Online Ad Re Targeting is HOT in 2014!

This is a marketing strategy that has really caught on recently. In a nutshell, it works by utilizing browser cookies to track the websites that users visit. Once a user leaves a certain site, the products or services they viewed will be shown to them again in advertisements across different websites.

It’s fairly obvious as to why this technique can be so effective. With only two percent of web traffic converting on the first visit, ad retargeting works to increase the overall conversion rate by reminding consumers of the product or service they viewed. This keeps the brand and the product at the top of the consumer’s mind. There are even psychological studies that have shown that simple exposure to brand names and logos creates familiarity, which builds trust and makes consumers more likely to make a purchase.

Even if there’s no immediate purchase, this tactic can really pay off in the long run. Due to the success that many marketers have had with ad retargeting, we believe this marketing strategy will become more mainstream in 2014.

Source:  DXM Marketing Group

There Is No More B2B Or B2C: It’s Human To Human, H2H

It used to be that marketing was segmented into two categories; business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). This was done (I assume), to separate specialties, audiences and segments in an effort to more highly target the groups of people who ultimately would consume a brand’s message.

What it really did, however, was create an unnatural language for marketers – with words like “synergy” and “speeds and feeds” – to tell the stories of products to their buyers and partners. It’s become like one massive game of telephone, where by the time a message gets to the person actually buying the product, the things that make it special have been swallowed by marketing vernacular.

Consumers are confused. Why can’t we make it simple for them to understand what we’re selling, to share their experiences and the value they felt with others? More importantly, why is it that what we’re marketing most often does not align to actual consumer experiences?

The fact is that the lines are so far blurred now between the two marketing segments that it’s hard to differentiate between the two anymore. We all need to think like the consumers we are, putting ourselves in the mindset of the buyer instead of trying to speak such an intensely sophisticated language full of acronyms and big words, in order to sound smarter.

Marketing increasingly strives to become one-to-one, with solutions to collect and wrangle the big data about us to serve up more personalized offers and experiences. On the other hand, social has become a more public and vast medium, where the things we share skyrocket quickly to a “one-to-many” experience. The dichotomy between marketing and social has actually flipped… and it’s out of balance. Social and marketing need to work together to personalize individual conversations, as well as deliver shared global experiences that crowds of common values can benefit from. This is what our social and digital mediums have gifted us, and how humans interact and feel more compelled take action.

So, this is how I see it:
Businesses do not have emotion. People do.
People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
People want to feel something.
People want to be included.
People want to understand.

But people are also humans, and with that come mistakes. Missteps. Failures. As humans, it’s in our nature to say the wrong thing, get embarrassed, and not realize the consequences of our actions. The rise of social media has given a digital platform to the dark side of anonymity, both as individuals and as crowds. I say it’s time to lay down the virtual pitchforks and torches and bring this behavior back into balance. The delightful side of humanity holds with it empathy, understanding, and forgiveness, and when remembered in our communication, it ties us together as a common group.

Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, everyone of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life.

Online Ad Retargeting Will Be Hot in 2014!

This is a marketing strategy that has really caught on recently. In a nutshell, it works by utilizing browser cookies to track the websites that users visit. Once they leave a certain site, the products or services they viewed will be shown to them again in advertisements across different websites.

It’s fairly obvious as to why this technique can be so effective. With only two percent of web traffic converting on the first visit, ad retargeting works to increase the overall conversion rate by reminding consumers of the product or service they viewed. This keeps the brand and the product at the top of the consumer’s mind. There are even psychological studies that have shown that simple exposure to brand names and logos creates familiarity, which builds trust and makes consumers more likely to make a purchase.

Even if there’s no immediate purchase, this can really pay off in the long run. Due to the success that many marketers have had with ad retargeting, we feel this marketing strategy will become more mainstream in 2014.


Source:  DXM Marketing Group

If Direct Mail Is Dying, It's Sure Taking Its Time About It

Source:  Forbes, Lois Geller

Taking Its Time About It

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This is a record year for catalogs jamming my mailbox. It’s great.
It’s great that I get them, at least 100 so far this season, and it’s even greater that so many companies continue to produce them.

 

Why do they do it in this era of ecommerce?

 

Lots of reasons, but the short version is that direct mail, catalogs in particular, work. They’re profitable and they bring in revenue the companies can’t touch with electronic marketing alone.

The enduring power of direct mail is connected to two often overlooked societal phenomena:

1. The mail is often the only reliable way to reach reasonably affluent males.
2. The over-50 crowd, already large and growing, has a lot more money than younger folks and they’re just as happy to deal with you in print as they are in the cyber world.

Most catalogers still offer every possible response method: by mail, phone, fax, in person at a store. But, as often as not, most people who order from print catalogs do it online. The word synergy is overused but it fits here.

Our creative director, who gets a lot of print catalogs, orders by phone and calls around 10 at night.

Which companies are sending out catalogs these days? All the traditional ones you’d expect like Harry & David the fruit people, Hammacher Schlemmer, Smithsonian, National Geographic, Tiffany’s, Art Institute of Chicago, The Met, and so on.

And there are always newcomers, some of which are showing staying power, especially in the fields of clothing, jewelry, food, flowers, nesting merchandise and gadgets.
Catalogs have always struck me as direct-mail-written-large. They’re expensive to produce and mail so they have to be carefully targeted.

 

The catalogers adhere to the basic rules of direct mail, one of the most important of which is ALWAYS HAVE A UNIQUE OFFER and make it clear.

 

I saw several potential gifts in the Smithsonian print catalog but no offer, and yet when I went online to look around, I found Free Standard Shipping (a $7.95 value) and that’s always compelling.

