Introducing the Reachdesk IQ blog
Welcome to our brand new data-focused blog series. Every month we’ll look at a different hypothesis around direct mail and gifting. Using our data science team and the Reachdesk Insights tool to harness the data from the Reachdesk platform, we’ll examine what really works, dispelling myths and challenging accepted wisdom along the way.
But this isn’t an academic exercise - we’ll also share practical ways you can take what we find and use it in your own marketing, business development, sales, and client success - no matter if you’re a seasoned Reachdesk power user or you’re just taking your first tentative steps into sending gifts manually.
Opportunities are more likely to close if a gift is redeemed
For our first blog, we’re taking a closer look at the impact a gift being redeemed has on an opportunity going to closed/won.
We looked at data from all Reachdesk sends and the results were staggering. We found that if a gift is redeemed, the opportunity it is linked to is 1.44 times more likely to end up closed/won than an opportunity where a gift is offered but not redeemed.
So if redemption of a gift has a positive influence on opportunity close rate, the next question is what can we do to maximize redemption? Let’s dig a little deeper into the data to see what impact what you send has on redemption…
Which gifts get the best redemption rates?
Types of sends - eGift cards vs Marketplace items
There is a significant difference between sending a physical item from the Reachdesk Marketplace and sending an eGift card. We found that 84% of Marketplace sends are redeemed, compared to 31% of eGift cards, when sends are used for similar purposes.
At first we thought that this could be because the average cost of an eGift card send is lower than that of a Marketplace item ($21 vs $71). However, it turns out the level of spend doesn’t make a difference - for the same spend, you get a higher redemption rate for Marketplace items than eGifts and we see a higher close rate as well.
Another aspect to bear in mind is that senders usually put more thought and higher levels of personalization into physical sends than eGifts which could also be part of the reason why they have better redemption rates.
Marketplace items - food vs drink
Two of the most popular categories of Marketplace send are food and drink so let’s take a closer look to see how they stack up against each other when it comes to redemption rates.
We found that drink is redeemed more than 50% more often than food items, although this may be because food sends are typically a less expensive option and therefore more likely to be used at the top of the funnel as part of a mass outreach campaign.
Types of Marketplace items - champagne vs prosecco
We’re all about the moments that matter so it’s no surprise that a celebratory bottle of fizz is one of the most popular sends on Reachdesk. We found that there’s very little difference in redemption rates between the top two varieties of bubbly (60% for prosecco vs 66% for champagne).
However, at nearly half the price of its French cousin, prosecco represents significantly more sparkle for your spend. So while we might have assumed that the more you spend the better your redemption rate, this suggests that more expensive sends don’t necessarily translate to more redemption.
The key to higher redemption rates
The thread that runs through all these insights is personalization. The more thought that’s put into a send, the more chance of it being redeemed and ultimately leading to a signed contract. It’s less about what you send, more why you send it.
By sending a physical item, there’s an element of personal investment into the gift beyond the pure cash aspect of it. The sender has (or certainly should have) thought about the recipient as a person, considered their interests, and chosen an item that they believe they will like. There’s also a degree of risk when sending a specific item to a stranger: how do I know the recipient will like what I send?
So what does this mean for eGift cards? Should they be dismissed as ineffective when compared with a physical item? The answer is a big no - the key is to think hard about EVERYTHING you send, no matter whether it’s a specific item or an eGift card.
How to use research to make your outreach stand out
One of the most effective research tools we use at Reachdesk is the 3x3 concept developed by Vorsight. Take three minutes to find three pieces of information about your prospect using the web and social media. LinkedIn is your best friend here, and if it links to their Twitter feed then even better!
With the right approach, an eGift card can be just as personalized as a physical send. A recent example of this comes from one of our superstar BDRs, Poppy. She used the 3x3 approach to identify three pieces of information about her prospect:
1️⃣ They have just started a new role 🎉
2️⃣ They’re the 26th place on World’s most influential CMOs in 2020🏆
3️⃣ They’re an Australian living in New York 🇦🇺.
She then used those to craft this fantastic outreach email coupled with an Amazon eGift card send:
Not only did Poppy book a meeting with the prospect, but he posted on LinkedIn that it was “one of the best cold outreach emails [he’d] ever received.”
So what have we learned?
- Redemption has a major impact on close rates - if a gift is redeemed, the opportunity is 1.44x more likely to end up closed/won than an opportunity where a gift is offered but not redeemed.
- Personalization is king - good research and knowing your recipient is key for all your gifting be it physical sends or eGifts
- Money isn’t everything - you don’t need a champagne budget to get stellar results. Check out our The Real Cost of Corporate Gifting guide for more data and insights on that.
- Australians love Tim Tam biscuits - and who doesn’t love a taste of home?
We hope you enjoyed this blog. We’d love to hear what you thought of it.
If you want to find out more about how you can use gifting to boost your close rates, get in touch.
