Seattle Direct Marketing Association

Paul Francis

Owner, PushInc

Getting ready for the social media networking event on May 6, I have been thinking a lot about how I use social media. Lately, I have developed a serious addiction to announcing anything and everything on Twitter.


But tweeting is a lot of work if you want to do it right so really it is super easy to become a Twitter Quitter. To get more efficient on my time, I did some research and discovered that there are tons of plugins that make staying current on the fast-paced social networks easy.

So if you are a Twitter addict like me or cant' digg Twitter just yet, use Firefox to browse the web and read this post as it lists some really cool Twitter plugins for Firefox. 

My personal favorite is the Twitter Bar that allows you to tweet from the address bar of your browser. 

Still reeling from last month's Market to the Max extravaganza, and all the great info I gleaned from those sessions, this month's Seattle Direct Marketing Association event was another stellar presentation.

Representatives from companies such as Classmates.com, Expedia and others, who rely heavily on successful email marketing campaigns, formed a panel to tell us about current trends, past experiences and thoughts about future directions of direct email marketing. 

The most compelling bit of info for me was the wide range of tracking, measuring tools and methods used by the different companies.  One company fastidiously tracks their direct email marketing success by looking at data on open rates, click throughs, and unsubscribes, etc.  What I would call, the good ol' core of direct email marketing metrics. 

While another company (with very successful email marketing campaigns) completely ignores all of this info and instead tracks only revenue from each campaign. Period. Of course they also look at opt-outs to calculate future dollars lost from potential transactions from these customers, using some very fancy modeling, I'm sure.

Then, to the other extreme, was the company that doesn't look at any direct email campaign metrics, and pretty much just keeps sending email to anyone and everyone until they unsubscribe.  That's another way to do it!

Also of interest was the topic of subject lines.  Many a brow has spent furrowed hours vexing over the best subject lines, and poring over data from multi-variate testing.  However, it seems that much of the old thoughts on subject lines can be tossed out the window.  What direct email marketers are finding is that while short subject lines, the holy mantra of email marketing, may get more opens, ultimately they have no bearing on sales.  In fact, longer subject lines are often found to generate more revenue per campaign.  Even with lower open rates.

The bottom line result of listening to the event panel is that technical issues will work themselves out, but all direct email marketers need to be testing and tracking results. 

Whether you are considering including animation in your direct email marketing, long stories, short stories, or special offers, every direct marketer should learn their own audience and track everything until you know what you need to be looking at.  Define your goals... and test, test, test!

Having a bit more free time these days, and a major reduction in discretionary household budget, I have taken this marketing offer to task.  I am shopping and comparing.  I see low-pricing offers in my mail-box, on business walls, and comparisons of pricing in news articles offering ideas on ways to save money in today's economy. 

...By switching my grocery store I can save my family up to $1,000 per year.  By dumping my phone provider I can save another big pile of cash...

The alarm has been sounded for direct marketers to be aware. Consumers such as myself are actually taking the time to tote the weekly shopping list around to various retailers and compare who can stretch our dollars the farthest.

My personal experiment in comparison shopping over the past few months has yielded some surprising results.  Results that may be helpful to consider in your counter-messaging as you go about the business of direct marketing communications.

I found that I was already a pretty savvy shopper when it comes to the basics.  And, that the businesses I rely on to provide my necessities are doing a pretty good job.  In the end, I've changed nothing about the basics and just trimmed the goodies.  Guess I would have already found alternatives if that wasn't the case.  Good for me!  Is this good for you? 

If your organization provides services to direct marketers, such as printing or mail marketing, or you are a direct marketer providing services such as email marketing for your clients, my thought is that you should consider how you are doing with the basics.  By simply offering your clients an evaluation of the services you provide that enable their direct marketing efforts to be conducted in the most efficient way possible you may be able to keep your customers from shopping around.  This will save them time and money, and actually strenghten your relationships in the process.

Some customers and clients will shop around no matter how great your story is.  There's no stopping that.  But, really, do we want to pay $20 for a block of cheese just to save a buck on chicken nuggets?  I can do without the nuggets and get my cheddar for half the price at my usual store, without driving from shop to shop for each and every item I need.

