Make your new year’s resolution within marketing to make better use of your first-party data. The ways you can leverage your customer data are only limited by your imagination. If you need assistance coming up with ideas for maximizing your first-party data, you’re in the right place. Here are some ways you can use first-party data to strengthen your direct mail marketing campaigns:

Use First Party Data for Better Segmentation & Personalization

Your CRM data is one of the most effective tools for segmenting your audience. Let’s say for instance that you’re responsible for the marketing efforts of an ecommerce brand and you’d like to send postcards to leads that are in different phases of their buying journey. In this case, you could use your CRM data to segment your audience of leads into two lists: one list contains leads that have joined your mailing list within the past year. And the other contains leads that signed up for your loyalty program within the past year.

Direct Mail Manager’s integrations with Zapier and multiple CRMs make creating and mailing these segments easy as 1-2-3. And with the platform’s variable data printing capabilities, you can personalize your postcard to include details like a recipient’s name, specific products they’ve indicated interest in, or price points. Providing these audiences with personalized outreach could be just what it takes to earn that first sale. Personalization could result in better campaign results than you could have ever hoped for. 

Get Creative With Your Methods for Collecting First-Party Data

Your imagination isn’t needed solely for leveraging your first-party data. You’ll also need your creativity to collect more customer data. A few methods for first-party data collection includes:

• Offer a Discount for Signing Up For Your Mailing List:
  

Suppose you’re just getting started and you don’t have much customer data to work with. In this case, providing a slight discount as an incentive for joining your mailing list could be just what it takes to begin collecting more first-party data. And you never know how many of your leads need a simple nudge in the form of a discount to make their first purchase.

• Solicit Reviews About Your Product, Services & Processes After Sales:

Since ratings and reviews are a common step along the buying journey these days, you’d be remiss not to ask for them after a sale. Soliciting reviews also enables you to collect valuable data regarding the products your audience loves most. And moving forward, you can include those reviews in other marketing materials.

• Rely on Multiple Channels for Soliciting Customer Details:

Relying on just one channel for gathering customer insights is a huge mistake. That’s because your audience is active on a variety of platforms. In order to ensure they don’t miss out on an opportunity to sign up for your mailing list or loyalty program, spread the word about it on as many channels as you reasonably can.

Leverage Your First-Party Data to Make The Buying Process Easier For Recipients

One of the most fool proof ways to increase your revenue is to make the buying process as simple as possible for your leads and customers. That’s especially true when it comes to getting first-time customers to make a second purchase. Suppose you’d like to conduct a postcard marketing campaign geared at winning back lapsed customers. Your first-party data could be used to point these recipients towards products they’ve ordered in the past.

That’s because you can combine your first-party data with Direct Mail Manager’s variable data printing capabilities to feature products that they’ve bought in the past. Sending a postcard with a photo of this product (or products), along with a link or QR code that takes recipients directly onto that product page could go a long way in shortening the sales cycle and boosting your sales. The less work your customers have to do in order to complete a purchase, the better. And as an added bonus, leveraging either method also provides you with valuable tracking insights. 

Use Variable Data Printing to Address Concerns About Specific Products or Services

Many of your potential customers may have concerns about your products or services that can be cleared up within the matter of minutes. Including customer ratings and reviews on your postcards could be the perfect method for answering the questions your leads or customers may have about your products or services. And Direct Mail Manager’s variable data printing capabilities enable you to include reviews about specific products on your mail pieces. Suppose you’re hoping to inform your audience about a selection of a new pizza option at your restaurant. 

In this case, including reviews about the new dish on your postcards sent to a mailing list of customers that have ordered similar pies in the past could spark enough interest among your audience to get them to try it. That’s especially true if your postcard contains reviews detailing how much diners enjoyed it. The strategy of including reviews in the postcard and mailing it out to customers that have ordered a similar style pizza in the past goes much further than sending it to everyone too. That’s because without segmenting that audience, you may wind up sending the mailer to recipients that hate pizza, which wouldn’t be the best way to spend your marketing dollars. Providing reviews about your products on a postcard and sending it to an audience that’s indicated interest in similar products or services is among the most effective methods for leveraging your first party data you’ll find.

Begin Making the Most of Your First Party Data by Automating Your Next Campaign With Direct Mail Manager

Allowing your first-party data to go to waste is among the worst mistakes you could make. Leveraging your customer data to create more personalized marketing campaigns could breathe new life into your customer acquisition and retention efforts. Begin making the most of your first-party data today with a Free or Pro Direct Mail Manager account. Getting your first campaign started couldn’t be easier. To begin mailing, create an account or schedule a complimentary demo at your earliest convenience.