Basically, everything in a marketing communication but especially in direct mail has to answer one question right away: What’s In It For Me? If the answer is clear, the prospect starts to get interested and look around.

 

It’s quite a different process from, say, a customer at a retail store like Best Buy who walks in with a specific purchase in mind.

The great catalogers test all the time: different covers, different offers, different lists, different prices, different product placement on page, and on and on. They test and track the results and use the information to get more profitable every time out. (See The Ridiculously Inexpensive Magic of Direct Mail Letters for more about this.)

• Price offers can include discounts, specific dollars off, Buy-One-Get-One and variations on that theme. A 15% discount might very well bring in more bottom line revenue than a 10% discount but you’ll never know until you test.
• Flex-Pay. When QVC offers easy payment terms, they feature the monthly payment. Very popular.
• Samples are a terrific way to get people trying your product. Cosmetic companies have been doing this for years. Get the first one free, then once you like it: you’ll buy it again.
• Early Bird Offers often work for our hospitality clients. If you reserve during their quieter times, you get a discount on spa services, or complimentary breakfast. Airlines do this, too.
• Deluxe version of whatever you usually sell. We’re offering one at Kickstarter.com for our dog book. Sometimes the deluxe version can also be a free upgrade gift.

Online marketing is a terrific force and it will grow, even as states and cities force marketers to charge sales tax.

But direct mail is not going away. I get a couple of thousand offers by mail every year. They arrive all year long, trending heavier in the last few months and in January and the number is growing. The industry is still selling billions of dollars’ worth of products and services. It’s not hip and happening, not “now” but it is highly effective and very profitable.

Sen. Baldwin says bulk mailing rate amendment will help printing firms

Source:  The Business Journal

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) is championing an amendment to the postal reform bill that would curb large increases in postal rates for bulk mailers.

Baldwin visited Quad/Graphics in Sussex Wednesday morning and spoke with Milwaukee Business Journal reporters and editors Tuesday to talk about the impact of the amendment on Wisconsin’s economy. She outlined how the amendment would give postal customers “pricing predictability” and benefit forestry, paper and printing companies throughout the state like Quad/Graphics.

“Forty percent of the paper we produce ends up in the mail stream… any significant – beyond inflation increases in postage – affects our paper industry very dramatically,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin’s amendment strikes a section of the bill that would allow rates to be increased beyond the rate of inflation for bulk mailers.

“It’s pretty simple math for these folks that the postage is a significant part of their bottom line,” Baldwin said. “If it goes up, they are mailing less and nobody benefits. It’s a very important provision to get rid of.”

Joel Quadracci, president and CEO of Quad/Graphics, spoke about the issue during committee hearings on the topic earlier this year in which he told the committee: As discussed, above-inflation postage rate increases cannot be part of this solution (whether they are from straight rate increases or reductions in work-share discounts). The rate caps enacted as part of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA) have worked well to control postage rates and provide our clients with that much needed certainty.

Jeff Landin, president of Wisconsin Paper Council, supports the amendment.  “Now, unless changes are made to Section 301, an already difficult coated paper market is likely to see more damage due to further declines in mail volume,” Landin said. “Your efforts to provide predictable and moderate rate increases will not only benefit the paper industry in Wisconsin, it will help the USPS by providing more mail to deliver.”

More than 600 companies, retailers, nonprofits, newspapers and other organizations around the country support the amendment.
The bill is still in committee, Baldwin said.

THINK BIG!!!  GET YOUR BRAND OR BUSINESS NOTICED!!!

Big ideas, big dreams, big plans? Then you need big printing. Large, glossy, full-color wide format is increasingly a smart marketing choice for making a bold, clear statement. Think about the visual impact you could make in your business with banners, adhesive wall clings, car wraps, event signage, posters, window graphics, floor graphics. High quality design and signage is now affordable for every budget and versatile for every structure or medium. It is also easy to change up to reflect new information and stay fresh in the public eye.

Take a moment to look around at any of your large blank walls, windows or spaces in any public area of your business and you begin to realize how that visual canvas is not being utilized to represent your brand, your message, your mission. It is being seen… it should be getting noticed and remembered! And not all wall coverings need to be advertising copy or photography. Perhaps you can simply use shape and color to “brand” your walls or windows for visual interest, keeping them in accordance with your brand’s palette.

Consider what might very well be your most valuable advertising real estate: storefront windows, waiting room and lobby walls, even shop floors. They are encountered by every customer or client, and even others just passing by – you should be using that marketing opportunity to relay your message and reinforce your brand. When you start looking around you will discover many creative ways to use large-format printing:

• banners
• removable vinyl wall graphics & murals
• car wraps
• event signage
• posters
• floor graphics
• window clings
• mounted trade show displays
• sale announcements or information
• directional signage
• product exhibits
• decorative designs and murals to compliment your brand

Thinking big will grow your business and sales in the new year, and wide format printing is a versatile, affordable and smart component of that winning marketing strategy. It allows you to see your business with an artist’s or architect’s eye. Enjoy being creative with your marketing.

DIRECT MAIL IS KING AGAIN!!!

Direct mail continuously proves that it is king. DMA states the response rate of direct mail is more than 30 times higher than that of email, with an average response rate of 4.4% compared with the 0.12% of email. When consumers are exposed to nearly 3,000 messages a day, but only notice about 50 and remember just four, earning a spot in the “final four” is the goal. Marketers need to focus on personalization and relevancy to cut through the clutter.

The key to successful direct marketing has always been personalization. The data that drives a personalized approach is more accessible and useful than ever. A print production and media provider that truly understands data is your best strategic partner for driving sales forward.  An effective direct marketing campaign is like composing a great song and direct mail is the king in lead generation.