Attribution: Where do your sales/ donations really come from?

Attribution has got to be one of the biggest challenges for Marketers.

These days it is even more complex with multiple touch points leading prospects to the final purchase. They may pick up a catalogue, see a television commercial, receive a mail pack, then see a billboard on the way to work when they decide to make the purchase or give the donation.

So how do you attribute your sales/donations to the marketing element or elements that contributed to the sale?

With Direct Marketing you are in luck because, with the right measure in place, there are ways to help ensure you know where the sale came from.

Even with Direct Marketing being so fabulous (if we do say so ourselves), it can still be difficult to correctly attribute all sales or donations.

We not have the perfect solution but we do have some tips for your next DM campaign to help you attribute, and use these insights for future campaigns.

Code, code, code…

Coding is essential for correct measurement and attribution. Basically coding involves allocating a specific series of numbers and/or letters to the marketing material being sent out. These codes are specific to the prospects you are targeting and the method by which they have been targeted.

Make sure you code your personalised mail packs, your letterbox drops, catalogues, everything that you can so that when the sale comes back through you can attribute it to the right marketing activity and source.

Tracking Pixels

For online Direct Marketing you can place tracking pixels to help correctly attribute where/ how the customer came to make the purchase/ donation. Online DM can include your eDMs, any banner advertising and any paid social media.

Tracking pixels can be placed on the HTMLs sent, landing pages, transaction pages, and the confirmation of sale pages to give you a complete overview of how the customer progressed through to the sale/ donation and how they came to be on that path.

Train & Educate staff

Coding and tracking pixels are all well and good, but if your staff are not made aware of these measurements and do not take actions to ensure they have been recorded, then all the effort may be wasted.

This is particularly important for any telephone sales/ donations. Ensure that your telemarketing team has an updated list of all codes and what they relate to. They can then confirm this with the customer over the phone while accepting the sale/ donation. We advise having a ready-made script for your telemarketing team to help them through the process.

 

Attribution can be tough; we would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Let us know if you have any tips or success stories on attributing your donors/ sales.