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 mind, I thought I’d share some insights from the Federal Reserve. In April, the Federal Reserve released a 79-page report called “Consumers and Mobile Financial Services,” but there is a lot more in here than financial services.

More than half of the mobile phones out there (52%) are now smartphones, and they are changing the way people shop.

• 6% of all smartphone users have made a point-of-sale payment using their phone in the past 12 months, up from 1% one year earlier
• 42% of smartphone users have used their phone to comparison shop at a retail store, and 32% have used it to scan a product’s barcode to find the best price for the item
• 64% of consumers overall who use their phones to comparison shop in a retail store have changed where they purchased the product as a result of the information they found
• 44% of smartphone users have used their phone to browse product reviews or get product information while shopping at a retail store, and 70% of them changed the item they purchased based on this information
• 64% of mobile banking users have checked their account balance before making a large purchase in the past 12 months, and half of them have decided not to purchase an item as a result of their account balance or credit limit
• Approximately 27% of all mobile phone users are interested in receiving and managing discount offers and coupons on their phones, or receiving location-based offers.

This is tremendous evidence for the need of PSPs to begin broadening into mobile marketing. If your customers aren’t engaged in mobile marketing, they should be.

Download a copy of the (free) report here.

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, along with an online poll, and the responses so far are limited and not yet useful, but there were two comments to the post that are worth thinking about.

The line is to stop collecting data, when the cost of collecting it exceeds your ability to use it to improve your profitability. — David Himes (Direct Commerce Advisors)

You can never have enough of the “right” data. Data that is collected should provide insights and [be] collected for the purpose of answering questions that are important for the future health, development and achieving the marketing objectives of the business. Too much data is collected because it can be collected and not because it is useful or needed. And, often or not, not understood or acted upon in any case! — Rob Wilcox (WebMedia Inbound Marketing)

Print businesses are frequently talking about helping their customers collect data, but what kind of data? You append your database and set up PURL surveys to collect all sorts of information, but is that data actually going to help your customers market better? What questions are being asekd to determine which data is the right data to improve marketing results? After all, you can personalize something without making it relevant.

How do you know what questions to ask to make sure you’re gathering the right data to help your customers?

What is NFC?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication and the short answer would be that NFC identifies us. It allows smartphones to be identified and it establishes a radio communication. Think short range wireless RFID technology.

You may have heard of NFC and its ability to make mobile payments easy. Account information is stored on the smartphone and when in close contact with the payment receiving technology, it passes along that account information, enabling a payment to be made.

However, NFC can be a great marketing tool for mobile marketing. And there is also talk of how NFC will help in terms of rewarding customer loyalty. The bonus is that NFC is more interactive and engaging than your typical marketing message. It’s not a “look at me” marketing strategy. It’s more of a “hey, look what we’ve got for you, are you interested?” kind of connection with the audience.

How does NFC work?

NFC is like your short and skinny pal. He can’t reach very far. And he can’t throw a weighty punch. But he’s scrappy and useful in certain situations.  This low power and short-range wireless link allows for information to be passed between a smartphone and another device. While it is short range (think inches), it does not require contact. But most importantly, it allows for the information to relay back and forth between two devices instead of that relay being a one way street.

Not only is it short-range, NFC is slow. Especially when you compare it to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. But the perk is that NFC consumes very little power. It won’t strain a smartphone battery and suck it dry.

A smartphone enabled with NFC can share and interact with another NFC device, or with a “passive” NFC tag. No app needed. And the NFC tag is like a tiny chip that may be embedded (in a poster, a business card and so on) somewhere and has data ready to transfer to a NFC enabled device. The tag doesn’t even need power. Instead, the radio frequency field generated by the NFC device (like your smartphone) does the work, and the data from the tag is transferred to the device.

• What’s so awesome about NFC?
• How is NFC used in the real world?
• How can you put NFC to work for your business?

Get the answers to these questions and more in:

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 the phone number and provided links to dial, send a text message, or save to contacts. It also had a social media share button.

Nicely done! The problem is this:

1. It was sent to the previous owner of the house (who has since passed away)

2. I have never ordered from the company.

So this record has been inactive for the past four years.

The marketer (a pool supplies company) went to all that trouble to create a very well done, highly useful QR Code, but sent it to a list that hasn’t been cleaned or updated in at least 48 months. I wonder how many other inactive records it is currently mailing to?

