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Article: Direct Mail’s Resurgence and New Role in Integrated Marketing

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Direct Mail MarketingPosted By:

There is a great article on Target Marketing’s website, posted by Brian Wagner on April 23rd. Brian discusses the struggles that direct mail went through during the economic downturn of recent years. Interestingly, he also discusses how well direct mail fits in with your digital strategy. In a time when direct mail takes a bit of heat for not being the new kids on the block, smart marketers understand that they need to use direct mail allong with their online efforts to create truly effective integrated campaigns.

It’s a quick read, well worth a few minutes of your time.

“Direct mail is very much alive today and continues to be the workhorse for many brand marketing efforts. It has been, and continues to be, at the very heart and soul of direct response marketing.” read more…

 

The free app worth one billion dollars

Posted On: Category: Marketing InsightsPosted By:

The technology world was taken aback last week when Facebook agreed to purchase Instagram for one billion dollars. The valuation seemed to be a bit random and perhaps without merit. In this deal, Facebook made the offer with 30% cash and 70% stock, which assumes an IPO of $30 per share when the company goes public. Instagram is taking a bit of a gamble, but one that worked out well for the folks at Zappos in 2009. According to the New York Times, Amazon acquired Zappos in exchange for 10 million shares and some cash. The market value of those 10 million shares today is $1.9 Billion.

Instagram, a photo-sharing startup, had about 30 million users at the time the purchase wasnathan announced. Within a week they had an addition 10 million users, due to the overwhelming publicity. Even so, Facebook probably didn’t make the purchase because they wanted to court 30 million additional Facebook users to add to their current 800+ million members. It’s likely that the vast majority of Instagram users were already Facebook members anyway. I think the more likely explanation for Mark Zuckerberg’s move was to keep it away from the emerging social network, Google Plus.

In an interview, Zuckerberg explained that Instagram had developed a really great mobile experience for sharing beautiful photographs, and that he wanted to bring that to Facebook. What he surly must realize is that he could have easily developed that functionality on his own mobile platform.

scoreboard

The ability to add cool filters and effects to photos is nothing new or proprietary, so I am not sure I totally buy that claim, but it really doesn’t matter. What really matters is that two large social-sharing sites, Facebook and Google Plus are competing for your attention (and user data). They each want to own their user’s life, in the sense that they know where you shop and hang out (geo-tagging), who your friends are and what you “like”.

I don’t know who originally said it, but it’s absolutely brilliant, true and creepy all at the same time; “if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product.” The Instagram app is free.

Is Magazine Advertising Coming Back?

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Dimensional Print Marketing, Marketing InsightsPosted By:

pgIt was announced last month that Proctor & Gamble is shifting much of its TV dollars to magazine advertising. P&G is the largest national advertiser and largest TV advertiser; however in 2011 their marketing budget showed a 5.4% decrease in TV advertising, in favor of magazine. Marketing experts agree that the move is to focus on more targeted mediums. Magazine allows you to target very specific markets and demographics.

For an industry that has long been considered on the decline, does this signal a shift to more traditional and reliable marketing mediums? Sound off in our comments section below.

Read original story from the Business Courier

See examples of great Magazine Advertising

5 Great Websites all Marketers Should Know About

Posted On: Category: Marketing InsightsPosted By:

There are countless resources online for marketers, some good, some bad. But regardless ofweb what kind of marketing you do, or what type of industry you’re in, there are some websites that get it right consistently. These are the ones you want to pay attention to. Of course, everyone has their own favorites, so please use the comments section below to tell us about yours!

1. MarketingSherpa is a marketing research firm that conducts their own studies and publishes their research. They are not an agency or consultants, they just focus on marketing research. They have premium memberships that grant access to countless studies and guides. However, there is a lot of information available for free on the website. You can download guides on landing page design, or email marketing, or segmentation strategies. The website is well organized and easy to navigate, though the general design leaves a bit to be desired, but that really doesn’t matter considering the quality of the content. The pro memberships will run you $379 a year, but it’s well worth the investment.

2. MarketingProfs is very similar to MarketingSherpa but offers a different variety of reports, studies, guides and even webinars. Most of the webinars, studies and reports require a pro membership, as the free content tends to be “sponsored.” There’s great content and user forums that you can access for free, but to get the most out of it, you’ll need to shell out $279 per year.

3. Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, blogger, best-selling author, speaker and all around smart guy. In his popular blog he takes a common sense approach to every day marketing, business and branding issues. All of his website content is free, and subscribing to his blog updates is simple, but if you want one of his 13 books you’ll need to go to Amazon.

