Friday Blog Log

We are so absolutely lucky to live in an age where there is just so much interesting stuff out there. We can access incredible creativity and great info with just a few clicks.

That's why we thought that it was time to introduce a weekly feature where we'll be highlighting blog posts and other things that we find to be interesting. We hope you like what we like!

1. Ron Shevlin's: It doesn't take a genius to read this blog. We love Ron's humor! And, in this post, he introduces a pretty nifty site that reviews your website or blog and reports on what reading level it is. For what it's worth, Ron's is graded at high school level, and ours is graded at college level. Hmmmm, what does that say about us, I wonder?

2. Avinash Kaushik's Ten More Blogging Tips from a Novice Blogger. Well, Avinash, for all his modesty, is hardly a novice blogger. He has one of the most popular blogs out there; topic is web analytics. Avinash is passionate about blogging, seems really kind and a great person. Plus, his blogging tips are right on the money.

3. The Viral Garden's list of the top 25 marketing blogs. I know, we're giving you a link to more links! But, this is a blog resource that I check out all the time. It points me in the direction of other marketing blogs that I should be reviewing. It's also fun to see who's most popular (Seth Godin, always).

4. Drew's Marketing Minute discusses how so many marketers miss the boat completely when they focus on product features, INSTEAD of on how the product will benefit its customers.

5. Becky Carroll's Customers Rock! blog post that provides some handy, and ever-so-practical public speaking tips.

6. And, finally, we'd love to extend an invitation to all of you smart readers to join a facebook group we recently joined. Started by Robert Rosenthal of Mothers of Invention, and called "What I Saw At the Direct Marketing Revolution," this is an up-and-coming community of savvy direct marketers. Check us out and please join in the fun and learning.

We hope you enjoy this new Friday Feature of ours. Let us know how we can improve, and if we've missed any good posts, please comment and share!

Spotlight On: Acxiom

Welcome to the first monthly "Spotlight On" post! Each month, we will focus specifically on a company within the direct marketing industry that makes news headlines due to their excellent contributions to the DM industry. Additionally, we will seek out those companies who not only bring us great DM solutions, but also perform exceptionally in the customer service arena. We believe that this monthly post will bring a lot to our faithful readers -- and it makes us happy to recognize a company in our industry who we would consider as a good choice to bring to our clients.

Today, our spotlight is on Acxiom, who was recently lauded by Forrester Research as a "technology powerhouse." According to the press release, "Acxiom was among only 12 leading database marketing service companies selected by Forrester to participate in 'The Forrester Wave™: Database Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2007' evaluation."

So, what did Forrester look at when christening Acxiom with this high praise? “The company remains a technology powerhouse with a heavy emphasis on proprietary data and deep industry expertise across a multitude of industries,” the Forrester Wave report noted. “Acxiom clients applaud its reactive, responsive and customer-focused service...” AHA! And those were exactly the two components that we were searching for!

As we all know, great solutions are abundant out there in the direct marketing marketplace. Whenever we think that a piece of data doesn't exist or a tool just simply hasn't yet been created, we are astonished to find that it is out there somewhere. You just have to be persistent in your research and chances are, it can either be created or it exists . . . if you look hard enough. We've found that the most difficult piece is, after finding what you are looking for, to be able to actually extract it from the company without leaving too much of your blood and soul behind. Wait . . . do I sound bitter?

The customer focus element is the piece that, nowadays, is seemingly impossible to achieve. Many companies have the technology but are so incredibly difficult to do business with that you almost wish you hadn't found the technology in the first place. According to their own clients, Acxiom has figured out how to integrate great technology solutions and maintain a solid -- and positive -- customer satisfaction perspective. This is why they made the short list on Forrester's Wave report.

Acxiom has also set itself apart from its competitors by its focus on the Small-to-Medium-sized Business market. The firm recently acquired MKTG Services, whose core competencies are in serving this market. With this acquisition, they also picked up some other key areas of expertise such as marketing solutions for credit risk, bankruptcy identification, and turn-key marketing systems. All in all, this looks like an excellent acquisition by Acxiom. Also, we've worked with some of the staff from MKTG Services -- and they, too, have a solid focus on the customer.

Due to the way that they've managed and grown their business, Acxiom is reportedly the "largest marketing database provider in the industry" and "manages more than twice as many databases as its next largest competitor." In addition, I've recently spoken to a couple of their employees and they honestly enjoy working for the company. According to these folks, Acxiom's corporate culture is one that recognizes hard work, yet allows its employees to put their families first. And, for a large, continually growing company, this is yet another huge accomplishment. It isn't that easy to maintain a positive corporate culture -- while continuing to sustain growth -- in this extremely competitive economic time.

Kudos to Acxiom for getting it right -- bringing us great solutions, customer-focused employees and a corporate culture that makes the company a great place to work! We are quite happy that we are able to focus our first spotlight on them! And, we'd love to hear your comments of personal thoughts and experiences in working with Acxiom, good or bad.

If you have experienced an extraordinary company in your travels, please share it with us. We'll be happy to highlight their efforts in an upcoming "Spotlight On" post.

