B2B Gifting Survey Finds Keys to Gift ROI

We recently ran across some interesting data from a study by Knack, a Seattle gifting company, that should help both corporate gift suppliers to craft the most appealing packages and business gift buyers to maximize their gift effectiveness. The good news from the Knack "Business Gift Satisfaction Survey" is that corporate gifting works well when it is done well: 57% of respondents said that "gifts can impact their opinion of a business partner both positively and negatively." In fact, over 80% of C-suite executives surveyed said they believe that business gifts generate measurable positive ROI in addition to intangible benefits. Since there's a huge investment involved annually, with the market for non-cash business gifts estimated at $125 billion, getting the most positives and fewest negatives is clearly vital. Return-on-investment for a business gift to high-value targets, such as C-suite executives, is highest if the gift tells a story and facilitates a deeper personal connection, per the survey. Quality is more important than the quantity spent to achieve that personal connection; the survey finds that the right amount to spend per gift is between $50 to $150. What defines quality? The best impression comes from good presentation/packaging and the kind of personalization that logo items and gift cards lack, per gift recipients. A memorable gift will seem selected just for the recipient; will include a personal message and will have "value attributes," such as a handmade/artisan item or a gift supporting an appropriate cause, such as ecological sustainability or made-in-U.S.A. For a checklist of fail-safe business gifting tips, see our website blog at http://www.acculistusa.com/b2b-gifting-survey-finds-personal-memorable-score-roi/

Direct Mail Still Powers Nonprofit Fundraising

Interest in direct mailing lists and services from AccuList USA's nonprofit clients remains strong despite the growing share of donor dollars collected via online giving. Some of the reasons that fundraising pros stay committed to mail power are cited in a recent article for The NonProfit Times by Mark Hrywna. Despite the growing share of donations attributed to online giving, Steve MacLaughlin, vice president of data and analytics at fundraising tech firm Blackbaud, stresses that online giving is still less than 10% of all charitable giving. Fundraisers need to avoid confusing the channel of engagement with the channel of transaction, he advises. Direct mail response certainly is no longer limited to mailed donations as many direct mail recipients go online to give; similarly, a mobile-device outreach or e-mail appeal can generate offline gifts. Even in an increasingly digital world, a good multi-channel mix will include direct mail. Hrywna cites Make-a-Wish Foundation as an example of that continued direct mail investment. When Chief Financial Officer Paul Mehlhorn started with Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2009, he recalls that he was told direct mail was a dinosaur that would be gone in five or six years. Yet last year the national office exceeded 2009 direct mail revenue by several million dollars, going from $13.9 million to $15.3 million. "It looks to me like a program that can stay very strong for the next 10 to 15 years," Mehlhorn asserts to Hrywna. In fact, Mehlhorn says he may expand on his direct mail investment: "As you get past the low-hanging fruit, [online] becomes almost as costly as direct mail. Unless you enlarge your donor pool, you’re going to be spending about the same." Plus, there are some areas where direct mail retains an edge, such as planned giving. Make-A-Wish Foundation has seen revenue from planned gifts just about triple during the past four years, growing from about $2 million to $6 million, and Mehlhorn credits part of that success to actively promoting planned giving in direct mail as well as online campaigns. “A lot of the folks now making end-of-life plans are still in that generation that likes getting mail,” he points out. See the full blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/direct-mail-still-powers-fundraising-especially-planned-giving/

Why You Should De-dupe Your Data

Anna Kayfitz, CEO of StrategicDB Corp., recently offered AccuList USA this expert advice on why direct marketing success requires de-duping data: 

