What's in our mailbox this month: fitness postcards from Retro Fitness, American Woman Fitness Centers, Union's United Taekwondo Academy, and Bally Total Fitness. (We're totally pumped.)
What's in our mailbox this month: mailers from botanic gardens.
Print isn't dead, and NewPoint Media proved it with a clever, simple campaign designed to drive awareness of print as an evolving—and thriving—medium.
What's in our mailbox this month: music and performance series in New York mailers. Let's get down.
The Wildlife Society shares its direct mail strategies.
10 ways to keep printed communications relevant to multichannel customers.
What's in our mailbox this month: home furnishings catalogs. Let's get cozy.
Collectum AB, administrator for Sweden's white collar occupational pension plan, devised a clever plan to get people to open its direct mail.
What's in our mailbox this month: Direct mail pieces from schools. Do they make the grade or do they have something to learn?
In 2013 the postal service will continue promotional initiatives designed both to entice marketers to integrate mobile technologies into their direct mail pieces.
What's in our mailbox this month: mailers from nonprofit relief organizations. Do they compel you to give?
What's in our mailbox this month? Credit card applications from Target, Discover, American Express, and Sears.
Insert marketers taking a data-driven approach can drive conversions by more precisely targeting customers based on their individual profiles and past behavior.
Direct Marketing News spoke with DRTV vet Kevin Harrington about the history of the DRTV channel, how it's changed, and where it's heading.
A multichannel approach provides a clearer picture of DRTV's potential.
As much as the marketing landscape changes, many of the DRTV aspects that made it attractive to marketers for decades remain unchanged.
What's in our mailbox this month: Automobile mailers. See how Hyundai, Honda, Toyota, and Volkswagen rated.
Outdoor furniture/entertaining: Which catalog would you want to invite to your backyard party?
Former presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is reportedly renting out his list of donors for up to $26,000.
School is out for summer, but for marketers, dealing with teens is a year-round learning process.
Marketers are elevating their pop-up store strategy, as the concept of the temporary store matures.
What's in our mailbox this month: 6-by-9 inch direct mail pieces from Bare Necessities, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Nordstrom and Sears.
Retailers have now begun to embrace gift cards as both a product and a marketing vehicle, not just a way to grab stray dollars from indecisive shoppers.
Diane Berry, SVP of Coveo, discusses how companies can use customer data to align service, sales and marketing.
With 2012 approaching, there is a single, inescapable trend that we are seeing, no matter the marketing channel: big data.
The 2012 campaign season is already heating up, and while politicians will be buzzing about their social media and digital marketing tactics, direct mail is a stalwart for political campaign marketing that isn't going anywhere.
This holiday shopping season could finally make free shipping the norm among multichannel retailers — and free returns could be next.
Hampton Direct, a direct marketer with previous direct response TV (DRTV) successes with the Total Pillow and the Wonder Hanger, faced a challenge with its PajamaJeans. Apparel is tricky to sell on direct channels, since the shopper can't feel the fabric or the fit of the garment.
With 300-plus direct response TV campaigns under our belt and more than 15 years of experience in online customer acquisition, I believe there's nothing more important than wrapping one's head around the critical roles of websites and search in DRTV campaigns.
Facing a fourth holiday of economic uncertainty, merchants this year will attempt to repeat the success they had attracting shoppers in 2010. Experts predict an onslaught of coupons, free shipping and multichannel efforts to draw in recession-weary consumers.
Direct mail is more interesting than ever and our ability to leverage it effectively to acquire, retain and grow customer relationships gets stronger all the time. It is more expensive than its electronic brethren.
Rider Dickerson used the variable printing capacities and incorporated marketing software by MindFireInc. to execute a campaign that included personalized letters and postcards to 385,000 prospects, followed up with targeted emails.
Logicalis wanted to promote its data center and IT consulting solutions in a crowded marketplace, according to Amee BellWanzo, account services executive at Sudden Impact Marketing, which worked with Logicalis.
We often discount our business turning to "couponing" as the last bastion in our marketing toolboxes to spike sales and momentarily hit revenue goals. Recently, like clockwork, we perused the cache of options we had stashed in our coffers, selected the one we forecasted would have the swiftest impact, mailed the offer and waited for the results.
Charities struggling in a weak economy are required to do more with less toward their fundraising efforts, so they are sharpening their messages and audience-segmentation tactics when it comes to direct mail campaigns.
If you could identify which names in your next mailing are likely to become high lifetime value customers — and which aren't — would you change your deployment strategy? That's the idea behind optimizing campaigns through list scoring.
Townsend Communications publishes magazines sent to the homes of high school juniors and seniors, aimed at helping colleges recruit incoming students. It also runs MyMajors.com, a site which leads students through a short quiz that recommends majors and matches them with colleges.
