Tag: digital credit marketing

Direct mail is not dead, but it's 2017. Financial services companies need to acknowledge there might be other ways to deliver credit offers and capture consumer eyeballs. There are multiple screens competing for our attention, including one of the originals - TV. Advertising and TV have been married forever, but addressable TV allows marketers to target on a much more sophisticated level. Welcome to credit marketing in the digital age. To help financial services companies understand the addressable TV channel, Experian marketing expert Brienna Pinnow answered the following questions in a short interview. What is addressable TV? Addressable TV is an amazing 1-to-1 direct marketing capability. To put it simply, addressable TV is the ability for an advertiser to deliver a TV ad to a specific household. From a consumer perspective, that means even if you and your next door neighbor are watching the latest episode of The Voice, you may see an ad for a mini-van while your neighbor sees an ad for upcoming one-day sale from their favorite retailer. With addressable TV, brands can define their target audience based on 1st, 2nd or 3rd party data (like Experian’s). With the help of satellite and cable companies, they can deliver a personalized, measurable experience. This is an exciting departure from the way that TV advertising has been planned and targeted for nearly 70 years. Instead of focusing on the program, marketers can now focus on the person. Addressable TV makes reaching a precise audience – the same way you would with a direct mail piece or an email – a marketing reality.  How long have marketers been leveraging addressable TV? Experian has been an pivotal player in the development of the addressable TV space. Since the first addressable TV trials back in 2004, nearly 13 years ago, Experian has provided the audience targeting data and privacy-compliant matching capabilities that make addressable TV possible. The past 3 years, however, have demonstrated unprecedented, hockey-stick growth in addressable TV. In 2016 alone, the volume of addressable campaigns doubled from the previous year accounting for nearly $300 million spend.  That trajectory remains the same in 2017 and beyond. So why are we seeing this growth now? Here are a few reasons addressable TV is continuing to grow… Scale: Millions of households can now be targeted using addressable technology, and the footprint continues to grow with smart TVs and additional cable operators. Data: As organizations put data at the heart of their business, addressable TV enables them to infuse their most important customer information into the targeting. Education: Agencies, data providers, and TV providers have invested time educating brands on the process and power of addressable TV. And now, advertisers are becoming more experienced at making this a consistent part of their marketing plan. Accountability: You’ll be hard pressed to find a marketer that doesn’t have to demonstrate ROI on their marketing campaigns. The measurement capabilities that addressable TV provides adds a layer of accountability and insight that was not previously possible. Technology: Experian has developed an audience management platform, the Audience Engine, which makes addressable TV possible in a matter of clicks. In the past year alone, our platform has distributed over 1,800 audiences for addressable advertising campaigns. What types of companies have been utilizing addressable TV? Have you seen many financial services companies test this channel? The early adopters of addressable TV were primarily automotive advertisers. Compared to other verticals, auto advertisers still spend the largest proportion of their budgets across TV. For that reason, they know it’s a necessity to see if their dollars are actually driving sales for their big-ticket items. Addressable TV solves that problem for auto advertisers. In a DIRECTV campaign leveraging Experian’s automotive data for audience targeting and post-campaign sales reporting, one major auto OEM saw a 26.2%  lift in sales for the advertised model compared to the control group. In the past few years, Experian has worked closely with advertisers across verticals – from retail to travel to finance – to launch addressable campaigns. Financial services clients particularly find Experian’s financial related segments, such as income or net worth, to be accurate and powerful in creating qualified target audiences that improve campaign performance. I’ve read that millennials are abandoning cable and TV providers in favor of services like Hulu and Netflix. Does this mean the market for addressable TV will shrink in the coming years? There is a segment of consumers who are abandoning traditional cable services. However, this doesn’t mean they are abandoning content. In fact, content consumption is at an all-time high with offerings from Roku, Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, CBS, and beyond. All this shift in behavior means is that the definition of TV is becoming more fluid. “TV” doesn’t have to be a big screen sitting in your living room; it can be a laptop on a red-eye flight. And from a marketing perspective, the concept of addressable, 1-to-1 targeting is already moving into some of these products and services. The footprint of addressable TV will only continue to rise as consumers stay connected to the content they love. How can companies measure the success of utilizing addressable TV as a channel? Not only does addressable TV provide laser-targeted ad delivery, but it also opens up measurement capabilities that were never possible for TV advertisers in the past. Traditionally, TV audience measurement has focused simply on eyeballs and not revenue impact, with little insight into how TV advertising converts into sales. The primary source for audience measurement in the TV world has been program ratings and expensive brand studies. With addressable TV, that story is changing. With companies that collect second-by-second viewership data linked to households, marketers now have the ability to tie this data back to their online and offline sales. Experian is pivotal in making closed-loop TV reporting possible. As a data and matching safe-haven, we link together the viewing information from the target audience with the sales data provided by the advertiser. The