Thursday, December 27, 2012

'Big Brother' Redux? Now TVs May Watch Viewers

In future, while you are watching your television set, it may be busy watching you -- capturing conversations and moods from its surroundings and then delivering customized ads. Verizon has filed a patent application for targeting ads to TV viewers based on information collected from TVs equipped with infrared cameras, microphones and other devices that detect viewers' conversational keywords, moods and activities, well as information about objects and even animals near the TV. For example, if the TV sensors detect that a couple is arguing in the "Verizon Detection Zone," the system could send an ad for marriage counseling to the TV or a mobile phone in the room. If the system detects that the viewer is playing with a dog, a dog food commerical could be transmitted, and so on. It will be interesting to hear the privacy arguments generated by this proposed data-gathering! For more on the story, go to http://broadcastengineering.com/company-news/verizon-patents-targeted-advertising-watches-tv-viewers

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Consumers Still Read, and Respond to, Catalogs

Retailers take note: Consumers may be shopping online in record numbers, but they still like to read, and respond to, mailed catalogs. Two out of three consumers who receive a catalog in the mail will look through it, according to a study by FGI Research commissioned by the American Catalog Mailers Association. While their actual order-placing may go online, 58% of the 817 respondents said they look at catalogs as soon as they are received, with a whopping 92% indicating they made a purchase from the catalogs. For more information on the study, see http://multichannelmerchant.com/catalog/acma-catalog-survey-1119tpp1/

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

With 20 Seconds to Win Clicks, Focus Your E-mail

E-mail recipients have very short attention spans. Once a recipient opens your e-mail, you have only 15-20 seconds to win a click, per MarketingSherpa. So as you plan for 2013, put a focused e-mail creative strategy at the top of the agenda. A recent btobonline.com article provides some helpful tips for getting your message across quickly and engagingly, including personalization, bulleted benefits, alt tags and using more text than graphics. For more detail, read the story at http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121206/EMAIL/312059991/0/FRONTPAGE

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Social Media Forecast to Deliver 50% of Web Sales

A new "infographic" is amping the buzz on social media advertising by forecasting that social media will generate $30 billion in web sales a year by 2015 -- with half of all web sales to occur via social media. Using statistics from Gartner Research, marketing software provider Vocus put together the infographic, with a heavy focus on Facebook advertising trends. According to the data, Facebook already drives 26% of referral traffic to business websites, 20% of shoppers already prefer buying through a brand's Facebook page rather than its website, and one in three businesses already reach out to consumers via Facebook. The general takeaway, however, is that social media marketing has momentum for growth and will need to be a part of most marketing budgets. So figuring out how to use social media effectively should be high on the agenda for marketers in 2013. To see the infographic, go to http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/facebook-sales/

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Surge in Consumer E-mail Data Drives Down Price

The Fall of 2012 saw a big surge in available consumer e-mail lists, driving cost per thousand (CPM) for consumer e-mail to an all-time low, according to Worldata's Fall 2012 List Price Index. Permission-based consumer e-mail averaged $74 CPM in Fall 2012, down $7 from its CPM in Fall 2011 and making it the lowest priced e-mail list category. The second lowest priced category was Donors at $84 CPM. While medium-large business e-mail also saw a drop in CPM, it remained the highest priced domestic category for e-mail list rental at an average $248 CPM. Worldata Senior Vice President Ray Tesi attributed price drops to the increased availability of data in a period of weak economic growth. But not every category got cheaper this fall: The Databases/Masterfiles, Attendees/Members and Newsletters categories all saw price increases compared with 2011. For details, see http://www.listpriceindex.com/currentlpi.htm

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Tablet Ad Performance Leads in Mobile, Search

Tablet ad campaigns are outperforming mobile norms on key brand metrics, according to a new eMarketer report, "Tablet Advertising: Volume and Engagement Levels Jump Up." Paid search ads targeting tablets are delivering better results than desktop search, too. Still don't see a need to target tablet users? Maybe these numbers will change your mind: By the end of 2012, eMarketer estimates the number of U.S. tablet users, which is defined as anyone who uses a tablet at least once a month, will reach nearly 70 million, double the 2011 tally and equal to roughly 30% of internet users . By 2015, over half of internet users will log onto the web via their tablet, eMarketer predicts. Read more about tablet advertising trends at http://www.emarketer.com//Article.aspx?R=1009423

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Study Finds Company Blogging Builds Leads

If you blog it, leads will come. Companies that devote time and effort to blogging see significant lead generation improvements, according to a study by Internet marketing company HubSpot Inc. HubSpot's "Marketing Benchmarks" study found that companies that blog only one or two times a month generate 70% more leads than companies that don't blog at all. Also, those companies that previously posted three to five blogs a month almost doubled their lead generation when frequency increased to six to eight times a month. For more, see the btobonline.com report: http://www.btobonline.com/article/20121025/SOCIAL06/310259997/study-finds-increased-blogging-boosts-lead-generation#

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Mobile Ads Often Miss the Mark with Users

Despite the hoopla over mobile, many mobile ads fail to connect with users, argues Sam Grobart in a recent "Bloomberg Businessweek" article. Simply repurposing banner ads and interstitial ads (pop-ups) for mobile devices may not work because mobile users find them uninformative or disruptive, according to ad experts interviewed.  To quote Eric Picard, chief executive officer of Rare Crowds, an ad technology company: "Most mobile advertising is done as an afterthought. Immature designers have just sort of slapped banner ads in there." On pop-ups, the comment from Al Rotches, a Web ad designer who has worked on Internet campaigns for Barack Obama, Honda Motor, and Trojan Brand Condoms, is telling: "When I’m on my phone, this is my thing. I don’t want to be tracked; I don’t want to be interrupted." For more, including mobile ad trends for Google, Facebook and Twitter, see http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/mobile-ads-are-the-future-dot-theyre-also-lousy

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Use Direct Mail to Pep Up Your B2B ROI

Sometimes business-to-business marketers need reminding that, even in this digital age, "snail mail" can be a key ingredient to a potent marketing mix. A recent chiefmarketer.com article interviewed execs from the Agency Inside Harte-Hanks and Mason Zimbler US to get tips on how to boost b-to-b ROI with direct mail. One takeaway: More than ever in this micro-targeted digital world, you need to make your mailed message relevant, timely and coordinated with other channels, including e-mail and mobile. But the marketing execs also stressed a traditional direct mail rule: Make the target audience (and thus mailing list selection, we would add), a key driver. To read the full article, see
http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/b2b-direct-mail-be-relevant-creative-and-timely

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

An 'Exclusive' E-mail Lures More Opens

You can make your e-mail stand out from the crowd by making your prospects feel special, too. Worldata Research recently discovered that when subject lines convey a form of exclusivity, they generate a 22% higher open rate than those without. Examples of words used are Shhh, Secret, Private, For CFO’s Only, etc. With inboxes bombarded by e-mail, you need to catch prospects' attention as they scroll, and words that hook the reader with a sense of importance and individuality do the trick. See the report at http://worldata.com/web/dmnl/2012_11_02/

