Cause marketing is a well-minded marketing initiative that connects the cause of non-profit organizations with the reach and audience of businesses to create a mutually beneficial relationship. The strength in this approach is the business’ ability to provide greater visibility to the non-profit and to capitalize on people’s point of purchase decisions. Non-profits benefit from cause marketing through the ability to share their message with larger audiences and to solicit donations and support from these audiences. The business benefits from a positive brand reputation through the association with a non-profit organization. It’s a win-win situation.

Cause marketing can take a few different forms. Think of pink Yoplait’s “Save Lids and Save Lives” program that benefits the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Another popular campaign is Project Red at the Gap where proceeds from sales benefit The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis & Malaria. While these are all highly successful and integrated campaigns, others are not quite so innovative.

When checking out at the grocery store, I’ve been offered tickets to donate $1, $3, or $5 to help feed a child. Maybe I’m just an evil person because I know this is a great cause, but nothing about the offer compels me make this donation. It’s just another way in which people are constantly asked for money. Another example are the tear-off pieces of paper that you can write your name on and post on a wall in return for a $1 donation to some specific cause. While I like the idea of showing solidarity in support through the arrangement of papers on the wall – this is still not something that really inspires me or moves me to act. Yes, it’s easy (and that’s part of the success with point-of-purchase cause marketing), but it’s not compelling.

This is where I can envision an opportunity for print excellence to excite the world of cause marketing. Marketing service providers and print shops are so skilled at creating promotional items that you want to pick up and immerse yourself in. Why not tap into this excellence to promote the non-profit world?

Here’s what I’m thinking… Imagine waiting in line at the grocery store and instead of leafing through a tabloid magazine, you pick up a perfectly bound book complete with full color photos on fresh, glossy paper illustrating the plight of Tigers in Eastern Asia or a struggling village in Libya. Would you be motivated to add $1 to your grocery bill to help this cause? I imagine this book would move you to act much more than a paper-wrapped can or a simple graphic tear-off paper begging your donation. (Of course, the grocery store would want to secure the photo book to the check out area, but I’m sure that is possible).

Or what if when you donated to a cause, instead of receiving a tear-off paper, you received a glossy postcard with an image of those tigers or village residents? The donor could then mail this postcard to a friend or relative and essentially say, “I just donated to XYZ cause at XYZ store. Stop by XYZ so you can support this cause, too! Or visit www.XYZ.com for more information and to activate your support.” Now, not only has this postcard effectively solicited a donation, it has also communicated the cause to another individual, hopefully prompting their visit to the store and ultimate donation.

Personally, I love the idea of cause marketing. Maybe this post is optimistic, but I’d love to see more creative tactics and I know print can help create more impactful communications. In the end, it’s all about reaching customers in just a way to compel their support of the non-profit and I’m positive that print creativity can do just that.

There is no doubt that the world of mobile is creating many opportunities for folks in the marketing and communications industries. Mobile technology has opened up new ways for companies to reach prospects, generate leads, and provide customer support.

For service providers, there is opportunity to help marketers achieve their mobile-related goals.  One area in which this is true is related to mobile websites. As the number of smartphone owners continues to rise, so will mobile web traffic.

The technology to build and provide mobile websites for other companies exists. But how can a print service provider sell this solution to their clients and prospects?

Here are 3 ways to get that conversation going:

As a Service That Complements QR Codes

If you are currently creating, tracking, and/or printing QR Codes for your customers, then you have a tremendous opportunity to engage them in a conversation about mobile websites.

Many of the QR Codes that I see “in the wild” today still point to regular websites that were designed for viewing on a desktop computer or laptop.

This is bad for many reasons! For one, it means that the person who puts forth the effort to scan the QR Code with their smartphone is going to have trouble simply reading the content on the website! Even if you rely on them to tap-and-zoom, chances are that they are going to be less than pleased with their interaction with your company. Big images may cause the site to load slowly, and certain functionality may not work at all (such as Flash).

Since QR Codes are going to be accessed by folks on mobile phones, the value of pointing people to mobile-optimized content should be clear to your clients.

By presenting your ability to provide that service to them easily, it should help you to grow your business!

Also, it should help them to increase the success of their QR Code efforts.

