Heidi Tolliver-Walker Heidi is an industry analyst specializing in digital, one-to-one, personalized URL, and Web-to-print applications. Her Marketer’s Primer Series, availalbe through Digital Printing Reports, includes “Digital Printing: Transforming Business and Marketing Models,” 1:1 (Personalized) Printing: Boosting Profits Through Relevance,” “Personalized URLs: Beyond the Hype,” and “Web-to-Print: Transforming Document Management and Marketing.”
It’s Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend, so it’s time for some levity. Once again, my husband and his much-targeted facilities budget is to thank for this one. You don’t see hand-addressed business letters much anymore, so this was something that stood out. But since it was a business letter, not a personal letter…
There is a lot of talk, a lot of data, and a lot of opinion out there about the impact of mobile marketing on customer behavior. In this industry, that translates into how mobile needs to be integrated into multi-channel marketing campaigns. It is said that people vote with their pocketbooks, so with that in…
When it comes to marketing blogs, there is always a flavor de jour. Currently, it’s big data. If not “big data,” then at least more data. So it was interesting when Thorin McGee, editor of Target Marketing, asked the question, “Can you ever have too much data?” The question was asked on a LinkedIn board,…
Sometimes I don’t write about QR Codes for a month. Then there are times when all sorts of QR Code related things pop up. This seems to be one of those times. I saw a QR Code this week that seemed like a neat opportunity for printers to sell to their customers. I was sitting…
Ah, when a well-intentioned QR Code goes wrong. This was a great, well-intentioned use of a QR Code. The marketer added it to the top left of the direct mail piece — highly visible location — with text saying, “Scan to speak to a sales rep.” I scanned the code and the landing page showed…
We’re hearing a lot about inbound marketing these days, or the use of online content (blogs, social media, SEO) to generate leads. According to HubSpot’s “State of Inbound Marketing Report,” marketers allocate 34% of their overall budgets to inbound tactics. This is 11% more than they dedicate to outbound strategies like direct mail. Inbound marketing…
This is one of the reasons I love QR Codes. I’ve had the QR Code for this landing page on my kitchen cabinet for a year. It was formerly stuck to a watermelon I bought in 2012. I scanned the code in the supermarket, found that it linked to some really interesting ways to cook…
I see them all the time — those claims that you can switch from paper statements to electronic alternatives and save the environment. The one on my online banking page shows someone holding a tree seedling their hands, which I find particularly offensive. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Today, it really struck me. Part…
One of the most active online discussions I’ve ever been involved in involved real handwriting versus handwriting fonts for personalizing and addressing envelopes. Does one make a difference over the other? Both raise response rates, but is real handwriting worth the cost? Or will handwriting fonts do just as well? Along with that discussion was…
David Mamet, the award-winning American playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and film director, has said goodbye to the traditional publishing model with his latest book, a combination of a novella and two short stories about war, and has chosen to self-publish instead. Mamet is a formidable force in literature, playwriting, and screenwriting, so this is big news….
I just received a complimentary copy of Cross Media Marketing 101 (for 2013) by James Michelson, president of JFM Concepts and VDP Web. Right upfront, I had to give James props for his dismantling of a favored email stat that has been making its rounds in the blogs, Webinars, and PowerPoint presentations. It’s from “Why…
In case you haven’t heard, the U.S. Postal Board has delayed the elimination of Saturday mail delivery slated to being August 5. This doesn’t mean that the transition won’t happen. It just won’t happen immediately. Apparently, the board still supports the long-term elimination of Saturday mail, but it appears to be claiming that the USPS…
I often see online discussions about the virtues of hand addressing over using traditional addressing, and when this happens, my thought is, “Well, of course!” Hand addressing stands out from the same old, same old addressing you see in the mailbox every day. But then, so does a handwriting font. You may not mistake it…
I just flipped through today’s stack of mail on the counter. There was a lot of it — flip, flip, flip — but only one envelope caught my eye. That is because it was addressed to me . . . twice. Heidi Tolliver-Nigro Heidi Tolliver-Walker It was from an industry name I recognized, so I…
It’s a bit incongruous. The first thing you see is a Gillette ad showing Kate Upton in a seductive pose with the headline, “How does Kate Upton like her man’s body styled? Read her mind,” with a QR code inside the thought bubble. Then you see the headline to The Business Insider article the ad…