So, how do your direct marketing efforts speak to how well you provide the basics?  Your clients may drift for a moment, but if your services and marketing remind them of all the reasons to come back to you, they won't forget you while off looking for cheaper tennis shoes, or paper, or internet marketing services... 

As direct marketers and client organizations cut the frills, it's the quality of necessities left behind that will count.  So, if you've got a great core competency make sure your customers know and are taking advantage of all you have to offer when they go shopping around.  They'll be back for your cheese if it's good!

The Seattle Direct Marketing Association's annual conference, Market to the Max 2009, was a huge success.  Again.

With 250 attendees and 15 corporate sponsors, the event proved to be a very useful networking tool for direct marketers in Seattle, as well as an important learning opportunity.

This year's session line-up was very heavy with Internet marketing content, including sessions on "The future of search engine optimization", "Winning in the blogosphere", and "Making the financial case for email marketing."  Speakers represented nationallly known direct marketing experts such as Google, eMarketer and Microsoft, as well as many local internet marketing heros, including DNA Brand Mechanics, Ascentium, Wongdoody, Point It, and many more.

In fact, the tech-heavy schedule had some attendees asking, "where's the direct mail?"  Doesn't anyone print anything anymore? 

To this point, the SDMA is conversing about the schedule of upcoming direct marketing events.  We regularly solicit feedback from members and event attendees in order to craft a compelling schedule of direct marketing events that Seattle marketing pros are thinking about, and want to invest their time in learning more about.  Lately it seems that that Internet marketing and email marketing top the charts of many people's needs. Got an opinion about what you would like to see on the schedule for future direct marketing events?  Visit our website and go to the "Contact" page for all of our email contacts. Let us know what you are thinking.

Thanks to everyone who attended Market to the Max this year, and to all of our sponsors for making the event possible.  Also, a big congratulations to the Seattle Sounders FC for a succesful opening season.  We all enjoyed hearing from Adrian Hanauer, owner of the team, at the MttM lunchtime presentation.

If you missed all this fun and want to make sure to get in on this direct marketing event next year, be sure and sign-up for SDMA email newsletters (link on our web site) to keep up-to-date on this and other direct marketing and networking events we host monthly.

Dare I say, today is better than Christmas Eve?

Web 2.0: Tough Relationship?

Web 2.0 is the new word that businesses of every size are learning to understand and use properly. While the term "Web 2.0" was officially coined by Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media to identify what back then had no name, it has since spread out to become a new word that defines the Internet we all use for business and leisure every day.

But how does Web 2.0 differ from what we had before? Here's a comparison chart to help you see for yourself:


Now, what does Web 2.0 mean for businesses and how does it impact marketing and other areas of business?

• Feedback is king: Web 2.0 changed the user interaction pattern from a one-way to a two way communication, allowing for more opportunities, yet demanding a dramamtic change in approach to website design and content development.
   
• It's not just about your website: taking your offline networks online is becoming very important as social networks (think LinkedIn and Twitter) continue to grow agressively. Your website is no longer just your ID, but rather an android that represents your business in every spot it can reach online.
   
• Say yes to relationships: web 2.0 is all about two-way communication and calls for a conversation, rather than a mologue. Web 2.0 allows business to build relationships and bond with their clients and prospects, but it takes a shift in strategy to do so. 
   
• Create an effective personal/professional mix: With Web 2.0, it is typical to read about a new baby on a company blog! As Internet continues to grow with information, the division between personal and professional becomes blurred and sometimes intentionally absent. Use it to your advantage to show your clients and prospects that you are "just like them, only a little different".
   
• Online Reputation Management: If you are concerned about your privacy, you should stop reading this post and throw away your computer now. An online album with pictures of your baby (BTW, this is Web 2.0 kind of thing) or a press release about your volunteer work for a local non-profit, chances are the info will make it online quicker than you expect. The downside is though that your drunk pictures from a friend's birthday party will do the same.
   
• Consumers rule: With new technologies becoming more user-friendly and readily available, Web 2.0 allows anyone to build a blog or a website that offers content on just about anything!
   
• Stay on top of it or be doomed: Things are moving and changing so quickly today, there's no doubt we'll see Web 3.0 in no time. Yet make an effort to catch up with the fast-growing online industry and get your share of measurable revenue that Web 2.0 is capable of bringing to your business. 

