By Jonathan McGrew, EDP
The trip to the mailbox can be an interesting experience. For anyone that says print is dead or direct mail isn’t being sent, you obviously haven’t seen my mail slot after returning from a week on the road. The thing that strikes me about the communications I get is the lack of relevance. Going back to my last article, Data, Data Everywhere and Not a…Actually, A Lot to Leverage, we know organizations that create communications for consumption can get data, but my mailbox shows we are still failing at using it.
I find our current state slightly ironic because this is a conversation we have been having for almost a decade—and probably longer outside of my experience in the print industry. The challenge seems to be good data and the fierce global competition. Follow me for a minute here. Think about your work life and the processes you follow. Now ask yourself how many times you have felt the need to, or been pressured to, execute without all the pieces of the target audience puzzle?
Here are some classic examples from my mailboxes that were awaiting me after my last trip:
Extend your car’s warranty: This would be interesting except it won’t expire for three more years, which means they don’t know me or my car.
Trade in your Jeep Wrangler: So this would be an interesting trick since I trade that vehicle in to the family of dealerships asking for the trade. I sense a lack of data connection from dealer to dealer in the same company.
Register for our conference: Well, again, this would be okay if I wasn’t already signed up as the main contact for our company sponsorship.
I wish I could say I haven’t committed these same sins in the pursuit of getting to market. The reality is that the competition is fierce…or at least it is perceived as such. And perception is reality in most high-speed office environments. Here is the thing, our customers (and we ourselves) expect relevancy. We want the information we are looking for in the right time, format, language and detail for the buying stage we are in. So as a communicators, how do you make sure you are executing and keeping up with the Jones’ while still providing the best experience for your recipients?
As painful as it sounds, you will be ahead of the game if you stop, research, organize and then execute. In many cases we are pushing things out at high speed because we feel we have to in order to grow the business.
Consider this: what if you took extra time and saw a double-digit increase in engagement. Knowing your target audience is key and it will show in the results. And you won’t have print people like me complaining that you don’t know me.
But what if you don’t know your target audience? My suggestion is to own up to it. I don’t like people assuming they know me and know what I want to buy. If you truly don’t, I would much rather get an offer that says, “Great opportunity to protect the investment in your 2013 Dodge Charger.” As opposed to the, “Hurry your warranty is expiring and this is your last chance to extend your warranty.”
I would love all my offers to be relevant and something I actually want, but this is the real world and I would settle for logical and sensible offers even if I don’t respond to them today. The big difference is if you don’t know me, but you are smart about your message my perception of your brand will be more positive as will my recall.
Food for thought as you hit the button on your next print, email or multi-channel campaign.
Jonathan McGrew
spent his formative years being exposed toXplor and the Enterprise Output Management & Customer Communications Management (CCM) industries (read high-volume transactional printing). Today, Jonathan is Marketing Communications Manager at Crawford Technologies and responsible for Worldwide marketing. His experience spans data management, branding, print (hardware, software & design), graphic design and marketing communications with specialization in Business to Business (B2B). Jonathan completed his MS in Marketing from the University of Colorado at Denver in December 2013 and was awarded his EDP certification at the Xplor Conference 2013.
