Property Agency: 70% uplift on abandoned valuation bookings
Property Agency: 70% uplift on abandoned valuation bookings
Paperplanes drives a 70% uplift with direct mail on abandoned valuation bookings for a leading UK online property agent.
The Context
One of the UK’s leading online property agency, approached Paperplanes to improve conversion rates for property valuation bookings. The problem the estate agent faced was that despite having a high influx of visitors requesting face-to-face valuations online, a number of visitors were dropping out of the process before completing a valuation booking.
The previous abandoned valuation strategy was to email potential customers right after they abandoned, but this activity had started to show a decline in recovered bookings over recent months. As a result, the company was looking for a more responsive, automated and innovative strategy to engage with abandoned customers and increase conversions.
The Action
Paperplanes partnered with the online property agent to implement a programmatic direct mail campaign that automatically generates a piece of personalised, physical media, sent daily to site visitors who had abandoned the valuation booking process.
The campaign is personalised by using the visitor’s individual valuation journey and the location of their property, encouraging the visitor to return and complete the valuation booking online.
The creative mailed is locally dynamic, includes the relevant area pricing and all the details of the customers’ nearest property agent. The design was kept simple to make it quick and easy for customers to read and respond.
The Results
By targeting customers in a timely, physical and relevant way, abandoned valuation results improved dramatically.
The property agent saw an uplift of over 70% on valuation bookings after customers received a piece of mail, as well as a 12% reduction in the number of valuations subsequently cancelled.
The campaign is delivering exceptional results, proving that sending relevant direct marketing to customers’ increases conversions and engagement
Testimonial
“By introducing Programmatic Direct Mail from Paperplanes to our marketing strategy, we have seen significant improvements to our abandoned valuation booking numbers. As a result of sending direct mail triggered by those abandoning an online valuation booking, we have seen an uplift of 70% of people returning to book a valuation with us.”
Head of Direct Marketing, Online property agent.
By introducing Programmatic Direct Mail from Paperplanes to our marketing strategy, we have seen significant improvements to our abandoned valuation booking numbers.
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Bad bots are on the rise but they can't open your mail and read your post
If the Terminator movie franchise taught us anything it is that there are good bots and there are bad bots, and in marketing we have a specific problem with bad bots. Good bots can help sales teams win new customers and are positive examples of effective automation in action, however it’s the bad bots I want to concentrate on for the purposes of this article, the bots that take our marketing content from our intended targets and falsify impressions for social media and digital marketing campaigns.
The rise of the ‘bad’ bots provide considerable issues for us as marketers, in fact I’d say we’re going through an epidemic. Brands spend billions of pounds each year in order to produce creative digital marketing content that resonates with their customer base, but the reality is that not as many ‘real’ people are seeing this content as we might think. According to the Association of National Advertisers, only a quarter of digital ad spend reaches actual people. This means a serious amount of money is being wasted on digital marketing impressions which ultimately leads to wasted expenditure. A study conducted by Imperva Incapsula suggests bot eating adverts cost businesses in the US $7 billion dollars a year and according to Cheq, this ad fraud is predicted to cost brands worldwide $23bn in 2019.
So how can brands avoid falling foul to bot-driven ad fraud and recover the money that they’ve lost?
Refresh your approach
It’s time for a fresh approach when it comes to effective customer journey planning. For too long digital has been the winner in most annual department budget battles, back in 2017 digital advertising spend hit $209 billion dollars worldwide, and perhaps that’s because a couple of years ago it deserved to. Now in 2019 the competition is fierce, customers are fatigued from the overcrowded online ad market and fake online traffic driven from bots is making the value in digital channels decrease.
Opt for the more traditional
One way to freshen up your marketing approach is to open up utilisation of other channels including offline and direct mail. As more and more expenditure is placed in the utilisation of online channels for marketing the opportunity to increase your share of voice and truly stand out from the crowd across digital becomes much harder. This is where traditional methods of communication can become very important and there is plenty of insight already existing on the power and effectiveness of direct mail as part of a multi-channel marketing plan. A recent study from Royal Mail found that 70% of consumers have responded digitally after receiving a direct mail
Join forces
Direct Mail has been given a new lease of life by gaining the connection to the digital environment. Programmatic Direct Mail is the new channel that combines the best elements of digital marketing with traditional postal marketing to maximise engagement and increase conversions for brands. This means adopting a more traditional approach doesn’t result in brands having to shut the door on digital marketing, in fact both avenues can be explored and integrated together to impact ‘real’ people that matter to your business.
