Late in 2020 the team at Excel Digital set about to prepare a new business campaign. We wanted to target business owners of highly successful real estate franchises to book a first meeting. We’ve known for a while that combining direct mail with email marketing is a powerful strategy for generating marketing cut-through. But even we were surprised with the success of this one!
The concept
The concept was to create a personalised appraisal package for real estate business owners. In doing so we used what they do to describe what we offer. Everything was personalised from the appraisal box itself down to the appraisal letter, marketing flyers and notepad inside the box. We chose to start with physical media, as email marketing alone was never going to achieve the cut-through that we needed.
The objectives
- Get noticed
- Book multiple meetings
- Have fun and be cheeky
The campaign
The personalised appraisal boxes were delivered via courier to recipients. One week after the packages were sent, each recipient received a personal phone call from a salesperson following up if they received the box. The package provided a great reason to communicate. One week after the phone calls were made, we followed up with an email marketing campaign from the salesperson to each recipient.
The results
- 91% open rate on email marketing campaign
- 75% click-through rate
- 18% of recipients booked a first meeting
- We were noticed – every recipient had kept the box
Outtakes
- Humour is great – be cheeky and you’ll get noticed
- Speak to your audience in their own language – it builds empathy and shows you’re interested in them
- Combining marketing channels in the right way can get phenomenal cut-through
Direct packaging – a new marketing channel
The biggest outtake for us was that print is a fantastic way of achieving marketing cut-through in a cluttered, digital world. Beginning with print provided a great reason to follow up and have a conversation: “did you get the box?” While ‘direct mail’ is an age-old concept, ‘personalised direct packaging’ is relatively unexplored. While more expensive to execute, recipients are more likely to engage when they have a personalised package delivered to them via courier rather than a stuffed envelope arriving in a crowded mailbox. ‘Personalised direct packaging’ is much more likely to end up in the hands of right person and achieve the cut-through that marketers are chasing.
Get in touch
If you’re interested in knowing more then please reach out and get in touch. Digital printing allows for small runs of personalised direct packaging. It’s a new channel well worth exploring.
Phone: 04 499 0912
Email: info@exceldigital.co.nz
