Wednesday, November 25, 2015

USPS, Mailers Prep for Busier Holiday Season

Happy Thanksgiving and best wishes for a profitable holiday season. The U.S. Postal Service is adding workers to handle an estimated 15 billion mail pieces over the holidays, a 10.5% increase from 2014. Hopefully, bulk mailers are prepped for the delivery rush, too, and have scheduled around mailing deadlines, starting with Dec. 8 for Priority Mail Express International and ending with Dec. 23 for Priority Mail Express. For a list of mailing deadlines, check out the recent Direct Marketing News magazine article: http://www.dmnews.com/postal/usps-prepares-to-deliver-15-billion-pieces-of-holiday-mail/article/452076/

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Brand Marketers Are Ignoring Consumer Preferences

U.S. brand marketers model communications on a dictatorship rather than a democracy, consistently ignoring consumer preferences for channel and frequency, according to a recent study by MarketingSherpa. Indeed, the gap between consumer preference and marketer practice is often wide enough that many brands shouldn't be surprised at a profit-burning customer revolt. A useful infographic of research results, based on surveys of more than 2,000 consumers and 455 brand marketers, was recently created by Direct Marketing News magazine. Among the findings, although 54% of consumers say they prefer to receive promotions via print mail, only 19% of brand marketers send out print materials. Instead, 90% of marketers blast e-mails, even though only 60% of consumers say they want to get e-mail promos. And once they've chosen to woo consumers via e-mail, marketers time messages to suit themselves; 76% of companies base e-mail frequency on their own needs, even though only 24% of consumers want that brand-determined frequency. Of course, marketers are enticed by social media popularity, so 77% of those surveyed offer customers the opportunity to follow brands on social media. The problem is that only 20% of consumers want to receive company updates and promotions via social media. Similar overfishing of digital waters occurs with online ads, with 60% of marketers using online advertising, even though just 27% of consumers say they discover new products via online ads. For more details from the DM News infographic, go to  http://www.dmnews.com/infographics/marketers-ignore-consumers-right-to-vote-infographic/article/453627/