Print
How can I as a credit union marketer best reach our members? With statements like “print is dead” and “emails get lost in the inbox shuffle,” I’m not sure what works anymore!
Are these questions you’ve asked and is there any truth to either of these statements? Marketing is always evolving, and it is easy to get mixed messages on what works. Print is not dead. And there are ways to make your emails stand out to your audience. Let’s break it down into what works in 2018!
Email + Direct Mail = Campaign Success
The truth is, the campaigns that perform best include a combination of email and direct mail elements. Combining these channels results in a lift of 35% over using just one of these mediums! Synergent’s marketing team, which works exclusively with credit unions, has found this to be true.
“Almost every campaign we collaborate with credit unions on includes both email and direct mail components,” stated Doug MacDonald, Synergent Vice President of Marketing Services. “This one-two combination, consistently creates measurable results that are greater than the sum of the parts. The incremental expense of deploying both tactics in tandem, provide campaigns results that are dramatically more efficient in ROI, resulting in an increase in results, response rates and profits for credit unions.”
What Works
Campaigns that win awards and yield the best results include direct mail and email components. Each channel has their own advantages:
- The recipient spends more time looking at direct mail.
- Direct mail can include elements such as PURL’s and QR codes connecting it to the digital campaign.
- Size, style, and format options for print pieces are endless.
- There is no material cost when sending an email.
- Email can be A/B tested to deliver the strongest version of your message to the widest audience.
- Your website and other digital campaign elements can be linked to your email, making more information just a click away.
Demystifying the Marketing Magic
There is no “one size fits all” when putting together any marketing campaign, but the process can be simplified. The creative elements should connect across channels, making your campaign easily recognizable, regardless of if the delivery is digital or print. And get back to the basics of Marketing 101 with the 40/40/20 Rule: 40% of campaign success comes from your targeted list, 40% from the offer itself, and 20% from your creative elements (artwork and content).
The timing of the pieces depends on the specifics of your campaign. Deciding whether to send the email first, the print piece, or letting them fly at the same time depends on what your credit union is offering and who you are targeting:
- Are you trying to generate leads using emails you’ve acquired from a recent conference that your credit union presented at? With prospects, you may wish to start with email, reserving direct mail as a conversion tool.
- Are you trying to send an offer to your loyal, long-term members? Print may be the place to start, connecting the piece to digital channels with a follow-up email.
- Onboarding new members? This may provide you with an opportunity to establish their preferred communication methods from the start and to target accordingly as you build the relationship with this member.
Assembling a Winning Campaign with Synergent
“Synergent makes it all available in one place to credit unions of all sizes,” shared Fred Barber, Synergent Account Executive. “We reinvest to keep the technologies, capabilities, and skills current – so they don’t have to. They can partner with Synergent to do it all or just those components needed to round out a credit union’s marketing capabilities.”
When getting started on any marketing campaign, Synergent recommends taking the following steps:
- Always start by answering: What is the goal?
- Let the data guide you. Expert analysis of your member or prospect data is the cornerstone of every successful marketing campaign.
- A properly executed Transactional Data Mining campaign that incorporates multichannel marketing can be implemented regularly (quarterly or semi-annually), then repeated to more closely target your audience to achieve specific goals.
- Have a compelling offer. Even if the marketing campaign is perfectly executed, but the member doesn’t benefit from the offer, the campaign will not be successful. The offer has to be the right offer, for the right member, at the right time.
- Analyze the results of every campaign and learn from them. The more campaigns you do, the more you can analyze and learn, and the better you get at it.
Get started. Learn more by contacting rightsolution@synergentcorp.com today!
