A residential painting company utilizes direct mail and search engine marketing (SEM) to boost impressions and decrease cost per call
Case study objective
To grow a painting industry client lead count by applying an effective next-level multichannel advertising strategy (marketing plan) that consists of the Valpak Blue Envelope and SEO strategy / search engine marketing (SEM).
Marketing strategy
A high-quality marketing campaign, along with pricing guidelines, was launched in conjunction with the painting business: a $5,000 print investment mailed to 230,000 homeowners with a $12,000 SEM investment in pursuit of targeting 70% or better market share in the mailed footprint. The marketing efforts consisted of the same painting services offers promoted on print and SEM to increase frequency (lead generation), echoing the exact message across both channels to facilitate search engine optimization and print high conversion activity. Plus, bid on terms consumers may use as they “Google search” online for more info about print offers for commercial painting.
The mail impact of week-over-week change to SEM (online presence) after in-home date:
- SEM impressions increased 110% from 1,209 to 2,536
- Market share increased 60% from a weekly average of 50% to 80%
- Click count increased 65% from an average of 88 to 146
- Cost per click dropped 6% from an average of $9.81 to $9.23
- Call count increased 46% from an average of 15 to 22
- Cost per call dropped 32% from an average of $283.33 to $193.18
Overall results
- 5,747 people saw the SEM ads, which represents 61% of all related searches in the mail zone
- 341 clicks were made – Click ratio of 5.93%
- 124 leads captured, 94 (or 75%) leads from SEM – 27% SEM conversion rate
- 88 calls from print and SEM combined, 58 (or 65%) of all calls from SEM – 17% SEM call conversion rate
- 36 form fill submissions, or 10% SEM click-to-form fill conversion rate
Concluson
A week after the in-home date, the metrics showed how the SEM click count increased 65%, confirming print advertising influences consumers (painting leads) in the mailed footprint to search online and boost website traffic and rankings. The combined marketing services successfully point to the key to capturing this opportunity is pairing a right-sized SEM program with print to reduce lost attribution. Combining a print and digital marketing strategy drives an incremental lift in leads and increases brand awareness, and enhances the user experience. We recommend advertisers (business owners) maintain a strong online marketing and print ad presence to stay ahead of the competition to reach potential customers and garner new customers.
