Celebrate Boring Marketing Programs
By Mark DeBellis, PSB Integrated Marketing
Last week we talked to a credit union that was discontinuing a matrix-mailing program they had in place for years. They said it wasn’t “working.”
By way of definition, this program consisted of a series of letters sent out to new members at the 30, 60, 90 and 120-day milestone. Each letter offered incentives for the next new service. You know the program.
The high cost per piece, combined with a fairly low response rate and a sense that there were other ways to spend their money led to the decision.
I also sensed, as is the case with these types of ongoing programs that they may be perceived as boring, tedious and lack the excitement and energy of larger, seasonal campaigns that are accompanied with lots of fanfare and organizational enthusiasm.
However, one has to be wary that while picking up pennies, dollars fall out of our pockets.
There is no other alternative that provides the most targeted efforts for sales development of new members as a matrix program.
Yes, it may feel boring, tedious and seemingly ineffective at times. But one never knows when the next opportunity is going to come from that new member. We do know for certain that reducing the contacts with members never generates more results.
To that I say, “Celebrate the boring!”
Marketing tactics that are consistent and routine can feel boring. And once they feel boring, it can result in a death march to discontinuing the program. I believe this may have partly contributed to their decision.
What should happen in the event of a downward spiral of enthusiasm…and subsequent results…for a key program? Before you kill it, try the following:
• Reenergize the management team with support and rationale for the strategy. Keep it alive with the stories of success and the benefit of ongoing education of a new member. There are precious few other ways to achieve this education and development.
• Actively manage, track and assess the program. Test new offers, mailing pieces, and approaches to ensure that the communication remains relevant, enticing and effective. Although “autopilot marketing” sounds good, it never accomplishes greatness if it isn’t monitored.
• Augment the basic letters and engage with other tools and consumer touchpoints. Add email and phone follow-up as key tools to make a matrix program perform for you. That means making sure that MSRs are capturing those emails at sign-up and then building those into a follow up system.
Everything in the marketer’s domain can’t be judged on a cool factor. Some programs might just be less exciting than others.
