Is Your E-mail Marketing Optimized for 2019 Trends?

E-mail marketing is constantly evolving and AccuList USA tries to keep our e-mail list and e-mail marketing services clients up-to-date on the latest tactics and best practices. A good overview of trends for 2019 was recently supplied in a Business2Community post by Rohit Munipally. The value of e-mail targeting and list segmentation is so clear that it will be a given for smart marketers in 2019. Munipally cites HubSpot research showing that e-mails that are relevantly segmented and targeted account for 58% of all e-mail earnings and increase profits up to 18 times more. When combined with automation, e-mail content power is further enhanced. For example, if a contact hasn’t opened an email for an extended period, they can be dropped from deployments, while a contact who has visited a web page several times or opened multiple e-mails can receive relevant automated e-mails prompting action. In fact, global automated e-mail marketing alone is expected to account for $2.7 billion in spending by 2025, Munipally reports. Watch for acceleration of the trend away from graphics-heavy e-mail designs in 2019. Research shows e-mail users prefer plain text over HTML-style e-mails because plain text e-mails resemble a personal message that would be sent by a family member or friend. Also expect to see interactivity dominate over product display next year. Response data favors interactive e-mails that encourage engagement through quizzes, surveys, games, contests, GIFs, and call-to-action messaging that lets recipients shop, edit an order, update a wish list, send a shipping confirmation, etc. Story-telling also has proved itself as a content-engagement tool. E-mails that begin with a story that grabs the reader and then leads into value and offers are highly influential when delivered to a relevant audience (again underscoring the value of targeting and segmentation). Mobile optimization also will be essential for success in 2019, with 53% of e-mails opened via mobile devices and 75% of gmail users viewing accounts on mobile devices. And since consumers demand content that is relevant and personalized whether viewed on a computer or mobile device, data use must go beyond first-name inclusion to information unique to the account or buyer persona. Plus, next year should see growing use of AI for everything from targeting, subject line choice, image selection, and more. To illustrate the power of AI, Munipally reports that Adobe recently developed an AI technology with a series of sophisticated algorithms based on e-mail campaigns and audience behaviors, resulting in e-mail users opening nearly 80% of work and 60% of personal e-mails. See our blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/is-your-e-mail-optimized-for-best-2019-performance/

Use These Tactics to Weaponize 2019 B2B Data

Targeted, clean data is key to success for business-to-business campaigns. And as they ready to launch their 2019 plans, we urge B2B marketers to take the basic data steps suggested in a recent Martech Today post by Scott Vaughn. Good response and conversion depend on identifying and engaging the right audiences, meaning the right companies and the right decision-makers, Vaughn reminds. To target that right audience requires processes for capturing critical data about prospects, customers and their purchase journey with precision, he asserts, and recommends a strategy of starting with a smaller universe of accounts and roles to more precisely define best targets--and then testing and using advanced strategies, such as predictive marketing and intent-data modeling, to expand to more accounts and buyers. But that kind of data targeting only works if marketers are looking at quality data, so data hygiene is another necessity. When a recent DemandGen survey finds that more than 35% of the data in existing databases is unmarketable on average, avoiding wasted dollars means instituting a "get clean, stay clean" data-hygiene effort for 2019, Vaughn urges. The hygiene regimen should include regularly auditing of data-capture processes and sources, using filters before data can enter the database, and maintaining a cleansing process to eliminate records that are invalid, non-standardized, duplicate or non-compliant. Because today's buyers are leery of brands that don’t treat their information with care and because stringent data-privacy laws are being deployed around the globe, B2B marketers must have a proactive permission-based plan for data as well, warns Vaughn That includes asking for opt-in everywhere and having very visible, clear explanations of how behavioral data, such as website cookies, is used. Meanwhile, prospects and customers have not only come to expect data privacy, they have become used to the rapid, real-time response of the digital market. Yet for many B2B campaigns, it takes two or three days to follow up on a lead or inquiry, or even seven or eight days just to get leads loaded into marketing automation or CRM software! Vaughn proposes a concerted effort to speed data handling by identifying areas where data can be routed faster and reaction time reduced and then initiating sales and marketing training on speedier handling at each stage of the customer journey. Finally, the best data processes won't automatically result in ROI if marketers focus on the wrong metrics. Vaughn reports that high-performing marketing teams use insights with these ingredients: agreed-upon key performance indicators (KPIs); tools that can measure performance; and easy-to-use dashboards that can help all stakeholders (marketing, sales, execs, etc.). For the full post, see http://www.acculistusa.com/weaponize-b2b-data-for-2019-with-these-tactics/

2018 Direct Mail Surges in Usage, Response, ROI

Direct mail marketers received lots of encouraging news in the 2018 “ANA-DMA Response Rate Report.” Direct mail improved its usage ranking to tie with social media as the second most-used medium (57%), for example, and continued to deliver the best response rates of any medium. In fact, “snail mail” even improved on its response success by doubling median response rates over last year to 9% for house lists and 4.9% for prospect lists in 2018. Mail’s Return on Investment (ROI) also leaped by 12 percentage points to beat out online display this year. The only negative in the report is that those surveyed continue to doubt the future of direct mail, with 19% saying they plan to decrease usage in the coming 12 months. But if the report participants follow their behavior after previous surveys, which similarly predicted mail declines, direct mail usage will remain buoyant, which allowed it to rise in 2018 despite planned cuts. One drag on direct mail continues to be its Cost Per Action/Acquisition, which is the highest CPA of any medium and puts budget pressure on mail volume, which did decline for both house and prospect lists compared with the 2017 study. However, high response rates, competitive ROI, online tracking and print-tech advances are keeping marketers loyal to “traditional” mail in a digital world. In fact, direct mail usage for marketing campaigns equals or exceeds 50% for most of the 11 industry segments cited in the study. In usage, direct mail leaders were travel or hospitality (80%), nonprofits (75%), publishing or media (71%), and financial services/banks/credit (67%). Only Technology (44%), Retail (44%), and B2B Services (34%) came in below the 50% usage mark. But when it comes to tracking those response rates, marketers have definitely gone digital, with over half of surveyed marketers (53%) saying they use online tracking capabilities, such as PURLs, followed in popularity by the use of codes or coupons (45%) and call center or telephone inquiries (41%). For data comparing response rates by type of format and B2B vs. B2B campaigns, see our website blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/despite-doubters-2018-direct-mail-ups-response-roi-usage/

Trade Show Market Preps for 2019 Growth,Trends

Demand for meetings and events is projected to rise worldwide next year, pushing the global market up by 10% and boosting attendance numbers in North America by 14%, according to the "2019 Meetings & Events Future Trends" report from Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT). But trade show marketers clients will still need to address new attendee expectations if they want to catch that market wave. In fact, the CWT report found that attendee experience was the concern that was top of mind for planners, including delivery and tracking of attendees through innovative applications of technology, use of unique venues, and more engaging and interactive content. Along those lines, Ryan Gould, vice president of strategy and marketing services for Elevation Marketing, recently posted about five key trends affecting 2019 attendee experience. First, he urges marketers to commit to an experiential, customer-centric booth design that goes beyond square footage and demo stations to address comfort, engagement and interaction, with a focus on a big first impression. One way to enhance experiential booth design is to create a multisensory experience, with unique lighting design, touch-panel interfaces, gamification, interactive displays, and even scent marketing that uses attractive aromas to capture visitors. Think it's nonsense? The respected Harvard Business Review concludes that amplifying the sensory qualities of your exhibit is a top way to get attendees connecting with your brand, notes Gould.When it comes to multisensory options, Virtual Reality (VR) has earned a big buzz in the trade show market. In fact, Gould points out, studies show that 53% of customers are more likely to buy from a brand that uses VR than one that doesn’t. Plus, proliferation of VR platforms has increased affordability, with VR app Google Cardboard now available for as little as $10 as an example. Since it's exhausting to spend a day walking a trade show, exhibitors who offer lounge areas are luring attendees into their booths and keeping them there for extended periods of time (including a sales pitch, of course). Savvier marketers have been adding charging stations along with comfy lounge chairs to further draw visitors. A trade show booth with a single flat-screen TV for presentations is now behind the technology curve. With technology advances, you can transform the entire space using multiple screens and unique lighting elements to direct visitors to specific displays or products. Use of 3D projection mapping can further transform a space, turning a whole wall into a 3D video image or projecting a personalized image on a prop, statue or other surface. For more on forecasts of the 2019 meeting and event market, see our on-site post at http://www.acculistusa.com/trade-show-marketers-need-to-prep-to-ride-2019-growth/