In today’s data-driven marketing, data is not only the most important asset that your company can have but can also make or break your campaign. Having clean data impacts not only marketing activities but also impacts your reputation, operations and decision-making. De-duping is one of the most important aspects of overall data hygiene. Duplicates can be found on many levels of data; they arise at the household level, individual e-mail level or company level. If you are not convinced that you need to de-dupe, consider the following five benefits. First, you can avoid different offers to the same customer. For example, you send two different direct mail creatives to the same household. As one of the records was a customer, you decided to provide a returning customer 15% off, while the other record was marked as a prospect and only got 10% off. Now the person opening both direct mails will be confused by having two different discounts, and the company also can face a PR nightmare. Second, you can cut unnecessary cost. For example, assume you are doing a direct mail creative which costs you $5 per mailing. Your list contains 10,000 recipients. The total cost of mailings therefore is $50,000. If you decided to de-dupe, you would find out that 10% of your mailing list was duplicated. Therefore, $5,000 was a waste of resources. It would have been much cheaper to de-dupe prior to deploying your campaign. Third, you will get better analytics for decision-making. Analytics is important not just from a perspective of understanding how your marketing and sales is performing but also from a decision-making perspective. By having duplicates in your CRM, you are going to be double-counting your list capabilities, miscalculating your true growth rates, and getting the wrong rate of responses. If you are looking to make a decision on future campaigns, basing it on duplicate data will will give you the wrong list count, wrong budget and possibly the wrong creative picked (especially if you are basing it on an A/B testing done previously). Next, de-duping helps prevent customer service confusion when clients call in, e-mail or come into the store. For example, Mary Smith is found twice in your CRM with the same phone number. She calls in to your customer support to inquire about her order status. Your customer service rep decides to pull up the customer account by phone number and finds two records. Now she has to put the customer on hold while she checks both accounts to try to locate the last purchase before she can even assist the customer. Not only is it wasting everyone’s time and making customer service inefficient, it also makes the customer have a bad customer service experience. Finally, the biggest impact that duplicates have on your business is a potential loss of sale. If you have duplicates, you do not have a true view of all prospect or customer activities. Therefore, you could be excluding prospects from a sales call because your lead scoring system indicated that they are not ready. However, if the data from both records was combined, you would have all signals indicating they are ready to be passed on to sales. With duplicates, by the time you figure it out, a customer may have already lost interest and gone with your competitor. De-duping should be part of your data-cleaning initiative, either prior to any major campaign or on a yearly basis. You can easily de-dupe your list by using a de-duping tool that will require less effort to identify duplicates and establish a master record than is required to deal with the consequences of duplicate data. For more help, see http://www.acculistusa.com/why-you-should-de-dupe-your-data/

2018 USPS Rate Hikes Challenge Marketers

On January 21, the U.S. Postal Service bumped up its rates for almost all mailings by direct marketers and publishers: Marketing Mail (formerly Standard Mail), First Class Mail Retail, First Class Mail Discount and Periodicals. What are some of the strategies to offset the effect on marketing budgets? Before panicking, mail marketers need to check out the whole USPS rate change grid. A 1% to 2% overall increase will be higher or lower depending on the class, weight, zone, density and special services required, and there are actually some savings to be had. For example, while the First Class stamp is going from $0.49 to $0.50 for a 1-ounce letter, a 2% bump, the USPS did not increase the additional ounce rate, so the percentage change gets smaller as items get larger. Meanwhile, metered letters are increasing from $.46 to $.47 in postage, which offers a significant savings of $0.03 per piece for those using a postage meter or PC postage, points out a recent Mailing Systems Technology post. Although most USPS discounts are tied to doing more work, such as barcoding or sorting, this metered rate savings is automatic for just using a system to print postage that costs as little as $20 per month, the article notes. There are other savings to be had via presorting, adds the Mailing Systems Technology article. For example, last year the USPS increased the weight limit for letter rates from 2 ounces to 3.5 ounces. Now, with the rate for a 3-ounce metered letter at $0.89 and a commercial rate of $0.378, there's a potential 58% savings from using presort services. Package changes can help the budget, too. Folding a flat (9x12 or 10x13) package into a 6x9 envelope could mean significant savings with the new rates. A three-ounce flat at $1.42 now could cost as little as $0.378 if it can be put in an envelope and automated through in-house software or presort services. Plus, mailers sending Priority Mail items at retail rates using Click-N-Ship or a postage meter can switch to a PC Postage solution using commercial rates to save 10% overall, or 2% to 40% less based on weight and zone. As data brokers, AccuList USA stresses that these postal cost changes also should push marketers to use data-driven direct mail in more strategic and creative multi-channel campaigns. To maximize mailing ROI, marketers should cut wasted mail by improving targeting, mailing list selection, and data/address quality, as well as apply response-boosting creative tactics, such as personalization and special printing effects. For rate tables and more advice, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/2018-usps-rate-hikes-challenge-direct-marketers/

