January 13, 2012
Posted by Crystal Uppercue
Any organization trying to make money in the last few year’s has had trouble reaching their goals. This is especially true for nonprofits – as people worry about their own financial stability, they’re more reluctant to give money to others. Add to that consumers that want more from their spending, and you get fundraisers feeling the pressure to attract donations and yield good returns – often with fewer resources. Continue to full post…
Posted in Direct Mail Production
Tags: direct mail solutions, Fundraising, fundraising appeal, multi-channel marketing, Non-profit organization
May 31, 2011
Posted by EU Services
Industry statistics were released in April from the Ad Age Agency Report, which tracked the performance of more than 900 U.S. agencies.
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Posted in Cross Media
Tags: digital agencies, direct marketing agencies, integrated marketing, multi-channel marketing
April 27, 2011
Posted by Crystal Uppercue
The adoption of smart phones is exploding. As customers migrate from older devices to using what are essentially powerful, Internet-enabled hand-held computers, retailers face new marketing challenges. It turns out that camera phones, clever software, and high-speed data plans are turning customers into formidable comparison shoppers. How does this affect your future marketing plans?
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Posted in Custom Data Solutions
Tags: mobile marketing, multi-channel marketing, QR codes
April 4, 2011
Posted by Peter Muir
As social media continues to evolve, so do the few elementary rules and best practices that have been established. Here are a few truths that can help you navigate the best way to incorporate social media marketing into your existing and future campaigns.
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Posted in Promotional
Tags: marketing content, multi media, multi-channel marketing, social media marketing
March 14, 2011
Posted by Crystal Uppercue
Don’t look now, but the implementation of annual budgets and strategic marketing blueprints for 2011 is well underway. Forrester Research gazed into their crystal ball in mid 2010 with their Midyear Planning: Predictions For 2011 and identified a few trends.
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Posted in Promotional
Tags: integrated marketing, mobile marketing, multi-channel marketing, social media marketing
September 30, 2010
Posted by EU Services
Be honest: How many email messages did you delete this morning without even opening? If you’re like us, the answer is probably plenty. Face it – we’re all suffering from email overkill. That’s partly why marketers are turning again to direct mail to break through the din of digital messages overtaking our collective email inboxes.
But that doesn’t mean email won’t continue to play an important role in the marketing mix. What it does mean is that smart marketers have become more judicious about the number of email marketing messages they send and they’re increasingly opting for a more comprehensive, cross-media strategy.
Research into recent marketing trends confirms the power of a multi-channel approach and suggests the following best practices:
- Avoid Spam-Jam: Double opt-in programs (where a user has explicitly requested email communication and confirmed the email address) enjoy lower complaint rates, but aren’t immune to having their messages rejected as spam. Avoid this dreaded fate by ensuring that your email messages are easily recognizable and always relevant.
- Scrub Your Lists: Send too many emails to bad addresses and you risk significant deliverability issues with Internet service providers who use this information to determine sender reputation.
- Get Social: Despite what you’ve heard about Facebook and Twitter crowding out email, don’t believe it. Recent research reveals that social media actually boost email use. Marketers who integrate the best of social media into their messages—including personalization, customer reviews and commentary—enjoy higher open rates.
- Maintain Control: Allowing independent stores, agents, or chapters to send emails on behalf of your organization risks brand integrity and, more importantly, compliance with CAN-SPAM regulations. Avoid this by maintaining centralized control of your messages and your lists.
To find out more about how to incorporate email into a successful integrated marketing campaign, contact your direct mail provider or email us at marketing@euservices.com
Posted in Cross Media
Tags: e-mail marketing, multi-channel marketing, personalized urls
August 17, 2010
Posted by EU Services
A number of terms are floating around today’s marketing departments. Some — multi-channel marketing, for example – incorporate the full range of marketing options: direct mail; email; print; display; radio and television advertising; and social media.
Wikipedia suggests that another common term, integrated marketing, actually reflects the broad organization activities that surround identification, management and fulfillment of brand. As such, Wikipedia suggests the term “integrated marketing communications” to describe every activity of a communications department, including online and offline marketing, search engine optimization, micro-blogging, RSS, podcasts, direct mail, public relations and so on.
That’s not really us direct marketers, either. Rather, the term cross media marketing seems to best describe our use of all available direct-response channels.
In a word, cross media marketing means options, including:
Variable-data printing (VDP) to personalize creative elements (text, graphics, and images) from one printed piece to the next without stopping or slowing down the printing process. The information used to personalize each printed piece comes from a database or external file.
Personalized URLs (p-URLs) to deliver state-of-the art, automated, trackable response forms, using one-to-one touchstone technology.
Automated follow-up response systems to generate a second direct mail appeal, additional email marketing, a phone call, a thank you letter, or any other pre-programmed response.
How do you interpret this marketing maze of terminologies? We’d like to hear your thoughts.
Posted in Cross Media, Direct Mail Production, response fulfillment
Tags: direct response fulfillment, e-mail marketing, multi-channel marketing, personalized urls, variable data personalization
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