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October 26, 2009 Issue of Direct Marketing News

Spotlight

Loyalty takes flight at JetBlue

JetBlue's director of loyalty marketing and partnerships, Dave Canty, discusses how the TrueBlue program has evolved to meet customers' needs.

Editorial

Editorial: DMA seems strong after show

I'm back from the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference with a stack of business cards as big as my head. I always return from DMA ...

Op-Ed

Economy has affected ROI definition

Welcome to "Patient Critical: Madison Avenue," where new and legacy media vehicles struggle to capture declining advertising dollars, deliver ROI and answer the question: What ...

Don't let TSR changes affect your brand

The amended Telemarketer Sales Rule (TSR) from the Federal Trade Commission says that automated sales communications can be delivered only to recipients who have provided ...

Gloves Off

Are vertical engines worth it for search?

Most consumers can name Google, Yahoo and Bing. But are vertical-specific search engines of the same value to marketers as the "big three?" Two experts ...

Main Feature

Travel Channel wins brand game

Marketers are finding success building Facebook games and fan pages to engage customers and build loyalty

Vertical Feature

Pharma has a healthy focus on customers

Healthcare companies know an open dialogue with consumers can increase loyalty, so loyalty programs have been an effective tactic ever since pharma companies began marketing ...

The Work

Creative solutions from Supershoes.com, Rubbermaid, Inkubook

Julie Petroski, VP, group creative director at Targetbase talks about the latest campaigns from Supershoes.com, Rubbermaid and Inkubook

Nailed It

DMNews chats with Amy Kennedy, VP of marketing at Wine.com

DMNews speaks with Amy Kennedy, VP of marketing at Wine.com, about the evolution of the e-commerce site's product recommendations

Analysis

Layaway returns to retailers — on the Web

Add Toys "R" Us to the list of retailers that recently introduced or reintroduced in-store layaway — a service that had been eliminated by many ...

Miscellaneous

Inbox timing: A critical component of e-mail relevance

Forget all the claims that one day or time is better than another to send messages to your mailing list. The ideal time to send ...

Now is the time to redefine e-mail marketing manners

Looking back over the past decade, I continue to marvel at the power, promise and precision offered by e-mail. It can be a highly effective ...

Basic steps to break through inbox clutter

During the recession, companies launched e-mail campaigns in record numbers because it is cost-effective and measurable. According to a study by Forrester Research, spending on ...

E-mail receives a bigger allowance ... with more chores

E-mail is one of the youngest children in the marketing family but has long struggled for attention in the shadow of its print and online ...

Seven strategies for successfully implementing e-mail marketing

In these challenging times, it's more important than ever to stay in front of your customers. E-mail appears to be in the lead as a ...

How to create e-mail newsletters that break through clutter

E-mail newsletters are an inexpensive tool for communicating with current and prospective customers and make up over half of all e-mails sent. They are expected ...

Better e-mail deliverability starts with best practices

Promotions claiming 99.99% anything set off alarm bells. It's just too good to be true, a little voice tells us, and in most cases the ...

Optimizing deliverability requires integrated approach

Research from Pivotal Veracity and other deliverability service providers shows that 20% of marketers' opt-in messages were blocked or sent to junk folders in 2009. ...

Adaptive delivery a boon for marketers

For years, deliverability has been the bogeyman of e-mail marketing. Warding off its negative consequences has been a black art practiced by deliverability specialists, shrouded ...

CAN-SPAM compliance doesn't guarantee e-mail delivery

As many e-mail marketers know, to comply with CAN-SPAM you must include an unsubscribe link and your postal address in e-mails, as well as make ...

Keep bounce rate grounded to increase delivery odds

There are plenty of reasons to keep your list clean. First and foremost is reputation management. As your stream of e-mails reaches receiving servers, it ...

How to best protect data when engaging in third-party marketing

When attempting to comply with CAN-SPAM requirements that prevent advertisers from sending e-mail to consumers who have unsubscribed, many share their physical suppression lists or ...

For best engagement, follow 40-40-20 rule

For many years, direct marketing messages were mostly about a company and its products, with little thought given to the recipients and their needs. With ...

Boost e-mail success, think less is more

As the CEO of an e-mail marketing service provider, I receive a lot of e-mail. That shouldn't surprise anyone, least of all me. But even ...

