Officially, Kim Ann King is the CMO of Web optimization company SiteSpect, but King's really more like the "CMTO" due to her marketing-technology infused skill set.
It's a federal regulation that affects companies like Nimbus Games, a mobile game publisher for children primarily between the ages of four to nine.
Privacy experts tackle the leading privacy issues surrounding on- and offline customer data.
Fast food restaurants often market the dining experience as much as the food itself. Take Taco Bell, for example.
Using data to align marketers' perceptions with the actual customer experience.
Jeff Diskin, SVP of global customer marketing at Hilton Worldwide, must keep 34 million HHonors members happy and returning for repeat stays.
Creating buzz and building engagement in the B2C world takes many forms. In B2B, it's all about content marketing.
The secrets to a brand gaining digital "all-star" status are the think multichannel, collaborate cross-functionally, and take creative risks.
Customer loyalty has become ever more tenuous. Marketers need to rethink their approach to building and sustaining loyalty—and data is how they'll amp up their results.
Jessica Bohm, Folica.com director of marketing, shares insights into the hair care e-commerce brand's highly successful customer referral program.
Want to reach prospects and cultivate leads? The choices are overwhelming. Marketers have to make educated choices—and the occasional leap of faith.
Brands are embracing integrated social/local/mobile campaigns to address the challenge of right time, right place, right offer.
Multichannel marketing + customer engagement = transaction. Brands share what they're doing to identify the ideal blend.
TRUSTe's recent report on consumer perceptions of mobile and online privacy show that there's more distrust around privacy policies in mobile apps.
Behavioral targeting can be a highly effective marketing asset when customer data is used wisely, not wildly.
Are mobile 2D barcodes the future of direct? Could be, says Gary Reblin of the USPS.
Marketers who still fully embrace traditional marketing tools such as print catalogs and direct mail have an opportunity to stand out to consumers bombarded by digital pitches.
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.
As more consumers turn to smartphones to find information on products and services, brands are overhauling their desktop search strategies for mobile.
Starwood's global digital marketing head Grazia Ochoa on what the brand is doing in the mobile space now and where it plans to be soon.
Facebook's ubiquitous reach now extends into the social commerce arena.
LBS and QR codes leave an impression on the mobile marketing landscape.
Location-based services that depend upon intimate knowledge of customers' whereabouts give some customers pause.
Location-based technology and QR codes are in heavy rotation at the Ford Motor Company.
Brands embrace mobile commerce by developing apps and building sites for smartphone and tablet users, as well as optimizing their e-commerce sites.
Retailers delve deep into their quantitative and qualitative consumer data to position brands and create rich customer experiences and personalized communications.
Sandra Zoratti, VP of marketing solutions at Ricoh discusses the changing landscape of b-to-b marketing.
With each individual able to carry their business around with them on a tablet or phone, b-to-b marketing has sought a number of ways to reach on-the-go executives.
Avoiding common email marketing mistakes will ultimately drive better campaign ROI.
Dell strives to better target its customers and market its brand.
Marketing experts agree that gamification drives powerful and prolonged consumer engagements. But is the technology too new to invest in?
Tim Anderson, SVP of retail and foodservice, Challenge Dairy, on the company's use of engaging, interactive marketing.
These apps do the trick when it comes to interactive gamification.
Jennifer Barrett Glasgow, global privacy leader, Acxiom Corp., discusses privacy concerns among global marketers.
Beiersdorf AG's skincare brand Nivea wanted to make a splash upon its 100th anniversary this year, kicking off a one-and-a-half billion dollar global multichannel campaign in 96 key markets — its largest global promotion ever.
To grow their scale beyond borders, marketers must negotiate a maze of channels, data and cultures .
Hospitality and travel company Carlson relaunched its Goldpoints Plus hotel loyalty program on March 31. The revamped Club Carlson loyalty program featured free in-room Wi-Fi, no blackout dates, rollover nights and complimentary room upgrades, among other benefits.
Competition among loyalty programs is more intense than ever, but are consumers cooling to them?
As marketers begin to connect the dots between their integrated programs' online and offline elements and tag offline elements with digital components, they are on the cusp of attaining fully measurable cross-channel initiatives.
Mark Krebs, VP of marketing at Kirkland's, discusses his company's integrated marketing media mix.
With the explosion of media choices, today's consumers are everywhere at once — and yet, never in one place for very long.
Bernard Luthi, VP of marketing, Web management and customer service at Newegg, discusses how his company uses DRTV.
As DRTV marketers move well beyond their own traditional medium, companies that were built as shop-from-home cable TV networks are doing the same, broadening the appeal beyond TV. HSN (formerly the Home Shopping Network), QVC and ShopNBC have all enhanced sales capabilities online and through mobile devices.
Marketers are integrating their DRTV strategies with online tactics to grow consumer response and improve measurement capabilities .
B-to-b marketers are finding innovative ways to convert business not just to customers, but long-term partners.
Christa Carone discusses Xerox's b-to-b client retention strategy.
Gauging the effectiveness of marketing continues to be a challenge, but this is especially true of companies whose marketing activities support retention or upsell within existing accounts. But vague metrics can become manageable once marketers set specific goals.
Facebook's ubiquity creates opportunities for marketers to reach customers with more relevant and interactive messages .
Measuring the value of marketing efforts on Facebook remains a mix of art and science. While most marketers agree that putting an exact value on the fans, shares or interaction on Facebook is difficult, they do express optimism that the Facebook ROI moment is not far off.