Survey: Hikes to 2018 Digital Marketing Spend

Digital marketers are already looking ahead to 2018 results, with most planning to increase digital spending according to a recent survey by Ascend2, which found that 93% of firms expect to boost digital marketing budgets in 2018. The survey, conducted in December 2017, tapped 217 marketing influencers, with 43% working for B2B firms, 35% for B2C firms, and 22% for hybrid firms. The combined 52% planning marginal increases and 41% planning significant boosts in 2018 digital marketing budgets dwarfed the 7% who intend to decrease digital spending. But the more interesting data involves where the marketers foresee the biggest bang for digital bucks in the year ahead. Respondents expected the most effective digital marketing tactics in 2018 to be social media marketing (18%), followed by content marketing (17%). Search engine optimization was seen as most effective by 15%, e-mail marketing was seen as leading by 13%, and paid search and social ads was chosen by only 11%. The lower ranking of e-mail and search ads was not due to execution barriers; both were rated as among the least difficult to implement. In contrast, surveyed marketers reported the greatest execution difficulties for data management (18% rated as most difficult) and marketing technology (also 18%). Content marketing and search engine optimization tied for second place in terms of implementation challenges, with both selected by 16%. For a link to the full report, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/2018-digital-marketing-spend-to-rise-high-hopes-for-social/

At Year-end, Check KPIs to Gird 2018 Marketing

The busy year-end holiday season, especially for fundraisers and retailers, should not distract direct marketers from the working on the analytics they need to finalize next year’s marketing plans and ROI. Marketing ROI is about effective spending and requires tracking results by channel and campaign. KPIs use actual annual outlay for direct mail marketing (lists, print, lettershop, creative, postage), digital marketing (e-mail, SEO/SEM, landing pages, social media and creative), as well as spending on PR/events/content marketing. Marketers must keep a tally of the number of outbound leads attributed to direct mail or e-mail campaigns, as well as the inbound leads generated by efforts such as SEO, blog content or PR. Then a cost per lead acquired (CPL) can be calculated by dividing annual expenditure by the number of leads generated. Since the ultimate goal is sales not merely leads, the percentage of leads that become paying customers and the dollar sales per lead are key measures. Beyond general performance, marketers should use measurement to fine-tune future plans and budgets. This means identifying the response rates and conversion rates for each channel, for each direct mail and digital campaign, and for tests of creative, timing, frequency, lists and segments. Performance rates should be measured not only for campaigns to acquire new leads/customers but also targeting of existing customers and reactivation of dormant customers. Website traffic reports from Google Analytics can not only show online ad and SEM effectiveness but also track spikes around direct mail or e-mail promotions to give a fuller picture of response. A simple ratio of the return on marketing investment can be calculated by adding up incremental sales from marketing and subtracting marketing amount spent, and then dividing the result by amount spent on marketing. But remember that a focus on annual or campaign results can be myopic since these do not necessarily deliver long-term growth. Marketers need to look at customer and prospect databases to make sure they are growing year-over-year. Because acquiring a single sale per lead also is less profitable long-term than acquiring a repeat customer, average customer lifetime value is vital and calculated by multiplying average dollar sale per customer by the average number of purchases per year and the average retention time in years. For a helpful KPI checklist from Digital Dog Direct, see http://www.acculistusa.com/use-key-direct-marketing-kpis-to-gird-2018-plans/

Nonprofits Enter Year-end Fundraising Season

With a third of annual giving occurring in December, over half of nonprofits starting year-end plans in October, and direct mail the leading fundraising channel, October often sees final tweaks to direct marketing plans. So nonprofit marketers may want to check their current campaigns against the four-step master plan recently offered by fundraising consultant Gail Perry on her blog. Step 1: Set goals for each donor segment, and don't forget lucrative leading-donor annual gifts, lapsed donors and board members. Step 2: Select channels for a multi-pronged appeal, integrating direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, social media, website, and video creative--and design a consistent message for all. Step 3: Gather resources and set a budget. Step 4: Set a timeline and calendar. Of course, smaller fundraisers often bemoan budget limitations at this point. A guest post by Damian O'Broin for the Institute of Fundraising offers a bracing response. Greatness is not a function of size, it’s a function of attitude, he argues, citing donor surveys. The things that matter most to donors don’t depend on big budgets and lots of staff but on good, donor-centric fundraising practices: thanking promptly and properly; showing progress and impact; getting to know supporters and responding to their needs; empowering supporters; and asking consistently. Even modest direct marketing campaigns, assuming they are well targeted, can use these practices to boost response. For details and tips of Perry's year-end master plan, see our complete blog post at http://www.acculistusa.com/nonprofits-crucial-year-end-fundraising-drives-have-begun/