Stay up-to-date on marketing trends and industry changes with monthly events hosted by SDMA and attend the Market to the Max conference to get the latest scope on Web 2.0 marketing techniques.

I extend thanks to Paul Francis for the below contribution to the SDMA blog. And, a big "oops" on my tardiness getting this online! 

Although the commentary here applies to last month's event, due to current economic forces (ahem...layoffs and thus confiscated emails) some messages were not getting to me.  And this brings me to the perfect point of introducing Paul's message about the last SDMA networking event and informational dinner.  He offers us an inspiring re-cap of the direct marketing session on High-ROI Marketing in a Down Economy, with appropo humor and a good read!

Thanks again, Paul.  Readers... see below...
 
I don't watch CNN these days. For a self-professed news junkie, that's not an easy thing to say. It's hard for me to abandon my pundit peeps. And I know I'm missing important information about the new administration's sweeping goals for reinvigorating the economy.

But CNN and the rest of the news organizations are stuck. Their endless cycle of doom and gloom, bad news and worse news, breast beating and woe is me was taking a toll. My enthusiasm was sapping. I was looking at my IRA balances every few hours. I was fixating on the stock ticker. It was time for an intervention.

So I took a step back and reminded myself, "This is a phase, just like a boom is a phase. It only has power if I give it power. I choose to believe that the economy is adjusting for all the right reasons." Then I turned off the TV and erased news sites from my Bookmarks.

Removing all that negative clutter has had an interesting effect on me. I'm focused, motivated and able to drill in on the work I need to do. My productivity has increased and my attitude has gone through the roof. I think I caught myself whistling the other day, but I'll deny it if confronted.

Last night's SDMA presentation on High ROI Marketing Strategies in a Down Economy was an elixir that fed my new mental stance. Why? Because I was in a room of smart folks in my industry, all of whom have been barraged with the same media coverage, but I didn't detect a single note of woe. People were engaged, eager to hear the speakers and looking toward the work needed for a recovery.

What I found interesting about the speakers was the collective sense of opportunity, the subtext of optimism. We have been through this before, they said, and we weathered the storm. This is the time to analyze what you're doing right and what needs to change. Use this time to talk to your clients. Think like your customer. Consider the channels they're using and open your mind to new ones you can offer them. Remember that your clients are also hearing the naysayers, so be the voice that tells them how it can be better. Be real, lead with authenticity.

Good stuff, this.

What's striking to me about what they said is that it's exactly what we should be doing all the time, in boom times as well as busts. We all know this, but when we're busy making money and times are good, we tell ourselves we're busy making money and we'll think about it tomorrow. So tomorrow becomes today and we get that deer-in-the-headlights look – hey, wha' happen? I wonder: why is it that it takes a time of challenge for us to consciously say, "I am responsible for my client's success. I must be their eyes and ears every day. It is my job to make their brand better."?

I've come to the conclusion that this cycle is here to teach us something about client care. Take care of your clients all the time and you won't have to worry about these so-called down times. Your clients will be your allies good times and bad, and you'll be a better business person every day. A synergistic client/vendor relationship can weather whatever CNN throws at us.

Now I gotta go find that half-empty glass of water and top it off.

Calvin Coolidge once said this great thing:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

The slogan, 'Press on,' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Paul Francis
Owner, PushInc.

They say clothes make a man. Barack Obama’s campaign proves that great marketing makes a President.

Of course, marketing is a just a piece of the puzzle, but it would be unfair to deny Obama's marketing team the credit for a job well done. Politics aside, Obama’s marketing strategy has some great lessons that can – and should – be used by other marketers.

1) If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem

Think about the primaries and how much McCain and Clinton talked about themselves and criticized the existing attempts to improve on problems. Now think about Obama and how little emphasis he put on himself compared to his voter base. 

Make sure that your marketing strategy is built around your target audience and addresses their problems – and you will see more prospects that care. After all, there really is no reason why people should care about a product or a service that does not do anything.

2)  Every little bit counts

There is always bigger fish to fry but bigger does not always mean better.
Obama got $640 million donated to his campaign by 3 million online users (that’s just a little over $200 bucks a person!). So if your current marketing strategy is built around big, expensive products and services, you may want to reconsider in favor of smaller-scale ones: it may pay off big time.

