Customer retention is a bit similar to a tightrope walk. We don’t mean it’s as dangerous and risky – we talk about the balance. One bad experience and your active customer may turn away from your business. That’s why you need to make sure your potential buyers are treated equally well across all channels. Omni-channel marketing can do that for you. With the synchronization of several marketing channels, you can achieve a significantly higher response rate. According to research, marketers that use three or more channels enjoy 90% higher retention than those that don’t.

But what has Inkit’s direct mail automation software to do with omni-channel marketing retention? Let’s start with a brief pre-history.

Frankly speaking, direct mail always used to be difficult to track and connect with other channels. The design, print, and mailing were too time-consuming to provide tangible retention results. Hence, marketers started to neglect mail in their retention campaigns despite its excellent response rates and personalization capabilities.

Introducing direct mail automation, Inkit revolutionized customer retention strategies and the marketing field in general. Now, mail marketing is a full-fledged element of any omni-channel marketing campaign. Many companies choose Inkit’s software to integrate direct mail with other channels and make it targeted.

But we know that actions speak louder than words. That’s why, after a concise overview of Inkit’s functionality, we’re presenting a case study. Learn how Bite Squad integrated Inkit with their CRM to reactivate customers and achieve an 18% redemption rate.

What Makes Inkit so Good for Customer Retention?

Effective customer retention is based on fast and open communication, flexible decisions, and advanced analytics. In other words, if you want to include direct mail in your omni-channel marketing campaign, automation is essential.

The functionality provided by Inkit allows you to run omni-channel retention campaigns based on direct mail. Thanks to automated printing and delivery, mail pieces end up in the hands of the right recipients within several days. You can get in touch with customers while they still remember about your brand and are likely to come back. In addition to that, Inkit can boost a customer retention strategy with:

• 1 to 1 personalization. Mail automation ensures ultimate personalization with variable data printing and trigger-based mailing. Thus, customers receive more relevant content and a better experience. Note that quality customer experience improves retention by 42.2% and increases cross-selling and upsales by 32%.
• Extremely quick setup. It takes just a few minutes to configure Inkit and start working on your first automated direct mail campaign. Therefore, if you need to immediately take steps to fight booming bounce rates, this tool is just for you.
• Broad variety of integrations: Inkit supports integrations with leading marketing platforms and CRMs, including Sailthru, Iterable, HubSpot, and more. You can connect mail with other marketing channels to synchronize all interactions with your customers.
• Advanced analytics. Integrated marketing technologies increase the productivity of analytics by 57%. Thanks to pre-built integrations and a well-controlled mailing process, you will be able to collect accurate information on your customers’ preferences in real-time.
• Drag-and-drop mail template builder. You can easily create any postcard you like with ready-made templates offered by Inkit (or upload your own designs if needed). This reduces mail production time and allows you to experiment with different designs.
• Automated printing and mailing. You will no longer have to find a separate printing service and manually take direct mail to the post office. Inkit organizes everything for you so you can get a bird’s eye view of your customer retention processes.

You will feel the positive impact of these benefits the moment you start using Inkit’s mail automation. According to recent research, a 5% increase in customer retention rates results in 25-95% profit growth. Thus, with the right omni-channel retention strategy, you will not only gain more loyal customers but also grow sales and make your business more profitable.

Bite Squad’s Case Study. An 18% Redemption Rate with Inkit’s Direct Mail

The achievements of your peers are more than an inspiration. They may serve as a manual on how to run a customer retention campaign. The marketing success of Bite Squad is a good case in point to show the remarketing potential of direct mail.

Company: Bite Squad

What they do: Bite Squad is a company founded in 2012 to provide customers with online-based restaurant delivery. They operate in 30+ locations across the US and continuously expand.

What problem Bite Squad wanted to solve: At some point, the number of dormant customers reached the critical threshold, and started to affect the productivity of the company. Since restaurant delivery services are a rapidly-growing and competitive field, customer loyalty is essential. Repeat customers turn into brand ambassadors that generate a significant part of income. Actually, loyal customers spend over their lifetime 10 times more than new ones. Without them, a restaurant delivery service has slim chances to withstand the marketing competition.

Realizing that, Bite Squad needed to maintain an effective customer retention strategy with high response and redemption rates. It was also necessary to integrate mail marketing with existing marketing practices.

Why direct mail for customer retention: Bite Squad had previously used direct mail as a customer acquisition channel, so they were aware of its high open rates. According to USPS, 81% of Americans look through the content of their mailboxes every day. In addition, people generally perceive direct mail as something more personal and are likely to check it. That was the main reason why Bite Squad decided to use targeted direct mail for their customer retention strategy.

Also, direct mail as a marketing channel is an excellent option for the food delivery industry since most people open the mailbox right after coming back from work. They are hungry and want a quick solution to satisfy their basic needs. The one who checks the mail is usually the one who chooses where to dine. Therefore, coupons, great deals, and other offers delivered at the right moment perfectly stimulate conversions.

Why Inkit’s mail automation tool: Before the cooperation with Inkit, Bite Squad ran mail acquisition campaigns that were “sluggish and manual”. It took too much time to launch mailing. In addition to that, massive batch sizes imposed a lot of limitations.

Inkit’s approach to mail marketing allowed Bite Squad to reconsider their attitude towards direct mail and start using it differently. Inkit provides an unlimited batch size and supports numerous integrations, which was just what Bite Squad needed for triggered mail.

Inkit for re-engagement mail:

Bite Squad integrated Inkit with their CRM to automatically send targeted postcards to customers that hadn’t ordered for over 2 months. The system detected these people and launched mailing to make unfaithful customers return.

Bite Squad created a special “miss you” postcard from scratch. An appealing design matched the brand style of the company and engaged customers with the phrase “It’s been a while. Can we buy you dinner?”

The results:

When the design of the postcard was ready and the integrations all set, Bite Squad sent the mail piece to some random customers to evaluate its effectiveness. Not surprisingly, many of them liked the offer, generating an 18% postcard redemption rate.

“We expected a moderate redemption rate on
our mailer… 18% was unbelievable!”
(Mike Black, Senior Marketing Manager for Bite Squad)

To read a detailed case study about Bite Squad’s success click here. Gain inspiration from their achievements and start making yours by starting to use Inkit right now!