From the category archives:

Direct Mail

New Paycare Website & Branding

by positiveadmin on November 14, 2010

For a few years now, we have been looking at the dated graphic identity of one of our most long-standing and valued clients. Finally we were tasked with rebranding Paycare’s print materials: to redesign layout and content in a more modern and cost-effective manner, in order to improve enquiry to conversion rates. The brief also called for a total website revamp. The original identity was created back in the day when Letraset and ‘camera ready artwork’ (ask your dad) were leaving the building and the exciting world of the Apple Mac came swaggering in through the front door. That must explain why we thought, “wow, look we can put graphics and type together – I know let’s stick a couple of apples onto the new Paycare logo”. What can I say, we were young.

Hindsight is a great thing. Remember when you first started out at work; the keenness, how precious the work was to you? Blood sweat, tears, then more tears. Finally your first successful project is complete. Then, many years later, you come across that early work and cringe in embarrassment at the blindingly obvious errors and ham-fisted techniques employed. It’s been a splinter under our collective skins – but at last we have taken a sterile needle and removed the irritation.

Simplicity
We did what we should have done the first time around – embraced simplicity. We reduced the colour palette and introduced modern typography. We finally got rid of the apples and devised a new strapline – replacing the vague ‘Here to help’ with a more specific ‘Everyday Health Cover since 1874’, with it’s reassurance of experience and tradition. We did not abandon graphics altogether. An apple tree and birds feature as visual signifiers throughout. Each is slightly adapted for the product range, so that the Paycare Family policy features nest-building birds, whilst the over 64s policy (Paycare Gold) features owls in the apple tree.

We re-examined every step in the encounter to conversion process and streamlined all paperwork (and online content) to help get prospective customers onto the road to conversion quickly, reducing the amount of work and number of steps required to get there. We changed paper stock, print processes, layout and folding regimes that added clarity, but saved on production costs.

Changes to the Website
Paycare’s initial website, in line with many at the time, has limited functionality. However, the possibilities to operate as a commercial tool were not as common back in the day. In order to compete, it was vital to rebuild the website around the core points, establishing consistency between print materials and online information.

  • We built in the same step-by-step conversion process as in the printed documentation and made the individual policies an easy to understand process, right through to paying online.
  • We de-cluttered and made sure that the website and print materials were integrated in function, design and appearance.
  • We introduced an intermediary service – giving third parties the opportunity to re-sell Paycare products in return for a commission.

As per usual now, SEO consultants crawled the content; keywords were incorporated rather than packed – so the copy amazingly still makes sense to a human reader. Video has been commissioned to cut down on explanatory copy and show visitors how to claim and download information and forms. The new website will be live before the end of the year.

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The West Midlands Caravan & Motorhome Shows

by positiveadmin on November 9, 2010

Suppose, like Salop Leisure, you are the regional Mr Big – with a huge selection of new and used caravan holiday homes, touring caravans and motorhomes. But there’s a recession on, and these products are high ticket. So be bold, we said. Host a big show at the beginning of May, to kick-start the season, and in October to bring it to a close. In order to increase variety, and add interest, invite outside exhibitors to the show – offering everything from spas and hot tubs to jet skis and boats, towing cars, 4×4 vehicles and much more.

You may think that it’s all a bit risky, with no guarantees. But experts say that, during hard times, the successful companies will be those who are lined up ready for the start of the race; raring to go on the B of the Bang. In fact the really smart ones won’t wait that long – they’ll go while the starter is still having breakfast, deciding which tie to wear for the race and wondering where he left his blanks.

Of course the key to success, for these shows, would be savvy marketing. Traditionally, you would blow a bit chunk of your budget on full-page local press ads. Only it’s a bit of a blunderbuss – everyone who reads local press will see it, but not everyone will be interested and newspaper reading is in decline. It makes more sense to go directly to motivated buyers – existing customers and people you know are interested.

So a mailer is ideal. But how will you know how many are coming and won’t the cost be prohibitive? Not if you use a combination paper mailer and e-marketing.

First stop, and always rule number one, is to work your existing customer base. It costs six times more to win a new customer than to keep (and do business with) an existing one. So each existing database customer received a personal promotional letter, inviting them to the show – with an attached eight-page glossy show brochure. To ensure that they felt valued, the invite also contained a VIP ‘credit card’ that entitled them to a £500 discount on purchases of new or used caravans, motorhomes or caravan holiday homes over the value of £5,000. The print run was 26,000 for each event.

Although entrance was free, we created a sense of urgency by getting people to download a ticket to avoid disappointment. That gave us a good indication of how many people were coming, as well as collecting valuable data capture information. A regional radio campaign then targeted the general public.

