Direct Mail Marketing

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.

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.

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 

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At a recent Seattle Direct Marketing Association networking and learning event, representatives of the Parnassus Group presented on how to use social media in your Internet marketing mix. One of the topics they covered was how to monitor your organization’s coverage in the vast, vast Blogosphere. 

 

Due to a technical snag, attendees at the event weren’t able to view this part of the presentation.  But, our friends in marketing at Parnassus have created a quickie tutorial that can be viewed at their web site.

 

If you are a direct mail or email marketer, or any other kind of communications manager, and are not monitoring the Blogosphere because it seems too complicated, then this is good new for you!

 

These are easy-to-follow directions that can get you set-up to monitor any direct marketing (or other) news you want to follow in just a few minutes:

 

<http://parnassusgroup.com/2008/03/monitoring-the-blogosphere-with-google-reader-a-follow-up-to-the-sdma-presentation/>