3)  Embrace social media, or be lost in the crowd

3)   Joe Biden as Obama's running mate – this was on Twitter before it appeared in the mainstream media. Why? Because Obama told his supporters prior to the news going public. 

So if you have a big announcement or an interesting idea for a new product, share it with the public firsthand and help them develop their own opinion. Once they do, they will want to talk about it. A lot.

And, lastly, remember that there is no such thing as bad publicity. After all, Sarah Palin was not such a loser with an 11 million book deal. 

There’s no doubt that the economy is heading south.  Direct marketers are facing a challenge greater than anytime in our generation in getting consumers’ attention and convincing them to part with their hard-earned dollars.

As markets tighten, the direct marketer’s job is to make sure that consumers choose their products and services over the competition while maintaining a profitable marketing campaign.  If you are looking for new techniques to add to your repertoire, Mobile Marketing may be just what your toolkit is missing.

Launching, or refining, a new direct marketing program can be risky.  Before you get started with Mobile Marketing, you must attend tomorrow’s event hosted by the Seattle Direct Market Association.  Presented by Dennis McCormick of HipCricket, a Kirkland-based mobile marketing agency with over 24,000 campaigns to its name, this event will teach you:

- When and where mobile marketing makes the most sense
- The techniques for measuring discreet impact on a campaign
- A road map for the future of this exciting new medium

In addition to gaining insight into this growing area of direct marketing, you will also have the chance to network with other area direct marketers, representing a range of industries.  Networking time is scheduled prior to the dinner presentation.  The food is always great, and the topics informative and sure to give you the edge you need to maintain an effective direct marketing program for your company.

Where to be: Hotel 1000, 1000 1st Ave, Seattle
When to be there:  Wednesday, November 12, 2008, 5:30 pm – 8:30pm

Online registration is still available.  If you put it off to the last minute, you can also register at the door!

The Seattle Direct Marketing Association has ears to the ground on all the hot topics in the direct marketing industry.  Our PR guy has done a bit of research and a bit of pondering on the topic of green marketing and has expounded on the topic for the benefit of all direct marketers interested in how their work is affecting the environment.

Thanks to Jeff Wenker for the following contribution to our blog...

On Earth Day someone wrote that not printing an email isn't going to save the planet.  Fair enough.  However, what if everyone in your office stopped printing emails, everyone in a Fortune 100 company, everyone in a city? What if it became the norm to never print emails?  That might not save the planet either, but it might help.

People have been talking about the paperless office for a long time, I think it was Tom Seibel or Larry Ellison, some database guy back in the day (what day, you say) who was all gung-ho about it.  It's impossible, of course. The joke being, offices will be paperless when they remove the bathrooms.

As an interesting experiment, try this: don't throw away any paper.  Let it pile up.  Put it in a stack in the corner of your office or cube.  See how much you produce in a month.  Then multiply that by, I don't know 100 million, to pick a nice round number.  Leave that stack there and start a new stack for the next month.  Check and see if the second stack's shorter (hint: try to make it shorter).  Then do the math again.

There's a great Paul Kelly song - "From Little Things, Big Things Grow" - it has absolutely nothing to do with paper, but I think about the concept frequently.  From the acorn comes the mighty oak, the tiny mustard seed grows into one of the largest trees, we all come from that microscopic gleam in our fathers' eyes (or that's what they told me).  A pretty obvious point, little things grow into big things, but where are those little things?

There are things we accept now as second-nature that ten or 20 years ago were unthinkable.  Some are small.  It's a reflex now to buckle our car seat belts, kids have never done otherwise, a generation will have been strapped into carseats snug as astronauts, yet their parents were frequently tossed into the back of stationwagons to roll around like empty Coke bottles.  Some are large.  We can now call or email anyone anywhere in the world from wherever we happen to be.  If someone told me in 1985, the year I graduated from high school, that I could do that in 20 years time, I would have been

blown away (stoked at something so totally bitchin' but still blown away). High schoolers today wouldn't accept less, in fact they probably complain about the speed or coverage of their service.

So, what is the next big thing that we can't imagine now, but will be accepted as the norm to preschoolers tomorrow?

Paperless Direct Marketing?

How about Train-Planes?

