How to use this tool for your next digital marketing campaign
A storyboard is a sequenced graphic organizer for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture or other interactive media. How about for planning a direct marketing campaign?
Much like a movie, you start with brainstorming your concept. What do you want your players to do? Be specific. Think along the lines of, “We want our players to subscribe to our email marketing list and receive a coupon for a free buffet when they come in and join our players club. If they are already members, let’s give them a bonus freeplay coupon!”
With your plan in mind, start laying out your storyboard for your campaign. Draw it out like a flow chart with lines connecting the sketches.
Let’s start with a postcard.
Make a sketch of your basic concept with the details. Add a note to use personalized graphics and offers, or at least the player’s first name to inspire a sense of belonging.
PURLS and QR Codes
If your marketing department or partner has the ability to generate PURLS, put a QR code and PURL on the piece leading to a personalized landing page for email sign-ups. This not only adds to the thrill of discovery, but the addition of text like “offer expires” or “limited time” also generates fear of missing out and encourages web visits. Note this on your sketch.
When players scan the code or type the personal URL, it takes them to their landing page. Address them by name and ask them to sign up to receive emails and texts from you. It is very important to state clearly that they are opting-in to receive marketing messages from you! A check box with an “I agree” message is usually the best way to secure this approval.
Landing Page
Make a quick sketch of how you think the landing page should look and note your personalized elements. Draw a line between your mail piece sketch and your landing page sketch.
Congratulations! You are storyboarding your campaign!
Next, send an offer when they sign-up.
Of course, you want to offer them something when they sign up on the landing page, so this is where the buffet and freeplay offers come in. Make the offers on the landing page variable and catered to the player. In our marketing campaign example this would mean presenting something like:
“Hi FIRSTNAME, Sign up to receive emails from us and receive VARIABLE COUPON OFFER”
Where the offer is either a free buffet when they join the players club or $XX amount of freeplay for your existing players club members. Coded directly into your data and generated uniquely for each player, you can offer whatever you wish! Note this for your landing page.
Send them a thank you email and generate a personalized coupon with their offer when they sign up! Your marketing department or partner should have the ability to automatically trigger this. When they hit submit on the email sign-up form, the player is taken to a personalized thank you page with a download button for their coupon. An email is generated thanking them and linking to the coupon as well. Make a sketch of these and draw a line connecting them both to the landing page.
Sketch the coupon, personalized with their name and the offer they are receiving. Make the coupon a PDF file that can be either printed or shown on their phone. You could even add a barcode to track coupon redemption then send them an automated email or text message thanking them for coming in! Sketch these and connect them to your coupon.
Add touch points to your storyboard.
You can add additional mailers/emails/SMS messages to your storyboard to address the players who you receive no response from – just follow the same guidelines above!
How does your storyboard look? Does it give you a better representation of exactly how your marketing campaign interconnects to achieve your goals? You can clearly see how it helps you, your design team, data team, and marketing team to visualize and plan each element of your campaign.
Set up automation (and relax).
If you use a triggered automation program, your storyboard will also make it easier for everything to be set up to automatically run based on your criteria after the initial planning and preparation is done! This saves you time and money by essentially making the campaign run hands-free thanks to your foresight in making a storyboard.
How are you incorporating your direct marketing efforts with digital mediums? Do you want to learn how to save money on your postal costs by utilizing more online tools? Do you want to combine all of your tools for a marketing plan that drives more guests through your door? For more information on direct mail, triggered automation, PURLS, QR Codes and more, contact Amy Hergenrother at775-329-7864 or [email protected]
