Circulation Management
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CIRCULATION MANAGEMENT is our specialty. Our veteran marketing and circulation managers have worked in other direct marketing companies prior to joining LENSER. They have then received extensive initial training after joining LENSER and regularly receive on-going in-service training. Our services are particularly advanced because of the sophisticated techniques that we have evolved - resulting in better response rates for you at lower advertising costs. Since we are working with so many diverse companies, the learning curve of our collective staff is much more accelerated than can generally be achieved with an in-house staff.
Our clients have confidence in us! Because of this, LENSER presently has over 70 clients on monthly retainer who use our Circulation Management services both in place of, and in addition to, having their own circulation staff. These companies range from small or early stage businesses to large, mature companies and well-established businesses seeking to expand their market share.
We will perform the following tasks to get you profitable results:
Customer Relationship Management
We understand the trigger mechanisms to obtain maximum return on investment (ROI). At LENSER, we work with our clients to develop appropriate contact strategies concerning both customers and prospects using all available marketing channels. Wherever possible, the frequency and nature of contacts is tailored to the interests and responsiveness of list segments either through traditional Recency-Frequency-Monetary (RFM) analysis, modeling, or other individual customer data.
Merge-Purge
Proper use of the merge-purge is a lost art. LENSER has developed sophisticated techniques to successfully reactivate older house names, score various files, and optimize outside lists. Only names with the highest response potential are mailed. By crafting the segmentation and priorities in the merge-purge, we can identify the interaction between different groups of names. Different types of multis will be isolated for repetitive mailing. LENSER will also create detailed instructions and circulation plan spreadsheets, and supervise the process for each mailing during the year. Following the merge, we will carefully select from the merge output those names to be mailed, assign key codes, and facilitate the delivery of mail files to the printer. We do it all!
Acquisition and Promotional Planning
Our team of seasoned circulation managers understand the complexities of customer acquisition and applying the proper promotional plan to go with mail strategies. As appropriate, we will design a testing approach to fully leverage prospecting response. We will review sources of new-to-file names and the ability of each to provide adequate buyers in the future. Major categories to be examined are:
- Reactivation of inactive customers and non-responsive inquires
- Conversion of inquires
- Referrals from existing customers
- Result of direct mail prospecting efforts
- Result of Internet prospecting efforts
- Retail store sales
Cooperative Databases
Working closely with various co-op databases, LENSER is expertly skilled at developing appropriate prospect models. We adeptly and skillfully design multiple models to identify highly responsive names. Moreover, LENSER will craft the merge-purge to track the interaction of various co-op names with other co-op databases and outside lists to carefully identify those names with the highest response potential.
"Private Exchange" program
Many of our clients have agreed, on a reciprocal basis, to allow each other's names to be placed into merges. The names actually mailed or remailed are counted for exchange purposes. Only client files that are initially deemed promising for cross-mailing are tested and used, just as any other outside list. Again, the merge is used to create various types of multis - in effect, identifying the best of our clients' names for initial and subsequent mailings.
Response Analysis
Following each mailing, LENSER will analyze the response rates of each list segment to determine those segments that met contribution goals. We will analyze response based on the keycodes collected when orders are placed. At the end of the season, we will also supervise a matchback of orders to the mail tape at the data processing service bureau that can provide a more in-depth analysis. This has become increasingly necessary with orders being received via the Internet.
Financial Forecasts
After the initial year of mailings under our supervision, LENSER will provide a detailed “roll-up” at the beginning of each year that projects response and expected sales to be generated by each mailing along with expected advertising expense as a percentage of sales. Such roll-ups are usually performed using less granular segmentation than used in the actual circulation plans. These projections can assist in budget, inventory, and operational planning.
A Cutting-Edge Team Approach
Our clients benefit from the collective wisdom of our entire staff working with many small- and medium-sized direct marketing companies. We have a collegial atmosphere and constantly strive to improve our ideas and techniques; techniques that work with one client are, as appropriate, applied to other clients. Thus, the learning curve is much faster than could be achieved by one company working in isolation.