Green Direct Marketing

Two very different articles caught my eye this morning, both from DM News.

The first: Dreaming of a green christmas? which reports on a stunt by ForestEthics.

"While Ty Pennington, TV handyman extraordinaire and Sears’ spokeshunk, toyed with his toolbelt in Times Square last week during a Sears Wish Book catalog promotion, Santa and his reindeer tried to call a halt to the action in the name of the environment."

Apparently, this stunt was an "attempt to take Sears to task for what it cited as environmental cruelty (the Wish Book is some 200 pages long)." The article goes on to say although the stunt didn't really capture too much media attention, it "does speak to the concerns that catalog marketers are addressing in terms of the environmental impact of their bread and butter."

Are consumers sick and tired of all those catalogs? And, do they think about the environment when they open their full mail boxes this time of year? Have no fears--these questions will soon be answered.

"DMNews has partnered with Pitney Bowes on a consumer survey, Direct Mail and the Environment. The results, with accompanying editorial, will be in the December 17 issue." We'll definitely be reporting results here.

Now, on to Green Issue number 2. This time, it's about using environmental attitudes as part of segmentation. Although a tad creepy (that even our feelings about saving the environment might be known about us), it makes sense, right?

Direct Group looks to green data for new marketing service

Here's how it's done: "Market segmentation technology provider Earthsense measures consumer reaction to environmental issues. The Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey gathered responses from 30,000 adults across the US. Recently released results show respondents’ feelings on political candidates, green products, eco-friendly companies and other issues."

Direct Group offers this segmentation system (along with other direct marketing services) to political marketers. Segments are applied to Voter Registration files to enable more precise targeting and messaging.

Pretty nifty, eh?

In any event, that's the news today on the environmental front!

Queens of the Direct Mail Soapbox!

Long Live Direct Mail! Say it loud -- say it proud! Really.

Guess what? Even though we have a plethora of direct marketing tools in our picnic basket -- and a lot of them are way cool, way sexy -- direct mail is still the most effective way to get your message out. Yep, there's been a new survey conducted about this very topic. A recent article in DM News by Dean Rieck states that:

A recent survey by International Communications Research concluded that people prefer receiving things by direct mail. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they prefer receiving new product announcements by mail, versus 18% for e-mail. And, a whopping 86% said they prefer direct mail for official correspondence, such as bills, bank statements and financial reports, compared to 10% for e-mail.

For those of us who have long lauded the benefits of highly-targeted, intelligent direct mail, this is music to our ears. Further, Rieck goes on to say that, "fewer people trash unsolicited direct mail when compared to e-mail, 31% to 53%." Now, we all love e-mail and it's very apparent that there are those who prefer to be communicated with via e-mail. However, this study simply points out that direct mail does still work -- and when you're trying to get a particular message out to a specific audience, you can do it quite effectively with direct mail.

If you're avid readers of this blog (and we hope you are!), you know that we're huge proponents of strategically utilizing all of the available direct marketing channels. And, by listening to your customer's preferences, you can make your campaigns very successful utilizing a multi-channel approach.

The point of this post is to remind you that as you plan your DM campaigns, don't rule out direct mail. When executed correctly, this channel is a great way to get your message across -- and an excellent way to ensure that it will not be ignored. You can use any format you like and many different methods of delivery.

Now, here's the next conundrum . . . how do you effectively utilize direct mail and be a "green" marketer at the same time? Because as more and more studies point out, both businesses and consumers are getting greener by the day. Something to think about as you go about your day!

Have a great Tuesday!

Case Study Monday: Data Assessment

It's official--we've decided to dedicate each Monday's post to a marketing case study. Last week we shared how RRW helped a leading telecommunications firm retain and up-sell profitable customers. This week we'll focus on our work with another communications giant and talk about how our analysis of their marketing data helped them optimize their data management strategies.

Situation Overview:
The database marketing team at AT&T/BellSouth wanted to maximize the value and utilization of their rich internal data stores. They had a general understanding that their customer data was valuable, and that they could potentially be buying unnecessary external data from a variety of similar data sources. They also knew that they needed to understand how the data was being used, what types of programs were being fed by the data, who were the power users of the data, and who was not using the data. They needed to understand current and future data needs and requirements.

Solution Overview
RRW Consulting recommended a thorough examination of the data assets and systems access. The consulting engagement included:

• A series of user interviews where we gleaned valuable information as to specific programs that used the customer data, along with overall perceptions of the data.
• These interviews not only uncovered what data was valuable for today's programs, but also revealed future directions, so that we could match our recommendations to meet both today's and tomorrow's needs.
• Detailed written descriptions of the current systems environment that included ease of data access (list pulls, financial report generation, etc.).
  
• A data content analysis to allow for a thorough understanding of the deliverability and data depth.
• Interviews of all divisions that purchased external data looking for purchase redundancies.

Results:

• The database team was armed with the details they needed to convince Leadership of the value of the data and the continued investment in data management systems and data.
• Data recommendations allowed AT&T/BellSouth to focus their external data investment only on data that would support current and upcoming programs.
  