Targeting, Value Win for Performing Arts Marketing

Performing arts marketers face many challenges in competing for attention and share of wallet in a noisy multi-channel marketplace. AccuList USA recently found some good basic advice on winning audience response in a blog post by Dave Wakeman of the Wakeman Consulting Group. Wakeman noted that creating a sense of scarcity is key to performing arts marketing--even lacking a hot-demand show like the current musical "Hamilton." Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd! Offering all tickets prior to marketing-generated demand undermines that desired sense of urgency, but marketers can still use the secondary ticket market, such as StubHub or TicketsNow, to produce a feeling of scarcity, he advises. Performing arts marketers also need to define the audience target of a show/event and then tailor a value message that appeals specifically to that audience. Targeting and creative messaging will be very different for a family show, a political commentary, a well-known classic, or a one-off by a famous author. New attendees will need a different approach than members and donors. Certainly, many shows don't have the time for the sort of traditional agency advertising that waits for reviews to come out and then creates ads around positive lines from those reviews. Plus, that kind of reactive, critic-centered promotion can miss a more persuasive value message to win over the target audience. Finally, Wakeman notes that in today’s market, people often aren’t just going to "see a show." They are likely looking to make a night of it and are attracted to events with multiple value offers. He lauds the successful audience-building efforts of the Chattanooga Symphony & Orchestra, which promotes multiple ways to engage even for those without a dedication to the symphony. Pairing a wine tasting, art show or discussion group/lecture with a performing arts event may be just what it takes to attract a new audience or convince an existing audience to try a new entertainment option. See our on-site blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/scarcity-targeting-value-woo-performing-arts-audiences/

Many Publishers Not Fully Mining Audience Data

Business periodical marketers come to AccuList USA for help with audience building via multi-channel campaigns, but as data experts, we'd like to remind them that their audience data offers other revenue streams worth mining. Most publishers know that targeted audience data is key to competing for ad dollars; for improved subscriber response via personalization; and for better targeted content marketing. A recent Adweek article by Jason Downie suggests several other ways to monetize audience data. Downie urges publishers to build “off-the-shelf” audience segments that can be sold directly to advertisers, for example. Consider how a seminar promoter could use a business magazine's data if the publication built an audience of people interested specifically in his topics or proven seminar buyers; the advertiser would be able to enjoy the benefits of tapping not just a business-engaged audience but a strategically targeted set of potential buyers more likely to convert. Audience segments can also offer insights that can be further monetized. For example, analytics could show that seminar attendees are four times more likely to share content online. That makes them online influencers, and since influencers are extremely valuable, the publisher can demand a higher CPM. Additionally, an audience segment can open the door to new advertisers and marketers, including non-endemic spending. A business publisher's analytics may show a subscriber segment visits golf sites as well as the magazine site, for example. The publisher can now woo clients looking to target "golfers." Another way publishers can take advantage of data is in the RFP process, according to the Adweek article, noting that the average publisher spends up to 1,600 hours per month, or 18% of revenue, responding to advertiser RFPs. Publishers can develop a customized response to an advertiser RFP, starting with first-party data to build out the RFP-requested audience and then enriching that database with third-party data appending. Digital campaigns can expand targeting by adding lookalikes. Author Downie advises running a portion of an ad campaign without audience or contextual targeting to identify additional audiences, interests, actions and behaviors of those who respond well to the campaign but were not included in the initial targeting. Still another option for publishers with high-quality audience data is to sell it as "second-party data," either directly to another company through a second-party data exchange or through a programmatic data exchange. And, of course, subscriber lists can be monetized as "third-party data," earning regular rental revenue on the open market and via data brokers. For more detail, see http://www.acculistusa.com/many-business-publications-fail-to-fully-mine-audience-data/

Zoo Marketing Increases Conservation, Digital Stress

Significant changes are occurring in zoo marketing, per several recent reports. Consumers' rising concerns about conservation and ethical treatment of animals have been a driving force. As the public loses its appetite for viewing animals in cages, zoos are initiating a new stress on realistic exhibits and conservation--and their marketing is reflecting that shift. A Platform Magazine article on the new wave in zoo marketing, noted to its PR-pro readers that the winning zoo marketing strategy seems to lie in finding the middle ground between promoting conservation and creating entertainment. Many zoos do this by creating exhibits that mimic animals’ natural habitats. For example, the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington, promotes exhibits for jaguars, penguins and grizzly bears, which have won exhibit design awards. Meanwhile, the Houston Zoo not only advertises the fact that it shares part of the money from each ticket with conservation programs but plans to build a new exhibit to showcase the Texas Wetlands, which have a large variety of animal and plant life. The Platform article also cites Zoo Atlanta's strategy for merging consumer experiences and conservation by promoting its contributions to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP) with new animals’ births that help "maintain healthy, genetically diverse and self-sustaining animal populations within North American zoos." However, one marketing challenge for nonprofit zoos like Zoo Atlanta is stretching "our limited advertising budget," Vice President of Marketing and Membership Tracy Lott acknowledges. And digital media investments are one way her zoo stretches marketing resources. For zoos following Zoo Atlanta's lead, Search Influence, a digital marketing agency, suggests key steps to digital success. Efforts need to begin with planning, with an emphasis on defining member/donor/visitor profiles and segments for targeting. Then local prospects, loyal members and tourists can be sent the different messaging that will resonate and drive response. Next comes a polished website to showcase attention-getting content and provide a platform for sales and donations, supported by a traffic-building investment in search optimization and paid search. Third, zoos need a curated content-marketing strategy for website, social media and paid digital advertising to promote unique draws, from exhibits and events to conservation and education. Leveraging that great content requires a targeted digital advertising strategy. Since 90% of time online is spent outside of search, mainly on Facebook, Instagram and other social platforms, one focus should be social media ads with enticing video, graphics and messaging. These ads can be targeted by interests, location, family status, buying behavior and more to boost response. Finally, to maximize ROI, marketers need analytics with defined KPIs per platform, including use of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. For the full post, see http://www.acculistusa.com/todays-zoo-marketing-embraces-conservation-digital/

Industrial Marketers Expanding Direct & Digital

We have a long track record of helping warehouse, industrial and back-office product marketers via data brokerage, predictive analytics and multi-channel direct marketing, and the good news is that many industrial marketers were inspired to expand investment in 2018. According to the "2018 Budget Trends in Industrial & Technology Marketing" report published by engineering.com, industrial marketing budgets in 2018 are expected to hit "the highest levels of growth (45%) and the lowest reported levels of shrinking budgets (4%), of any of the last five years." More than half (54%) of manufacturing marketers expect their budget to be larger in 2018. But expanded multi-channel spending still needs to be smart spending. As data brokers, we can't overemphasize that successful B2B direct marketing--including direct mail, print catalogs and e-mail campaigns--starts with quality, targeted data. Marketers can boost response by using predictive analytics and buyer profiles to target--and then opt for the rental lists of active product inquirers/buyers that our proprietary list research finds to be top performers in each vertical. Targeting the right message to decision-makers in the buying process is also key; with product and industry factors affecting whether to select a chief engineer, purchasing manager, warehouse manager, human resources chief, or C-suite executive in mailing lists. While direct mail continues its response leadership, there's no denying that most B2B buyers are digital shoppers today. Research by Acquity Group finds 94% of B2B buyers say they conduct some form of online research before purchasing a business product, for example. Forrester Research has found that 59% of B2B buyers prefer not to interact with a sales rep, and 74% find buying from a website more convenient. That makes digital catalog sites into essential sales tools, requiring a good search engine optimization (SEO) strategy given that 73% of global traffic to B2B companies comes from search engine results. But most successful B2B marketers also invest in paid digital efforts. In fact, a 2015 study by Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs, and Fathom found that manufacturers ranked search engine marketing highest among paid marketing options in terms of efficacy (52%) and promoted social media posts came in second (39%). For social media ads, B2B marketers see video as a top response tactic, which is why manufacturers in the study ranked YouTube as the most effective social media site, followed by LinkedIn ads. For more, see our blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/industrial-marketers-bet-more-on-2018-direct-digital/

Honoring Channel Preference Wins Donors

Donor control of communications channels is important for efficient fundraising contends DonorVoice's The Agitator in a recent blog post. Fundraisers fret over opt-out rates in their efforts to grow donor files. Yet failing to learn and honor channel preference not only leads to higher opt-out rates but to wasteful marketing as well, notes the post. People who opt out of telemarketing or e-mail channels are unlikely to give through that channel, so the resulting file reduction is actually a savings, cutting spending that annoys rather than produces. Plus sending e-mails to people who routinely don't open them lowers overall e-mail deliverability, reducing e-mails that might get through to those who do want them, for another real but hidden cost. Giving channel control to donors can produce more quality file growth. DonorVoice has done two different tests of what causes people to opt in, and both show that donor communications control is the single biggest factor in whether someone will want to learn more from a nonprofit. Plus, another recent study by DonorVoice and the DMA Nonprofit Federation found that allowing donors control of their communications makes them more likely to donate, and that donors who provide and receive a communications preference tend to be more valuable donors. For example, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare coded people who requested less mail and sent them half as many appeals as those who stated no preference. Those donors who requested and received half as many contacts actually gave more than the group that didn’t express a preference, per the DonorVoice article. Catholic Relief Services also found that donors who requested a specific mail preference gave 6 to 8 times more per year, notes the same blog post. Despite the growth of online giving, channel preferences continue to favor direct mail. In fact, 73% of consumers say they prefer mail for brand communications, and that includes nonprofits, and 62% like checking the mail, per Epsilon research. Plus, direct mail donors have higher retention rates; 31% of first-time offline donors are retained compared with 25% of new online donors, according to Blackbaud. For more, see our blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/honoring-channel-preference-delivers-fundraising-wins/