Instead of viewing the transportation of humans in heavier than air machines across the skies and seas as a competitive endeavor to be done as cheaply as possible in order to lure the largest number of passengers, what if air travel was viewed as part of our global infrastructure.  Governments manage and regulate highways, railroads, sewage and the electrical grid, why not air travel?  After all, we don't have competing sets of train tracks.  Let's make wildly speculative imaginative leapings.  Say we had just one kind of plane for long flights and it looked like a troop transport plane with big empty space on the inside rather than one level of seats and one level of cargo.  Then imagine a train loaded with passengers rolling right onto the plane all ready for take-off.  You could build induction terminals closer to population centers where all security measures could take place away from a secure airfield designed only for safe landings and departures of uniformly designed planes.  If one plane broke down or needed repair (not that that ever happens) another one would be in line ready to go.  It's not drastically different from a modern airport like Hong Kong where you can check your bag in town and then take a train to the terminal.  You just take it a step further so it would be like the train ferry from Hamburg to Copenhagen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_ferry.  If a train can roll right onto a boat, why can't a lighter train roll onto an airplane?  Bags travel with you in your own private car or economy could share a car with other passengers, like the European train system.  You could even bring back smoking on planes by adding cars with their own air circulation systems.

Yes, it would be an engineering task of immense proportions - new planes, new specially designed trains, new induction terminals - but think of the economies of scale.  We wouldn't have airlines competing in a race to the bottom (not ideal from 30,000 feet) trying to cut costs and stay afloat in an era of rising fuel costs, necessary yet expensive security measures, and reluctant ridership (flying commercial ain't fun anymore).

Compared to a crazy scheme like this, Direct Marketing without paper sounds

downright logical.

Join Jeff's Discussion on Linked-In and Network Online with other Seattle Area Direct Marketers

As a marketer, I love strategy.  Most direct marketers probably do, and if not they will learn to crave those times when they get to sit down and look at the strategy.  Eagerly, the marketer analyzes the email, internet, direct mail, creative variations, and painstakingly it is all measured back to sales. Joy.

As a marketer, you want to do it, think about doing it, then you sit down and do it, and realize... a chasm.  An often gaping crevace the must be spanned.  You are marketing, and you rely on IT, and are accountable to sales. You have to bring them all together, because you are the marketer working in a dynamic field, and aligning these groups is your job.

Want to get better at building your marketing bridge?

The Seattle Direct Marketing Association’s next networking and educational event presents a speaker able to help you do just that.

As the Chief Marketing Strategist for Ascentium, John Kottcamp helps his customers to engage with their customers by applying his specialty- closed loop marketing- to their needs.  Ascentium is a leading national agency, and Kottcamp is personallhy known for his work with companies including Gateway, McCann Worldgroup, T-Mobile USA and more.  He is also a member of the Forrester Research Technology Marketing Executive Council, and I’m sure his customers pay a lot to learn from him by the hour! You can benefit from his wisdom for a fraction of the cost at the next Seattle Direct Marketing Association event. 

This SDMA event is coming up soon, on October 1.  It will be held at a new venue for the organization, at the Seattle World Trade Center.  Be sure and show up before the presentation start time to network with other Seattle area marketers.  

I also encourage you to check out Kottcamp’s thoughts on direct marketing at his blog, www.thecollaborativemarketer.com.

Event Details:

Aligning Marketing, Sales and IT for Business Transformation 

When: Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 5:30 am – 8:30pm

Where: World Trade Center - Seattle, 2200 Alaskan Way, 4th Floor, Seattle

What: A sales guy, a marketing guy and an IT guy walked into a room: A joke or a way to align your business?

Register Here

Register today.

Back to school.  Back to work.  Back to internet marketing.

 

The Seattle Direct Marketing Association is kicking off the 2008 season of networking and educational events with a topic of great importance to all direct marketers- Search Advertising. 

 

We expect James Colborn, of Microsoft, to deliver an insightful presentation for direct and internet marketers who are either buying or selling advertising in the search marketing space.  Colborn develops the go-to market communications strategies for Microsoft Advertising, and probably has an insider’s tip, or two, of value to share with us.   

 

Would you like to know where industry insiders think the search advertising market is heading? Need to get a feel for how your search advertising budget compares to your competitors? How about a general boost to your internet marketing plans? Well, then you need to come to this event. 

 

As usual, there will be time for networking before the dinner and presentation.  This is a great chance to catch-up with colleagues you may have missed over the summer and to network with other direct marketers in the Seattle area. 