Thursday, November 15, 2012

DMA: Marketers Bullish on Direct/Digital Marketing

The economic crystal ball may be hazy, but 72% of marketers and marketing suppliers still believed at mid-year that direct and digital marketing were well-positioned for future growth, according to a survey by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The DMA “Quarterly Business Review” found that 48.8% of respondents saw their companies' direct and digital revenue grow in the second quarter, while 42.2% reported unchanged revenue. See the btobonline.com news release http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120907/DIRECT10/309079996/dma-finds-marketers-bullish-on-direct-and-digital-marketing

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Marketing Timing Drives Holiday Sales Peaks

Targeted, well-timed pre-holiday and post-holiday strategies in 2012 will be key to helping marketers break through the noise to win online and in-store sales, according to Epsilon's "2012 Holiday Report." Based on its analysis of 2011 holiday trends, Epsilon reports that the period from Nov. 27 to Dec. 17 accounted for a third of online and call center sales, with total direct marketing sales peaking in weeks 48, 49 and 50 (week 52 is the Christmas week). Other timing issues to heed: Epsilon found that 2011 conversion rates were highest on Wednesdays (10.4%), followed by Saturdays (9.5%), Thursdays, (8.5%) and Fridays (8.5%). Meanwhile, Average Order Value was highest on Saturdays, which doubled any other day at nearly $350. For a press release with more findings from the report, see http://www.epsilon.com/apac/news-events/press-releases/2012/tis-season-epsilon-releases-2012-holiday-trend-report

Thursday, November 8, 2012

How Direct Marketing Shaped the Recent Election

Political campaigning in 2012 leveraged a range of sophisticated direct marketing tools -- and left behind important lessons on what worked and what missed the mark. An excellent "Target Marketing" magazine article has surveyed the direct marketing tactics that shaped the recent election, noting how Democrats and Republicans employed large, complex voter databases; "retargeting" web services for more effective online ads; micro-targeting analytics for personalized direct messaging; social media endorsements; and targeted e-mail and texting to capture votes and donations. For a detailed discussion, read the full article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/election-2012-barack-obama-mitt-romney-microtargeting-retargeting-mobile-marketing-social-media-voter-databases/1

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

4 Delivery Threats to Scrub From Your E-mail List

Failing to regularly clean and update your e-mail list can result in significant deliverability decay -- ranging from delivery delays to messages lost in spam or junk folders, to outright blocking. A recent article by marketingprofs.com checks off the top four things to purge from your e-mail files right now: bounced e-mail addresses, malformed e-mail addresses (such as those missing an @ sign), fake e-mail addresses, and inactive e-mail addresses. Of course, you not only need to clean out the bad addresses today, you need to commit to regular hygiene down the road. For more detail, check out the article at http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2662/four-things-to-dump-from-your-email-list-right-now

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Marketers Should Find Mobile Familiar, Not Fearful

Some traditional direct marketers fear that mobile marketing's rise threatens their familiar channels, such as direct mail or even online response. But, as a recent Target Marketing magazine article advised, there's no use ignoring the mobile tide -- not when Google  predicts that mobile search will surpass desktop search by the end of 2013. However, the article also argues, traditional direct marketers should see opportunity, not reasons to run or resist. Consider the basics of mobile marketing success: To generate an actual, measurable response, whether a phone call or a text message, by using targeted, location-based messages aimed at the people most likely to buy. Sound familiar, direct mailers? Because there is so much in common between traditional direct marketing and mobile marketing, there is an opportunity for integration with mutual benefits. For more reasons and ways to embrace mobile, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/why-direct-marketers-should-embrace-mobile/1

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Uncertainty About ROI Dogs New Media Channels

Marketers are suffering from new media angst these days. They're putting more dollars into social and digital channels, including mobile and online video, but they're not sure of the return on those dollars, according to a study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). ANA's online survey of 224 client-side marketers about 2012 digital and social efforts found that 70% of marketers are currently using new-media platforms to reach customers, yet 62% also said the inability to prove ROI is a top concern. Per the survey, 60% of marketers say they are making an effort to measure the effectiveness and ROI of their social media efforts, but mobile marketing ranks the highest in terms of marketers' desire for measurement (70%). For more on the study, see the btobonline.com report at http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120716/STRATEGY06/307169909/ana-marketers-inability-to-measure-new-media-channels-remains-a-top

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Facebook Mobile Click Rates Outpace Desktop

Facebook's hopes for mobile ad revenue got a boost from a new report showing Facebook mobile engagement outpacing desktop. According to a study by social ad firm TBG Digital, as reported in Adweek magazine, Facebook Sponsored Story ads that run in the mobile News Feed earn a 1.14% click-through rate (CTR) on average, compared with only 0.083% for ads running on desktop and 0.588% for those running only in the desktop News Feed. Meanwhile, Facebook mobile still lags Twitter's Promoted Tweets, which typically get 1%-3% CTR on desktop and higher on mobile, TBG Digital added in an amendment to its report. See the full story at http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-mobile-ads-outperform-desktop-twitter-141960.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Last-Click Focus Distorts Conversion Metrics

The last step on the customer's conversion path is not necessarily the most important one, but it's the easiest to see, so some marketers still use a simple "last-click" standard for conversion credit. This ignores all the other parts of a marketing campaign that may drive conversions. But even marketers who allocate conversion credit across touch points -- using an even spread, time-decay or ad hoc attribution approach --are missing the markaccording to a Digiday article by Paul Pellman, CEO of Adometry.  Conversion credits that are arbitrarily assigned don't produce reliable metrics, argues Pellman. He urges analysis of all touch points in the path to conversion -- taking into account the relative performance of varying channels, campaigns, creatives or placements -- to calculate each touch point’s true contribution to conversion. The end result of an advanced attribution approach, Pellman avers, is that marketers will be able to more reliably optimize conversions, revenue, ROI, reach, and lifetime value. For the full article, see http://www.digiday.com/brands/why-last-click-analytics-dont-tell-the-whole-story/

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Senders of Free But Unsolicited Texts Can Be Sued

Senders of unsolicited text messages, even when the texts are free, can be sued. According to a July 20 decision by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Smith v. Microsoft Corp., text senders can be sued because text messages fall under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and may violate the "right of privacy." TCPA already bans unsolicited advertising faxes and telemarketing calls to cell phones. The district court ruled plaintiffs could bring claims against Microsoft for unsolicited text messages even if a carrier didn't charge for receiving the message; harm to a plaintiff’s abstract "right of privacy" was sufficient to support legal claims. For more details, see http://www.abmassociation.com/News/2819/Ruling%3A-Senders-of-unsolicited-free-texts-can-be-sued

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

For Higher E-tail AOV, Try These 5 Easy Tactics

Looking for more e-commerce revenue? One of the easiest strategies to execute is a boost in average order value per customer, according to an article in multichannelmerchant.com. Here's a summary of five recommended tactics to pump up AOV: Highlight product recommendations based on the activity of fellow customers; provide a cross-sell opportunity of complementary items via product bundles; offer free delivery after a certain amount is added to the basket; promote upsells of deluxe items or limited-edition products; and woo generous buyers by donating some proceeds to a charity, which is an especially good option during the holidays. For details, see http://multichannelmerchant.com/ecommerce/5-ways-increase-aov-1004tpp9/

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Envelope Packages Dominate Insurance Mail

Envelope packages remain the dominant format for insurance direct mail this year, taking up 90% of all insurance mailings, according to the "Who's Mailing What Archive." The amount of information needed to convince prospects is the main factor behind the format choice. However, self-mailers have gained a little ground: Nearly 10% of insurance efforts are self-mailers today, a 41% increase from last year. For more, see the "Target Marketing" magazine article at http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/insurance-direct-mail-package-trends-2009-2011/1#