end result is a privacy compliant report that clearly demonstrates the impact of the campaign on the target audience. Did the targeted audience visit a bank location? Email customer service? Sign up for a new account? Spend a certain amount? These are all questions our TV attribution reporting answers for clients. If a company wants to begin marketing in addressable TV, what is required in terms of set-up? Addressable TV may sound new, exciting or even complex. But it doesn’t have to be. Getting started is as simple as defining the target audience. Decide whether you would like to leverage your own CRM data, a custom model, third-party data or a combination of these data sources. If you’re still not sure where to start, ask yourself a very simple question, “Who am I sending a direct mail piece or email to in the next month?” There’s your audience. Better yet, you will be amplifying your message, reaching the customer with a consistent message and meeting them wherever they are. After you’ve determined who you want to target, a matching partner like Experian can work with you to show you the reach of your audience across TV providers. You’ll finalize your budget, creative and media plan while Experian distributes your audience to the selected media destinations. Before you know it, your campaign will be live, and reaching your target audience whether they’re watching Shark Tank or Sharknado. When the campaign wraps, you’ll be on your way to measuring results like never before. Are there any additional trends you see emerging in the addressable TV space? The future of addressable TV is related to both the targeting and measurement capabilities. More advertisers are working with Experian, for example, to launch coordinated campaigns. That doesn’t just mean launching a digital campaign and TV campaign at the same time. It really means targeting the same exact people for the digital and TV campaign. We like to consider this a "surround sound" approach where the customer or prospect experiences a consistent message across channels. As for measurement, Experian is working closely with advertisers to explore the power of mobile data. Recently, Experian partnered with Ninth Decimal and DIRECTV to incorporate mobile location data into the post-campaign measurement process for Toyota.  The results proved a 19% lift in dealership visits for those exposed to the campaign. This is an exciting development because this approach can translate well for any other advertiser who wants to measure metrics like location visitation. If you’d like to learn more, check out our Addressable TV whitepaper.

As lenders seek to enhance their credit marketing strategies this year, they are increasingly questioning how to split their budgets between digital, direct mail and beyond. What is the ideal media mix to reach consumers in 2017? And is the solution different in the financial services space? Scott Gordon, Experian's senior director of digital credit marketing, recently tackled some of the tough questions financial services marketers are posing. Here are his responses: Q: We live in a world where consumers are receiving hundreds of messages and offers on a daily basis. How can financial services companies stand out and capture the attention of the customers they wish to engage with relevant offers? A: When it comes to the optimal marketing media mix, there is no “silver bullet.”  It varies from product to product. The current post-campaign analysis is showing us that consumers react positively to coordinated multi-channel messaging. We’ve seen studies showing that marketers can see up to a 30% lift in sales by combining email with social media, for example.  This makes sense, when you look at how consumers engage through devices. We are no longer a single channel culture; we check Facebook while watching TV, listen to podcasts while checking our email, etc. Consequently, marketers have had to adapt their campaign strategies accordingly – and this starts with the organizational structure. Far too often we see silo’ed groups responsible for disparate media verticals. For example, a company may have a direct mail group and a digital marketing team, and then (in extreme cases) outsource television to one agency group and social media to another. Aligning these groups and breaking down the barriers between the groups is a critical first step toward building a true multi-channel campaign strategy. This includes addressing budget concerns that are inherent with a culture where the size of a budget is tied to job security and corporate status. Aligning campaigns and finding the perfect cross channel market mix is much easier once you’ve broken down internal barriers and encouraged marketing collaboration. Q: What are some of the new best practices financial companies must embrace in 2017 in order to improve their marketing efforts? A: Thanks to tremendous efforts from industry leaders,  we can now utilize regulated data with the same proficiency that they’ve been executing campaigns using non-regulated data. This presents unique challenges, as the industry races to get up-to-speed on new capabilities,  take best-in-breed practices and apply them to the world of regulated campaigns. We’re seeing tremendous demand to combine programmatic advertising with people-based advertising, with cross-channel campaigns spanning mobile, video, social, and addressable TV. Measurement and analytics must play a large part in these strategies. While the industry hasn’t achieved true cross-channel measurement to identify a consumer’s path to purchase across multiple devices,  it’s getting closer, thanks to technology advances. Q: Is direct mail dead? How should financial marketers be using direct mail in 2017? How can it best be combined with digital? A: Direct mail is certainly not dead. It has its place among a media mix that continues to grow as new advertising technologies come to market and are adopted by consumers. Will direct mail’s influence diminish in the future? Possibly. At Experian, we are focused on making sure that our advertisers can reach consumers where they spend time, when they are most receptive to receiving messages, and most importantly in a cost-effective manner. So no matter where consumers shift their focus in the future, we’ll be able to support comprehensive targeted advertising campaigns. How can digital be best combined with direct mail?  