Customer dialogues take relevance a step further

Most progressive marketers know that relevance is essential to driving strong customer response. To move to the next stage in customer engagement, deepen loyalty and ...

Fashion retailers set trends in e-mail marketing

In a down economy, one might think a sale is the way to a consumer's wallet, but you may be surprised to know an innovative ...

Next-generation e-mail marketing gets personal

The days of "one-size-fits-all," "batch-and-blast" e-mail marketing are gone. In its place is "e-mail-plus," a new age e-mail marketing strategy that uses e-mail in combination ...

Postal mail, e-mail combo delivers double-digit response

E-mail marketing is not enough. You need to supplement it with old-fashioned, hard-copy postal mail. Tangible, direct and targeted, mail still has a valuable, strong ...

Tactics e-mail marketers can steal from behavioral economists

Defined very generally, behavioral economics combines psychology and economics to identify why people make certain decisions about purchasing, borrowing, lending, etc. In her article, "The ...

Reach makes geographical targeting relevant for e-mail

We are constantly inundated with the concept that the Internet is creating a global community — a world marketplace where goods and services can be ...

Improve e-mail marketing with universal profile management

A more modern, customer-friendly approach to e-mail marketing focused on message relevance is yielding great results. However, gathering and combining all of the useful bits ...

A step-by-step guide to better program measurement

How are your e-mail programs performing? Typically, when I ask a client this question their response is, "Well, our open rate is X, and our ...

A holistic e-mail program sells burgers and builds loyalty

Ted's Montana Grill, a national restaurant chain founded by Ted Turner and restaurateur George McKerrow Jr., needed to redefine and rejuvenate an e-mail program filled ...

Multichannel e-mail emerges as the newest trend

Anyone trying to send an electronic message to another person right now must make a very important decision: Through which vehicle do I want to ...

Incorporate personalization in e-mail and approach

Segmenting your list and personalizing the e-mail content will drive better returns than blasting the entire list with the same message, but it can entail ...

Shopping cart abandonment: Recapturing a lost sale

Abandoned carts cost e-commerce sites big dollars in lost sales. In fact, industry studies show that the average cart abandonment rate is between 50% and ...

When the going gets tough, the tough e-mail

In these tough economic times, marketers are challenged to do a great deal more with less. One way to do this is to focus on ...

The social inbox: What's next for e-mail

A number of changes across the e-mail landscape over the last six months are adding up to a seismic shift in how we think about ...

The power of customer voice shapes new rules of relevance

Why did you decide to see the last movie you watched? Was it because of some glorious review or perhaps a friend's suggestion? Long before ...

Social media for small business in under an hour

Small businesses are being stretched even thinner during the recession and must continue to innovate if they're going to thrive. The good news is that ...

Social auditing takes your e-mail program beyond the inbox

While many marketers are currently experimenting in the social networking space, most don't have a strategic plan for media integration or measurement. However, social networking ...

New social media metrics for e-mail marketing

A report from analyst firm Altimeter and social platform provider Wetpaint found that companies investing heavily in social media significantly surpass their peers in terms ...

Why e-mail needs social media, and tips to get you started

It's no secret that e-mail marketing is an effective and inexpensive lead generation channel, but where it lags is in its power to spread content ...

News Articles

Ask.com kicks off integrated campaign

Ask.com is running video banner ads and a Facebook-integrated microsite to promote its Ask Deals retail price index search engine.

HP CMO will chair next Caples awards

The John Caples International Awards, unique for its celebration of creativity in direct and digital marketing, has named Michael Mendenhall, SVP and CMO of HP, ...

NBA shoots for Hispanic audience

In an effort to attract the growing economic might of Hispanics living in the US, the NBA this month launched Éne-bé-a, a multichannel marketing campaign.

Book prices buck trend of fewer holiday deals

Although there's been talk by retail watchdogs that this holiday season's discounting might not be what it was in past years, retailers are racing to ...

Optimized

Marketers get creative with banner ads to fight declines

Despite plateauing this year, Web banner ads remain a major source of advertising revenue for marketers. However, their creators are working to improve their effectiveness ...

Technique

Mail is the workhorse of b-to-b marketing

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 ...

ToolBox

TOOLBOX: Social media, loyalty, CRM, personalization

In this week's Toolbox entries, Philip Delong of Daz Media covers using social media to generate leads. Also,Greg Osenga, of Hawkeye discusses a popular personalization ...