Bots might be able to engage with your content but up to now we have never seen one open a letter, read it and convert off the back of receiving. Utilising a physical address and postcode allows you to know for certain that you are targeting real customers which in turn will only serve to improve and drive the conversions for campaigns.
Sure, there might be a unit cost associated but ROI also improves, due to more attention paid to the channel also eliminating any fear that 25% of the targeted universe aren’t actual people.
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Integrating Direct Mail into your Digital Marketing Strategy
More and more brands are beginning to realise the undeniable truth when it comes to effective customer journey planning in their marketing strategies. A single customer view is paramount for efficient planning and communications need to be planned across multiple touch points in order to strive towards success. But when we think about the right touch points to utilise for stimulating an action are we being as holistic in our approach as we could be? The first point to consider here is whether you have chosen to adapt an omnichannel strategy or multi-channel.
What is the difference between omnichannel and multi-channel marketing?
Omnichannel marketing and multi-channel marketing are very similar in many ways – using a combination of different marketing channels to reach an audience. However, the difference lies in the way in which you engage with your audience across these platforms.
Multi-channel marketing is essentially a single strategy applied across a combination of indirect and direct communication channels to maximise the sales opportunities, giving the consumer the choice to convert using their preferred channel.
Omnichannel marketing refers to using a mix of channels to provide an integrated shopping experience for the end user (Emarsys, 2018). Whether they flick from desktop to mobile, or go in store, the experience can be seamless and tailored to their particular activity and preferences. Essentially, omnichannel allows you to view the experience in the eyes of your customer, and customise the strategy to suit their preferences.
Why would businesses want to use omnichannel marketing?
Now don’t get me wrong, omnichannel marketing isn’t always easy to implement, so many businesses can be put off purely from the resource and time required to successfully introduce this strategy.
Nevertheless, omnichannel marketing can bring high returns for businesses who get the strategy right. Research from Harvard Business Review revealed that customers who experienced omnichannel marketing would spend 4% more every time they went shopping, 9% more when shopping in-store and 10% more when shopping online (PFL, 2017).
What’s more, stats reveal that brands who are actively using omnichannel marketing have a 91% higher YOY increase in customer retention. Yet businesses are still missing out on this opportunity; despite 87% of customers agreeing that brands need to put more effort into providing a seamless brand experience, a whopping 55% of businesses still have no cross-channel strategy in place (V12 Data, 2018).
How can physical mail play a role in omnichannel marketing?
Stats from Royal Mail MarketReach highlight that 92% of people took action after receiving a piece of personalised, relevant mail. By adding direct mail into your marketing mix, you can reach your audience from a new angle, guaranteeing engagement and complementing your digital activities.
Now I know the obvious remark here – “but if I send my customer something in the post I can no longer track their journey”. Wrong!
Luckily for you, new technologies enable direct mail to be programmatically triggered from online activities, or even in-store activities, allowing a brand to engage with their audience offline, whilst generating the same quality of personalised content through a completely new channel. Clever use of unique discount codes, QR codes and other identification methods permit brands to be able to successfully attribute individual pieces of mail to specific activities, and even trace their journey back online or in-store.
So, where do I start?
For some handy tips on how to successfully implement omnichannel marketing, take a read of this blog from Marketo. Oh, and if you’d like to find out more about how programmatic direct mail can play a vital role in your omnichannel strategy, speak to a member of our team today!
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Benefit Cosmetics: 37% Uplift on Featured Products
Global cosmetics brand, Benefit, sees 37% uplift in sales after implementing Programmatic Direct Mail as part of their follow up on browse campaign
The Context
Paperplanes technology combines the latest digital marketing technology with one of the UK’s largest industrial printers to deliver Programmatic Direct Mail, helping businesses increase conversions and reduce customer lapses. Leading women’s cosmetics brand, Benefit, teamed up with Paperplanes and Royal Mail MarketReach to implement a Programmatic Direct Mail campaign focused on increasing online sales conversions on their eyebrow products.
The beauty brand had noted a high volume of visitors who were only browsing products online, opening up an opportunity for them to target customers when they engaged but did not purchase. With a growing range of eyebrow products being added to the product range, the cosmetic company wanted to focus specifically on increasing conversions within their eyebrow range.
The Action
Paperplanes teamed up with Benefit to programmatically trigger personalised letters to be sent to customers that browse the eyebrow product section of the website, but don’t make a purchase. The letters were designed to encourage customers to complete a purchase on the specific eyebrow product they viewed, promoting free delivery for the customer to strengthen conversions. Unique shipping codes were applied to each individualised letter to track and monitor performance.