We’ve seen encouraging results in retargeting direct mail with digital credit marketing like email and display. With that said, we haven’t seen a silver bullet solution, and we’re still advising our clients to put a heavy focus toward “test and learn” in concert with comprehensive campaign measurement and analytics protocols. Q: What are the advantages to serving up a firm offer of credit to a consumer in a digital format? Are consumers ready to embrace this type of delivery in the financial services space? A: The advantages of serving up a firm offer of credit to a consumer in a digital format are similar to those benefits for “traditional” digital marketing. Lower cost, more measurement capabilities, and greater flexibility to optimize campaigns are just some of the benefits. Early indications show that consumers are very receptive to digital credit marketing offers. It provides them with offers in the channels in which they spend time, in a  consumer friendly manner which offers them numerous paths in which they can have a voice in the messages that they receive. Q: Some say digital credit marketing should largely be directed to Millennials? Do you think other generations are ready to embrace this type of digital messaging? A: We don’t view digital credit marketing as an exclusive offering just for Millennials. It is a holistic consumer offering – applicable to all generations as our parents and grandparents make the move to new channels such as addressable TV and social media. Need more info on Digital Credit Marketing? Learn More

When you think of criteria for prescreen credit marketing, what comes to mind? Most people will immediately discuss the risk criteria used to ensure consumers receiving the mailing will qualify for the product offered. Others mention targeting criteria to increase response rates and ROI. But if this is all you’re looking at, chances are you’re not seeing the whole picture. When it comes to building campaigns, marketers should consider the entire customer lifecycle, not just response rates. Yes, response rates drive ROI and can usually be measured within a couple months of the campaign drop. But what happens after the accounts get booked? Traditionally, marketers view what happens after origination as the responsibility of other teams. Managing delinquencies, attrition, and loyalty are fringe issues for the marketing manager, not the main focus. But more and more, marketers must expand their role in the organization by taking a comprehensive approach to credit marketing. In fact, truly successful campaigns will target consumers that build lasting relationships with the institution by using the three pillars of comprehensive credit marketing. Pillar #1: Maximize Response Rates At any point in time, most consumers have no interest in your products. You don’t have to look far to prove this out. Many marketing campaigns are lucky to achieve greater than a 1% response rate. As a result, marketers frequently leverage propensity to open models to improve results. These scores are highly effective at identifying consumers who are most likely to be receptive to your offer, while saving those that are not for future efforts. However, many stop with this single dimension. The fact is no propensity tool can pick out 100% of responders. Layering just a couple credit attributes to a propensity score allows you to swap in new consumers. Simultaneously, credit attributes can identify consumers with high propensity scores that are actually unlikely to open a new account. The net effect is even higher response rates than can be achieved by using a propensity score alone. Pillar #2: Risk Expansion Credit criteria are usually set using a risk score with some additional attributes. For example, a lender may target consumers with a credit score greater than 700 and no derogatory or delinquent accounts reported in the past 12 months. But, most of this data is based on a “snapshot” of the credit profile and ignores trends in the consumer’s use of credit. Consider a consumer who currently has a 690 credit score and has spent the past six months paying down debt. During that time, utilization has dropped from 66% to 41%, they’ve paid off and closed two trades, and balances have reduced from $21,000 to $13,000. However, if you only target consumers with a score greater than 700, this consumer would never appear on your prescreen list. Trended data helps spot how consumers use data over time. Using swap set analysis, you can expand your approval criteria without taking on the incremental risk. Being there when a consumer needs you is the first step in building long-term relationships. Pillar #3: Customer profitability and early attrition There’s more to profitability than just originating loans. What happens to your profitability assumptions when a consumer opens a loan and closes it within a few months? According to recent research by Experian, as many as 26% of prime and super-prime consumers, and 38% of near-prime consumers had closed a personal loan trade within nine months of opening. Further, nearly 32% of consumers who closed a loan early opened a new personal loan trade within a few months. Segmentation can help identify consumers who are likely to close a personal loan early, giving account management teams a head start to try and retain them. As it turns out, many consumers use personal loans as a form of revolving debt. These consumers occasionally close existing trades and open new trades to get access to more cash. Anticipating who is likely to close a loan early allows your retention team to focus on understanding their needs. If you don’t, you’re competition will take advantage through their marketing efforts. Building the strategy Building a comprehensive strategy is an iterative process. It’s critical for organizations to understand each campaign is an opportunity to learn and refine the methodology. Consistently leveraging control and test groups and new data assets will allow the process to become more efficient over time. Importantly, marketers should work closely across the organization to understand broader objectives and pain points. Credit data can be used to predict a range of future behaviors. As such, marketing managers should play a greater role as the gatekeepers to the organization’s growth.

