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Tag Archives: eMarketing

I’ve Got to Say it Again… Direct Mail is Far From Dead

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Posté par Cynthia Fedor le July 14, 2009 – 2:07 pm
dans Direct Mail Marketing

On a recent MarketingSherpa blog post, the author, Adam T. Sutton, summarizes a conversation he had with Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, regarding the decline of direct mail. You can read the post here.

I think that Borrell is missing an important shift in direct mail marketing today and his point of view seems skewed based on the products and services he’s offering. Just because volume of direct mail is expected to decline, that doesn’t mean using direct mail as part of a complete and well-balanced marketing effort will die.

According to a recent survey conducted by BtoB Magazine, “2008 Marketing Priorities and Plans,” almost 50% of marketers will increase spending on targeted direct mail and email marketing with the intended purpose of acquiring more qualified leads, followed by brand awareness and customer retention. A similar survey, the 2008 Ad-ology “Small Business Marketing Outlook,” revealed the continuation of this trend among small business owners in the U.S. Over half of small business advertisers surveyed will maintain or increase marketing spend on direct mail in 2009.

What he’s failing to acknowledge is why the direct mail landscape today is changing, and how. The integration of new technologies in direct mail processes is making extreme personalization, pinpoint targeting and database-driven triggered direct mail campaigns not only possible, but timely, affordable and effective.

To completely dismiss direct mail as a valid and effective part of a well-crafted marketing plan is, well, ignorant. Rather than explaining a potential decrease in direct mail volume as proof that direct mail is no longer a cost-effective medium that generates results, Borrell should consider that because of new technology, it’s possible for businesses to spend less while seeing better results.

Additionally, Borrell argues that:

The disruptor (for direct mail) is Internet marketing in general, and email marketing in particular…

To some extent, this is true. However, the statement he makes just prior to the above comment cannibalizes his theory:

When something grows really fast and gets up to a high level, and there’s a disrupter in the market place, some other technology that provides pretty much the same level of service but in a more efficient way, then you can expect there to be a roller coaster decline.

I challenge Borrell to take the time to explore how technology is making direct mail a power player in the marketing industry and how integrating it with other off-line and online efforts can make him a believer in direct mail today.

Direct Marketing Best Practice: Quality Over Quantity Always Rules

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Posté par Cynthia Fedor le July 6, 2009 – 1:50 pm
dans Direct Mail Marketing, Marketing Strategy

Over the past couple of weeks, I was witness to a competition amongst two of my officemates. They were in a battle to see who could reach 2,000 followers on Twitter first. Every so often I’d hear about their strategies for building an audience or when they’d reached “milestone” quantities of followers. Let me tell you, this contest was ridiculous. Sure, they may have been growing in followers… but what kind?

I read a great post on Michelle’s Blog titled, “How Someone with 2,000 Twitter Followers Can Be More Powerful than a Person with 25,000.” In plain, common-sense English, she outlines why quality over quantity matters.

In almost every case, especially in direct marketing, this will be true. Whether you’re developing an email marketing campaign, lead-generation direct mail campaign, viral marketing campaign, etc.-scrutinize your lists and make sure your spending time and money on people that matter to your business and on people that care about what you have to say or offer. Not only are your chances for getting higher response rates better, but that audience will be the best evangelists for your brand.

Here are some quick tips that can help you develop quality through your direct marketing efforts:

  1. Try to pre-qualify incoming leads when building your prospect database. Segment leads based on where the lead was found and/or ask key questions to help determine if a particular lead is a cold, warm or hot prospect.
  2. Continue to segment lists, grouping responders from non-responders and those who engage from those that do not.
  3. When choosing an advertising venue, explore all targeting options available to you and ask yourself, “Will marketing through this venue offer me more general exposure or will it allow me to target prospects with specific qualities?”

As always, I wish you a productive week.

The Direct Marketing Voice Links 7-6-2009

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Posté par admin le July 6, 2009 – 11:01 am
dans News & Trends

Study: E-mail deliverability improves dramatically with segmentation

via www.btobonline.com E-mail marketers that pay careful attention to customer behavior and segmentation achieve an average e-mail delivery rate of 90.2%, well above the 82.3% average, according to a new study by analyst firm Aberdeen Group. The report, “Demystifying E-mail Deliverability,” found that 67% of e-mail marketers surveyed consider e-mail deliverability to be one of their top marketing goals. The study noted that “best-in-class” e-mail marketers are 30% more likely to tie e-mail deliverability to customer retention than “laggards,” who focus more on revenue generation.

E-Mail Marketing Open and Click-Through Rates

via www.emarketer.com According to the “Email Marketing Metrics Report” by MailerMailer, 12.5% of unique marketing e-mails were opened in the second half of 2008. E-Mail Marketing Open Rates Worldwide, Second half 2007-Second half 2008 The figure is down from the first half of 2008, when 13.2% of messages were opened. How often e-mails were opened and clicked varied with the industry of the sender—and the size of the list.