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Look to Woo Holiday Shoppers Early in 2012

For happy holidays this year, retailers need to begin early and have multiple channels chime together, according to Epsilon's annual "2012 Holiday Trend Report."  Epsilon's Senior Director of Digital Strategy Jill LeMaire warned that marketers who plan to start the brunt of their holiday campaigns Black Friday risk losing key early sales. “Consumers want that 'big purchase' offer the first week in November," she told "DM News." She also stressed that "the multichannel consumer is driving the highest sales volume revenue," so it's crucial for marketers to coordinate their teams to hit the targeted consumer on the same day. "For example, if your direct mail is going out on one day, consult your e-mail team and see that your e-mail arrives on the same day. Communicate with all the stakeholders within your brand so that you can get to the multichannel consumer on every level, again and again," she advised. For more on the Epsilon report, see the "DM News" article at http://www.dmnews.com/epsilons-holiday-trend-report-finds-marketers-are-off-on-timing/article/251908/

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Total Charitable Giving Dips; Online Giving Climbs

The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving reported that overall charitable giving dropped 3.4% for the three months ending August 2012 as compared to the same period in 2011. Throughout 2012, charitable giving growth has been limited to single digits, but this is the first time since March 2011 that the donations trend has gone negative. In contrast, the Blackbaud Index of Online Giving showed that online giving rose 2.4% for the three months ending August 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. And if last year's disaster-driven peaks in international relief donations are excluded, online giving was up 7% for the three months ending August 2012. For details, see http://www.blackbaudnews.com/tag/blackbaud-index.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Postcard Plus Follow-up Call Ups Contractor Leads


A monthly program of lead generation postcards combined with phone follow-up resulted in a 7% response rate for Green Tree Construction, a Little Neck, NY-based home-construction contractor. Green Tree is sending about 20,000 postcards each month to homeowners in the Brooklyn and Bronx boroughs of New York City, as well as Nassau County. The four-color cards promote services such as installing windows, remodeling kitchens and other services. Recipients are invited to call a toll-free number or go to the firm's website to arrange for an estimate. Before starting postcard promotion four years ago, the firm relied almost exclusively on telemarketing. For details, see the chiefmarketer.com story at http://chiefmarketer.com/postcards/postcards-and-phone-follow-boost-response-contractor.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Pre-Filled Online Forms Boost E-mail Conversion

To grow your conversion population, try web form pre-population. Worldata Research recently reported significantly improved conversion results if e-mail recipient information is passed along to landing pages and registration forms. When a registration form had at least two fields pre-populated, the conversion rates were on average 26% higher than those with no information pre-existing in the form, according to Worldata.  With more sign-ups coming via mobile devices and smartphones, where users give priority to ease and speed, pre-filled forms are likely to have even more impact. See the report at http://www.worldata.com/web/dmnl/2012_08_08/

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Most Web Users Resist Tailored Political Ads

Almost 9 out of 10 Web users prefer political campaigns to not tailor online ads to their interests, according to a study by University of Pennsylvania researchers. Take heed candidates and causes: Consumers may see your clever political "microtargeting" to adapt online ads to demographics as intrusive and presumptuous. For details, see the recent smartbrief.com report.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

U.S. E-Mail Market to Grow Slowly But Surely

The U.S. e-mail market is growing slowly but steadily, according to a new study by consultancy eMarketer. The study projects that adult e-mail use will increase annually at just under 3% through 2016. Total saturation of e-mail usage in the U.S. is also forecast to hit 96% by 2016. For more, see the btobonline report at http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120820/EMAIL13/308209996/study-email-use-rises-mobile-opens-strong

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

DMA Offers Opt-out Tool for 'Every Door Direct Mail'


The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has made its online consumer mail-suppression tool, DMAchoice.org, available to marketers using the Postal Service’s new "Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)" service. Introduced in July, EDDM lets businesses deliver advertising mail within specified zip codes without having to supply names and addresses. Senny Boone, DMA’s senior vice president of corporate and social responsibility, explained in a DMA release: "The expanded EDDM opt-out service bolsters DMAchoice by adding a new component for local printers and marketers who want to do the right thing, and honor consumer choice to opt out of EDDM." To learn how it works, see http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/dispannouncements?article=1633 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Social Referral Traffic Trails E-mail and Search


Here's data that may cool the social marketing fervor: The performance of social media referral traffic lags far behind e-mail and search, per a report from cloud-based technology company Monetate. Monetate reports that, for the second quarter, the Average Order Value (AOV) of website traffic from search was $26.21 higher than traffic from social networks. Meanwhile, e-mail campaigns delivered a web traffic AOV that was $18.53 higher than traffic from social networking websites such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. For more, see the btobonline.com report at http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120814/WEB07/308149992/report-email-and-search-trump-social-referral-traffic

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Citing Direct Mail Rise, USPS Gives Success Tips


The U.S. Postal Service is happy to cite a report from the Magna Advertising Group that direct mail spending rose to $21 billion in 2011, up 2.9% from 2010. Tom Foti, manager of USPS Direct Mail and Periodicals, urges business mailers to jump on the bandwagon with the following praise of direct mail effectiveness: “Direct mail creates a one-on-one connection that’s hard for other media channels to match.The average household receives only two pieces of direct mail a day compared with 157 emails. It lets you incorporate coupons, reply cards, mobile barcodes — such as QR codes — URLs and other response mechanisms. Direct mail is a workhorse for generating leads, traffic and sales.” The pitch may be a bit self-serving for the cash-strapped USPS, but it is still good advice. Foti even provides five basic tips for direct mail success, including use of the Postal Service's new Every Door Direct Mail service, which allows mailers to reach every address in a neighborhood without the need for names or addresses. For more, see the release at http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2012/pr12_096.htm

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Obama, Romney Plan to Use Mobile Giving

For the first time in a presidential race, U.S. consumers will be able to donate to their candidate of choice with their mobile phones. All they'll have to do is text a keyword to a short code for a predetermined amount, and the donation is charged on their phone bill -- a method that recently has worked well for many charitable fundraisers. SMS donations for the presidential candidates had been approved by federal regulators earlier in the summer but were held up by the wireless carriers as they sought legal protections over fraud and profitability. Both the campaigns for Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are reportedly planning to enable text-to-give strategies soon. However, it is still unknown what percentage of each mobile donation will go to carriers and aggregators as a fee for providing the text messaging services. For more, see the news story at http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2012/08/28/obama-romney-campaigns-drive-donations-via-text

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

For Ad Success, Let Your Heart Rule Your Head

For advertising success, marketers may need to go with their hearts not their heads. Orlando Wood, who serves as managing director of BrainJuicer Labs, argues, "We’ve found that emotional response [to an ad] was a better indicator of the business effects than any of the traditional advertising measures, such as message understood, clarity of branding or persuasion." And that translates into higher ROI. The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has done work showing that emotional advertising is more profitable than rationally conceived marketing, Wood points out. BrainJuicer Labs' own research shows that consumers who respond well emotionally to ads are more likely to provide brand share gain and less likely to be price sensitive. Positive emotional response also helps ads go viral, with higher pass-along in social media. Lesson? Most people would rather go with their guts than strain their brains. And it's not just a b-to-c success strategy. It can work for b-to-b and nonprofit campaigns. However, cause-related pitches have more leeway to use negative emotions to generate pass-along, Wood adds, a theory likely to be applied this election season. See the chiefmarketer.com story at http://chiefmarketer.com/social-marketing/marketers-should-let-their-emotions-get-better-them

