Summary
Mail Shark offers a turnkey direct mail solution, including design, printing, and mailing of flyers across the United States.
The team could not customize its direct mail system to meet more specific needs, which was hindering its productivity and slowed the company’s growth.
Korem customized Precisely’s Spectrum software, allowing Mail Shark to improve its speed of execution and productivity.
The client
Mail Shark is a company based in Mohnton, Pennsylvania, and works with clients in the direct mail industry. It tailors marketing strategies for clients to help them acquire and retain consumers. This includes advising them on the types of advertising offers and the design of collateral material that work best. This entails identifying the quantity and frequency of mailings based on their budget, industry, services provided, or products selected.
Mail Shark uses demographic data, as well as household information, to provide the best service, establish accurate prices, and assess the potential reach of an advertising campaign based on customer segmentation criteria. For example, Mail Shark can use data related to the number and type of dwelling units within a carrier route that corresponds to a specific target audience. Information such as the number of inhabitants, cars per household, age, gender, and salary is essential to the selection of each carrier route.
Mail Shark also uses topographic data and vehicle drive times to determine which mailing areas to target. The closest potential clients are not necessarily the right target. By layering information such as natural barriers like rivers and parks, Mail Shark uses location intelligence to advise its clients on the most effective mailing area.
Using geospatial data and analysis, Mail Shark can divide ZIP codes into multiple carrier routes and target the exact mailing addresses that match the ideal customer. This method is far more accurate than targeting an entire ZIP code and sending flyers en masse. With this practice of more accurate targeting, Mail Shark’s customers can be assured that every dollar is smartly invested.
The Challenge
Prior to working with Korem, Mail Shark’s frustrations were many. First, Mail Shark was using an out-of-the-box solution for direct mailers, so the company found it difficult to customize its system to meet its specific needs. The team quickly realized that a mass-market solution wasn’t what it needed.
"It’s hard, to go to a third party that’s selling to hundreds of people with an out-of-the-box service and get them to keep up with your demands on custom software development," says Brian, Mail Shark’s CEO.
Second, the solution that Mail Shark used was slow and inefficient, making live presentations to clients, whether by video conference or in person, cumbersome. It did not react quickly to requests, which made the process ineffective for both Mail Shark and the customers. Each load of a new itinerary could take up to 30 seconds, which is unacceptable considering that 50 different routes may be presented during these meetings. In addition, it was taking the company an average of two days to extract and segment lists of data, which slowed the sales process considerably, making it difficult to grow the business.
The solution
A New Custom-Built Solution
Mail Shark began researching a new solution that would integrate the necessary data manipulation and mapping solution to stay competitive and improve productivity. When Mail Shark realized Korem was working jointly with two great companies, Google and Precisely, it concluded that Korem was the partner with whom it wanted to work. Upon speaking with one of Korem’s geospatial experts, Mail Shark understood that its problems were with the software it was using, not the data. The team needed to find a better and faster alternative.
Korem recommended Spectrum, a software from Precisely, which would provide the company with much more flexibility. With this newfound freedom, Korem and Mail Shark were able to build a new system together: Capture. Capture allowed the company to customize all its modules and easily segment its carrier routes.
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Key results
144 times
faster to extract and segment data lists
25 minutes
saved on presentations
the Results
Mail Shark has been able to increase its speed of execution thanks to Korem. Previously, extracting and segmenting data lists could take up to two days. Now, with Capture, the process takes only 20 minutes, making it 144 times faster than the previous solution. In addition, the loading of carrier routes during presentations is almost instantaneous, saving Mail Shark and its customers 25 minutes of waiting time.
"Capture is going to help us scale efficiencies tenfold, give the customer a better experience and give us all these new abilities to wow our customer," explains Brian.
In addition, because Capture is directly linked to its order and contract software, Mail Shark can link each order to the geographic area covered by the corresponding contract with just one click. This means that the company no longer needs to use multiple systems and can rely entirely on Capture for accuracy and productivity.
Since using a tool customized to its requirements, Mail Shark can more easily segment its carrier routes. For example, instead of sending flyers to 10,000 households at the same time, the mailing can be segmented into 10 weeks. This prevents too much demand for the products or services being sold. This is an important consideration for small businesses with limited production capacity.
This series of new features will actively contribute to the growth and evolution of the company.