Here’s an idea — use the QR Code to say, “Update your contact preferences.” Send folks to a page that allows them to indicate whether they still have a pool, and if so, where they purchase their pool supplies.  They could also update their contact information and select a contact preference — email, direct mail, or mobile.

Imagine how truly useful that QR Code would be! The marketer would eliminate bad records, gather data about inactive records (potentially allowing them to re-activate those customers once it knows more about them), stop offending recipients by using incorrect names, and even save money by transferring direct mail recipients to email or mobile contact if that’s what they prefer.

Now that would be a good use of a QR Code!

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 watermelons, and determined that I would pluck it from the rind and keep it.

I’m glad I did, because one year — and a new phone — later, it was there when I needed it.  Still works, too.

One of the enduring values of print is that people keep printed promotions longer than they do any other medium. Clips, postcards, and catalogs get stacked in piles, pinned to bulletin boards, and taped to refrigerators. One of my favorite case studies came from a personalized, oversized postcard my parents taped to the doorway to the kitchen.

QR Codes have the same enduring value. Once you’ve scanned the code, the landing page to which the code points stays in the phone’s history until you remove it. There are other codes I scanned that I wish I still had in my history, such as folk bands and micro-breweries whose names I’ve long since forgotten, but I’d still like to revisit some day.

The key is do create value that people actually want to return to. That’s what most marketers fail to do, and it’s why QR Codes have become the butt of marketing jokes and the subject of articles such as The Business Insider’s “The Greatest QR Fails of All Time.”

This QR Code from Nature’s Pantry was done well. It was placed in the right place, in front of the right audience, and took me to information of value to me. It offered such value that I went back to it one year later.

If this had been a postcard, I would have lost it. If it had been an email, it would be down around email #15,5654 in my inbox. But because it’s in my phone, it’s there indefinitely until I upgrade my phone again someday.

QR Codes aren’t a gimmick.  They just need to point to something of value.  It’s such a simple concept that I think it gets lost sometimes.

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 is used to illustrate: “The 15 Worst QR Code Fails of All Time.”

I have a very hard time imagining that this QR Code was not scanned by every red-blooded American man not offended by that kind of thing. Even more odd was the fact that the article dubbed QR Codes “the gimmick people love to hate.” Maybe, but I’m quite certain that Gillette is hating QR Codes all the way to the bank.

The ad was offensive. It was tacky. The content to which the QR Code pointed was juvenile. But the use of QR Codes was effective and illustrates QR Codes used well.

Why? Whether you agree or disagree with the approach, it caused readers to engage with the ad—and it did so while reinforcing Gillette’s brand. Most likely, the content was created specifically for this advertisement much like the supposedly “nude” millisecond shot of model Laura Stone for the Calvin Klein campaign produced by The Ace Group a number of years ago.

One of the best practices for QR Codes is to provide alternative ways to access the content for people who don’t want to scan the code. Gillette didn’t do that. If people wanted to see it, they had to scan the code.

I haven’t talked to Gillette or its agency,  but from talking to Val DiGiacinto at The Ace Group, I know why TAG did it for Calvin Klein back then. They were going after a specific demographic that matched the demographic of QR Code scanners and they wanted the viral sharing that comes with mobile access. TAG’s Calvin Klein campaign was enormously successful, and I imagine this was, too.

It’s funny that The Business Insider chose this ad to illustrate its commentary on QR Code fails. But it did so, I’m quite sure, because it knew that the ad’s tantalizing use of the QR Code would draw people in to read the article. So it used a powerful and well-planned “the gimmick people love to hate” to great effectiveness and its own gain.

Interesting how that works.

I recently had a very interesting conversation with James Michelson, president and founder of JFM Concepts, about text messaging in the printing industry. We were talking about multichannel marketing and how text messaging fits in.

Michelson wanted to talk about the use of text messaging in a way we rarely hear it being talked about—to gather email addresses. It went something like this:

1. Pick a venue (Jumbotron, direct mail, poster).
2. Offer a great incentive.
3. Ask people to respond by short code.
4. As your reply, send a link where they can sign up for the offer.
5. On the landing page, ask them to provide an email address to receive notification of their prize and opt-in to additional communications from your client.
6. Include content on the landing page that reflects the value of the content to the respondent so that they want to opt in and continue to receive email communications beyond notification of their prize.

This isn’t going to be the approach you use for all SMS short codes (QR Codes can be used to do the same thing), but it’s one that works in an unusual way — text messaging to gather emails!

