GAMA 32

GRAPHIC ADVISOR

Your logo here

ISSUE THIRTY-TWO

Drip Marketing: Keep the conversation going!

also in this issue:

A/B Testing: Gaining Insight Through Dividing and Analyzing Step into Style Sheets

MARKETING ADVISOR

Your logo here

ISSUE THIRTY-TWO

Drip Marketing: Keep the conversation going!

also in this issue:

A/B Testing: Gaining Insight Through Dividing and Analyzing Step into Style Sheets

W

A/B Testing: Gaining Insight Through Dividing and Analyzing

hile A/B testing sounds

company which call to action is the most

a mirror image of

complicated, it’s not. It’s

effective with its target audience. Most

the other and

splitting the mailing into

likely, it will use that same call to action

includes enough

in the future.

names so that the

two groups, modifying one variable at a time, and seeing which performs best. By

If you want more results from your direct mail or other marketing efforts, you need to continually refine your campaigns over time. Test new graphics. Test new messaging.

Test new offers. That means A/B testing.

You can use this approach to test every

results are statistically

continually testing one variable against

element of your campaign. Use it to test

significant. Then pay attention

another, you can identify those elements

graphics. Background colors. Starbursts

to what you learn

that consistently tend to produce the

and drop dates. The more you test, the

and use it to

best results.

more you can refine your campaigns for

knock your next

peak effectiveness.

campaign out of the park.

Case Study: Postcard Testing

Need help? Talk to us about what

For example, a company with a customer

Case Study: Newsletter Testing

A/B splits make the most sense for your

database of 5000 people might decide

One healthcare provider sending patient

next campaign.

to create a postcard campaign with a

newsletters did A/B testing over a period

discount code.

of years. It assigned each article a unique

It might design the postcard, then

tracking code paired to the household

modify the call to action to test the

receiving the newsletter. As those

effectiveness of two different sets of text.

households were tracked through the

To 2,500 people, it mails the postcard

patient database, the healthcare provider

that says, “Offer ends this Tuesday! Use

was able to see which articles had the

code A1.” To another 2,500 people, it

most impact.

sends the same postcard but with a

The first year, the provider’s ROI

different call to action that says, “Limited

was $62 for every dollar spent on the

time offer! Use code A2.”

newsletter. The next year, that rose to

The company then tracks which group, A1 or A2, has the highest number

The key to A/B testing is to select names and addresses randomly so that each split is a mirror image of the other and includes enough names so that the results are statistically significant.

$78. The next year, it rose to $88. Clearly, tracking was worth the effort!

photos ©dreamstime.com

of people redeem the offer. Say the postcard with code A1 has a 5% response

How to Choose the Split

rate (125 of the 2,500 people in that group

When it comes to choosing the split, you

used the code to buy a product) and

can divide the campaign evenly or select

the postcard using the code B1 has a 3%

out a smaller portion to use as a control

response rate (75 of the recipients used

group. The key is to select names and

the code to buy a product). This tells the

addresses randomly so that each split is

2

T

his is the philosophy behind

Success with Drip Marketing

drip marketing. Send a postcard

One firm used drip marketing to turn

on Monday. Blast an email on

its zero response (yes, zero response)

Thursday. Mail a marketing letter the

marketing letter into a campaign with

following week. By continually putting

1700% ROI.

your message in front of people, you stay

First, the company scrapped its

top of mind. When they’re ready, they’ll

traditional one-page marketing letter

pull the trigger.

with the dry, boring introductory

It’s not just about staying visible. It’s

paragraph, service pitch, and standard

also about keeping your competitors at

closing, and replaced it with a more

bay. It’s a common marketing adage that

engaging marketing pitch. Then it

customers can only keep three to five

followed up with a phone call from

brands in their heads at one time. The

a live person. Ten days later, it sent a

more visible you are, the less room there

second letter. The total cost of the

is for your competitors.

campaign—$2,600.

The results? The company closed on

What makes a successful drip

$90,000 in sales within six weeks. That’s

marketing campaign?

a 17,000% return on investment!

