Royal Mail Delivers SMS, QR and Personalised Emails to Raise Direct Marketing Response Rates

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July 24, 2012
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Royal Mail Delivers SMS, QR and Personalised Emails to Raise Direct Marketing Response Rates

LONDON, July 24, 2012/PRNewswire/ --

    Royal Mail [http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm ] has appointed leading mobile
marketing and technology firm, Incentivated [http://www.incentivated.com/web/Home.aspx ],
to be their mobile partner, in order to help their business customers improve response
rates [http://www.incentivated.com/web/acquisition.aspx ] from direct mail promotions as
part of the new MarketReach initiative, launched this week.

    In these days of email inbox overload and budget cutting, there is an emerging
willingness to revisit the entire marketing toolbox. This includes printed mail where, due
to the rush to email, there is now a better opportunity to achieve stand-out on the
doormat. Royal Mail's MarketReach business is helping brands to improve visibility and ROI
(currently measured at an average of GBP3 for every GBP1 spent according to Royal Mail)
with the combination of a range of creative and digital response mechanisms.

    Royal Mail has launched MarketReach to provide companies and their agencies with a
full suite of mail solutions to grow their businesses. MarketReach will provide the
expertise and skills needed to add a real element to marketing campaigns which are
becoming increasingly digital-led.

    MarketReach, in partnership with Incentivated, now offers business customers the
option to add a range of mobile-optimised 'calls to action' to any piece of direct mail,
allowing business to take advantage of the immediacy of mobile to respond quickly to
postal sales promotions. In addition, through Incentivated, Royal Mail can offer its
clients mobile sites and apps.

    The three different, and complementary, response mechanisms offered by Incentivated
are:

   
    - SMS response: MarketReach can now offer 'text for appointment', 'text for
      coupon/ voucher', 'text for callback', 'text for app/ website' and 'text for nearest
      [store etc]' for example.
    - QR codes: these can be generated securely by MarketReach for their clients
      using Incentivated's Barcode Generation tool), typically for 'scan for app', 'scan for
      mobile website' and 'scan for contact details' etc.
    - Personalised email addresses: allows the same functionality as SMS or QR
      response, but for customers who can't access richer media on their phones or who
      prefer to interact via email. The personalised address that the email is sent to can
      be used to trigger different responses etc in the same way as keywords and QR codes.

    Royal Mail can set up and provide detailed reports and analytics for customers through
"iris" (Incentivated's mobile campaign management platform). Royal Mail's clients can have
secure access to their own campaigns through the platform. Fulfilment following a mobile
response will be handled by the Royal Mail.

    Antony Miller, Marketing Director for MarketReach said: "We are delighted to be able
to offer enhanced response functionality for our clients. Direct mail is a proven
marketing channel that has consistently shown itself to be successful. It provides the
ability for our customers to have access to a mobile call to action allowing us to keep
direct mail at the forefront of 21st century marketing solutions, and for our clients to
increase the profitability of mail for their business."

    Jason Cross, Marketing Director for Incentivated, commented: "By bringing together the
continued effectiveness of direct mail with mobile response mechanisms, MarketReach
clients' mailers can now feature the return path that customers increasingly prefer to use
when responding to offers. We look forward to delivering mobile response for Royal Mail's
clients, and to bringing DM up-to-date by enabling other mobile formats such as apps and
sites for tactical campaigns as well as longer-term strategic value."

    Notes to Editors

    Incentivated has been appointed as Royal Mail's mobile partner. Under the terms of the
agreement:

   
    - Royal Mail's sales team will offer its clients an SMS response service-for
      its mail services
    - Royal Mail customers can add the-Royal Mail dedicated shortcode (63900) with a
      corresponding keyword (eg FORD) to-their mailers.- Recipients simply text the keyword
      to the shortcode to order brochures, product samples and other materials via post.-
      Alternatively, they may be sent a bounce-back message asking for their-email address
      to trigger a branded email with a link to the brand's website, or an embedded link
      taking users to a mobile internet site on their handsets,-or request-a call back from
      the client's call centre.
    - The end user receives automated confirmation messages.
    - Incentivated sends all validated response data captured, along with
      appropriate meta data, to Royal Mail, which handles fulfilment.
    - Royal Mail will have access to a branded version of 'iris', Incentivated's
      mobile campaign management platform to set up SMS campaigns for its clients, and
      detailed reporting of all consumer responses which will be seen only by the Royal Mail
      client using the service.
    - All services will specify Terms & Conditions stating 'your network's standard
      message rates apply', and an option for users to-opt-out of receiving future SMS
      messages.
    - Incentivated is DPA compliant and co-authored the mobile best practice
      guidelines which can be found on the DMA website [http://www.dma.org.uk ].

    About Incentivated

    Incentivated (http://www.incentivated.com) is an independent technology company
with 10 years' experience operating exclusively in the mobile marketing
[http://www.incentivated.com/web/your-mobile-strategy.aspx ] services sector.

    We help our international client base engage with their customers by designing,
developing and delivering integrated acquisition, retention (CRM) and transaction
(mCommerce [http://www.incentivated.com/web/mcommerce.aspx ]) campaigns and services for
mobile.

    Our proprietary technology and specialist staff are well positioned to help brands,
the public sector and charities to develop everything from enterprise messaging
[http://www.incentivated.com/web/enterprise-messaging.aspx ] (SMS & MMS) through mobile
internet sites [http://www.incentivated.com/web/mobile-internet.aspx ], to server-side
software or handset applications [http://www.incentivated.com/web/apps.aspx ], including
web-apps, for 'smartphones' and feature-phones.

    We also provide strategic [http://www.incentivated.com/web/your-mobile-strategy.aspx
], creative [http://www.incentivated.com/web/creative-services.aspx ] and technical advice
for the use of mobile by businesses to raise awareness, deliver marketing ROI and provide
customer service, as well as other managed services
[http://www.incentivated.com/web/managed-services.aspx ].

    http://www.incentivated.com

Source: Incentivated

For further information: Contact information, Jason Cross, Marketing Director, Incentivated, +44(0)20-7392-2323, press@incentivated.com

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