2016 Digital Spending Set to Rise; Direct Mail Steady

Online advertising and social media engagement efforts are forecast for the biggest surges in marketing spend this year, while direct mail holds its own, according to the annual Target Marketing magazine "Media Usage Survey." Of surveyed marketers, 54% plan to increase online advertising and 55% plan to boost social media engagement (brand pages, sharing updates, interactions), plus 49% also plan to boost social media ad spending. E-mail rules the roost as the most popular marketing channel, with 97% of respondents planning e-mail campaigns (and 49% planning to increase e-mail budgets). However, marketers sent mixed signals on mobile marketing, despite its supposedly "must-have" status, with the 38% who say they plan to increase outlays balanced by the 33% who don't even plan to use mobile in 2016. Amid the channel ups and downs, direct mail remains a steady choice in the marketing channel mix; although slightly more plan no direct mail (25% compared with 22% last year), most marketers, 69%, say they will either increase spending or hold spending steady. Television is the biggest channel loser for direct marketers, with 79% avoiding any DR TV ads and 76% nixing non-infomercial TV ads, too. For details of trends for all channels: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-channel-spending-trends/

Brand Marketers Are Ignoring Consumer Preferences

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

How to Avoid Common and Costly E-mail Flubs

Some e-mail mistakes sneak up on even experienced marketers. Check out the recent MarketingProfs article by Amanda Kiviaho to see five of the most common e-mail pitfalls and tips for avoiding costly marketing tumbles. At the top of her list is tacking on the subject line as a marketing afterthought. The subject line is key to open rate and thus click-through, so make sure it is part of e-mail strategy from the get-go, is based on past performance metrics, and is constantly tested to optimize, Kiviaho advises. Next, though relevant content is supposedly a marketing mantra, e-mails still blast out without regard to recipient interest or value, resulting in a disengaged. even disappearing, audience. The lesson: Content needs to be tied to smart e-mail list segmentation--using past response metrics such as opens, clicks, purchases or sign-ups. Expecting creative changes to result in immediate lift also can lead e-mail marketers astray toward ineffective updates or premature abandonment of changes, Kiviaho warns. Use A/B testing before roll-out and then be patient in judging results; response to new creative can initially dip before outperforming a control over time. Another common error is focus on revenue generation to the point of counterproductive over-mailing; one antidote is a disciplined e-mail calendar that monitors frequency and response by segment. Finally, e-mail does not earn optimum performance as a stand-alone, Kiviaho cautions; e-mail plans should draw input across the organization and marketing channels. Read more at http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2014/26200/five-email-mistakes-even-the-experts-make

Using a Scientific Approach to Direct Marketing

Thanks to evolving technology, today's direct marketing can rely more on scientific discipline than risky, intuitive market reads. A recent article in Direct Marketing News highlighted a five-step scientific approach that you can apply to almost any marketing channel -- social media, e-mail, mobile, display ads and, of course, direct mail -- courtesy of Matt Dopkiss, CEO and founder of Dynamit, a data, design, and technology company. Here's Matt's "big bang theory meets big data." First, identify the hypothesis, or marketing question, that a campaign is seeking to answer (say, which offer gets to highest response). Make sure that the test hypothesis is specific, measurable and actionable. Second, use a control model for comparison of results. Compare the response of subscribers receiving a new e-mail version with a set of subscribers not receiving the e-mail, for example. Third, use statistics to verify your theory, collecting enough data to draw valid conclusions -- but not such a huge data set that noise overwhelms actionable results. Fourth, repeat tests to make sure results can be reproduced and are not due to timing or extraneous factors (such as weather, news events, etc.). Finally, be certain you are applying the right technical tools and methods (and trained staff) to extract actionable data. For more detail, go to http://www.dmnews.com/the-big-bang-theory-meets-big-data/article/369346/