 

The Search Advertising event is Wednesday, September 10^th, from 5:30 to 8:15 PM.  Networking starts before the event, and Mr. Colborn will end the evening with a Q & A session. (So, bring notes about the search advertising questions your marketing organization is facing, as you may be awe struck and forget what you wanted to know! Like visiting the doctor.) 

 

The event will be in downtown Seattle at the beautiful Hotel 1000.  As of today registration is still available, but some events do sell-out, so be sure and sign-up today.

 

More information and a registration link available here.

 

 

Launching a major international sports franchise must be a kick, and then some.  OK, we’re talking soccer here, so that was a bad one.  But, who can resist?  

Seattle has entered the realm of major league soccer and Adrian Hanauer, of the Seattle Sounders FC, has been selected to lead the charge as General Manager.  Hanauer offers an impressive background of experience in ventures that range from promoting international soccer events, to investments in the early stages of companies such as aQuantive and Amazon.com. His daily chores with the new Major League Soccer franchise include managing media contracts, international promotional schedules, and developing a close and supportive network of fans in the Seattle area.  And I thought my job had a lot to it!

Hanauer has been selected as one of this year’s keynote speakers at the annual Market to the Max event.  Event attendees will get a chance to hear about his recent efforts to bring famous European clubs to Seattle and what it took to bring major league soccer to our region today.  

Want to know about cutting marketing deals with Microsoft and X-Box Live?  Could your business benefit from media relationships with BELO, and attentions from investors like Joe Roth and Drew Carey? Need some tips on innovative marketing ideas that work from Seattle to a worldwide scale?

Well, then, you should attend Market to the Max, because this is what we look forward to at Hanauer’s presentation at MttM in October.

Get more event info here. 

Read more about Adrian Hanauer.

Wordsmith Sharon Long-Baerny, member and past president of The Seattle Direct Marketing Association, founder of We Know Words,  recently published an article in MarketingProfs.com.  Marketers nationwide rely on this web site for articles, seminars, case studies and other resources that help professionals stay up-to-date on the latest industry news and new thoughts on executing effective online and offline marketing campaigns.

With over 318,000 marketing professionals as MarketingProfs members, Sharon’s publication as one of the top articles of the week on the web site is no small accomplishment.  The article, “Are You Committing the Marketing Sin of Assumption?” provides a humorous look at the evil traps marketers can fall into when forgetting to look at their work from the prospect’s perspective, and offers useful tips on how to avoid being a sinner of this sort.  

Sharon's advice is actionable for marketers of every type, from direct mail to email, to web developers, and sales and communications collateral development of all kinds.

Congratulations go out to Sharon for this success!  We love to see SDMA members hitting the big time in national marketing circles. (Is self-congratulation a sin?)

Read Sharon’s article at MarketingProfs, and find out what kind of a marketing sinner you may be, and how to atone for your actions.

Visit We Know Words, and learn more about their work as copywriters and marketing consultants.

A crew of dedicated volunteers at the Seattle Direct Marketing Association are including planning for the upcoming season of events in their list of summer fun activities.  One of these events is the annual Market to the Max extravaganza. This major conference is designed for Seattle and greater Pacific Northwest marketers who want to learn about the latest trends and techniques in direct marketing.

OK, so it may not be true summer fun, but it is rewarding work!

Organizers have partnered with MRM Worldwide on the creative development, which is shaping up to be another award-worthy campaign.  Keep your eye out for this piece!

Attendees at the event will be able to choose from seminars covering three tracks of marketing:  direct, brand, and social media.  You can mix and match sessions throughout the day to get the assortment that suits you best.

The speaker line-up is still under development, and will be announced as the schedule gets confirmed.

This event proves worthwhile for all attendees every year, and should go on to your calendar today! Just mark out the entire day, as there will undoubtedly be great networking after the event, and a chance to discuss and really absorb all the day’s knowledge.

When: October 21, 2008; 9AM- 4PM
Where: Meydenbauer Center, Bellevue, WA

To make sure you are on the mailing list, and will receive the clever marketing pieces designed by MRM, send your contact info to info@sdma.org, or visit the home page and sign-up for email alerts.

