Bronson's Blog

Three Ways to Improve Deliverability with Your Content

2012-02-17T03:10:00.000-08:00

Getting your messages through to your list members is just as important as building your list. Deliverability is affected by a number of different factors – from the reputation of your email marketing provider to the quality of the email addresses on your list. Another important piece of the puzzle is the content of your email messages. By paying attention to specific sections of your email marketing messages with regards to content, you can boost your deliverability rates and see better results from email marketing.

Here are the three key content areas that you need to focus on with regards to deliverability:

1. Subject lines
Subject lines are the first exposure that your audience gets to your message and they can significantly improve your deliverability rates. People are busy and no matter how excited they might have been to receive your information when they first signed up, they will resist opening your emails without a compelling subject lines. Subject lines should provide a teaser for the content inside of the email and encourage the recipient to open up the message.

Subject lines are also evaluated significantly in terms of the spam content of a message. Having the right subject line can help you avoid spam filters and be sure that you’re actually reaching your intended audience.

2. Newsletter content
Deliverability rates are affected by your previous open rates. This means that the more that your messages are sent out and opened, the more trustworthy you are seen as a sender and the more likely your messages will be delivered and opened in the future. You can effect this directly with your newsletter content.

Focus on sending your list members helpful, targeted information in pre-set intervals. Your sales messages should be spaced out with helpful content in between. This will help your list members see you as a valuable resource rather just a company that is focused on the sale. By planning out targeted content that answers major questions for your audience, you can see an increase in your open rates and a boost to your overall deliverability rate.

3. List segmentation and targeted content
Besides sending helpful, informative messages and newsletters at regular times, you can go a step further with your targeting and improve your deliverability rates with list segmentation. If you know that certain members of your list are more likely to open and read messages, you can segment these members and send messages to them regularly. You can also segment your list by buying behavior, click-throughs and a number of other factors. Using segmentation you can get ultra-specific with your list and see a better result from your email marketing efforts.

Deliverability rate is an important metric that deserves your attention if you want to excel with email marketing. There are many ways that the quality and nature of your content can affect this metric. Just like with other forms of online marketing, understanding what your customers want to know and delivering it to them in a helpful and targeted way is a key to deliverability and overall email marketing success.

For More information on CFL HTML Email services please call 01225 782669 or or log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk

How to Determine Where to Spend Your Marketing Budget

2012-02-16T02:53:00.000-08:00

Establishing a marketing budget is only the first step in making sure your business is marketed effectively. Once you know how much you have to work with, it is important to make wise choices about where that money will be spent.

By considering a few key criteria, focusing on your most pressing marketing needs and evaluating what worked best in the past, you can determine where to best spend your marketing budget.

Marketing is changing and smart companies are keeping up with these changes. With web marketing, it’s become possible to reach more customers than ever before, but you need to keep a few important principles in mind when you are looking for marketing activities.

As you look at the next year of spending, keep the following four criteria in mind:

1) Trust
Which marketing methods and practice will help build trust in your company?

2) Targeting
Do the marketing methods give you the ability to approach a small segment of your audience?

3) Engagement
Are your marketing methods getting you in front of active enthusiasts of your product or service?

4) Social sharing
Do these marketing methods make it easy for your audience to spread and share your content to their social contacts?

With these criteria at the forefront of your decision making process, you need to look at where you are going to get the most bang for your marketing buck. What are your main goals for the next month, the next quarter and the next year? Which practices are going to help you meet those goals? Marketing activities and methods can help you meet a number of different goals but some are better than others for specific goals.

Here are five few possible ideas:

1) Increasing website traffic and conversions:
Web re-design, copywriting, SEO and PPC advertising.

2) Increasing sales:
Targeted email marketing messages, sales pages and web design.

3) Building a community and increasing your reputation with that community:
Email marketing, social media and community management.

4) Increasing exposure:
Trade shows, press releases, white papers, email newsletters and guest blog posting.

5) Boosting credibility:
Regular email newsletters, authority blog posts, press releases and white papers.

Your marketing spending should reflect your goals. Looking at your most immediate goals for your business will help you identify which marketing activities you should invest in. Give priority to those tactics that will help your reach your goals in the next few months.

Finally, you need to look at your past performance before you invest in marketing for the new year. Which marketing activities had the biggest ROI for your company in the past 12 months? Which efforts were disappointing at best or complete failures at worst? Just because a technique or method is an industry standard or works well for another company does not mean it is a good fit for you. Always rely on your company’s experience with a marketing method to make your final decision.

With these criteria, goals and experiences in mind, you can spend your marketing budget wisely and effectively.

However you decide to spend your budget, CFL Marketing can advise you and help execute your plans – contact philm@cflmarketing.co.uk for more details or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

3 Best Practice Rules for Email Timing

2012-02-15T01:24:00.000-08:00

In a perfect world, your email marketing list members will open up each of your messages immediately, read each line and take action right away. But as you know, your list members are busy, may not recall why they signed up for your list in the first place or may be receiving your email at a time when there are dozens of other messages coming their way.

That is why it is important to time your email messages just right. Timing relates to two different decisions:

-What days and times are best for my email messages?
-How frequently should I send out my email messages
-When you understand the timing and frequency rhythms that are right for your list, you can send out messages that have more impact. Here are three best practices rules to follow to boost your success.

1.) Find a schedule and stick with it.
The most important key to having email marketing success with your own list is being consistent. Find a schedule that works for your company (and gets a good response from your list) and then repeat it week in and week out (or month in and month out). Of course, this does not apply to special discounts or deals, but with your email marketing newsletter you should have a consistent schedule. Weekly or bi-weekly works best for most companies.

2.) Consider your users and their lives.
Your email marketing messages are more likely to be opened when your audience is not overwhelmed with other messages or checking in quickly. If your target market is busy moms, sending them a message at 10 am is not going to work. If you are marketing to small business owners, messages on a Friday afternoon are not going to have an impact. Think through the day to day life of your prospects and then pick a time when they are most likely to have time to open and read your message. Once you have decided on a time and day for your newsletters and messages, then you can look at your open rates, track your effectiveness and make adjustments.

3.) Give list members the power to select their own frequency.
One of the best ways to succeed with email marketing is to make sure your users get exactly what they need when they want it. You can do just this by allowing your subscribers to tell you how often they’d like to be contacted. For example, if you are sending a weekly blog update newsletter and a monthly in depth newsletter, your subscribers can indicate whether they would like to be contacted each week or each month. You can use this information to segment your list and send content at the right times to specific email list members.

Although these are important industry best practices, each email marketing list is unique. Your subscribers will respond best to a specific frequency and timing of content. Once you select what you think will work best, look at your analytics and results and make adjustments as need be.

Leisure visits are up but spending is down

2012-02-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

UK consumers are visiting pubs, clubs and restaurants more often - but spending less - as “austerity fatigue” kicks in.

That’s according to a survey of 3,000 consumers, which found that visits to pubs/bars, restaurants and late-night venues increased by 2.2%, 4% and 10.5% respectively compared to a survey one year ago.

Monthly visits to pubs and bars increased from 4.3 in summer 2010 to 4.6. Visits to restaurants increased slightly, from 2.5 to 2.6 per month, and for late-night venues they also crept up from 1.9 to 2.1.

It’s the first time that each sector has seen an increase.

However, the latest report shows that average spend per visit in pubs and bars fell 9.5% to £14.69. For restaurants, the decline is 8% to £15.90, and for late-night bars it’s 12.4% to £24.04.

According to the survey, 48% of consumers said their disposable income has fallen in the last six months, while just 6% said it had increased. Over the past year average national household income fell £640 to £30,584, the survey found.

The survey also highlighted big differences in spending patterns across the country.

For pubs and bars, the biggest spenders are in the north west at £999 per year, compared to £490 in the East Midlands.

Londoners are the highest spenders in restaurants, spending £889 pa, with consumers in the capital spending at least £200 more per year than any other region. Again, spend was the lowest in the East Midlands, at £332.

Even though consumers continue to keep close watch on their spending, this is good news for operators with strong propositions because ultimately no leisure business can survive without customers coming through the door. - Its the perfect opportunity for operators to market to consumers and promote offers on site.

For operators, this more budgeted approach to leisure still presents opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell, and more people coming through the doors shows that operators’ sales initiatives and marketing plans are starting to work.

Need help promoting your venue? www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Half of new licensees can't find specialist advice

2012-02-13T03:54:00.001-08:00

Half (49%) of new publicans and club owners admit they are struggling because they don’t know where to go for specialist advice and guidance on setting up and running their own business.

That’s according to a survey from People 1st, the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger, transport, travel and tourism.

Its findings also highlighted that having access to expert support – in particular financial, marketing and business planning – would have made a “critical difference” to four out of ten of those interviewed.

The survey questioned 418 pubs, bars and nightclubs, of which 61 had been open for less than three years.

Publicans, in particular, have unique issues and need access to specialist professionals who really understand their business.

CFL Have been helping Pubs, Bars, Clubs, Breweries and Licensed Leisure companies with all their marketing needs for the last 3 decades

Throughout all of this CFL have provided unique, effective and relevant direct marketing solutions to our customers, using a product portfolio covering all aspects of direct marketing - from Direct Mail to Digital Marketing.

Possessing that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement. To find out how we could be growing your business, give us a call. - 01225 782669 or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Paddy's big party!

2012-02-07T03:02:00.000-08:00

Are you aware St. Patrick's day in on a Saturday this year? - What do you have planned for the 17th March?

The January sales are over... Valentines plans should be in place so St. Patrick's day in the next big weekend in the calendar.

We all know its tough out there...so its the perfect opportunity to use the luck of the Irish and drive custom to your venue.

Let the Guinness flow and enjoy the craic!

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Door Drops, Banners, Emails,Web Sites, Social Media, Data Capture or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples of our work below

Remember – don’t just leave it and hope things will pick up.. drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Need artwork for an advert??

2012-01-16T05:33:00.000-08:00

Are you thinking of putting an advert in a local magazine or paper?... Who is doing the design for you?

People think of CFL as a Direct Marketing Agency or Database Specialists...however we also have a full Design Studio.

Our designers can work to deliver any supplied brief - that's a given. Where our talent and flair really shows is when we deliver on a brief you didn't know in the first place!!

We specialise in the Leisure and Retail Sector, especially for the Licensed Trade

For a very competitive rate we deliver on the strength of our ideas.

We can even place the advert for you whether is a local trade magazine advert through to a National news paper.

We can also create artwork for HTML Emails, Web banners, Facebook Images or any other Social Media Profiles.

Call Paul or Clare on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Please see some examples below of our advert designs.

Discount vouchers remain popular for eating out.

2012-01-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

Two-thirds of people have used a discount voucher when eating out, although just 18% say they go out more often as a result of the vouchers, according to new survey from Deloitte.

The Taste of the Nation survey of 3,000 people found that 59% have used a special offer voucher when eating out, with 48% of people claiming they use vouchers in a bar or pub.

However, 25% say they go out more often than they otherwise would as a result of an outlet offering vouchers and only (18%) would stop visiting an outlet if vouchers were no longer provided.

Jon Lake, corporate finance director in the licensed retail group at Deloitte, said: “Vouchers have proved an effective tactic by some operators for encouraging consumers to eat in their outlets, and have risen in popularity since the recession.

However, the popularity of some of these schemes has raised concerns some operators are now reliant on them.

“In the run up to Christmas, voucher offers were removed by some operators. Other outlets offered a different deal, such as three-for-two, instead of the more generous two-for-one and buy-one-get-one-free offers, or a gift with every main course.”

CFL Have been helping many pubs and restaurants with their pre and post Christmas discount voucher promotions both online and offline. Please see some examples below.

5 email marketing insights for 2012

2012-01-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

MarketingSherpa recently published the 2012 edition of its Email Marketing Benchmark Report and once again, it’s full of really interesting insights.

Yes, it’s a report that focuses mainly on the US market (only 16% of the 2,735 respondents are based in Europe) but I still think we can learn a thing or two from the findings of this report. I’ve chosen these five findings to share with you:

1. Relevance and timing issues
Only 28% of marketers report their messages contained relevant content, are sent on time to targeted subscribers, and had a clear conversion goal.

What does this mean? To stand out in today’s overloaded inboxes, you need to consistently provide value to your subscribers. You can’t just continue to send everything to everybody. Instead, make sure that each and every message is well targeted and relevant to the person that receives it. Otherwise, your messages will get deleted, even before they were opened.

2. Marketers confident in email ROI
More than a quarter of senior marketer executives felt email is producing ROI, and almost half believe it will eventually produce returns.

What does this mean? It’s obviously crucial to get management buy-in if you want to increase your email marketing budget/resources. The best way to get their buy-in is by showing them the impact of email on the marketing-sales funnel. If you can’t measure how much money your email programme is contributing, focus on how many (sales-ready) leads you are generating, rather than reporting only on the opens and clicks of your campaigns.

3. Wise list growth tactics
37% of marketers say their organisations shared premium or educational content in exchange for an email address. Sweepstakes (used by only 10% of marketers) and gift cards (used by 6%) are not very popular when it comes to growing your list.

What does this mean? Incentives are often used by marketers to persuade web visitor to give them their email address.

The trick is to find the right incentive. You don’t want to get just any email address; you want to get email addresses from people that are likely to buy your products or services. You’d probably get a ton of email addresses if the incentive is something that attracts to the general population (like the ubiquitous iPad giveaway), but will they also be interested in your products?

Experience has taught me that email addresses collected using sweepstakes, giveaways and contests typically don’t perform very well in terms of open and click-through rates.

4. Email budgets on the rise
67% of marketers plan to increase their email budget in 2012, with 20% planning to increase it more than 30%.

What does this mean? Email marketing is still a crucial component of your online marketing strategy and, if executed well, it will drive a lot of business and revenue at a low cost. But marketers need to invest in strategy, expertise, integration of systems and resources.

5. Value of automated, triggered emails
90% of marketers found that sending emails automatically to a subscriber based on triggers like planned dates, events or behaviours are the most effective tactic to improve relevant communications.

What does this mean? The great thing about automated email messages based on triggers is that you typically set these messages up, optimise them and then sit back and watch the results come in while you focus on getting another automated message set up.

Quick wins in email marketing
If you don’t have a lot of resources to dedicate to email marketing, focus your efforts on automating email campaigns where possible. The top four automated messages include welcome emails, thank you emails, transactional emails and post-purchase emails.

Text is best for mobile promotions European consumers chime, new report reveals

2012-01-12T05:25:00.001-08:00

Mobile-owning consumers in the UK, Germany and France prefer receiving SMS-based promotions as opposed to other mobile channels, new research published by theDirect Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed.

The study conducted by Toluna QuickSurveyson behalf of the DMA and report sponsor Velti, shows that 38 per cent of UK mobile owners prefer receiving promotional offers via SMS, compared to 15 per cent who favour mobile web.

For consumers in Germany and France, 58 per cent and 60 per cent respectively opt for SMS as their preferred channel for receiving mobile-based offers, whereas 21 per cent of consumers in both countries prefer mobile web.

In other findings, the research reports that 40 per cent of UK consumers are interested in being contacted via mobile by advertisers – four times as many consumers who said they would rather receive offers from their mobile network operators.

How do you limit unsubscribes?? - 10 top tips...

2012-01-09T03:57:00.000-08:00

2012 is here, I, like many, will be thinking about customer retention. You don’t want your customers to have to unsubscribe from your emails.

Once a consumer unsubscribes from an email, the majority will not re-subscribe. Admittedly, unsubscribing from email lists per se would not make the top 10 list of resolutions, but enough people have the will to un-clutter their lives and get organised. And this can translate into reassessing which brands they engage with.

Here are some top tips on how to stop people unsubscribing in the first place. And, if they do, I’ll show you how to make it a positive consumer experience and take back control of the unsubscribe process.

