When the City of Gladstone needed help building awareness and meeting membership goals for their new Community Center, they came to Mail Print. After listening to Gladstone representatives, Mail Print helped them determine the correct target audience for the Center and built a database of 5,000 high-potential consumers.

Because the Center was competing with the Holiday rush for their target audience’s attention, Mail Print created highly-personalized direct mail pieces with custom imagery and text to capture the attention of recipients. The first postcard direct recipients to a Personalized URL to sign up for a “Hard Hat” tour of the Center with Santa.

Online at their Personalized URL (PURL), recipients were greeted by name, provided more information on the Center, and encouraged to RSVP online for a tour. This online RSVP led to increased attendance of the tours, and helped the Center’s staff prepare in advance for the traffic volume.

The second postcard of the campaign was also personalized with the recipient’s family name, Personalized URL link, mileage to the Community Center, and an attention-grabbing personalized image. Mailed approximately two months later, the card invited the targeted audience to the Community Center’s grand opening with online RSVP.

At the second PURL, online responders were greeted by personalized imagery and text, provided more information about the Center and grand opening, and encouraged to sign up for specific demonstrations and events. The PURL also allowed the Center to capture email addresses for follow-up and future marketing campaigns.

Overall, the multi-channel campaign Mail Print created for the Gladstone Community Center resulted in 5% of recipients purchasing memberships, well above the client’s expectations and industry standards.

Mail Print’s Personalized Calendar was created to demonstrate the advances in interactive and personalized direct marketing, and how the two can be used together to increase response rates and recipient engagement. The multi-channel campaign included a personalized mail piece, microsites (PURLs), emails, and the resulting calendar.

The first touch of the campaign was a personalized mail piece that explained the personalized calendar to the recipient, and invited them to visit their Personalized URL microsite to customize the calendar. The mail piece was personalized to each recipient with their name, their PURL link and messaging relevant to their status as a client or prospect.

When recipients went online to their Personalized URL microsite, they were directed through multiple options for customizing their calendar’s imagery, choosing holidays to include and adding personal birthdays, anniversaries and other events. In total, 15.9% of recipients visited their PURL, with 87.8% of all visitors completing their calendar.

For recipients who did not visit their PURL, or had only partially-completed their calendar, Mail Print sent several personalized reminder emails that directed recipients to their PURL. These reminder emails had click-through rates of 20% and 26%.

Once recipient responses were gathered, the personalized calendars were produced and delivered within five weeks. The 31-month “flip” calendars featured personalized images that incorporated the recipient’s name into the design, and the monthly calendar highlighted the recipient’s special holidays and dates.