Become the Local Mobile Expert

While there is no doubt that mobile is a very hot topic in the marketing world, there are still many people that are not yet up-to-speed with how it affects their business.

This means that you have the opportunity to aggressively educate your customers, prospects, and other businesses in your local area about items such as mobile websites. If you can position yourself as a thought-leader, your chances of being the ones that they turn to when they realize they have a need should absolutely increase.

This educational effort can be done in a number of ways. Here are a few:

• Offer to speak about mobile marketing at local Chamber of Commerce events (or similar events that bring together local businesses)
• Write about it on your company’s website and blog
• Discuss it in your monthly newsletter
• Talk about it on your social networks
• Send direct mail and emails that highlight important mobile statistics… and your services

Set the Example

Of course, one of the best ways to convince someone why they need your services is to walk-the-talk.

If you are going to tell someone that they need a mobile website, then you certainly will want to investigate what it will take to create a mobile website for your own company.

Not only can this help to demonstrate that you truly believe in the importance of “going mobile”, but it also can be a great conversation-started (“Hey! I noticed your website looks different on my phone”) and a way to increase your effectiveness as you seek to reach the growing mobile audience.

On January 20, the U.S. Postal Service released five gorgeous stamps. The artistry of American stamps is nothing new, of course, but this collection reminded me of the potential value of decorative stamps in targeted direct mail campaigns.

In searching for high resolution versions of the five stamps, I happened upon a wonderful website, BeyondthePerf.com.

For those interested in the art and design of U.S. stamps, the site features a video interview with the five USPS art directors who bring illustrative meaning to “decorative stamp.”

Ethel Kessler talks about the talents of the five people who work on the stamps. “Each of us has different passions, different strengths. And we’re relentless, [asking] what can we do at every level to enrich it.”

Phil Jordan, who created the USPS Civil War series, says his effort seeks to honor past acts of courage or accomplishment. Getting there wasn’t easy. “What evolved was a labor of intense scrutiny… I wanted to express what people were thinking and what the common person was doing, particularly the common soldier.” Was all the research worth it? “What we have, we know will stand up to scrutiny,” says Jordan.

Kessler researched the Nobel Prize winners series just as diligently. Rather than detailing each scientific achievement, she was dedicated to capturing the essence of this highly coveted award. “Ethel really did an amazing job says Derry Noyes. “She was working with murky photographs of scientists and complex formulas. This could have been a recipe for disaster, but everything went beautifully.”

Antonio Alcalá’s favorite series spotlights industrial design from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Greg Breeding also is partial to this Pioneers of American Industrialism series, which he says has inspired so many objects we use today, including the iPad, telephones, etc.

What does the stamp series add up to?

“We’re telling a story; we’re telling America’s story,” says Kessler — and that story is complex in more ways that we can imagine. Consider, for example, the Latin Music Legends series. “I worked with Raphael Lopez who is himself a musician and a brilliant illustrator. We decided what we were looking was ‘performance,’ so that we could hear the music.”

Likely, only a designer can discern the many possibilities that comprise a powerful picture. “What is it that grabs you? Is it the title, the color, the graphics? Is it pretty, is it edgy? Designing stamps is more work than you think,” Noyes concludes. “It’s a real collaborative effort. If the collaboration has worked well, then we have a great stamp.”

Kessel adds, “Our biggest success is when it looks easy.”

BeyondthePerf made me remember that this institution upon which direct marketers have built their livelihoods does many things well — and most of it looks much easier than it is.

So, hurray for the American stamp and hurray for one of our greatest institutions: The U.S. Postal Service.

This week, we showcase the Iron Cross with Stitched-in Booklet submitted by Digital Ink in Alexandria, VA created for the American Bankers Association. The piece first opens in gate format to reveal two sides that fold out to create an iron cross format. The innovation doesn’t stop here. The interior boasts of a 12 page stitched booklet. This booklet provides an excellent opportunity to include marketing material into a leave-behind brochure or mailed item. Watch the video for more!

As you’re likely well-aware, the mobile channel continues to experience significant levels of growth. According to the CTIA Wireless association, mobile subscription penetration in the United States exceeds 100% of the population; many people own and use more than one mobile device. Furthermore, CTIA estimates that that close to 30% of U.S. households are “wireless-only,” meaning they subscribe to wireless phone services but not landline services (myself and many of my friends are part of this population). The pervasiveness of mobile technology has led to increased time spent by consumers in the mobile channel, making it a prime platform for marketing and advertising.

