Archive for the ‘Direct Marketing’ Category

Canadian Holiday Marketing Strategies

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

It may only be November, but for Marketers in Canada the holiday acquisition season is in full swing.

Holiday marketing strategies need to be aggressive because so many companies ramp up their spending. Here are a few things to think about when planning to market to the holiday shopper in Canada:

1) How …Think about how you plan on marketing. By combining offline and online messages, your target markets are exposed to your brand in more places. There are many media channels available to use,  including:

  1. Direct Mail - those mail boxes are not as crowded as they once were,  so use that opportunity to reach your prospects where your competitors are less likely to be.
  2. Email Marketing – many direct mail lists also have corresponding email lists. Sending a reinforcing email just before or just after your direct mail campaign has worked very well for marketers.
  3. Search Engine Marketing – make sure that your Google and Bing campaigns are updated to include holiday messaging, and landing pages are “decorated” for the season.
  4. Web Advertising – you can get your brand on the most popular sites in the world (and still target geographically) on a cost per click basis. Sites such as Facebook and YouTube have huge audiences and can be targeted by interest categories.

2) Where … If your brand spans across Canada you will want to target your market carefully based on where prospects live. Create different messaging for provinces that are experiencing higher growth such as Saskatchewan, PEI and Alberta; and for provinces that are not experiencing the same level of growth, base your message on value.

3) Who … Never miss the opportunity to learn about your prospects – make sure that your web site is equipped with Web Analytics, allowing you to measure such key indicators as:

  1. Where they were sourced (direct, pay per click, emails, etc.).
  2. How much they spent (make sure you set up Goals and Ecommerce tracking if you’re selling online).
  3. Where are you losing prospects that start and then abandon the purchase process?

Also, ask your prospects for their mobile phone number. Mobile commerce will be the next big thing.

The time for Holiday planning is now. Cornerstone is standing by with our team of marketing experts to help you execute any of your direct mail, email, web or search marketing plans!

Posted in Direct Marketing, E-Mail Marketing, List Brokerage, List Management, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Advertising, Web Analytics | No Comments »

The High Cost of Deceased Data

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

As a consumer, receiving a piece of addressed admail directed to a recently departed loved one can leave a lasting negative impression.  Imagine for example, a woman who frequently donates to her favorite charity and who is diagnosed with cancer and dies three months later. Six months after her sudden death her family, still overwhelmed with feelings of anger and sadness, receives a direct mail solicitation addressed to their loved one and asking for a donation.  

This direct communication to the deceased individual generates great emotional distress for the family and the likelihood of a negative response in the form of a phone call to friends and family about the request for money during this sensitive time.  These friends and family now have a negative impression of this charity and will no longer support them with any donations. A recent article in the CMA Weekly Watching Brief states, 26% of consumers are more likely to spread the word about a bad experience with a product or service than a good one. In this example, mailing to this deceased individual has not only cost the organization in terms of wasted money on printing and postage but also in terms of the loss of a potential donor’s goodwill. 

But how can you prevent this all too common misstep from happening?  It’s important to spend marketing dollars on creating the most effective campaigns by investing some of your budget on data cleansing services, including cleansing deceased records.   At Cornerstone, we help our clients avoid the bad publicity that is associated with mailing to deceased individuals. Cornerstone has developed a deceased data cleansing service that flags records that are known to be deceased.  The database contains over 1,000,000 records and increases by approximately 8,000 records per month. Incorporating the use of the deceased database cleansing service can cut costs on mailing campaigns and reduce the number of deceased mailings by 0.2% to 4%.

With marketing budgets decreasing, it is important to identify newly deceased individuals within the first year.  Not only will this save you money on your mailings but most importantly, it will save your organization’s reputation.

Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »

Creativity Trumps Budget in Award Winning Campaigns

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

I recently attended the 2nd annual CMA Awards Case Study event. The event brought together the marketing community and the agencies of several winning campaigns, and together, we learned why certain campaigns are so compelling.