1. Be relevant
The first and most obvious tactic is to make your ongoing email communications the most relevant you can. The more engaged your consumers are, the less likely they are to unsubscribe from your emails. The focus for this article is not around how to achieve this, but just to highlight one of my best pieces of advice when it comes to developing relevancy. As my American colleagues say “don’t try and boil the ocean any small steps you can make will improve relevancy and make a difference”.

2. Listen
Make sure you remember that email is there to help foster a relationship and all good relationships are about listening to the other person. Demonstratively acting on the information a consumer gives you, be it on frequency of email or type of offers, will make your consumers feel more engaged with the brand and email programme.

3. Sell the benefits
One best practice that brings great results when subscribing consumers is to clearly articulate the benefits of subscription. This messaging should continue, especially as those benefits should change over time as you refine the programme. So make sure your consumers know what those benefits are

4. Manage your email subscriptions
Creation of a subscription management page (SMP) also acts as a powerful tool in reducing unsubscribes for a variety of reasons.

The SMP page gives the consumer an easy place to update information. At its simplest (for example, a change of address) there are numerous stories of customers unsubscribing because they had changed email address and not seen an easy way to update. The other mainstay of the SMP page is allowing you to collect preference information that can then be used to make the content more relevant

5. Be flexible
Try offering changes in frequency. If the buying cycle for a product or service is infrequent, a monthly communication may be too much but quarterly would be more appropriate. Remember that the consumer will only be engaged with five to 10 brands at any one time. So, unless you happen to be an Apple or an Amazon, the chances are your consumers engagement will wax and wane over time. However, if there is still an ongoing periodic engagement, then you have a much greater chance to interact when the time is right for the consumer.

6. Respect people’s channel preference
Brands need to collect and understand their customers’ channel preference. I am a firm believer in the effectiveness of email and, as reports such as the DMA email benchmarking report H2 2010 http://www.dma.org.uk/toolkit/national-email-benchmarking-report-h2-2010 show, email is a powerful and relevant medium. Your consumers, however, live in a multichannel world so if they’d rather hear from you via social or mobile then you should be aware of this and act upon it. Again, having an ongoing relationship means you still have the opportunity to get them engaged with the email channel at a later date.

However it should also be understood that whatever options and data you collect make sure that this is used to enhance the consumers’ experience so that they feel there was value in giving up that information in the first place.

7. Take control of unsubscribe process
Make it easy for your consumer to unsubscribe and help reclaim the process from the spammer. This may sound counter-intuitive but consumer engagement is built on trust. Obviously, having a robust unsubscribe process is essential but so is making it clear in each email where people have to click to unsubscribe. And, of course, I would make it just as easy to change address!

Also if, for whatever reasons, your unsubscribe process is not going to be instant then make sure you manage the consumers’ expectations. Explain that it may take a few days and that they may receive an email in the interim.

8. Inspire trust with your unsubscribe process
Consumers have become increasingly wary of using the unsubscribe button because it was the way that spammers could confirm a real email address and creating distrust for all. As responsible marketers, we have a vested interest in being transparent and honouring expectations not only for the success of individual email programmes but for the overall health of the channel.

9. Use unsubscribe as a listening opportunity
If the consumer does decide to unsubscribe use this as an information/ listening opportunity, ask them why they are leaving. This information can then be used to better develop the programme. Done sensitively, asking why is not obstructive and also has the added benefit of helping stop unwanted unsubscribes. There have been numerous occasions we get requests from clients asking us to re-subscribe a customer because they were just clicking the links to make sure they could unsubscribe if they actually wanted to.

10. Avoid the spam button
Taking back control of the unsubscribe process is also important from two aspects. For many years, there was a trend for people not to unsubscribe but to hit this is spam button even though at some point there had been a genuine opt-in. With the increase of reputational deliverability filtering this can have a negative effect for the rest of your consumer programme and have a detrimental effect on the overall programme. Also the rise of functions such as the Yahoo unsubscribe folder – do away with the ‘this is spam issue’ but you lose the opportunity to understand why or to offer the frequency or channel options discussed above. So make sure you keep control of your unsubscribe process

CFL have the knowledge and experience to build a custom email campaign for your business - please email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk for some examples or call us on 01225 782669

DMA Report: Promoting to the Mobile Consumer

2012-01-05T04:46:00.000-08:00

A recent study conducted by DMA and sponsored by Velti surveyed consumers across four countries and indicates that promotional marketers face both opportunities and issues when tackling the mobile consumer.

Consumers are generally open to promotional offers, but they have very clear preferences about where they want to receive them and the type of offers that they like. Getting the right pitch into the right channel will therefore have a positive uplift on marketing performance.
Key findings from this research indicate that there are both opportunities and issues facing promotional marketers as they look to tackle the mobile consumer:

• British and American consumers are different to those in Germany and France. In the UK and the USA, there is a strong appetite for preference-based offers (75 per cent and 72 per cent respectively) and very low levels of resistance to getting offers (5 per cent in both countries). In Germany and France, offers based on likes and dislikes also have the greatest traction, but at a lower level (46 per cent and 50 per cent respectively). There are also far more consumers in these countries who want no offers at all (22 per cent).

• Three quarters of consumers regularly pass on offers to friends and family - this would rise even higher in the UK and USA if there was an incentive to do so.

• Online promotional sources have been widely adopted, with Groupon taking the highest share (60 per cent of consumers in France use it, 52 per cent in the USA and 45 per cent in Germany). In the UK, My Voucher Codes maintains an advantage, at 42 per cent using compared to 35 per cent for Groupon.

• Printing vouchers remains the primary mechanism for redeeming offers in the UK and USA (71 and 75 per cent), but using discounts in online shops has overtaken print in Germany (56 per cent compared to 49 per cent). Half of British and American consumers are also redeeming offers online.

• Mobile redemption is growing steadily, at between 16 per cent in the UK, 17 per cent in USA, 18 per cent in Germany and 24 per cent in France. Mobile consumers are still principally using email to opt-out of promotional marketing (77 to 80 per cent) rather than SMS (18 to 28 per cent).

• There is still a task for brands and network operators to demonstrate to consumers the benefits of receiving promotional marketing and gaining permission to do so. In the UK and the USA, acceptance rates for promotional marketing received over mobile are lower than for promotions in general. Over time, willingness for these offers to be promoted via the mobile channel is likely to rise.

• While advertisers have a significantly higher level of preference over network operators when it comes to sending offers, this may be because networks have left a promotional gap - at best, only half of consumers in France have been promoted to by their operator in the last month, falling to one third in Germany and less than a quarter in the UK and USA.

Click Here to see the full Report - http://www.dma.org.uk/sites/default/files/tookit_files/velti_report_2011.pdf

Back to work and back to reality!!

2012-01-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over, it’s a new year…its back to work and back to reality!!

Now is the perfect time to start over and think about driving more custom back to your business after the busy festive period.

January sales should be in full swing…but before you know it February will arrive…so its not too soon to start promoting Valentines.

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Door Drops, Banners, Emails,Web Sites, Social Media, Data Capture or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples of our work below

Remember – don’t just leave it and hope things will pick up.. drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Top retailers need to focus on email basics

2012-01-03T02:53:00.000-08:00

There are many areas of email marketing that retailers need to work on, according to Silverpop’s 2011 Top 100 Retailers Study.

More than 20% of the UK’s top retailers send no emails in the first 30 days after opt-in. This could lead to new subscribers forgetting about the retailer and why they wanted to interact with them in the first place.

Silverpop also found that UK retailers are not making the most of opt-in and opt-out opportunities.

Although 97% of retailers who have an email programme placed the opt-in on the homepage, half of them placed it at the bottom of the page.

Email opt-ins should appear throughout the website, according to the study. New site visitors coming from search engines or social media sites won’t necessarily land on your homepage.

Marketers need to go where their customers are, says the study and encourage opt-ins in all those places. For example, SMS opt-ins from offline advertising and billboards or email opt-in forms on the retailer’s social media pages.

Only 27% of UK retailers offer consumers the choice to receive fewer emails or messages through other channels at the opt-out stage. Giving the subscriber more options could help avoid them hitting the unsubscribe button.

CFL are experts in building Email Marketing campaigns for our leisure and retail clients

Please see our best practice guide below

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

View more presentations from CFL Marketing

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Direct Mail on the rise in the US

2011-11-22T02:56:00.000-08:00

Marketers will spend $163 billion on direct marketing in 2011, a 5.6% increase compared with last year, according to a report released by theDirect Marketing Association (DMA) on Oct. 2. The report also found that direct marketing accounts for 52.1% of total U.S. ad spending.

The DMA projected that direct marketing ROI will reach $12.03 of sales per dollar of expenditures in 2011.

Next year, digital marketing's share of marketing budgets will increase by two percentage points to 21%, according to the DMA. Of the various direct marketing channels, mobile is forecast to experience the most growth over the next year, rising by 38.7% to $1.2 billion. By contrast, direct-response magazine, radio and newspaper spending are all expected to decrease over the next year, with direct-response newspaper advertising predicted to decline by 9.9% to $7.0 billion.

Telemarketing is expected to remain the top spending channel, growing by 0.8% next year to $36.9 billion. Direct-response TV is expected to follow at $22.9 billion, a 3.8% bump from 2011.

Tactics to keep pace with print evolution

2011-11-18T01:59:00.000-08:00

An interesting article From the November 01, 2011 Issue of Direct Marketing News

The printing and production sector has undergone major transformation in a digitally dominated market, and many marketers can now use the dual impact of print media and technology to communicate marketing messages to customers. At the same time, there has been a recalibration of expectations for improved sales and greater return on investment.

The Direct Marketing News experts offer up their best advice to help marketers take advantage of these advancements, including Web to print technologies. As Natasha Kesaji, VP of client services at the Jacobs Agency, notes: “Print communications need to connect with online assets to continue the dialogue with customers.” Rocky Abbett, VP of NOVA Marketing Services, advises marketers to segment lists carefully, and get creative with design and packaging in traditional campaigns. Dustin LeFebvre, EVP at Specialty Print Communications, indicates that internal culture must change and become more nimble, collaborative and relationship-focused in order to drive advancement.

Dustin LeFebvre, EVP, Specialty Print Communications

For much of its history, the evolution of print seemingly moved at the pace of a drifting continent. Even in recent years as digital has taken root, print has been perceived by many as a fading tactic of the luddites. A couple years back, I even concealed my badge in shame at an Association of National Advertisers event, as digital and social media became the rage and threatened to render "old media" obsolete.  

However, today digital is driving print, and printing is now digital. A tectonic shift is at hand; the same technology that threatened to displace print is providing it new vitality. 

Digital and hybrid printing  are now delivering a user-driven customized experience that drives to digital. It is quietly insistent, a vital tool to extend an engagement. Print is now intertwined with digital technology, and moving forward, the two will evolve in concert. Expect a major, industry-changing innovation every few years.  

As a marketer, keeping pace with this "hyper evolution" in the printing industry will work to your competitive advantage. Here are five tips to help  you do so. 

1. Create a culture of change.
To keep pace with the ongoing innovation and new technology in today's printing industry, you should contribute towards a company culture that is amenable to change. Expect and anticipate change as an organization, and structure your company to be adaptable.  

Entrepreneurial spirit and autonomy will enable first mover advantages on new trends and technologies.  

 2. Collaborate.
Discuss ideas in a team environment, both internally and externally. Use strategic partnerships already in place to share ideas, laterally apply experience, and ask unexpected questions.  

By leveraging partnerships, we were able to pioneer a four-color hybrid imaging process to enable companies to tailor direct mail to individual customers with the visual combination of variable words and pictures. We were able to realize this as a capability thanks to vendor partners, technology providers, and academic cooperation.  

 3. Use whitepapers.
Read  consultant whitepapers to stay abreast of new industry  technologies, trends and innovations. Additionally, don't limit yourself to traditional media. Follow relevant social media feeds for real-time updates.  

 4. Attend trade shows.
Many new products and technologies are launched at trade shows for maximum exposure and effect. Attendance and curiosity will put you on the cutting edge as sales reps fall all over themselves to share with you how their new widget will revolutionize your professional landscape.  

These types of shows occur every year in the U.S. and throughout the world, and can be invaluable in terms of keeping you ahead of the competition. The largest worldwide show, Drupa, takes place this coming May in Germany. 

 5. Be relationship-focused.
Business isn't sterile; it's conducted between people. Being approachable as an individual and a company provides opportunities to make both professional and personal connections. Oftentimes, people seek to do business with people they like and respect, so understanding the value of relationships makes good business sense.

 Rocky Abbett, VP, NOVA Marketing Services, a division of the Matlet Group

Greater technology capabilities, including the rise in popularity of quick response (QR) codes, has fed the growth in dimensional mailing. It has also reset expectations for improved sales and greater return on investment (ROI) among marketers. Combining dimensional mail pieces with QR codes can help improve campaign effectiveness by increasing the number of touches with your target audience. Here are four things to keep in mind.

1. Do your data homework.
It begins with list management and your database. Segment your in-house list to selectively reach those customers that best match the parameters of your campaign in order to generate the best ROI results. If you are reaching out to new customers, emphasize quality over quantity. More names for less money is not always the best choice. Choose demographics that mirror your customer profile. 

 2. Trust your design.
It is a  visual world, and your mailer needs to make a statement. Be bold about the colors, shapes and unique sizes you use. Use these to drive customers online, where you can continue to engage them on your website.

 3. Make packaging a  priority.
Use a substrate or paper stock that will travel well through the postal stream to ensure the piece arrives  undamaged. Bring multiple  technologies into play and consider the latest advancements using foils, scents or shiny coatings. Also keep in mind that Pantone recently introduced 175 new colors for designers, so think about some that would make an impression with your target audience. 

 4. Analyze and learn.
Make sure to analyze the ROI for each marketing campaign. It takes time and is often overlooked, but it is the only way you'll know if your efforts have paid off. Did this mailer accomplish your goals and reach the intended audience? What did you learn from your customers? What could you do differently the next time to enhance the customer's experience?

Natasha Kesaji, VP, client services, Jacobs Agency

With the fragmentation of media, marketers need every audience touchpoint to further engage and drive the next interaction. Print communications need to connect with online assets to continue the dialogue with customers, as well as maximize the impact of marketing investments.

The integration of variable printing with digital response technologies has allowed print communications to become more relevant and prompt digital experiences directly. Here are three ways to leverage the print to Web technologies to spur further audience engagement.

1. Determine the next appropriate touchpoint beyond print.
Evaluate where the print media aligns with your audience's decision-making process, and then provide them with the next touchpoint towards their purchase. Deliver content or brand experiences in the form of a video, webinar, text message or social media. Drive prospects to landing pages or microsites  to complete purchases or  other actions. 

2. Identify the best response technology.
If you have enough customer data, consider using personalized URLs (PURLs) to create a richer and more one-on-one online experience. If you lack the level of customer data necessary for PURLs, try leveraging a quick response (QR) code on your non-variable, printed pieces to send targets to rich media, promotions or specific Web pages.  

3. Ensure content fulfills expectations.
There is an expectation of a more robust experience beyond a standard HTML website when targets respond through these mechanisms. After your prospect makes the effort to engage, the last thing marketers want is to disappoint them. Be sure to create a personalized experience that acknowledges past interactions compared with asking the respondent to identify themselves. Remember to optimize the resulting QR code content for mobile Web so you fulfill that expectation for "quick response" and do not have deterrents like slow-loading video.

For More information on how CFL can help you combine printed marketing materials with online media please log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Life After Christmas!

2011-11-17T02:37:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you’re aware it’s only 4 Weeks till Christmas......however how do you plan on bringing in the punters in the new year? Its easy to fall into the trap of spending all your time and resources making the festive period a success and forgetting about what comes next!!

Now is the perfect time to plan you marketing activity to both Businesses and Consumers going forward into 2012.