2018 Insurance Marketing Stresses Trust Message

Earlier in the year, Mintel Comperemedia identified four insurance marketing trends for 2018: courting consumer trust; fighting commoditization by redefining scope and repackaging; building AI savings and speed into underwriting, customer engagement and more; and competition via supplementary service and risk mitigation. AccuList USA's insurance marketing clients will be interested in Mintel's recent update on two of those predictions: trust messaging and expanded product scope. While all types of personal insurance lines showed shifts in messaging to win consumer trust via simplification, education and transparency, Mintel especially notes life insurance efforts to close the financial literacy gap through content marketing. An example is Allstate's launch of an advertising campaign in July 2018 that reminded viewers "truth today is hard to find" and concluded TV ads with "Now that you know the truth, are you in Good Hands?" Likewise, insurers Humana, Gerber Life, Kaiser Permanente, State Farm, John Hancock and Mutual of Omaha revamped direct mail messaging with some form of the line "insurance can be confusing" and then offered simplified language to which consumers could more easily relate. It was the marketing landscape for health insurance that saw major changes in terms of insurance scope this year. For example, the CVS pharmacy acquisition of Aetna opens the door to a one-stop-shop health care experience, including better digital customer service. Similarly, Mintel notes the Amazon acquisition of PillPack and the partnership between Walmart and Anthem as opportunities for established insurance products to expand and redefine the digital-age customer journey. Meanwhile, insurance marketers are watching to see how much the Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway collaboration to offer independent employee health care will shake up the status quo. For the full blog post, see http://www.acculistusa.com/trust-message-takes-center-stage-in-2018-insurance-marketing/

Business Trends Drive Recognition & Incentive Sales

AccuList USA recently completed proprietary research on hundreds of top performing lists of employee recognition and incentive product buyers to support clients in a business-to-business marketplace that now encompasses close to 90% of companies. In fact, the 2017 "Trends in Employee Recognition" report from WorldatWork, a nonprofit human resources association, found 89% of surveyed organizations committed to recognition programs, with 65% offering between three and six different programs, from companywide (81%) to individual (69%) to department/team (67%). Certificates and/or plaques remain the most awarded recognition item, at 80% of respondents, followed by cash (55%), gift certificates/cards (45%), company-logo merchandise (40%), and food, such as a lunch or pizza party (39%). For incentive and recognition marketers, targeting can mainly focus on two departments responsible for administering programs: human resources (59%) and compensation (22%). Now, the Incentive Research Foundation's "IRF 2018 Trends Study" offers recognition and incentive marketers more guidance on changing demand trends. For one, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality capabilities will be a "fundamental requirement" for vendors and suppliers looking to partner with incentive professionals in 2018, per IRF. Marketers also will want to push wellness messaging, since more incentive professionals are adding health and wellness components focused on fitness, food, and comfort to their incentive programs this year compared with other features, says the report. And when it comes to merchandise products, incentive buyers in 2018 don't want more choice as much as more "impactful products," such as products with local sourcing or organic roots and products that can be easily personalized and customized. The desire to build a brand-asset culture around intangibles, such as innovation, as well as traditional assets is one factor pushing these non-cash awards in 2018, notes the report. On the other hand, gift cards will continue to gain momentum this year, according to the IRF, which says mid-size firms spend an average of nearly $500,000 annually on gift cards across all programs, while large ones spend over $1 million annually. Finally, although incentive travel makes up a small part of the recognition pie, the incentive travel industry's net optimism score for the economy is up almost 20 points from 2017 in the IRF report, leading to budget increases despite rising costs. For more on top incentive trends, see our website blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/2018-recognition-market-tech-partnering-wellness-non-cash-awards/

Market Trends Bolster Food Gifting Growth

One of AccuList USA's areas of specialization is the food and wine gift market, so we keep an eye on emerging trends. In fact, food gift sales will approach $20 billion in 2018, up 4% over last year, per the “Food Gifting in the U.S.: Consumer and Corporate” report for 2018-2020 by research firm Packaged Facts. Marketing dollars will naturally focus on year-end sales, since, while consumers and businesses are giving food baskets across a wider variety of occasions today, Christmas is still the food and wine gifting mainstay. More than half of the 130 million consumer food gifters purchasing in the last 12 months bought during the winter holiday season. So how can food gift marketers keep overall sales growth going strong? One key factor will be continued innovation that creates exclusivity and artisanship, avoiding the commoditization that drains profit with discounting, notes the report. To support that kind of brand power, marketing efforts will need to embrace the kind of story telling that creates a sense of authenticity and uniqueness and builds a gourmet brand image. Food gift marketers also need to continue expanding gifting occasions beyond holidays, not only for consumers but also for the lucrative corporate market, by pushing work anniversary and thank-you gestures as examples. Finally, while the food gifting market is heavily dependent on older, high-income consumers, tapping into millennials will require a more omnichannel approach that takes into account millennial ordering preferences, stresses the Packaged Facts report. An omnichannel wooing of millennials will combine direct mail/catalogs with e-mail, social media and e-commerce strategies. While traditional direct mail continues as a workhorse, a strong online presence and SEO strategy is especially essential. Luxury biscuit gift company Biscuiteers provides an example of how it matters: The company increased their website traffic from new customers by 90% and SEO revenue by 77% in 6 months by optimizing category landing pages for different types of food gift buyer and season. E-commerce goes hand-in-hand with a good e-mail strategy. For example, the venerable Hickory Farms brand decided to improve the quality of its customer data and create a more agile e-mail campaign process to trigger consumer journeys and automated e-mail sends. E-mail inbox placement this year rose to 94%, almost 10% above industry standard, plus e-mail list growth improved. Hickory Farms CMO Judy Ransford explained to CMO magazine that the smarter list management "helps us deliver e-mails at the frequency customers want, and to make sure the content quality is better. This year we’ve seen a huge improvement and not such high attrition rates as a result." Social media also has become a must-have for food gifting via leading platforms like Facebook and Instagram for consumers and LinkedIn for corporate prospecting. For more, including Top Ten Reviews' ratings of the best gift baskets of 2018, see the full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/new-marketing-trends-bolster-food-gifting-growth/

Use Direct Mail to Spur Trade Show Attendance

After many years of supporting the marketing of trade show and conference managers and exhibitors, we can attest to the continued power of direct mail in building audience. While exhibitors who do a pre-show campaign one or two months before a show can increase attendance by up to 50%, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, a post by the NextPage agency recently explained how direct mail can push those pre-event promotional efforts several steps ahead of competitors. Show marketers looking for an edge with multi-channel audiences will embrace direct mail’s higher response rates and retention rates, urges NextPage, leveraging the deliverability of a tactile and visual attention-getter in an era of crowded digital mailboxes and websites. By combining variable printing with segmented list targeting, savvy marketers can create a pre-event mailing that is a highly personalized invitation. Including an incentive in the mailer will further spur booth visits. For example, trade show expert Marlys Arnold earns long lines at her booth by using scavenger hunts in pre-show campaigns, with a direct mail piece that lists five questions and gives a web address where attendees can print off an answer sheet to fill out and bring to the show. In another example, independent copywriter named Mark Johnson wanted to target subscription newsletter marketers at a Las Vegas Conference and created a special website with case studies and a free offer that he touted in a postcard. The free offer was an exclusive 30-minute consultation with Johnson to review current marketing campaigns. Johnson rented the conference association’s membership list and mailed the card only to qualified leads five weeks before the show. Out of 400 pieces mailed, 406 people visited his site, and he generated five solid leads! As Johnson showed, the real key to success with a direct mail campaign is targeting qualified leads, starting with a list of current clients and prospects and moving on to lists of registered attendees, association members, subscribers to relevant trade publications and newsletters, multi-channel buyers of relevant products, etc. Marketers can then segment and tailor messaging by geography, industry, product interest, title, and firm-ographics (such as number of employees). For more on event direct mail, see http://www.acculistusa.com/use-direct-mail-to-push-trade-show-attendance-ahead-of-the-pack/

Mail Joins Digital to Bolster Promotional Products

AccuList USA recently completed a proprietary analysis of the top-performing direct mail and e-mail lists for promotional products companies to help buttress the continued success of this evergreen marketing tool. Promotional product providers already have some powerful arguments in wooing business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers. For example, per industry surveys, eight in 10 consumers have one to 10 promotional products, 53% use the giveaways at least once a week, and 60% retain the products for up to two years. Before receiving a promotional product, 55% surveyed had done business with the advertiser, but after receiving a promotional product, 85% did business with the advertiser. With promotional products delivering such regular, repeated brand exposure and enhanced outreach, it’s no wonder the U.S. promotional products industry is forecast to generate $24 billion in 2018, growing at 2.5 % annually. Plus, while not every industry is a good target for a promotional product pitch, prospective buyers abound. A recent post by Designhill, a graphic design platform, cited some top promotional users they have supported. Real estate promotions lead in distributing branded notepads, keychains, calendars, magnets, door hangers and more, for example. The education sector often offers writing instruments, apparel, water bottles, folders, and frisbees at college fairs, seminars, expos and open houses. In today’s competitive healthcare market, clinics, hospitals, outpatient clinics and surgery centers go beyond branded tote bags to first-aid kits and custom ice packs. Nonprofits are big consumers of tumblers, tote bags, wristbands and lanyards, while banks, credit unions and insurance firms opt to reward both employees and new accounts with everything from travel bags and mugs to fidget spinners. With the midterm elections ahead, don’t forget that political candidates are a big market for flags, stickers, decals, apparel and hats (following in MAGA footsteps). The key to success is targeted data. Promotional products are visual sales, which is why direct mail and catalogs using targeted mailing lists have such a role in the industry. Now social media options such as Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and LinkedIn also allow for visual, targeted promotions, including video. And tools like AccuList USA’s Digital2Direct can link highly targeted direct mail with social media advertising on Facebook, or send direct mail with timely opt-in e-mail to the same recipients. For more ways that AccuList USA supports promotional products companies, see http://www.acculistusa.com/promotional-product-marketers-can-hone-proven-tools/