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Reddit Debuts Fundraising Button for Topic Pages

The Reddit social news-sharing site has had fundraising success stories -- such as $700,000 for a bullied bus monitor or $180,000 for Haiti earthquake reliefBut without a Reddit tool for accepting donations, most fundraising Redditors have had to point to crowd funding sites, independent funding sites, or custom landing pages on charities' websites -- and there was sometimes potential for abuse. Now, Reddit users will be able to execute some fundraisers within Reddit-branded pages. Managers of the site's topic pages, or Subreddits, can opt to accept donations to specific nonprofits by installing new "Donate" buttons on their Subreddit pages, with low transaction fees. The new program has launched with 12 nonprofit partners, including Kiva, Charity:Water, and DonorsChoose. For more, see the news story at http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/reddit-getting-fundraising-button-967956

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Most Marketers Don't Know How to Use 'Big Data'

In the era of "big data," why do so many marketers still go with their gut over stats? A recent Corporate Executive Board study of nearly 800 marketers at Fortune 1000 companies found that, on average, marketers depend on data for just 11% of all customer-related decisions! The rest of the time they rely on intuition, past experience, conversations with managers and colleagues, expert advice and one-off customer interactions. Data comes in dead last. One reason marketers fail the big-data test is that they flunk basic statistics. When marketers' statistical aptitude was tested by five questions, ranging from basic to intermediate, almost half (44%) got four or more questions wrong, and only 6% got all five right.  Even the data junkies (the 11% of the study) perform worse than the average marketer because, with weak statistical skills and judgment, they get distracted by the data noise --  constantly adjusting course for small changes in response metrics at the expense of long-term goals like lifetime value. The lesson: If you want to harness "big data," filter and focus on the "big picture" -- and brush up on statistics! For more on the study, see the Harvard Business Review blog at http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/08/marketers_flunk_the_big_data_test.html

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Study: Move Online Donors to Offline Giving ASAP

Online donors are more one-hit wonders than fundraising stars, according to Blackbaud's "2011 donorCentrics Internet and Multichannel Giving Benchmarking Report." The study found poor renewals by first-time online donors -- at least via online. But, if the online donors are converted into offline donors, meaning primarily direct-mail givers, then online-acquired donors as a whole have much higher cumulative value over the long term than traditional, mail-acquired donors. Blackbaud's study found that just under a half of online-acquired donors convert entirely to offline giving over time -- mainly in their first renewal year. The reverse movement from offline to online donations is rare; only a tiny percentage of mail-acquired donors give online in later years. So, tune up your direct mail and turn those online donors into direct-mail givers as quickly as possible! For more commentary, see the Blackbaud blog at http://www.netwitsthinktank.com/online-fundraising/truth-about-online-donors.htm

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Inserts Showcasing 'Hero' Products Win Sales

Old-school printed inserts can still be cost-effective lead generators. At a recent conference by the National Etailing and Mailing Organization of America (NEMOA), Dennis Erickson, senior vice president of insert and print media at Paradysz, shared ideas culled from catalogers like L.L Bean on how to turn old-fashioned paper inserts into online lead engines. One way is to highlight a "hero" product that is a seasonal, or perennial, strong seller to create brand interest and drive prospects to your website for purchase or catalog request. Another proven option is to match magazine inserts with the publication's editorial content for top-of-mind appeal. For more of Erickson's tips on effective insert strategy, see the chiefmarketer.com article at http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/how-generate-leads-insert-marketing.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

New Paper Will Be Clickable by Smartphones

Now even paper is clickable! Ricoh Production Print Solutions unveiled a new planned service called "Clickable Paper" at the drupa 2012 trade show, an international event for print media. The new paper will allow smartphone users -- both iPhone and Android fans -- to point at newspapers, magazines, direct mail and other printed products to be directed to related content. For more, see the btoboline.com story at  http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120503/ADVERTISING12/305039995/ricoh-to-roll-out-clickable-paper

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

New CheetahMail Tools Can Alter Deployed E-mail


Marketers can now customize messages both before and after they deploy e-mail. Experian CheetahMail, the e-mail marketing division of Experian Marketing Services, announced that it has added tools to allow e-mail content to be changed after the e-mails have been sent. CheetahMail blasts can be updated in real time based on events as they happen, or on location or time of day. Content can even be changed every time the e-mail is opened or reopened, according to Experian CheetahMail. See the btobonline.com story at http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120507/EMAIL12/305079998/cheetahmail-adds-real-time-email-customization

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Mobile Users' QR Code Scans Soar in 2012

Scans of quick response (QR) barcodes on printed materials are rising dramatically worldwide, led by U.S. mobile device users. The 13 million mobile-device scans in the first quarter of this year reflected a 157% increase over the same period a year earlier, according to Scanbuy Inc., a QR barcode platform company. Videos, as the most common type of content delivered by scanned QR codes, were a key impetus to that growth. The leading medium for QR code placement is packaging, followed by the Web, direct mail, magazines and in-store displays, according to Scanbuy's study. For more, see the report at http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120518/ADVERTISING13/305189993/study-qr-code-scanning-surges-spurred-by-video

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Privacy Legislation Debate Continues to Simmer


Privacy legislation to limit business information collection is a sword of Damocles for marketers. It hasn't fallen, but it won't go away either. This year's first privacy hearing by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation sounded familiar themes as witnesses from the Federal Trade Commission advocated Do Not Track legislation and increased FTC enforcement authority. Democratic committee members leaned toward baseline privacy legislation, while Republicans looked to industry incentives for privacy protection. That political logjam may continue through the end of the year, but then watch for the debate to revive in 2013, warns the Association of Business Information and Media Companies (ABM). ABM lobbyists are continuing efforts to advocate self-regulation and a business capacity exemption so b-to-b companies can gather data on individuals in a business capacity. To learn more, see the ABM report at http://www.abmassociation.com/News/2767/Senate-Commerce-Committee-holds-privacy-hearing

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Video Ads Pump Up Mobile User Engagement

If you're wooing mobile users, spice up your ads with video. According to a new study by Medialets, a mobile rich-media ad firm, in the first quarter of 2012, mobile rich-media ads containing video had an average of 35% higher engagement rates, and mobile-device users spent three times longer interacting with the ads. Users who expand mobile ads spend about 20 seconds within the advertisement, but if video or product catalog information is integrated with the ad, average expand time rises to over one minute. Yet only 30% of mobile ads on tablets contain video, and only 12% of ads on smartphones -- for now. To read about the mobile ad study, see http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2182049/study-video-boosts-mobile-engagement-rates

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Consumers Still Prefer Direct Mail to E-Mail

If you ignore direct mail, consumers may ignore you. Consider the findings of this recent Epsilon study: 50% of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to e-mail. That holds true across markets and age groups. Direct mail is the top choice of U.S. consumers for receipt of brand communications in almost every category, from "health to household products, to household services, insurance and financial services," and the preference for direct mail "extends to the 18-24-year-old demographic." By the way, social media was considered a trustworthy channel by just 6%. So if you want response, target consumers with the media they prefer -- and that means good old direct mail. For more, see http://ernanroman.blogspot.com/2012/04/value-of-direct-mail.html