The next few weeks are will be the busiest time of the year...so why not put a bounce back promotion in place for all of those customers for the new year?

Why not contact CFL to build a bounce back promotion?

Whether its Design, Adverts, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Door Drops, Data Capture, Banners, HTML Emails, Landing Pages, Websites or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples on your website – www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Like us on Facebook for all the latest client news - http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CFL-Marketing/193903033957534

Follow us on twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/cflmarketing

Remember - you don't have long so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Combine email and direct mail for better results.

2011-11-14T02:53:00.000-08:00

Like the big mail drops of yesteryear, people are being inundated with email, which gets ignored and deleted. The "wow" factor, once a signature of direct mail pieces, is sorely absent in email. Thus, we're seeing a resurgence of direct mail. However, direct mail alone can't capture what it did when there were no other alternative channels. To  harness that lost "wow" factor, one option is to try a hybrid approach: a combination of email and direct mail.  
Email is inexpensive where direct mail has to account for postage costs. If the agency is exceptional at creating a mailer that begs to be torn open, that feat will most likely be a prohibitively expensive proposition. But there's a work-around. 

A hybrid approach allows you to reach a receptive audience. Assuming we already have an email opt-in list, let's use email as a call-to-action, to persuade our targets to register to receive more enticing information through a nicely illustrated direct mail piece. With the short attention spans people have online, direct mail has to be that much more elaborate. The mailer must be the closer. 

The art is to create an incentive through email. It should be enticing enough to cause the consumer to click for more information. With this kind of opt-in, the mailer is allowed to have more meaning. Consumers prefer the tangible, in contrast to just directing them to a website. The direct mail piece can go in-depth, make its presence known, and serve as a constant reminder. Email can't do that.  

The risk is disruption in continuity. The consumer has to wait for fulfillment, unlike electronic campaigns which are instantaneous. When building the campaign, this disruption period has to be factored in.  

Imagine the opposite scenario. You receive a direct mail piece and the call-to-action asks that you log in and then enter a promotional code to receive a benefit. Most likely this won't fly too well.  

Email can be the driver that gets the opt-in permission for the direct mail piece. Once that's established, marketers can justify investing in the creation of more durable and memorable direct mail pieces. This produces an efficient use of the direct mail budget, allowing art to produce a more elaborate "wow" piece.  

This hybrid approach ought to give a campaign better lift, better creativity and a chance that the direct mail piece will be read and acted on. Limiting the number of mailers to a selective list reduces your production and mailing costs since you'll be printing less of them. Hopefully, the direct mail piece brings prospects to the next action item and steers them to your target objective.

To see how to implement an integrated marketing approach please log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

4 ways to format your emails to increase readability.

2011-11-14T02:33:00.000-08:00

When it comes to sending messages online, readability is an important issue. The ability for your recipients to read their emails and respond to your offers is critical to your email marketing success. While subject lines and delivery times are key factors in whether or not your emails get opened, the readability of your messages determines whether or not your emails get read and acted on, which is, after all, the real point to email marketing in the first place.

The formatting that you use for your emails makes a big difference in whether or not they get read. Here are four ways that formatting can help improve your readability.

1. Formatting makes emails visually attractive.

Like it or not the way that your emails look can be a lot more important that the words contained in the email. The web is a visual medium – which means that a great template can do a lot for less than stellar content. And it can make a newsletter full of great content shine even brighter.

Make sure your newsletter and email marketing messages are built on a great template that looks appealing and encourages your recipients to read. Your template should organize information into different sections so that it’s easy to read.

2. Formatting makes your content “scannable.”

It’s a proven fact that people do not really read online. At least not the way that they would read a book or a newspaper article. It’s difficult to truly read online because of the way that screens are illuminated. It’s hard for people to read through large blocks of text and stay focused when they are reading on a screen.

Instead of reading in depth and reading each word, people scan through information. They look for bullet points, bolded sections, call outs and bite sized chunks of information. You can improve the readability of your messages by doing the same. Look for opportunities to add call outs and headings and chunk information into parts.

3. Formatting helps to show what is most important in your email message.

As you create your email marketing messages, you need to think about how your end user will receive the emails. Many of them may be pressed for time and reviewing your message in a hurry.

Formatting shows the readers what is most important at a glance. For example, if your marketing message is designed to get your reader to make a purchase, you can create an HTML button to bring attention to your call to action. The reader’s eyes will typically zoom right to the HTML button and they’ll be compelled to click.

4. Formatting encourages your readers to take the next step.

When your email readability is improved, your readers know exactly what they should do next. The point is not only to get your emails read but to get your audience to take the right action. No matter whether that’s making a purchase from you, visiting your blog or clicking through to a survey – improve your readability through formatting can help.

By creating a clean and easy to read email with formatting, you can ensure that your readers are taking the next step.

For more info on CFL’s online marketing services please visit www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Email marketing hits new highs in most successful half-year

2011-11-07T04:52:00.000-08:00

An increase in website traffic generated by email, growth in the number of email addresses under management and a rise in the number of campaigns being run have resulted in the email marketing sector recording its most successful half-year to date, research published by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed.

According to the findings of the DMA’s 2010 H2 Email Benchmarking Report, click-through rates from emails leapt from 12 million in H2 2009 to 16.1 million in H2 2010 - an increase of 33 per cent in the amount of traffic email is marshalling to clients’ websites. The half year also saw a 35 per cent rise in the volume of emails being sent during H2 2010. The number of email addresses that Email Services Providers(ESPs) manage grew across the year from 90.2 million in Q1 2010 to 101.7 million in Q4 2010.

Email marketing budgets rose through the half-year, with a third of clients spending between 21 – 40 per cent more on email in Q4 2010 compared to Q4 2009.

Surveying 20 of the UK’s ESPs, the biannual Email Benchmarking Report is produced by the DMA’s Email Marketing Council. Commenting on the findings of the report, the Council’s James Bunting said:

“Email marketers in the UK are continuing to improve on their success. The DMA’s email tracking study earlier this year showed that consumers are receiving more emails of interest to them than ever before and this latest research shows that those relevant emails are working. Email is driving more traffic to websites than ever before.

The future looks to be even brighter because this success is occurring at a time that ESPs are promising advanced tactics within their product suites enabling even greater targeting and relevance.”

Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx – sponsors of the report, added:

“Our clients are sending more emails than ever before as they begin to embrace the ‘more is more’ maxim. With increases in volume and frequency, of course, comes the corresponding challenge of producing ever more innovative emails and the demand this places on internal resources.”

The H2 2010 Email Benchmarking Report also features the latest data on strategy and segmentation, as well as open rates and deliverability. To download the report click here>>

CFL are creating more and more email marketing campaigns sending over 3 million client emails in the last 12 months, which is up a million from the previous year. Phil Martin, Marketing Manager said "We are helping our clients to build their own warm databases including email and mobile numbers, these clients include Pub Chains,Breweries, Greyhound racing tracks, nightclubs, bars and other local businesses.

Emails are always targeting and timely, and we are achieving 24% open rates and 20% Click rates and up to 96% deliverability."

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

How to Create an Email Marketing Campaign Based on Your Reports

2011-11-03T04:26:00.000-07:00

Reporting can give you valuable insight into the nature of your email marketing list and how you can improve your marketing campaigns in the future. By paying close attention to your reporting you can develop a strong strategy for email marketing. Make it a point to regularly review your email marketing performance metrics so you can plan better email marketing campaigns.

1. Look to Your Clicks to Find the Most Interesting Topics
If you are sending regular newsletters, there are plenty of opportunities for your recipients to click on a link within each message. By analyzing which topics received the most clicks, you can easily plan future email marketing content and special offers. For example, in your newsletter you feature articles on three topics and you notice that one category consistently gets more click throughs, you can create an offer related to that topic or a resource guide. Your list has shown you exactly what type of content they are interested in receiving in the future so you can act accordingly.

2. Look at Your Open Rates to Find the Most Loyal List Members
High open rates show trust. They show that your audience is engaged with what you are delivering via email and recognizes your delivery address. You can target these most loyal list members with specific marketing campaigns. Review your open rates for the last several months of messages and send a special offer to those list members only. Due to the high past open rates of those list members you can almost insure that they will open and take action on your message.

3. Compare Your Calls to Action on High Click Through Rate Reports
The call to action of your email messages need to be strong and clear in order to be effective. Your reports can give you insight into which calls to action work for your audience. Since getting your list recipients to click through to your offer page and take action is the hallmark of effective email marketing, it is important to review your reports for click through rate. Compare those calls to action and see if you can find a common thread between them. Use that as a template for all of your future email marketing messages.

4. Pay Attention to Unsubscribe Reports to Measure Relevance and Frequency
The top two reasons people unsubscribe from your email marketing list are too many emails and irrelevant emails. Make sure that you are not sending messages too often to your list. Just because they subscribe to your email marketing list does not meant that they want to hear from you frequently. Pick a delivery schedule and stick to it. Send out regular newsletters and alternate those with targeted offers to your most responsive list members. In addition, be sure that your content is relevant. You can survey your list members, look to your frequently asked questions or client feedback to find a suitable list of topics to share with your list members.

With these key reports and list metrics, you can target your future email marketing campaigns for better results.

CFL are experts in HTML email design and execution, providing full and comprehensive reporting statistics and analysis of every campaign (see below). To see some examples please email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk or call 01225 782669

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CFL Email reporting

Rise in B2B marketing spend

2011-11-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

The fifth B2B Barometer report published last month (October 2011) reveals a surprisingly healthy past 12 months in the B2B marketing sector.

Over half (57%) of client side marketers report a rise in marketing spend, with one quarter reporting increased billings.

This is a marked improvement to the first B2B Barometer in 2009, where 45% said that revenue was falling.

The survey was carried out in August 2011 and is based on the opinions of 137 B2B agencies and marketers.

A sneak preview of the results appeared in Andrew Daglish’s B2B research blog. In it he explains that the bounce back is accompanied by confidence in the future. According to the survey, two-thirds (69%) of agencies and client side marketers are confident about their organisation’s outlook for the next 12 months.

However, the blog does point to a slowdown in growth. While around half (55%) of agencies report an increase in enquiries, the level of growth has dropped since the January 2011 B2B Barometer when 67% had seen a rise.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager at CFL Marketing said "Last year was slow due to the ecconomic environment, however we have seen a large serge in client B2B marketing activity and spend which is very pleasing"

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Consumers like marketing emails

2011-11-03T02:36:00.000-07:00

Consumers are responding more favourably to email marketing than ever before, new DMA research reveals.

The 2011 DMA/fast.MAP Email Tracking Study, produced in conjunction with Alchemy Worx, credits improved segmentation and better targeting for this surge.

Consumers welcome marketing emails from brands they trust.

More consumers find the marketing emails they receive are of interest.

In 2010, one in 10 of consumers said that 50% or more or emails they received were of interest. In 2011 this went up to one in three consumers.

The study also reveals that consumers are signing up to receive regular emails in ever-greater numbers.

And 50% of consumers report that they now receive 20 or more emails from brands they trust every week.

There were also some surprising findings. Only 3% of consumers normally pick up their emails on a smartphone and the majority (61%) don’t check or use email at work.

The annual Email Tracking Study surveys 1,800 UK consumers to monitor their perceptions, experiences and responses to email marketing.

The study provides insight for marketers by comparing its results gathered in preceding years to highlight new and prevailing trends within the email marketing sector.

Chris Combemale, executive director at the DMA, says:

“The massive rise over the past year in the number of emails that consumers report as being of relevance to them is a direct consequence of improved targeting and segmentation techniques, as well as a greater understanding of the kinds of content that are appealing.”

If you would like to recieve samples of some targeted HTML email campaigns CFL have produced for their clients, please email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk or call 01225 782669.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Still not too late to market your Christmas Parties???

2011-11-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you’re aware it’s only 8 Weeks till Christmas......however did you know over 60% of office Christmas parties have yet to be organised!!

Now is the perfect time to market the festive period to both Businesses and Consumers

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Banners, Emails, or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Take a look at some examples of our work below

Remember - you don't have long so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Trick or Treat???

2011-10-07T03:27:00.000-07:00

Are you all sorted for your Halloween Party???

I'm sure you’re aware it’s Halloween weekend at the end of the month. This means there is going to be plenty of zombies, ghosts and Horny Devils looking for a party.

Halloween is getting bigger and bigger each year and is now seen as a perfect time to dress up and party, this provides you with the perfect opportunity to drive custom to your venue.

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

Whether its Design, Posters, Flyers, Mailings, Banners, Emails, or SMS text messages, we can help!

CFL posses that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Remember - you don't have long so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

Are you Making these Common Email Marketing Mistakes?

2011-09-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

Email marketing has extensive uses for your business, and when used properly, it can drastically increase conversion rates and boost your profits at a very low cost. However, because of the fast growth in popularity of email marketing, there are many misunderstandings about it. These common mistakes can lead to low profit and conversion rates – are you making any of them?

Sending emails too infrequently.
Many marketers do not want to annoy their subscribers and so they will send infrequent emails. However, from a marketing perspective, this is a terrible move. People receive a lot of email and if they are not reminded of you regularly, they will forget who you are, what your list offers, and what you can do for them, and unsubscribe to your list. The ideal frequency of sending emails will depend on your subscribers and how they react (different audiences react differently), and you should test several different frequencies to see which they respond to best. However, you should be sending at least one email a month, and preferably 2-3 emails a month to keep your brand and offerings fresh in your subscriber’s minds.

Sending emails irregularly.
People like regularity – they like to know that twice a week on Mondays and Fridays, you will send them an email. If people do not know when to expect your next email, it will throw them off. If you send three emails one week and then one in the next two weeks, for no reason, subscribers will be confused.

Vague subject lines or “from” names.
Again, people receive a lot of email. If they cannot tell who the email is from or what it’s about with a quick glance at it, the email will likely be deleted without ever having been opened. Make sure to give your emails clear, enticing subject lines, and have the same “from” name every time.

Not making use of list subsections.
You can divide your email lists by location, age, date signed up, and interests they choose when they sign up, among other factors. Many email markets do not do this but you can use this information to send super-targeted offers to a very specific subset of your list. When you do this, it gives you a chance to write the email to such a small segment of your list that everyone who receives it will feel as though it was written for them. Targeted specific offers like this tend to have much higher conversion rates than offers sent to your entire list.

Adding old emails to a new list.
Even if someone signed up for one of your lists, to add their email to a different list without their explicit permission is a violation of the CAN-SPAM act. And after you are reported as spam a few times, which is likely to happen if you do this, your emails are much less likely to get through to the rest of your list. As a rule, do not put anyone on your list unless they have signed up through your opt-in forms or specifically request that you add them to your list.

To see some examples of CFL's Email marketing capabilities email: philm@cflmarketing.co.uk or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Social media sites not trusted with personal data

2011-09-23T01:30:00.000-07:00

Consumers do not trust social networking sites with their personal data, according to a survey by Symantec.

More than a third of consumers (38%) surveyed felt that they couldn’t trust online communities such as social networking sites and forums with their personal data at all.

The most trusted sector was financial services, with more than half (55%) of respondents saying they trust banks and building societies to keep their personal data safe.

More than 2,000 UK adults took part in the survey, which was carried out by YouGov and commissioned by Symantec. Respondents were asked to give sectors a trust score of one to seven (one being ‘don’t trust at all’ and seven ‘trust completely’).

On average, nearly 60% of respondents gave social networking sites, online publishers and the online gaming industry a trust score of three or below.

Protecting the integrity of confidential information is of course vital, but making it clear to the public that their information is safe is crucial as well. Security conscious online retailers need to differentiate themselves from bogus sites and the public are increasingly looking for visible signs that a retailer is proactive about security.

Trust seals show that an organisation is what it says it is and has passed a rigorous malware scan enabling a boost in customer confidence for businesses investing in these and displaying them clearly throughout the site.