Direct Mail Diva: Reputable Mail Companies-How to Find Them

via directmaildiva.blogspot.com I also realize some of you are just trying to figure out who is legit in this game and who isn’t. Here are just a few red flags and questions to ask to separate the quality from the…not.

Resurrect an old email marketing technology: the Animated GIF

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Posté par Luis Paez le June 24, 2009 – 3:32 pm
dans Email Marketing

A co-worker sent me a link about MarketingSherpa’s study that embedding videos in emails boosts engagement and open rates.   While this may be true, there are a few problems with video in emails among them: email clients blocking movie files from being displayed, attachment file size limits (videos being fairly huge), and production difficulty (sometimes you must edit a file 10+ times before finding a balance between file size and quality).  The thought came to me that the only reason marketers today want to embed videos is that they would be seen as pushing the envelope technologically.  There is some value at being a little different, after all.

My question to all those who read this is:  What ever happened to the animated GIF?  It seems that the animated GIF is mostly relegated to a world of annoying avatars on forums, but it used to be used in a much more stylish way.   I would challenge email marketers to take another look at this old technology if for no other reason that it is supported by default by all modern browsers and email clients (as long as the person enables images to be shown).  In that sense, there’s no downside to what  you’re already doing if you are using images in your emails.  Before you go off the deep end, I’d caution you that there’s a stylish way to use animated GIF’s, and a way that is overly distracting.

First, check out a host of examples on Linda Bustos’ article on animated gifs.  Pay particular attention to this one created by a retailer by the name of PiperLime:

Notice the extremely subtle use of animation, and it makes the idea of “free shipping” sparkle amidst a conservative design aesthetic.  I think it’s quite a good example, and one that could easily be used in other ways in an email.  Note that you’d probably only want one animated GIF in your email.  Anything more than 1 would make the email busy and distracting.

What about a bad use?  Take a look at #5 in Linda Bustos’ article, which shows 5 offers being rotated throughout 5 different squares on the grid all at once.  This is an example of a designer or marketer taking a good idea and misusing it to the point where it is both distracting and a negative impression on the brand.

As anything in technology, these are just tools for making the right impression in the right way.

If you happen to be using QD’s emarketing system, I thought I’d share the little known fact – normally the image upload process prompts you to upload a JPG or JPEG image, but if you open windows explorer to wherever the .GIF file is, and rename the file (make sure the .gif is showing in the name, otherwise read this). When you rename the file, just change the file extension from .gif to .jpeg – you’ll get a warning box, but as long as you’ve made a copy of the file, all is good.  Once the file has a .jpeg extension on it, upload it to your Image library in the emarketing system when you’re designing content.  Presto!  You have a animated GIF dressed up like a JPG, and one that works in an HTML email sent to clients like Outlook & Gmail.  Be sure to test this against your email clients to ensure integrity.

In any event, if you find yourself talking about the latest email marketing fads with another marketer, remember to stick up for that oft-forgotten step-child: the animated GIF.

This was a test that an animated GIF could be shown correctly in Outlook. It worked quite beautifully both in Outlook and Gmail ! (this image is a screenshot not an animated gif itself)

This was a test that an animated GIF could be shown correctly in Outlook. It worked quite beautifully both in Outlook and Gmail ! (this image is a screenshot not an animated gif itself)

What Forrester’s Email Marketing Forecast for 2009 – 2014 Doesn’t Tell You

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Posté par Cynthia Fedor le June 22, 2009 – 2:06 pm
dans Email Marketing, News & Trends

Forrester recently published a new forecast report, “US Email Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014,” which states that marketers are expected to spend $2 billion on email marketing by 2014, sending more than 9,000 emails annually by then. This statement brought a smile to many e-marketers’ faces and sent their fingers typing away on Twitter, chirping the praises of email marketing. And sure, email marketing is great for customer retention and for reaching one’s sphere of influence; but, it shouldn’t be the only medium used for any campaign.

When you’re first taught how to invest in stocks, your 401K, etc, you learn that diversification is the key to long-term success and building profit that can withstand the market’s ups and downs. Well, the same rings true for your marketing mix. Social media marketing, email marketing and SMS text marketing are all great new ways to quickly reach audiences; however, they alone shouldn’t dominate your marketing mix.

What happens when your audience starts to gloss over and ignore much of those 9,000 emails forecasted to be sent in 2014? How do you connect with members of your audience that aren’t online all of the time? What will you fall back on when search engine algorithms change or you face email deliverability issues?

Companion marketing – using a mix of traditional direct marketing and online – will always be the smart way to effectively reach target audiences, build brand awareness and capture market share, long term. Whatever medium you use – whether direct mail, email marketing, online marketing, etc. – just make sure your content is relevant and your approach is personalized and targeted. Simple, right?