As we enter 2017, it’s no surprise people are buying and selling online and using their mobile devices more than ever. At the close of November, Adobe released its online shopping data from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the overall holiday season. According to the data, the major November holiday shopping season was driving close to $40 billion in online and mobile revenue alone — a 7.4% increase year-over-year! Every year, we see tremendous growth in spending through online and mobile channels. Interestingly, this pattern is not just indicative of consumer spending and overall market confidence. The consumer pattern also illustrates a clear change in communication preferences — with the ever-present shift toward digital. In general, consumers are interacting more and more through both online and mobile channels for all of their personal needs, including banking and financial services; and the lending community is anxious to continue connecting to consumers where they need them most. No longer is digital communication the “cool thing to do,” but rather it is essential. While Experian’s lending customers still find tremendous success in direct mail prospecting, many financial institutions are preparing to implement an enhanced acquisition strategy in 2017. This strategy includes multi-channel prospecting initiatives to present consumers with preapproved credit offers. In addition to direct mail, our customers are evaluating digital channels such as email, mobile, and other online channels to improve the overall consumer experience and responsiveness. In the latest Digital Banking Report, published in July 2016, email is the top channel financial marketers are turning to for cross-channel marketing after the initial onboarding process (as illustrated in chart 49), but you can see social media and retargeting are rising in the ranks. In Sept., 2016, Experian was named one of the top 100 most innovative companies for a third year by Forbes magazine. A key part of that success was driven by investments in Experian’s Data Lab and Experian Marketing Service’s Audience Engine, which is an audience management platform that changes the way the advertising industry buys and measures media. We are focused on meeting our customers and the consumer where they need us most. Bottom line? As you refine your goals for 2017, the financial services sector should dig deeper when making connections. They must reach consumers where they want to connect – and that means a successful credit marketing strategy will be one that includes both direct mail and digital communications. A new year is the perfect time to re-evaluate those same-old, same-old marketing and acquisition tactics. We're not saying you need to abandon direct mail, but it is certainly time for lenders to complement their direct mail efforts with a savvy digital plan as well. Resolve to do it better in 2017.

Experian shares five trends and twists coming over the next 12 months, that could push new boundaries and in many cases improve the customer experience as it pertains to the world of credit and finance.

You know what I love getting in the mail? Holiday cards, magazines, the occasional picturesque catalog. What I don’t open? Credit card offers, invitations to apply for loans and other financial advertisements. Sorry lenders, but these generally go straight into my shredder. Your well-intentioned efforts were a waste in postage, printing and fulfillment costs, and I’m guessing my mail consumption habits are likely shared by millions of other Americans. I’m a cusper, straddling the X and Millennial generations, and it’s no secret people like me have grown accustomed to living on our mobile devices, shopping online and managing our financial lives digitally. While many retailers have wised up to the trends and shifted marketing dollars heavily into the digital space, the financial services industry has been slow to follow. I’m hoping 2017 will be the year they adapt, because solutions are emerging to help lenders deliver firm offers of credit via email, display, retargeting and even social media platforms. There are multiple reasons to make the shift to digital credit marketing. It’s trackable. The beauty of digital marketing is that it can be tracked much more efficiently over direct mail efforts. You can see if offer emails are opened, if banners are clicked, if forms are completed and how quickly all of this takes place. In short, there are more touchpoints to measure and track, and more insights made available to help with marketing and offer optimization. It’s efficient. A solid digital campaign means you now have more flexibility. And once those assets start to deploy and you begin tracking the results, you can additionally optimize on the fly. Subject line not getting the open rate you want? Test a new one. Banners not getting clicked? Change the creative. A portion of your target audience not responding? Capture that feedback sooner rather than later, and strategize again. With direct mail, the lag time is long. With digital, the intelligence gathering begins immediately. It’s what many consumers want. They are spending 25% of their time on mobile devices. Research has found they check their phones and average 46 times per day. They are bouncing from screen to screen, engaging on desktops, tablets, smartphones, wearables and smart TVs. If you want to capture the eyeballs and mindshare of consumers, financial marketers must embrace the delivery of digital offers. Consumer behaviors have evolved, so must lenders. Sure, there is still a place for direct mail efforts, but it would be wasteful to not embrace the world of digital credit marketing and find the right balance between offline and online. It’s a digital world. It’s time financial institutions join the masses and communicate accordingly.