To that point, research firm eMarketer estimates that U.S. mobile ad spending topped $1 billion in 2011, and expects spending in this channel to grow to over $4 billion by 2015. While various forms of mobile marketing have been around for well over a decade, only in the past few years have marketers started dedicating a more substantial percentage of their budgets to mobile in conjunction with other shifts to digital spending. Despite growth in these newer channels, it is important to remember that marketers are still dedicating a substantial percentage of their budgets to traditional media, including print, television, radio, sponsorships, and much more. Even so, marketers are focused on return-on-investment more than ever before, and they are constantly looking at ways to make their marketing across all media types more measureable and impactful.

In particular, a slew of mobile technologies are now being employed to integrate print and other media types with mobile and online channels, including mobile response codes, short code prompts for mobile messaging, augmented reality, and much more. InfoTrends recently completed a study entitled Mobile Technology: Making Print Interactive, which  investigates how mobile is being integrated with print and other media types. In this study, we captured consumer, marketer, and service provider perspectives to understand how mobile technology can be effectively utilized within traditional, offline media to drive audiences to engaging online experiences.

One key finding from our study highlights that, especially for mobile response codes, marketers are turning to their print service provider partners to help them create, deploy, and manage integrated mobile campaigns. Print service providers have a tremendous opportunity to develop domain expertise in the mobile channel through integrated campaigns and programs, but they need to make sure they have the right strategy, provide the right mix of services, and have the tools and technology to support their efforts. Below are some key considerations for service providers looking to build out mobile marketing services:

1. The mobile channel is still relatively new for many marketers and advertisers, and they are looking for guidance how they should approach mobile in a way that will meet their goals and resonate with their target audience. Providers need to take a consultative approach to mobile, capturing key characteristics of the client, its products and services, and the audience it is trying to reach to make recommendations. For instance, mobile apps are hot right now, and many clients may ask for them, but it’s up to the service provider to help guide clients to solutions that fit their specific needs… and then execute appropriately.
2. Understanding how to design, deliver, and manage digital content designed for mobile devices is a requirement, not an option. There have been too many times where a QR code is slapped on a printed piece that links to content that doesn’t render well on mobile devices, ultimately delivering a bad user experience. In our study, we found that once consumers interact with mobile response codes and other mobile technologies, they tend to interact again and again. The end-to-end user experience is a critical component of any mobile marketing campaign; a good experience will help drive future interaction and engagement in the mobile channel.
3. To that point, when you’re getting into mobile, it is important to note that a wide range of tools and technologies are on the market that help companies create and deliver mobile content, generate and track mobile response codes, perform campaign management, and much more. In other words, don’t start from scratch! Many software platforms allow service providers and agencies to whitelabel their solutions to use as the backbone for their integrated mobile campaigns. Technology from the likes of 3Seventy, Blink Capture, iFlyMobi, NetBiscuits, Print2D, ScanBuy, ShareSquare, SumoText, Tatango, and many others can be utilized to help power your mobile marketing services.
4. As mentioned, marketers don’t want to have to wait for sales figures to see if their marketing investment paid off. They need actionable insights that can help them optimize campaigns in real time to have maximum impact. As such, measurement and optimization are table stakes when it comes to mobile marketing (and digital marketing in general). Mobile technology can provide marketers with a wealth of data, including location information, which can help personalize content and also influence campaign optimization to ensure that campaigns meet defined objectives.
5. Finally, don’t just limit yourself to mobile response codes. The ease at which people can generate QR codes has been a catalyst for substantial growth in marketers and service providers integrating them across different media types. Nevertheless, mobile message marketing, mobile advertising, and more are becoming much easier to get involved with; providers need to consider these types of services when developing their mobile services strategy.

Mobile will undoubtedly continue its upward trajectory in terms of adoption and share of ad spend. Service providers need to, at a minimum, investigate if and how they should include the mobile channel within their existing suite of product and service offerings. While the aforementioned considerations only scratch the surface, they can help guide you and your clients to success with mobile.

Has your company expanded its service offerings to include mobile marketing and advertising? Share your experiences and your own key considerations in the comments!