Six Keys to Doing Something Different in Email Marketing

2011-09-22T02:08:00.000-07:00

Getting a subscriber on to your email list is a victory, but the battle is not over yet. Chances are that if your email subscriber is on your list, they are also on others’ lists in your industry. This means that they are potentially receiving several emails per week or even per day that have to do with similar products and services as the ones that you are selling. What’s a business to do? Find ways to do something different and stand out from the crowd. Here are few ideas to get you started:

1. Subscribe to your competitor’s list, and see what they are doing.
If you subscribe to several competitors’ lists, you might be surprised to see that all of them are doing exactly the same thing in every email. This gives you an opportunity to break away from the herd and do something new and different. It also lets you see what the standard is – what quality of marketing and content that’s being offered through others’ lists, so you can go a step above and do your own take on it.

2. Get your subscribers involved.
There are several ways to do this. One great idea is to do a customer of the month profile – featuring someone who purchased your products or services last month, drawn randomly. Another way to do this is to have a monthly drawing with prizes for answering trivia questions about your industry or your products and services. Getting your subscribers involved creates a feeling of community and will skyrocket the open rates and responsiveness of your list.

3. Ask for feedback.
People love to give their two cents about things. By asking your subscribers for feedback, you are not only opening the pathway for communication between the two of you, but you are also getting the chance to get valuable input on what to do and where to go with your emails, products, and services. This sets you apart from your competitors because it shows that you actually care.

4. Customize by location.
This is most useful for business’ who have both an online and offline presence, in obvious ways. You can send an email to people who live in your town and advertise an in-store sale, without emailing people who live elsewhere. But you could also run location-specific promotions – for example, say you had a large percentage of subscribers in New Orleans when the Saints won the Super Bowl. You could then send an email campaign to subscribers who lived in New Orleans with a special victory discount. This will make the subscribers feel like you pay attention to their local news and create a feeling of loyalty.

5. Keep it short.
People lead busy lives, and the longer your email is, the less likely it is that it will be read. If you keep your emails at a reasonable length, your subscribers will know that you value their time and attention, and don’t want to waste it.

6. Make it valuable.
For an email to get opened and read entirely, it needs to be more than a pitch about your latest promotion. If you really want to make sure that your emails are opened and read, then you will want to create valuable information that your subscribers actually need and want to read. Aside from this increasing the likelihood of your emails being opened and read in their entirety, it creates a feeling of reciprocity. If your subscribers are consistently receiving something of value from you, they will feel the need to repay you, often by buying your products and services further on down the line.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Direct mail makes a comeback

2011-09-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

Nearly three-quarters (71%) of consumers are happy to receive mail from organisations they already buy from, according to an independent survey commissioned by Acxiom.

The results are a major boost for direct mail and the direct marketing industry as a whole, with some 57% of respondents also saying that postal contact was appropriate for prospective customers.

The question was part of a study conducted among both marketers and consumers on behalf of multichannel marketing services and technology company Acxiom.

The research examined consumers’ preferences for communication with client organizations. An explosion of new technology has changed people’s relationships with brands, and marketers are keen to understand how best to build conversations with individuals they are trying to target.

Murray Dudgeon, European client services director at Acxiom, commented: “The unique targeting opportunities that mail provides are clearly backed up by the number of people who think it is an appropriate form of contact.

“Clearly, if good data is used correctly to target the right people with postal campaigns, they are happy to receive marketing through their letterbox – whether or not they have an existing relationship with the sender.”

Email is similarly popular among customers, with 78% of people willingly accepting this form of contact; the figure dropped to 52% for prospects, but this was still the second most appropriate way of targeting people.

Newer forms of marketing are yet to be as wholeheartedly accepted by either customers or prospects. Only 9% of customers felt SMS marketing was appropriate.

Social media was similarly unpopular. Just 4% of customers approve of contact through Twitter and other social media.

Chris Combemale, executive director of the Direct Marketing Association UK, comments: “As Acxiom’s survey highlights, consumers are very clear about how they want to be contacted, with mail and email continuing to be their preferred channels.

“And above all they respond best when the communication is timely, relevant and targeted. This should be at the forefront of every marketer’s mind in these tough trading times, as they fight to retain customers and win new ones.”

To see how you can build a responsive direct mail activity as part of an integrated marketing campaign, please contact CFL on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Many people still prefer physical post

2011-08-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

Over half of people still prefer receiving bills and financial statements by mail according to a recent national poll.

A poll by the Envelope Manufacturers and Suppliers Association (EMSA) reveals that 54% of people want to continue receiving important documents such as bills and financial statements by mail, rather than solely online. And 73% would like to receive them by post and online.

Although 76% of survey respondents used the internet, they showed a strong preference for receiving important documents by mail, particularly among members of public aged 45 and older.

“The mail continues to provide an important delivery vehicle for critical financial information and even internet-savvy citizens are reluctant to eliminate it,” said Keith Bartlett, the Chairman of EMSA.

While internet usage in the UK, according to government statistics, now includes 73% of households, it is important to recognise that one in four households remains offline.

Consumers like door drops says new survey

2011-08-25T06:11:00.000-07:00

Over 80% of UK consumers are happy to receive door drop material through their letterbox if it is of relevance to them, according to a Royal Mail study.

The survey into attitudes to door drops was carried out by FreshMinds Research and reveals an attitude that shows people to be particularly receptive to door drops from retailers and FMCG brands.

The findings contradict the view that consumers perceive the channel as junk mail, as reported in the Panorama junk mail programme last month.

The survey found that 81% of people happy to receive door drops from the retail sector at least once a month while a quarter of them want to receive such material at least a few times a week.

The next most popular sector was FMCG, with 74% saying they were happy to receive consumer goods leaflets on at least a monthly basis.

The survey also reveals that door drops are particularly effective for localised marketing by local retailers, councils and to a certain extent restaurants and takeaways.

74% of those surveyed said they were happy to receive door drops about local events while 70% were happy to receive information from their local council.

Free samples and vouchers are also in demand, with 60% of adults saying they are happy to receive them.

CFL Have been designing, printing and organising targetted door drops for many years, and have seen a marked increase in the last few month.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager at CFL Marketing “In the last few months we have conducted door drops for National Bowling companies as well as large pub chains and managed houses. Our clients are seeing a real benefit.

As long as the drop is segmented, targeted and the timing is right, there is no reason why it can’t be as effective as direct mail”

If you wouuld like to receive a quote for design, print and distribution (either solus or via a newspaper) please give us a call on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CFL to add large format poster printer

2011-08-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

CFL Marketing are to add a brand new, large format poster printer to their growing production unit.

Marketing Manager, Phil Martin said "we are getting more and more requests for large format print, especially for promotional posters. Its got to the point we need the new printer to meet demand. We already house a full digital print facility

Its amazing the power and impact that digital print can have. The Key advantage is that all elements of the artwork can be variable - both images and text - so that each individual item is unique in it's own right. Gone are the days when simple black overprint was as personal as it got, now the personalisation is an integral part of the artwork itself. Digital print also offers amazing savings at low volumes, as low volume litho work is notoriously expensive"

Our product list covers:

Flyers
Posters
Postcards
Menus
Table Talkers
Bespoke Mailers

For a sample pack of our digital work, or to request competitive pricing on our new poster printer simply contact us on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Royal Mail delays decision on stamping its mark on mail

2011-07-27T03:26:00.000-07:00

Direct Marketing industry have welcomed Royal Mail’s announcement that it is now ‘taking additional time’ to consider its proposal to stamp all bulk mail with the message ‘Delivered by the Royal Mail’.

Before Royal Mail made its announcement today (26 July), the mailing industry was on a two-month notice period until its new initiative was due to come into effect.

The industry has reacted with a mixture of horror and anger at the proposals, with manydirect mail service providers and clients complaining about ceding control of the area of the envelope that is reserved for their branding and messaging. Many others have argued that the short notice period would leave them out of pocket from having to change creative work and scrapping stockpiles of printed envelopes.

Lessons in email marketing

2011-07-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

Over half of people delete email messages within two seconds without ever opening them.

Two new white papers from the DMA Email marketing Council give marketers practical tips on how to ensure their message doesn't go straight to the recycling bin.

The first (the DMA email creative white paper) looks at 10 common factors that impede the performance of an email marketing campaign and offers advice on how to deal with each one.

While it doesn't have detailed instructions on what to do, it does cover the basics for each area.

From testing and avoiding spam filters to technological issues that affect how a message renders on different platforms and browsers, the paper offers solutions to most common email problems.

It also offers a solution to the problem of images and video, with advice on how to use them without hindering the deliverability or readability of the email.

Personalising an email is one sure-fire way to improve response rates. The paper looks at the potential pitfalls, which could lead to recipients hitting the dreaded spam button and how to avoid this.

One way to show recipients you know them is to send trigger-based emails. The second paper looks at trigger-based email marketing.

Advances in technology allow marketers to deliver personalised, relevant emails following 'triggers' such as the birth of a baby or buying a new gadget.

Aligning the content and timing of the message with customers' needs, increases the relevance, response and the ROI from an email campaign.

This short paper outlines the different types of trigger-based campaigns and what email marketers need to be aware of before embarking on one - including permissions, data and frequency.

CFL Marketing have also created an Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice guide - See below

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

View more presentations from CFL Marketing

Direct marketing budgets get a boost

2011-07-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

The results of the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether survey reveal a boost in direct marketing budgets.

Overall, UK marketing budgets are down in Q2 for the third consecutive quarter, but direct marketing budgets are up. Direct marketing budgets increased 2.5% in the three months to 30 June.

Internet advertising budgets are also up, but by a smaller have seen a drop-off (up 1.9%, compared to a 9.3% increase in Q1). Internet search also grew – by 4.6% - a slight drop from the 4.3% increase in Q1.

With 22% of UK firms reporting a cut in marketing budgets, it is clear that business confidence has fallen and the outlook for the economy is more pessimistic.

Speaking to Marketing Week Mel Cruickshank, chairman of IPA’s direct marketing group said companies “are turning to direct marketing to provide return on investment against marketing spend”.

For more information on building and integrated direct marketing campaign, contact CFL Marketing on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Royal Mail news alarms business mailers

2011-07-21T03:01:00.000-07:00

Royal Mail has announced plans to apply a new mark to the mail it delivers.

From mid-September all machineable mail will feature the mark ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ on the envelope.

This proposal raises a number of concerns since it will be printed in an area that Royal Mail customers use for their logos and messages creating problems with the existing creative treatments and design of envelopes.

The proposed positioning of the mark also appears to conflict with existing Royal Mail specifications such as where to print return addresses and Advanced Cleanmail.

The lack of consultation and advance warning means that Royal Mail customers will have less than two months to comply with this change and many could be left holding stocks of pre-printed envelopes that won’t comply with the new requirements.

There has been no consultation about the impact and not enough notice of a change to specification, which has left the business community understandably shaken.

Head of postal and environmental affairs at the DMA, Alex Walsh says: “We’re disappointed that Royal Mail has chosen not to consult the industry ahead of this announcement to understand the problems this would cause its business customers.

“It is already causing a lot of concern within the direct marketing industry and we are consulting with the regulator, other trade associations and postal user groups to decide on the next course of action.”

Alex is also concerned about the effect on future mailings. “This is different to previous changes that have been introduced for operational reasons. If this is not challenged, then it could set a dangerous precedent where Royal Mail can overprint envelopes with whatever they choose.”

Find ways to Pique Curiosity in Email Marketing

2011-07-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

Your open rate, click through rate and conversion rate are all integral to the success of email marketing campaigns. All of these factors can be affected by piquing the curiosity of your audience. If your list members are genuinely interested in what you are sending them, they will be more likely to open your emails and take action.

Creating interest in your messages is the best way to create the connection, relationship and response you are looking for. This might seem like a tall challenge, especially if you are in a B2B industry or other industry that is not exactly positioned as being fun and exciting. Even if your company has a reputation for being straight laced, there’s no reason why you cannot pique curiosity to encourage opens, click throughs and conversions.

1. Craft a compelling subject line.

Your subject line is your first opportunity to capture interest and the first hurdle you have to overcome in order to get your click through or sale. Looking at your open rate metrics and split testing your subject lines is the best way to find the right approach for your particular mix. Generally, you should try to create a subject line that gives your audience an idea of what to expect. Opt for something persuasive and interesting – like “Are you making one of these accounting mistakes?” rather than “Jones Accounting Firm Newsletter 26.”

2. Have some personality.

Creating a persona to speak for your company – or a few if you are a large organisation – is a good way to make your messages more interesting. Your email messages should read as if they are coming from a specific person, complete with a specific tone and approach. Your audience will be a lot more responsive to messages from a personality than corporate speak.

3. For newsletters, include a preview of blog posts and articles.

Sending a newsletter with entire posts? You can get a lot better click through response and train your recipients to visit your website by including just a snippet of your blog post or article. Your newsletter should include your most recent post tiles and a few sentences to describe your article. Instead of including the first few sentences of your article, consider writing a summary that entices the reader to click through and read the rest of your article. The more comfortable they are with following your links and visiting their site, the more likely they’ll click through to take action on your offers.

4. For your sales messages, emphasise the benefits of clicking through and checking out your offer.

Piquing curiosity with sales messages is most important of all. The key to keeping your audience interested is to emphasise the benefits of the offer and not the features. For example, if you’re selling a new accounting service you need to craft an email that explains how the accounting service will reduce their stress, eliminate billing hassles and make their lives easier overall. You wouldn’t want to focus the email on the ins and outs of the particular program. Tease them with the benefits and they follow through with a click to your offer.

Please see below CFL Marketings best practice presentation in integrated email marketing. (or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk)

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

View more presentations from CFL Marketing

Email Lists can Build Brand Loyalty

2011-07-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

It’s almost always harder and more expensive to find new customers than to retain your current customers. By creating brand loyalty with your existing customers, you can hold onto the customers that you have while still building your company. Creating a sense of brand loyalty will encourage your current customers to stick with you instead of switching to a competitor.

You might not realize it, but your email list is a powerful tool for building brand loyalty, especially when utilized in the right ways.

It gives you an easy way to reward your customers.
When customers are regularly rewarded, they feel a growing sense of loyalty to your business and your brand. You can do this in a variety of ways.

One of the most common ways is creating discounts only for people who are on your email list. This is a good place to start, but when overused can end up devaluing your products and services, so make sure to use it sparingly and irregularly.

Other ideas include giving customers insider information about what’s coming up next for your business, having VIP only products or services available to those on your email list, and letting your email list members have early access to new products or services.

It activates reciprocity.
Reciprocity is what happens when someone gives us something of value – we feel the inherent need to pay them back at some point in the future. The important thing to remember here is that you have to be giving them something that’s actually of value, not just an inflated or made up value.

Customers can tell when you are trying to pull one over on them, and they do not like it. But if you are actively rewarding your customers, they will feel the need to repay you – by buying more of your offerings, telling others about you, and staying loyal to your brand.

It gives customers an easy way to stay in touch with you – and for you to listen to them.
This is something that many businesses forget, and their customer retention and loyalty suffers as a result. In this day and age of cheap outsourcing, businesses that actually listen and respond to their customers, or even ask for their customers’ opinions, are incredibly rare.

Invite your customers to respond to your email campaigns and tell you what they think, or send them surveys asking about their opinion of what could be improved in your business, and then actually listen to their responses. After this, your business will automatically stand head and shoulders above the rest in your customers’ minds.

This can also backfire, because if you invite a customer to tell you what they think and then either don’t listen or send back a canned auto-reply, they can be turned off to your business. Make sure to honor the effort that the customer has put forth in telling you their thoughts, and you will gain a customer for life.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Keeping Email Content Interesting

2011-07-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

In email marketing, there are a few golden rules to follow. Forgetting any of these rules can lead to a marked decrease in the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, which is something no business wants to experience. Chief among these rules is to keep your email marketing messages interesting.