• Use of the database and the data increased exponentially throughout the company.
• External data costs were reduced by 10%

Overall, our work with AT&T/BellSouth allowed them to get a handle on how data was being used throughout this large organization. Further, we were able to match available external data to the current and future marketing programs, hence optimizing their significant investment in external data. For example, we found the best source of e-mail data for them. Plus, we identified the most accurate source of ethnic data and the best sources of hi-tech information (both areas that they were focusing on).

But, it's really not all about us! We look forward to featuring other interesting case studies--please share your success stories with us and we'll feature them in an upcoming Monday post. Simply e-mail the case study to: info@rrwconsulting.com. Should make for some interesting Monday reading, reading all of these excellent direct marketing success stories!

Direct Marketing: What Are We Thankful For?

Once again, the year has whizzed by . . . Mom was right (again) about time speeding up on you as you get older. So, here we are on the eve of Thanksgiving, and reflecting on what we have to be thankful for in the world of direct marketing. Come on -- I know that's what you're all reflecting on as you're making those pumpkin pies!

For starters, our industry continues to expand. Even with the stumbling economy of 2007, direct marketing spend has continued to grow robustly -- some report as much as 7%. That is great news for all of us! And, in reviewing our client's strategies, it's looking like 2008 will be even stronger than 2007.

Second, certain marketing channels are really experiencing great growth spurts. As we discussed in our post yesterday, it's readily apparent that online marketing is continuing to expand. In addition, those companies who utilize a multi-channel approach -- integrating their online marketing with direct mail, for example -- are profiting in a big way. Once again, it's all about customer preference, and if you have a sound multi-channel marketing strategy, you are reaching more of your customers in the way in which they desire to be communicated -- thus, increasing your response rates. It's as simple as that!

Third, some of the newer channels are beginning to flourish. For example, word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is experiencing strong growth. As reported by PQ Media, WOM marketing expenditures are expected to grow over 30% between now and 2011. From our perspective, this is increasingly due to the continued acceptance of and participation with social media sites. As we reported last week, social media is here to stay and, we believe, will become an important part of this projected growth, and therefore, a part of many direct marketing strategies.

So, as you're carving that turkey tomorrow, and getting ready to dig in to the mashed potatoes, be thankful that you're involved in an industry as exciting and profitable as ours. And, when you get the "junk mail-king" and "spam-queen" jokes from the relatives, just smile and keep on chewing. The joke is on them . . . and we'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Happy Thanksgiving!

'Tis the Season--for SHOPPING!

"The Internet’s role in the holiday shopping season continues to grow, promising to provide a ray of light in what could be an otherwise dim holiday shopping season."

"According to research being released today by Shop.org, which is part of the NRF, and BIGresearch, the Internet will influence 30.2% of holiday sales this year, up from 28.9% last year."

This in from today's DM News. Hardly big news that more and more people are enjoying the comforts of shopping from home, or the office. Forget about parking the car in the mall, fighting the hordes to grab that perfect gift. It's so much easier to simply point and click, and, um, give up that credit card number.

What I found intriguing about this article was the fact that online merchandisers are learning a few things from their retail brethren. And, in some cases they're taking it a bit farther by using social media tactics to boost marketing effectiveness.

• "72% of online retailers said they are planning a special promotion for Cyber Monday." Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving--traditionally a huge day for online shopping, as people return to the offices with Christmas, and Christmas shopping on their minds. Cyber Monday is quickly becoming as important as Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, and the time in the fiscal year when most brick and mortar retailers finally turn a profit).
  
• "CyberMonday.com is Shop.org’s shopping Web site intended to help consumers find the best holiday deals." This site collects online deals and sales info and even distributes this info to interested consumers via RSS feed and e-mail. Talk about offering a great service to the interested shopper. And, a lovely use of interactive marketing.
  

In some cases, (gasp) online marketers are actually integrating their marketing with retail to really boost the effect on consumers.

• "More retailers are viewing their online sales initiatives as part of an overall marketing strategy."
• "According to a recent survey from BDO, chief marketing officers of leading US retailers said they are dedicating 14.8% of their total marketing budget to driving Internet sales during the holidays."

So, what, specifically, should we (as consumers) be looking for in the way of promotional activities? What deals will be out there?

• According to Shop.org, e-mail campaigns will be the most popular promotion on Cyber Monday, with 32% of retailers planning to use this strategy. E-mail is followed by specific deals, which 29.9% of retailers plan to offer, one-day sales, which 28.9% plan to offer and free shipping, which 24.7% plan to offer.
• BDO’s research indicates that 61% of retailers will be providing reduced prices online during the holidays, 58% free shipping and 53% exclusive items. The average minimum purchase to qualify for free shipping was $43."
• “More and more retailers are adopting ‘Midnight Madness’ one-day sale approaches” this year, according to Krugman (Scott Krugman is VP of public relations at the National Retail Federation). The expectation is that since sales weren’t that strong in September and October, there will be some pent-up consumer demand and retailers are hoping to capture this."

In just a few years, we've seen web sales grow and grow. And, the strategies behind interactive marketing have evolved, too. It's a fun time to be a direct marketer. And, I have to admit it, it's a fun time to be a consumer!