Response Magazine - September 2008

reaching the consumer and knowing when to show the casual and often humorous personality of the brand and then also being smart about providing the es-

sentials to convert them into customers.

“By the time that direct mail arrives at someone’s home or when they see our online advertising on a financial Web site, we’re hoping to contact the consumer in more of a conversion moment,” says Pieterse. “Simple information is perhaps more important than too much humor and fluff.”

Generally, 50 percent of ING Direct’s print marketing budget goes to direct mail. Direct mail is one of the company’s strongest DR tactics for acquiring new customers.

Measuring Success

Pieterse contends that measuring the success of branding and direct response efforts is as important as tying them together. And, contrary to what many believe about traditional advertising, there are ways to measure its performance.

“One of the neat things we’ve been doing with our online advertising, as we drive people to the Web site, is a media spot with our CEO about what the brand stands for and why it’s important to save your money,” says Pieterse. “We added that to one of our landing pages that linked from a banner ad and through that we saw a 16-percent increase in conversion rate. I don’t think people would normally anticipate or expect to see a video from a bank’s CEO on the Web site telling them about the brand, but clearly that’s worked extremely well for us.”

After an event or any activity geared toward brand-awareness, the conversion rates in the accompanying direct mail campaigns are the true indicator of how well the branding efforts performed. Or with video, how many minutes have people been viewing the content.

“The Web site really complements our direct mail,” says Pieterse. “Somebody feels a certain level of comfort with the information they receive in the direct mail, and then they come to the Web site and they’re like, ‘Yep, I got all the information I needed. I know I can get great rates; they have no fees on a savings account; I want to open up.’”