Lists – Are You Hitting Your Target?

Yesterday I attended a great seminar put on by the SDDMA (San Diego Direct Mail Association). The presenter was the Director of List & Data Solutions for a local business here in San Diego.The focus of the event was how to maximize the most important element of your Direct Marketing campaigns…THE LIST. Whether you use one that is in house or you’ve purchased one from an outside vendor, about 40% of your success rate comes from targeting the correct demographic. Your campaign may have excellent copy, a clear call to action or even a great offer to go along with it, but if you have the wrong list you end up with ZERO response.  If you’re working with an in house  list, here are a couple of points to help you out.

• When registering a new client, gather as much information as you can
• Understand who you’re working with and profile your database
• Add more info and append demographic fields
• Rank – model and score your fields

One more thing to remember when using a house list…they will always change. People are constantly changing addresses, jobs, titles, etc…so keep them up to date. House lists are the most responsive…however, growth comes with prospecting.  What’s the key to prospecting…take a hard look at who your customers are now (who’s coming to your site, who buys, etc…) and go out and find more that are just like them!

 

Banks and Social Media

Social media has become a great customer service tool across many industries and banking is no exception. However, not all banks are so proactive. A recent study found that 40% of banks avoid discussing specific products and services in their social media efforts. But for banks that are more active in engaging with their customers over social media channels about their products,  a real-time communication can be helpful in addressing problems with customers. In other cases, a visible Twitter account can be a quick and easy first step in the customer service chain when people want to get specific information.

Many, if not all that use Social Media, see many of the same questions on Twitter that they get on typical channels such as telephone or in person, but they are starting to see social spaces as a potential channel of choice for customers to get the information they need. However, because of the sensitive nature of banking and the openness of social media, customers need to be careful when sharing information with customer service reps on social channels. On Twitter for example, its strongly recommended that in order to keep conversations private, use direct messages and from there a more secure communications channel (e-mail, etc…) to gather sensitive details.

Most banks are now seeing positive feedback on their Twitter accounts, etc.. compared to when they first opened  as credibility was an issue. So when it comes to banking, the more you help your customers via Social Media the more your legitimacy will grow.