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DIRECT MARKETING WORKS – AND THAT’S OFFICIAL!
How effective is Direct Marketing? What delivery channel works best? Which consumer groups are most likely to respond to DM... and how?
These are key questions for DDL Group customers and research statistics published by the Direct Marketing Information Service (DMIS) make very interesting reading indeed.
Direct Mail Opening Rates
· 87% of Direct Mail is opened.
· 85% of Direct Mail sent to females is opened and 90% sent to men.
· There is no significant difference in opening rates by age or social class.
Direct Mail or Online?
· Consumers see DM and online advertising quite differently, but think that they work well together.
· Consumers want to engage with DM and online, so it’s not about substituting one for the other.
· Even the most habitual internet users still want to receive DM – yet again demonstrating the undiminished effectiveness of traditional hard copy.
· Higher value customers prefer to engage with DM and online.
· DM leads to action and has a higher sales conversion rate than online.
· DM and online advertising support each other, and messages work best when both mediums are used together.
Information Source: Direct Marketing Information Service (DMIS) |
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Client Case Study |
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Inverawe Smokehouses
THE CLIENT Operating from the family estate on the banks of the River Awe in Argyll, Inverawe Smokehouses was set up in 1974 by Robert and Rosie Campbell-Preston to provide a specialist mail-order service for gourmet smoked Scottish fish and game. From very small beginnings supplying family friends, the business has grown into a major concern over the years and today offers over 80 products, supplied both as individual items and in hamper-style selection boxes.
THE CHALLENGE By 2001, demand for Inverawe’s traditionally smoked products had grown to such an extent that Smokery staff were finding it difficult to cope with the sheer volume of telephone orders. The logical solution was to appoint a Contact Centre to handle the overflow of incoming calls ... but who? The success story of Inverawe Smokehouses was not just about the superior quality of their products. Equally important was the personal touch – the vital ingredient of warmth and understanding conveyed in all their dealings with their customers, making each and every one feel at home as part of the Inverawe family with trust and superlative service paramount as hallmark brand values. It was therefore essential to choose a Contact Centre that could guarantee the same welcoming approach as the first point of contact for both new and existing customers. That’s why they turned to DDL Mail Order.
THE DDL SOLUTION Our first step was to initiate an intensive training programme for Contact Centre staff, including familiarisation visits to the Inverawe site to develop a Contact Centre picture first-hand understanding of the company’s products and processes, their customer base and the Inverawe customer service ethos. This has proved invaluable for our staff, especially as Inverawe provides a wealth of information to help customers get the very best from their products – storage, recipe ideas, cooking tips, serving suggestions and so on – making it essential for front-line DDL Contact staff to have a thorough working knowledge of Inverawe products and customer requirements in terms of added value services
We initially set up an internal database for the capture of telephone orders. As sales volumes increased, however, we were able to take advantage of Inverawe’s decision to invest in the Elucid Mail Order System, logging directly into their new system for capture and processing with instant access to full customer histories from previous orders to current order status.
THE RESULT Although our relationship with Inverawe began with a brief to handle overflow incoming calls only, our partnership developed so rapidly and so successfully that we were asked to take over all their inbound sales calls in 2004 resulting in a 12% increase in orders processed over the subsequent 3 years. We now also look after the majority of their customer care traffic, an additional responsibility for DDL which helps alleviate the burden on Inverawe staff during busy peak periods such as the Christmas season.
Our commitment to building ever closer working relationships with our clients has been key to the success of our partnership with Inverawe. There can be no better evidence of this than the ongoing client support provided by the dedicated DDL Mail Order Account Management team, offering a single point of contact for all management communication. This includes details of upcoming marketing plans and sales forecasts, allowing us to adapt staffing levels to cope with predicted upsurges in call flow. Nothing is overlooked – even down to keeping a contingent eye on weather reports to make sure deliver timings can be kept on schedule, always a vital consideration when dealing with fresh produce. It all adds up to a highly rewarding way of working for DDL ... and, most important off all, it works for Inverawe Smokehouses too!
“The priceless support we receive from DDL Mail Order has made all the difference in freeing up time for us to concentrate on production, fulfilment and marketing to grow the business. Their skilled and knowledgeable staff are a delight to work with and their operators show the greatest respect for our customers at all times. We very much look forward to building on our business relationship with DDL in the future.”
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Autumn 2008 |
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Issue 1 |