Postal Delivery:  Which will it be 5 day or 6 day delivery?

I just had a great exchange with my letter carrier (as I sometimes do) while at my mailbox today, and I wonder how many times a day my carrier is interrupted in her work, as I interrupted her, to politely chit-chat. Of course, I brought up the likelihood of five-day delivery come August, to which she gave a candid response, "Well, we've been losing money."

Most Americans—and maybe even some carriers—don't know the full story—or any story—about how the United States Postal Service endures pre-funding retirement benefit mandates from Congress, as well as other cost-drivers that have nothing to do with the digital age, electronic bill payments and multichannel communication trends. Nor do they know that both The White House and Congress spend these mandated monies on their own programs, even as the federal deficit spirals.

That's why it's easy to be indignant when some members of Congress, perhaps predictably, jumped onto the current appropriations bill (a continuing resolution to fund the government beyond March 27) with mandates for six-day delivery. Yet, one has to ask, where are the means for real relief from some of the costliest demands of the 2006 postal reform law? Making the Postal Service stick with Saturday delivery isn't the action we need Congress to take.

Is it really enough, or correct, to just counter USPS management efforts to cut costs and right-size the network? Why not delve deeper into the ills that Congress and the Administration—both parties involved here—have heaped onto the Postal Service's bottom line? Why not revisit real postal reform? How many more years must the Postal Service get squeezed, and default on payments, before Congress and the President take seriously its cause, its future, its sustainability?

How Does Collaborative B2B Decision-making Affect Personalization?

In the world of personalization, we rely on data on individual recipients to target and personalize content to be relevant and meaningful to them. But in the world of B2B, decision-making has been more collaborative. In fact, according to IDC, the number of stakeholders for each purchase decision has grown by 40% — from five in 2010 to seven in 2012.

From a digital printing and personalization perspective, the impact of the expanding number of stakeholders could be significant.

As the number of stakeholders in any B2B decision grows, this will impact the ability of marketers to use personalization to promote their products and services. But for the better or the worse?

On one hand, we could say that it makes personalization to the individual less relevant. Stakeholders can range from IT to product management to finance, all of whom have differing agendas and motivations. Even the best, most sophisticated personalization efforts cannot span them all. The higher the number of stakeholders grows, the more watered down the impact of any individual marketing effort to any individual person on that team becomes.

On the other hand, every project often has one individual champion within the organization who advocates for the decision and propels it forward. We never know which of those 5–7 stakeholders on the team it’s going to be. Sometimes all it takes is one. The recipient of that 1:1 marketing piece could be the person who makes the difference.

Source: Digital Nirvana

How To Put Direct Mail Marketing To Work For Your Business

In order for a direct mail marketing campaign to be effective you should see new customers, a return of old customers or an increase in repeat customers. Additionally, you should realize bigger returns on your direct mail campaign investment. If you structure your campaign more effectively you will increase the odds of your direct mail campaign being successful.

By recognizing who your potential customer is, you can tailor a campaign to both generate new customers and bring back repeat customers. Maybe it means offering an incentive to buy from you again, or offering a discount for new customers you want to attract. By understanding exactly what you want to accomplish with your mailing, you can better structure your campaign and pinpoint your audience.
Here are a few suggestions to consider:

• Consider The Newsletter

When you send a newsletter packed with valuable information to existing or potential customers, you might see new business. Make sure the information is timely, relevant and really useful to your reader. Focus on creating a professional publication and you will have found a lasting, successful marketing tool.

• Don’t Forget Free Offers

This is still one of the best ways to attract new business. The lure of the free item, especially one perceived as valuable, will result in people sharing all kinds of useful information you can utilize. Information such as their opinions, interests and contact information which can be very important for personalizing future campaigns. Try tying in your free offer with an up-sell for higher ROI.

• Test Different Formats

Direct mail marketers can utilize various types of formats, such as postcards, booklets, self-mailer, envelope packages, catalogs and more. With so many choices, the best way to determine which format will appeal to your target audience, is to “test the waters”, so to speak. You can assume that a postcard would be best for a retail mailing…or a #10 package would be best for a B2B mailing…but you really don’t know for sure until you get a campaign in the mail and track results.
When your goal is to engage your customer and start a conversation, a professional, targeted and strategically-designed direct mail marketing campaign is still one of the best ways to accomplish that goal.

Source:  Ryan Cote

5 Ways to Reach Customers in the Digital Era

Source:  Kamal Tahir

Marketers have grown up with the foundation of the four Ps of marketing: product, price, promotion and place. These are as relevant today as they were when first coined for both online and offline efforts. However, as time passes and the discipline of marketing becomes more complex and more enabled, additional factors come into play to augment and enhance the foundation, especially as marketers navigate a fragmented marketing structure encompassing online and offline data and tactics. Here are five key factors that have the power to impact marketing performance:

5

Predictive: Using modeling and predictive analytics, marketers can better determine who is likely to purchase a certain item, and also when they're most likely to purchase. This is helpful in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns and reducing waste. It also prevents a company from generating negative customer sentiment due to undesired contact or content.