Billboards and installations usually remain static. However, after credit card company MasterCard rolled out its "Priceless New York" campaign in July, it wasn't the TV ads, the dedicated blog, the social media or online banner ads that were arguably the most direct digital components.
It's not just about 800-numbers anymore. Direct response TV, once seen as a low-rent ad form, is quickly gaining momentum, as leading national advertisers embrace the medium and integrate it with other digital platforms.
Outreach Inc., one of the nation's largest providers of church-outreach programs, needed help during crunch times — especially around Easter and Christmas, its two top mailing periods. During Easter, it mails from 6 million to 10 million postcards, requiring employee overtime and sometimes outsourcing to meet deadlines.
Reward certificates, rebates, points and miles are well- known marketing tactics that have become standard operating procedure in the competitive travel and hospitality field. So it's fitting that a set of standard practices governing how companies account for incentives is about to be adopted in the US.
Two years of deal-seeking and a faltering economic recovery mean consumers won't stop looking for discounts, and offline deals will remain an important tactic for marketers, say industry experts.
Commerce Payment Systems, a provider of credit card processing solutions, was prospecting for new accounts mainly through paid search, but its costs were rising sharply, and CEO Michael Mendlowitz began to reexamine the search marketing strategy.
Direct marketers are able to personalize consumer experiences across multiple touchpoints with the advent of digital marketing and new software packages. Customers who visit a website, for example, experience a personalized encounter that assembles the Web page relevant to the customer's relationship.
Brands such as Burger King Corp., United Parcel Service of America (UPS) and Hotels.com are adopting in-app ads, capitalizing on the growing number of consumers using smartphones and the deep engagement provided by mobile applications.
While the mobile marketer crowd is abuzz about the latest location-based marketing tools, "old-fashioned" location-based event promotions are hitting the road and helping marketers effectively build their in-house databases.
The United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU), a nonprofit financial institution serving more than 90,000 United Nations agency staffers, retirees and their families, wanted to launch a Visa "smart card" aimed at individuals who travel frequently overseas.
Hundreds of articles, webinars and materials have focused in the last few years on how marketers can become more environmentally friendly. While many organizations want to be considered green marketers with a reputation as good stewards of a healthy environment, are green goals really a driving factor behind marketing?
Direct marketers are concerned about the prospect of additional postal increases, overshadowing worries over printing materials.
Marketers rely on direct response consumer data to make strategic business decisions, and the explosion of media options has only increased the importance of measuring the quality of advertising results.
The tough housing market has been a challenge for companies such as BlueLinx Corp., a distributor of building products with more than 11,500 customers nationwide. It means merchandising products and services efficiently is critical.
The digitalization of marketing won't trigger the end of direct mail. For most marketers, a campaign's effectiveness is contingent upon marrying traditional direct marketing tactics with digital technology. That is particularly true for new customer acquisition tactics.
Capital Hospice, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit providing end-of-life care, wanted to create fundraising appeals that would attract larger gifts, while cutting back on mailing costs. DirectMail.com worked with Capital Hospice to define list selects and analyze appeal copy, first by segmenting the nonprofit's donor file.
Consumers are inundated with printed promotional messages every day, ranging from brochures to fliers and postcards.
The postal rate increase coming this spring is not expected to have a significant effect on direct mail marketing plans this year, thanks to its size and timing.
In summer 2010, after the passage of healthcare reform, WPS Health Insurance charged SeQuel Response with the launch of supplemental health insurance for retirees too young for Medicare.
As we move at light speed into a world that continually serves up new media options, we often look over the documented tenets of good, solid direct mail use in conjunction with an integrated campaign. A quick reminder never hurts.
A US Postal Service update to its periodical content rules last July gave marketers a new route to send creative print materials at a discount.
My visceral reaction to this spot was positive. It was against the expectation of what Godaddy.com was known for: misogynist, salacious marketing. Instead, this spot was fun and self-deprecating.
Insurance marketers kicked off 2011 with a plethora of new direct response campaigns, from TV spots to Facebook sweepstakes.
A stabilizing economy and an energized competitive environment has had credit card issuers out in full force, enticing potential new customers as well as current cardholders with rewards and new products in order to stand out.
A fundamental truth of online marketing is that not every customer can be generated solely through the Internet, and even fewer will be generated by their first interaction with an advertiser.
Part of the Obama administration's health reform legislation shortened the annual marketing and enrollment period for Medicare Advantage, from six months to three months.
The ImageOut Festival in Rochester, NY has steadily grown in its 18-year history, most recently screening 87 films to more than 10,000 attendees last October. This year, the festival sought further expansion of its marketing efforts.