Kudos (again) to James Michelson for his willingness to share great ideas with the industry!

In the world of personalization, we rely on data on individual recipients to target and personalize content to be relevant and meaningful to them. But in the world of B2B, decision-making has been more collaborative. In fact, according to IDC, the number of stakeholders for each purchase decision has grown by 40% — from five in 2010 to seven in 2012.

Tom Pisello, also known as “the ROI guy,” has written two very interesting blog posts on this topic from the sales perspective that are worth the read (“More Stakeholders = More Sales & Marketing Complexity in 2013” and “Are Buyer Personas Dead?“).

From a digital printing and personalization perspective, the impact of the expanding number of stakeholders could be significant.

As the number of stakeholders in any B2B decision grows, this will impact the ability of marketers to use personalization to promote their products and services. But for the better or the worse?

On one hand, we could say that it makes personalization to the individual less relevant. Stakeholders can range from IT to product management to finance, all of whom have differing agendas and motivations. Even the best, most sophisticated personalization efforts cannot span them all. The higher the number of stakeholders grows, the more watered down the impact of any individual marketing effort to any individual person on that team becomes.

On the other hand, every project often has one individual champion within the organization who advocates for the decision and propels it forward. We never know which of those 5–7 stakeholders on the team it’s going to be.  Sometimes all it takes is one. The recipient of that 1:1 marketing piece could be the person who makes the difference.

What is your experience? How do you think the expanding number of stakeholders affects personalization in marketing?

Looking for a way to convince customers to start blending in text messaging into their multi-channel mix? New data from Leads360 may help.

According to “Text Messaging for Better Sales Conversion,” sales prospects who receive SMS text messages during the sales process convert at a rate 40% higher than those who do not. But success depends on application and timing.

In its study of 3.5 million lead records, Leads360 found that texts sent after contact via telephone improve conversions 112.6% over average conversion levels, while those sent prior to phone contact convert at roughly 4.8% below the average rate. So we’re not talking about using text messaging as a replacement for traditional methods of sales contact, but as a supplement.

How does this help printers who serve phone calling and text messaging clients? After all, they aren’t the ones placing the sales calls.

1) If the client doesn’t already have mobile numbers, they need to be gathered in the first place (a service the MSP can provide).

2) Once those mobile numbers are in the database, they can be used for push messaging (marketing), as well.

Convince ‘em on the sales conversion data, then sell ‘em on a multi-channel campaign including mobile.

“Text Messaging for Better Sales Conversion” analyzed the text messaging practices of more than 3.5 million prospect interactions. You can download the white paper at no charge here.

At a Canon Oce webinar on January 23, InfoTrends Group Director Barbara Pellow presented “2013 Top 10 Trends for the Printing Industry.”

1. Digital Color is King. All bets are on digital color printing. InfoTrends research forecasts an increase from $29.6 to $39.5 billion in the retail value of  U.S. digital color from 2011 through 2016.

2. Digital Wide Format Goes Mainstream. Digital wide format printing evolves into an key component of companies’ marketing strategies, and will continue its 7% CAGR from 2011 through 2016.

3. Inkjet Accelerates Migration from Offset to Digital. New inkjet solutions offer greater speed, quality, substrate flexibility, and finishing –  as well as more  competitive pricing. Major inkjet growth expected from books, direct mail, transpromo and brochure printing.

4. Enhanced Substrates Drive Digital. Digital presses support new, high margin substrates: rugged synthetics; pressure sensitive stocks; specialty media; pre-scored, ready-to-print dimensional stock; new photobook media, and others.

5. Web-to-Print Manages Marketing Supply Chains. Companies spend billions for producing, shipping, storing, and handling literature. PSPs will optimize the marketing supply chain  – offering online print-on-demand collateral catalogues.

6. Content Reigns. Fifty-four percent of B2B firms increase spending on content marketing. PSP’s cultivate “thought leadership” offering content that educates, entertains and motivates.

7. Hyper-Personalization Drives Digital Print. 2013 is the “Year of Hyper-Personalization” – when marketing materials address more relevant, compelling needs of the consumer. Examples: mailers with personalized map directions and printed materials with PURLs linked to pre-approved applications.

8. Trigger-Based Marketing Meets Customer Preferences. Consumers expect real-time, two-way communications, through mobile devices, websites, and social media. PSPs customers will adopt marketing automation technology, e.g., from Market Sprocket, Hubspot, Orange Soda and Hootsuite.

