July 27th, 2009 | by Cynthia Fedor
I read a great article posted on DMNews today that reinforced what many direct marketers have been saying for quite a while. Despite emerging marketing channels and trends – such as social networking sites, mobile marketing and online advertising venues – personalized direct mail containing relevant content is extremely effective in driving traffic online, generating higher conversion rates and increasing shopping cart totals.
In the article, Joslin Warren, director of commerce and development for Shop.NHL.com, noted a direct correlation between the amount and sophistication of personalization on direct mail catalogs and purchase behavior:
[When they] get a catalog and see their team on the cover, it makes them more likely to buy… We find the more that we customize the catalog, the more they are going to purchase.
Also highlighted in the article is the importance of integrating personalized direct mail with other media such as email and web. Using personalized direct mail as part of a companion marketing campaign gives marketers a better chance at reaching target audiences and motivating action on the part of the consumer.
The key point that I gleaned from this article is that the standards for all marketing communication have changed. Now more then ever, personalization of content is critical – whatever medium is used to reach the consumer.
For more statistics, tips and advice on direct mail and how to best use personalization in your direct mail campaigns, visit QuantumDigital’s whitepaper download page. (The whitepapers are free!)
July 27th, 2009 | by admin
Mail’s multichannel power
via dmnews.com Despite rising postage and paper costs, direct mail remains an important part of apparel marketers’ multichannel mix. Developments in variable data printing and database marketing enable these marketers to send targeted messages to their best customers that feature high-quality imagery and creative that attracts buyers.
Social Media Won’t Work if You Aren’t Social
via mpdailyfix.com What I’m noticing, and surprisingly this comes from the so-called ‘experts’ as well, is that many people can be decidedly anti-social in the way they use social media. I’ve seen company representatives get snippy and angry if they are challenged even mildly in blog comments.
Publications shift ad focus away from print
via dmnews.com In a sign of the hard times faced by print businesses today, two major newspaper companies, the New York Times Co.-owned Boston Globe Media and Washington Post Co., have launched new business divisions that are decidedly not focused on ink and paper. In fact, both companies have decided to focus on marketing services as a growth area.
Why You Need to Build your Social Capital
via mpdailyfix.com What currently looks like islands of Social activity in various Social Networks will begin to control your life – the jobs you get, the schools you go to. Those that have weak Social Capital will become the equivalent of Social Outcasts – not able to get the killer job at the financial institution or accepted into Harvard because they have very low Social Capital.
July 24th, 2009 | by admin
Seminar Marketing Response Rates
via www.stephenliew.com When marketing the successive classes (there were 7 in all), we sent direct-mail solicitations only to people who had attended one or more of the previous classes or who had requested information about the events. (The class was promoted to other audiences via an organizational catalog, newsletters and press releases.) This was a safe and sound approach, because it made the most sense for prospects to take the courses sequentially; each course built upon the knowledge of the previous seminars. The response rates on the successive classes were over 80% … because we focused our efforts on the most qualified prospects. Best of all, the client’s mailing costs plummeted to less than $100 per seminar.
Direct marketing more effective at driving online traffic, new research claims
via www.printweek.com According to the report, 60% of those interviewed felt that marketing such as addressed mail was more effective in prompting a visit to a company’s website, compared with 24% who felt an e-mail, website advert or sponsored link was a stronger means to inspire a first visit.
Print dead in ten years? Only if we run out of trees
via www.thinkbda.com People still prefer print – When it comes to the marketing arena, if managed properly, print can continue to perform a starring role. The fact is that people still like to receive something they can touch and read at their leisure. A Pitney Bowes study found that 73% prefer to receive product announcements and offers in the mail, rather than read them on a monitor.
July 23rd, 2009 | by admin
A Case for Personalization [Case Study]
See how Move, Inc. leveraged personalization and technology to help real estate agents attract new business, increase response rates from leads and generate revenue despite a struggling real estate market.
19 Your Guide to an Effective Real Estate Marketing
via www.real-estate-news-articles.com Most of us find ourselves having a tough time writing our real estate direct mails. Although we know what message we want to communicate to our prospects, we find ourselves at a standstill and can’t seem to produce our ideas in the right order. Hence, the simple method we are suggesting is just to start writing, then rework the piece by rearranging our ideas into the proper order.
July 22nd, 2009 | by Luis Paez
I came across this german magazine ad for Budersand, a hotel & spa, that used a clever play on imagery to get people to stop and think. While the execution itself is being debated on adsoftheworld.com as to whether it’s good creative or not, this ad serves as a good example of how easily creative elements used on a magazine print ad can be re-purposed for a direct mail piece. The below screenshot shows a selective cropping of the original 8.5×11 ad:
Original print ad by KAT DESIGN
Here’s the same ad cropped down to dimensions that would be easily ported to a postcard asset:
Recropped mock up (Note the tagline is something to the effect of "Too good to be true?") Credit for original artwork to KAT Design
Never mind the fact that the agency & Budersand themselves should have an active loyalty program for VIPs that includes direct mail, but the ease with which direct creative can be created by using existing artwork is seldom talked about. If the artwork fits with the branding objectives that you have for your direct mail, then maybe there are some diamonds that are already on your shelves (or in your network folders).
