Bird of a Different Feather
The days of mass-mailing thousands of coupons to names on a purchased list, with no way to target customers or track results, may be over. Direct-response marketing start-up Dukky offers a pay-per-placement program that allows retailers to create direct-mail campaigns through an automated website. Results can be tracked in real time, and the campaign can be integrated with social, viral and other marketing efforts.
Launched last October, Dukky was conceived as an alternative to the low response and high cost of traditional direct mail marketing. On average, a direct-mail piece sent to a consumer costs $1.26, says Scott Couvillon, president of the New Orleans-based company. By comparison, he says, a Dukky custom mailer can send 10 to 40 different personalized offers that can be tracked at a cost of 4 cents per household, not including redemption costs.
Couvillon's background in advertising and branding helped him understand how brands connect with consumers. You can't just advertise ‘at' customers, he says. Marketers can use Dukky to build and maintain customer relationships through the platform's customization and feedback options. The company's media platform combines direct, online, point-of-purchase, social and data mining, all in one easy interface.
The process begins at the online activation center. When a customer receives a direct-mail piece with gift cards, he or she goes online to activate the cards by entering a personal URL (PURL). Retailers can track customer activity and gather feedback in real time through the option of asking a tailored list of questions. The feedback option allows brands to build those customer relationships. We can capture an amazing amount of data, Couvillon says.
Online customer activity is input into a dashboard that gives retailers real-time performance results and allows information to be downloaded into CRM systems.
Dukky guarantees a higher participation percentage than regular direct mailers. For example, a department store might do a solo mailer through Dukky, with gift cards for departments within the store. If the mailer is sent to a list of one million consumers, Dukky guarantees that 8 percent will go online and activate the gift cards, compared with redemption rates of 0.5 to 2 percent for traditional direct mail. The retailer can capture purchase intent on the Dukky site even if the consumer does not use the gift cards, Couvillon says.
Social networking options
A New Orleans mall recently tested Dukky with a mailing to 10,000 customers that included gift cards from 26 retailers. About 800 customers went online to activate the cards, Couvillon says, and of that number, about 350 people then went to the mall and visited a customer service kiosk to see if they had won a sweepstakes, [which was] part of the promotion. Others used the gift cards in mall stores.
Direct-mail recipients who go online also have the option of e-mailing offers to friends. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace become part of the marketing effort when customers choose to post a widget from the site to their personal page. Customers who are most interested in using the gift cards know other people who will be interested in the same thing, Couvillon says.
Retailers can test the waters in a co-op marketing direct mail piece by purchasing a gift card in a local or national mailer.
The company's guaranteed 8 percent response rate also provides a basis for future growth. The retailer will know that the 80,000 who go online are great customers and will understand which consumers in the audience were good leads to be contacted again, he says.