After listening to all the winners, there were some common themes. Each had a small budget to work with and needed to be creative to cut through the clutter – something I think many companies can relate to.

One campaign that really stood out was GGRP – a Canadian studio providing audition suite and full-service audio services, along with their agency GREY Canada which won this year’s award for Best in Direct 1:1 and Best in Business Products and Services.  With a budget of $15,000, they were able to rebrand their organization, build a website and complete a very successful direct mail campaign. Their direct mail appeal was designed to drive traffic and awareness to their newly rebranded site. With an ‘Old School’ theme in mind, their direct mail campaign focused on a very simple, yet extremely creative cardboard record player. Because of costs, GGRP could only mail 200 of these cardboard record players to their current and potential clients. However, GGRP also created a YouTube video for audiences that didn’t receive a mailing providing the opportunity to expand their reach significantly.

The result: they had 50,000 YouTube views, the Beastie Boys want to use their cardboard record player for their next CD release, they won several awards and they renewed brand awareness. GGRP believe that they were able to accomplish this through their strong vendor/partner relationships and their ability to garner excitement about this project.

The lesson is this:  campaigns work when you engage people and get them excited about your brand and message. I often see companies doing the same old thing, or copying what everyone else is doing. There’s an old saying that every good idea is worth stealing. While it’s wise not to re-invent the wheel with every marketing campaign, being creative is what puts organizations in the position of being leaders rather than followers.  What the GGRP campaign illustrates is that being creative doesn’t have to be expensive.  In an increasingly cluttered marketplace, companies need to realize that if they don’t try to be creative and identify opportunities that resonate with their brand, their messages will be ignored.

Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing | No Comments »

Why You Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy – Part 3

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

In Part 1: Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy, we discussed the definition of content marketing, and its benefits. In Part 2, we discussed how content marketing can be applied to organizations. In this post, let’s review three organizations across different industries, and take a look at how they’ve created meaningful content that helps them to market their brand.

Wine Library TV (www.winelibrary.com)

If you’re an internet marketing junkie like me, then you’ve probably heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Vaynerchuk immigrated to the U.S. as a small child with his family from the U.S.S.R in 1978. Years later, he took his parents’ small liquor store in New Jersey to a new level by launching the video blog (vlog) Wine Library TV in 2006. On Wine Library TV, appearing weekdays via YouTube and podcasts, Vaynerchuk tastes, discusses and rates a selection of wines. Through his casual approach to wines, paired with online media, Vaynerchuk was able to reach out to a whole new group of wine lovers, 90,000 viewers in total, a market segment previously untapped by traditional media.

Slice Network (www.slice.ca)

When Canadians hear Slice Network or Slice TV, they may think of the actual television station with the popular female-oriented programming, but one visit to their website and you can see that they offer much more than just reality TV shows. Along side a library of all of their televisions shows, they have Web-exclusive footage, webisodes (web-only episodes), blogs, advice columns, fashion, health and lifestyle news, articles and podcasts. This is a great way to surround their target audience with information relevant to them. Personally, I could spend hours at a time surfing their website, which I’m sure is great news for their advertisers.

SickKids Foundation (www.sickkidsfoundation.com)

SickKids Foundation is one of North America’s largest charities and is one that has touched the lives of many people. They leverage this fact by encouraging patients and former patients of Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids Hospital) to share their experiences and in turn inspire others.

Their most recent campaign, “I’m a SickKids Kid,” enlists the help of celebrities who are former patients of SickKids Hospital to share their experiences there, and express the need for support so that other kids can get better, just like they did. On their website, former SickKids patients from all over the world can upload photos and written pieces in which they “Share their Story.” Website visitors can then read these stories, reinforcing an emotional connection to the cause.

Through the use of traditional advertising, web advertising services and  social media marketing services to promote the campaign through Twitter and Facebook, SickKids Foundation encourages people to indeed share their stories, as well as watch stories that are already posted.