Why Direct Mail Retains a Key Marketing Role

Direct mail, perhaps because of its proven workhorse status, keeps a low profile in marketing trend articles, except for the periodic "direct mail isn't dead" reminder. Yet, despite growing use of digital channels--web, e-mail, social, mobile--the majority of marketers continue to rely on direct mail. Why? Marketing data backs up direct mail's proven response power and ROI. Target Marketing magazine’s latest study “Marketing Mix Trends 2010-2016” shows that 69% of marketers surveyed either increased or held steady on direct mail spending in 2016. The 6% of marketers decreasing their mail budgets were the smallest group since 2010. A reason for direct mail's survival as a go-to marketing channel can be seen in the the Data & Marketing Association's 2016 "Response Rate Report." The report showed 2016 direct mail response rates leaping to 5.3% for house lists and 2.9% for prospect lists, the highest DMA-tracked response rates since 2003. By comparison, 2015's reported rates were 3.7% and 1.0%, respectively. More significantly, no other channel in 2016 had response rates over 1%! Direct mail response allows it to compete in ROI despite higher costs, coming in third at 27%, close to social media's 28% (e-mail leads ROI). Bottom line, direct mail's evergreen power lies in delivering on direct marketing basics. Rather than exploring the diverse creative and tech-savvy ways to meet direct mail goals, it is easier to focus on a few big mail "don'ts," and that's the tack recently taken by Summer Gould of Target Marketing magazine in "5 Things Not to Do in Direct Mail." Gould chooses key, highly avoidable pitfalls: a hard-to-read font; dishonesty; old, bad data in mailing lists (one of our bugaboos); a missing or unclear call-to-action; and a promotional focus on features over benefits. Direct mail--no matter how loaded with interactive QR codes, variable data printing personalization and multi-channel customer analytics--will miss the mark if it misses on these basics! For more, go to http://www.acculistusa.com/how-direct-mail-retains-its-place-in-marketing-tool-chests/

Bigger Firms Lead Marketing Budget Growth Trend

Multiple marketing industry surveys are forecasting higher marketing spending in 2016, but Target Marketing magazine's latest survey reveals an interesting trend behind the upbeat outlook: The higher the company revenue, the more aggressive the push in marketing budget for this year. Overall, for business-to-business and business-to-consumer firms, the survey found that more marketers are increasing budgets this year (37% compared with 31% in 2015), and fewer are keeping spending flat (39% in 2016 compared with near 44% last year). But marketing enthusiasm definitely varies by company size. For companies with less than $1 million in revenue, the survey found 54.7% are actually holding budgets level with 2015 and just 24.5% are increasing spending. In contrast, for companies with revenues of more than $50 million, 50.4% of marketers say they are boosting marketing dollars over last year, and only 27.8% are keeping budgets even with 2015. Companies in the middle size range, with revenues of $1 million to $50 million, reflect the general budget outlook, with 41% increasing marketing outlay and 37.3% sticking with the same budget. For the magazine's 2016 survey report, go to: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/2016-marketing-budget-trends/

Content Tops Marketing Chiefs' Budget Plans

To keep up with leading marketers, plan to expand spending and refocus on content marketing, with an accent on social media. More than half of marketers not only plan to boost their budgets in the next few years, they will give content the biggest piece of the pie, according to a recent Advertising Age magazine report on a study by IBM and the CMO Club. The online survey of 100 chief marketing officers at b-to-b and b-to-c companies found that 57% plan to boost marketing budgets over the next two to three years. Content development will make up the largest portion of future marketing budgets (13.3%), followed by traditional advertising (11.5%), per the study. Other top areas of investment will be online advertising (11.1%), events (10.9%), website development (10.5%) and public relations (9.6%). Content leads marketing budgets explained Jay Henderson, director of strategy at IBM Commerce, to Ad Age because CMOs are focused on investing across the customer journey, and content requirements differ for the growing number of channels and devices at each stage, plus there is a demand for increased personalization at every stage. The survey divided the customer journey into six phases: discover (initial search), learn (research), try (testing and product comparisons), buy, use (requiring customer support) and advocate (recommending to others). The "discover" and "buy" phases currently receive the most marketer attention (20% and 21% of budget allocations, respectively), compared with the "learn" and "try" phases (16% each) and the "use" and "advocate" phases (13% and 14% respectively). But when it comes to prioritizing by channels, marketing attention is less evenly distributed, with social leading for all but the "buy" phase, when the website becomes the focus. See the full article at http://adage.com/article/btob/cmos-spending-content-buying-cycle/300181/