The creatives comprised of a double-sided, full-colour print A4 letter and a full-colour C5 envelope with elements of personalisation across both to enable maximum impact with the customer on delivery and brand recognition and awareness.
The Results
Mid campaign results have already revealed a 37% uplift in sales of eyebrow products online with an average customer value of over £40.
Results from the campaign also revealed that engagement levels had risen to over 28%.
Market Reach research has previously indicated a piece of direct mail will stay present in a customer’s home for an average of 17 days. Initial findings from this campaign have built further on that insight with the majority of customers targeted going through to convert 2 to 16 days after receiving the mailing.
Testimonial
So far we have found the process of set up to implementation super straight forward and comfortable. The team at Paperplanes have been helpful and supportive to ensure we had a smooth sailing launch. Mid way through our campaign we are happy to see some positive results comes through.’
Sacha Patel, CRM Manager, Benefit.
The team at Paperplanes have been helpful and supportive to ensure we had a smooth sailing launch.
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31 DOVER: 14% Conversion Rate
31 Dover doubles conversion rate for abandoned basket recovery from Programmatic Direct Mail
The Context
Paperplanes technology combines the latest digital marketing technology with one of the UK’s largest industrial printers to deliver Programmatic Direct Mail, helping businesses increase conversions and reduce customer lapses.
Award-winning online drinks retailer, 31 Dover, was looking for additional channels to optimise their abandoned basket follow up process. The company partnered with Paperplanes and Royal Mail MarketReach to build a strategic solution to reduce the rate of abandoned baskets, and in turn, increase conversions on the e-commerce website.
The Action
Paperplanes worked with 31 Dover to create a personalised, relevant campaign targeting individual customers who abandoned a virtual basket. A personalised letter was dynamically generated that featured information and images of the basket items with an on-brand message to encourage the customer to go back online to complete their purchase. To help increase conversions and awareness, discounts were offered to the individuals on their abandoned basket, as well as a referral discount for their friends.
The highly individualised letters were triggered from tags implemented on the website; automatically generating a letter each time a customer abandoned a basket.
The creative was made up of a double-sided A4 letter and C5 envelope, both of which were personalised to feature each individual’s basket, supported by the coupons on the reverse side of the letter and the outside of the envelope.
The Results
Early-stage results from the programmatic direct mail campaign showed a significant increase in engagement levels and conversion rates.
For 31 Dover, the personalised, tangible mail campaign drove engagement rates of over 28% with a conversion rate of 14%, compared to average conversion rates of around 6% from digital marketing activities.
Additionally, Paperplanes provided valuable insight at the product category and brand level that uncovered online trends such as most popular products and brands, as well as the products and brands with the highest abandonment rates. Brands like Warner Edwards, Edinburgh Gin and Sipsmith were appearing in around 20% of all abandoned baskets. After implementing the programmatic direct mail, Warner Edwards saw a 75% incremental uplift in purchased units, whilst Sipsmith saw a 300% uplift.
Testimonial
“Introducing programmatic direct mail from Paperplanes alongside our digital abandon basket campaigns has proven a great success in driving increased online engagement and conversion. In early stages of the campaign, we have conversion rates of over 14% from the Paperplanes abandoned basket campaign; this rate is double the results from other forms of digital retargeting we send to customers.”
Jay Swanborough, Director of E-Commerce and Marketing, 31 Dover.
This rate is double the results from other forms of digital retargeting we send to customers
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Why Businesses Should Send Postal Marketing
Postal marketing. Most commonly associated with the old fashioned tradition which saw us all sending them to family and friends from our travels across the globe. Ok, so you’re probably thinking who even does that now? (Well, other than my parents, I’m not quite sure). However, postal marketing has found a new purpose, with brands now adopting this method of communication to engage with their audience in a simple yet compelling form.
Many of you may wonder why businesses are returning to more traditional routes for marketing activities, so if you’re yet to be convinced, here are a few reasons why sending postcards as part of your marketing strategy can win big for business.
Postal Marketing provide instant impact
Post stands out in compared to the numerous junk and transnational mail consumers are used to receiving on a daily basis. The beauty of postcards is that you can use all sorts of imagery and colours to grab the attention of the consumer right away. Design tip – if you use A5 or A6 postcards, they are the perfect size for people to pin up on the fridge or notice board.
