Track ROI on Mailers With Unique URLs
Direct mail can be a surprisingly effective marketing technique, even in the digital age. When you combine direct mail with customization of messages, you have a fantastic chance to engage customers and drive new conversions. Even if direct mail reaches customers, most consumers prefer to conduct shopping in an online environment. So how do you get customers from paper to your website? Moreover, how do you track when you have successful conversions?
The Customer Journey from Mailer to Website
Whenever customers are interested in a product or service, one of their first instincts is to Google it. After all, Google is free, brings up results in seconds, and is easily accessible thanks to cell phones. They type in a few keywords, hopefully, find your website in the results, and click on it. Simple, right?
The customer may find this to be a seamless process, but there are problems from the merchant’s perspective. First, by conducting a Google search, your potential customer needs to take another step to find your product. This opens the opportunity for him or her to become distracted. Maybe another message will catch the customer’s attention or send your potential customer to a different web page (one that isn’t yours).
The issues with these points are obvious: In order to optimize conversion rates, it’s essential to take away as many distractions as possible. The more steps customers need to take to make a purchase, the more likely they are not to bother. Requiring too much effort can kill conversions.
Even if customers do end up on the correct product or service page, you have no guarantee they’ll make purchases. If they do, you’ll likely have no way of telling if a conversion happened because of your direct mailer. For all your site tracking is concerned, the customer made it there through Google. When you can’t track from where conversions are coming, you can’t make informed marketing decisions moving forward.
How to Use Unique URLs to Better Create Conversions and Track ROI
The Google method creates uncertainty for searchers when it comes to reaching your website and tracking conversions, so you need a new strategy that will help you achieve both objectives. Unique URLs are the key.
Set Up a “Friendly” URL
You need to include a URL in your mailer, so customers know exactly where to go, rather than letting Google serve as the gateway to your site. Since we don’t have a way to click on a link in a printed message, you need a “friendly” URL. This means your URL is easy to remember and easy to type; the less complex it is, the higher the chances of customers typing it in and ending up on your product – no Google necessary.
Create a Custom Landing Page
You could easily link potential customers to an existing page on your website, but it won’t do much good if they’re interested in making a purchase or learning more about the advertised service in your mailer. Instead, you want them to land on a page that specifically targets conversions, providing the information your customers need. So because only people who receive your mailer will have access to this URL, you can easily track which conversions are from your mailers, making it easy to determine accurate ROI.
Customized landing pages are essential to better conversions through mailing campaigns and tracking the resulting ROI. When you follow these tips, you can bring digital and physical much closer together, allowing for an effective multichannel campaign.
Sources:
http://www.boingnet.com/2014/06/25/landing-pages-key-direct-mail-success/
