As we enter into 2017, I want to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. With a fresh calendar, it is typical to take stock of where you are and where you’re going.
At DMW Direct, this means taking stock of where the consumer’s head is. As a digital and direct response agency, clients rely on us to move prospects and consumers along their journey — beyond brand awareness to buy. With that context and in the tradition of New Year’s Recap and Resolutions, I’d like to share with you a few thoughts about trends and impacts we’ve seen in the past year and how we’ve prepared for 2017.
What are WE doing to lay a solid foundation to better reach and motivate consumers in 2017?
Expanding Digital Effectiveness – It likely comes as no surprise that we see the digital channel continuing to expand as an integral part of our direct response campaigns. New possibilities continue to crop up and, paired with the right strategy, can lead to great results for our clients. Our digital volume doubled again in ’16, and the DMW digital team continues to expand, including new leadership and several other members with various expertise. Our team is on the forefront of leveraging new technologies.
Continuing Cross-Channel Marketing Analytics and Insight – Over the last decade truly mining and exploiting actionable insights from data has grown in leaps and bounds in direct marketing on the whole … and within our agency walls. There is no longer any excuse to shoot from the hip or blindly in the dark. The ability to monitor, measure, and adjust campaigns in real time is at our fingertips. We work closely with our clients to focus on the right metrics and data to optimize their messaging and media mix.
Watching DRTV & Multi-Screen Video Strategy Evolve – Promoting your business through targeted DRTV ads in the right markets at the right times with a compelling message remains a highly effective tactic. Last year presented unique challenges with a few weeks of Summer Olympics programming as well as a fall flooded with presidential, state, and local political ads. Our team anticipated these hurdles and ensured that our clients’ campaigns ran smoothly, while pioneering interesting and cost-effective ways to amortize TV production time and effort across various web channels to boost not just consumer awareness, but also measurable response.
Working the Direct Mailbox – Direct mail remains arguably the only medium where the marketer still has control of sending a message — on your timeline — and knowing your target audience will see it and get hands on with it. People still have home and office postal mailing addresses. Like other channels, targeting the right people with a visually appealing package that contains a compelling offer still drives response. And it is an unequalled way to drive less-engaged prospects to a URL where you can move them along the journey.
Focusing on Healthcare and Insurance – As has been the case for most of our 30+ years, DMW Direct continues to serve many clients in the healthcare and health insurance industries. Particularly for annual and open enrollment periods, direct response marketing fits the bill when it comes to maintaining and growing their subscriber bases. While the status of the Affordable Care Act and related issues remain unknown, our approach on behalf of our clients is grounded in decades of experience and consumer insight that we continue to draw from as we strive to reach their goals.
Serving All in Need of Direct Response Marketing – Along with the health insurance client base, the DMW Direct team has served other financial and consumer service categories as well. Having cross-category exposure helps all our clients. Whether launching a new product or service, entering a new market, or trying new ways to grow your business, the marketing strategies we apply to elicit response should be considered as an alternative to or in concert with your traditional advertising and branding initiatives.
Executing Award-Winning Work – I continue to be impressed by the creativity and innovation displayed by the DMW Direct team. I make no apologies for humblebragging — our work is of the highest caliber and is validated not only by the results we achieve for clients, but recognition by our peers.Growing our Team – Of course none of our success would be possible without the right team members. As I look back on the past year, we’ve been able to hire some very talented people — especially on our digital team — and promote and develop others who continue to push us forward and challenge our agency to fulfill our potential for ourselves and our clients.
What are YOU doing? It’s never too early to start making 2017 a profitable year!
If you’re like most of our clients, your goals for the year likely include the following:
- Connecting more deeply and broadly with your existing customers or members to maintain and nurture your relationship ensuring that they stick with you.
- Expanding the products and services you provide to current customers to increase your revenue per buyer.
- Growing your active customer or member list by connecting with new prospects or reconnecting with former customers.
- Optimizing your current campaigns to achieve all of the above for lower costs.
What changes and new challenges will we face throughout 2017 and beyond? We can all guess. But whether it’s status quo or drastic upheaval, I’m excited by the opportunities before us and our clients and am extremely confident in the DMW Direct team to continue to provide innovative solutions that yield strong results.
Whatever your business and the challenges and opportunities you face, we are happy to help you achieve your goals. If we might be of help, please let us know.
I wish you a bright and prosperous year ahead!