They're cost effective
Post can be incredibly cost-efficient and can drive the same outcome as other forms of communication. Take AdWords for example, it can easily cost you upwards of £10 per click on popular keywords, whereas sending a programmatically triggered and completely personalised postcard can cost less than £1 per send. What’s more, you’re guaranteed engagement with the end-user.
They work across various sectors
Regardless of which sector your business operates in, postal marketing offer a great opportunity to connect with audiences of different ages, demographics and markets in a fast and easy way.
Designs don't need to be complex
Designing direct mail doesn’t need to be difficult. Simple, effective imagery and a key call to action can be all that is required for a successful postcard creative. If you’re looking for some ideas, take these innovative designs!
You can gain a strong return on investment
Clients using programmatic direct mail from Paperplanes have seen returns of over £10 for every £1 spent, and results have proven that postal marketing can be twice as successful as email marketing. With a powerful creative, you can expect to achieve strong returns from investments of less than £1 per print.
Direct Mail can help drive people online or in-store
There are plenty of ways in which postcards can be used to drive audiences back to a store or re-visit a website, depending on your businesses requirements. For example, unique discount codes or reference numbers can be used to drive people back to a website or into a store to redeem offers. And for peace of mind, our A/B testing methods ensure sales can be attributed correctly to programmatic postcard triggers.
Just because postcards are fulfilling a new purpose in a business environment doesn’t mean the personalisation aspect that we all knew and loved should be left behind. Here at Paperplanes, we specialise in delivering Programmatic Direct Mail. We combine our unique tagging capabilities to be able to monitor consumer’s online behaviours, and from that we can programmatically trigger a personalised, relevant postcard that lands on their doorstep days after an interaction.
If you’d like to know more about how Paperplanes can help you implement digital mail with postcards, get in touch today!
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Innovations in direct mail help brands shout louder in the digital era
Innovations in direct mail
Direct mail is experiencing something of a renaissance, with innovation and more robust measurement giving this traditional medium a new lease of life.
Direct marketing is a channel which has had to innovate in recent years. The launch of the JICMail audience data standard is regarded as a game changer by many in the industry, while the use of programmatic direct mail is getting marketers excited.
The ability to send personalised direct mail to potential customers who have abandoned an online basket or browsed particular pages is motivating many brands.
Royal Mail is supporting tech startup Paperplanes in this area. The company is able to track customers’ online behaviour and deliver personalised mail within 48 hours to nudge people into making a purchase.
Tyre giant Continental has been testing the technology. Its resellers were becoming frustrated by too many lapsed customers so the brand’s business optimisation manager Jeff Book decided to run specific, personalised campaigns. Relevant deals were offered based on historic transactional data and the store customers usually visited.
Programmatic direct mail re-engaged lapsed customers and boosted sales of tyre checks, wheel alignment, servicing and MOTs. One retailer saw a 20% increase in MOT bookings within 12 days thanks to the targeted mail reminders.
Read the full article from Marketing Week here.
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Print parses programmatic problems
The possibility of communicating directly with potential customers online is certainly enticing; where once a poster on the street might catch the eye of the odd person in a few thousand, the internet opens up the possibility of millions, perhaps even billions, of prospective patrons engaging with your message.
But while a printed ad is placed in a particular location, whether that’s a poster on a street corner or a page in a magazine, programmatic online advertising is a much more freewheeling affair. Digital banner ads, governed as they are by ‘cookies’ and randomisation programs, can turn up almost anywhere, in front of almost anyone, which is at best not very targeted and at worst potentially damaging to a brand’s image.
An ongoing concern for brands is ensuring their advertising is seen by the right people. For some of-the-moment, cutting-edge brands, there are concerns that print is an irrelevant format for youthful tastemakers – the digital natives – and a belief that online is the only way to reach them. However, Paperplanes, the direct mailing subdivision of Go Inspire Group, has not found this to be the case.
“Digital marketers want to utilise multi-channel marketing without print, which is nuts,” says founder Daniel Dunn. “They don’t think younger people will connect with print, but we send direct mail to millennials and they love it.
“The time and attention that has been put in to seeking them out and putting something tangible in their hands is powerful.”
But how does Paperplanes know where to send its mailers? Funnily enough, it uses programmatic technology, something direct mailing companies are grasping with both hands and giving a print spin. Based on an individual’s online activity Paperplanes can automatically create and send out relevant physical one-to-one direct mail pieces.
Read the full article here.