Welcome to the first FOW on The Digital Nirvana in 2012! I’m sure this year will bring plenty of innovative and fun new folds. This week’s Fab Kaleidoscope Cover Invitation comes from Schmitt’s Press in Baltimore and was created back in 2005 for a fundraising event for Maryland Institute College of Art. What makes this fold so interesting is how the die-cut shape on the front cover interacts with the graphic beneath to create a kaleidoscope effect. This is a superb example of creative designing with simpler folding.

As always, think finishing at the beginning. Enjoy!

If you’ve already made the leap to creating a mobile website for your business, we commend you. Mobile website traffic continues to rise… and it will do so even more with all of the fortunate folks that received a smartphone as a gift this holiday season.

When they interact with your company on a site that was optimized for mobile devices, they will no doubt be grateful that they don’t need to “tap-to-zoom and scroll-to-read” throughout each page of your website.

But in addition to providing a pleasant experience, you also need your mobile website to provide value to its visitors and to your company as well.  Here are three ways that you can do that successfully.

1. Add Click-to-Call and Click-To-Text Links: One of the best ways to develop an effective mobile website presence is to take advantage of the functions that really wouldn’t work as well on another device. You can do this by adding click-to-call and click-to-text links on your pages. By clicking on these links, people will be instantly brought to the appropriate application inside of your phone, to either dial you or send you a text-message.

2. Include a Form to Collect Data: One of the best ways to demonstrate the value of your desktop website is to incorporate lead-generation forms. The same can be done on a mobile website. Whether you are inviting people to request a demo, to download an eBook or White Paper, or to simply request more information, you could do this by building and adding a mobile Form. This will allow you to better serve the mobile audience that wants your information… but yet that doesn’t to deal with the hassles of zooming and scrolling to get it.

3. Incorporate Images that Links to Maps with Directions: Does your business have a retail location? Will you be exhibiting or attending a trade show or conference? If so, you can use your mobile website to direct people there. Simply include an image of a map on a page inside of your mobile website. Then, grab a URL that will link to a site such as Mapquest for the appropriate address. Simply link the image to that URL, and you’ll make it a lot easier for people to find out where they need to go right from their phones.

These are just a few ways that you can increase interactions on your mobile website. I hope that you find these tips helpful!

According to the “Mobile Media Report” released by Nielsen at the end of 2011, the number of smartphone subscribers using the mobile Internet has grown 45 percent since 2010.

Marketers everywhere must adapt to this growing trend. Mobile is changing the way that people search, find, and consume information. Can printers capitalize on that need? Here are three areas where a service provider may be able to do so successfully.

Mobile Websites

Smartphones certainly present challenges to marketers both in terms of layout and functionality when it comes to their website.

Many marketers may be in love with the Flash objects that they display prominently on their corporate website; however, those items may either load slowly when viewed on someone’s phone or even not at all (as is the case with the iPhone and iPad).

Also, mobile websites certainly need to be simplified. The content needs to be clear concise, Forms need to contain only the most necessary fields, and the amount and file size of images on the website should be reduced.

Many marketers will be scrambling to solve those challenges in the months to come. Thus, service providers have a tremendous opportunity to provide mobile website design, consulting, and hosting solutions to their clients.

Mobile Email

Many service providers that traditionally have provided print have also started offering email services to their client.

The growth of smartphone ownership will continue to increase the percentage of people that are reading emails on their mobile devices.

Thus, service providers that are providing email solutions have the opportunity to offer consulting, design, and measurement services to help their clients effectively reach the mobile audience when it comes to email distribution.

SMS/Text

According to a report from Portio Research, 8 trillion SMS/Text-messages were expected to be sent in 2011. Yes, that media is often used as a communication method between friends and family. But many businesses have found success with it as well.

A print service provider could incorporate SMS/Text into their campaigns that they run for clients in a number of ways. It could be used as a call-to-action on printed collateral to enable someone to opt-in for news alerts or to enter a contest. In that scenario, the service provider would be providing tremendous value to their client because they’ll be helping them to build up their marketing database. SMS/Text can also be used as a way to push out reminders or other brief alerts to people that may have registered to attend a seminar, open house, or another sort of event that a company may be hosting.

What Else?

