The Tray Way: Integrated Marketing Keeps Your Customers in Contact

Integrated marketing is something that we have spoken about a number of times in the past, and it is one of the most important concepts to keep in mind when marketing any brand. One key part of integrated marketing is maintaining communication with your customers. Marketing is not a one-way street, and if consumers have no easy way of responding to a direct mail piece, you may be missing out on valuable feedback and opportunities.

For a good example of how important this simple step can be, see this story from the MarketingWeek.co.uk blog. Contributor Lucy Handley is a marketing analyst, but she is also a consumer. Her work landed her on the mailing lists of a large number of companies, and when the mail marketing started coming in, she decided to explore how easy it was to respond to those companies.

The brands include Volkswagen, Visit Scotland, children’s retailer Great Little Trading Company, the League Managers’ Association and gifts website Not on the High Street…Unwanted emails I can easily delete, send to junk mail or unsubscribe to. But post, especially if it is totally irrelevant, is so much more intrusive and much more of a waste. This time however, I’m not chucking it away, I’m emailing these brands to get them to take me off their mailing lists.

When marketers are spending so much time focused on keeping a consistent brand from print, to social, to websites, it can be easy to forget details like email addresses. Make sure that your customers can respond to your direct mail in a number of ways, and that those methods are consistently checked, watched, and responded to. A rapid response time can help build trust with your customers, and can give you a second chance to win a sale that might have been teetering on the edge.

When trying to get in touch with Volkswagon, however, Handley found that her experience was far from that model.

…the highest profile of those brands, VW, performs much less well. But I must come clean: its dealership mailing was an MOT offer and was actually sent to my late father rather than me. This is surprising, given that two years ago, I had to go into the dealership to tell them, in person, that he had passed away. So I found the dealership online and emailed the relevant contact. Whose email then bounced back. So I emailed the manager, who has not replied. I also emailed via the VW brand website and have had no acknowledgement.

Ultimately, Volkswagon's poor response options left Handley without an easy solution to her complaint. If the mailer had directed her immediately to a different person, the company would have had the opportunity to respond with an apology, an offer, or a method of furthering their communication.

As Handley points out, direct mail doesn't come with an 'unsubscribe' button. There isn't an HTML form on your postcard asking the consumer why they turned down your offer. If you want to make the most of print marketing, make sure that you give consumers an easy way to stay in contact.

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The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Tray Way: Proposed USPS Service Changes, and What they Mean for Your Marketing

The United States Postal Service has finally decided that drastic measures are required to save the floundering department. Among the much-publicized moves is the closing of over 250 processing facilities, and the reduction of the USPS national transportation network. The average consumer has not had much to say about the department’s woes; much to the chagrin of the industry, mail is one of those things that few people would care about until it is gone. Now, that fact is changing. Consumers are starting to express anguish toward the USPS’s cost-cutting solutions, and marketers should be taking notice.

One side effect of the shrinking department will be an increase in delivery time. Specifically, First Class Mail delivery will change from a 1-2 day delivery schedule to a 2-3 day schedule. Will this fundamentally change mailing strategies? Probably not, though marketers will need to consider the fact that mailers on tight deadlines, or those with time-sensitive information, will require a shift in planning. The real struggle, for the time being, is that the USPS has not confirmed any of these proposals yet. In the unlikely case of a Federal financial solution, or heavy consumer backlash, these changes likely won’t take place.

For now, marketers should plan for both eventualities, and prepare a system for either outcome. If October comes and goes without changes, the extra effort may seem like a waste, but there is rarely a reason to go unprepared in the face of potential disaster.

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The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Tray Way: Navigating the Mobile Renaissance

Sixteen years ago, in 1995, text messaging was still in its infancy. The technology wouldn’t become widespread for almost a decade, and wasn’t picked up by marketers for a few years after that. It seems like SMS and mobile marketing are still buzzwords thrown around by every agency, so how can we consider this the decade of the mobile rebirth?

Smart phone technology, led by the love-it-or-hate-it iPhone, has completely changed the way marketers can interact with consumers. Check-in apps, augmented reality, mobile websites, QR codes, and yes, SMS marketing, are but a handful of the advertising methods that have opened up to mobile marketers in the past few years. In 2010, the mobile market saw jumps in numbers that left many researchers stunned. Three studies, published in March and July of this year, share some of those statistics

The Growth of Mobile Marketing

• Of the world’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smart phones, and a whopping 3.05 billion are SMS enabled.
• By 2014 [if current rates continue,] mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage.
• One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices
• On average, Americans spend 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile device. That’s over twice the amount of time they spend eating…

For marketers looking to reach a large audience, there are few better avenues than smart phones. As an interactive medium, mobile marketing already has a leg up on passive ad strategies such as television and radio. In fact, of those that react to a mobile ad, “42 percent click on the mobile ad; 35 percent visit the advertiser’s site; 32 percent search for more information on their phone; 49 percent make a purchase and 27 percent call the business.”

Where Does Print Come In?

Since 2010, one of the most common buzzwords in print and mobile marketing has been QR codes. For an integrated marketing campaign, QR can be the glue holding everything together. Like Personalized URL (PURL) codes, QR codes allow smart phone owners to snap a quick photo with their mobile device, and in return, be presented with near-limitless information. QR codes can display text or images, or they can link directly to any URL, video, song, or other online resource. There is no need for the consumer to remember a URL, or write down a phone number, everything is done automatically, as soon as they click their camera button.

All of this means that you can easily print a customized QR code (which are completely free to generate) onto postcards, promotional products, posters, or letterhead. Then it is a simple step for the consumer to leap from the print ad to an online offering.

Even better, while marketers may be completely sick of hearing about the things, consumers are still impressed with the instantly gratifying reward that QR codes offer. The only thing better than a coupon is a coupon you don’t have to cut out, print, or download, right?

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The Tray PML Way is the blog for Tray, experts in the printing, mailing, logistics and promotional products. You can learn more about our organization's capabilities by visiting our website, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.