rivet

It seems obvious that new business owners should make every effort to get their branding concepts exactly the way they want them the first time, right? This way, no major changes have to be made to the elements that support a brand later—for example, a name change or a new logo. As a marketing agency, we are amazed how many new business owners later look back and say they wish they had done something differently during the initial branding of the company, e.g. used a different logo or chose a different name.  Sometimes, this realization later just results in a little regret. But sometimes, it results in an extensive rebranding initiative. Rebranding requires more time, effort and money in addition to the time, effort and money already spent on the initial creation of the brand. A name or logo change, for example, could involve changing aspects of signage, business collateral, merchandise, the website, S...

For many companies, digital communications promised fast, easy, relevant, and more affordable customer communications. But now marketers are realizing that print has a valuable role in the customer communications mix that cannot be underestimated. As a result, the role of print in an omnichannel world is being redefined yet again, with print as a key element. As social media, mobile and other forms of digital communications became more universally accepted in the early 2000s, many marketers diverted dollars that had previously gone to printed communications to a digital-only strategy, placing even more pressure on a consolidating commercial print market. But was their confidence in digital communications misplaced? This cartoon shows how a marketer might misunderstand what drove a consumer to make a purchase. Just because the actual order was placed via a mobile device doesn’t mean that mobile communications drove the action! In recent years, marketers are again turning to p...

Much has been written on the benefits of print and how we can help it compete for marketing dollars against digital marketing. But why try to compete at all? In 2018, why not capitalize on the capabilities of print that digital marketing cannot replicate?  There has been a ton written on creative uses of direct mail. I write more on this topic than any other, it seems. What’s left? What is genuinely new and interesting that can be written to kick off the New Year? I’d like to offer a suggestion. It seems that we’ve become so focused on data-driven marketing, multichannel integration, and print-to-mobile technologies that we can forget the obvious. Sure, those things are important. But data, multichannel, and [channel]-to-mobile can be done in digital marketing, too. For 2018, why not focus on what print can do that digital marketing can’t?  If your clients did that, what kind of results might they see? Here are five of my favorites:   Dimension.  Pretty mu...

Once upon a time… business success was based on providing a narrow segment of consumers with a narrow segment of products, uniquely suited to their needs, sourced and advertised locally, and sold at a local store. Over time, the spread of mass media - TV, national newspapers and magazines - along with the expansion of national retail stores, and the growth of a global and highly efficient supply chain, led to a world of mass marketing, mass production, and massive retailers. The retail world moved from personalized products for localized, niche markets to mass-produced products for mass markets. Mass marketers thrive on "must-have" items  - huge volumes of single styles, sold across many market segments to an audience of consumers eager to have the item they saw advertised in mass media, and which, in turn are produced in great scale and efficiency. This strategy worked. Until it didn’t. Mass brands, mass production, mass retailers and mass advertising serve mass mar...

About 82 percent of consumers who call themselves liberal find it credible when brands take political stands, and 78 percent of them want the marketers to do so. Far fewer conservatives want the same. These recent research findings fly in the face of common wisdom, that marketers who take political stands will see sales plummet. This, from Sprout Social’s  “Championing Change in the Age of Social Media” report, released on Tuesday, is far different from research Target Marketing summarized in a June 2017 article that stated: “58 percent of consumers surveyed said they dislike it when marketers talk politics.” (The full article, titled  “Trump Boycotts Turn 25% of Consumers Off,”  gets into how 80 million Americans say they change their spending habits due to these boycotts. But marketers can benefit, if the political stands they take align with their brands’ DNA.) Meanwhile in  Tuesday’s announcement,  Andrew Caravella, VP of Strategy and Brand Engagement a...

When done correctly, direct mail can be a very cost-effective way to reach targeted prospects and customers. Your return on investment typically exceeds most other forms of marketing. However, inefficient list targeting and poor mail piece design can cost you a lot of money. Because postage rates are rising every year, it is very important to keep your postage rates as low as possible. So now, let’s help you maximize your ROI in your direct mail marketing. Lists: Save Postage With Good Lists People : Sending to the right people really matters! Target your lists to reach only the people most likely to be interested in your product or service. There are many tools available to help you to better target people. You can profile your mailing lists utilizing the amazing amount of information accessible today on households and businesses. This will give you valuable information to know exactly who your best customers are and find prospects just like them. Clean : How old is your data ...

Although Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends will be delivering its  Annual State of Marketing Communications Survey  to clients next week, we just couldn’t wait to share one data point—direct mail still drives engagement! After surveying 4,000 consumer respondents in North America and Western Europe, we found that direct mail was second only to e-mail in terms of frequency of engagement. In fact, nearly 80% of consumers reported often or sometimes engaging with direct mail communications. Consumer Engagement with Marketing Messages by Channel  Direct Mail is Still Compelling! Cutting this data by demographics also uncovered some very interesting findings. As shown in the Figure below, it was the  Millennial  demographic that was most likely to engage often with direct mail. Even today’s digital natives consider direct mail to be a compelling channel. When the responses to this question were cut by country, Italian respondents were the most likely to eng...

Retargeting isn’t just for digital campaigns anymore. Companies are coming up with innovative solutions for retargeting lost website customers with snail mail, as well. By  Heidi Tolliver-Walker Published: January 8, 2018 Have you been hearing more about retargeting with direct mail lately? I have. I was recently asked to pull together some resources on the topic, and I was actually surprised how many service providers are promoting it on their websites. The number is certainly growing. The value of retargeting is the bump that gets applied to the campaign as a result of reminding the recipient of their initial interest in a product or service.  These service providers claim that their customers are seeing ROI and conversion rate increases that are  significantly  higher than those with digital retargeting services. Here’s how it works: Someone lands on a website, searches on a product, showing initial interest, then moves on without making a purchase. W...

Every now and then, data points jump out at you. Here are two data points about personalization that jumped out at us recently: 35% of Amazon's revenue is generated by its recommendation engine. 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history. (Accenture) We live in a world in which we have access to more information than ever. This can be both empowering and paralyzing. When consumers have too many choices, they can get overwhelmed and end up not choosing anything at all. That’s why personalization is so important. Done right, it helps consumers navigate and simplify the maze of choices and take the stress out of making a decision. With personalization, brands are essentially saying, “We know you. We know what you like. Let’s make this easy.” Personalized recommendations are just one way data-driven communications can be highly effective,...