There are and there will continue to be plenty of other ways for printers to grow their business by incorporating mobile solutions. QR Codes continue to remain relevant as a great way to integrate print and mobile. Also, technologies such as Near Field Communications may emerge sooner than later to provide marketers with yet another way to engage the mobile audience.

In all these cases, marketers are going to need help successfully building, managing, executing, and measuring mobile solutions. The opportunity for service providers to help is there… Are you ready to grab it?

Adobe has been making waves with its series of acquisitions over the past few years, including Web analytics provider Omniture and content management provider Day Software. More recently, Adobe acquired web font specialist Typekit, electronic signature provider EchoSign, and video enhancement software provider Iridas Technology.

At a financial analyst briefing in November, Adobe made a number of announcements about what it is doing with those acquisitions, and more broadly, the direction in which the company is headed. Most of the news coverage in the tech community that surrounded this briefing was Adobe’s intention to stop any future development of its Flash for mobile platform. Instead, the company is opting to focus on leveraging HTML5 and other standard Web technologies in the mobile arena. Adobe is also putting more emphasis on these technologies in general, as showcased by some of its concept products it has released for testing, including Muse (aimed at helping users design and publish HTML websites without the need to write code) and Edge (an application that is meant to help people create animated Web content using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript).

Some noted the scaling back of Flash as a posthumous win for the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was adamantly opposed to putting Flash on Apple’s iDevices because of what he felt were flaws that made Flash inferior in the mobile realm. What was substantially under-reported in the tech world was Adobe’s clear shift in direction, as highlighted by a reorganization that re-targets the company to focus on two main areas: digital media and digital marketing.

The company is also pushing its users to get out of a perpetual licensing model of buying and upgrading its Creative Suite product line to a cloud-based subscription pricing model that lets users pay for access to Creative Suite tools on a monthly basis. To do this, Adobe has developed the Creative Cloud, a Web-based community and portal for users to manage their Creative Suite applications and connect with other creative professionals. While the company will continue to sell perpetual licenses in the near future, it has very clear plans to fully migrate 100% of Creative Suite users to the Creative Cloud over time.

With the Creative Cloud on the Digital Media side, there is also Adobe’s cloud-based Digital Marketing Suite, which is geared toward the company’s solutions for digital marketing, including Web and social analytics, content management, digital asset management, eCommerce, display advertising, e-mail marketing, and customer relationship management. Adobe’s goal is to provide a suite of solutions for marketing professionals that can help them compete effectively in the online channel.

Furthermore, Adobe is shifting its business strategy from simply being a technology provider to a company that also provides services to help businesses with things like content monetization. In this sense, Adobe’s transformation pushes it closer to competing with some of its customers and partners; it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the near future. Just weeks after its financial analyst briefing, the company announced the acquisition of Efficient Frontier, a provider of digital ad buying and performance management solutions. This acquisition is further proof that Adobe is intent on not just providing tools to create content, but that it fully wants to provide solutions to help its customer monetize the content they are creating.

All in all, Adobe’s changes are much more substantial than no longer developing Flash for mobile; the company is totally revamping its strategy to focus on digital media and digital marketing, and expanding its scope to offer companies help with content monetization. As an unfortunate by-product of this reorganization, Adobe is also laying off about 750 people, or around 7% of its workforce. Layoffs aside, the company is, of course, painting a compelling future for itself, as well as digital media and marketing in general. With the marketing and media landscapes still undergoing a high degree of transformation, it may not be a bad bet.

What do you think of Adobe’s recent moves? Can it refocus its business while maintaining trust and good relationships with its long-standing customer base? Have you already moved from a perpetual licensing model to a monthly subscription via the Creative Cloud? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

This week’s fold is a Storytelling Vertical Open Gate into Accordion submitted by VSA Partners in Chicago. It’s a great example of how a folding can tell a company’s story. While this was not used as a direct mail piece, it’s a creative leave behind piece that people will want hold on to. The designer made great use of strategically placed QR codes to drive viewers to visit the website and specific videos. Enjoy!

Distributed execution through technology…

With today’s digital and production technology providing endless opportunities for variability and personalization, keeping brand consistency and even regulatory compliance has become a unique challenge.  This is particularly true when your product or service is offered by way of captive or non-captive agents, franchises, dealers and re-sellers. 

These “representatives” want and need corporate marketing support in their efforts to grow their revenue.  Corporate Marketing wants to help reps and needs to contribute to sales growth.