This Direct Mail Lead Gen Is Budget-Friendly

Many direct marketing articles tout digital tactics for generating sales leads, but we can attest to the continued lead-gen effectiveness of traditional direct mail for a range of our clients, including online retail and publications. Direct mail has higher response rates while avoiding some of the challenges of SEO, social media and e-mail, such as rapidly changing rules, deliverability/visibility issues and a crowded competitive space. But what about the cost of direct mail? As a recent MarketingProfs post highlighted, there are direct mail options that can effectively deliver leads without busting the marketing budget! A No. 10 envelope that includes a one- or two-page letter and a reply card is an expensive, simple and effective way to reach prospects with something likely to be opened and read (unlike many e-mails). Of course, response depends on the proper targeting of the prospect lists and the personalized content of the letter. The letter should identify a problem, present a solution and offer a "freebie" of value, such as a brochure, sample, demo, evaluation, information kit or anything else that will get a response so that salespeople can follow up with qualified prospects. A postcard is an inexpensive alternative to a letter, with low print costs and lower postage rates than letters as long as you stay within USPS minimum and maximum sizes. Because there is less room for the sales message, offer copy needs to be simple with a clear call to action. And because there is no additional response device, postcards need to stress a website address or a phone number. To drive traffic to a retail store, make room for directions or a map. Similarly, flyers are cheap and great options for local small businesses. Printed on ordinary paper, folded in thirds with a tab to hold it closed, and addressed with a mailing label and stamp, the result doesn't have to be beautiful to be effective. An invitation also doesn't have to be printed in formal lettering on cream card stock in a fancy hand-addressed envelope. You can draw people to an event or offer in a way that seems more personal and important just by using the words "You are invited..." An invitation can use a letter, a postcard or a flyer for an open house, special sale, product demonstration, etc. The key is to make the event seem exclusive and the invitees special in some way. Another way to make a mailing seem special is to use FedEx or other quick delivery service. The package content can range from a simple personal letter to a video or product sample. A special delivery package is a guaranteed open, but, because the delivery method is more expensive, it is usually limited to a smaller group of select targets. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/direct-mail-lead-gen-doesnt-have-to-bust-the-budget/

How B2B Marketers Can Boost E-mail Leads

It's no surprise that close to 90% of B2B marketers use e-mail to generate new leads when the latest data from the DMA shows e-mail marketing delivers an average $43 return for every $1 spent. But that doesn't mean B2B e-mails are a guaranteed success. B2B e-mailers may want to benchmark their efforts against a recent infographic from EmailMonks that offers proven ways to help boost those all-important open and click rates. Start with personalization. Marketers personalize e-mails because 91% get better open and click rates when they do, and that means going beyond using a first name to targeted, personalized content based on demographics, purchase and browsing history, subscriber interests, etc. Achieving that quality targeted personalization requires good list segmentation; blasting a one-size-fits-all message to the whole e-mail list is a recipe for low response. Segmenting by age, gender, preferences, purchase history and more delivers 14.31% higher opens and 100.95% higher clicks than non-segmented list campaigns, notes the EmailMonks infographic. Executing that personal touch also means permission-based e-mail that respects recipient preferences and lets them manage frequency and timing of contacts. Then, as the infographic points out, 35% of e-mails are opened based on the subject line alone. What makes up a winning subject line? Brevity is the soul of subject line wit; with 54% of e-mails opened on a mobile device, a subject line of around three words scores higher since most mobile devices can show only four to seven words across the screen. Personalization counts big, too; personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened than general ones. Once the e-mail is opened, the crafting of a good call-to-action (CTA) will drive more click-throughs. The CTA should be noticeable and "above-the fold"; in fact most brands prefer to place a CTA in the top third of an e-mail, and 48% match the CTA colors to their brand logos. Oh, and make sure the CTA links to an effective, mobile-optmized landing page, too. Looking for specific examples? Go to our onsite blog post for a link to 17 B2B e-mail templates based on actual successful e-mails: http://www.acculistusa.com/how-to-boost-e-mail-lead-gen-for-b2b-publishers-marketers/

Tips on Integrating Direct Mail & E-mail to Rev ROI

Even though omnichannel has gone from marketing buzzword to marketing given, marketers can still face challenges in getting the most ROI from direct mail and e-mail integration. A recent MarketingProfs post offered a collection of stats and tips that can help. For those who doubt the power that traditional mail can add to a digitally focused effort, the article cites a few important facts about snail mail's bottom line punch. For example, campaigns that use two channels together, such as direct mail and e-mail, have been shown to get up to a 35% lift over those using a single channel, per IWCO Direct data. The younger generation may be very digitally savvy, even addicted when it comes to social and mobile, but recent studies from the U.S. Postal Service prove mail's sales power: A whopping 57% of Millennials make purchases based on direct mail offers! Other USPS studies show why mail works so well regardless of age: People spend more time with physical advertising, have a stronger emotional response and remember the physical promotion better than digital efforts. Plus, beyond the ability to use direct mail's sizes, formats and tactile designs to grab attention, today's print technology makes it easy to link a printed piece to digital channels via QR codes, near-field communication (NFC), and augmented reality (AR). So how do you get the most out of a direct mail-e-mail marriage? Here are some ideas from the MarketingProfs post's authors, Dennis Kelly, CEO of direct mail automation tool Postalytics, and Nancy Harhut, a creative director who has worked with leading brands such as Google, Adobe, McGraw-Hill, and Nationwide Insurance: 1) Consider delivering critical information in both channels to reinforce the message; 2) Have each communication build on the previous one; 3) Use direct mail to emphasize a key message or break up the expected routine; 4) Ensure both e-mail and direct mail adhere to the same graphic standards and reflect the same voice so each piece reinforces and extends your brand promise; 5) Use direct mail to initiate a conversation with people whose email addresses you do not yet have, or with those who have repeatedly not responded to your email. For more, see the full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/learn-how-to-integrate-direct-mail-e-mail-for-max-results/

'Doggie Daycare' Fetches Millennial Demand

Millennials are driving growth for pet owner marketing, especially sales in the pet boarding and grooming arena, where spending hit an annual $6.16 billion in 2017 per the American Pet Products Association. For example, this summer the New York Post reported that growing demand from pet owners inspired the American Kennel Club to jump into the high-priced Manhattan real estate market: Its AKC Canine Retreat venture purchased five locations from Spot Canine Club as well as the Running Paws dog-jogging (not walking) service to re-brand under the AKC umbrella. Similarly, "doggie daycare" service Camp Bow Wow, founded in 2000, is busy adding franchises to its existing 144. The Millennial generation's disposable income coupled with pet-centric attitudes are behind the trend, Camp Bow Wow's Chief Barketer (also VP of marketing) Julie Turner recently explained to Direct Marketing News. As the Millennial age cohort marries and has children later in life than their parents, "they're filling the gap with a dog," she said, treating their dogs as "really a part of the family." Millennials are not only frequent travelers who need pet boarding, they are working "pet parents" who choose daycare services so their canine companions can go to camp rather than stay home alone. They like to collect a "happy and tired dog" at the end of the day, she noted. Millennials are definitely mobile device addicts, so Camp Bow Wow upped its mobile strategy in 2014 when Turner came aboard, starting with a more mobile-responsive website "in line with other brands millennials support." Camp Bow Wow introduced a mobile app that allows owners to find locations and make reservations, but its top use is watching live feeds of pets at play. "Pet parents want to talk about [the service] and show pictures of their dog at camp," Turner explained, something Camp Bow Wow enables by texting photos of dogs having fun to their owners. The digital engagement and sense of community are not only key to retaining customers, digital strategies dominate acquisition via local search engine optimization, e-mail and texting programs, and social media advertising. Camp Bow Wow actively works with social influencers to drive referrals, for example: "We have a very high net promoter score," claimed Turner. Camp Bow Wow reps also attend community events to promote the brand and acquire new customers. At events, the #GiveAFetch is a popular draw, dispensing tennis balls to happy pups from a what looks like a giant bubblegum machine. Plus, Camp Bow Wow ups its brand reputation by partnering with shelters and providing a temporary "foster home" environment for abandoned dogs to help with socialization. For more on pet owner marketing, see http://www.acculistusa.com/doggie-daycare-market-fetches-millennial-demand/