Using different media across different platforms, SickKids Foundation is able to generate inspiring content that supports their overall messaging (“Together We Will”) that reaches both potential donors and the community.

What all three of these organizations have discovered is that creating meaningful content with consistent messaging not only strengthens your brand but it can gain you a new following and keep customers loyal. So when developing a marketing strategy for your organization, be sure to keep content marketing top of mind.

Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Advertising | No Comments »

Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy – Part 2

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

In Part 1: Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy, we reviewed what content marketing actually is, its importance in the overall marketing strategy and its benefits. In this post, we will discuss how a company can use content marketing to meet their business objectives.

Since we defined content marketing as “quality content created on any format for all types of marketing, that is shared and distributed in order to engage consumers and prospects,” then the first step in creating a strategy for your own business, product or service would be to take a look at your customer. Ask yourself the following questions about your customers:

  1. Who are they (socio-economically, demographically)?
  2. What needs to they have that my business/product/service can meet?
  3. Why would they want to consume content that we provide them?
  4. Where can I find them?
  5. How do they consume most of their information?

Once you define question 1, use the answers from questions 2 and 3 to put together a content plan and deliver it to your customers through the answers from questions 4 and 5.

In other words, take a look at who is your target market, their needs and the channels through which you can reach them. Produce useful, entertaining information that will both position yourself as an industry leader while passively communicating the benefits of what your business has to offer. Distribute this information through those channels.

 For example:

You are a high-end running shoe company and answer the above five questions with the following:

  1. Men and women ages 25 to 55 with an average household income of $50k+/year. They are ambitious, urban and health-concious.
  2. This demographic buys fitness equipment and clothing on a regular basis and is not afraid to spend a little more money to receive the best in quality and comfort. Your line of sneakers meets this need.
  3. If we leverage our heath and fitness industry expertise, we could provide them with useful information in this topic.
  4. You can find them online at health-related websites, in gyms, organic food markets, etc.
  5. This group tends to be very technologically savvy, and spend a large portion of their day online for information and news consumption: whether on their personal computers, smart phones or on their portable electronic tablet.

With the above answers in mind, you decide to create a series about the importance of fitting an exercise regime into a busy schedule. This is also congruent with your overall Healthy Living marketing campaign. Therefore, you use the following channels in order to provide your target market with information on why it’s important to exercise and tips on how to integrate it into their daily or weekly routine. You narrow down your list of relevant channels used to communicate this information to the following:

  • An article or series of articles in your e-newsletter or in an email deployment to your house file
  • A Daily Fitness Tips app for mobile devices
  • A podcast featuring interviews with top fitness experts
  • A Pay-Per-Click campaign that offering a free e-magazine download for every shoe purchased from your online store
  • A series of blog posts
  • And an entire microsite devoted to the subject

All of the messaging communicated through these channels will be consistent, relevant and useful to consumers in your target.

With the implementation of an engaging content marketing strategy, you will develop a relationship of trust, relevance and community with your client or consumer by providing them with practical information they can use. When done correctly, content marketing can not only position your brand as a leader, but also retain customers and attract new ones as well.

Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Advertising | No Comments »

Why Your Business Needs a Content Marketing Strategy – Part 1

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

In the online marketing space, the demand for content is increasing dramatically as more and more businesses go online and need additional content for internet users to consume. Competition for online space – both off-site and on-site – is becoming increasingly tough. Therefore, websites need to have content that is all at once useful, engaging and SEO-friendly. In short, a website’s overall marketing strategy needs to include a content marketing strategy.

Content marketing can be defined as quality content created on any format for all types marketing that is shared and distributed in order to engage consumers and prospects. Start to look around you and see what content, especially free content, is available from companies that create products and services you pay for. Some examples of different formats are:

  • Magazine supplements to main publications
  • Newsletters – print and online
  • Website content – exclusive and web adaptations
  • Email blasts
  • White papers
  • Webinars
  • Webisodes
  • Podcasts

Notice that many of these formats are web and digital – free content is available all over the web. Businesses must be active in as many relevant formats as possible, in a way that provides quality information and engagement to its readers, participants and customers.