A solution to this growing concern just might be to commission a “Marketing Services Portal” (MSP).  An MSP provides an on-line, self-served, centralized location that reps can access to gain or perform advanced marketing functions in a controlled environment.  Benefits to this marketing platform include:

• Performing multi-channel direct marketing campaigns.  Reps can choose channels, customize a communication based on pre-approved choices and select qualified leads.
• Customized collateral material.  Reps may upload headshots, logos, or maps to be included on co-branded brochures.
• Educational content.  Reps can now have access to unlimited videos, presentations, sell sheets, etc.. 

At the same time, corporate Marketing departments now have the ability to:

• Design effective multi-channel marketing campaigns.  Design templates to ensure control over regulatory statements, brand images and text while also providing modeled, targeted data selection criteria.
• Design effective co-branded advertising material.  Build a template using your existing collateral material, but allow rep customization for co-branding or other variability.
• Organize and push information.  When designed correctly, the portal is an internal marketing avenue as much as it is a self serve tool for the reps.  The platform offers a centralized home to communicate to your reps regularly.
• Be more productive while managing costs.  Instead of spending time re-inventing the wheel for each rep, focus your time on producing creative solutions and programs that can be rolled out en-mass.

Portals sound great, so how do I go about building one?

It is critical to choose the right partner to build your Marketing Services Portal.  Almost all DM Agencies will offer this type of portal or something similar, but not all agencies have the complete service offerings (design, data, delivery) to produce and support the portal  in-house.

While supporting all aspects of the portal in-house is not a pre-requisite to success, choosing a provider who does will cut down on complexity, build time, and eliminate unnecessary risks with partner integration.

In the current business environment, doing less with more is proving to be more important than ever before.  Selecting and implementing the right tools, making best use of the limited resources available, and staying ahead of the competitive curve will define our successes.

To learn more about marketing services portals, please visit Sourcelink. You can also check out Sourcelink’s blog.

“Tactics, Tactics, Tactics…. Everywhere I look, all I see is tactics!”

Perhaps you have also felt that same way recently. We hear about tactics across nearly every marketing channel out there. QR Codes. Personalized URLs. Augmented Reality. SMS/Text-Messaging. Mobile Email. Social Media Advertising.

Those are just a few of the terms that we hear and talk about quite frequently in the marketing world. I know that I can often get quite excited about them!

But, while there is nothing wrong with diving in and understanding specific tactics, we run the danger of thinking of those things as bright and shiny objects that can solve all of our problems!

Instead of falling into that trap, we must be willing to increase the amount of effort and focus that we put on having a strategy.

Long-Term Solutions Come From Having a Strategy

If our business primarily consists of providing marketing services to our customers, we certainly need to pay close attention to new tools and technologies that could improve our offerings.

However, we must ensure that the things we do add (for example, a QR Code or PURL on a postcard) are not treated simply as add-ons. Rather, we should focus on integrating them into the overall marketing strategy that supports our customer’s goals.

Often, the development of a strategy will consist of us asking critical questions. The answers to those questions will not only help us decide which tools and technologies should be used, but also, how should we best use them.

Yes, I realize that some clients may come to you with a fully thought-out marketing strategy. But in today’s world, many CMO’s are running around at a frantic pace; thus, they could benefit by having a service provider offer some consultation and suggestions. If you do find yourself in that position, here are 4 steps that could help you develop and/or analyze a marketing strategy for your clients:

• Describe the Business: This sounds simple, but it’s crucial. It may help you to define key characteristics that affect branding and messaging.
• Define the Goal: The goal will help us to avoid using a new tool or tactic simply because it’s new. Rather, it will help us to ensure that the reasons we decide to do (or not do) something are done for a reason.
• Understand Who the Audience is And Where They Are: Think about QR Codes for a second. If your client is going to be placing print advertisements inside of a subway station where there is no cell service, do QR Codes really make sense? Or, if you are going to send information that is highly sensitive or private in nature, will a personalized URL actually cause people to not respond?
• How Will You Measure Success?: As a service provider, we may be constantly looking for ways to demonstrate and prove our value. However, in the rush to incorporate a new tactic, we may overlook what steps are necessary to help us measure the effectiveness of a specific tactic. By answering this question ahead of time, we will increase our chances of being able to present valuable data to our customers during the marketing campaign.