Social Media Revs Zoo & Museum Fundraising

Zoo and museum marketing is uniquely suited to social media fundraising efforts. A recent blog post by digital marketing agency Search Influence offered some helpful tips. For social media promotions, mobile outreach or online donation drives to work effectively, marketers must first make digital giving as easy as possible with user-friendly platforms, forms and payment options. Search Influence cites three examples of success. The Boston Museum of Science raised over $1,200 from Facebook users alone, many of whom might not have contributed via traditional channels, by using the free-to-download FundRazr app. The app offers custom giving options, such as donations via credit card, debit card or PayPal, and the ability to choose to contribute anonymously or self-identify via Facebook profile. Meanwhile, Cameron Park Zoo launched a mobile giving campaign that encouraged zoo supporters and visitors to donate $5 or $10 through a simple text message to show support from home or say thanks after a great day at the zoo. Rosamond Gifford Zoo boosted its continuous Adopt an Animal program with a special two-day digital promotion to honor National Adoption Day. To reach a wider audience, the promotion offered a lower minimum donation requirement and a smaller, custom donation package. The brief effort not only earned an extra $350, it tapped those who normally might not donate. Social media works best as a visual engagement medium, which offers lots of opportunities for zoos (cute animals) and museums (special exhibits and events). Search Influence cites multiple examples of success live-streaming exhibits, such as a night-stream showing patrons what creatures are up to when the zoo or aquarium is closed, or a 24/7 feed of active and entertaining animals, such as monkeys. If a zoo animal is expecting, marketers can get the public involved by broadcasting the pregnancy, birth and early baby growth. Photographers can be great viral promoters for a zoo or museum, too. Ideas include social media-hosted fan photo contests or onsite-hosted photographer-only after-hours events. And there is always an opportunity to re-purpose great existing photos on social media with a share-worthy caption! For more see http://www.acculistusa.com/smart-social-media-helps-boost-zoo-museum-fundraising/

Slow Event Lead Follow-up Costs B2B Marketers

When business-to-business marketers successfully build event attendance and booth traffic to maximize lead generation, they are disappointed and baffled by a smaller than expected sales harvest. One of the reasons for poor lead conversion, as it turns out, is a simple lack of timely lead follow-up! As reported by Direct Marketing News, a study by Certain, an event automation provider, found that just 2% of the 150 B2B marketing-decision makers surveyed said they follow up with event leads the same day. A quarter follow up in one to three days, 29% follow up in four to six days, and 27% follow up in seven to 13 days. And another 12% said this process takes two to four weeks, with the slowest-moving 6% saying it takes them more than a month to reach out! Why are almost half of those surveyed taking more than a week to contact prospects? Lead processing is a key problem, with 57% of the study's participants saying it can take hours to manually get leads "sales ready" for follow-up, and 23% reporting that the prep process takes a few days. Surveyed marketers blamed the sluggish prep time on a variety of reasons: 23% of respondents cited lack of technological tools, 15% blamed lack of organization, 11% claimed the delay was intentional, and 7% admitted to simple procrastination. Unfortunately, correcting slow lead processing doesn't seem to be a priority with many marketers. The Certain study found that despite generally slow lead processing, 72% of respondents are "somewhat" or "completely" satisfied with their lead follow-up time. That complacency has a cost that marketers are ignoring, we would point out. Most event marketing pros urge a 48-hour follow-up window to try to stay ahead of competitors. In fact, according to a study from InsideSales, 30% to 50% of leads are closed by the vendor who follows up with them first. Even if their lead processing is speedy, 82% of marketers are dissatisfied with the quality of their lead data and wish they captured more information about each individual lead at events. The method of data collection is one issue; the largest group, 42%, said they rely on manual data entry through computers or tablets, followed by 31% who turned to business cards and sign-up sheets, and 27% who relied on electronic scanners. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/b2b-event-marketers-miss-out-with-slow-lead-follow-up/

Shoppers Demand Seamless Omnichannel Retailing

Omnichannel marketing is the rule for today's retailing. While print catalogs continue as a vital merchant tool, with 42% of households reading catalogs per the U.S. Postal Service, integration of multiple channels--including online, mobile and social with direct mail--is now essential to store, catalog and e-commerce marketing. Unfortunately, while the majority of consumers expect to shop seamlessly across all those channels, only 7% of retailers provide the unified "start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere" experience that customers want, per the recent "2018 Customer Experience/Unified Commerce Survey" by BRP Consulting, a retail management consulting firm. Marketers can't afford to ignore that the majority of shoppers interact with promotions and purchase services via multiple channels and devices. According to the same BRP study, three in five (62%) consumers surveyed said they check online reviews/ratings before visiting a store, yet just 61% of retailers offer consumer product reviews for research! Shoppers now rely on mobile to continue a digital buying process in-store, with nearly 60% of shoppers looking up product information and prices while using their mobile phones in stores, per Retail Dive's 2017 Consumer Survey. Merchants can leverage customers' cross-device penchant to optimize acquisition and conversion, argues a Direct Marketing News article by Pierre DeBois. But they must keep in mind that, while the opportunity to boost ad frequency and content across channels is huge, smart management is required to avoid turning it into a bludgeon. As Bill Kee, Google's group product manager for attribution, highlighted at the 2017 Google Marketing Next conference, "If I am on three devices, and if I see your ad five times, it means you've reached me 15 times…believe me I get it." The first place to start is good omnichannel analytics to understand the contribution of each channel to ROI and its place in the customer journey. Only then can merchants cost-effectively tailor targeting and investment to maximize sales. One useful analytics tool is Google's Unique Reach report, which displays digital ad frequency metrics across devices, campaigns, and formats to measure how many times a person views a given ad, and combines attribution influences from AdWords, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics, suggests DeBois. Good omnichannel analytics also can improve use of image and video content to maximize the proven effectiveness of image/video in digital engagement, to answer the customer demand for education, and to direct prospects through the sales funnel. However, quantities of images bombarding customers across multiple channels can overwhelm and confuse, so both media curation and a content mapping strategy aligned to the customer journey are needed. One example of a targeted image strategy is use of an "image story" feature on a social media platform to orchestrate images and/or a short video, notes DeBois. Pinterest Lens, Instagram Stories, and Twitter Moments are all image story features. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/shoppers-demand-seamless-omnichannel-retail-strategies/

Smart List, Mail Design Cut Postage Costs

Maximizing direct mail ROI requires cost efficiency, especially in the postage realm. Good list selection and hygiene are key to avoiding mailing waste. Another important factor in controlling postage costs is mail package design. If you are sending mailings to the wrong people, people unlikely to be interested in your offer, lower response rate and cost inefficiency will be reflected in poor ROI. Using tools from predictive modeling to customer profiling to segmentation can improve list choices and targeting parameters. Plus, AccuList USA's proprietary list research can help clients find the top-performing lists for their specific vertical market. But no matter how data is targeted, dirty data with duplicates, errors, invalid addresses, and old demographic or purchase history information will create costly delivery failures and misdirected waste. That's why AccuList USA goes beyond list brokerage to provide expert merge-purge services that combine and standardize data in order to eliminate duplicates, identify and correct old or undeliverable addresses, verify zip codes, and maximize postal discounts. In fact, by comparing names and addresses to real-time information on multiple public and private databases, AccuList USA offers an advanced hygiene regimen that is able to identify and correct twice as many addresses as standard USPS FASTforward and NCOALink use, which only represent a portion of U.S. movers and undeliverables. USPS offers postage discounts to mail pieces that are not only addressed correctly but also designed for processing on automated equipment. For mail to qualify for the lowest postage rates, the mail piece needs to be at a letter size, which is a minimum of 3 ½" high by 5" long and a maximum of 6" high by 10½" long. Larger mail pieces fall into the flat category, which can cost more than twice as much per piece as a letter. Plus, to take advantage of automation, the piece must by rectangular, with an aspect ratio (length divided by height) of 1.3 to 2.5, or risk costing twice as much in postage. The addressing and barcode block on letter size mail also must fit into the USPS OCR read area to avoid additional postage. Naturally, weight matters. Keep the weight of a folded self-mailer under 1 ounce; if the piece weighs over 3 ounces, it must go in an envelope. Thickness counts, too.  If a mail piece is less than 0.009" thick, it costs more in postage. On the other hand, the maximum thickness for letter size mail is ¼" and for flat size is ¾". For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/smart-list-mail-design-choices-help-save-on-postage/