Marketers Embrace 2015 Spending, Including Mail

Direct marketers have finally left behind recession-inspired cautionary spending, with many in a "full-steam growth mode," per Target Marketing magazine's "2015 Media Usage Survey." And the good news for direct mail data professionals like AccuList USA is that direct mail retains a key role in media budgets. Per the survey, about 44% of business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers reported that their media budgets are staying the same as in 2014, with 32% increasing spending and only 12% planning a budget decrease. Where are they spending? Most respondents (65%) are increasing e-mail spending, and most respondents (61%) plan to increase social media engagement investments in 2015. Search engine marketing (SEM) and optimization (SEO) also both continue as high priorities, especially for acquisition, so that content marketing, video and mobile optimization—each offering strong search benefits—were cited as high priorities, too. However, snail mail is still a critically important channel for most direct marketers. Overall, 30% plan to increase mail budgets and 37% will keep spending the same compared with last year. More than half are still using direct mail for both acquisition and retention. Yes, 11% of respondents reported decreasing direct mail budgets, but, as Target Marketing sums up in its report, that doesn't mean direct mail is withering away but that "newer strategies are factoring into the direct marketing equation, and its share is being spread around to other corners of the media landscape." For more detail, read http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/target-marketings-media-usage-survey-2015/

Is Digital Dazzle Blinding Marketers to Mail Power?

There's no denying that digital advertising offers a low-cost way to quickly reach millions of eyeballs and score a high volume of clicks/leads. But we like the caveat recently provided by a Target Marketing Magazine blog post by Carolyn Goodman, president of Goodman Marketing Partners. Goodman argues that the "digital mystique" should not blind marketers to the enduring value of snail mail in delivering actual buyers. As she points out, marketing experience proves that mass media vehicles (like online ads) will tend to drive higher lead volume, but they'll be lower quality leads (lower conversion to sale); meanwhile, targeted media (like direct mail) will tend to deliver lower lead volume, but the leads will be higher quality (likely to purchase). The weak net response for digital ads is further impacted by today's noisy online landscape, she notes. As any recent Internet foray shows, digital ads are often lost in sites' excess ad clutter, poorly targeted delivery, retargeting frequency excesses, and other annoyances. Thus, while The New York Times quotes the claim of Jon Swallen, chief research officer of Kantar Media North American, that "the cost efficiencies of digital advertising enable many marketers to buy more for less," many of Goodman's startup clients are asking about putting marketing dollars into direct mail. Goodman quotes one CEO's simple explanation: "Our board no longer has the patience for our slow pace of growth because we tied our marketing investment to the digital advertising landscape. We get lots of clicks, but very few buyers." To read the full post: http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/blog/the-digital-mystique-all-smoke-mirrors

Optimistic on Economy, CMOs See Budget Growth

If you're a marketer optimistic about the economy and planning to boost spending this year, you're like the CMOs of top U.S. companies. The CMO Survey found that chief marketing officers at Fortune 1000 and Forbes Top 200 companies are more optimistic about economic prospects so far this year than they've been since the start of recession in 2008, per a recent MarketingProfs report. The surveyed CMOs also expect marketing budgets to grow by 8.7% on average in 2015, the biggest increase since 2012. The digital marketing spend is expected to lead budget growth, forecast to rise by 14.7% this year, compared with an expected 1.1% drop in traditional advertising spend. Mobile marketing continues its charge, with mobile forecast to triple its share of marketing budgets from the current 3.2% to 9% in the next three years. Meanwhile, social media hovers at an average 10% of marketing budgets, even though the majority of surveyed marketers admit that they can't quantify results and have poor integration of social with overall marketing strategy. For details, see http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/27218/how-cmos-feel-about-the-year-ahead