4. Avinash Kaushik is widely recognized as the leader in web analytics and data-driven strategy. He is an author of two books on web analytics, consultant, blogger and “The Digital Marketing Evangelist” for Google. On his blog he offers up a light-hearted mix of commentary and in-depth strategies for web analytics. His website also has links to presentations he has made and articles he has written for magazines like Inc Magazine, Search Marketing Standards and IT World. You can’t beat the price; all content is provided at no charge.

5. WebDesignLedger.com is a great blog that’s written primarily by web professionals and graphic designers. Though a lot of the content is centered around web design, you don’t need to know what a pixel is to enjoy the content. They have a terrific “Inspiration” section that provides a wonderful collection of beautiful websites, font treatments and logo designs. For designers, you’ll find great tips, tutorials and free downloads.

Please, tell us about your favorites!

Article: Social Media Rocks But Don’t Forget About Direct Mail

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Direct Mail Marketing, Marketing InsightsPosted By:

Social media is certainly an important component in most B-to-C campaigns these days. This article confirms the ROI value of social media but also makes compelling points about the value of direct mail.

Direct mail surprisingly transcends the age demographic, with younger consumers (the 18- to 34-year-old demographic) preferring to learn about marketing offers via postal mail rather than online sources, according to national survey research from ICOM,” said Lisa Formica, president of FMI, a direct mail marketing and advertising firm.

Read the full article

Article: Beginner’s Guide To Web Data Analysis

Posted On: Category: Marketing InsightsPosted By:

Avinash Kaushik is a data analytics professional and blogger that brings new insights to the world of web stats. Sure, you may have Google Analytics installed on your website, but are you truly using those metrics to change the way you do things? Avinash talks about ways to turn seemingly useless web statistics into actionable business intelligence.

Read the article.

Article: Email’s Eroding Influence

Posted On: Category: Marketing Insights, TechnologyPosted By:

An interesting article appeared this week in Luke Wroblewski’s blog. Luke is an expert at user experience and design, primarily with mobile. He writes a popular blog you can see here.

The article highlights some interesting facts about email and concludes that there is an “eroding influence”. Though we recommend email as part of our integrating marketing programs, they are rarely the main component of a campaign. Combined with direct mail, a well-designed landing page and a great follow-up plan, email can be highly effective. As you can see by the statistics in the article, on its own, email is losing effectiveness and influence.

Read the full article here.

Browse our articles on effective integrated campaigns.

Being Different but ending up the same

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Design, Dimensional Print Marketing, Direct Mail Marketing, Marketing InsightsPosted By:

A few weeks ago, while strolling past the House of Blues in Orlando, I was reminded of an important distinction when it comes to being different. The band playing the night I happened to walk by was Falling in Reverse. The crowd was wrapped around the entire building anxiously waiting for the doors to open. I saw at least a thousand people. Nearly everyone was decked out in full-blown “Goth.” Those of you not familiar with the look need only Google the term to see exactly what I mean. There were so many people sporting black shirts, black or purple dyed hair and painted nails and faces that those more conservatively dressed concert-goers stuck out like a sore thumb.

As we soaked in some of the best people-watching around, I turned to my wife and asked her why she thought people wanted to be so different. She turned to me looking a bit puzzled and replied, “What do you mean, they’re all exactly the same?” She was right; no one in the crowd was being different, at least not in their world.

When it comes to marketing, being different is usually a good thing. However, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to be different, stand out, get noticed, that you end up being exactly the same. I remember when mailers began using “Express Mail” look-alike envelopes for their mailings. Who’s going to ignore an important overnight express envelope? Then, the trend caught on and fizzled out just as quickly. I assume once people got used to seeing fake looking express packages in their mailbox, response rates began to drop.

People I talk to at tradeshows or in presentations want Structural Graphics to help them “do something different.” But, being different should not be the goal of your campaign. The goal is a higher response and return on your investment and to achieve that, you need to engage your audience. To engage your audience you need to be unexpected and relevant; not different.

There is no doubt we help our clients get noticed; sometimes by being different. Many of our packages stand out because they are dimensional and unexpected, but that’s not where all of the marketing magic is. We don’t create our designs just to be different, but rather to engage the recipient and drive a response. The designs we recommend, whether it’s a new custom solution or a proven classic design like the Flapper, are chosen for their ability to deliver your message in an impactful, engaging and relevant way.

For example, Drexel University wanted to capture the attention of college-bound students.DrexelUniversity These students are used to receiving dozens of mailers from lots of different schools, so they knew they had to stand out. But they also had to be memorable and engaging. Drexel achieved this using our Flat Book-Cube design. It shipped flat but when the recipient opened it they were treated to a huge surprise as the piece jumped out at them. It got their attention and the campaign was a great success.

Essilor, the world’s leading provider of eyeglass lenses, was looking to promote a new brand along with a rewards program. They used the Rolling Cube design to grab the recipient’s attention, provide information about the program and drive them to a sweepstakes site. The integrated campaign was a success and garnered a 31% response rate. You can read more about the Essilor campaign in our case study.