Obviously you are not sending out boring emails on purpose, but many email marketers get stuck in the trap of thinking that if the content is interesting to them, then it will be interesting to their readers. Unfortunately, this is simply untrue a large majority of the time. It’s an easy mistake to make, but one that you should watch out for, because the results will be less than pleasant.

Once you acknowledge that keeping your email marketing interesting to the reader is the most important thing to consider, here are a few concrete suggestions for ways to do that.

Survey your readers.
Ask them what they want and need. Everyone loves being given the opportunity to talk about themselves, and a survey lets your readers do just that. For best results, keep the number of questions low, and the questions clearly worded and to the point. Your readers are busy and most likely, do not have the time to answer a long list of questions.

Have special, incredibly useful VIP only content.
Here’s where the results from the survey come in handy – not only can you use that information in future product and service development, but it also gives you the opportunity to figure out what they are interested in at this moment and then provide it to them. When email list members know that in addition to your marketing, you provide useful, actionable content that only they get access to, your open rates will soar.

Have a reader questions column.
Encourage your readers to submit questions that you will then answer in your email campaigns. Not only does this give you even more information about your readers’ wants and needs, but it gives readers who submit a question the opportunity to be featured – which is interesting to them, of course – and chances are, if one person has that question, several do, so your answer will be interesting to them as well.

Have a featured client column.
Pick a customer or client who has purchased your offerings in the past, and do a short write up about them. It will be a pleasant surprise for the client, and it fosters a sense of community, which tends to increase goodwill towards you and your business.

Encourage engagement and interaction.
The willingness of your email list to interact with you and your business is, by far, more important than the sheer size of the list. From now on, every time you send out an email campaign, ask yourself if it will be interesting to the reader and what kind of response or action it will prompt them to take. If it will not be interesting to them or will not prompt them to take some kind of action, then rethink the campaign

www.cflmarketing.co.uk
Here at CFL, we send hundreds of thousands of emails out each week for our clients. To see some examples of our custom built HTML emails please drop a line on 01225 782669 or log on to

visit us on your phone -

Mobile Phones Boost the Power of Email Marketing

2011-07-11T03:12:00.000-07:00

Every now and again, people like to declare a certain form of marketing “dead”. One of the forms of marketing that has been declared “dead” or outdated several times is email marketing, the latest declarations coinciding with the rising popularity of platforms like Facebook and Twitter for business purposes. Aside from other issues with that declaration, the people who claim that email marketing is no longer useful are usually ignoring a huge factor in the debate: the rise of smart phones.

By Christmas 2011, one out of two Americans will own a smart phone. That’s a full 50% of the population who will have access to email on their mobile devices. In addition to the fast growth rate of smart phone users, studies that have been done on the ways people use smart phones imply that email marketing will not be obsolete any time soon.

The ComScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review analysis of smart phone usage showed that accessing email far outranked any other kind of mobile web use. The same analysis showed that in Japan, smart phone users are beginning to use their phones for email more than text messaging, and given that Japan is a world trendsetter when it comes to technology, it’s a fairly safe assumption to make that the United States and Europe will soon follow suit.

How can you take advantage of these factors in your email marketing? Here’s a few tips:

Optimise your emails for mobile viewing.
This includes keeping them fairly short, making them easy to skim by using bold text and bullet points, and keeping the number of large images to a minimum. Before you send out an email to your list, check it on a mobile device if at all possible, to make sure that it’s easy to read when on the go.

Make sure that your website is optimised for mobile viewing.
Most email marketing campaigns include links within them, and having a mobile optimized email does not do much good if the user clicks on the link and then is led to a website that they cannot view on their phone. Double check to make sure that your business website is usable on a mobile device, up to and including all steps of checkout.

Consider having the option at sign up for users to choose mobile emails.(As opposed to HTML or text emails.)
This is an option that has been available to email marketers for a while, but has not been used much, because until recently there was not a need for it. Letting them choose to receive mobile emails shows that you are on top of recent trends, and also shows that you understand that many people now prefer to view their emails on mobile devices. Giving your customers the choice will make them happier and also make things easier for you in the long run.

The DMA’s stance on “advertising mail”

2011-07-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

In light of the recent Panorama programme The DMA has produced a fact sheet on the advertising mail industry. ram on Junk Mail – the DMA have produced a

How damaging is advertising mail to the environment?

We agree wastage from advertising mail needs to be reduced and the DMA has been helping the industry shape up.

In 2003, Defra set the industry the target of ensuring that 70% of all used advertising mail is recycled by 2013. This target was smashed four years early in 2009, with 76% of advertising mail being recycled.

Since 2003, the volume of advertising mail now being sent to landfill every year has fallen by 80%. Now, advertising mail represents just 0.4% of the average household’s unrecycled waste.

What is the industry doing to clean up its act?

The DMA and BSi have produced an environmental standard called PAS 2020, which provides the guidelines for producing environmentally sustainable advertising mail.

Targeting practices are continually improving, meaning that excess advertising mail is not produced.

The Mailing Preference Service www.mpsonline.org.uk is an industry funded scheme for householders to opt out of receiving unwanted advertising mail. More than five million households are now registered – nearly 20% of all households.

I’ve never bought anything from junk mail. Does it really work?

Really, you’ve never redeemed a coupon you’ve received in the post? The vast majority of people have.

Advertising mail works; if it didn’t then companies would not spend money on it. According to the Mail Media Centre, 17.7 million people bought something after receiving a mail order catalogue in the past 12 months.

Every year, advertising mail generates £16 billion in sales – a massive contribution to UK plc at a time when high street retailers are suffering.

For the majority of businesses, it’s the only form of advertising they can afford. Most companies can’t afford to pay for TV, radio, billboard, or newspaper ads.

People hate receiving junk mail, so why bother sending it?

Research conducted by Royal Mail shows that the majority of people still prefer to be contacted by mail by the businesses they’re customers of, than by any other method of communication: for example, 46% of BT customers prefer to be contacted by mail, compared to 22% by email; 50% of Churchill’s customers prefer to be contacted by mail, compared to 20% who prefer to be contacted by email.

There’s plenty of research to show that the majority of consumers welcome receiving advertising mail that provides them with exclusive offers on products they like. For example, research by BMRB reveals that 75% of consumers like receiving special offers and vouchers through the post. The same research also reveals that consumers like mail alerting them to new products and services they might want to try, etc

While many people conduct their lives online, there are still plenty of people who don’t. Advertising mail is a source of information on products and services they might not otherwise have access to.

The delivery of poorly targeted mail – ‘junk mail’ – is unacceptable. The industry now has sophisticated data collection methods and data cleaning tools, so there is no excuse for sending poorly targeted mail. And, it’s not in the interest of businesses to waste money and annoy consumers with badly targeted mail.

Why should the taxpayer have to foot the bill for disposing junk mail?

The majority (76% at last count in 2009) of advertising mail is now recycled, and so doesn’t go into costly landfill.

The cost of disposing adverting mail is more than offset by the industry’s contribution to the economy. UK businesses spend £11.2 billion on advertising mail every year and it generates £16 billion in sales.

Also, the advertising mail industry is responsible for an estimated 280,000 jobs, all of whom are taxpayers of course.

Why should Royal Mail be allowed to profit from delivering junk mail?

Royal Mail actually loses 6.4p per item of stamped mail that it delivers. The average household now spends less than 40p on postage per week. Royal Mail can’t survive on this revenue alone. Advertising mail provides 25% of Royal Mail’s revenue and therefore subsidises the postal service. (Source: Hooper Report / Postcomm)

Consumers accept that commercial TV, radio, online, free press are funded and subsidised by advertising. However, consumers don’t understand the fact that advertising provides them with an economical postal service.

Also, consumers can’t blame the messenger if they receive mail they don’t like. Royal Mail has a legal obligation to deliver the mail.

Viewers unimpressed by Panorama episode on “Junk Mail”

2011-07-11T00:39:00.000-07:00

BBC's Panorama programme (4 July) has come under fire for its report on the so-called ‘junk mail’ industry.

Viewers expressed their confusion over the programme’s treatment of the issues surrounding scam mail and junk mail through social media platforms, such as Twitter.

Tweeters using the hash tag #panoramamail were quick to point out that the two issues are unrelated – one is a criminal activity, the other is legitimate advertising.

Many more were critical of the programme’s sensationalist tone and challenged the programme’s claim that unwanted and used advertising mail costs the British taxpayer £50 million per year to dispose of.

Critics pointed out that it was a figure extrapolated from Cornwall County Council’s estimated cost of disposal, which was based on landfilling a variety of waste paper not just advertising mail – and is not necessarily typical of other councils across the country.

Others also queried why Cornwall Council is putting recyclable mail into landfill, and that taxpayers should incur no additional cost when there are schemes in place to collect and recycle all forms of waste paper.

The DMA’s Chris Combemale, who was interviewed for the show, said that he was disappointed with the confusion of the issues the programme promised to deal with.

“Junk and scam mail are both challenges our industry must face up to, but I thought it was unfortunate that the programme lumped them all together and tarred our industry with the same brush.

“Scam mail is illegal and plainly wrong. And of course we agree badly targeted, unwanted mail needs to be eliminated. As an industry, we are making progress to tackle both problems.”

Combemale added:

“I was pleased, however, that the programme did carry some facts about the legitimate advertising mail industry, such as the fact that now 76% of all unwanted and used mail is recycled and generates £16bn of sales for UK companies.”

“Green” DM service that offers physical mail opt-out launched

2011-07-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

A new service that allows consumers to choose to receive DM by post or email has launched.

People signing up for the Green Preference Service will allow people to opt-out of receiving physical mail, instead setting up a “web box” to receive DM electronically.

Direct marketers pay to use the service to check the channel customers prefer to receive information. If email, brands can send a message to their web box.

Multi-channel campaigns are the most effective

2011-07-08T03:20:00.000-07:00

Multi-channel campaigns that focus on a central brand theme deliver the best return on investment, according to a new report published by the IPA.

In its “New models of marketing effectiveness. From integration to orchestration” report, the IPA looked to identify what works in terms of integration and why.

Kate Cox, co-author of the report says the analysis aims to “put a stake in the ground” for the industry by defining ways of integrating marketing activity and assessing their effectiveness.

To See how you can implement your own multi-channel campaign, log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Don't let your customers fade from view

2011-07-08T03:04:00.001-07:00

Latest figures indicate that people are becoming less inclined to hand over their personal details in return for benefits such as discounts and samples, challenging marketers to step up their powers of persuasion.

Data may be the magic ingredient that allows marketers to finetune their targeting, but research exclusive to Marketing Week shows that consumers have become significantly less willing to provide their details to brands.

According to the latest Data Tracker, conducted by consultancy fast.MAP and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), incentives to provide data, such as store cards, discounts, money-off vouchers and free samples, are losing their appeal for increasingly critical consumers.

CFL Marketing have created a Data Capture Best Practice presentation to help brand maximise the capture of customer data. See the presentation below or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Data Capture - 12 tips

View more presentations from CFL Marketing

Retailers missing a trick with emails

2011-07-08T00:38:00.000-07:00

Over two-thirds of emails from UK retailers have no personalisation at all, a new industry study reveals.

Most of the UK’s top retailers adopt a one size fits all approach to their email marketing, according to the report. 87% of messages sent following a purchase were identical to those sent to cold prospects and only 13% of retailers customised their emails based on gender.

The study shows that retailers are missing opportunities for personalised targeting and cross-selling from their email marketing. The vast majority of retailers apparently made no attempt to drive cross-sell, up-sell or repeat purchase based in the customers previous online buying behaviour.

Only one retailer (Amazon.co.uk) followed up an online purchase with an email marketing message tailored to that purchase.

However, there were some encouraging results, with 93% using triggered emails following a purchase to reassure and build customer loyalty and 67% keeping online purchasers informed on the progress of their order, through the use of timely emails.

Top five post-sales email targeting tips

1. Invite web customers to sign up during checkout – ask for the most important data.

2. Incentivise customers to sign up to your email marketing – e.g. with loyalty points, discounts off future purchases or exclusive special offers or previews.

3. Map put the data you need to collect from your customers, the data you can collect from their transactions, and how can you use it to personalise and tailor post-sale communications.

4. Use customer surveys as part of your post sale messages to collect valuable data on the customer experience and help build loyalty and trust.

5. Don’t forget basic triggered communications like order confirmations – purchasers expect this at minimum.

There are some good resources on this subject on the DMA website including the DMA Email Marketing Council’s two white papers: Guide to data analysis and segmentation and Split testing.

For more information on how to use Email marketing as part of an integrated marketing campaign please call CFL on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Direct mail drives digital response

2011-07-05T02:26:00.000-07:00

Direct mail plays an important role in integrated campaign, according to one industry expert.

Writing on uktalkmarketing.com, Luke Griffiths, vice-president of client services at e-Dialog said that although future lies in digital marketing, print is still extremely effective.

He went on to say that email marketing and other digital influences have encouraged advances in direct mail.

A recent Mail Media Centre report backs this up with some encouraging figures on how direct mail works with digital activity.

The report reveals that direct mail can help online search – 58% of people said they were more likely to click on a search link for a company if they’re received something in the post.

And 67% refer to physical mail when searching for a new product or service online.

Direct mail can also improve the performance of other channels. For example, the TV component of campaigns is 37% more effective when direct mail is in the media mix. In the report Tess Alps, chief executive of Thinkbox says: “Direct mail can satisfy those appetites that TV provokes.”

Direct mail has seen its ROI level rise steadily over the last three years, a trend credited to improved targeting.

To see how an integrated marketing campaign can work for you please call CFL on 01225 782636 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

How the Leisure and Licensed Trade can target Students

2011-06-21T02:28:00.000-07:00

Currently the student market is a thriving segmented area which is constantly changing and moving and is proven to be highly profitable.

They might lead a fast paced lifestyle but don’t be fooled! They are very careful with the expenditure and can loose interest at a click of a finger.

So it is crucial that business’s adapt to maintain interest, and demand through their marketing. Fortunately there are some key tools which will help gain and retain students.

Please find below our top tips to accessing the student market

Accessing students

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Tomorrow’s marketers believe in door drops

2011-06-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

A new study has found that the next generation of marketers recognises the valuable role of traditional door drops in marketing campaigns.
The research, carried out among marketing students at University of Hertfordshire, underlines the role of unaddressed mail in future communications strategies.

Nearly half (45 per cent) of those surveyed said they believe that door drops have a valid role to play in the media mix.

The study by Royal Mail Door to Door also found that over one third (35 per cent) believe that current marketing directors underestimate the value that unaddressed mail can add.

One fifth of the students said they plan to use the door drops in their future campaigns. This is an encouraging statistic for the future growth of door drops, which currently account for four per cent of total media spend.

The Royal Mail study also highlighted the key benefits of door drops as a channel. Respondents identified its ability to deliver product samples directly to the hands of the consumer, reach, and tangibility as its key strengths.

CFL Marketing have recently organised a number of door drops for a national bowling company as well as one of the UK's largest pub chains

Phil Martin, Marketing manager CFL Marketing said "We are seeing an increased demand of door drop distribution, and providing done in the correct way can return a compelling ROI, especially when used as part of an integrated marketing campaign. That said we would still see personalised direct mail much more responsive"

To find out how a door drop can help your business call CFL today on 01225 782 669 or log on to www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CFL Sponsor and Present the Award for Digital Promotions at The IPM awards

2011-06-20T03:40:00.000-07:00

Over 650 people attended this years IPM Awards at the London Hilton, Park Lane, to cheer on the winners of the coveted trophies – all 98 of them.

CFL Marketing MD - Mike Bronson and Creative Director - Paul McCoombe attended the IPM Awards last Thursday to present the Award for Digital Promotion.