How to Use Campaign Data to Budget for Success

Overwhelmed by the pace and volume of "big data," marketing campaign analysis can become a shortsighted focus on lead metrics and quick reaction. We'd like to thank Bonnie Crater, president and CEO of Full Circle CRM, for her emarketingandcommerce.com article reminding marketers that campaign data is also key to long-term ROI--via improved marketing budgets and campaign development. Here are five tips on using campaign data to budget for future success: Start by using prior-year data on lead generation, close rates, average deal dollars, and ROI to provide a roadmap to current-year marketing budget targets. Second, gauge marketing performance and adjust forecasts according to industry benchmarks of realistic lead generation and campaign close rates. Third, in deciding budget allocations, don't measure campaign ROI just by first and last touchpoints; look at the detail of multi-touch, multi-channel, multi-campaign marketing to accurately credit each campaign with revenue generated. Fourth, weight the different elements affecting campaign touches (such as campaign types, user roles, when the touch occurred in the sales cycle) to better allocate spending to maximize campaign ROI. Finally, while digging into campaign data, take note of process problems, such as lead hand-off gaps and sales bottlenecks, and take action to improve efficiency of marketing and sales spending. For detail from the complete article, go to http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/article/5-tips-using-campaign-data-build-your-next-marketing-budget/1

Mail to Lead 2015 Direct Marketing Budgets

Direct mail will still lead marketing budgets this year despite all the chatter about e-mail and digital content, predicts the Winterberry Group. At a forecast $45.7 billion spend for 2015, direct mail is showing only a 1% growth, but that still puts mail well ahead of an expected e-mail spend of just $2.3 billion, as well search dollars of $26.9 (including desktop and mobile). Although targeted digital display, including desktop and mobile promotions, has the strongest predicted growth (21.1%), it still comes in well behind mail at $28.3 billion in projected spending. The key factors driving this year's direct mail budgets will be the lack of a postal rate increase in early 2015, rising mail volumes, strong acquisition mail investment to offset declining retention mailings, and a rise in digital-to-offline retargeting, according to the Winterberry study. Direct mail may also benefit from a proven ability in data-driven targeting. Across channels, Winterberry predicts that 2015 marketers will invest in data-driven promotion, with the top reason (from 52.7% surveyed) cited as the demand for more relevant, customer-centric communication. For an infographic summarizing results, check out the Direct Marketing News magazine article at http://www.dmnews.com/marketing-spending-in-2015-infographic/article/400487/

Top Digital Marketers Share 5 Secrets to Conversion

The top 20% of digital marketers have conversion rates almost twice the average 2.6%, according to Adobe's 2014 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey. How do they do it? As reported by Direct Marketing News, Adobe identified five common traits of the elite digital practitioners. First, they do more testing, with over 70% of champion converters testing, compared to only 46% of the field. Second, they spend more; 60% of respondents in the top 20% said they devoted more than 5% of their budgets to optimization activities, versus just 39% of the rest surveyed. Third, they target content, with 83% in the top 20% using automation to make content decisions, for example. Fourth, they "democratize" marketing, meaning they are 88% more likely to involve other departments in testing efforts, and that approach helped lift conversion to 4.3% instead of the 2.6% average. Fifth, those with the best digital conversion rates make mobile a key part of their strategy, with more than four-fifths of top converters describing mobile as important to cross-channel marketing success, as opposed to two-thirds of the rest of the survey. Of course, the devil's in the details; for more, read the DM News report at http://www.dmnews.com/top-20-percent-is-twice-as-good-at-converting-as-the-rest/article/378105/

Embattled 2015 Ad Spending Still Seen Up by 5%

Welcome to 2015, marketers! Here's a bit of encouragement for those cautiously emerging from squeezed 2014 budgets: There's spending growth ahead, albeit tempered by continued financial pressures. The New York Times reports that senior ad agency executives are saying that, despite continued rough sailing for advertising budgets in 2015, they foresee steady growth in worldwide ad spending of 4.8% to 5% compared with 2014. The forecast came at the 42nd annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, with executives attributing improved spending to factors such as gains in digital ad sales, mobile ad spending, and improving economic conditions in markets like India and the United States. But ad executives certainly didn't paint a rosy scenario for those seeking marketing dollars from embattled corporate budgets. As Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world's largest agency holding group in revenue, summed up to the NYT, "The biggest challenge we face as an industry is convincing clients to focus on the top line rather than reducing costs," and to get them to realize that ad spending is "an investment, not a cost." For more ad executive comments, read http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/business/media/madison-avenue-sees-rough-times-ahead-tempered-by-growth.html

