The Wonderful World of Analytics

Synergy Vx gives you personalized data from each prospect allowing you to custom tailor their experience to your business.

Find Your Best Markets!
See where your campaign is having success and where it is not
saving you resources, so you can concentrate on your "Hot Spots". 

Pick up new leads!
People will be able to share your offer with their friends through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. 

Watch in real time!
As people navigate through your site. You'll get their inquiry instantly, so you can respond quickly and knowledgably. 

Get higher conversion rate and increased ROI! 



An understanding of how your customers and prospects respond to your marketing is critical to improving your business. At Synergy Direct Response, we offer a wide range of data services to help you get the most out of your direct marketing campaign. To track your direct marketing campaign we offer Vx software.

With Synergy Vx you track your campaign in real time and get feedback direct from your prospects! Once your prospects fill out your offer, Vx organizes it into one neat package for you! 

People will appreciate your fast turn around time and well-informed sales team and you'll see the results in your conversion rates!

Design your campaign around specific qualifiers for your business as well! Add rules so that you send timely reminders or a personalized note for a geographical region or specific salesperson.

Vx also lets you track who landed on the PURL, but did not complete your offer. This way you can send them a follow up reminding them of your opporunity and remain engaged with your prospects.

 

Vx analytics gives you all the information you need, from the source of the lead to conversion rates and everything in between. All neatly organized and in terms you don't need to be a data expert to understand.

With Vx you can track anything and get the information and results you are looking for from your marketing campaign!

By: Will Pearlman

Converting Low Activity post Offices

Really Getting to Know Your Customers: Targeting Your Best Customers to Attract Your Best Prospects!

Selling Happiness is Easy
When You Know All The Things
 That Make Your Customers Happy

The oldest idea in advertising is: When your trying to sell something, you aren't selling that product, you are selling the happiness that product engenders. 


For decades, marketers have used the RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) analysis as the standard to determine their most valuable customers. However, many marketers fail to consider RFM in their prospecting campaigns. Sure, you don't have exact figures on specific people, but you do have information on your current clients. The best of which, are undoubtedly similar to the ones you want to attract. What makes the RFM data unique is the lack of speculation - there are no survey opinions or general sales ideologies. RFM data is based on actual transactions. Proof of who buys what, when, and how often. So if you know who your best customers are, find out who they REALLY are!

Go out of your way to learn how your best customers operate
in their daily lives, then you'll understand
how the customers you want to attract live as well

RFM is a great predictor of your customer retention and sales, but it doesn't tell you the key ingredient for bringing in new customers; the reason why these particular people are buying your product. Not YOUR reason for why, but THEIR reason. Even in modern times many marketers still forget to consider consumer psychology in their prospect marketing strategy. This is most surprising since we are ALL consumers everyday. Even if your job is to design advertisements, companies are still advertising to you!

We are all different and unique in subtle ways,
but overall, many of us are pretty similar!

Everyone makes purchases for different reasons. Figure out who your best customers are and why they buy your product. Once you determine who these current customers are, I'd bet you there are more people like them out there and they are either unaware of your product, or simply have not tried it yet. Expand your customer base within a demographic with which you are already having success and your R.O.I will jump with an influx of consistent, high density purchasers. 

Why would you pay $300,000 for this Aston Martin Virage
when many $40,000 cars have almost the same features?
Because driving a Virage isn't about function,
it's about lifestyle!

You know who your best customers are and what they buy. And if you don't, then you are in trouble! To maximize your marketing strategy you need the whole picture. Who are your best customers and what do they do, independent of whatever capacity they use your product or service? The value your customer receives from your product or service is the image you want to create. You must paint your product's valuable contribution to your customer's happiness on the canvass that is their lives. Then, sell your product's role in your current customer's lives to people with similar lifestyles. The more complete your understanding of your best customers, the more likely you are to attract people like them and increase the R.O.I for your advertising campaign.

Interested in Reading More from Synergy? Sign Up For Our Newsletter By Clicking Here

By: Will Pearlman

Who's the Brain of Your Company? No, Of Course It's Not Your CEO, It's Your Database!

Sorry CEOs, data is the brains, not you!
We know that breaks your heart!

As much as we would like to think the brain of a company is its employees or the CEO (or at least the CEO would like to think that), they're not. Employees are definitely the heart and soul, but the brains of any operation is the database. From your current clients to your prospecting lists, the better organized and thorough the information in your database, the more effective and efficient your company will operate.  