The award went to "The Big March" campaign.

Campaign: The Big March
Promoter: Beatbullying
Agency: Beatbullying/Arnold KLP
Account director: Karen Delaine-Smith
Creative director: Andrew Watkinson

Bullying, particularly cyber-bullying, is a huge issue in the UK, and charity Beatbullying wanted to use the UK’s existing National Anti-bullying Week platform to mobilise children, teachers, parents, businesses and brands to get a debate on bullying in Parliament. They needed 100,000 petition signatures to do so: this campaign delivered 915,000. The key element was the idea of a virtual march, with avatars of petition supporters ‘marching’ across the websites of participating companies, brands, personalities and organisations before arriving at the No 10 Downing Street website. The more than 75 brands included MTV, Orange Rockcorps, Robinsons Fruit Shoot and The Sun, while celebrities included JLS, Pixie Lott and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. All on a budget of less than £50,000.

Mike Bronson said "we would like to extend our congratulations to the Beatbullying team for their Big March promotion - a worthy winner!, we would also like to thank the IPM for a fantastic night and for allowing us to be involved"

For a full list of winners click here>>

A level results……A time to celebrate???

2011-06-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

I’m sure you’re aware it’s A levels results day coming soon (Thursday the 18th August). This means there is going to be plenty of thirsty students looking to let their hair down, with 4 long, well deserved days off.

With students keen to celebrate getting their University place or to drown their sorrows, this provides the perfect opportunity to drive custom to your venue.

So why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion?

CFL Possess that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Remember - you don't have long so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CFL Marketing for Pub's

2011-06-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

CFL Marketing are helping more and more Public Houses to Market their business and improve their trade.

Please see our latest brochure for the pub trade.

let us know what you think!

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CFL Marketing for Pub Trade

View more presentations from CFL Marketing

What digital marketers can learn from DM

2011-06-01T03:00:00.001-07:00

In an age of information overload, digital marketers could learn a lot from the personalisation and value pursued by direct mailers.

Hardly a month goes by without some development in digital being hailed as the next big thing in marketing innovation. It is easy to see why - digital can engage consumers more quickly and effectively than other marketing techniques, as well as provide instant and detailed data on financial returns.

In an era of information overload, however, digital channels - and in particular mass email marketing - are in danger of alienating, rather than attracting, consumers. For example, email open and click-through rates are declining year on year, according to a survey last year by MailerMailer.

With a renewed emphasis on better targeting and deeper personalisation, direct mail is once again in the spotlight. In the past, brands have all too often been accused of looking at direct mail in terms of volume, rather than value, in their pursuit of response rates.

Mail volumes, however, have been falling year on year, and developments in the medium, from behavioural targeting to improved personalisation, suggest that direct mail is now at the forefront of customer relationship management (CRM).

Standing out on the doormat is becoming ever-more difficult, and achieving it requires creativity.

Like conventional direct mail, email should only be used wisely, discriminately and with respect to the consumer and the brand.

Cut-through is becoming more and more difficult due to spam filters and consumers' patience wearing thin.'

Email campaigns all too often suffer from poor targeting and low optimisation, due to the low cost of email, which reduces the financial impact of getting things wrong; in contrast, the higher cost of direct mail makes testing an economic necessity.

Email marketers can learn the value of testing from the direct discipline. 'Messages, data segmentation and profiling, subject lines, offers, creative, timing; all should be continually tested and measured to help improve response and understanding of consumer wants and needs

Mail can also be an effective driver of engagement and dialogue between brands and consumers. The innovations detailed in this piece, from data cleaning to behavioural targeting, demonstrate how the medium is a force to be reckoned with, despite the exponential growth of digital communications. Direct mail is not so much fighting back as finding its niche in an industry that recognises consumers differ in the way they want to receive information and promotional offers.

For more information on implementing an integrated Direct Marketing approach please contact CFL Marketing on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Leverage retention in email campaigns for more profit!!

2011-05-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

When you are in the midst of executing an email or social marketing campaign — rushing to meet deadlines, pulling together creative, copy and  getting approvals — it is easy to lose sight of your campaign objectives.

All direct marketing activity can be simply put into two brackets: names or profits. 

With acquisition marketing, your objective is to win a maximum number of new customer names within your allowable "cost per name" budget. You can do this through paid search, SEO, co-registration, email sponsorship and social marketing. This is how you build subscribers, fans and followers. 

However, acquiring new names is an expensive process. As competition heats up, most online marketers take a loss on that first sale. If the objective is to make or grow profits,  marketers need to see acquisition marketing simply as an  entry point. The challenge is to find ways to make up for  rising acquisition marketing costs by securing repeat sales with existing customers. This is where advanced tactics for retention marketing come in.  

Marketing to existing clients is where savvy marketers make all their profits. Retention marketing campaigns are inexpensive because there is no media or advertising cost. These kinds of campaigns can generate tremendous profits because cost is low and response rates are high. The reason this happens is that you are sending campaigns to clients who already know and trust your brand.  

Marketers tend to go through three phases:

1) Investing in building their email and social names,

2) Reaping early rewards with basic email and social campaigns and

3) Obtaining higher profits by adopting advanced tactics such as segmentation, personalisation, trigger marketing and split testing. In the past, advanced tactics required investments in people and technology, but unfortunately these expenses often offset the increased profit contribution. However, new generation software companies have now emerged, offering easy to use tools to execute advanced tactics in email, mobile and social marketing at a fraction of the cost. 

The last 10 years of online marketing have mainly been about using the Internet to win new names. This has led to heavy investments by most marketers in acquisition marketing. However, there is a significant shift taking place. The years ahead will be more about capitalising on those names and turning them into profits with retention, email, social and mobile marketing.

If you would like to know more about how you can use email as part of an integrated marketing approach please call CFL on 01225 782669 or visit www.cflmarketing.co.uk

CLIENT CASE STUDY: Somerset Arms, Wiltshire.

2011-05-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

Back in the Summer of 2009, The Somerset Arms, based in Semmington Village, Wiltshire, re-launched their public house after an extensive re-fit.

CFL Marketing approached the pub after hearing of the launch and a glowing customer recommendation, to see if they could help with their marketing activity.

After being impressed with the samples CFL provided, Sally Tyler, Landlady instructed them to create an awareness flyer that was dropped to every household in the village, this included a free bottle of wine offer with 2 or more people dining. Not only did this bring in extensive extra trade but the Somerset Arms were able to capture the diners details via a data capture form on the flyer for future marketing use.

There after CFL helped with the promotion of Halloween offers, a well attended beer festival, through to their 1st Birthday party.

CFL's Creative department also aided the re-design of their menus and took over all advert design for the local press and trade magazines.

This year the Pub is organising their 2nd Beer festival, "The weekend of 1000 pints" (being held on the 27th - 30th May) and have created t-shirt designs, branded beer glasses, banners, posters and advert design.

CFL created a toad based design (see below) for the festival, The pub was so taken with it, they approached Ramsbury Brewery to create a special beer for the occasion, call "Toad" - The design will be used on all the glasses as well as a specially made beer pumps.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager at CFL Marketing said "Our Design Team have worked really hard, producing the artwork and branding for the beer festival. We hope the weekend of 1000 pints is a great success. I am looking forward to sampling a pint of Toad!!"

For more info on the Somerset Arms, log onto http://www.somersetarmssemington.co.uk/

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Three tips for delivering best-in-class email campaigns

2011-05-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

As the direct marketing industry increases its use of email marketing within ther integrated campaigns, marketers should heed the following advice in order to deliver powerful campaigns.

1. Use compelling subject lines.

An email subject line that is clear and compelling gives your email better visibility in a crowded inbox. Incite your recipients to open your message with a call to action in the subject line. Just be sure you don't use words like “free,” “limited time offer,” or “amazing” in your subject line. These are red flags for spam and will cause your unopened email to go directly into the trash folder.

2. Campaigns are more compelling when graphics visually promote messages.

A good email service will include tools that allow you to search, resize, crop and rotate photos and images without leaving your email. The tool should also allow you to select, preview, and purchase royalty-free images if what you have isn't on-hand. Don't forget to include a clickable call to action with your image so you can see how your readers respond to each graphic. Data about who clicks on a photo's hyperlink will give direction to future interactions. If the report shows traffic, use it in a future email. Also include a text click-through for recipients who may have turned off the graphic display option. A good rule of thumb to prevent image overload is have at least 70% of your message be in text format and 30% or less in image format.

3. Be mobile-friendly.

The adoption and usage of smart phones is changing the way we interact with email marketing. The use of smart phone is increasing hugley month on month. While most smart phones do a fairly good job displaying emails, marketers can look into adding an online/mobile version link at the very top of the email because Web browsers are generally more capable of showing HTML content than email clients. Subject lines should be front-loaded because smartphones only display four to six words in the subject line and a preview of the first few words in the email. Remember to test your emails on a smart phone.

To see how CFL can aid you in implementing HTML email campaigns as part of an integrated marketing approach - give us a call on 01225 782669 or log onto www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Top 10 tips for door drop marketers

2011-05-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

Whether you are a local authority, charitable organisation or consumer-focused business, a Door Drop campaign (or Door to Door Distribution as it is sometimes called) has the potential to be an extremely effective and impactful method of reaching and communicating with your target audience.

How effective the medium is for you can depend on a large number of factors.

Whilst not a comprehensive guide, these top ten tips from the Direct Marketing Association provide basic pointers to help you get the most from your Door Drops.

To read the Top 10 tips in full, click HERE>>

Why companies need to use print to improve their marketing success

2011-05-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Written by Matthew Parker, Independent Print Procurement Expert.

Can you imagine apple pie without custard?
Can you imagine Laurel without Hardy?
Gin without tonic?
A computer without a screen?

Can you imagine communication without print?
For some years print has been an unloved form of communication. E-communication has been all the rage. Marketing and sales teams dream ofcommunicating with all customers purely by e-mail and web advertising. But now the tide is turning.

Print is back in fashion
There has been a shift is the way that agencies and marketing teams think about print communication. Sure, electronic communication will still retain a vital role in connect with customers and prospects. But there is a growing realisation that not everyone wants to connect via e-mail. There are still a sizeable proportion of people who connect with print communication.

There are some areas where e-communications can’t be used
Think of all the areas where print is still essential. Packaging, labels, exhibition stands and most signs all require print. E-communications won’t help if you want to connect with people through these mediums: you need print.

What will happen to your company if you don’t engage with print?
If you don’t use print you will fail to create a relationship with at least part of your potential audience. Therefore you will fail to achieve as much with your marketing budget. And you will feel helpless as you fail to achieve your business targets.

Print is an extra channel that will help you achieve your business goals. Using print will help you create new customer relationships. Using print will enable you to have better control over your marketing, branding and communication.

How can you prove that people still want print?
Have a look at this recent study by DM News and Pitney Bowes . The study shows that print has a very strong attraction to consumers. And this recent report shows many major companies see that e-mail marketing is failing to attract consumers. These companies are turning back to print and direct mail.

Isn’t print just for an older audience?
A 2010 study conducted by ICOM showed a preference for receiving offline (i.e. print) communication. ICOM say the preference for print was two to three times greater than online communication. The ICOM study focussed a large part of their survey on 18-34 year olds. ICOM went so far as to say:
“A key takeaway from this research is that marketers targeting coveted 18-34 year olds who are tempted to invest solely in social media could be missing a significant portion of their audience.”

But print is more expensive than e-communication
On a unit cost, e-mails are of course cheaper than print. But imagine that you sent out e-mails to the part of your audience that wanted print. The e-mails would get a near-zero conversion rate. But if you sent that same audience a printed item, you would achieve conversions. Suddenly e-mail looks expensive, and print is creating you more profit.

Make sure that print is still a part of your branding and marketing plans
Here are three things that you can do to ensure that you produce engaging print:
- Make sure you have finalised your branding
- Understand your target audience
- Contact a printer or a print consultant to help you create a print strategy to engage your audience

After all, you wouldn’t serve apple pie without custard so don’t create marketing without print.

To contact Mathew please email: print@printandprocurement.com or log onto http://www.printandprocurement.com/

Download Mathew's free e-book "Ten common print buying errors and what to do about them" - http://printandprocurement.co.uk/e-book/

To maximise your marketing effort, including print, within an integrated campaign contact CFL Marketing - www.cflmarketing.co.uk or call 01225 782669

Timing is critical for Email Marketing success!

2011-05-16T05:23:00.001-07:00

The timing of email marketing campaigns is an age-old debate for those in the industry. Everyone wants to optimise the timing to improve open rates and sales. It's not necessarily the best day, but when can you stand out in the inbox.

Ideal timing varies dramatically by company, for example, A pizza company might realize that Friday at 4 pm is the best time to tempt its customer base with a pizza special. Or a motorcycle gear company might send emails on Saturdays when its customers think about motorcycle rides

The best way for companies to get ahead is to try to understand their target market and how their product meets those customers' needs. 

The timing of email campaigns definitely impacts campaign results,. One Digital based company settled into sending its 50,000 weekly emails late morning on Tuesdays after experimenting with each of the seven days and different times. As a result, increased its open rates 200%, as well as tripled its  conversion and click-through rates. having looked at their sales patterns and Web traffic as well to see when customers are ready to place an order Customers are far more likely to open an email if they are already online.

A Nonprofit organisation in the UK, relies on email marketing to gather volunteers and donations. This social enterprise sends 7,000 to 10,000 emails one to two times a month to its database to inform them of current projects and ways to get involved. After testing various times that fit its target market, the nonprofit realized that 9 am and 1 pm produced the best response. It achieved a 30% to 40% response from emails over a month-long period. When it sent emails at 4 pm or after, it might have received eight or nine responses out of thousands. 

Here at CFL, we don't just build and send emails -we will work with you to to optimise the best time to send, as well as helping you to use email as part of a integrated marketing approach.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk - 01225 782 669

Direct mail and digital most successful combo in driving customer acquisition

2011-04-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

The digitalisation of marketing won't trigger the end of direct mail. For most marketers, a campaign's effectiveness is contingent upon marrying traditional direct  marketing tactics with digital technology. That is particularly true for new customer acquisition tactics. 
Effective direct marketers understand, support and leverage an integrated approach for customer acquisition.

Direct mail will always be a leading channel for customer acquisition. With marketers now able to layer on the interactive elements which drive prospects to the Web and personalised content, they're bound to see a boost in response and the conversion of their top prospects.

For details on how you integrate your marketing effort, call us on 01225 782669. www.cflmarketing.co.uk

New guide challenges outdated views of door drops

2011-04-19T02:59:00.000-07:00

80% of the top UK advertisers still use door drops!!

A new Users’ Guide to Door Drop Marketing by the DMA Door Drop Council challenges common misconceptions about the medium. Drawing on research, it shows that door drops boost awareness of a product or service and are rated higher for ROI than online, press, TV and radio.

Mark Davies, DMA Door Drop Council member and MD, TNT Post (Doordrop Media) Ltd says: “Recent door drop campaigns have achieved some of the best ROI results ever, proving that consumers continue to engage with this increasingly sophisticated medium.”

With smaller units of geography becoming available, door drops are a precisely targeted and accountable media, allowing marketers to tailor the campaign to fit within radio or television catchment areas, sales regions or an organisation’s retail territory.

CFL Marketing have recently organised a number of door drops for a national bowling company as well as one of the UK's largest pub chains.

Phil Martin, Marketing manager CFL Marketing said "We are seeing an increased demand of door drop distribution, and providing done in the correct way can return a compelling ROI, especially when used as part of an integrated marketing campaign. That said we would still see personalised direct mail much more responsive"

Direct mail was the top performing media, according to latest industry figures

2011-04-04T04:17:00.000-07:00

The Advertising Association/Warc Expenditure Report reveals that spend on direct mail was up 12.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Coming in at a very close second was TV, at 12 per cent.

