Significant Growth in Advertising

From today's "Advertising Age": U.S. Agency Revenue Jumps 8.8% to $28.2 Billion. That's healthy growth for advertisers and marketers--the most since 2002's recession.

What I found especially interesting is that the growth was NOT fueled by traditional advertising media, such as TV or print. This huge growth primarily came from online/interactive channels and other non-traditional media, such as direct mail.

So, I guess it's becoming more and more clear to marketers--the media that provide proven results and those that are measurable are the right choices for today's marketers.

Great news for Direct Marketing!

Web 2.0, the Travel Industry, and the Customer Experience

As mentioned earlier, we are big fans of Web 2.0 and it's increasing impact on marketing. It is quite interesting to see its impact on various industries. For example, the travel industry is now examining how to utilize Web 2.0 principles in helping them to better drive traffic to their websites, increase sales, and decrease overall costs. In fact,the editor of Eye For Travel online magazine, has defined Web 2.0 for his industry as meaning that consumers now rule the web and that user generated web content is the key to increasing traffic, and therefore, increasing sales.

As a result of this, this industry is debating whether or not to continue to pour money into social media phenomena, such as YouTube and Trip Advisor (2 of the fastest growing websites on the internet). Through these sites, consumers can post their opinions of airlines and hotels, and rate them based upon their traveling experiences. The alternative philosophy is to pull back spending in this area and instead simply focus on customer retention techniques.

As you can imagine, there are differing opinions on both of these ideas. We argue that no matter what your opinion is on this debate, companies have to focus first on the customer experience. If the customer experience is not good, it doesn't matter how you market. You will alienate customers either way if their experience is not positive.

For more on this interesting debate, you can attend the Affiliate Marketing Travel Industry Conference in May. It promises to be a conference filled with a rousing debate on the best ways to capture consumers' travel share-of-wallet most effectively.

Have a good weekend!

Integrating Customer Data

We loved this article by Balaji Yellavalli of Infosys, "CRM: Putting the Cart Before the Horse." It speaks about the challenges that large companies (in this case financial institutions) face in understanding the entire customer relationship. He cites typical CRM systems that wait for a customer to transact and then the system must reactively collect transaction data and is "continuously trying to catch up and build a 360 degree view of the customer." Quite the challenge...

Then, the next hurdle is to ensure that you are associating the appropriate transactional data with the right customer. This is where Customer Data Integration (CDI) becomes so very important. Yellavalli defines CDI as "the creation and maintenance of a centralized repository of core "master data" – the multiple facets (demographic, household, even updated credit-worthiness data) of information that identify a customer."

RRW agrees with his assessment that CDI is critical to successful CRM practices. We've even put together a White Paper that provides an overview of CDI tools, and relates some of our personal experiences building a 360 degree view of the customer. We'd be happy to share this with you.

It's Easy To Be Green!

In a recent DM News article, Chet Dalzell reports on how direct marketers are right in step with the environmentally friendly attitude that prevails today. In fact, the article touts 3 "green" companies -- Starbucks, General Electric and Toyota -- as companies who are actually "building their growth on products and strategies aimed at helping to preserve the planet."

When you think about what we do each day, it's true! We are measured on our ability to be efficient. We are constantly being measured for targeting better, increasing response rates on our direct mail campaigns, increasing the efficiency of our marketing databases, etc. As Dalzell so aptly points out, "Avoiding waste, more often than not, is avoiding cost." Deep isn't it.

It's nice to know that through our efforts to make our marketing strategy as efficient as possible, we are also being good corporate citizens -- both from a budgetary and environmental perspective. This philosophy goes hand in hand with corporate goals of doing what's right for all of our stakeholders -- and more importantly, for our planet.

It turns out that Kermit was wrong . . . it IS easy to be Green.

How to Mitigate Postal -- and other DM Costs

There has been a lot of talk recently about the new postal increase, and those increases planned for the future. Many direct marketers are talking about how they may have to decrease their direct mailing campaigns -- particularly to their prospect universes -- so that they do not blow their DM budgets. We reply to that logic with a heart-felt, "No Way, People!"

The key to dealing with these types of increases is by marketing smarter. Utilizing intelligent direct marketing tools such as analytics and database tools, you can market to those prospects most likely to respond to your offers, and weed out those who likely will not. As Direct Marketers, we have a plethora of tools available at our fingertips. While most do require some upfront costs, they will definitely save you money upon implementation. Mailing costs are just one of the costs that will be postively impacted. When you start to factor in costs of printing, piece-development, etc., you can quickly see how the utilization of these tools can help you meet -- and exceed-- your budgetary objectives.

Just a little food for thought as you are planning your direct marketing strategy.

E-Mail Marketing -- Great Click-through rates!

In a recent story from Carol Krol of BtoB Marketing Online Magazine, it is reported that the effectiveness of e-mail marketing is definitely on the rise. In fact, research has shown that an astounding 84% of e-mail users have clicked through from e-mail offers. The research was conducted by Epsilon, a database marketing and e-mail marketing provider, in its findings from research conducted with GfK Custom Research North America. The article reports that the survey of more than 400 e-mail users revealed generally high satisfaction with e-mail and mailbox providers, as well as high responsiveness to e-mail communication efforts across multiple channels. Additionally, the data indicate that e-mail campaigns exert a powerful influence over other marketing channels' performance.

The survey also found 73% of respondents report having made an online purchase as the result of receiving a relevant e-mail offer and 51% of respondents report having clicked "forward to a friend" links in marketing e-mail.

This is solid evidence that you should consider e-mail as part of your multi-channel marketing efforts. For more on effective e-mail marketing techniques, you may want to take a look at our E-Mail Marketing Best Practices White Paper. Just click on the link and we'll send you a copy.

Direct Response Critical to B2B Marketing

Take a look at this article from "B2B". Its headline: Direct Response Garners Biggest Piece of Marketing Budget.

Key points: Direct Response represents 42.9% of business-to-business marketing budgets. Of that, the biggest piece is direct mail (27.5%).

As a direct marketer, news like this always makes me happy. Means job security and future opportunities. And, moreover, the continued growth of DR channels illustrates that direct response WORKS--it builds business, plain and simple. I think that's why we love this industry. We are working on programs that we can justify with numbers--sales, leads, retention rates, etc.

Yes, we are held accountable to delivering results, but as a marketer, I wouldn't want it any other way!