Personalised DM significantly more likely to succeed

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Brand Republic 02-Mar-09, 12:35

London - The majority of consumers are between five and ten times more likely to respond to properly personalised marketing offers compared to standardised or superficially personalised communications, according to research out today.

According to direct marketing specialist GI Direct, more than 70% of UK adults take more notice of mail that is aimed specifically and accurately at them.

The study showed the passion for personalisation was particularly prevalent in Scotland and the South, while conversely people in East Anglia and the North West appear more "jaded and less receptive" to high levels of targeting.

However, GI Direct reported that women are particularly keen on personalised mailers, with 78% saying they would be significantly more likely to respond to such mail compared to just 65% of men.

Patrick Headley, sales director of GI Direct, said the research gave "hard evidence of the critical importance of targeted direct marketing in the current recessionary climate".

Headley said: "The fact remains that the majority of organisations are not using more than superficial levels of personalisation in their direct marketing.

"Marketers need to examine the level of personalisation generally applied in their direct marketing campaigns, in order to ensure, at the least, they are matching competitor standards, and at best exceeding the market norm in order to improve campaign responsiveness and subsequent sales."

Comments

Omar Terywall - 02/03/2009

I will second that statement as anything generic posted through my letterbox is binned without a second glance. I work in the DM industry and very rarely supply \(or buy) data without a named contact unless specifically requested by a client to include both. The same applies to my personal email address as well. Providing there is a good subject line there, the majority of the emails received which have been personalised, will always catch my attention. B2B mailers have a slightly different impact as I personally tend to give most e/mailshots a chance however, it's those with my full name that I place on top of the file.

robin caller - 02/03/2009

Not the least bit surprising - We have known for a long time that email open rates and click rates are increased significantly when the email arrives with a user on the same day the signed up to a brand offer. It's obvious - if Johnny signs up for your "free magazine" offer on a Tuesday morning at 10.00am - then all the brand knows is that Johnny signed up Tuesday morning at 10.00am. Why would they think he would be more receptive on a Friday at 4.pm than he is at 10.00am on a Tuesday? Of course, to provide personalised messages, you would need to know this about Johnny - for which you require a professional lead management platform - to augment the encoding phase of the CRM program. Much more on this is available at www.goallover.com - in the lead generation section