Total spend on direct mail stood at £1.68bn in 2009, rising to £1.71bn in 2010.

Overall, 2010 was a good year for the UK advertising market, which saw a of 6.9 per cent rise to £15.5bn, making it the strongest year for adspend growth since the dotcom boom of 2000.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Easter eggstravaganza!!

2011-03-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

Have you finalised your plans for the Easter Weekend yet??

As i'm sure you are aware Easter is fast approaching (22nd - 25th April)

Not only does this mean a long weekend but it also means the population of the UK will be off work looking for something to do!!

This is the perfect opportunity to drive people to your venues.

Why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion!

CFL Possess that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

Remember - you don't have long, its less than a month away!! so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk
www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Please see below some examples of mailings we sent last year.

Royal Mail announces measures to keep direct mail competitive

2011-03-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

Royal Mail is looking into the possibility of introducing a payment-by-results price offer in a bid to ensure that direct mail stays competitive, which could interest brands assessing different mailing houses options.

According to Marketing Week, the move is part of a series of measures the postal operator is looking at in a bid to boost uptake of direct mail.

Details of the strategy are not yet clear, but it looks set to focus on risk reward.

Royal Mail media director Mark Thompson told the news provider that the offer would be a "real statement of intent".

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice Presentation

2011-03-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

Email is everywhere. Its tried and tested
We use it at work, at home, even while travelling, through the use of mobiles or smart phones and more recently platforms such as social networks and blogs.

It has become too big and too important for marketers to get wrong!

This presentation will give an insight of best practice of successful integrated email marketing campaigns.

Integrated Email Marketing Best Practice

View more presentations from CFL Marketing.

Email marketing 'still not targeted'

2011-03-11T02:56:00.000-08:00

Many consumers feel the email marketing they receive is not relevant to them, a new study has found.

Companies are still failing to effectively target their email marketing messages, new research suggests.

According to the survey of 2,000 consumers from GI Insight, 53 per cent of those questioned did not believe the emails they received from brands were relevant to them.

Despite this, many consumers are interested in receiving email marketing messages, with 73 per cent admitting they had given a company they had purchased from permission to email them.

However, those questioned were less likely to allow a company which they had not bought from previously to contact them through email, the research also found.

There is a discrepancy between what brands send and what consumers want. For email to work as an effective medium for both the consumer and organisation, drilling down into customer data and using that obtained insight to more accurately target and personalise the email should become the norm.

CFL are about to release a new Integrated Email Marketing presentation.

Phil Martin, Marketing manager at CFL said "Email is everywhere. Its tried and tested. We use it at work, at home, even while travelling through mobiles or smart phones and more recently platforms such as social networks and blogs. It has become too big and too important for marketers to get wrong!

We hope our FREE presentation will give an insight of best practice of successful integrated email marketing campaigns".

CFL ahead of the game with their email marketing click through rates

2011-03-10T03:22:00.000-08:00

According to the a recent report. SMEs achieved open rates of over 18 per cent with their email marketing last year, a report shows.

Sign-up.to's UK Email Marketing Benchmark Report also found that SMEs achieved a click-through rate of 3.29 per cent.

Restaurants showed the strongest performance, with an 28.19 per cent average open rate and a 6.64 per cent click-through rate.

Email marketing has become an established way for restaurateurs to engage directly with their customers and many are using it alongside social media activities to drive customers into their branches

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager, at CFL commented "we are seeing a similar trend, for one of our restaurant chain clients that we recently ran an email campaign for, we achieved a large click through rate of over 22% across their estate,

I think this is testament to our database expertise and the use of "warm" data coupled with our knowledge of email best practice, HTML template building, analytics, creative and marketing messages. In fact across all of our clients accounts we average a 21% click through rate.

Our best result this year was for a racing track which achieved a huge 33% open rate and 51% click through.

When this is used as part of an integrated marketing campaign, using different marketing mechanics, this is where you see a real benefit".

According to the study, which is based on the results of over 500 million email campaigns sent by UK companies, the biggest growth in performance over the year was in the business to business sales sector.

The news comes just weeks after a study by integrated communications agency Rocket found that email marketing is more effective at brand building and boosting sales than social media.

Contact CFL to see how we can grow your business via email marketing as part of an integrated marketing campaign- philm@cflmarketing.co.uk or call 01225 782669

Your Royal Wedding Invitation!

2011-03-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

Are you sorted for Easter and royal wedding promotions?

As i'm sure you are aware Easter is fast approaching (22nd - 25th April) followed by the Royal Wedding and April bank holiday.(29th April- 2nd May)

Not only does this mean 2 long weekends in a row but it also means the population of the UK will be off work looking for something to do!!

This is the perfect opportunity to drive people to your venues.

Why not contact CFL to build a targeted promotion!

CFL Possess that rare combination of operational experience, marketing flair and industry knowledge, our dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement.

We could even provide you data on Kate's and Williams in your area!!

Remember - you don't have long so drop us a line 01225 782669 - or email philm@cflmarketing.co.uk
www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Example Promotion

The key to success - direct mail.

2011-03-04T05:45:00.001-08:00

Having a good understanding of the people you are targeting is key to the success of direct mail.

Brands who have a strong understanding of their customers and their value will find that their direct mail campaigns are more successful.

Knowing your customer value will influence mailing presentation and delivery method, what your offer is, and how often you mail,If you always take into account how much a customer is worth – it's hard to go wrong in direct mail.

It's simply is not enough to have data relating to age and rank, but knowing the hobbies of these people will be important.

Understanding customers digital journey.

2011-03-04T03:48:00.000-08:00

It has been suggested. Marketers need a good understanding of their consumers.

Brands need to fully understand how customers arrive at their sites if they want to run effective creative marketing campaigns.

In a world where everyone is online, it's more important than ever for marketers to understand the entire customer journey and use this information to enhance the customer experience.

Having a full understanding of the consumer is also key for direct mail campaigns.

If you would like to find out how a fully integrated digital marketing campaign can work for you please give us a call on 01225 782669. www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Simple Mobile Marketing Works!

2011-03-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

For marketers, mobile technology is a dream come true. We are able to send the right offer to the right consumer, at just the right moment: the point of decision.
Research firm Gartner notes that mobile marketing promotions typically earn responses in the 5% to 20% range, and often higher, especially when the offers are personalised using purchase data.  

Mobile Marketing doesn't have to be complicated. Many people assume that the key to mobile marketing is developing a sexy app for smartphone users, but getting started can be a lot simpler than that. Virtually any mobile phone can accept text messages.

Coupon offers are effective. Two out of three consumers say that coupon offers are the most effective way to reach them, and today's paperless coupon technology is the best way of issuing coupons to mobile users.  

Mobile offers a range of new capabilities as well, including location-based services and barcode scanning, which gives marketers the ability to reach consumers at the moment of choice when purchase decisions are being made. 

The greatest power of mobile promotion is the ability to reach people who have expressed an interest in hearing from you. Basing offers on past purchase behavior is an ideal strategy. This means integrating mobile marketing with your loyalty program. 

For retailers, the real upside is in collaborative programs that combine loyalty data and insights, and reach consumers via multiple digital channels to build sales and loyalty for both sides.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

7. Things to remember when email Marketing.

2011-02-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

1. First things First - Always test your email!!!
Be sure to test your email thoroughly, in as many email classes as possible, not only to ensure that your email looks pleasing to the eye , but also to confirm that it will land in people’s inboxes and not their spam filters.

2. Simple is often better!
Make your design clear and your point obvious. Don’t rely too heavily on images, as these are often not displayed by default and can cause issues with spam filtering. Keep text concise and include links to your website; people will rarely read an essay in their inbox.

3. Branding is important!
keep your branding consistent. This could be as simple as choosing the right colour scheme for your email or including a logo.

4. Not everyone will want to hear from you!
There are many reasons why it’s a bad idea to contact people who haven’t said that they want to hear from you. Permission marketing will achieve a much higher click rate. If you don’t have the agreement of your subscribers, don't send them emails. Simple as that.

5. Don’t bombard people with emails
Emailing your subscribers too frequently will often result in them unsubscribing. A good rule of thumb is to contact someone no more than once a week.It can often be effective to establish a regular sending routine, this will build anticipation in your subscribers and have them looking forward to hearing from you.

6. What about after you click send?
Sending your email is really just the beginning. Once it’s out there you can begin to see how people are engaging with your email and brand. Using simple analytic tools you will be able to see open rates, click through rates, what links were clicked, forward rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, how many times the email was opened, who opened it and when they last opened it.

7. Enticing Subject Line
The email subject should be fairly short, not too sales led but be intriguing enough for the recipient to open it, you could insentivise or personalise the subject line.

www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Data Capture - 12 tips presentation

2011-02-28T03:16:00.000-08:00

CFL have processed millions of Data Capture forms over the past 25 years, from employee and customer satisfaction surveys, to free tickets, loyalty schemes or preference forms.

We have compiled 12 essential tips for compiling data capture for your company or project. Following these guidelines will help ensure accurate results, save you money and provide accuracy during data entry.

Data Capture - 12 tips

View more presentations from CFL Marketing.

Why There is still a place for Direct Mail!...

2011-02-22T07:44:00.000-08:00

Businesses evaluating their direct marketing campaigns are finding there is still room for Direct Mail to play a role.

The way consumers absorb information has changed vastly over the past few years and the sheer number of available channels which brands can use to reach their customers has exploded.

Direct Mail and print has long been a traditional channel of many marketing campaigns, however, it has struggled in recent years as digital becomes more popular.

Many people in the digital world believe print has had its day, however here at CFL we believe different!!

One of the advantages of print is that it can be more personal than digital, making customers feel more valued.

The truth of the matter is ALL Direct Marketing channels do work to a point, but you don't see full value until these are used in tandem as a fully integrated Direct Marketing campaign.

If you would like a steer on how this could be achieved give us a call on 01225 782 669 - www.clfmarketing.co.uk

Email marketing drives more sales than social media efforts, marketers believe.

2011-02-21T02:40:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is still more effective than social media when it comes to brand building and boosting sales, the latest research shows.

A study by a communications agency, which looked at the views of 100 marketers, found that older digital marketing disciplines, including email marketing, search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising, are rated more highly that creative social media marketing efforts.

17 per cent of those questioned said social media was very effective at driving sales, compared to 21 per cent who held this view about email marketing.

Despite the increasing use of social media, many marketers still hold more faith with other longer standing online marketing channels."

However, a recent study by comScore found that email marketing may not be as effective at reaching younger audiences.

The research found that in the US, email usage is down by 60 per cent among people aged between 12 and 17 years of age.

CFL are able to advise on how to target this age group with and intergrated marketing campaign - www.cflmarketing.co.uk

UK businesses are increasingly reliant on email says new DMA report

2011-02-18T02:39:00.000-08:00

The latest Email Benchmarking Report (Half 1 2010) from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) reveals that UK marketers sent over 1.7 billion emails in the first half of 2010, an increase of 50% over the same period in 2009.

According to Dela Quist of the DMA’s Email Marketing Council, “businesses turn to email in adverse economic conditions because it is very versatile from a tactical perspective and extremely cost effective.”

Despite the increase in email volumes the Report also shows that average Open Rates for email appear to be holding up year on year at around 24% for retention emails and 11% for acquisition emails. “What we are seeing is evidence that email marketers have become better at targeting their promotions and that their customers are getting used to receiving email from brands they trust which is great news” says Quist. Much of the growth is being driven by acquisition email programmes, which represent almost one third of the volume sent over the period covered.

The latest Email Benchmarking Report can be downloaded from www.dma.org.uk/research

CFL have also seen a huge increase in email marketing and have sent just under 5 million for their clients, in 2010.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager at CFL Marketing said "Email Marketing is most definatly on the up - however we have found this mechanic to work best if used as part of a tactical integrated campaign"

If you would like to see example of CFL's HTML marketing emails please contact us on 01225 782669 - www.cflmarketing.co.uk

Direct Mail - 10 tips presentation

2011-02-17T02:28:00.000-08:00

Research has shown we have three seconds to convince our target to open our mailing. If we don't hook people then, it will be lost to the bin!

Nearly three-quarters of all envelopes mailed are plain white like most of the other envelopes, look and feel like every other envelope in our target's mailbox. Fortunately, there are things you can do to prompt people to open your mailers.

Here is our top 10 hints presentation

Direct mail, 10 tips!

View more presentations from CFL Marketing.

CFL Marketing Consumer Database growing!

2011-02-15T05:32:00.001-08:00

CFL's prospecting database contains information on nearly 50 million UK consumers collected both online and offline. The core of the database is opt-in electoral roll information which is overlayed with credit agency data, survey responses and additional compliant data sources. A continued data collection programme provides new, relevant and recent data sources which are utilised to fill the ever widening edited electoral roll gap.

The database contains both actual and modelled datasets to provide key variables for driving segmentation and targetting strategies for successful recruitment, retention, reactivation and cross-sell campaigns.
The database is regularly screened against industry preference services (i.e. MPS, TPS) and various data cleaning services (e.g. bereavement registers, gone away databases, etc) to ensure data accuracy and recency is maintained.

CFL can compile a list to fit your campaign, given pretty much any profile you can think of. We have access to CAMEO profiles which can be used to further analyse your data, providing you with highly targeted campaigns. Don't think this just applies to consumer data - we can also supply business data at the same level of detail, if not more!

Whether it's topping up your own data or a complete list, we've got what you need. - http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/, 01225 782 669

More consumers are happy to receive email marketing messages than social media communications.

2011-02-14T03:30:00.001-08:00

Email marketing drives more traffic to retailer websites in the UK compared to social media sites, the latest research has revealed.

According to a study of 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail sites, which was carried out by market research company ForeSee, consumers think communication from brands via email is far more acceptable than social networking interactions.

Although 64 per cent said they would not mind being contacted through a promotional email, only two per cent said they would be happy to receive such messages from retailers through social networking sites.

To see how email marketing can work for you logon to http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/ or call 01225 782669

Consistency 'the key to email marketing success"

2011-02-14T03:18:00.000-08:00

Consistency of design is vital to ensuring the success of email marketing initiatives, it has been claimed.

The key to the success of email marketing initiatives on a long-term basis is consistency, according to one specialist.

Marketing expert Steve McGrath told Utalk that organisations contemplating the use of address verification tools will find that the design needs to be consistent if the initiatives are to be as effective as possible.

He advised: "Follow your consistency through to your templates and stick to the same (or at least a similar) design depending on if you are sending out your newsletter, promotional or transactional email."

The expert added that this is the key to boosting brand awareness and ensuring that customers recognise the emails simply by their design.

Meanwhile, according to a recent study of 10,000 visitors to the largest e-retail sites carried out by market research company ForeSee, the majority of consumers believe that communication from brands through email is far more acceptable than social networking interactions.

To see how email marketing can work for you logon to http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/ or call 01225 782669

Mobile Marketing on the up

2011-02-03T02:03:00.000-08:00

Mobile marketing looks set to become more important this year, with brands planning to increase their spend on the platform, according to the latest research.
The study, which was carried out by the Mobile Marketing Association and the Association of National Advertisers, suggests that 88 per cent of client-side marketers will use the platform this year.

Three-quarters of those questioned said they expect to increase spending on mobile marketing campaigns, by an average of 59 per cent on 2010's spend.

http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/services.html

10 Tips to ensure your direct mail is opened!

2011-02-02T02:00:00.000-08:00

Research has shown we have three seconds to convince our target to open our mailing. If we don't hook people then, it will be lost to the bin!.

Nearly three-quarters of all envelopes mailed are plain white like most of the other envelopes, look and feel like every other envelope in our target's mailbox.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to prompt people to open your mailers, and some of them appeal directly to the way human brains are hardwired.