These are just a few of the questions that can help us to develop and deliver solutions that increase our revenue now and in the future. I hope that you find them find helpful! Yes, there will be always be new tactics that catch our attention, create some buzz, and get us excited (me included!). But no matter what the tactics are, having the right strategy will help to put us on the right path.

Here is a special treat for Thanksgiving week… First is the Swing Cover Direct Mailer. This piece combines a swinger fold technique with a tri-fold and was completely done by machine at Bindagraphics in Baltimore, MD. Second, watch the actual footage of this mailer being printed in the production facility. Think of it as your turkey dinner with an extra special desert. Enjoy!

As always, be sure to check out more treats for printers and marketing service providers at www.OceWow.com.

A New Accountability

Back when the economy tanked, an old word crept back into our lexicon: accountability. Marketers already had plenty of metrics in place, particularly at larger organizations that were well-schooled in tracking sales leads, market share, and CPM. Nevertheless, these pockets of performance measurements didn’t provide the big picture that senior managers are now seeking. What was lacking was a way to measure effectiveness of a campaign real-time and communicate the overall impact of the marketing organization.

So as bottom lines were scrutinized and budgets were slashed, marketing became an easy target because it was the least accountable. Today, there’s a new accountability in marketing that wasn’t there in the past. Companies are beginning to realize that it’s important their marketing strategies be aligned with their business strategies. Businesses must develop a real-time understanding of how well any marketing initiative is working.

In a multi-client research study entitled The Cross-Media Direct Marketing Opportunity, InfoTrends surveyed more than 500 marketing executives. According to our research, over 50% of marketing executives do not measure marketing campaign performance while executing a campaign. This means that the marketing campaign is completed and the budget is spent, even if it proves ineffective.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of this article!

From the day Google+ was released a few months ago, it has made quite an impact on the world of social networking. Many reports indicate that 50 million users signed up for the service within the first three months.

Yes, it’s true that there is still quite a gap between Google+ and Facebook and Twitter. However, Google helped to solidify the relevance of its social networking by releasing its Pages functionality this week.

If you are looking for ways to increase the effectiveness of your marketing efforts through social media, you should certainly take a look at whether a Google+ Page could benefit you.

Here are few things that we have learned so far that may help you in that process:

What You Might Like About the Page Setup Process

It is quite easy to do! You should be able to create a Page in a matter of minutes. Here are the main steps:

• Log-in to Google+
• Go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create
• Choose which category you would like to assign your Page to. Options include “Company”, “Product/Brand”, “Local Place”, and others.
• From there, you will simply need to enter in values for a few basic fields, including Page Name and Website URL.

Once your page has been created, take the time to fill out your profile. This may include:

• Using the “Recommended Links” section to share other URLs that are relevant to your business. This may include other social networks, a Newsletter Sign-Up form, and even a way for people to access an online storefront for products that you may sell.
• Take advantage of the content that can be entered into the “Introduction” field. Google+ provides plenty of space for you to share a compelling story about your company. You can also add links to relevant sites here as well.
• Utilize the “5 Photos” Area on the Home Page! This space does give companies a chance to be creative. When done properly, you can provide a great image of your company through the photos that you share there.

What You Might Not Like About the Page Setup Process

Google might certainly make changes to the items mentioned below sooner than later, but we just want you to be aware of them right now:

• There can only be one Page Administrator right now.
• It’s not exactly Facebook. This can be a good thing! We are all excited to see what opportunities Google+ may open create for businesses. However, since many of us are very familiar and comfortable with managing a Facebook Page, we may struggle a bit as we look around for similar capabilities within Google+.

Moving Forward

One of the best, but yet, most challenging items of being in the world of social networking today is that things change very quickly. Many companies are still trying to figure out how to grow their business through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Thus, some might look at the process of adding Google+ to their marketing mix as a burden.

However, we must keep in mind that success in marketing truly comes down to being where our customers and prospects are. In the case of the print industry, many of us are trying to reach marketing departments so that we can offer solutions to them. Google+ is already the home of a lot of forward-thinking marketing professionals!

Creating a Page now while the Feature is relatively new might give us a tremendous opportunity to increase awareness of our brand and attract some well-deserved attention!