Single-cup coffee brewing company Keurig is well known for the brewers it sells to corporations.
One would think that by now, the word "solution" would have run its course as a direct marketing and sales word.
Chico's FAS, a women's retail company, was having a hard time using customer data effectively.
This may be remembered as the season of free shipping. Many catalogers are offering free delivery, often with no minimum-spending limit, to get the attention of holiday shoppers.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Hong Kong partnered with DDB and Tribal DDB to raise awareness of battery-farming practices in Hong Kong and elsewhere with the "Think Your Place is Small?" campaign. The campaign offers recipients a perspective on chickens' homes in captivity.
Financial doomsday scenarios at the USPS, coupled with advancements in customer communications, are forcing marketers to prepare for a day when the US Mail is a far smaller piece of their business plans.
Retailers continue to rely on catalogs this holiday season, but the catalog role is changing.
Direct mail continues to be a very viable channel, but only if the direct marketing fundamentals are applied.
Automaker's creative approach sets it apart from the tournament crowd to promote brand to 'influencers'
The US Postal Service's financial health is directly tied to its sales volume. Therefore, the USPS is making plans to adjust its finances for 10 years from now, when mail volumes may drop.
KeyBank, a division of KeyCorp, was spending an inordinate amount of time and budget on the creative portion of its direct marketing efforts to consumers and small business customers.
While no one argues the importance of good digital marketing programs, some marketers have turned to more traditional forms of direct marketing to cut through the online clutter.
Tapped by the US Census Bureau, Draftfcb New York led a massive marketing campaign aimed at making sure the increasingly diverse US population sent in its 2010 Census forms, while keeping labor costs for door-to-door staff to a minimum.
Direct response marketers can either waste time lamenting about how difficult it is get a critical mass audience, or they can take advantage of today's marketplace fragmentation.
Colleges turn to myriad marketing tactics at a time of soaring enrollment
Marketers squeeze maximum impact from their multidimensional and nontraditional shaped mailers with targeted creative packages. Our experts explain successful strategies using unique mail pieces
The recession caused marketers to rethink direct mail design for both customer acquisition and retention efforts.
Marketers are making use of recent printing and production technologies to enhance the outer envelope with customized messages and other embellishments.
Steaz reaches out through mom blogger, Chilton Memorial tries variable data, KCSM tunes up awareness with direct mail.
Now that the CARD Act is in place, many credit card companies have come out the gate this quarter with renewed vigor, ready write a new chapter in their marketing playbooks.
Sir Speedy and PIP use Vertis' technology for dimensional mailings; Rosetta uses augmented reality to make it snow; VistaPrint uses social media to promote sweepstakes
Virtual Premise looks for a lead-gen lift, Follet Software offers a free trial, Century Novelty reworks pay-per-click.
Zpizza promotes loyalty program, American Airlines reaches out to businesses and Huggies engages mom bloggers.
JCPenney's postal affairs manager Ty Taylor discusses the retailer's catalog and mail strategy
Hargray uses direct mail for holiday campaign; DMA gets personal with show attendees; CollegeAmerica geotargets prospective students
Direct mail campaign from travel company Backroads, Lego's search effort with iCrossing, Qdoba uses mobile to drive loyalty
Business-to-business technology marketers have found that their audience of business decision makers responds well to entertaining messaging as a way to cut through the current economic malaise.
Business-to-business marketers seeking hard-to-reach prospects and looking to address their pain points and know that direct mail provides key benefits as part of an integrated campaign. Four experts share how it's done
DMNews spoke with Tom Day, SVP of Intelligent Mail and Address Quality at the US Postal Service, about the basics of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMB).
Direct mail remains an effective way for apparel marketers to send targeted messages that drive both online and offline purchases.
Hear what Will Payovich, director of creative services at Euro RSCG Chicago, thinks of recent campaigns from Cinnabon, furntiture store company The RoomPlace and Progress Energy.
Thanks to the recent postage increase and economic pressure, mailers are once again in search of ways to cut costs and improve the efficiency of their efforts. Four industry experts share their best belt-tightening tactics.
Company of the week R2C GroupR2C creates, produces, distributes and measures messages that inspire and compel consumers to do something with a brand to drive commercial advantage. The full-service advertising agency specializes in creative, production, media, analytics and performance. |
What's in our mailbox this month: fitness postcards from Retro Fitness, American Woman Fitness Centers, Union's United Taekwondo Academy, and Bally Total Fitness. (We're totally pumped.)
Social data can improve a brand's bottom line and customer relationships. Just ask brands Infiniti and Diamond Nexus.
Here are three must-have data sets that every marketer should include in his or her email strategy.