How Insurance Marketers Can Improve Digital Leads

Sometimes insurance marketers, used to face-to-face sales and targeted direct mail, struggle to adapt to the highly competitive and noisy digital marketplace for lead generation. So these helpful tips from the Blue Corona web marketing agency should be of interest to insurance marketers looking to improve digital lead results. The natural place to start is the insurance marketer's website, where the majority of potential policyholders will first interact with the marketing message. Basically, the website must grab attention almost immediately. If consumers don’t connect with what they see within 10 seconds of landing on a web page, they’ll move on, per studies. That means up-front contact information, compelling call-to-action, plugins that localize content, etc. But it also means speedy page loading. Studies show that a website needs to load in under 3 seconds (in fact, 47% of people expect a web page to load in two seconds or less, points out Blue Corona). And that speed needs to happen on a mobile device. Over half of all digital searches for insurance information occur from mobile devices; more specifically, 58.6% of average monthly auto insurance searches and 55.4% of life insurance searches are via mobile, reports Blue Corona. How do you get prospects to those fast-loading, compelling, mobile-friendly pages? Search engine optimization is a basic requirement today for driving traffic. Blue Corona lists a few top tactics for getting to that coveted first page of a Google search: optimized title tags and meta descriptions on pages; site security (https vs http); mobile-friendly pages; schema markup; quality content; fast page downloading; social media signals; quality backlinks; and optimized images. But all searches are not created equal. Marketers want high-converting leads not shoppers. So Blue Corona suggests buying pay-per-click ads targeting search phrases that indicate high-commercial intent, such as "buy auto insurance" rather than "do I need auto insurance?" The ad content can then target a top consumer trigger. In most cases, that means competitive rates. A blog is another way to not only build traffic but also establish authority on insurance topics and go from policy hawker to insurance resource in the eyes of potential policyholders. Whether a blog post or a website page, the goal is to help insurance shoppers deal with an often confusing topic. TransUnion’s 2017 Healthcare Millennial Report found that 57% of millennial consumers identified as having "no understanding" or a "limited understanding" of their insurance benefits, while 50% of Generation X and 42% of Baby Boomers said the same. So don’t give prospects too many choices on website main pages, which can overwhelm and drive them away, and focus instead on the key solutions people need from insurance. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/these-digital-tactics-can-power-insurance-marketing-lead-gen/

Performing Arts Win in Social Video Ticketing Growth

Performing arts marketers have more tools this year for reaching ticket buyers, fans and supporters via partnerships that link online ticketing and social media videos. The latest entry in the competitive social media ticketing race is Google-owned YouTube, which has partnered with Ticketmaster to show viewers upcoming U.S. tour dates and nearby concert listings on artists' YouTube videos and then allow viewers to jump directly to Ticketmaster to purchase tickets. YouTube is actually a latecomer to the social media ticketing world. Ticketmaster started promoting ticket sales on Spotify and Facebook in 2016. YouTube's end-of-2017 move is one reaction to Spotify's growth in the streaming market with integrated data and artist information. For Ticketmaster, its global roster of concerts and lock on the concert-ticket industry can only be enhanced by access to YouTube's 1.5 billion user base, driving more fans to pay Ticketmaster prices and service charges. But competitive social video ticketing is a win for performing arts promotion, too. YouTube is leveraging one of its strengths with the ticketing partnership; music videos account for 30% of all time spent on YouTube and represent 94% of the 250 most-viewed videos on the platform, per the Video Advertising Bureau. And that means performing arts promotions can look forward to generating additional ticket sales from the platform's added feature. The YouTube ticketing feature also addresses a running feud between YouTube and the recording industry. Some record labels have argued that YouTube hasn't paid enough in fees for music videos hosted on its platform, but now ticket sales will provide another revenue stream for labels to monetize and boost royalties. This kind of partnership may even help cut the sales drain from pirating since the increased ability to monetize videos via ticket sales is likely to push performing arts promotion to drive as much traffic as possible to official videos and be more proactive in flagging unofficial channels. See our website post: http://www.acculistusa.com/performing-arts-boosted-by-social-video-ticketing-partnerships/

GDPR Data Regs Hit U.S. Marketers in Europe

Starting this May, any U.S. marketer targeting customers in the European Union (EU) countries must navigate a changed data landscape thanks to the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It doesn't matter if the brand, marketer or data processor is based in the U.S.; strict compliance is mandatory. And shrugging off new data rules is a very costly mistake. Noncompliance can mean a fine equal to 4% of global annual revenue! The regulation's intended purpose is protection of non-anonymized personal data, and compliance is required of any company (or organization) that stores or processes that personal information about individuals ("data subjects"), who are defined as European citizens residing in an EU state. The protected personal data includes: Name, address, and phone number; IP address and cookies; racial identity; religion and religious affiliation; health and genetic data; biometric data; and sexual orientation and gender preference. GDPR's regulated "data controllers," who determine data processing, or "data processors," who handle data on behalf of data controllers, must respect key rights with regard to personal information. For example, there is an individual's right to access, to knowing what personal data has been collected and how that data has been processed. There is a right to accuracy, and restriction of data processing in the case of inaccuracy. There is a right to "freely given" and "explicit" consent for processing and storage of personal data. Plus, consent may not be regarded as "freely given" where performance of a contract is made conditional on consent, or is unnecessary to performance of a contract. The data subject also has the right to data portability, meaning the ability to request and receive personal data in a format easily transferred to another data controller. Finally, there is erasure or "a right to be forgotten," which allows individuals to withdraw their consent for data use or storage and demand that personal data be erased and no longer processed. Not sure it applies to you, direct marketer? Consider this GDPR wording: "Where personal data are processed for the purposes of direct marketing, the data subject should have the right to object to such processing, including profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing, whether with regard to initial or further processing, at any time and free of charge." In terms of strategic response, 64% of executives at U.S. corporations reported that their top strategy for reducing GDPR exposure is centralization of data centers in Europe, according to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Just over half (54%) told PwC they plan to anonymize European personal data to reduce exposure. A significant minority are cutting European efforts, with 32% of respondents planning to reduce their presence in Europe, and 26% intending to completely exit the EU market. For more, see our website blog post: http://www.acculistusa.com/u-s-marketers-in-europe-wrestle-gdpr-data-compliance/

Direct Mail With Social Sharing Revs Response

Taking social media and direct mail from parallel tracks to integrated teamwork delivers added response power to multi-channel marketing campaigns. For those who are scratching their heads over mail-social integration, we recommend a Target Marketing magazine article by Summer Gould, including two case studies as templates. Gould boils a successful mail-social marriage down to a simple formula: Use the power of social sharing to expand mail response. Basically, start with an existing direct mail campaign that is working well. Create landing pages for the target audience to visit and direct recipients to those pages in the mail piece. Ask the audience to provide the information that you want on the landing pages. Finally, to get your offer, ask people to share with others. Marketers don't have to reinvent the wheel to get this done, but they do need to remember to include vital spokes! Gould starts with the basics: Define objectives and the target market. Then adjust direct mail design to include landing pages and social media sharing. Make sure that the offer is the same for both direct mail and social media, and be sure to effectively incentivize sharing. Focus carefully on the data capture required in return for the offer, including social media accounts so you can reward those who share! Finally, make sure you have the social media monitoring software to track results. Gould's article offers two case studies that should inspire emulation. First, Chick-fil-A, which wanted to both build its customer database and increase store traffic, launched a direct mail campaign of 5,000 plastic postcards that included social sharing. Thanks to the viral impact, the campaign gained a 279.8% response! Second, Stein Mart wanted to increase store redemption through a referral program. The discount retailer mailed 20,000 postcards with a social sharing component, and the campaign gained a total response of 150.58%. For more, including links to the case studies for details, see our web blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/drive-response-by-integrating-direct-mail-and-social-sharing/

AccuList USA Fetes 20 Years As Data Broker

AccuList USA® celebrates a 20th anniversary this June in a very different place from its start as a traditional direct mail list broker and manager. As a member of the Data & Marketing Association and the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and as an SRDS-recognized mailing list and insert media broker and manager, it has successfully adapted to successive marketing challenges—including the rise of e-mail and social media, the digital flood of “big data,” and today’s complex omnichannel marketing strategies. AccuList USA has distinguished itself by embracing new marketing tactics and by identifying rentable prospect lists that conventional data brokers ignore, including exclusive second-party data on active customers and donors. Its clients also benefit from first-party data enhancement for improved monetization. AccuList USA relies on predictive analytics and proprietary mailing research to select the best names from individual lists as well as from multimillion-name compiled “big data” and modeled cooperative databases. AccuList USA goes beyond merely supplying data and helps business and fundraising clients attribute omnichannel marketing results, so that they can effectively measure campaign success and the costs to acquire a new customer or donor. The focus is always on sales or gifts, not just open rates, page views, and clicks. Its data pros even track which postal and e-mail lists perform best for leading marketers in designated vertical markets. Over the past two decades, AccuList USA has helped 1,000s of companies and non-profit organizations to further monetize their data and acquire new customers and donors in the following verticals: Catalog & Ecommerce; Fundraising; Insurance; Museums & Zoos; Performing Arts; Pet Owners; Publishing; and Trade Shows & Conferences. AccuList USA and its corporate parent AccuList, Inc., are headquartered in San Antonio, TX, but serve clients targeting businesses, institutions, and affluent consumers nationwide and in several foreign countries. For more on AccuList USA and its omnichannel postal, e-mail, and digital marketing services, visit http://www.acculistusa.com/