9. Mobile Marketing Changes Communications. PSPs add mobile marketing solutions to the portfolio: mobile codes printed on packaging, POS, and brochures;  “opt-in mobile messaging” to mobile devices; Augmented Reality – digital graphics coded onto physical objects – revealing information or entertainment via mobile devices.

10. Direct Mail and Social Media Converge. PSPs support customers with social media marketing tools from Ducky, Hootsuite, SpreadFast, and others. Campaigns integrating direct mail with social media lift responses for both.

Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance carriers are in the business of assessing risk; risk of theft, damage, injury, professional malpractice and catastrophe as well as investment risk. They make their money by laying odds on the likelihood that things will go sideways for their customers and that they will earn enough money by investing the pool of premium dollars to pay out on the bet if things do. Lately it seems that climate change is blowing up all the models for setting the odds of a natural disaster and insurers are dealing with defining and delineating coverage for new threats like cyber-terrorism that have completely changed the game.

The core systems most insurers have in place are woefully inadequate to handle the scope and pace of this new insurance game. In order to keep up, companies have built add-on modules and work-arounds to their core systems, often relying on Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access “Band-Aids” to keep business moving. Many carriers that have upgraded their core systems did it on a “go-forward” basis leaving existing business on the old policy administration or claims system and writing new business on the new platform. At some companies this has happened more than once and there are now several “core” systems in production for different lines of business. All of the Band-Aids, work-arounds and go-forward solutions have left data scattered in multiple repositories just when carriers need data in one place more than ever.

In order to adequately assess risk, insurance carriers need large amounts of policy, claims, fraud and customer demographic data all in one place so that they can use risk modeling and data analytics to determine which types of risk are profitable to insure.  According to Accenture’s  2012 North American Claims Investment Survey, 54% of P&C insurers have core systems that are more than five years old, 66% say their claims systems are not optimized to collect and analyze data and 78% regard their capabilities inadequate to manage new forms and levels of risk, such as those presented by cybercrime, terrorism and increasingly frequent and severe natural catastrophes. So, after years of avoiding the disruption, expense and well – risk of a major core systems upgrade many companies have realized that they just can’t avoid taking the leap. A small study of 37 insurance carriers by Novarica indicated that 25 percent of large P&C insurers and more than 40 percent of midsize carriers were in the middle of converting their policy administration systems or planning to start a conversion at the end of 2011.

Keep in mind that the typical core systems upgrade will take from an incredibly fast eighteen months to a more typical three years plus to complete, depending on the number of undocumented work-arounds that need to be incorporated into the system and the level of data conversion to be completed. This means that a large percentage of the industry is either planning a core system upgrade or in the midst of completing one. And what comes out of these systems you ask? Documents, lots and lots of documents: quotes, policies, premium invoices, notices, claims reports, payments and more.

Opportunities abound for reducing the costs of producing documents in parallel with core systems conversion. Bringing systems together increases the opportunity for postal optimization, targeting analytics and improvements to the design of the documents themselves. The core systems upgrades have a larger implication as well; they enable insurers to develop more segmented and personalized products to appeal to different age, risk, ethnic and geographic groups of consumers. Direct marketing and agency marketing support is becoming more tailored and personalized as well with multi-touch, multi-channel and multi-language campaigns hitting the paper, airwaves and cyberspace simultaneously.

P&C Insurers are expected to spend an average of 17.5 million on Claims System upgrades alone. This seems like a pretty substantial number until you consider that the top 16 P&C insurers spend an average of $315 million on advertising each. GEICO alone spent over $993 million on advertising in 2011. This is not counting direct marketing spend – P&C Affinity Mail alone exceeded 500 million mailings in 2011 according to Mintel Comperemedia.

Savvy service providers are positioning themselves to help insures take advantage of newly upgraded systems and a wealth of new data to improve their customer experience throughout the insurance lifecycle. With their plates full to overflowing with core systems conversion initiatives, insurers need help to ensure that the tangible representation of their value to consumers – namely insurance documents – are not put at risk by the very projects intended to reduce risk. Now is the time to show insurers how to redirect some of those advertising dollars toward investments in customer experience and cross-sell using low-risk, high-reward solutions like direct mail, statement marketing and personalized collateral in tandem with QR codes and other calls to action that drive social media engagement and leverage consumers interest in mobile insurance applications. If your company isn’t positioned to help them, maybe you should be looking at some core systems upgrades too.