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Direct Mail Tops in Response; E-mail Wins in ROI

Direct-mail response rates significantly outperform digital programs, according to a recent report from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). But lower costs allow digital to catch up in marketing efficiency. According to the DMA's “2012 Response Rate Report,” response rates for direct mail to existing customers average 3.40%, compared with just 0.12% for e-mail. However, costs level the playing field. Given higher direct-mail costs, it turns out that the cost per sale and cost per lead for direct mail, e-mail and paid search are roughly equivalent. Thanks to the very low costs of e-mail blasts, e-mail can claim highest return on investment at 28.5 times cost, versus 7.0 for direct mail. For more, see http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120614/DIRECT10/306149993/dma-finds-direct-mail-response-rates-outperform-digital

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Reports Show Print Marketing Drives Digital Sales

Here's more proof that traditional print channels, such as catalogs and magazine ads, inspire mobile and online sales. According to J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler, the company’s print and digital campaigns are now so tightly intertwined that much of J. Crew’s business moves specifically from catalog to online. The J. Crew catalog goes to 40 million customers a year, and roughly 30% of the 300-store retailer's revenue comes from catalog and online sales. Meanwhile, Google and Ipsos recently released results of a new study showing that nearly half (48%) of smartphone users are performing mobile queries based on ads they see in magazines. And then they buy. Among smartphone users surveyed, 35% made a purchase on their smartphone. For more, see the story at http://socialmediatoday.com/colleenpetitt/560046/reality-check-traditional-print-media-inspires-mobile-purchases

Thursday, July 19, 2012

House Bill to Drop Threat to Nonprofit Postage

Nonprofit mailers can breathe a sigh of relief. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is going to remove reduction in the nonprofit postage discount from the pending Postal Service Reform Act before sending it to the House floor, according to a report from Independent Sector. The Senate has already passed a bill  version that would preserve the current nonprofit postage discount rate. In contrast, the House bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had a "cost-savings" provision reducing the discount rate for nonprofit postage by 5% each year for 6 years, effectively cutting the discount from 40% to 10% by 2018! For the full story, go to http://www.independentsector.org/nonprofit_postage_rates

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Postal Service Plans Mobile Promotion for Holidays

The U.S. Postal Service is wrapping a holiday gift for direct mailers: a November repeat of this summer's 2% postage discount for mobile barcode usage on mail. The USPS has filed a notice seeking approval for another mobile discount promotion to run Nov.7 to Nov. 21 of this year. The special barcodes in the promotion allow consumers to use smartphones to scan the mail and reach shopping websites. Priority Mail users will get an especially festive deal. For the November promotion, the Postal Service is seeking an extra 1% discount incentive to mailers if their orders are fulfilled using Priority Mail -- as long as purchases made via the qualifying mobile barcodes are delivered between Nov. 9 and the end of the year. For more details on the planned mobile promotion, see the story at http://postandparcel.info/48650/news/companies/usps-to-run-mobile-barcode-mail-promotion-in-november/

Thursday, July 12, 2012

E-mail Performance Boasts a Strong Start to 2012

E-mail marketers began this year with good momentum. Not only did e-mail volume increase in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the year-earlier period, but open rates and other key e-mail metrics rose at the same time. According to the most recent report from multichannel marketing company Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association, e-mail volume increased 21.4% in the quarter from the year-earlier period. Despite the added volume, open rates also increased 12.6% to an overall 26.2% rate. Nonbounce rates and triggered e-mail growth provided more evidence of solid e-mail performance. For details, see http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120621/EMAIL13/306209997/email-volume-up-along-with-open-rates#seenit

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Postal Delivery Shows Record Improvement

Good news for direct mail: The U.S. Postal Service has shown significant improvement in its delivery ratings over the last six months, according to the Red Tag News Publication Association, which monitors delivery of approximately 45 periodical publications. In the January-May 2012  period, the publication group found USPS overall delivery percentages improved from 61% to 76%, with all areas in the 70% and greater delivery range -- for the first time ever! Improving mail delivery is just one of the challenges facing the USPS, of course. The recent PostalVision conference in June unsurprisingly focused on the digital arena as it developed growth strategies to put the USPS on track to handle half the world’s mail volume by 2020. For more, see the report at http://www.abmassociation.com/News/2793/Postal-delivery-improves%3B-PostalVision-offers-USPS-growth-strategies

Thursday, July 5, 2012

If Your Ad Gets Laughs, It's Likely to Get Buyers

The best way to win buyers is to win laughs, according to a new study from Nielsen. Humorous campaigns do better than price- and promotion-centered ads regardless of the economy, Nielsen reports. Its study looked at 4,000 packaged-goods commercials from 2006 through 2011, evaluating the effectiveness of various creative approaches before, during and after the recent recession. "Effectiveness" reflects measures such as appeal and likability, ad recall and purchase intent. But if you're not confident of your ability to tickle consumers with humor, you might try another creative tactic that outperforms price and promotion: value. Value-centric ads go beyond price to communicate benefits such as convenience and affordability. Ads about value saw a significant lift in effectiveness and outperformed price and promotion pitches during recession, noted the study. For more, see the Advertising Age story at http://adage.com/article/news/study-ads-prices-work-recession/235526/

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Marketers Face the New Challenges of 'Big Data'

"Big Data" -- that messy, massive flood of digital customer information -- is creating big challenges for direct marketers. We note the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is recognizing the issue with a new "List Source Big Data Optimization Workshop," co-hosted with CRM leader Merkle, this July in New York City. One problem, aptly described in a recent DM News piece by John Mullin at Javelin, is just the "functional overload" of big data capture, analysis and real-time use. Enterprises globally stored more than 7 billion gigabytes of new data in 2010, and the tide of information keeps rising.  But other knotty issues are emerging. Mullin notes a growing schism among direct marketers who assume you can work in big data or big creative, but not both. Plus, he foresees potential consumer alienation from an overwhelming blitz of information. And where's the line between Big Data and Big Brother? The recent flap about Orbitz steering Mac users to pricier hotels is just the first inkling of potential controversies. For more, read http://www.dmnews.com/the-birth-agonies-of-big-data/article/244316/ 

Thursday, June 28, 2012

USPS, Marketers Meet to Plan Sampling Programs

The U.S. Postal Service recently hosted the 2012 USPS Sampling Innovation Symposium, working with  direct-marketing leaders from consumer packaged goods firms and advertising agencies to develop  a turnkey home-delivery product sampling program. There's a clear reason for marketers' eagerness to help: 81% of consumers buy a product after they receive a free sample, and most prefer to sample products at home, according to a recent study by Opinion Research Corp. "Mail is the only medium that really enables marketers to do this," noted Marc McCrery, USPS executive manager for the sampling program. "It provides access to people's homes, and it can be tracked to determine if the samples actually convert to sales." The Postal Service will launch sampling opportunities inspired by the symposium over the next year. For details, see the news release at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-postal-service-convenes-direct-marketing-industry-leaders-to-collaborate-on-new-product-sampling-revenue-strategies-2012-06-25

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Poor Timing Mars Aim of Retailers' Digital Efforts