Do we need the Direct Marketing Association to sponsor a “Recycle Please” campaign, which asks members of the direct marketing community to display the “Recycle Please” logo in printed catalogs and direct mail pieces? 

 

I was surprised to learn of this because I hadn’t truly considered that consumers actually don’t know this stuff.

Like all good Seattleites, I figured that non-recyclers were just lazy or gluttonous and self-absorbed.  Further, I surmised that promotion of the “G” subject these days is often a simple self-serving tactic to show how with-it a company is, or is not.  I was jaded.  A different shade of green

 

As it turns out, many consumers want to do the right thing, but honestly don’t know if your direct marketing piece qualifies for recycling. And, it may be fear of contaminating the recycling batch that stops them from putting your catalog in the bin when they’re done buying everything in it.

 

Living in Seattle, where even the waste-cans at my local street fair are 90% dedicated to recycling, it can be easy to lose perspective.  Then, I remember that where my sister lives in Texas, the utility actually paid consumers to recycle along with their household waste.  I believe the program was eventually cancelled for lack of participation. Clearly, they needed better direct marketing.

 

That was a number of years ago, when they couldn’t even pay people to recycle, and I'm sure the good people of Fort Worth have learned how beneficial and easy recycling really is.  Maybe if every consumable product that entered their homes had an “I can be recycled” logo, the program would have done better?

 

On another perspective, as someone who participates in the paper buying process, I can testify that there is not enough recycled content out there to go around. There just isn’t enough post-consumer waste in the “system” to make direct marketing as green as it can be. 

 

At a recent Paper 101 class I attended with a local supplier, we were told that 100% of the recycled paper on the market is bought before it is even available.  And, the consumer demand to include this in our finished products is driving the prices up and up.

 

So, if you are a marketer with input in the design components of direct mail, or other printed collateral, take a moment to consider putting this little logo into your printed pieces.  And, consider that it may actually do some good in helping to get your direct marketing piece back into the recycling system, instead of looking through the cynical green glasses that are easy to sport when we feel inundated with disingenuous “go green” messaging.

 

There actually will be a selfish, positive, side-effect in bringing down the cost of recycled paper.  And of course, the cheaper it is, the easier it is to justify as a business, and all the better to sell as a marketer.  

 

Info on the Recycle Please campaign.
More publications and fact sheets on recycling for direct marketers.

 

 

 

When I was a kid, living in a rural California farming community, we still shopped at the local “mercantile”, where pneumatic tubes rushed your money to an invisible banker, hidden in a vault somewhere in the attic of the turn-of-the-century corner store. I can only assume they were worried about six-shooter toting bandits holding-up the defenseless lady clerks, and making off with the daily proceeds from the Stetsons and Levi’s. 

We had another window on the world when the Sears and Roebuck Wish Book catalog arrived once per year, offering a limitless assortment of clothes and toys that we would never get to touch. When I got a little older, and less enthusiastic about kitchen playsets, I noticed a Spiegel catalog for the first time, and remember being enthralled with the sophisticated models in exotic locales and clothes that inspired me to want to grow-up to be very tall, and to live somewhere that I could actually wear such fine things.   

It seems that not all consumers have the same fond feelings about their catalog mail.  But, in defense of consumers who enjoy shopping through catalogs, and the companies relying on this marketing channel for revenue, industry members regularly meet to discuss ways to promote the business.

Recently, President and CEO of the Direct Marketing Association, John A. Greco Jr. attended the 25th Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) in Orlando, and has important news to report back to us in Seattle, including legislative activity, and upcoming changes to USPS pricing and rules that will affect catalog marketers as soon as March 2009.  Get your policies and budgets ready!

Catalogs are still huge business.  From Greco’s report: According to DMA's ongoing "Power of Direct Marketing" study, US catalog sales are forecast to hit $157.4 billion in 2008.  If that number holds, that would be an increase of 5.1 percent over last year's sales.  Moreover, US catalog and mail marketing, combined, continue to make up the largest slice of today's multichannel marketing pie. Yet, just this year, 15 Do Not Mail bills have been introduced in 12 states.  None of these bills have yet passed, which may be attributable in part to work done by the DMA in educating legislators about the impact of new legislation on consumers and the direct marketing industry.