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Paperplanes Brings Programmatic Direct Mail
GI Solutions, one of UK’s biggest digital printing companies, has invested in tech startup Paperplanes with the aim of making automated and personalised direct mail a possibility. The startup also has the backing of the Royal Mail.
The way Paperplanes works, explained founder Daniel Dunn, is via online analytics which sits behind the client’s ecommerce infrastructure. “When we work with a client, we’re working with them to tag the sites to form the build of our communications strategy.”
These tags, which are bits of coding, can be geared around campaigns to tackle abandoned baskets, improving conversion rates, reducing churn, guiding new customer journeys and retaining loyal customers.
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Programmatic Punch Q&A with Daniel Dunn
The use of programmatic media trading technologies began as a means of monetizing otherwise remnant display ad inventory on the web, but as the use of such technologies becomes mainstream online, progressive minds are now taking this revolution to more traditional media channels. The Drum’s Programmatic Punch conference will explore this is being used in direct mail.
It’s clear that Daniel Dunn, founder of the programmatic direct mail agency, Paperplanes believes that everything doesn’t come down to digital.
Ahead of a panel session on programmatic technologies being applied in areas beyond the internet, Dunn explains how direct mail is making a comeback and how it creates stronger bonds and experiences with customers on a physical level, which brings back the sense of touch.
Why are you starting such a business in an era defined by digital?
Digital has transformed how marketers can communicate to customers but despite all of the advantages it has brought we have lost the ability to engage senses such as touch. Touch leads to a longer brand recall, it creates a stronger emotional bond between the customer and the brands. That is a driving factor great reason as to why we are seeing this renaissance period for email.
The traditional method of batch and blast and sending out the same creative to a big group of customers needs to be supplemented with new innovations. Companies, like Paperplanes, who can begin to utilise creative relevance and personalisation to drive incredible responsive direct mail to customers will prosper.
We know that mail is staying at the customers home for up to 17 days, which is most likely why it is driving the impact and results that it can in a programmatic space. It’s the fact that, yes, it is relevant to personalised content [which can now be driven on direct mail] but it is also staying in the customers home and staying at the top of their mind.
How do you see programmatic infusing with more traditional channels?
Programmatic is still a young industry. It’s only really been going for 10 years and it has already gone through a lot of changes.
The honeymoon period has passed, whereby everyone was utilising programmatic and were excited about the opportunities that could come through automation with little understanding of impact.
There are a couple of different scenes on the horizon, one being first-party data and plugging it into re-targeting and how we plan and buy programmatic. This is going to be key moving forward.
What we will see more of, is the utilisation of programmatic capability and technology into traditional channels. Marketers will begin to demand a lot more measurement from their media buying. When fluid transparency and visibility issues are put aside, I think that is what programmatic allows. The ability to measure the impact that your campaigns are having.
'In your opinion, what has been the most cutting-edge application of programmatic media buying technologies in recent months?
Naturally, that would have to be one of our initial trials of our own recent programmatic direct mail campaigns that we have triggered through Paperplanes. We worked with one of the largest eCommerce retailers looking to complement their programmatic strategy who had never previously utilised direct mail. We followed up customers falling out of online customer journey with highly personalised content mailed out the next day. We doubled the typical response rates the brand sees from email and online retargeting leading to wider rollout across their portfolio of brands.
What would be the key piece of advice for brands/agencies in applying programmatic media buying technologies beyond the web?
First and foremost, we need to be utilising all marketing channels. Let’s not turn ourselves away from any opportunity that a marketing channel can give. I have heard a lot of brands talking about how they only execute digitally, which is all well and good but then they close themselves off to opportunities if they aren’t looking at the value that can be driven from the other marketing channels.
We all need to ensure our data is in a good place. This is going to be particularly relevant to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) around the corner. Everyone needs to ensure they have a good grip on their data, that permissions are in place and everything is ready to go for when GDPR actually hits
What should delegates take from your panel?
My big wish for the panel is that the delegates come away from it realising that programmatic applications are now available across the entire marketing mix. For too long the industry has worked in silos where inventory or capability is planned or brought in an isolated way. We now have the opportunity to plan programmatic applications across entire marketing portfolios.
Programmatic Punch is great as it brings together a vast array of brands, different skill sets and disciplines into the one place to discuss relevant trends and demonstrate what is possible. What I like about events like Programmatic Punch is the fact that it encourages us all to come away from the day to day and gain a bit of perspective on the wider trends in the industry.
For full artical go to – Punch
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