The ROI of Personalization in Print Marketing
In our last post, we discussed the growing demand for personalization in marketing and how innovations in the industry are rising to meet the need for customization.
Today, we’ll explore the why. Why is personalized marketing so essential? Why does it work so well, and what’s its impact on engagement and ROI?
The Power of Personalized Marketing
Tailored marketing campaigns capture audience attention and help you create those deeper customer connections. Let’s go back to Communications 101: If you want to really connect with another person, they need to feel seen, valued, and understood.
At the end of the day, marketing is all about this communication concept. It’s no different than building a relationship with your friend from the gym or the barista at your favorite coffee shop. People gravitate toward those who see them and hear them.
Incorporating personalization into marketing strategies can significantly enhance engagement and return on investment (ROI). For instance, companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue than their competitors.
Additionally, personalized CTAs (calls to action) have been found to convert an outstanding 202% better than default versions.
Your audience wants to connect. The more you can show your audience that you understand them and deliver personalization, the more it enhances the relevance of your message. They’re more likely to see, interact, and respond to a piece that feels special and uniquely geared toward their wants, needs, and experiences.
Driving ROI Through Targeted Direct Mail
Personalized direct mail campaigns help to underscore this fact. Personalized direct mail significantly enhances response rates and return on investment (ROI). In some cases, personalized mail can increase response rates by as much as 135%—the value of tailored messaging is evident and goes beyond other marketing methods. Direct mail marketing yields an average response rate of 4.4%, compared to 0.12% for email.
These results aren’t limited to the world of retail and sales, either. Nonprofit appeals that are tailored with a donation history and project updates have a better response rate too. It’s especially important when you’re stewarding past donors—they want to know that their last gift was received and put to good use.
It may seem obvious, but relevancy and accuracy in your message are especially critical the more personalized you get. Not only may you be personalizing with sensitive information (like donation history), but you need to make sure that it accurately reflects contributions and their impact.
How do you get it right? It’s all about having robust, accurate data to ensure each personalization measure is correct and impactful. That means leveraging data from your ERP or from other sources to capture history and data beyond the basics (name, address, phone number, and email).
If you want the ROI, you need to have the correct data. A customer’s name and mailing address don’t tell you much, but there are many other relevant stats that can paint a fuller picture—for example, age, purchase history, interests, and so forth.
Best Practices for Personalization
How do you get the level of personalization right? Is there a way to get it wrong so you come off as a little too…personal?
In today’s world, some level of personalization has become the expectation. Most customers have come to expect demographic-specific messaging (i.e., geared to their age, gender, and location).
Effective personalization involves content tailored to prior behavior, purchases, donations, and interests. For example, campaigns that are tied to community-specific events or projects that might be particularly relevant to the target donor.
This information used to seem difficult to come by and unusual, even obscure, but now, with widespread digital footprints, the data is generally accessible for most marketers.
Of course, there’s a fine line in personalization, and you want to strike that balance. It turns out accuracy is everything. Most audience members are comfortable with personalization as long as it’s accurate and thoughtful.
The risk of being off the mark is not just irrelevance but also the loss of trust between you and your audience. It can even lead to brand damage. Think about it: a donor who receives a letter addressed to a late spouse or highlighting interests counter to theirs will likely toss the piece out and certainly won’t feel more optimistic about the company or organization.
If you get the accuracy wrong, there’s a considerable blowback. For example, getting mail pieces about funding your kids’ college education when you don’t have kids in college, or getting direct mail from an all-girls high school when you don’t have daughters. It becomes a waste of materials and effort.
The more you understand about your audience and the better your information, the more relevant and impactful your campaigns will be. When personalization is accurate, it doesn’t come across as too personal—when the information is wrong, things go awry.
One method that’s particularly good at bridging the digital and direct mail worlds is the use of QR codes and vanity URLs in print campaigns. Most audiences are quite familiar with the codes and comfortable clicking from their smartphone. From there, you can direct them to personalized landing pages, event sign-ups, calendars, and donation portals.
The goal of your interactions should be to create a seamless customer journey. Customers should be able to reach you through print and digital—whatever makes them feel most comfortable.
Why Choose Heritage to Help?
Our expertise is in delivering tailored print solutions that help you really appeal to the hearts and minds of your audience. We have years of experience to help you find the right way to resonate.
Let us help you leverage data for more meaningful and effective personalization. We offer innovative print marketing that increases engagement, customer loyalty, and ultimately ROI. If you want to learn more, please reach out to learn how personalized print campaigns can help you achieve your marketing goals.