Repetition. You can offer discounts and promotions, but most importantly,

marketing that caused the success.

it’s about building relationships and

There was a change in strategy too. But

creating conversation.

part of that change involved adding the

This means the content must be meaningful. It must be something your

drip marketing approach of multiple contacts over time.

customers and prospects actually want to read. To do this, you need solid content that positions your company and your brand.

photos ©dreamstime.com

Keep the Conversation Going!

You have a great product. You have a great marketing message.

So what does it take to convert a prospect into a customer? Sometimes it’s simply a matter of time and exposure.

Of course, it wasn’t just the drip

Drip marketing can take many forms, including postcards, newsletters, marketing letters, and email. Regardless of the media used, the goal is the same.

Engage your customers. Position your brand. Foster trust and credibility. By doing so, you will stay top of mind, keep your competitors in the corner, and boost your sales at the same time.

Best Practices Want to see what drip marketing can do for you? Here are some best practices to keep in mind: 1. Focus on content.

Provide real, measurable value.

If it doesn’t provide value, it won’t create customer engagement—just clutter.

2. Be consistent.

Drip marketing is about consistency.

Make a commitment.

Create a marketing schedule. Then stick to it.

3. Follow up.

You can drip, drip, drip, but at some point, you need to give a call to action. Follow up by phone, email, or other media.

4

S

tyle sheets, also known as “paragraph styles” and “character styles,” are among the most powerful yet often underutilized features in today’s page layout software. Styles help ensure that typographic characteristics are used consistently throughout a document, and save time when a typeface or a point size needs to be changed.

Step into Style Sheets...

For example, if you’re laying out a

the style, and clicking OK.

document, and you’ve set all the body

At heart, that’s all there

text in 12pt Garamond Regular but the

is to it. The same goes

client would rather use Bell Gothic, you

for character styles: If

can simply change the typeface in the

there are some words in

style sheet and it will change all the text

a document that should

that has been “tagged” with that style.

be in italic, rather than

You can also link styles: If you have a style

manually applying the

called Body Text and another called Body

italic version of a typeface,

Text–No Indent (which are identical save

create an “Italic” character

for, you guessed it, an indent), you can

style. You can also assign

make one dependent on the other; and

keyboard shortcuts to

if the basic Body Text specs change, you

styles, for even more

layout. InDesign CS 5.5 has improved and

only have to make the change once.

time-saving.

simplified EPUB export immeasurably.

Recent versions of InDesign have added

(or you may walk into problems!)

Mapping character and paragraph styles

an “Object Style” that lets you save fills,

Importing Style Sheets

to HTML or XML tags goes a long

strokes, positioning, text wrap settings—

Styles can be imported from other

way toward saving time and hassle in

even effects like drop shadows—and

documents, so if a project has the same

multichannel production workflows. In

apply them to other objects. Likewise

typographic specs as a previous one,

fact, the best results in EPUB workflows

Table and Cell Styles—incredibly helpful if

you can avoid having to duplicate

is to leave no text untagged. This will

you lay out a lot of tabular data.

previous efforts.

give you maximum control over the look

Styles are used in programs like

and appearance of electronic content—

Style Sheets are Easy to Create!

Microsoft Word and can be imported into

something that certainly needs a great

Style sheets are perceived as being

InDesign or QuarkXPress—helpful when

deal of control and improvement!

laborious to create, which is one reason

you may not know instinctively whether a

why they are often underutilized, but

subhead should be formatted as Heading

creating and working with styles, and it’s

they don’t have to be. Creating a style

2 or Heading 3.

worth taking a little time to investigate

is as simple as formatting a selected

photos ©dreamstime.com

InDesign CS 5.5 features a new Edit Export Tags feature that lets you map your style sheets to HTML, EPUB, or PDF tags.

There are many more nuances to

them—both to save time, and to prevent

chunk of text, choosing (in InDesign) the

HTML and EPUB Tags

headaches and bottlenecks within

New Paragraph Style command from the

Style sheets are also used to create tags

your workflow.

