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Tag Archives: Integrated Marketing

Direct Mail Growing in Popularity Among Young People?

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le November 1, 2011 – 3:45 pm

dans Database Marketing, Digital & Social Media, Direct Mail Marketing, Direct Response Marketing, Integrated Marketing, News & Trends

According to survey results published in the Direct Marketing Association’s 2011 Statistical Fact Book, 18 percent of young people between the ages of 22 and 24 say they will respond to direct mail. That’s up from numbers published last year.

How could this be? Direct mail is often seen as an old (and not so sexy) marketing channel. Why are direct mail postcards, catalogs, and other mailed print formats increasing in popularity—especially among young people—when activity on digital, mobile and social media platforms are thriving?

They don’t want their friends to know their really, really personal business.

Last year, a study conducted by ICOM, a division of Epsilon Targeting, found that a lot of people between the ages of 18 and 34 preferred to receive certain marketing communications via direct mail rather than through online media. An overwhelming percentage of those surveyed wanted messages relating to personal care, food or cleaning products, medicine, and sensitive health products to be delivered via direct mail.

I think that people recognize the fact that most things posted online, or exchanged via email, are not necessarily private. Even if profiles are restricted and passwords are strong, there’s a chance that someone or something can potentially gain access to personal details and preferences. Sure, this can happen with direct mail too. But online, if sensitive personal information is exposed, the audience that could have access to it is potentially much larger (and content is searchable online).

Better targeting and deeper, more relevant personalization

Gone are the days where marketers can get away with distributing mass mail featuring generalized messages. Consumers today demand personalization and, above all, relevancy. Past surveys by organizations like the Winterberry Group, Prospectiv, and the DMA highlight that the top factors in driving response rates included timing, relevance and personalization of marketing message.
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QR Code Best Practice & Considerations

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le July 6, 2011 – 7:41 pm

dans Mobile Marketing

I recently watched a webinar on the topic of QR codes. Chris Wayman, VP & General Manager of Mobile Marketing at Merkle, and Mike Ricci, VP of Mobile at Webtrends, provided some excellent information and live examples of QR code use in marketing and advertising. While it’s still available on demand, I highly recommend that you watch it and build your knowledge base about QR code best practices and considerations.

QR codes have been around for some time now. In fact, they’re commonplace in countries like Japan. However, U.S. marketers are still struggling with how to use QR code technologies in ways that benefit both consumer and brand. The more we work to understand the capabilities and limitation of this marketing technology, the better we’ll become at integrating them into the communications mix and achieving desired results.

Here are some interesting points from the webinar to consider.

What type of consumers are scanning/using QR codes?

25 to 54 age range constitutes about three quarters of users
Mostly male with a baseline income of $50K
iPhone and/or Android-oriented people

The takeaway:

Before starting a campaign utilizing QR codes, determine who you are trying to reach. If your audience is not a younger, more affluent group, then QR codes may not resonate. Similarly, if the target audience is comprised of mostly feature phone users, consider incorporating SMS texting into your marketing rather than QR codes. Read More »

When Business Slows Down, Agencies Need to Look Forward

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le June 1, 2011 – 3:59 pm

dans Integrated Marketing, Marketing Strategy, News & Trends

For many marketing and advertising agencies it’s a constant challenge to maintain healthy business growth, especially as clients are pumping the breaks on spending. There are lessons to be learned, however, that can help you prepare for changes in the quickly evolving advertising and marketing landscape and find long-term growth opportunities.

Some of these lessons were shared during QuantumDigital’s 2011 Marketing Innovation & Discovery Summit. Highlights from the summit are available in a new whitepaper titled, “When Business Slows Down, Agencies Look Forward.” The whitepaper download is free and offers the following information:

7 factors that lead to stalled business growth
3 essential questions to ask before starting any campaign
Why metrics and tracking are more important now than ever
Mobile and location-based marketing trends, and more.

Do Printed Catalogs and Direct Mail Still Have a Place in a Digital World?

Posté par Cynthia Fedor le December 16, 2010 – 7:59 pm

dans Mobile Marketing, Production & Printing

I came across an article via Luxury Daily that makes a great case for keeping print around in a landscape that is rapidly adopting digital media.

The article also offered ways marketers could integrate new digital technologies with print catalogs in order to engage audiences, enhance content, and improve ROI.

From the post:

…. add utility to…offerings by integrating technology such as 2D bar codes.

“The real estate in a store and a catalog is expensive, in terms of how much information you can put there” Mr. O’Keefe said. “Putting that bridge to the Web site allows you to much more cost effectively provide information to consumers to make a purchase.”

Meanwhile, Luxury Marketing Council’s Mr. Furman suggested that luxury brands could get more bang for their buck by using databases to more effectively segment consumers and target more precisely to send catalogs to those consumers most likely to buy.

Blended with print, mobile technologies such as QR codes and SMS can deliver more information about a product, service, or brand to the consumer while giving marketers the data they need to refine future content, track campaign performance, and improve return on marketing investment.

Embrace New Technologies for Better Direct Marketing Campaign ROI

Posté par Jamie Klemcke le December 3, 2010 – 8:49 pm

dans Integrated Marketing, News & Trends

December 2010

Direct Marketing Association of Washington

Direct mail campaigns are now vastly different from the days of huge mailings that were sent to every known address in a zip code. Advances in the printing industry have streamlined the direct mail process, making it easy to present each targeted recipient with a unique and highly relevant message. Additionally, innovative digital technologies make it possible to pinpoint specific prospects based on demographics, launch direct mail touches based on event triggers, and capture realtime response metrics in order to determine immediate ROI.

Read the full article.