1. Personalized: This goes hand-in-hand with using predictive analytics, but incorporates what's known about customers. Factors range from the preferred mode of communication (e.g., are they more likely to respond to email or direct mail) to the type of messaging that resonates with them. Take for example two people living in the same neighborhood who are in the market to purchase an SUV. Perhaps the same vehicle would fill the needs of both people, but customized communication tailored to their interests and needs would result in one being more outdoor-focused, featuring messaging and images as such, while the other features the same vehicle being used to haul materials for business. Don't forget to customize delivery to a preferred channel — email for one, Facebook for the other. Doing so further creates a personalized experience based on the user's preference.
2. Permission powered: A key way to engage customers and prospects is to have them opt in to receiving communications from your brand. Permission-based marketing is getting more specific in terms of types of products, mode of communication, frequency, etc. Review current personalization capabilities being provided to customers; they provide a detailed road map to help deliver more effective campaigns.
3. Peer reviewed: Peer reviews are important for specifics about a product's performance. The value of peer reviews increases with factors such as location or keywords used by a reviewer to describe themselves. Customers may be more interested in the perspective of a fellow reviewer who is more like them than someone who is less similar to them. Enable shoppers to sort or select the reviews by ratings and various criteria about those providing reviews.
4. Proactive: Being proactive in implementing one or all of the factors above is important. Don't wait for customers to tell you what they want, as they may do so by going to your competition. Don't wait for a "critical mass" in your competitive set to start following these guidelines. Use it as a competitive advantage for better customer engagement and higher return on investment. Listen to your customers, anticipate what they want and when they want it, then deliver it.

Adding Ps to the marketing mix may seem complex and time consuming. While there is an element of complexity present, better planning and proactive solutions take time. The returns, however, can be great. There are a growing set of solutions available to marketers which can help even the smallest of businesses become better engaged and drive better results. It's no longer for just the big companies.

The final P? Stay positive. While trends and buzzwords will come and go, the movement towards better engagement with the factors noted above is a win-win for businesses and buyers.

Kamal Tahir is senior manager of product management at Experian.

Educating Your Audience About QR Codes

When you are in the thick of all things marketing, staying on top of the latest in mobile marketing and how to interconnect your print and online media, it’s easy to forget that your average consumer does not stay on top of such things.

Here are some tips on how to teach your target market how to use QR codes so you can have a successful QR code campaign in the future.

·         Get your audience over any fear they might have. By providing them information, you are showing that you are reliable and trustworthy.

·         Start simple and remember that different people learn differently. Offer your instructions in different formats. Create a white paper or a series of blog posts for those in your audience who like to read step by step directions. Create a downloadable audio file with those same step by step instructions for those who like to listen, especially on the go. And then don’t forget to employ some videos that show everything broken down into steps.

·         Don’t assume you are dumbing things down too much. By creating your instructions in a series of blog posts and videos, your users can pick and choose what they want to read or watch. So they can skip over anything that is too simplistic. But don’t make assumptions that your target market knows how to do even the most basic of things. Not everyone knows they need a scanning app.

·         Make your videos and blog posts readily accessible. Don’t let them get buried under newer offerings. It’s okay to promote them every so often to remind your audience that you can virtually walk them through the process of getting a scanning app on their mobile device, how to scan that app and what to do from there.

·         Stay on top of QR code news and share with your audience.

You can post about QR codes you find in everyday life, on mailers, at the store, you name it. It shows that you keep your fingers on the pulse of how others are using QR codes, when they’re working and when they’re not.

And a great side benefit is that while you are sharing with your audience and helping them to learn more ways on how QR codes can bring them discounts, information and more, you are also learning some great marketing techniques (or maybe learning from the failures) yourself.

Source:  Digital Nirvana

In Case You Missed It… USPS is Driving Marketers to Make Print Interactive!

The first time that someone thought to write on a tablet that could be lifted and hauled rather than writing on a cave wall, print became the ultimate portable media. Today, mobile media devices such as smartphones and iPads have become a primary source of portable media from which we can obtain information and communicate with one another. In fact, the average consumer has three things with them at all times-car keys, a wallet/purse, and a cell phone.