The Direct Marketing Association promotes industry self-regulation and responsible marketing practices through many initiatives.  One such activity was the establishment of Mail Moves America (MMA), in 2006.   According to Greco, the MMA disseminates information about the positive impact of catalogs and other advertising mail, and ensures that legislative proposals are considered in a balanced light.

If you manage catalogs, or other direct mail campaigns in Seattle, and want to be up-to-date on legislation and consumer issues in your industry, check out the MMA web site: http://www.mailmovesamerica.org/. Information about current bills in Washington State can be found here, as well as info on how you can get involved in supporting the economic future of your direct marketing industry.

Another resource for promoting responsible marketing and self-regulation is the Direct Marketing Association Consumer Choice web site, at http://www.dmachoice.org/, where consumers can modify their own direct mail (and email) preferences with ease.

Catalog and multi-channel marketers are an important constituency for the DMA, and along with heavy hitting additions to the advisory board from organizations such as JCPenny, Spiegel Brands, Inc., and Crutchfield Corporation, a new portal has been added to the DMA web site just for this group of marketers.  Here you can find more information and resources, including news, white papers and networking opportunities: http://www.the-dma.org/segment/catalogersmarketers.

P.S. Speaking of the new USPS rules...working on a postage budget for next year? Get the most for your money and make sure your flat-size mail follows new addressing requirements, going into effect March 2009: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-8621.htm.

Billed as “this year’s most informative exchange of ideas and information with marketing, IT, and operations experts from a range of industries”, the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) Summit of 2008 is coming up soon. This year, the Seattle Direct Marketing Association will be in attendance and is offering a great networking opportunity for members at this event. 

This season-ending event for the SDMA will take place June 4, from 5:30-8PM, at the Westin Hotel. Attendees can expect to mingle with industry leaders and visionaries working on issues such as building brand confidence online, secure e-mail, and the latest online marketing strategies. 

Behind closed doors we’ve been promised tasty food treats and cocktails, as well. So don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with today’s online business leaders. SDMA members get a special price for this event of only $25, and space is limited. Registration is still available at this web site, through the Events page. See you there!

More information about the AOTA Summit 2008 is available at www.aotalliance.org/summit 

I enjoy receiving email marketing, but as a marketer, I’m not really normal.  I like to analyze the subject lines in my Hotmail and give them ratings, and peruse them for any indication of today’s social or political climate. You can learn a lot about what’s going on by the email marketing you receive. For instance, if you always forget about Mother’s Day or Election Day, just sign up for a lot of email newsletters, and you’ll get plenty of reminders about important upcoming holidays and spending opportunities.

 

When there are few “natural” reasons to communicate with subscribers, direct marketers have to generate other reasons to send intriguing email marketing.  And, when this is done on a regular schedule, it can grow challenging to the creative mind.  Recently I received an email from 24-Hour Fitness that I thought was quite clever. (No, not the “take your mom to the gym for a free workout” one.  That, not such a hot idea!) The one I liked was the “24 years. 12 million lives.” campaign.

 

It is mathematically pleasing, with tying in the name of the company to the years, and then having a nice, round half-value for the second part. So, I clicked to see what this more subtle than usual sales pitch would be.

 

As a marketer, I found it interesting that their email campaign is driving visitors to their own “social media” site, where users can read inspiring stories, enter their own stories, and comment on others’ stories. 

 

There is a smattering of regular guy testimonials mixed in with a few super star athletes, in case we were to forget that it’s a big-budget Internet marketing campaign. The writing is also a mix of professional marketers as well as comments that I can only guess are being made by the real users. Or, very clever marketers disguising their persuasive abilities in bad grammar, punctuation, and notes about how hot one particular lady is in her jogging picture.

 

The first time I visited the site, the links were a bit buggy, with many of the home page stories going to error messages, but that appears to be fixed. One other non-user friendly programming issue is the links to the user profiles.  They take readers to a truncated version of the story, without indicating that it is not the real story, which makes the writing just look bad. If you are not persistent enough to keep clicking around, you may never see the actual story, and most consumers will not wallow in our direct marketing propaganda for long. No matter how ingenious the design team believes it is.

 

Overall, I give one check in the plus column for a good use of combined email and Internet marketing for this direct marketing giant.  Maybe I’ll check on FaceBook to see if they have a group there, and see how seriously social these guys really are!

Click here to see for yourself