Elizabeth Gooding is the President of Gooding Communications Group and the Editor of InsightForums.com. She covers business communications trends in highly regulated industries such as insurance, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications.

As with the coming of every new year, we all look forward with anticipation of what the new year will bring. For marketing service providers, 2013 seems like it could be an exceptionally exciting year with new advances in technology and the ever growing integration of marketing communications across multiple platforms.

It’s not uncommon to see various blog posts predicting what will be big in 2013. But in my opinion, one of the best compilations of forthcoming trends was blogged by Matt Graham on the SourceLink blog. While I cannot take credit for any of these thoughts, I was so interested by all of the posts that I thought it best to share his insights instead of creating my own (with permission from SourceLink, of course). It is my guess that these trends will resonate especially with print and marketing services providers. These trends will not only challenge marketers, but will provide new opportunities to incorporate some creativity and take advantage of marketing channels, variable data, and emerging technology. So here are the trends, according to Matt Graham, to be on the lookout for and to take advantage of in 2013!

1. Display becomes addressable - New targeting tools allow for online display targeting that is closer to direct mail.
2. Direct marketing becomes conversation – Direct marketing is no longer one-way advertising but now must be able to respond to interested consumers and support two-way conversation.
3. Smartphones and tablets pass PCs – As more and more people begin to own and use tablets and PCs to access online information, websites and mobile content will become optimized for various screen sizes to increase the viewing experience.
4. Social becomes measurable – This is a big advantage for any Social Media Manager! New tools allow for a better measurement of ROI from social media marketing.
5. Hyperpersonalization: the use of big data – The options here are overwhelming when you consider the amount of data being collected and the number of channels available for communication.
6. Digital Mailboxes take root – the digital mailbox replaces email in-boxes while direct marketing and advertising quickly follow suit.
7. Channel convergence becomes real – Marketing channel crossover continues and increases as users expect to have seamless conversations across multiple platforms.
8. Digital couponing and payments sway consumer decisions – Direct marketing allows for marketers to target coupons to relevant prospects and stimulate purchase decisions.
9. Direct mail survives, but not standalone – Direct mail will still be utilized. However, volume and expenditures will continue to decrease as integration of direct mail and online initiatives becomes more prevalent.
10. Big Data – Big Data is everywhere and the topic of many a white paper in 2012. The trend increases in 2013 as marketers learn how to organize and capitalize from data.

If you clicked through to all of the articles, this is certainly more than enough reading to get you excited for 2013! May the new year bring you success… Happy Marketing!

Last week, I wrote about how the success of trigger-based email continues to support the value of trigger-based mail. After all, the importance is not in the medium. It’s in the timing and relevance.

Chuck Gehman, vice president of product platforms at Mimeo.com, disagreed. He commented on my post, saying,

It’s a real stretch to suggest that it would be possible to emulate what is going on in the digital world. It is possible that a few years ago, before digital marketing started to “run over” personalized print, this would have been a good idea. Now, though, why on earth would you want to? I mean, I get letters from my Honda dealer telling me my car is about to need a service. My BMW/Mini Cooper dealer, on the other hand, has an email platform. I honestly don’t have a preference as to which one I prefer… but I do know that the Honda dealer is spending way more money, and I believe I’m paying for it, which makes me a little unhappy.

I had to read this twice. Was Chuck really saying trigger-based print is passe? So I asked, and this is what he said.

Yes, unfortunately. The time has past for “that kind” of transactional/transpromo direct mail. In fact, I went to the Honda dealer yesterday– and I brought the letter with me (it’s a black and white letter in an envelope with two coupons at the bottom). I didn’t need it, because its content was all in their computer. The first thing the service adviser said was, “I have a coupon for you.”

One thing I might add is that my car was also telling me I needed service every time I turned it on, and it told me what kind of service it needed with a little code on the display– I looked up the code by typing “Honda Pilot B12″ into Google, and voila, I found out I needed an Oil Change.

So, Heidi, what’s the point?

There may still be room for the “print as a luxury” crowd, where some super-high end transactional/triggered direct mail piece is a good move, but generally, I think it’s a quickly and dramatically shrinking category.

I mean, I love print as much (and probably a lot more) than the next guy, but we can’t keep fooling ourselves. Some applications are just done.

I would agree with Chuck for some target audiences, but not everyone lives in the world that he is describing.