Timing is everything, especially in quick-paced digital marketing. Unfortunately, there is often a gap between when multi-channel merchants send e-mails or post on social media and when customers are most likely to engage, according to Yesmail Interactive, an Infogroup company. Its latest research report, "Using Digital Market Intelligence to Drive Multi-Channel Success," tracked and analyzed an array of big-brand retailers' Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and e-mail campaigns over a three-month period and found that many social media and e-mail efforts did not match with consumers' engagement preferences. For example, Facebook campaigns achieve the highest level of engagement on Tuesdays, yet that day ranks fourth in terms of when actual campaigns are deployed. The majority of Twitter campaigns take place on Friday, which is the least engaging day for those campaigns. The most interaction on YouTube occurs on Monday, but it is the least used weekday for campaign deployment. The report also found a mismatch between retailers and customers when it came to favored time of day. Plus, while sending an e-mail on the day of a social media post clearly boosted customer social response, many "multi-channel" merchants did not coordinate channels to maximize impact. For more detail, check out the press release at http://www.marketwatch.com/story/yesmail-interactive-study-reveals-marketers-are-missing-out-on-key-social-and-email-campaign-opportunities-2012-06-25

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Digital Circ Doubles -- But Is Dwarfed by Print

Ink on paper still dominates magazine circulation. A new analysis by the Audit Bureau of Circulations found that although magazines more than doubled their paid digital circulation in the most recent reporting period, print retained the overwhelming majority of the magazine business. Digital circulation rose to an estimated 3.29 million in the second half of 2011, up from 1.46 million in the year-earlier period, according to the Audit Bureau. Despite that growth, digital represented only about 1% of the reporting magazines' total paid and verified circulation. Still, the Audit Bureau can read the writing on the tablet, so to speak, and its board of directors recently endorsed an expanded publisher's statement giving ad buyers more information on digital circulation. A sign of more digital growth to come: Magazines report that, while they rely most on business-sponsored digital circulation, a growing percentage of digital readership is now individually paid. For more, see the Ad Age news story at http://adage.com/article/media/magazines-digital-circulation-doubles/233771/ 

Monday, June 18, 2012

Canadian Regulators Get Tough on Spam

In a drive to block spam, Canada has erected higher hurdles for e-mail and text-message marketing. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission has now released regulations on how marketers can comply with Canada’s new anti-spam act. Unlike the U.S. CAN-SPAM act, which allows electronic marketers to send unsolicited messages to consumers provided they include a way for recipients to opt-out, the Canadian regulations require a marketer to have received express written or verbal consent from a recipient before sending an e-mail or text message. The regulations also require commercial messages to include the name of the sender, a mailing address, either the e-mail/web address of the sender or a phone number that connects to an agent or voice mail system, and a “consumer-friendly” unsubscribe option. If you ignore the regulations, you risk a maximum monetary penalty per violation of $1 million for an individual and $10 million for business entities, like e-tailers. If U.S. anti-spam efforts emulate their northern neighbor's, it will definitely be a game-changer for electronic marketing. For more detail, see http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/03/30/canada-gets-serious-about-combating-spam

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Auto Responses Lead E-mail Open, Click Rates

Don't discount the messaging power of those automatic response e-mails! Only 2% of all e-mails sent are messsages automatically triggered by online behavior, but these automatic responses enjoy open rates that are 96% higher and click rates that are 125% higher than those of nontriggered e-mails. That's according to a recent report by Epsilon and the Direct Marketing Association. For more details, see http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120405/EMAIL13/304059997/triggered-emails-outperform-usual-messages 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Petition Hits USPS Unaddressed Mail Program

The U.S. Postal Service can't win for losing. Now leaders with Catalog Choice, a nonprofit mail preference service, have started an online petition to allow consumers to opt out of the USPS "Every Door Direct Mail Program." The one-year-old program is a Web-based service aimed at helping small businesses advertise without knowing specific names or addresses. Revenue-hungry USPS officials are quick to defend the unaddressed advertising mail, which has generated $153 million in revenues between its launch in April 2011 and December 2011. For a detailed discussion, see
http://nooga.com/154848/usps-program-allows-business-owners-to-target-potential-customers-without-knowing-name-address/

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

More 2012 Growth Forecast for Targeted Media

Here's some good news for direct and digital marketers: VSS has increased its spending outlook for "Targeted Media" in 2012. Targeted media includes direct marketing, branded entertainment, outsourced custom content, pure-play consumer Internet and mobile services, and B-to-B media. The business forecasting outfit boosted anticipated growth from 7.7% in its annual report to 8.1% in its mid-term report. The upward revision was driven by strong performances in all segments except branded entertainment and outsourced custom publishing, VSS said.  The report foresaw increased spending for the U.S. communications industry as a whole, led by an improving economy and strong digital media growth. John Suhler, co-founder and president of VSS, summed up: "Bottom line: This is the best news for the industry in several years." For the complete market forecast, see http://chiefmarketer.com/promotional-marketing/spending-marketing-targetedtraditional-media-rise-2012-vss-forecast

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Survey Finds E-mail Best at Driving Shoppers

Marketing messages received via e-mail are most likely to get us to shop, according to a new survey from ExactTarget. Some 66% of respondents said they'd made purchases as a result of ads or offers received through e-mail. Of course, direct mail was right on the heels of e-mail, with 65% saying they'd purchased thanks to a direct-mail message. But the trailing media in the race for shoppers may be more surprising. Only 24% cited telemarketing, and just 20% gave credit to Facebook, even though ExactTarget counted friend or family recommendations on offers as "marketing messages." For more on the study, see http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-04/news/31286188_1_web-friend-social-media-direct-mail

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Immediate-Annuity Direct Mail Spikes

A wave of aging Baby Boomers is heading for the retirement income harbor, and direct mail is riding the crest by touting single premium immediate annuities (SPIAs). Sales of SPIAs, which guarantee buyers an income stream for the rest of their lives based on a single upfront payment, hit all-time highs in 2011. Correspondingly, direct-mail volume for SPIAs was 18% higher in 2011 than in 2010, reports Mintel Comperemedia. Direct-mail marketing of SPIAs clearly has taken off compared with deferred counterparts and comprised 75% of all annuity acquisition direct mail to consumers in 2011, up from 62% in 2007. Although most annuities are still sold by agents, some carriers are even seizing the opportunity to go direct to consumers with SPIA direct mail. For Mintel's report, see
http://www.mintel.com/press-centre/press-releases/848/single-premium-immediate-annuity-direct-mail-volume-18-percent-higher-in-2011-than-2010

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Real Estate Broker's Postcards Rake in Leads

Looking to beef up leads? Traditional direct mail may be just the tonic. Redesigned postcard mailings recently helped a suburban Philadelphia real estate broker increase direct mail response rates by a satisfying 46%, for example. With the postcards generating 20-30 leads a month and helping to sell 80 homes, the brokerage is planning to spend even more on mail campaigns. The postcards are part of an integrated marketing program that includes e-mail and social media, but Brett Furman, owner of a Re/Max Classic brokerage in St. Davids, PA, is more bullish on conventional direct mail. Why? While competitors face off digitally, declining mailbox clutter lets him showcase his message: "I'd say since about 2006 people have stopped spending on direct mail so the competition for mailbox space has decreased. Some days I may be the only piece." For the complete story, see http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/real-estate-broker-sees-postcard-responses-rise-46