E-Mail Marketing Success Relies on These Basics

E-mail is a key part of most omnichannel marketing strategies, Yet dodging spam filters and reeling in responses from crowded inboxes is an ongoing challenge. A recent Direct Marketing News article laid out some basic tips on how to get the most out of e-mail marketing. First, data matters. Even the most well-crafted e-mail will end up in spam folders if delivered to an e-mail list with too many duplicates, outdated addresses, missing permission hygiene, spam traps, etc. Quality e-mail data is essential to deliverability, which means regular cleaning and updating of house lists, or carefully vetted rental lists (sponsored e-mails) for prospecting. Quality data is also key to the targeting that maximizes response, using segmentation and personalization to tailor offers and messaging to specific audiences and individuals. Once an e-mail lands in the inbox, the subject line, a brand's first impression, impacts open rates. While there are few absolute guidelines, be aware that 50-70 characters in length is the "sweet spot" for readability, per the article. In those few characters, the subject line needs to quickly convey an offer/value and tone that intrigue the audience. Beyond avoiding words and symbols likely to trigger spam filters, A/B testing is usually the best way to find which subject line leads to higher open and click rates, as the article advises. While focusing on a first impression, too many e-mail marketers forget the importance of a closing impression. For example, after gaining response and conversion, marketers can use transactional e-mails (e-mails acknowledging a purchase, donation, sign-up, etc.) to expand customer/donor value by offering a reward (discount on next purchase as an example), a loyalty program, a newsletter, social links and more. When it comes to design, the key to success today is the ability to translate across desktop, tablet and mobile devices. Remember, research shows that more than two-thirds of consumers access e-mail through their smartphones! Plus, e-mail isn't usually the only method for connecting with an audience, or necessarily the channel preference of all recipients. That's why e-mails also should highlight social media buttons, invite readers to share content, or urge them to visit appropriate social pages and profiles, as the article notes. For more tips, see http://www.acculistusa.com/want-e-mail-marketing-success-here-are-some-basics/

Creative Format Shifts Key Direct Mail Metrics

In planning direct mail campaigns, marketers often turn to standard industry benchmarks courtesy of the annual "Response Rate Report" from the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), soon to be a division of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). However, while general direct mail response rates for house lists (5.1%) and for prospect lists (2.9%) far outpace those of digital media, the mailing piece format selected can make a key difference in expected results. For example, an oversized flat envelope package tends to deliver the highest response rate: 6.6 % for a house file and 4.9% for a prospect list. Next most effective in terms of response are postcards, with a house file response rate of 5.7% and and a prospect names' response of 3.4%. At the tail end, but still far above digital efforts, comes the standard letter format, with a 4.37% response rate for house names and a 2.5% response for prospecting. Some marketers hesitate over the more expensive oversized flats, which have the highest cost per thousand (CPM) among formats at $481 for house files and $467 for prospect files. Which is why postcards continue to win fans among B2C and B2B marketers, with the lowest CPM among direct mail formats benchmarked. However, despite their higher CPMs, the solid response rates of flats mean they can deliver the highest ROI (37% and 30% for house and prospect names, respectively). Postcards and letter packages, meanwhile, are tied in terms of ROI, with house mailings garnering a 29% ROI and prospecting turning in 23% ROI. For links to more data, see our website blog post http://www.acculistusa.com/format-drives-differences-in-direct-mail-results/

Pet Charity Mailer Opens Hearts & Wallets

AccuList USA has a long and successful history with mailing lists and data services targeting "pet parents" and organizations offering pet-related products, services and causes. One of the surefire ways to engage an audience is to use adorable animal pictures combined with copy crafted to open hearts--and wallets. Here's a recent example of direct mail to inspire our pet marketing clients, courtesy of a post by Target Marketing magazine. Best Friends, which runs the largest no-kill U.S. animal sanctuary across multiple locations, was seeking donations for its mission of ending pet homelessness. The outer envelope of their newsletter package immediately grabs attention with a picture of one of the nonprofit's doggie stars. The heart-tugging gaze is hard to ignore, especially coupled with an intriguing teaser: "Hey, whatever happened to Justin? Find out inside!" When recipients open the envelope, they find a newsletter showcasing the sad story of a pup who had a rough start, including a photo to tug at donor heartstrings. And once emotions are triggered, the format makes it easy to act by putting a donation reply form and call-to-action right at the top of the letter. If prospective donors still hesitate, the Best Friends' copy offers data on the importance and urgency of action by providing examples of the impact that specific dollar-amount donations will have. The copy also educates recipients on the organization's mission, vision and history so they connect with the larger cause. Since a picture, especially one of a winsome pup, is worth a thousand words, go to our on-site blog post for a link to the article about the mailer.

Tech Energizes Trade Show & Conference Marketing

AccuList USA has long experience in helping trade show and conference marketers with targeted lists and data services. But we also support an expanded event marketing approach that goes beyond promotion to engage audiences at every touchpoint in a multi-channel world, as a recent post for the Trade Show News Network (TSNN) blog promotes. Luckily, that is easier than ever thanks to emerging event technology trends. Any event pro not using social media to the fullest is missing a key tool in building audience per TSNN's "Top 10 Tech Trends" by Matt Coyne, Technology Engagement Architect at GES EMEA and a 10-year veteran of the events and exhibitions industry. By making it easy for registrants to share their attendance with their own social media networks, marketers can amplify an event and reach new potential attendees that can't be reached directly. Social media can also work in tandem with traditional channels, as with our Digital2Direct tool matching postal records to Facebook users for targeted social ads. Just as important as the boost in registrations is the increase in registration-to-attendee conversion driven by social media engagement, Coyne adds. Digitized content is then the engagement tool that creates an interactive event experience, building repeat attendance and luring prospects via social sharing. For example, Coyne cites the growth of devices like "Smart Badges," which act as a digital briefcase for attendees to collect digitized content. And tools like Facebook Live increase the dissemination and sharing of digital content. Digitized content also can be leveraged with gamification to increase event participation, say by awarding points for Smart Badge usage with exhibitor contacts, speaker downloads, session attendance, etc. and then posting competitive results. AI is another way to help expand attendee experiences; an example is the use of chatbot software to answer attendee questions and offer learned guidance. Finally, there are event-specific apps. Although not every event needs to spend for an app, a large conference can benefit from an app that enables visitors to track their schedules or from a dedicated lead-capture app, for example. For more, see the full blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/new-tech-energizes-trade-show-conference-marketing/

Smart Direct Mailers Embrace These Tech Trends

Direct mail marketers looking for success in 2018 should check out a blog post by Postalytics, a direct mail automation tool, which recently mined expert sources for the most influential direct mail trends of 2018, including key technologies. Unsurprisingly, automation purveyor Postalytics puts mail automation software at the top of the list, but they get plenty of industry support. Automation allows marketers to quickly generate high-quality, personalized and trackable letters and postcards by leveraging templates, digital cues and automated workflows, cutting direct mail production cycles from 4-6 weeks down to 1 week. Automation also allows marketers to maximize response by integrating triggered direct mail into any step in the buyer's journey, online or offline, so that mail delivery taps into the appropriate timing, content and call-to-action. Then interactive, mobile-scanned Augmented Reality apps and QR codes, as well as personal urls (PURLs) linked to targeted content-specific landing pages, allow direct mailers to connect offline marketing's printed paper with online marketing's digital pages, images, animations and videos for greater overall campaign response and ROI. But it takes quality, enhanced data to match the right message to the right people at the right time. Good mailing list data allows for targeting based on shopping habits and needs, retargeting and cross-selling, recapturing and reactivating of lost prospects and customers, leveraging of trigger events and personal preferences, and more--provided there is a commitment to database hygiene and processing. Good mailing data also allows for the sophisticated content personalization that has become a basic expectation of customers including personalized coupon codes. For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/these-tech-trends-likely-to-drive-2018-direct-mail-success/

Social Media Videos Star in Museum Campaign

AccuList USA's museum marketing clients are always looking for innovative ways to reach the target audience. A recent article in the Chicago Business Journal spotlights how the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago dove into innovative multi-channel marketing after 20 years without an advertising campaign. Lauren Smallwood, MCA’s director of communications, had a story to tell about exciting changes at the museum: a new restaurant, a new artist's exhibition, a new "social engagement space," and a program offering event rental space. The question was how to best leverage that story to entice audience. The museum and its agency decided to harness the proven marketing power of video. They developed a series of visually-arresting 6-second videos that both grab attention and prompt curiosity about, and exploration of, the changes at MCA Chicago. The videos are to being disseminated primarily through social media channels, with no plans for more expensive TV airing. However, the social media campaign also is reinforced by digital, print and out-of-home advertising that plays on the look and feel of the high-energy video campaign, titled “Made You Look.” Another first for MCA is the use of pop-up events. For example, an April weekend event in storefront space sought to engage visitors in the music, art and pop culture of 1979, a pivotal year in the career of artist Howardena Pindell, whose exhibition at MCA was being simultaneously promoted in the video-led campaign. To read more and get a link to the videos, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/museum-mates-social-video-and-events-in-new-campaign/