B2B Content Marketers Doubt Their Effectiveness

The Content Marketing Institute's latest survey of business-to-business marketers found 86% using content marketing, but only 38% believing they are actually effective at it. One reason respondents may doubt their success is poor tracking of content marketing ROI; just 5% consider their ROI tracking "very successful," while the majority (33%) rate ROI measurement efforts as merely "neutral." Another 10% rate tracking as "not at all successful," and 15% do no tracking. For those engaged in content-marketing results measurement, website traffic was the most common metric, followed by sales lead quality and conversion rates. As far as the type of B2B content marketing done, the most popular content (92%) was for social media (other than blogs), followed by e-newsletters (83%) and website articles (81%). What were the most important goals of content marketing? Brand awareness, lead generation and engagement led the list in the survey. The study also pegged 28% as the average amount of total marketing budget spent on B2B content marketing. Unsurprisingly, there was a correlation between perceived effectiveness and spending; those rating themselves as most effective allocated 37% of the marketing budget to B2B content, while the least effective cut their spend to 16% or less of the total budget. For more data from the survey, check out the marketingland.com report at http://marketingland.com/study-21-marketers-tracking-content-marketing-results-102263

Top Event Marketing Tools: Direct Mail & E-Mail

Direct mail and e-mail marketing are the most popular -- and the most effective -- forms of attendee promotion, according to the Center of Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR) “Cost to Attract Attendees” study released earlier this year. Direct mail and e-mail together accounted for 56% of the event advertising budgets of survey respondents. The popularity of the two marketing tools held steady across a variety of different metrics, including event size, event cost, marketing reach and event organizer. So it's no surprise that respondents also judged direct mail and e-mail as the most effective forms of advertising in drawing attendees. On a five-point scale, 87% of those surveyed gave direct mail a rating of “4 – Effective” or “5 – Highly Effective.” E-mail marketing scored a four or five rating in 86% of cases. The CEIR study was based on 137 responses from executives and event coordinators for many different industries and for events with revenues ranging from under $250,000 to over $10 million. Respondents reported more variation in cost per attendee depending on event metrics. Cost per attendee showed a relatively stable decrease as overall event costs rose but remained in the low $20.00 range. Cost per attendee was more skewed by total attendance; median cost per verified attendee for events drawing fewer than 1,500 guests soared to $46.70, for example. For access to the whole report, go to http://www.abmassociation.com/News/3314/Direct-mail,-e-mail-best-event-marketing-methods

Marketing Execs Are Upbeat---and Spending

Marketers are heading into the holidays full of cheer over their markets and marketing budgets. Per a quarterly report by Forbes Insights and ad agency Gyro, 88% of senior marketing executives plan to increase or maintain their spending. Specifically, 39% of execs surveyed say they plan to ramp up ad spend, and another 49% are sticking with existing budgets. In other words, only 12% plan to slash marketing funds. As reported by Adweek in late October, the survey found 45% of execs reporting that marketing conditions had improved compared to months ago, and 46% feeling as positive about the future as they are about current conditions. That optimism isn't generating a lot of risk-taking and innovation, however; 55% of the 875 survey participants say they are spending most of their time growing existing markets, and 58% are focused on growing current product lines and services. A smaller portion, 29%, say they intend to enter new markets, and only 16% aim to grow in new markets, according to the survey. Quoted by Adweek, Christoph Becker, Gyro's CEO and chief creative officer, described the news about marketing exec mood this way: "The good news is they feel energized and positive. There has never been a better time for a brand to find the most humanly relevant way to engage with the world than today." Well, AccuList USA certainly has some "humanly relevant" marketing suggestions for energetic marketing execs. For the story, with more infograph statistics, go to http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/88-marketing-execs-are-either-maintaining-or-increasing-ad-budgets-153342