A Year In Review: Direct Marketing at Strategic America

Published On: January 22, 2016 | Categories: Advertising and Marketing |

It’s that time of year where we review the last 12 months and make our plans for what comes next. The infographic below shows a snapshot of our year in direct marketing.

2015 Direct Marketing

Modern marketers don’t make fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants decisions, they act with data. After profiling one of our brand’s data, we found insights on their customers that weren’t being acted upon. So in 2015, we launched a special discount program when we learned that 40 percent of their business was coming from a key target sector. We expanded our targeting to hit more of this audience and revised our message and offer to be tailored for this group. The campaign brought in new customers resulting in an ROI double that of the standard message. In the A/B test, where we didn’t have target-specific creative, messaging or offer, the mailing performed worse than the control version, proving again that it pays to know your customers and bring a message that adds value to their lives.

In another client case, an insight that was discovered after profiling their customer data was the high index for local appeal. We changed the existing creative from to a local message from the in-market sales representative, messaging about the concerns that motivate that local group.

In direct marketing, testing is never done. One particularly heart-warming campaign this year was for a nonprofit, Wildwood Hills Ranch. They work with at-risk youth providing them with love, confidence and leadership skills. The success they have transforming lives is incredible and it was an honor to help them with their direct marketing. Their fundraising campaign delivered the best results in their 15-year history and resulted in SA and our client being named a finalist in DMA’s International ECHO Awards.

We had a lot of fun direct marketing this year, but SA is all about integration. So a special hats off to my colleagues in digital, social, traditional media and public relations. We are a great team and our integrated efforts show as we move the response and sales needle for our clients. We were challenged to measure those integrated efforts and can see the halo effect of the combined effort, but that is another article for another time.

Thank you for making 2015 a banner year. We can’t wait to see what 2016 brings. We welcome all 366 days.

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