Catalog Marketing Retains Retail Clout

Consumer retail catalogs, far from fading away with the growth of e-commerce, have continued to deliver for our omnichannel retailers. A Multichannel Merchant blog post earlier this year cites a number of reasons why retailers should consider expanding, reviving or initiating a catalog marketing effort, especially with an eye to upcoming holiday spending. Catalogs are not, as some assumed, favored only by older buyers, while younger buyers focus on digital channels. In fact, research has shown that 65% of millennial target buyers have made a purchase influenced by a catalog. Today's lower mail volumes combine with the unique visual and tactile qualities of print to make catalogs stand out in terms of engaging interaction for younger generations, boosting response over online display and even e-mail. Retailers who integrate catalogs with stores, websites and mobile in omnichannel acquisition campaigns boost response and conversion overall. For example, researchers have found that 20% of first-time customers make a purchase on a retailer’s website after receiving a catalog. Today's more sophisticated data analytics and marketing technologies let marketers track spending habits and response across channels to better leverage catalogs as part of omnichannel marketing campaigns. Retailers can not only use use variable data printing to personalize catalogs based on demographics and purchase behavior but can then use intelligent fulfillment technology to integrate targeted catalogs and samples into the existing fulfillment operation to expand brand marketing opportunities. To capitalize on online response to print catalogs, retailers can use innovations such as quick codes applied to printed catalog products for easier online purchasing. And they can use nimbler, on-demand printing to offer repeat customers a catalog built to their unique interests. With holiday marketing campaigns in mind, the Multichannel Merchant post suggests that retailers with order packing software in place can simply assign an SKU to a catalog or a pending holiday Buyer’s Guide, include the SKU in order packing software rules, and pack a catalog in each shipment as part of a holiday campaign, boosting brand recognition and repeat customers. To learn more, see a listing of AccuList's consumer catalog clients at acculist.com/consumer-catalogs/(opens in a new tab)

Power Holiday E-mail With Segmentation, Offers

E-commerce and multi-channel retailers are beginning their holiday e-mail campaigns. What strategies will make for optimum results? From decades as data brokers and e-mail support providers, we can attest that targeting and smart segmentation are essential to holiday e-mail success. Of course, the house list can single out the active buyers and segment by basics such as location (no ice to Eskimos) and gender. But more sophisticated segmentation looks at purchase history in terms of product interest, in-store vs. web store, abandoned carts, purchase frequency, etc. For example, to maximize customer value, you can segment by average purchase (separating high-priced buyers from discount buyers) and send targeted e-mails with offers slightly over average order value. You can also reward and stimulate more sales from the most loyal buyers, segmented by purchase frequency or referrals etc., by e-mailing them unique holiday specials and freebies. The holiday season is also a great time to revive inactive customers, such as the previous year's holiday buyers who haven't been active since. Send them special offers to woo them back to the brand. Prior-holiday gift card buyers are a good sub-segment for a reminder e-mail about this convenient option. You can also target the most recent opt-ins who haven't converted to buyers with offers and creative most likely inspire clicks. And don't neglect to match your e-mail list to Facebook, YouTube or third-party newsletters to extend your reach via those vehicles! Although rented e-mail lists will not have the same intimate customer knowledge, you can still select by location, gender, age, product interest, and more. Holiday e-mails have to grab attention in crowded inboxes, and that means you need to get creative with offers that drive opens and clicks, too. Constant Contact recently surveyed its small business clients and gathered 30 successful holiday e-mail ideas that may help inspire your marketing. For a link to all 30 ideas, go to our full post at http://www.acculistusa.com/power-up-holiday-e-mail-with-segmentation-offers/

Ready for Holiday Sales? Don't Stint on Mail Power

As retailers head into the holiday sales season and balance their offline-online marketing mix, there's solid recent evidence to support direct mail investment, even by digital-first marketers. It's why AccuList USA continues updating mailing list research to hone response for a wide variety of multichannel retail campaigns in popular seasonal categories like gourmet and food gifts, health/beauty, hobbies/collectibles, and pets. We're buoyed by recent data. For example, among the findings of global marketing firm Epsilon's just released 2016 holiday shopping survey is shoppers' clear propensity to respond to mail. In fact, 77% of respondents said they feel advertisements received by mail will have at least “some influence” on their buying decisions this holiday shopping season. Compare that number to the just 41% of respondents who said that banner advertisements when searching online will have at least “some influence” on buying decisions. According to the survey respondents, they are influenced by direct mail because it usually contains an offer or discount and the format allows for leisurely review time. No surprises there. If any digital-first marketers are unconvinced, they should take a look at some real-life mail examples from digital market leaders, cited in a recent article for Target Marketing magazine by Paul Bobnak, director of Who's Mailing What!. For more detail on those mailing pieces, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/ready-for-the-holiday-retail-season-dont-miss-out-on-mail-power/