My car doesn’t talk to me. I have a neighbor without Internet access. Both my husband’s parents and mine are highly educated, with disposable incomes, but neither has an iPad or a smartphone. My husband’s parents don’t even watch television.

I have a close friend whose husband runs a research lab at Penn State. They don’t have smartphones, and their computer has so many filters on it I’m surprised email gets through. Another set of close friends is still smartphone-free, as well, despite the fact that she’s a teacher and her husband works in the world of computers.

My husband has a director-level job at a private school, but he doesn’t have a smartphone, receives no marketing email, and only looks at his home email once a week.

I think we forget that there is still a whole world out there that is not plugged into this world of e-everything, and unless we don’t need revenue from their wallets, I think print is still very much worthy of their attention.

Chuck was ready for me. He volleyed back:

That’s a very dramatically shrinking world, though Heidi, you’ve published a lot of the statistics to prove what I’m saying in previous posts you have made here!

[Yes, that's true, I would interject, but I've also posted a lot of data showing the continued effectiveness of direct mail, too.]

People who have Smartphones are the people marketers want to spend money trying to reach… not people who don’t consume any media, which is increasingly the demo for the people you are describing.

Um, I responded, does this mean that people without smartphones don’t spend any money? That’s not the case among non-smartphone owners I know. They just spend money on things other than electronics. (Although one is an avid iPad user.)

The other point is that while as an industry, we’ve been watching with great interest as the percentage of smartphone owners has grown, and there was great excitement when smartphone owners hit 50% if the market. But that still leaves the other 50%. Are we going to say they don’t spend money or consume media?

Then the irony of what I was writing back to Chuck hit me. I added,

By the way, just for fun, it’s worth noting that I’m posting my defense of the legitimacy of trigger-based print from my iPhone while at the gym…

In the final volley in this exchange (until I continued it here), Chuck posted:

Uh oh! That is fun, Heidi! Hey, check out the statistics embedded in this post I just stumbled upon.

Okay, Chuck. Good stuff. But growth in one medium doesn’t mean a corresponding decline in the effectiveness in the other. When did media become mutually exclusive? I thought multi-channel marketing meant multiple channels, including a mix of media.  That means that print stays relevant, even when other channels are growing in popularity.

In fact, according to last year’s USPS Household Survey, eight out of 10 U.S. households still scan or read advertising mail that comes to their homes. That sure beats average click rates. And the percentage of U.S. households that “usually read” advertising mail increases as the volume of mail they receive decreases. This is more evidence that, as U.S. mail volumes decline, advertising mail becomes that much more effective. Plus, we know that personalization increases effectiveness even further.

So I agree with Chuck’s comments, but only on a non-exclusive basis. I think that’s where we can easily become myopic. Growth in one medium doesn’t necessarily mean lack of effectiveness of another.

Please chime in . . . what is your response to this exchange?

Direct mail is great. It has proven effectiveness, it’s tactile and it holds a certain sentimentality that cannot be matched. Video has been the hottest technology for years, and shows no signs of slowing down. It has been said that Direct Mail could suffer as a standalone marketing medium, but when made part of a multichannel strategy (through integration with email, social media or video), it actually can become stronger than the sum if its parts. Here are some ways to integrate video with Direct Mail:

QR linking directly to video

The most basic and inexpensive way to integrate video into your direct mail is through the use of QR codes. By creating a QR code that links to a YouTube video, you can create immediate conversions across channels, as the user in transported directly to your YouTube Channel or a custom landing page on their smartphone. Even better, if you work with a marketing provider that utilizes digital print and PURL technology, you can track and collect information as each user is whisked away to the land of your business video. Host these videos on your social media platforms, and that just adds one more facet to the Multichannel experience!

Die-cut postcards to “fill in the blanks”

Modern day print machinery can do amazing things. With the use of die-cutting on a postcard, video can literally “fill in the blank” of the removed portion. Direct the recipient to a simple YouTube URL or use a QR code to redirect the recipient, and have the user place the card on top. Voila! Instant tactile interaction with the mail piece and video combination. Think of creative ways to make the die-cut recess become part of the video. Video software becomes more inexpensive every year, and a little brainstorming can lead to an inexpensive campaign really producing a high-class touch!