With all this talk of creating content, especially free content, a business might wonder what are the benefits to the business?  In parts 2 and 3 of this blog post series we will review the benefits in more detail, but in a nutshell they are:

Search Engine Optimization – The more on-site content, including relevant keywords, that your website contains, the more likely it will rank high in search engine results pages (SERPS) for those keywords. Note of caution: do not keyword stuff, or use other “black hat” SEO techniques or your site will be penalized by the search engines.

Reputation management – The more content you have online, using the various formats and channels available, the more “real-estate” you occupy in SERPS, pushing any web pages about your business that you can’t control further down in the search results.

User engagement – this on its own might not seem like it directly affects the bottom line, but it does. If an internet visitor listens to your company’s podcast, downloads a whitepaper, or opens an email blast, they are interacting directly with your brand for a period of time and building a trusted relationship with that brand. Plus, they are more likely to visit other channels through which your business communicates to its market – off and online – increasing the chances of a purchase or lead generation.

Brand loyalty – provide quality, free (or very low-priced) content on consistent basis and customers will continue to come back for more.

Leadership positioning – if you provide useful information that is relevant to your service or product, you distinguish yourself as a leader in that category.

User engagement, brand loyalty and establishing your company as a leader can have the ultimate effect of retaining current customers and increasing sales and leads, making content marketing an important part of your marketing strategy.

Stay-tuned next week for Part 2 of my three-part content marketing series, where I discuss developing and maximizing your own content strategy.

Posted in Direct Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Advertising | No Comments »

Is Direct Mail Dead?

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Time warp back to that young child we all picture in fading colour images, waiting anxiously for the neighbourhood mailman to drop his deliveries into our mailbox. Be it the x-ray specs we ordered from a comic book or an unsolicited flyer from the local pizzeria, there was a tangible connection to the outside world that only mail could bring. We couldn’t hold the images on television. We couldn’t embrace a voice on the phone. But that treasured piece of mail…that we could take anywhere and keep until it faded and yellowed.

Fast forward to the computer or mobile device on which you’re now reading this. You spend your day at your desk reading and answering that communications marvel known as email, the nemesis of your smiling postman. But as wonderful as email is, you still can’t hold it. You can’t embrace it. It stares at you lifelessly, an artificial collection of words and images comprised of cold, uncaring bytes.

But then a sound reaches your ears, bringing a nostalgic sense of anticipation and excitement. It’s the squeaking wheel of the mail cart. Our letterbox suddenly becomes an empty Christmas stocking hoping to be filled with colourful surprises. And our disappointment at not receiving a letter parallels that of that same empty stocking. But if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to tear open a fresh piece of mail to excitedly study the contents awaiting us inside.

But is our love of mail just pure nostalgia for a simpler time?  Or is direct mail still a viable marketing media? According to Canada Post, direct mail is far from dead and they have the statistics to support it. They conducted a survey that reported Addressed Direct Mail as the most attention-grabbing type of advertising by Canadians, beating out television and online ads and telephone solicitation.

This fact is especially important for fundraisers. Cornerstone’s Global File Audit shows that only 15% of 2007 donation revenue was generated by means other than Direct Mail.

Even in this digitized age Canadians still take the initiative to check their mailboxes daily but block out some of the more impersonal and intrusive types of marketing.

There’s a unique covenant that exists between us and Canada Post: no one but the bearer’s name can view the contents. Someone else in your household may open an email providing they can access the account. No one’s name is on it, after all. But the mail that bears our name is our own, and creates an invisible barrier that few snoops dare breach. Fewer things are more personal in this digital, all-access world. And they provide an important link to a lost but cherished time in our lives: a time when x-ray specs were as technologically advanced as we could imagine.

Direct mail will only die if we stop imagining.

Richard Todd, Account Supervisor – List Management

Tags:
Posted in Direct Marketing, List Management, Marketing | 2 Comments »