When Tyler Baesman received a letter from his car dealership asking him to lease another car when his current lease expired, he was a decidedly underwhelmed.
The president of Baesman — which assists clients in building and nurturing personal relationships with their customers through CRM, printing, fulfillment, and loyalty programs — says he has leased the same car six times in a row. Still, the black-and-white letter did little to inspire him.
“I have a substantial emotional connection with that brand of car and the style,” he says. “But that letter wasn’t impressing me. So the fact that I’m considering not selecting that particular car again is significant.”
Situations like this affirm the reasons behind Baesman’s decision to invest in new technology referred to as “digital web printing.” This addition means Baesman can offer their brand clients the ability to print large quantity, variable color mailers at a similar or identical price to those done with a black and white mass printer.
Digital Web Printing Technology
“Digital web printing technology has been around for about a decade, but the problem before was the quality was never as good as what we could print on our litho presses,” Baesman says. “It also couldn't print on a coated stock, but now it can. The technology has come up to speed where you can now have large-volume complete personalization that increases your speed to market.”
Rachel Iannarino, Vice President of Marketing and Client Experience at Baesman, says it is essential for brands to personalize their direct mail pieces now more than ever, and with this technology, Baesman is poised to deliver on that for their clients.
She says statistics by the Association of National Advertisers show that 90% of direct mail is opened by consumers, compared to only 20% to 30% of emails. As email becomes increasingly oversaturated, Iannarino says, direct mail remains a highly effective channel for reaching customers.
The ability to now personalize those pieces of direct mail means engaging customers via this channel is a better option than ever before, Iannarino says.
50% Uptick in Marketing ROI
“Loyalty is all about personalization,” she says. “Recent data tells us that brands who get personal are seeing a 50% uptick in their ROI, just by using those personalized messages. And three out of four consumers tell us they'll only purchase from brands if they’re recommending products based on past purchase history and preferences. Customers don't just prefer that personalization; they're expecting it.”
Baesman says research has shown that 72% percent of people will not open something that's not been personalized directly to them. In the case of a brand doing a mass mailer without personalization to 1 million of its top customers, he says, that means 720,000 of those direct mail pieces are not even getting opened.
“That's a tremendous loss,” he says. “Let's just say postage is 24 cents each — plus the printing — and you're talking about spending $300,000, and you're barely getting to 25%.”
Baesman points to his company’s continued focus on investing in technology – both in direct mail and in its loyalty platform — to power what they can deliver on for their brand clients, because that seems to be what is holding back some brands from fully utilizing their data and executing at a high level on marketing opportunities in real-time.
At Their Disposal with Information on the POS System
“From my point of view, I think most of the retailers struggle with technology and the speed that is needed,” he says. “When I walk into a brand, I want them to know how many rewards points I have, I want them to offer that information to me, and I want that to be right at their disposal with information on the POS system. Getting that information in real-time is what most retailers struggle with.”
Iannarino says a lot of brand marketing departments are siloed to some extent, and it becomes hard to get their arms around all of the data, the information, and the nomenclatures.
“For us as marketers, we're already so busy, and it can feel overwhelming to try to get that data in an understandable and actionable format,” she says. “The challenge for marketing departments is how to understand all of that data and how to use it to power those personalized engagements with the consumer.”
Iannarino and Baesman say it starts with brands looking at their existing data and then choosing the right partner that can help them create a program that can take them to the next level.
“You'll hear us talk about direct mail being the next wave of digital, and it's really about looking at your current program,” Iannarino says. “You may be doing emails and text messaging programs, but this is a next-level extension of that. Only 20% to 30% percent on average of email is open, whereas direct mail is 90% opened. This super-hyper personalized direct mail program is going to have a much higher chance of reaching customers and engaging them to create that emotional connection, and keep it going.”
Visit www.Baesman.com