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Mobile Leads, Social Lags in Real-Time Bid Race

Mobile leads and social lags as online media buyers embrace "real-time bidding" or RTB platforms to compete for growing RTB online inventory. The total supply of RTB impressions more than doubled (up 120%) year-over-year in the first quarter of 2012, per Accordant Media, an independent agency trading desk. But demand is hottest for mobile. Accordant estimates the supply of mobile RTB inventory grew a whopping 475% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2012. On the other hand, social-ad interest weakened. Accordant said it reduced its share of  "social-targeted buys" during the quarter because advertisers are "not finding social sites to be as effective" as other forms of online or mobile inventory.  Read more of the story at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/173098/rtb-ad-market-soars-in-q1-marketers-rush-to-mobil.html#ixzz1vcPxXPYT

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Some Big Brands Give Low Marks to Social Media

Here's some food for thought for all those planning social media buys, or purchase of Facebook stock. Two big brands recently gave low marks to social marketing results. First, Xerox's Chief Marketing Officer Christa Carone questioned the value of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for b-to-b marketing. A foray into paid Twitter ads garnered "initial negative reaction from our more established clients," she noted. "I know that the CIOs of major companies are not going to be making a $5 million... deal based on their connection with Xerox on Facebook." See the full story at http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2170853/xerox-cmo-sold-twitter-pinterest Then General Motors Co., the third largest U.S. advertiser, announced it will stop its paid ads on Facebook, even as the social networking website prepared to go public. Sources are reported to have said the automaker decided Facebook's ads had little impact on consumers. See the full story at http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20120516&id=15115985  Meanwhile, Ford Motor Co. remains a Facebook fan, so maybe it's about the message not the media. "You just can't buy your way into Facebook," is the quote from Ford spokesman Scott Monty. "You need to have a credible presence and be doing innovative things."

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

USPS to Give More Space for Direct Mail Images

The U.S. Postal Service's proposed Picture Permit option hopes to entice direct mail marketers with the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. The USPS feature would allow direct mailers to include logos, trademarks, brand images and other kinds of marketing designs in the permit imprint indicia in the upper right-hand corner of mail pieces. There'd be a price, of course. The cost would be an extra 1 cent for first-class letters and cards, and 2 cents for standard-mail letters. If approved, the new image option will be available by the end of June. See the news story at http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120402/DIRECT0202/304029998

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Merchants Get 2nd Swing at USPS QR-Code Discount

The U.S. Postal Service will repeat its offer of a postage discount to merchants who use a QR code in catalog mailings and other direct-mail pieces this summer. The 2% discount (smaller than last year’s 3%) will go into effect July 1 and end Aug. 31. The USPS thought last summer's discount was a success, but it looks at mail volumes not marketing results. The big question is whether more merchants, and customers, are savvy enough about QR codes to really capitalize on the opportunity this time around. For suggestions on using QR codes for marketing effectiveness, start with http://blog.multichannelmerchant.com/blog/2012/03/27/will-merchants-get-uspss-mobile-barcode-promo-right-the-second-time/

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

FCC, Suits Tighten SMS Marketing Opt-in Rules

Warning SMS marketers: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and recent class-action lawsuits are taking aim at lax opt-in policies to rein in mobile marketing spam. With spam text messages soaring to an estimated 4.5 billion globally in 2011, or almost two days’ worth of the text message traffic in the U.S. alone, the ire of cell carriers, consumers, courts and federal regulators is not going to ease. Mobile marketers who push the boundaries of recent amendments to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act requiring "prior express written consent" to send text messages risk onerous penalties. For a complete discussion of SMS permission requirements, see http://chiefmarketer.com/mobile-marketing/fcc-lawsuits-shape-how-marketers-must-handle-sms-opt-ins

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Consumer E-mail Behavior Has Lessons for B2B

Business-to-business e-mail marketers can learn a lot from studying b-to-c trends, according to Ryan Phelan, vice president of strategic services at BlueHornet Networks, an e-mail service provider to b-to-b and b-to-c clients. He cites his firm's new study of how consumers view e-mail marketing, and suggests how those trends carry over into business marketing. Key lessons include winnowing out primary e-mail response addresses; making e-mail work for mobile; creating content that sells relationships; and leveraging social media sharing. For details, see http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120426/EMAIL12/304269992/b-to-b-marketers-can-learn-from-consumer-email-practices#seenit

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Growing iPad Audience Browses More, Stays Longer

If you're an online marketer with a message that quick-hit browsing won't do justice, you'll like this new research about the growing iPad audience. According to Metro Media Works, when compared to smartphone users, iPad users spend "about 35% more time browsing, they view more pages per visit, and they are more likely to be loyal visitors." The impact shouldn't be underestimated since tablet use is booming, with Apple shipping more iPads in the 4th quarter of 2011 than any single manufacturer sold personal computers. And it's good news for business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer marketers, with one new study reporting that tablet use among small and medium business owners quadrupled over the past year. For more, see the recent American Business Media blog story: http://abm.typepad.com/mediapace/2012/03/tablets-open-readers-up-to-longer-stories.html

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Seeking More Donors, Food Bank Doubles Direct Mail

Despite nonprofit buzz over social media and online fundraising, direct mail can still win first place in wooing donors. At least that's why Canada's Mississauga Food Bank recently decided to double its direct mail campaigns in 2012, going from two to four mailings in addition to online efforts. Just three years ago, the nonprofit did no direct mail at all. "We have decided to use direct mail as we are moving our focus away from just events and corporate relationships and towards individual donors, and direct mail is a proven method of soliciting individuals," explained Meghan Nicholls, director of marketing and fund development. For more, see http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/canadian-food-bank-doubles-direct-mail-efforts/

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Warning: Excess Digital Ads Can Harm Brand Appeal

Digital advertisers need to pay attention to the fine line between promotion and pestering if they don't want to turn off online audiences. According to a new study by digital marketing company Upstream, a fifth of U.S. Internet users say they would stop using a product or service, such as a social networking site, if they were being bombarded by ads. Note that the majority of the U.S. Internet users surveyed (66%) said they already feel subjected to excessive digital advertising. For more on the study, read http://www.btobonline.com/article/20120308/ADVERTISING13/303089998/report-too-many-digital-ads-can-harm-brands

Friday, April 20, 2012

Mobile Paid-Search Clicks, Ad Spends Climb

Mobile devices are quickly changing the landscape of paid search advertising, according to a recent report from Marin Software. Both click-throughs and advertising spends are climbing for paid search on mobile devices. Marin Software found advertisers grew their share of search budget on mobile devices from 3.4% to 8.7% in 2011, and the company expects that, by December 2012, mobile devices will account for 25% of all paid-search clicks and 23% of search budgets. Smartphone and tablet users not only have higher click rates than desktop users but those clicks are cheaper. Smartphone clicks are approximately 36% cheaper and tablets 24% cheaper than desktop clicks. There's a caveat, of course: Conversions are lower on mobile than desktop. For more, see
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2163758/smartphones-tablets-changing-paid-search