Sarah Personette, director of global agency relations at Facebook, discusses her new unit.
Marketers' lead generation tactics have grown more sophisticated. They are spending more time nurturing and scoring leads in favor of quality, a move away from the days of buying up big lists and collecting business cards.
Marketers employ a broad spectrum of behavioral tracking techniques to differentiate good leads from bad leads, effective campaigns from ineffective campaigns and to establish the best way to respond in either circumstance. Analyzing email click-through, email open rates, time on site and page views are among the many different statistics accessible today to qualify leads.
Marketers' search programs must be laser focused but nimble to keep up with algorithm tweaks and social and mobile while not neglecting the essentials of SEO that can organically propel brands to the top.
The purpose of search engines' evolving complexities may be to deliver more precise results for users, but a byproduct of that accuracy is more targeted data collection for marketers.
The printing industry's newfound creativity has recaptured marketers looking for impact as it races to compete against its digital brethren
Marketers sound off on how rising costs are impacting strategies.
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.
Online retailers drove a holiday season of aggressive discounts that may be ingraining a culture of 24/7 bargain hunting among their customers.
Despite a seemingly nonstop deal-of-the-day bonanza this past holiday season, retailers remained careful in determining how to position price cuts.
"E-tailing is a big part of what retail is today," says David Friedman, president, marketing at Sears Holdings Corp. He should know: Friedman, who joined the retailer in September 2010, is the former president, Americas, of interactive marketing agency Razorfish.
Mobile advertising, once nascent, has grown into an increasingly important, but fractured marketplace.
Navigating a mobile ad buy can be confusing for even the most astute marketers. Michael Becker, co-author of Mobile Marketing for Dummies and MD at the MMA, answers some common questions.
Marketers find new ways stand out by adding flexibility and better incentives
Loyalty programs can help businesses retain customers, but they can also be expensive. In order to justify the spend, marketers must constantly assess these programs.
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.
Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, sheds light on USPS's current challenges
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.
The rich online behavioral data that marketers rely on more and more is under siege by Washington
Companies such as BlueKai and its competitors offer a broad view of the variety of consumer information available to marketers, because its tools gather data, including specific keywords, product research behavior and price searches, from multiple websites.
Location-based social networks remain a nascent market, but a variety of organizations are finding ways to nurture and reward this growing, youthful audience
From how-to videos to viral, marketers find video can have a big impact on SEO strategies, at a time when YouTube has established itself as the No. 2 search engine
Retailers are hoping an integrated marketing plan for this year's school shopping season will resonate with consumers of all ages
By implementing seasonal, competitive and promotional changes, the overall theme can be preserved — and the life of the ad extended
More and more marketers are seizing the opportunity to integrate online and offline tactics in order to reach today's always-connected consumers and cater to their specific preferences.
Business-to-business marketers find that social media generates leads and strengthens relationships by connecting customers with people, products and information they seek
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.
Marketers deal with many moving media parts today. E-mail, with its low costs and sophisticated segmentation capabilities, is often at the heart of the media plan. DMNews brought marketers, service providers and industry experts to the table to discuss the challenges inherent in this constantly evolving channel.
Looking to hold on to customers in a down economy, marketers of all sizes across industry sectors examined and made changes to their loyalty programs.
Audience segmentation and testing is important to direct marketers, who must reach their prospects with the most targeted, relevant messages possible to ensure the most ROI.
Marketers can reach more than just Facebook friends or Twitter followers with real-time messaging now that search engines index the latest updates from social media sites.
Television ads drive consumer response in many channels, online and offline. Hoveround and other marketers are leveraging television as the centerpiece of their integrated campaigns.
Office supply giant OfficeMax builds on its ubiquitous ElfYourself viral holiday campaign by weaving social media and e-mail into the fabric of its direct marketing initiatives.
Pizza delivery dynamo Domino's has adjusted and evolved its CRM and list strategy for both direct mail and e-mail to address customers' preferences and their dynamic lifestyles.
Direct marketers take search measurement beyond last-click metrics to determine its role in buying decisions.
Manufacturers and brand marketers overhaul Web presence to reinforce digital presence, provide superior customer experiences, and drive additional sales.
Marketers are finding success building Facebook games and fan pages to engage customers and build loyalty
The economy will be top of mind for attendees at this year's Direct Marketing Association annual conference in San Diego, but direct marketers also see advantages and opportunities
A customized publishing model using digital printing has the potential to help media companies recover from bleeding revenue
Direct response TV (DRTV), long used by marketers to drive immediate results, has typically been punctuated by phone operators who are standing by to take orders.
Retailers train their focus online in a tough market by investing in customer experience initiatives.
With challenges in print well-documented, newspapers and magazines find that boosting readership requires a multichannel content strategy
For EZ Lube, a car maintenance franchise based in Southern California, mobile marketing has brought the marketer's billboards to life and given its customers a way to interact with the brand.
Event marketing, online tie-ins and database marketing combine to generate leads
Many multichannel merchants are investing in the e-commerce customer experience as a way to drive results even as economic pressures force them to cutback in other areas.
The economic environment is still stormy, but retailers are starting to test the waters with new demand-generating strategies.
Hilton Hotels offers more than picturesque vistas from its thousands of international properties — the chain also is working to build up its global efforts in all CRM-related channels.
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.
