GAMA 36

GRAPHIC ADVISOR ISSUE THIRTY-SIX

Locking in a Lasting Relationship with your customers also in this issue:

Loyalty Programs Really Pay Off Three Reasons to Hire a Professional Designer

Your logo here

Want to sell more? Try building relationships with your customers. Yes, it really can be that simple. People like to do business with people. More specifically, they like to do business with people who care about them, who listen to what they have to say, and who are accessible and responsive to their needs. By using the variety of tools in your marketing arsenal, you can build relationships that keep your customers engaged and loyal.

What tools do you have at your disposal?

Print.

Build Business

by Building Relationships

Multi-channel marketing.

Social media.

Newsletters, direct mail

Every marketing channel

Social media is not a sales

letters, postcards, and

has its own sweet spots,

channel. It is a relationship

other printed materials are

so understand the power

channel. Use social media

great relationship builders. As you use

of each channel and maximize it. Print

to engage your customers in a larger

these tools, don’t always be trying to

creates the sense of gravitas and trust.

community. Get your team members

sell something. Share information. Give

Email and mobile allow immediate

interacting with your customers as

advice. Provide useful resources so that

communication and facilitate click-

genuine, caring human beings. Have

your customers look forward to each

through feedback. Social media fosters

your team participate in discussions

communication. Consider selecting

long-term engagement and community

(whether on your sites or third-party

interesting or unusual substrates, folds,

building. Understanding the sweet

sites) so your customers know you

and bindings that take advantage of the

spots of each medium and layering

are really listening. Sponsor contests.

unique, tangible characteristics of print.

them over time reinforces your brand

Create discussions around the culture

Data. Knowing your customers helps

and helps you stay top of mind.

of your business, or fun and unusual

deepen relationships over time. You will speak differently to the Gen-X crowd than

ways to use your products.

Personalized URLs.

Regardless of the channels you are

you will to Baby Boomers. You will speak

Personalized URLs allow you

using, ensure that your phone number,

differently to a recent college graduate

to connect with customers

Web address, and links to your Facebook

than you will to the head of a household

and get their feedback

page, Twitter account, and Pinterest

with children. Using data doesn’t have

using a simple, personalized online

boards are included and clearly visible.

to mean full personalization, although

interface. By asking their opinions on

Give customers multiple ways to contact

it can. Segmenting into different target

products, services, and their experience

you and encourage them to do so in

audiences can also be highly effective

with your company, personalized

the ways they feel most comfortable.

by allowing you to speak to customers

URLs let people know that you care

based on their common interests.

and that their voices are being heard.

As a marketer, you have

It also gathers additional information

tremendous resources for

on those customers so you can better

building long-lasting, positive

target and customize communications

relationships with your customers.

with them in the future. Relationships

Need help using them? Give us a call!

photos Šistock.com

require two-way communication!

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m a r s g o r P Loyalty

D

oes your company have a loyalty program?

A way to keep customers engaged with your business and encourage repeat business over time? If not, it might be time to get started.

Case Study: Hotel Resort

The program now has been running

Take the example of this New

for years, and the facility is nearly

Jersey-based hotel and resort that

always booked to capacity. Ongoing

used loyalty programs to encourage

CRM programs permit the resort to

20% of its customers to repeat

effectively resell, upsell, and cross-

business just the first year alone.

sell to its customers, all the while

The resort learned the value of loyalty campaigns when it implemented

building additional rapport and trust.

Loyalty programs take a little extra

a program that gathered information

time and effort to set up, but once

on customers on their first visits. It

they are up and running, they are

immediately followed up with colorful

highly cost-effective to maintain. The

brochures thanking them for their visit and

benefits? They speak for themselves.

Case Study Results • 20% of customers receiving the direct mailers booked with the hotel or used its facilities the first year — nearly 30 times the industry average for static direct mail campaigns.

inviting them to return again. Automated, trigger-based workflow was used to get these mailers into customers’ hands immediately while their good memories of

ff !

O y a Really P

time spent at the facility were still fresh.

The resort was willing to spend a significant amount of time, money, and energy to develop these mailers because it knew that once a customer returns a second time, his or her loyalty is cemented. Thus the extra effort spent getting those customers back in the door would pay off in long-term profits.

• The resort recorded record revenues from its services and had the most lucrative month in the company’s history.

photos ©istock.com

• Quarterly earnings doubled year over year.