USPS, Mailers Prep for Busier Holiday Season

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

Survey Reveals Shoppers' Favored Holiday Promos

For online and multi-channel merchants planning their holiday shopping blitz, here's some guidance about what promotions are most likely to drive purchase decisions. Marketing Profs recently reported on the promotional preferences revealed in a survey of 1,000 holiday shoppers and 100 major retailers by commerce marketing platform Bronto and market research firm Ipsos. When it comes to online-only shopping, free shipping is a key draw, with 84% of holiday shoppers saying free shipping influences online purchase decisions and over a third (38%) saying they will not shop an e-commerce site that does not offer free shipping. Overall, including in-store sales, customers rate percent-discount promotions as the top inducement to buy (71%), followed by clearance sales (65%), buy-one-get-one (58%), dollar-off sales (52%) and free gift with purchase (47%). The interesting thing about the survey results is that merchants polled don't have the same promotional preferences; while 72% say they plan to use the percentage discounts popular with shoppers, only 38% plan to embrace BOGO sales, for example. And despite the importance of free shipping to online shoppers, only 18% of online-only merchants say they plan to offer it on all purchases; e-tailers prefer (41%) limiting free shipping to certain order values or times. Some holiday promos also differ in appeal according to consumer age. Limited-time "Flash Sales" appeal most to millennial shoppers (54% say they are more likely to buy) but decline as a purchase inducement with age, down to just 15% of those over 65. For more detail. see http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/28594/the-holiday-promotions-consumers-like-most

PetSmart's 'Dog Day' Leverages Social Marketing

PetSmart took National Dog Day, not one of the nation's most well-known occasions, and made it the center of an imaginative social media marketing plan catering to dog lovers' passion for their pets, reported a recent Direct Marketing News magazine article. PetSmart engaged in social media conversations (more than 780,000 tweets) on the fun Aug. 28 dog recognition day and rewarded user-generated content, such as personal pet photos, with fun giveaways when users tagged @PetSmart with #NationalDogDay. As a result, PetSmart earned a whopping 56% of the #nationaldogday conversation in the Twitter pet space and positioned itself as a trusted partner of pet lovers. It's not the first time PetSmart has used a quirky national day to generate social media buzz; another effort included a dog-oriented promotion for National Lazy Day during the "dog days" of summer. As the DM News article points out, other industries can emulate the PetSmart social media tactics--and have--with promotions centering on National Underwear Day or National Doughnut Day, for example. For the full article, read http://www.dmnews.com/social-media/petsmart-barks-up-the-right-marketing-tree/article/437885/

Ringing in the 2014 Holiday Fundraising Season

Year-end fundraising is a key marketing initiative for nonprofits, so what are some ways to make the 2014 holiday season cheery in terms of donations? Thanks to Elizabeth Chung of Classy online fundraising for recently posting her list of holiday-fundraising trends. First, if you are a nonprofit marketer, you've hopefully already started your push for donors because year-end giving has been starting earlier year after year. A Google study found that 2013 donation-related searches jumped 30% as early as August and September, as Chung notes. Since the same Google study also found that 75% of donors go online to learn about nonprofits, an effective online site with online fundraising capability is more critical than ever. The stage is set for a surge in online holiday donations; the first half of 2014 already recorded an 8% increase in online giving over last year. Include Giving Tuesday in online planning, suggests Chung. Since debuting in 2012, Giving Tuesday has won increasing support. Last year, donors gave 90% more than they did in 2013, and 10,000 charitable organizations participated. Here's a Trend for All Seasons: Make holiday fundraising effective with targeted list segmentation. Chung focuses on e-mail lists, but the principle applies to direct mail and telemarketing lists, too. Some suggested segmentation parameters: average donation size, last campaign or program donated to, the last time donated, and annual vs. recurring donors. Finally, use technology to enhance, not distract, from the personal giving emotion of the holidays. Personalization of mail and e-mail messages should be standard policy, along with holiday programs for donors to dedicate a gift on behalf of a loved one. Chung suggests taking the holiday card tradition digital with personalized e-cards, including e-cards for gift dedication. See the article at http://www.classy.org/blog/5-holiday-fundraising-trends/

Will Political Turmoil Scuttle Holiday Fundraising?