My point was not to take you through a list of companies that have used Structural Graphics to build their brands, launch products, engage recipients and produce better ROI. It was to remind you that being different isn’t always that different. Your goal is to be engaging and relevant. When we were in Orlando I probably could have painted my nails black, worn some dark clothes and dyed my hair; and I would have stood out as we walked through Disney’s beautiful Downtown area, but if I had been there to see a concert at the House of Blues that night, I would have only been another face in the crowd.

To learn more about engaging your customers check out our Industry Specific High-Impact Marketing Guide. You’ll be able to download several case studies and learn more about how we serve your industry’s marketing needs.

Consumers tired of digital ads?

Posted On: Category: Marketing Insights, TechnologyPosted By:

A new YouGov report that was released to TechCrunch seems to confirm what you probably already knew. With the increase in digital advertising, a tipping point may finally be on the horizon.

Surveying 4,150 consumers across the U.S. and UK, YouGov found that 66 percent said that they got bombarded with too many digital ads — online and on their mobile devices.

An equal number, 66 percent, said their perception of brands changed when felt their promotions became too invasive.

What’s perhaps most concerning for digital advertisers is not just that their brand image may be compromised, but also that user engagement is down. If users don’t engage with your digital marketing and are not motivated to take an action, then what are you spending your money on?

One way dimensional print solutions have always stood out from other mediums is its ability to engage the recipient. Our print solutions are hard to ignore and 30+ years of experience has shown higher user-engagement resulting in better response rates.

Read More:

The Future of the QR Code

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Webkeys / QR CodesPosted By:

Last week I was driving through eastern Pennsylvania, on a long trip from Maryland to New York. I was somewhere between Allentown and Scranton when I pulled off to find something to eat. My driving companion was an audiobook I had just purchased and, ironically, it was Steven King’s latest thriller, 11.23.63. Like most of his books, this one was primarily set in a sleepy town in Maine. I hadn’t gotten to the part of the book that takes place in Dallas, Texas, during the fall of 1963. The town I was currently driving through was eerily similar to the picture King had painted in my head of the town in the story, Derry, Maine. To add to the irony, I pulled up behind an old 60’s style hearse, which sort of startled me. The hearse was painted in solid black with a big gold badge and a large QR code on the back window. The badge was for the name of a business, some sort of ghost hunters. Unfortunately, the QR code eluded me. Though I grabbed my phone and attempted a quick scan, the hearse pulled away too quickly as the light turned green.

I wish I had been able to scan that QR code but as a marketer, I was a bit impressed with the creativity of the owner of whatever business that was.

A ComScore study conducted last summer showed that 14 million Americans (or 6.2% of mobile device users) scanned a QR code in the month of June. These are certainly not huge numbers, but I concluded two things from this study. One, many people still don’t know what a QR code is, much less that they need an app on their phone to scan it. This makes them unique and different, and that’s not a bad thing for your marketing. Two, there is room for growth! At 6.2% user adoption, QR codes are still effective in marketing, so imagine what the results will look like when there is a 20 or 30% user adoption?

RenovaPOP9411 751We hear from marketers who are still not sure about QR Codes. That’s because t ROI hasn’t been proven. But in our world, they are a relatively low cost, low risk add-on to any campaign. We have found effective ways to use QR codes in our high-impact print designs and they are a great.

The key to an effective QR code campaign is in the payoff. What’s in it for the end user who takes the time to scan your code? If you simply take them to your website, there isn’t much of a reward, is there? You should always direct them to a landing page that was specially designed for the campaign and matches the theme of the print piece. It has to be a special place the user can’t just get to by Google “ing” your company.

Subway recently did a great campaign where they sent coupons out in a mailer and included a QR code. When you scanned the QR code you were taken to a website that allowed you to play games for extra coupons. It was an effective way for Subway to bridge the gap between their print efforts and digital assets.

Another thing to consider is that you’re not boxed in by the basic black and white barcodedescribe the image style. Surely there are graphic designers that have no interest in slapping an ugly QR code on top of a beautifully designed piece. Not to worry! QR codes have an amazing amount of flexibility. The entire code is not necessary for an effective scan. Furthermore, the color makes no difference. It’s one of those things you have to tinker with. Change the QR code slightly to match your design and keep testing as you proceed. Though they can be flexible, covering up the wrong spot, even just a few pixels, could render the code useless.

We encourage our clients to try QR codes, as long as there is a reason to do so. We don’t just use them for the novelty of it. Building an effective integrated campaign will include several digital and print components, so you need to find a way to bring them together. QR codes can help, along with other digital technologies like web keys and purls.