Paragraph Styles palette menu, assigning

that are used to format HTML or EPUB

a name (preferably a meaningful one) to

(e-book) files exported from an InDesign

6

MARKETING ADVISOR

MAILING INFO HERE

Printer Name Phasellus porttitor elit In hac habitasse platea Donec tempor nonummy

code?

Need a QR : O P F E D s at O QR C munication m o C h c a e R Call Great 5 978-332-555

About Us

About This Issue

One or two small paragraphs about you

Programs used: InDesign CS Illustrator CS Photoshop CS

and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or

Paper used: What paper did you use to print this issue?

two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company.

Ink used: What kind of ink did you use to print this issue?

Coating used: What kind of coating did you use to print this issue?

Computers used: iMac Press used: What kind of press did you use to print this issue?

Bindery used: What kind of bindery did you use to print this issue?

GRAPHIC ADVISOR

MAILING INFO HERE

Printer Name Phasellus porttitor elit In hac habitasse platea Donec tempor nonummy

de? eed a QR co at N : O P F E D QR CO ications h Commun c a e R t a re Call G 5 978-332-555

About Us

About This Issue

One or two small paragraphs about you

Programs used: InDesign CS Illustrator CS Photoshop CS

and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or

Paper used: What paper did you use to print this issue?

two small paragraphs about you and your company. One or two small paragraphs about you and your company.

Ink used: What kind of ink did you use to print this issue?

Coating used: What kind of coating did you use to print this issue?

Computers used: iMac Press used: What kind of press did you use to print this issue?

Bindery used: What kind of bindery did you use to print this issue?

E

verywhere you look these days, you’re bombarded with data about how much money marketers are putting into their Internet presences.

E-mail marketing. Web site development.

Search engine optimization. Banner ads. Social networking. This creates the impression that print is irrelevant, but in fact, the opposite is true.

Here are some more eye-catching data:

• A 2008 Magazine Publishers of

What does this mean for you?

Print matters.

America study reconfirms prior studies

When looking for strategies to boost your

that show including URLs in magazine

Web traffic, get print into the mix. Send a

ads drives readers to advertiser Web

direct mail piece. Use the space on your

sites. The biggest lifts came in the

catalogs, brochures and even invoices

women’s service, home and travel

to advertise your Web address, Twitter

categories, where ads featuring Web

ID and other URLs. Make sure important

addresses were 98%, 103% and 186%

Web addresses are in your trade and

more likely to boost Web site visits,

consumer advertising. Find excuses to get

respectively.2

them in front of your customers. Take

• Seaport Village, a San Diego retail hub, saw a 26% rise in traffic to its Web

advantage of every opportunity.

Print is highly effective for driving all

site right after city officials launched a

types of consumer and business behavior,

fool you. Print has power, including the

holiday direct mail campaign steering

including building your online presence.

power to drive online activity. One of the

visitors to the shopping center.3

Use it!

Don’t let the ubiquity of Internet data

most effective ways to build an online presence is to use print.

For example, a survey of 2,251 senior

• A USPS/comScore survey found that people who receive a catalog account for 22% of Web site traffic and 37% of

executives, the “BE: USA 2008/2009:

money spent at retailers’ Web sites. In

The Media Survey of the United States’

fact, shoppers who received a catalog

Business Elite” found that this elite group

were twice as likely to make an online

was heavily influenced to increase their

purchase at the retailer’s online store.4

Web traffic as a result of print. Nearly

Use Print to Boost Your Online Presence

one in four (23%) was motivated to visit a marketer’s Web site as a result of a local newspaper ad, rising to 38% who were motivated by a magazine ad.1

Print has power, including the power to drive online activity. One of the most effective ways to build an online presence is to use print. http://tinyurl.com/nvkmc5 http://tinyurl.com/nkq83y 3 https://www.delivermagazine.com/marketing-tips/2008/02/29/direct-mail-drives-web-traffic-for-retail-hub/ 4 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/204586/print_catalogs_boost_ internet_sales_pg2.html?cat=3

photos ©dreamstime.com

1

2

10