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E

ngaging customers involves more than just sending out informational or promotional print pieces. It involves touching customers’ emotions and engaging with them at a deeper level that draws them in. That’s why, even with so much templatebased design available these days, professional designers still play an important role in today’s marketing communications.

Professional designers do more than place text and images on a page. They take into consideration everything from aesthetics to substrates to prepress, binding, and finishing that the average marketer can’t possibly be expected to know.

If you’re doing 1:1 marketing, designers play a key role, as well. This is because variable fields can bring some unexpected surprises in a document layout. For example, if you have 1” maximum available space, that’s no problem if the recipient’s last name is Smith, Walker, or Johnson. But what happens if someone has the last name Salomonowicz or Drozdovandropopozgiopanatzakis?

Here are three areas where professional design can really make a difference.

Professional designers know things the average person doesn’t.

Three Reasons to Use a Professional Designer

Want to grab someone’s attention?

Use color and graphics! But when you’re creating the pieces yourself, sometimes even the most eye-popping colors just don’t reproduce as you expect. Or when you re-size a picture, it becomes pixilated no matter what you try. What happens if your paper or finishing cost is more than expected or your project is delayed because of design and format considerations

(Yes, these are real last names!)

Those and other possibilities have to be planned for upfront.

Your company’s image is affected by the quality of your marketing materials.

Good design accommodates multi-channel.

In today’s competitive, multi-channel marketing environment, you must not only be able to design for print, but for the Web, email, mobile, and more. Each has its own nuances in design, color, and format. Professional designers are expected to be comfortable working in most or all of these formats, and the ability to create consistency across multiple channels is one of the hallmarks of professional design and marketing.

If you’re tempted to shave a few dollars off your budget by cutting out a professional designer, think twice.

These critical links in your marketing chain bring value far beyond just creating printed (or electronic) documents.

They are the creative force behind the professional image of your company, and some things are just worth paying for.

Like it or not, buyers judge a book by its cover. If your marketing materials look unprofessional — if your colors are muddy or your hairlines don’t match across the fold — your company will appear unprofessional, too. When all else is equal between you and your competitor, the company with better designed brochures and marketing materials will get more sales.

photos ©istock.com

that were overlooked upfront?

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GRAPHIC ADVISOR

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About This Issue

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Programs used:

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

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

Paper used:

company. One or two small paragraphs

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

Ink used:

graphs about you and your company.

What kind of ink 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?

W

hen you think about evaluating the success of a 1:1 printing campaign, how long a window do you use to determine the dollars it generated? Do you cut it off after a week? A month?

Several months? What about the lifetime of the customer?

Lifetime customer value (LCV)

indefinitely. Many companies estimate their LCV out for three to seven years. Otherwise, it’s considered too speculative to be useful.

True Measure of Effectiveness Even if it’s an estimate, LCV gives you a much better idea of what value your marketing campaigns are creating.

For example, the Print on Demand Initiative case study archive contains a case study submitted by a small lawn care

is an overlooked metric that

company that sent out a mailing of 300

needs to be a larger part of how

1:1 pieces to great effectiveness. When

marketers measure their success.

the campaign revenue was considered in

Granted, LCV is very difficult to estimate,

Look at Value Over a Lifetime

You don’t have to calculate out LCV

isolation, the mailing barely broke even.

but it’s important to keep the issue in

But the company knew that its customers

mind. Customers gained through 1:1

tend to be very loyal over time, so the

printing tend not just to purchase more,

addition of every new customer meant

but to be more loyal than customers

several years of recurring revenue. As a

gained through static methods. Thus, the

result, the owner estimated the campaign

benefits of customer retention must be

ROI at 8000% on a LCV basis, something

considered alongside other factors in

that made this a best practices case study.

evaluating the cost-benefits equation.

How do you view your customers?

How do you determine LCV? There are a variety of factors to consider: Churn rate: How often do customers leave your customer base?

On a one-off basis?

Or as having Lifetime Customer Value?

Retention cost How much does it cost you to support, bill, and incentivize your customers?

Periodic revenue Do you have recurring revenue streams?

How much do customers spend during an average period?

photos ©istock.com

Profit margin

You don’t have to calculate out LCV indefinitely. Many companies estimate their LCV out for three to seven years. Otherwise, it’s considered too speculative to be useful.

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