Finally, 4,000 follow up emails acted as a last minute reminder. It’s a great idea! It’s B for Bang bold. So how did it perform?

Well, we had lots and lots of complaints! The local tourist board complained about the sudden influx of accommodation bookings across Shrewsbury and Telford; reducing capacity for other visitors. Complaints came in about traffic levels on the roads around the showroom. We had complaints from the client about having to put aside an extra field for visitor parking overflow and from the staff who were run off their feet, both during the shows and from processing the unprecedented number of new leads and sales paperwork – and from dealing with all the telephone enquiries.

Complaints like that we can live with. Nearly 30,000 people attended both events. In a recession it’s a question of finding a positive angle. Do that and you too could beat the gun, get off to a flying start and leave the recession ‘surrender monkeys’ behind, still stuck in their blocks.

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Integrated communication helps to Drive JT Hughes forward

by positiveadmin on September 15, 2009

JT Hughes Drive Newsleter

Every year new car dealers are faced with a summer Catch-22. August is traditionally a peak time for car dealers, when buyers are eager to get their hands on the new 59 registration plates. August is also peak holiday time, when many of those eager buyers are toasting themselves a deep Ferrari Red on some over populated Costa. In order to overcome this problem, dealers seem instinctively driven to hurl a hefty wodge of their annual marketing budget against the (often fruitlessly) wall of tactical advertising. The idea is that, if they hurl enough moolah, some of it is bound to stick and, consequently, some of those buyers, not currently Ferrari toasting, will come to them with open arms – albeit very sore open arms. This is not strategy, this is desperation.

So what is the alternative? Do nothing we said. That’s right, sit on your tush and wait until September. What, you cry, and lose all those eager August buyers to other dealers? We said look, Mr client sir, the eager ‘must have an August plate’ buyers will be banging on your door long before the due August date, so all that expenditure will do is pick up a few waifs and strays – probably not much more than an average month. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR MONEY!

Instead we suggested piling the effort into end of August beginning of September. By then the lobsters will be back from the Costa, turning a nice chestnut brown, chilled and receptive to an informed soft sell and a good deal. So we put together an integrated campaign. Firstly we produced a newsletter ‘Drive’ with a difference – it looked good.

Some people have doubts about the usefulness of a newsletter in today’s marketing mix. If the entire newsletter consists of trying to offload ancient spares, ‘breaking-news-in-depth-features’ on young Jasper’s Advanced NVQ Diploma in ‘Head Gasket Maintenance’ and a few grainy thumbnail snaps of desperate to unload jalopies, that co-incidentally happen to be clogging up the forecourt – then they would be right. However, a well-designed newsletter (with strategic thought behind it) can help to differentiate a product or service from those of competing businesses. But that only holds true if it forms part of an integrated approach – a part, not the whole.

Drive magazine spread

Drive Magazine featured editorial DPS features (with large format photography) all about the benefits of the latest Honda, Mitsubishi and SEAT model ranges. Notice we say benefits, not features. The articles were an appraisal of the economic savings in running costs and taxation (and the environmental benefits) that new models offer over old. Building desire you see. What it didn’t feature were any prices, nothing, not a hint.

Now that their appetites were thoroughly whetted, the newsletter could move in for the kill – it contained an invitation to a Unique Car Event. This event contained an unusual proposal – come to the dealerships, find a new or used car, sit down with JT Hughes staff and make a realistic offer as a start point to negotiation. This had to handled very carefully to avoid the appearance of distress selling – which this most definitely was not. As further incentives, attendees were offered free ‘wash and vacs’ for their cars and those not interested in buying could have a half price MOT during the qualifying period. The idea was to drive traffic to the dealerships and get sales staff talking to customers. We encouraged the client to cross sell – meaning that sales and service staff would be mutually involved in negotiations, so if one side drops the ball, the other has a chance to catch it.

Of course, integration is the key to maintaining customer communication, so we backed Drive Magazine up with a targeted html mailer (worth collecting those email addresses) and finally placed a strategic full-page ad in the local press to target new business.

Drive magazine

Did it work? The numbers of time wasters were remarkably small, and once people had seen the cars, and a chance to haggle, a lot of deals were made. Don’t believe us? Well why not ask the client, Paul Tench, Dealer Principle of JT Hughes. “Although Drive Magazine is not designed as a tactical sales tool, the aspirational design and clear advice has gone down better than previous heavy-sell tactical newsletters. In fact we have sold an unprecedented number of vehicles as a direct result and that’s a real achievement in today’s difficult market. We couldn’t be more pleased.”

jt-newspaper-ad

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