The use of timing to increase personalisation, message impact and response rate

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to understand if the use of marketing automation utilising transaction recency compared to a mass-market approach generated statistical significance and an increased response rate. To answer this question, direct mail was used as an instrument to test this hypothesis. The study contained a sample of individuals from nine participating financial institutions. Each participant received one of two direct mail treatments, containing either time personalisation or no time personalisation. Evidence of a statistically significant relationship was found between time personalisation and consumer response, χ2 (1, N = 43,581) = 25.16, p < 0.001. The effect size for this finding, Phi, was small, 0.024. In this analysis, there was a statistically significant association between time personalisation and consumer response. The time personalisation response rate was 1.56 per cent versus a 0.99 per cent response rate for the no time personalisation treatment. Time personalisation of a communication was statistically associated with consumer response within the financial services direct mail marketing channel. This has implications for the marketing professional seeking methods for increasing customer engagement, brand affinity and profit while utilising the bank’s on-premise data and marketing automation tools.