What’s the biggest mistake you see commonly made with direct marketing design?
- Why is branding important to keep in mind when it comes to direct marketing design?
- How do I decide on the channel, material, and sizing of my direct marketing?
- What are the most attention-grabbing colors for direct marketing design?
- How do I choose the right images for my direct marketing design, and where do I find them?
- When is it worth it to A/B test designs?
- How many revisions should a direct marketing piece go through?
- What are the biggest design trends of 2023, and what do you see evolving in the next few years?
Click the image below to view the full video!
If your direct marketing design could use some help, or you have additional questions, contact our experts today! Strata’s more than happy to help your company transform your marketing campaigns.
Elevate Your Landing Pages from Zero to Hero
Landing pages hold the key to turning casual website visitors into valuable leads and ultimately, loyal customers. These web pages and their forms are strategically simplified to capture essential information and hold immense power when it comes to boosting conversion rates. Despite their familiarity, the art of optimizing landing pages for maximum impact continues to present itself as a challenge for many, but as an opportunity for all. In this blog, we unpack the elements behind creating well-structured, impactful, and conversion-oriented landing pages that deliver results.
Elements for Conversion
1. Value-Centric Exchange
Landing pages are a simple, effective, and non-invasive way to initiate a data exchange. To further incentivize visitors to share their information, a compelling offer’s essential. Craft an incentive that resonates with your audience, whether it’s an exclusive case study, industry-specific tips, or free resources that address the visitor’s pain points.
2. Call to Action
The call to action (CTA) is the driving force behind a successful landing page. It propels users to act, with phrasing such as “don’t miss out”, “learn more”, “click here”, and so on. Landing pages should be designed with a single, concise call to action. Too many calls to action can create confusion, so again – stick to just one powerful, action-oriented verb that leaves no room for ambiguity. What you want the user to do should be simple and clear.
3. Simplistic Copy and Imagery
Keep your copy and imagery straightforward, in harmony with your CTA. Every word and image should serve a purpose. While the landing page can include thought-provoking and exciting design, it should not be over-loaded with complex graphics. Your main goal’s to be persuasive, straight forward, build trust, and deliver information. Additionally, imagery should lead the viewer’s eye to the call to action, whether that’s through actual arrows and movement or simply with a layout that guides the potential customer along.
4. Efficient Opt-In Process
Seamless user experience is key. Optimize your form fields to strike a balance between collecting essential information and respecting the user’s time. A visitor to a landing page is already close to converting. Make sure it’s easy for the visitor to fill out desired fields (or risk that visitor abandoning the process). Remember, a shorter form often yields better results!
5. Design Optimization
Above-the-fold content (on both desktop and mobile) is your prime real estate. Ensure easy access to vital information. Additionally, ensure your landing page is mobile-compatible, as a significant chunk (over half of all traffic) comes from mobile devices. Lastly, eliminate any detouring links that might distract users from the main goal.
6. Continuous Improvement
The work doesn’t end once the landing page is live. Be sure to regularly evaluate its performance using tracked metrics. A/B testing’s your friend – find the sweet spot between different landing page formats and form fields that maximize conversions.
Landing pages, when strategically crafted, can transcend from mere entry points to formidable conversion tools. By understanding and implementing the key elements discussed above, you can create landing pages that not only capture leads but nurture them into loyal customers.
For more strategies, expert tips, and industry insights to enhance your lead generation efforts, reach out to our team, here. We’ll elevate your landing pages; you’ll watch conversions soar.