5 lessons learned in Australian insert marketing

1. CREATIVE: Sometimes a thick and fancy brochure with loads of product images in it converts less good then a simple double-sided DL flyer. Our secret in designing DL flyers: Most of the time, less is more. Keep it simple stupid and try not to make your creative to text heavy, but focus on one or two key reasons WHY consumers should use your product. We even have one advertiser that gets great conversion rates by heaving us print a simple white peace of paper as a flyer with a black colored hand-written note on it and a number to call. Think outside of the box. Be different. Yes, colors and faces of happy people work most of the time! Try to avoid too many font types (3 should be enough including the small font for the fine print) and maximize the size of your key message. Don't forget your logo of course: There is no branding value without a logo plus a clear call-to-action is always helpful. We also advise our clients to change their creatives at least twice every quarter to keep consumers "entertained", since some consumers will receive more than one insert for sure over time. Most advertisers run dozen of different creatives at the same time... Use a graphics designer who really gets your customers and not just any random one you find on the web.
   
   
2. OFFER VALUE: We get the question a lot, if a $ offer works better than %... In the end the answer is only given through statistical relevant AB testing that we usually run for our clients, BUT after talking to hundreds of advertisers and consumers plus having run thousands of campaigns, I reckon a solid $XX OFF would always work. Simple formula: The higher the coupon code offer the higher the conversion. We ran $100 wine vouchers and guess what: They converted like crazy. But please do the math to see what you can afford, what cohort you are looking at and what the customer lifetime value is in order to calculate a proper $ off value that gets you a decent CPA counting in our premium CPMs as well with a decent ROI. A fancy $35 voucher is not worth much if your customers churn after redeeming it - especially in subscription-based business models. We also recommend to make the dollar value really large and visible taking up over 30% of the space of the front. Give it at least the dimensions of a dollar note. The more it feels like money the better. Please make sure your offer is at least valid for 3 month if you work with us, since the different distributors we work with all have different speeds in pushing out your parcel inserts and you would want to make sure that there are at least 2-3 weeks left in the offer time frame after the last parcel inserts left the warehouses.

1. MEASURING: We strongly advise to use unique and simple landingpage URLs for each insertion campaign also for AB testing purposes in order to measure the conversion from "inserts delivered" to "clicks" plus unique coupon codes to measure the conversion rate from "clicks" to "redemption" plus you would want to include some sort of a signup / opt-in on the landingpage to at least capture an email even without a code redemption, so that the conversions from "clicks" to "email leads" show you a good cost per lead ratio for your marketing spend as well. If your IT team is swamped, contact us and we will set it up for you.
   
   
2. AB TESTING: We often get advertisers that want us to run "AB tests" with creatives that look complete different, but what is the point, really? Of course we will find out which one converts better, but we wouldn't really be able to conclude why it worked better, if all elements of the creative were different. AB tests should have ideally only one dimension / element that differs and that is being tested in the test, e.g. different headline versions, different facial shot, different background color, different AUD value, but the rest needs to stay the same... The most popular insertion AB test we run for our clients is Distributor A vs. Distributor B with exactly the same flyer and that makes sense. That is really what we are here for anyways: To optimise the campaigns of the advertisers and to find the perfect distribution channel mix within our network, which brings us to the last and most important point:
   
   
3. DISTRIBUTORS: This one is huge and it is the key value proposition of ParcelPush... Which distribution partner to choose!? Which ones have competitive constraints? How to best match target demographics!? How to align the offer with the product shipped!? How to organise the logistics!? How to make the most out of the moment when the consumer opens the box? How to create a 1+1=3 effect using the advertisers strong brand and the brand of the distribution partner delivering the ad within their box!? For most of our large distribution partners such as Aussie Farmers, Kogan, THE ICONIC, StyleTread, Catch, OzSale, DealsDirect, Quickflix, Peppermayo etc. we have now created a branded premium envelope that carries up to 6 partner offers in it. On the outside it says something like this: "DELIVERING SHOE HAPPINESS PLUS A SPECIAL GIFT FOR YOU" or "EXCLUSIVE OFFERS FROM FRIENDS"! Customers love this extra treat and it reaches them in a very positive moment: When opening the box with a new product.Typically the advertisers share their product marketing strategy, client demographics and goals with us upfront and we then work out the ideal distribution mix to get the campaign or the AB testing started plus we then vary it over time. In the end however all of our distribution partners reserve the right to pre-approve any creative that goes into their boxes, which is very important despite us paying money to them. Most of the time, we get it right in one go though. Once we found the perfect match, our advertisers typically keep re-booking with us using campaigns in 50,000 increments. Although many choose to advertise with us throughout the whole year within their favorite distributors, we typically enforce a one month break after each campaign with a particular distributor, in order to keep the envelope interesting and engaging.

Originally published by our co-founder and director Bjorn on LinkedIn: ​​https://www.parcelpush.com.au/blog/how-to-design-the-perfect-flyer-with-a-voucher-offer-5-step-guide-with-tips-for-online-retailers