When we look around, it feels as if there is more personalization occurring in marketing today. We hear more about it. We see it more in our inboxes and mailboxes. But what’s really happening on the ground? According to Forbes Insight’s new report: “Data-Driven and Customer-Centric: Marketers Turning Insights into Impact,” based on a survey… Read More »
The other day, I received a personalized postcard that caught my eye and made me think. It was a beach scene, with brightly colored beach chairs across the front. I live in the heartland, so at first I thought perhaps it was a travel promotion. The headline read, “Just our way of saying thanks, Bellefonte.”… Read More »
Are you still personalizing primarily by name and address? If that’s all you are doing, what is preventing you from digging deeper? I suppose “Customers won’t pay for it” might be the answer, and if so, what are you doing to make them want to? We’ve all seen the data, and it just keeps coming.… Read More »
No matter what type of industry, the ultimate goal is creating an organizational structure that is as efficient as possible. That’s where integrated marketing software comes in. Every print, mail, and fulfillment organization needs effective marketing that powerfully portrays their products or services, and captures their data and information in a central repository. However, with… Read More »
Your client’s customer database — its most precious resource. Used for invoicing, customer communications, and as a critical source of data for their marketing list, the customer database is your client’s lifeblood. How easily can it be compromised? A recent Comcast horror story shows just how easily. One customer, Mary, continually had trouble with her… Read More »
Recently, I was working on a project for one of our clients, and in a marked-up Word document that came back to me was a comment that read, in part, “which came first, digital print or one-to-one marketing?” That got me thinking—which is always dangerous—and then some poking around—which is even more dangerous. Today’s notion… Read More »
I just read a fantastic case study from Data Services Inc. that reinforces the value of direct mail in a world going increasingly electronic. Direct mail goes (and succeeds) in places email cannot. That includes the world of unsubscribes. Belgium-based Outlet-Avenue, an online overstock retailer targeting younger, fashion-conscious consumers, was finding that it was losing… Read More »
Fall is here and the holiday season is upon us. For many businesses, this season correlates to the most profitable quarter of the fiscal year. Every year holiday spending numbers continue to grow as buyers become more and more informed on what businesses offer. It’s no coincidence that consumer spending has increased; the proliferation of… Read More »
Why aren’t we seeing more 1:1 printing in the marketplace? Why isn’t “everyone doing it”? Is it because there is a lack of marketer education? Or is it a lack of willingness to do what it takes to make 1:1 printing work (i.e. willingness to continue to do things “the way we’ve always done” because… Read More »
It’s happened again. A title has been converted into a name in data oblivion and sent as part of a personalized mailing. This example is taken from a business mailing to my home addressed to “Poi LLC.” The assumption is that “Poi” stands for Person of Interest, converted into sentence case the same way my… Read More »