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

'Surgical' Direct Mail Still Delivers B2B Profits

We hope you aren't like the business-to-business marketers recently described by Mac McIntosh, president of B2B consultancy Mac McIntosh Inc, in a chiefmarketer.com interview: "We have certain clients who can't be convinced to try direct mail because they tried it once with a rented list and didn't see success." If you are b2b direct-mail phobic, Mac has a remedy we'd like to pass along. The key to profitable direct mail is to use it more surgically in your marketing campaigns, he advises, by targeting certain segments at certain times with different types of pieces. For example, some tiers may respond best to three-dimensional mailers, while others show a boost from a postcard mailing. Mac cites "one client we work with who was doing primarily e-mail tested variable print mail — and got a 500% better response to the same names." For more advice on b2b tactics, see http://chiefmarketer.com/b2b/b2b-marketers-taking-fresh-look-dm-tactics

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Consumer Digital Research Undermines Brand Loyalty

Most loyalty programs are no match for today's breed of digitally empowered consumer, confirms the latest study on brand loyalty from Acxiom, a marketing services and technology leader, and Loyalty 360 – The Loyalty Marketer’s Association. Because consumers can use digital tools and technologies to access ever-growing volumes of information about products, prices, customer satisfaction and availability, virtually all brand-related metrics, including loyalty, are in serious decline, the study reports. Only 25% of consumers now report loyalty to a brand. Marketer confidence in loyalty programs has also waned. While 84.5% of executives surveyed said they use customer retention marketing strategies, barely half believed their strategies are working. For details, see http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/3/prweb9293625.htm

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Direct Mail Still Reigns in the Marketing World

Direct mail is not only alive but kicking up ROI in this digital age, argues Steve Olenski in a recent article for forbes.com's CMO Network. He points to global research agency Millward Brown's finding that physical media, like direct mail, leave a "deeper footprint" in the brain than online efforts, and to ICOM's recent national survey showing a preference for direct mail transcends demographics to include 18- to 34-year-olds. It's no surprise a recent Target Marketing magazine survey found direct mail rated as the top ROI channel of business-to-consumer marketers, but why does Steve still need to remind us of direct mail's advantages? Many marketers shy from direct mail because they lack training, experience and confidence with it, concluded the Kern Organization. Our conclusion: Direct-mail pros have some educating to do! For more, see http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/03/11/direct-mail-alive-and-kicking/2/

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Holiday Campaigns Don't Need to Shun Election Week

Fretting over the impact of the 2012 Presidential election week on your holiday campaign schedule? You may be worrying needlessly. A recent article by catalog consultant Stephen Lett cites data from the 2004 and 2008 elections to conclude that it is not necessarily a disadvantage to be in-home during election week. Since many other mailers are avoiding that week, there should be less competition in the mailbox, he notes. Plus, more consumers are shopping online than in the past. Consumer who don't want to miss election results don't have to stay glued to the television; they can follow online coverage -- and shop while they keep tabs on what's happening. For more of his tips on holiday mail planning in an election year, see http://m.chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/planning-holiday-mail-patterns-election-year

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Survey: E-mail, Direct Mail Lead Acquisition Push

Aggressive customer acquisition is at the top of the agenda for marketers in 2012, according to the "2012 Annual Media Usage Survey" by Target Marketing magazine. While the survey's 365 respondents planned to spend across a range of acquisition channels, e-mail continues to lead, with 86% of respondents planning to use it. Direct mail came in second, with 69% using it for acquisition in 2012. For more, see
http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/target-marketings-sixth-annual-media-usage-forecast-2012/1

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Multimedia Mobile Can Up Response 300% Over SMS

Mobile marketers looking to maximize response and "engagement" should note a recent blog post on the advantages of multimedia messaging service (MMS) campaigns over SMS text efforts. The content and delivery methods of MMS "are resulting in conversions and click-throughs of up to 300% higher than regular SMS messages," according to mogreet.com, a U.S. MMS provider that claims to deliver over 70% of all MMS messages sent by marketers domestically. For more, see http://blog.mogreet.com/2012/03/15/understanding-mobile-marketing-what-is-sms-mms-message-marketing/

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

'My Check's in the Mail' May Become a Legal Excuse

As the U.S. Postal Service's cuts threaten to slow mail delivery nationwide, some Congressional lawmakers are pushing legislation to require banks, credit card companies and other businesses to credit a customer’s account on the date a payment is postmarked rather than the date it is received. A similar 1995 effort was stymied by financial services' industry opposition. For more, see http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/02/lawmakers-propose-legislation-check-is-in-the-mail.html

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Symphony Uses Integrated Marketing to Tune Sales

Looking for some nonprofit marketing inspiration? The Winston-Salem Symphony recently used a multi-channel approach -- combining direct mail, radio, e-mail and print -- to increase ticket sales by more than 50% and the number of concert series subscribers by 12%. For details, read the recent "Chief Marketer" story at http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-mail/integrated-marketing-boosts-nc-symphony-ticket-sales

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Nix These Subject Line Words to Up E-mail Response

Be careful with your words the next time you write your e-mail subject line! According to Baydin, makers of e-mail plugin Boomerang, words like "confirm," "join," "press," "invite," and "social" will reduce your response. Based on data from 5 million e-mails handled by its users, Baydin advises using words like "apply," "opportunity," "connect," "demo," and "payments" instead. For more, see http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/aggregatedcontent/want-people-return-your-emails-avoid-these-words-infographic

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Retailers Boost E-commerce, Direct Mail Budgets

The latest survey by the National Retail Federation shows retailers beefing up spending on e-commerce as well as direct mail this year. Online marketing activities represented more than 30% of the total marketing budget for 36% of the 247 retail execs surveyed, which is four times the number in 2010. Meanwhile, direct mail budgets have also surged. Direct mail accounted for more than 30% of marketing dollars for more than a third of those polled, a 2 to 1 increase over 2010. For more,
go to http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/167899/study-retailers-flock-to-online-marketing.html

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

AccuList USA Adds Markets to Its Free List Research

AccuList USA has added several new markets to its FREE, competitive mailing history offerings. With a focus on business-to-businesss campaigns in its latest round of research, it has analyzed recent list usage of top national mailers for front-office and back-office products and services; distribution and materials handling; industrial safety and wellness; and human resources and training. To request a free summarized report on top-performing mailing lists by market, e-mail david@acculistusa.com.

USPS Plans Repeat Barcode Promotion for Summer

For the second year in a row, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is planning a summertime promotion for direct mailers using two-dimensional barcodes. Last summer, the USPS offered a 3% discount on qualifying Standard and First-Class mail, but the specifics of this year's promotion have not been announced. See http://www.dmnews.com/usps-to-propose-repeat-mobile-barcode-promo/article/225554/

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Are QR Codes Replacing SMS in Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing experts are debating whether QR codes are starting to outperform the popular text SMS in campaigns, according to a recent Mobile Marketer story. Asserts Laura Marriott, CEO of NeoMedia Technologies. "From some of the campaigns that we have run alongside SMS call to actions, the QR codes are outperforming the response from SMS significantly. In many times, a factor of 10 or more times more successful. This is really causing our brand clients to question how they are going to use SMS in the future." For more detail, see http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/software-technology/12105.html

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

E-mails That Offer Discounts Are Most Shared

E-mail promotions that include a discount are shared more than any other type of e-mail campaign, according to more than a third of global e-mail marketers surveyed by Emailvision, an e-mail marketing software provider, in fourth quarter 2011 research. For more detail, see
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008868