Since our politicians "solved" impasses over the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling by kicking the can down the road to early next year, some nonprofit fundraisers, not to mention retailers, express worry about the potential drag on holiday spending. A recent post by Angie Moore in Fundraising Success magazine's blog, urged nonprofits to exercise both watchfulness and calm. Yes, fundraisers did report a drop in giving as measured by immediate channels, such as Internet and phone, during the actual shutdown, and market researchers confirmed the negative impact on consumer behavior: 40% of consumers cut spending as a result of the shutdown, with 32% of consumers making $100,000 and up cutting back and 37% of consumer earning $75,000-$100,000 tightening their belts. Since those income brackets represent the donor targets of many fundraising campaigns, it's not unreasonable to worry that donors might stay conservative with their wallets over the holidays. But what's a reasonable marketing response? We like Moore's advice to 1) first avoid panicked, potentially unproductive changes in campaign strategy and budget; 2) but keep a close eye on metrics (such as open rates, online giving, call volume, pledge and donation amounts); and 3) if you see a reason for concern confirmed by data from vendors and fellow fundraisers, tweak the tactics with quickly measurable results (online, social, and telemarketing, for example). For the full article, see http://www.fundraisingsuccessmag.com/blog/angie-moore-fundraising-government-shutdown

Holiday Mobile E-mail: Don't Miss Millennials

Courting millennials will be pivotal to the success of many mobile e-mail campaigns this holiday season, according to a ClickZ story on research by Campaigner, an e-mail marketing provider. With eMarketer projecting U.S. holiday e-commerce to reach $61.8 billion this year, up 15% from last year, and mobile transactions expected to hit 16% of the total, mobile messaging is clearly crucial to holiday marketing--and millennials are a key component of mobile shoppers. The survey by Campaigner found a whopping 67% of the millennials, aged 18 to 34, use e-mail on their mobile devices. Of those, 10% have made transactions directly from mobile e-mail, which is more than any other age group. Yet catching the attention of millennials will not be easy, the Campaigner survey also shows. The space is competitive: 48% said marketing messages make up over half their e-mail. And the millennial targets are hard to engage: Half of those surveyed said they aren't sure about the impact of holiday marketing e-mails, and one in four said they ignore holiday marketing e-mail. The three major challenges this holiday season, Campaigner advises, will be to persuade millennials to open e-mails, to then engage them, and finally to get them to share via social media, which two-thirds said they are reluctant to do. Investing in mobile-optimized e-mail design is an obvious first step. Ease the open and engagement challenges by e-mailing those who've already shown interest: abandoned cart shoppers. Better make the content engaging while you're at it: 25% of survey respondents said they are irritated by irrelevant content. And check out your competition before launching; since you'll be elbowing each other in the tight mobile space, make sure you stand out. See the ClickZ article: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2298008/tips-for-targeting-millennials-with-mobile-email-marketing-for-the-holidays

Summer's End Marks Launch of Holiday E-mail Plans

We're in the dog days of summer, but smart e-mail marketers are already planning for the year-end holidays. In August and September, e-mails can prime shoppers for their holiday shopping, with mobile app downloads or credit card offers, for example. In October, when the average amount of promotional e-mail from retailers starts to jump from 18 to 20 messages per subscriber, digital marketers can stand out by touting pre-holiday sales, pre-ordering of hot items, wish lists and layaways. By November, those who haven't planned ahead can get lost in the chatter as retailers send an average of 25 promotional e-mails to active subscribers. Because mobile can hook holiday shoppers even outside of stores or homes, many now map out a promotional drive of mobile-friendly e-mails throughout November, including early-in-the-month Fridays and Thanksgiving Day itself as well as the traditional Black Friday shopping kickoff  and Cyber Monday, the busiest e-mail marketing day of the year. For a useful holiday e-mail planning calendar courtesy of ExactTarget, see the infographic at http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2013/11270/the-email-marketing-holiday-calendar-infographic.