According to comScore, the U.S. saw a 55% increase in smartphone subscriptions between 2011 and 2012. There were a total of 98 million smartphone subscribers during 2012, accounting for over 40% of all U.S. mobile users. Meanwhile, ScanLife reported that QR code scans increased by 300% between 2010 and 2011. Nellymoser, a Massachusetts-based mobile marketing and technology company, indicated that QR code usage jumped 617% from January 2011 to December 2011 in the top 100 magazines.

There were a total of 98 million smartphone subscribers during 2012, accounting for over 40% of all U.S. mobile users.

The USPS is Driving Mobile Marketing

On October 29, 2012, the U.S. Postal Service released its promotions calendar for 2013-offering discounts on first-class and standard mail by integrating mail with mobile and emerging technologies. There is a clear drive on the part of the USPS to make print integral to the direct marketing mix by making it interactive. The 2013 USPS promotions include direct mail mobile coupon and click-to-call, emerging technology, and mobile buy-it-now. All of these promotions are pending approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Direct Mail Mobile Coupon and Click-to-Call Promotion
This promotion encourages mailers to integrate direct mail with mobile technology. The USPS is offering business mailers two ways to participate and achieve greater value in the mail that they create and produce. To be eligible for a 2% postage discount, mailers can use a mobile barcode or other technology on their mail pieces, leading the recipient to a digital coupon or a site that initiates a one-touch phone call on a mobile device. According to the promotion description, high growth in digital coupons (mobile/online) is expected to continue as Internet and smartphone adoption increases, consumer comfort with technology rises, and newspaper circulation declines. This promotion seeks to drive awareness and increase the value of direct mail coupons in today's digital world. The physical mail piece must be a coupon. The promotion runs from March 1 through April 30.

The 2013 USPS promotions include direct mail mobile coupon and click-to-call, emerging technology, and mobile buy-it-now.

Click-to-call is a web-based communication tool in which a person initiates a phone call by clicking a button, image, or text to connect with another person. Click-to-call can be initiated by hyperlinks on websites and e-mails or through any other Internet-connected object including 2D barcodes. This promotion runs from March 1 through April 30.

Emerging Technologies Promotion
This promotion is designed to build on the goals of past mobile barcode promotions and to continue to promote awareness of how innovative technologies (e.g., near-field communication, augmented reality, and authentication) can be integrated with a direct mail strategy to enhance the value of direct mail. This promotion runs from August 1 through September 30.

Mobile Buy-it-Now Promotion
As mobile technology continues to evolve, the USPS seeks to reinforce direct mail as a relevant part of the marketing mix and to ensure the long-term value of the product. This strategy provides substantial advantages and opportunities for innovation in future years. The USPS is seeking to demonstrate how direct mail combined with mobile technology can be a convenient method for consumers to do their holiday shopping. This promotion, which runs from November 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013, provides business mailers with an up-front 2% postage discount on standard mail and first-class mail letters, flats, and cards (presort and automation) that include a two-dimensional (2D) barcode or print/mobile technology that can be read or scanned by a mobile device. The technology must directly lead the recipient to a mobile-optimized webpage that allows the recipient to purchase an advertised product through a financial transaction on the mobile device.


This heavy focus by the USPS provides evidence that integrating print and mobile technology has a place in the U.S. market. I firmly believe that the marriage of print, QR codes, and mobile technology are the ultimate in multi-channel communications. While some are running away from print and putting all their eggs in the online basket, savvy marketers will consider going offline and getting their brands in front of the consumers on the street. They will reach consumers who are unchained from their home computers and connect with them via signage, packaging, interactive magazines and newspapers, catalogs, and direct mail. Graphic communications service providers need to understand how to harness the energy around mobile marketing and make print interactive!

Contributor:  Barb Pellow
November 2012

Why Are We Still Talking About Response Rates?

By Heidi Tolliver-Walker

I’ve been thinking about response rates, and you know what? I’m starting to wonder why we use them. They are in every case study. Every Webinar. Every presentation slide. Yet they don’t really tell us much of anything.

Response rates simply tell us whether the basic marketing elements of the piece are compelling enough to get people to take an initial first step. The respondent makes a phone call. They scan a QR Code. They log into a personalized URL.

If they do, great! But you can have an 80% response rate and the campaign can be a money-loser. Why? Because simply taking the initial action doesn’t necessarily translate into a purchase. If they make the call, scan the code, or log in but don’t actually make a purchase, sign up for the loyalty card, or take the other desired action, the response rate didn’t do you much good at all. That’s why we need to know conversion rates.

At the same time, you can have a high conversion rate but the campaign still loses money. Why? What is the cost to develop and execute the campaign? How much did it generate? If it costs $2.00 each to send the postcard, but each postcard only generated $1.80 in revenue, you’re going to lose money no matter how high your response rate and conversion rates are. That’s why we should look at metrics like dollars per sale and ROI.