Integrated video/picture utilizing translucent space

I’ll admit that I grabbed this idea from our blogger, Craig Blake, and his blog “Is Print Dead? Not According to Lexus!!” Cineprint technology is the branded name for this technology, and Sports Illustrated recently blew a number of minds with this advertisement:

As you can see, the branded technology can produce amazing results, and look for many marketers to use similar technologies (or homegrown versions of this technology) to really make mail pieces pop. Imagine your utility bill coming to life when placed on your iPad. Imagine a campus tour coming to life as the seasons change in front of the Admissions building. Imagine your spending habits graphed out live directly on your bank statement. Your imagination is the limit when a printed piece pairs with video elements that bring it to life.

Video on/in printed piece

A few years ago, Pepsi Max rolled out an advertisement in Entertainment weekly that literally had a video embedded into the magazine. The user chose from a variety of prerecorded options, and was able to interact with the magazine. This technology is getting less expensive every year, and with the benefit of behavioral and demographic data, this investment could be the right way to reel in that high-end real estate client or investor. When you utilize the data about your target audience, you can know your investment isn’t for naught. People know when you’ve put a lot of money and effort into your communications, and nothing has quite the “Wow!” factor that a video in a personalized mailing.

Augmented reality

Augmented Reality is defined as: Augmented reality (AR) is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.

Direct mail will greatly benefit from AR applications in the coming years, as apps on a smartphoneare being developed at a rapid pace and at a reasonable cost to facilitate the use of printed images and AR. Several Higher Ed institutions are already using this technology to make personalized direct mail experiences, and with Google Glasses, websites will (likely) literally be able to be viewed from a mail piece. Landing pages, videos, graphics in 3D- the possibilities are literally endless, and so exciting. This technology is probably the most advanced of those discussed, but has great possibilities.

So there you have it, five ways you can integrate video into direct mail. These suggestions can be as inexpensive or as expensive as you choose. So to the naysayers: Direct Mail is not Dead, print isn’t passé: they are just in need of a multichannel spin, and what’s cooler than video?

It’s fair to say that the business model for health insurance is in the process of being completely redefined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA). Health insurers can expect to spend the bulk of 2013 getting ready for the new post-ACA marketplace. How far reaching are these changes? Well, they impact critical factors like:

• Who insurers can sell to: individuals in addition to groups.
• Who insurers must sell to: no ability to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions.
• Where they sell their products: new Health Insurance Exchanges (HIE) in addition to the usual channels plus new retail branches.
• How they can sell their products: products offered through exchanges must conform to one of 5 standardized options.
• How they can price their products: they must devote 80% (in some cases 85%) of premiums to actual customer medical expenses leaving only 15% to 20% for all administration and overhead.

In addition to the changes that are mandated by the plan, there are many changes that just naturally flow from adapting to a consumer-driven market. In 2011 approximately 50 million people – or about 16% of the US population – had no health insurance coverage or eligibility for government sponsored health programs. In 2014 approximately 60% of that population is expected to purchase private health insurance coverage – that’s about 30 million new customers. In addition, another 17 million customers may come on the books as states expand Medicaid eligibility to more low-income Americans since most states contract Medicaid coverage to private insurers.

Insurers are trying to turn their marketing and sales organizations into retail operations to tap the consumer market. Like retailers, they are trying to leverage data on their customer base to drive effective marketing and communications programs. Since, other than marketing Medicare supplement programs, most insurers have had little or no consumer marketing experience they need help in this area. Compounding the problem, according to PWC, this new insurance market is made up of consumers who are likely to be less educated and many will need material in a language other than English.

Since many of these new insurance consumers have never enrolled in a health plan before, they are likely to shop for health insurance they way that they would shop for any other major purchase like a home appliance or a car – by seeking out a familiar brand. To become top of mind before these people enter the market, insurers are investing in a wide array of advertising: TV, radio, web, print and billboards to build awareness. Direct mail, email and mobile marketing will only increase as new products become available and market data is refined.

But the retail transformation goes beyond branding, insurers are opening branches where consumers can learn about insurance options and buy on the spot. In May, Horizon BCBS announced that they would be opening a new retail center in New Jersey and Blue Shield of California recently opened a “Blue Shield Store” inside of Lucky’s Supermarket in San Francisco. These are two of several retail store-fronts in 5 or 6 states with more to come in 2013.

These retail operations will naturally need to be staffed with knowledgeable people and supported with kiosks and other technology but, they will also need printed collateral, the ability to order and manage collateral across locations and the kind of seasonal and tailored signage seen in the best branch banks and retail stores.