Many executives underestimate the importance of understanding and maintaining an in-house database. But, how can you project your company's potential sales growth and new avenues for expansion without detailed, accurate, and current information on your clients and prospects? You can't. Moreover, if your just buying lists from data companies, don't you think similar businesses might have the same lists? . . no matter what the data company might claim. You want to keep your data in-house so that your list is unique.  So here are some tips for organizing and managing your database:

Educate All Your Employees

Education is always the key!

Your number one priority should be to train and educate ALL your employees how to access and manipulate data as well as ensuring they consistently and accurately keep up with all their records. Make some knowledge of databases a requirement for most positions; especially sales, marketing, and administration. If you train your sales staff to maintain their own records, then your information will be more accurate and more consistently updated. When 20 sales people take the extra few minutes to update their records daily, your data will always be more accurate, more up to date, and less time consuming than just having one "data guy" update everything once a week or month. 

Know What You Want to Know 

Before Searching

Find Your Criteria, Then Check Them Off Your List
As You Add Data!

Before beginning to gather information, you need to determine what information you want. What does your business need to know about your prospects in order to effectively market to them? Even if you are updating an old list that has been neglected, ask yourself what information is valuable on that list as is, what is worthless information, and what would be useful new information to add as you update the list? Additionally, what new prospects are in need of your product or service and where can you find them? There are endless criteria and information out there so this part really comes down to your business and market, but as logic will tell you; always establish what you are looking for before you start looking!

Be Too Specific

The Beauty is in the Specific Details!

When building a database, the more specific your qualifiers the better. Modern database software has so many variables for searching and sorting lists, so break down your qualifiers as best as you can, be specific. Don't just describe a business as "hotel." Is it a resort spa? A casino? A motel? Bed and breakfast? Do they have special services or themes? Are they year-round or seasonal? How many suites do they have? What is their annual sales volume? How many employees do they have? Think of any categories that might help your business market more effectively.

Standardize All Your Lists

Between multiple lists, try to maintain titles that can be applied to all the people or businesses to which you want to market, regardless of industry. Have a master list of current clients and clients you would like to gain. Then create smaller, specific lists for various campaigns. When making data lists use broad titles and then describe each individual entry using specific qualifiers. 

Ok, so we don't like it when people are all the same,
but the more similar data sets are,
the easier they are to analyze!

Sometimes, all you need in a title is "description."  Then, use more precise qualifiers; windows and blinds, restaurants - bar/late night, resort - ski and spa, etc . . . You want most titles to fit for any business your company might market too. Although for some specific lists this won't always work out, cogent headers are extremely helpful in organizing data. Additionally, while you want your qualifiers to be specific, they should be standardized. Most database programs sort lists based on keywords and won't always pick up on related words. For example, if your making a list of hotels, use one category for casinos. Don't list some as "casino" and others as "gambling resort."

Establish and Maintain Format

Keep You Data List Polished and Professional,
It Should Look Like Your Office,
Not Your Teenage Son's Room!

Make sure everything in each list is entered in the same format. It is critical, especially with very large lists, to keep everything uniform. I.e., don't put some phone numbers in using one format; (555) 555-5555, and others in as; 555-555-5555. Likewise, addresses are notorious for having this problem on data lists. Before building or reorganizing a database, figure out where you want things like suite numbers, phone extensions, or name prefixes. Proper format will increase efficiency while updating data and allow for easier access to information. 

Once You Make It Clean, Keep It Clean

If your list is already out of hand, it is definitely worth investing the time to clean it up. The US Postal Service reports that approximately 2% of a typical data list deteriorates each month on average. That means in a year about 25% of your data is worthless if you don't maintain it. If you are marketing to this list, think of all the money you are wasting each month marketing to businesses or prospects that don't even exist anymore! 

Your Data is Just Like Your Laundry,
Keep it Clean!

Re-establish a baseline so that you can become more productive, rather than just let the mess continue to grow. You don't just let the laundry pile up endlessly do you? Of course not, you wash it (hopefully)! But, the longer you wait to do a wash, the longer doing laundry will take you. And, in the meantime, your running out of clean clothes! Just like the laundry, if your not constantly cleaning your data list, you'll eventually run out of worthwhile data. So try to avoid letting it get out of hand!

Just Like Your Bathroom,
Your Database Stinks When It Isn't Clean!