Publisher Missteps Undermine Online Subscription

Subscription marketing is a goal for most B2B and B2C publishers, but a recent Publishing Executive (PE) magazine article warns that publishers' common online errors are undermining circulation marketing investments. Access to premium content should be online but limited to subscribers, urges PE author Eric Shanfelt, founding partner of eMedia Strategist. After all, why subscribe if you can go to the website and see all content for free? Unfortunately, some publishers are so baffled by the technology of locking down content as subscriber-only that they don't even put their premium content online--losing a big selling point with digital traffic. Others are worried about reducing Google search traffic or ad impression dollars by limiting content access but not factoring in the cost of lost subscribers, argues Shanfelt. For success with subscriber-only premium content, the website must then prominently promote that premium content and its subscriber-only status via clear incentives and calls-to-action. A website or mobile subscription page should not be just an order form, Shanfelt advises. Remember that most people who visit a subscription page are just considering subscribing. They need to be sold. Visitors should clearly see the benefits of subscribing and what they get. Plus the page should generate a sense of urgency to sign up and use FOMO (fear of missing out) to push orders. Equally important, the subscription process should be quick and easy. Make the subscription link easy to see and navigation simple by putting an obvious menu item and widget on every website page, with a link directly to a single-page subscription form, not a multi-step process. And finally, make sure the subscription page is not only secure but loads quickly on desktop or mobile. If it doesn’t load in 2-3 seconds, up to 50% of potential subscribers could be lost, warns Shanfelt. In order to test and adjust marketing tactics, online subscription and confirmation pages should use Google Analytics to see how people get to subscription pages and how well they convert from different sources. Subscription/confirmation pages should also use tracking pixels from Facebook, Google, Bing and other digital sources, as well as from customer data platforms and e-mail systems. More important, circulation data needs to be integrated with the website subscription pages. If the website is synchronized with the circulation system, people can log into the site by authenticating against subscriber data to get access to premium content, for example. Integration also allows for conditional content blocks in follow-up e-mails to upsell non-subscriber leads and a sync of subscriber lists with programmatic ad networks. See the full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/publisher-mistakes-undermine-online-subscription-efforts/

Print Catalogs Still Key Multichannel Merchant Tool

Despite the growth of e-commerce, printed catalogs retain their important marketing role, and recent data from Multichannel Merchant's 2018 State of the Catalog survey highlights that trend. A big majority of the merchants surveyed (84.2% ) by Multichannel Merchant (MCM) said they continue to use print catalogs as a channel to reach customers. Their commitment to the traditional print catalog comes from its value as a multipurpose marketing tool. For example, branding led the ranking of main print catalog goals, with an 8.86 out of 10 rating. Branding was followed by web and mobile traffic driver and customer retention (both ranked at 8.14), reactivation (7.57), and prospecting and store traffic spur (6.43). Meanwhile, though measuring catalog effectiveness remains a matter of debate among merchants, a majority (57.1%) do have a formal measurement program, whether via matchbacks, tracking codes, response analysis or segmentation testing. Although merchants continue to seek maximum ROI by testing page counts and formats, the majority surveyed by MCM (83.3%) maintained the same page counts in 2017, and 50% also reported the same circulation numbers. Looking ahead to 2018, 50% planned to increase page counts, but respondents split into thirds over increasing, decreasing or maintaining circulation size. As far as frequency, 83.3% said they would hold it steady for 2018. Most merchants surveyed (57.1%) rely on both a digital catalog and a standard 8.5X11 print catalog. But many also use a "slim jim" print format (14.3%) or, especially for B2B, annual "big books" (also 14.3%). Some retailers report they send out other types of direct mail pieces, such as small gatefolds or postcards with special offers. For more on the report, go to the full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/print-catalogs-still-a-key-multichannel-merchant-tool/

Targeted CTAs Drive Arts Marketers' Digital Wins

While direct mail continues to be a sturdy workhorse for performing arts marketing, digital campaigns--via online display ads, e-mail and social media--are required in a multi-channel world. Digital subscription drives offer cost-effectiveness, off-season branding, audience segment targeting, and synergy with direct mail. But with more competition for attention in the crowded digital space and with less room for persuasion than "snail mail," digital promotion success is especially dependent on a well-designed and targeted call-to-action (CTA), as pointed out in a recent blog post by strategists at MogoARTS, a digital marketing agency for arts and cultural organizations. An effective call-to-action will differ by targeting, the post points out. With renewals, the targets are lists of current season subscribers, so the CTA messaging can be direct and should highlight an incentive like a discount or savings for renewing early or by a deadline. For acquiring new members or reactivating lapsed subscribers, targeting includes lists of previous season ticket buyers and e-mail opt-in prospects, who need to be shown the benefits of subscription (or reminded). The CTA messaging for lapsed subscribers and multi-ticket buyers should give a reason to come back or upgrade to a subscription by promoting package savings or special benefits, such as free parking or early access to add-ons. CTAs to entice new members will need to spell out subscriber benefits, either across ad units or on a landing page. The blog post makes CTA creative suggestions and cites three best practices for any CTA: 1) customization for the different audience types, meaning renewing, lapsed or new members; 2) emphasis on the benefits of a subscription package over a single ticket purchase; and 3) highlighting of the savings/special rewards available for subscribing now. For more and CTA examples, see our complete blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/arts-marketers-need-digital-ctas-that-drive-subscriptions/

B2B Trends Spur Mobile-Friendly E-Commerce

With Forrester Research forecasting steady growth in B2B e-commerce, reaching $1.2 trillion in sales, or 13.1% of all B2B sales, by 2021, smart e-commerce marketing is more essential than ever. A recent bigcommerce.com blog post highlighted many important B2B e-commerce trends, but we’ll focus on three marketing-related takeaways. First, acquisition is the new online focus. The days are gone when B2B online strategy could succeed by putting up a website as a customer service portal, a place for existing account re-orders or a passive catalog display. Online selling is becoming a core part of B2B business and sales strategy, argues bigcommerce.com post author Jillian Hufford, marketing analyst at nChannel, a multi-channel integration provider. B2B marketers should start by profiling customers to better target online and offline promotions to find high-ROI traffic. Note that a robust SEO/SEM strategy, coupled with website search tools, is essential given that 74% of B2B buyers report researching at least part of their work purchases online. Easy, seamless cross-channel ordering is another basic of online customer acquisition now. Plus, an investment in online content marketing, coupled with SEO strategy, can leverage educational and expert content on the website to attract searchers and win Google rank. A second takeaway is the trend to online and print catalogs that work in tandem. Five years ago, more than two-thirds of B2B sellers thought they would stop mailing paper catalogs. That hasn’t happened, but many B2B merchants are using an integrated multi-channel effort to balance smaller or less frequent print catalogs with more interactive online catalogs. For success with print-plus-online, the online catalog cannot merely mimic the print version. E-commerce means investing in interactive online tools that allow customizing, sharing, distributing, ordering and tracking, all supported by integrated back-end technology. Finally, and perhaps most important, mobile-friendly means revenue-friendly for today's B2B e-commerce as ever-expanding mobile device use drives marketing changes. Google and BCG research data from 2017 shows why: 80% of B2B buyers are using mobile at work; 60% of B2B buyers report that mobile played a significant role in a recent purchase; and 60% of B2B buyers expect to continue to increase their mobile usage. B2B retailers who are dragging their feet on mobile-friendly adaptation risk dragging down their own revenues; BCG research found that brands that are “mobile leaders” earn more traffic, more leads and more revenue than “mobile laggards.” For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/b2b-sales-trends-boost-mobile-friendly-online-acquisition/

Trade Show Marketers Still Embrace Direct Mail

A recent survey of exhibit managers and event marketers by Exhibitor magazine shows why direct mail continues as a promotional tool, as a companion rather than a victim of the growing use of e-mail and social media. Here are some insights we gleaned from those comments: First, the traditional rules of direct marketing continue to apply for direct mail success: Quality, targeted data is the most essential response factor. Mike Naples, business alliance manager for the United States Postal Service, reminds event marketers of the basics: "A successful campaign is 60% identifying the target, 30% making a compelling offer, and 10% creating a unique piece." Dan McAdams, vice president of sales and marketing for McAdams Graphics, is even more specific: "The most effective direct-mail projects start with a solid mailing list. A bad list yields a bad return." Second, e-mail is a mate, not a replacement, for snail mail. While acknowledging the growing use of e-mail, Holly Seese, global marketing communications manager at Celanese Corp., reminds Exhibitor readers that "hard-copy event invites are still more memorable than e-mailed ones." That can be especially true with an older target audience. "People over the age of 50 have an emotional attachment to letters that people under the age of 50 never developed," opines Keith Goodman, vice president for corporate solutions at Modern Postcard. More generally, e-mail faces headwinds in crowded, spam-filtered inboxes, while direct mail's lower volume actually boosts its impact: "Direct mail is back in vogue because few companies are using it. So a creative mailer is more likely to get read," explains Eugene Maresh, co-owner of Say it With Style Targeted Promotional Solutions. Or as Joy Gendusa, CEO of PostcardMania, sums up: "E-mail is brilliant for lead nurturing, but not for lead generation. If your message is seen as spam, you're hurting, not helping." Finally, creativity and a multi-channel mix are requirements for today's audiences. Direct mail creative must be personalized, relevantly targeted and eye-catching to engage response now. Tired tricks are not going to win interest. "An interesting shape is the best way to generate attention. Priority or overnight mail doesn't cut it anymore. It feels wasteful," asserts Rhea Cook, president of Ex Machina Design X Marketing. And because audiences also use multiple digital channels daily, they expect to engage with coordinated event promotion and response across channels, so direct mail can't go it alone if it is to be successful. Or as Jefferson Davis, trade show marketing and sales consultant at Competitive Edge, concludes: "People ask me all the time, 'What is the single best media for exhibit marketing?' But there is no single best media. The magic is in the mix." For more, see http://www.acculistusa.com/why-direct-mail-still-wins-allegiance-of-trade-show-marketers/