Private Label Credit Card Company drove 78% of incremental sales using Hallmark greeting cards.

Hallmark Client

Background:

A private label credit card (PLCC) company partnered with one of their clients, an industry-leading beauty and cosmetics brand, to drive engagement amongst their top-tier loyalty members. They were looking for a way to deliver a meaningful offer via a variety of communications to test consumer response, ultimately encouraging credit card usage and driving sales during a 3-day event. The PLCC company enlisted the help of Hallmark Business Connections to develop a greeting card campaign with the following priorities:

Drive traffic: The goal of the greeting card campaign was to generate a higher open rate and response rate in both in-store and online traffic.
Increase purchases: The client wanted to target their highest tier loyalty program members to encourage and reward valued members.
Increase credit card usage: The campaign needed to include an offer for purchasers using the PLCC card to get 2x more points for every dollar spent.
Create an experience: The campaign was to deliver meaningful and personalized customer communication through direct mail, digital and in-store experiences.

The Solution:

Hallmark Business Connections used our breakthrough solution (mass direct mail) to create a custom greeting card, steeped in the beauty industry leader’s branding and taking into consideration their customer personas.

Messaging touched on innovation and being unique, while staying true to oneself, ultimately being a trendsetter.
The campaign visually interpreted one of the brand’s mission statements, leaning into consumer messaging about adding their own flair to the world.
Visual movement was incorporated into the design.
Leveraging social content, a custom illustration was created just for them.
The offer included was larger and more meaningful than previous campaigns and matched the existing brand campaign.

Artists and writers at Hallmark Business Connections created this custom card to be sent to 48,000 people out of the total 146,000 in the population.

This greeting card was tested alongside a total of three campaigns managed by the brand. One segment for the brand promotion focused on email only, another segment incorporated email plus a postcard, and the final segment included email plus a Hallmark greeting card.

The Results:

Of the 48K customers who received the Hallmark greeting with the personalized offer in the mail, over ¼ responded— driving a positive lift of 27.5% and increasing the average transaction 8.34%.

Hallmark Greeting + Email

Responded with a positive life.

SOURCE: Client-reported results

drove 78% of incremental sales.

SOURCE: Client-reported results

Postcard + Email

positive lift, 19% of incremental sales.

SOURCE: Client-reported results

Email Only

positive lift, 3% of incremental sales

SOURCE: Client-reported results

Comparatively, the postcard and email segment drove a 7.3% increase in positive lift, and <1% increase in average transaction, with the email-only campaign driving even lower percentages.

Overall, the segment that received the Hallmark greeting card drove the most incremental sales lift across all three campaigns with an increase in net sales of $125,000. This totaled 78% of all incremental revenue across the 3 campaigns.

Conclusion:

When businesses create and personalize a greeting card for their customers, it shows they have taken the time to deliver a personalized message especially for the recipients. It’s even more eye-catching when their greeting is paired with a special offer, an invitation to a grand opening or a token of appreciation.

The success of the greeting this card campaign demonstrates the power of personalized, tangible communication in driving top-tier loyalty members to act. By capitalizing on this breakthrough solution from Hallmark Business Connections, the client was able to significantly outperform other segments. The campaign not only increased traffic and credit card usage but also delivered a memorable brand experience that resonated with customers.

Did you know…?

Today’s digital clutter can be overwhelming. From texts to emails to video chats and more, consumers are constantly overloaded with digital interactions. According to the Data & Marketing Association, direct mail marketing has an average response rate of 4.9%, significantly higher than email marketing, which has a response rate of 1%. This highlights the potential impact of direct mail return on investment in driving customer engagement tactics and sales.