There are many companies out there who will maintain and clean your data lists for you, so if doing this in-house isn't in your budget, consider outsourcing this important job.

Customer databases are a time consuming and endless endeavor to build and maintain in-house. But, it is absolutely essential for any business to succeed.General lists purchased from data companies are never as good because they are rarely unique. A well-designed and maintained database is the foundation for strong customer retention and expanding your client base into new markets. 

Even if you need to shout it,
make sure it is known, DETAILS MATTER WITH DATA!

In short, database management comes down to one basic cliche rule: Attention to the details. A responsible, well-organized company understands the importance of details in establishing a culture where all employees understand and contribute to the database. If you can infuse this culture in your business at the database level, it will expand into all aspects of your business, and you definitely be pleased with the results!

Interested in Reading More from Synergy? Sign Up For Our Newsletter Here
By: Will Pearlman

Read!

We love bloggers around here, and we couldn't resist sharing these juicy blogs.

Finding Your Way Through the Analytics Mire

By: Dominique Ellis

QR codes, PURLs, direct mail, print ads, PPC ads, banner ads, Facebook shares, tweets; the ever-growing list of innovative ways to reach new customers is enough to make any marketer scream.

Cross-channel marketing is quickly becoming the norm in the industry. It’s no longer enough to send out an email blast and expect results. Brands and businesses are doubling and tripling up on marketing mediums used in a single campaign. While it’s important to touch customers on multiple fronts, let’s not forget the most important part of any cross-channel marketing campaign — the analytics. Read More...

__________________________________________________________________________________

How To Use Mobile QR Codes to Drive Engagement

by Matt Krautstrunk on May 6, 2011 · 7 comments

in Marketing

QR codes are one of the hottest topics in mobile. They are becoming more popular with marketers, and in turn, consumers are catching on. According to a survey from MGH, mobile consumers are responding to the influx of popularity with QR codes, “32% of smartphone users say they have used a QR code and 70% say they would be interested to do so, either for the first time or again.”  Currently marketers are using QR Codes to offer promotional discounts (53%) and enter sweepstakes (33%), however QR codes have a place in social to drive engagement. Read More...

Email Marketing: Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

Tweet
The dawn of the digital has keep marketing experts well... busy to put it lightly. New methods of communicating seem to arrive everyday, and sometimes its a struggle just to keep up, but since its beginnings, Email has been one of the worlds favorite ways to keep in touch. It is available virtually all over the globe, and most people have instant inbox access on their cell phones. Because it is a quick, easy, and cheap way to broadcast a message to an audience, email has become a virtual Pandora's box for marketers, filling up inbox's and clogging spam filters everywhere. With all of the ads, spam, and general "bad emailers" recipients have gotten good at using opt outs, spam filters, and bounce backs leaving marketers and business owners all but banished from electronic mailboxes everywhere. Consumers are on guard against the over-communicators, unsolicited, and poorly planned, but that doesn't mean that marketers should abandon the hopes of reasonable response rates on marketing emails, it just means that marketers need to be clever and more effective in planning. 

The 5 W's of Effective Email Planning

Just like when writing a paper in school, it is important to consider Who, What, When, Where, and Why to send an email campaign. To "Batch and Blast" or "load and Send" email campaigns simply doesn't work any more, email marketers need to strategize and keep in mind the goals of the company's overall marketing strategy and then utilize email marketing as a means to achieve them.

5 reasons PURLS are great (and 2 reasons VX PURLS are better still)

Tweet

The world of marketing is changing at light speed right now, with the the constant evolution of social media platforms and viral sharing all this technical mumbo-jumbo can be dauting for a marketer, not to mention customers. That is why we love PURLS so much at here at Synergy. Yes, they are a little more technologically advanced than say a simple postcard, but there is nothing overly complicated about it. Must be why campaigns with PURLS typically see a 30-60% increase in response.

5 reasons PURLS are great (and 3 reasons VX PURLS are better still)

1) They are still "cool" without being scary. PURLS do a great job of incorporating social media and other forms of online marketing into a mail campaign, but they will not intimidate users that are.... less than technologically savvy. While QR codes are great for this also, they can be intimidating to a prospect who has never seen one before, and can be a big detourant for someone that might have previously redeemed your offer. Almost everyone knows what to do with a URL, but  actually having the prospects name in the URL will catch their attention because that is new and a little exciting. Not to mention, adding the prospects name will make them feel a little special. People like a little personal attention.

About Synergy Vx Software