1. Opportunities that are limited to certain groups of people or to certain times are perceived as more valuable than others. Therefore, they can trigger an instinctive response. Try a date or an "urgency phrase" like "Update," "Response Needed" or "Second Notice" stamped on your envelope.

2. Use "eye magnet" words. Numerous eye-tracking studies have revealed that certain words simply attract the human eye more than others. Write your teaser copy using words like "announcing," "introducing," "new," "now," "finally" and "soon" to increase your target's engagement with your piece.

3. When people aren't sure what decision to make, they look to others and do what they do. To trigger this response, use customer testimonials or stats about how many customers you have.

4. People are often more motivated by the avoidance of pain than the achievement of pleasure. So instead of saying "Take advantage of this great offer," you should try "Don't miss this great offer."

5. Design your mailing to slide in under the radar. People will quickly scan a piece of mail to determine if they need to open it. If your piece looks important or official, it's much more likely to get opened.

6. Personalisation is key – make sure the recipiants name is clearly used throughout the piece. This tends to work best when digital print is used and is integrated into the artwork.

7. Don’t use an envelope at all! – Avoid the mailer not being opened at all – use a postcard, tabbed folded card or even a transparrent polybag – The Recipiant will be able to see the detail instantly on the door mat!.

8. Make sure the design and creative is fit for purpose – not just pretty to look at but easy to read, and inline with the target audience.

9. Implement the Hiarachcy of messaging – 1. Who is it from, 2. What is the offer, 3. What is the sub-offer, 4. Rersponse mrchanic, 5. Support Copy…..You have a very short length of time to get from message 1 to 4 before the decision is made to respond (or not) to the mailing.

10. Less is very often more! What can be sacrificed to ensure the best communication?
If you would like to see some examples of direct mail that works...please give us a call on 01225 782669 or log onto http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

Our new contact details.....We have Moved!!

2011-02-02T01:49:00.000-08:00

As you know we have moved to bigger and better offices!

Our new contact details are as follows

5-6 The Midlands
Holt
BA14 6RU

Tel: 01225 782669

Fax: 01225 728636

Direct Mail Campaign Tips!

2011-02-01T02:24:00.000-08:00

Do you think ....“Direct mail doesn't work”, “direct mail is too expensive”, New media is more effective” — Don't be fooled into this line of thinking. The flexibility and versatility of direct mail as part of the overall marketing strategy is unmatched.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind before you embark on the next direct mail program:

- Have a clear idea of who your ideal customer is and what that customer is worth to you. It’s important to know who there are as people, what are their values? as well as their social and economic background.. Knowing your customer value will influence how the DM mechanic looks and feels as well as the delivery method, what your offer is, and how often you mail. If you always take into account how much a customer is worth!

- Direct mail does not have to be a postcard or a standard flat envelope. It can be a box, a tube, a package, even a free gift. Direct mail can give you unlimited ways to get attention and response.

- Don't rush the job. It just doesn't work. So whether you are a boss or a client, don't expect a good job if you rush a project through at the last minute.

- Investigate what your competitors are sending. This goes If you don't know what's going on in the marketplace for your particular project, you weaken your chances of success.

- Build a mental or physical pool of direct mail components and tactics that works!, so you have ideas to draw from when the need arises. Study old direct mail examples when you get a chance for ideas that can be re-used.

- Look for ways to use direct mail on a small scale as well as large, particularly around a key moment such as a Birthday, Christmas or Easter – the more targeted the higher the response!

http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

Marketers' secret weapon: direct mail

2011-02-01T01:37:00.000-08:00

When marketers talk Direct Mail, it's usually in the context of the drop in mail volume to the tune of tens of billions of pieces. Or about how expensive it is. Or about how they've stopped using it, or have cut back and re-assigned the traditional budget to digital campaigns. Except they have not stopped using mail — not if these latest numbers are to be believed.

In the US for instance - Direct mail spending will grow 5.8% to $47.8 billion this year, driven by acquisition mail increases, according to a forecast released in January by the Winterberry Group, a marketing consultancy.

Mail also remains the largest channel in terms of direct marketing spending.

The DM industry has not seen that level of increase in mail for five or six years. That growth, driven in part by a return to economic confidence and will be seen in both letter and catalog mail. And the the upsurge in financial services mailings witnessed in late 2010 will continue this year.

The workhorse benefits of mail remain: it is highly customizable, it enables marketers to communicate more information in a single package, it's trackable and it can be particularly effective when integrated with other media channels.

The Postal Service conducted a study five years ago to define that moment as the daily ritual during which the consumer, typically the head of household, brings the mail in to sort through and read. The study revealed 98% of consumers retrieve mail from the mailbox the day it's delivered, and 77% sort through it immediately. Marketers may not have more than a few seconds to captivate consumers, but they do get their attention

The simple fact is direct mail works.

If you would like to see some samples of CFL Marketing’s Direct Mail mechanics, please email sales@cfmarketing.co.uk or log onto http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

(Reported in the Direct Marketing News)

Few brands are highlighting other communication channels when consumers unsubscribe from email marketing messages

2011-01-31T02:14:00.000-08:00

Many of the UK's top brands are neglecting social media in their email marketing process, according to a new study by Return Path.

The research found that the vast majority of companies are not offering customers to chance to sign up to their social media efforts when they unsubscribe from email marketing messages.
Only one brand out of the 47 examined for the research highlighted alternation communication channels - RSS or widgets linking to Google and Yahoo - as part of the unsubscribe process.

None suggested that consumers could receive messages on social networking sites or via mobile marketing, the research found.

Email marketers shouldn't view unsubscribing customers as being uninterested in their brand; rather they should see it as a new opportunity to communicate with them in a different way.

Focusing on a subscriber's preferences can help increase open rates by 30 per cent.

CFL offer a full email marketing solution that can be used to support all aspects of Direct Marketing. To see how you can utilise a fully integrated marketing campaign, contact us on sales@cflmarketing.co.uk or log on to http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

All marketing will become direct marketing thanks to new sources of data, a new report suggests.

2011-01-31T01:23:00.000-08:00

Direct marketing will become more popular over the coming years, a new report suggests. The study, which was written by Martin Hayward, said that new sources of data and insight will transform the marketing landscape and ensure that all forms of marketing become direct.

In the white paper, which was commissioned by Royal Mail, Mr Hayward predicts that the shift to increased direct marketing could lead to smaller budgets, partially because of improved efficiency and reduced waste.

He told Marketing Week that direct marketing has previously been seen as the "rather unglamorous tactical cousin of the real business of marketing", but said this is changing.

"The reality today is that all marketers will now need to embrace the targeting, measurement and rapid response skills pioneered in this discipline," he argued.

Earlier this month, the IPA/BDO Bellwether report found that spending on direct marketing increased during the third quarter of last year.

Here at CFL Marketing We know where they live, how much they earn, how old they are, how often they go out! with access to over 50 million records nationwide, CFL can compile a list to fit your campaign, given pretty much any profile you can think of.

We have access to CAMEO profiles which can be used to further analyse your data, providing you with highly targeted campaigns. Don't think this just applies to consumer data - we can also supply business data at the same level of detail, if not more!

Whether it's topping up your own data or a complete list, we've got what you need.
Contact us for a count on sales@cflmarketing.co.uk or log onto http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/services.html

CFL Marketing......on the move

2011-01-27T02:21:00.000-08:00

CFL Marketing have been on the move this week!

Due to the additions to the Sales and Marketing, Client Services and Productions teams, and the increased client base and workload it was necessary to relocate to a bigger location.

The new CFL Offices boost a much larger office space, Creative suite, coupled with an expanded, custom built production unit.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager, CFL Marketing said “we see this as a real step forward and is testament to all the hard work we have put in over this past year”

The New Unit is based in the Midlands Industrial Estate, Holt, Near Trowbridge.

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Marketers are ignoring mobile marketing, despite the opportunities if offers

2011-01-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

Many brands in the UK continue to ignore mobile marketing, despite the rising usage of smartphones. Around 13 million consumers in the UK now have a smartphone but figures suggest that marketers are still shunning the platform.

Consumers are already searching for brands in the mobile space, but often struggle to find them because they haven't established a site for phone users.

Such brands are missing out on opportunities to engage with customers in ways not possible through other media,

Users can be targeted by their exact location, as well as their likes, dislikes and social circle, which means that messages can be tailored to the individual.

A recent study by Nielsen found that the UK's young people are the most active mobile internet users in Europe.

According to the research, 46 per cent of British mobile users aged between 15 and 24 had used their phone to access the internet within the past 30 days

If you would like Information on how CFL Markting can help you use mobile marketing within anintergrated marketing campaign, please drop us a line on 01225 705582 or log on to http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

Over 50s could be a good target market for mobile marketing campaigns, a new report suggests.

2011-01-26T03:06:00.000-08:00

People over 50 are more likely to start using their phone for social networking purposes than those under 30, the latest research shows, which could impact on mobile marketing campaigns.
The study, from WPP-owned Kantar Media's TGI MobiLens, found that around 400,000 Brits over 50 use social networking sites on their phone, which represents a 52 per cent increase over the year.

Interestingly, this market could offer a number of opportunities as they are more likely to have spent more on expensive holidays or on credit or debit card purchases.

The research shows that the over 50s mobile social networking market is 85 per cent more likely to have spent over £2,500 on holidays in the last year compared to other mobile-owning adults.

Contact CFL Marketing to see how mobile phone marketing can work for you! 01225 705582

Companies increased their spend on direct marketing during the last three months of 2010

2011-01-26T02:59:00.000-08:00

Spending on direct marketing, internet advertising and paid search increased during the fourth quarter of last year, the latest IPA/BDO Bellwether report shows.
However, the study also found that overall marketing budgets were revised downwards during the last three-month period, as marketers responded to the uncertain economic climate.

Some 22 per cent of companies revised their marketing budget down in quarter four, while 17 per cent increased their spend, leaving a net balance of -5.4.

CFL Marketing To Sponsor the IPM Awards

2011-01-18T03:58:00.000-08:00

CFL Are pleased to announce they are to sponsor “Digital Promotion” Section of the IPM (Institute of Promotional Marketing) awards to be held on the 16^th June, at the London Hilton, Park Lane.

For the past 40 years, they’ve been known as the ISP Awards. But just as the Institute of Sales Promotion was renamed the Institute of Promotional Marketing at the end of May 2010, so the ISP Awards have become the IPM Awards.

The judging panels for the awards will consist of senior promotional marketing practitioners

The IPM Awards is one of the most important milestones for our industry. It is not only a time to look back and reflect on your many outstanding campaigns and achievements, but also a celebration of excellence.

The Awards embraces all these disciplines and more, and this is our chance to celebrate the diversity and creativity of our amazing industry.

The IPM Call for Entry is now live, so if you want the chance for your work to be judged by an audience of your peers and selected as the best in the UK, have a look at what you have to do to enter - go to www.theipm.org.uk/awards

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager of CFL Marketing said “We are very happy to sponsor and be associated with the IPM Awards. Winning an IPM Award is a great acknowledgement here in the UK; but it can also be the springboard to even greater success, as all major IPM winners are entered into the IMC European Awards and then the MAAW Globes, which reward the best promotions worldwide. We wish the IPM and all Nominees the best of luck”

more details about how to enter the IPM Awards 2011, contact Sian Bucknor – sian.bucknor@gmail.com

Electoral Roll opt-out rate drops for first time.

2011-01-17T06:36:00.001-08:00

The percentage of opt-outs from the Electoral Roll has declined for the first time, according to data from marketing services and credit reference agency Callcredit Information Group.
Electoral roll is the main source of data available for marketers to target potential prospects or to verify their own customer data

The overall opt-out rate in the 2011 Electoral Roll (with almost all rolls received) was 45%, down from 46% last year.

The highest opt-out rate at any local authority was South Gloucestershire's 82%, while the lowest was Newcastle upon Tyne's 17%.

This reduction in opt outs means there are an additional 250,000 (approx) housholds can now be targetted in the UK.

If you would like a data count for consumers in you area, please call CFL Marketing on 01225 705582. -
We know where they live, how much they earn, how old they are, and when their birthday is! - with access to nearly 50 million records nationwide, CFL can compile a list to fit your campaign, given pretty much any profile you can think of. We have access to CAMEO profiles which can be used to further analyse your data, providing you with highly targeted campaigns. Don't think this just applies to consumer data - we can also supply business data at the same level of detail, if not more!

Whether it's topping up your own data or a complete list, we've got what you need.

Snow freezes out trading across major pub operators.

2011-01-17T06:08:00.000-08:00

December saw sales down more than four per cent as punters stayed at home .
Last month’s blizzards predictably kept swathes of pubgoers at home, judging by the sales figures of a number of large managed on-trade and restaurant operators.

The monthly Coffer Peach Business Tracker – which is produced by the Peach Factory research outfit in partnership with accountants KPMG, investment bank UBS and property specialists Coffer Group and which analyses the sales patterns across 17 major chains including Mitchells & Butlers and Whitbread – reported that trading was down 4.2 per cent in December, compared with the same month in 2009.

Heavy snow in the busiest weeks of the year is bad news, and way more significant than for the weeks lost to snow in January 2010, which experienced a five per cent sale drop, as January is always a quiet month .

Total sales, which include new openings, were down 3.4 per cent. The December drop ended a run of six consecutive months of positive same-store sales being recorded up to and including November.

Confidence at the end of last year among such businesses was lower at the end of the year than at the beginning, Not only due to the weather but also due to, rising costs and the looming increase in VAT.

As a result CFL Marketing has seen a much busier first few weeks of the year than normal as more pub and bar chains are looking to drive footfall and increase revenues in the coming months.

CFL's dedicated client services team will custom build a solution to fit any given brief or requirement. To find out how we could be growing your business, give us a call. - 01225 705582

Direct Marketing Best Practice

2011-01-13T07:46:00.000-08:00

Here is our latest presentation On direct Marketing Best Practices - it also includes a little on CFL and our clientsHappy Viewing!CFL Direct Marketing Best Practice

View more presentations from CFL Marketing.

New opportunities for mobile marketing campaigns.

2011-01-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

More consumers are turning to their mobiles for shopping, offering new opportunities for mobile marketing campaigns.
A third of consumers have used their mobile phones to access a retailer's website, new research suggests, which could interest those planning mobile marketing campaigns.

According to the study, which was carried out by ForeSee Results, an additional 32 per cent of those surveyed said they planned to use their phone in the future for retail purposes.

"Any retailer not actively working to develop, measure, and refine its mobile experience is leaving money on the table for competitors," he added.

However, despite the rise in the number of consumers turning to mobile retail, a recent study by 2ergo found that 80 per cent of the 80 retailers it examined were not targeting them through their mobiles.

CFL have been providing moble phone marketing services for a number of years via The CFL Media Console, which can handle all aspects of E-Marketing and gives the user online access to their venue/outlet database.

-Send an SMS broadcast to all or selected parts of their database.

-Set up two-way interactive campaigns such as text-to-win competitions.

-Send 1 off high volume SMS broadcasts from a given database using the console.

http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

CFL Join the Institute of Promotional Marketing.

2011-01-12T02:55:00.000-08:00

CFL are pleased to announce they have joined the IPM (The Institute of Promotional Marketing)

The Institute of Promotional Marketing is the trade body which represents the interests of promoters, agencies and service partners engaged in promotional marketing.

They have some 300 members, drawn from brand owners, marketing agencies and service partners, and their mission is to protect, promote and progress effective promotional marketing across all media channels.

The IPM act as the voice of promotional marketing, working alongside other marketing bodies to ensure that members’ interests are properly represented in Whitehall, Parliament and in Europe.

Institute representatives also serve on various industry committees, such as the Committee of Advertising Practice, the body which is responsible for writing the rules which underlie the UK’s self-regulatory system for marketing.

Phil Martin, Marketing Manager of CFL Said: We are very pleased to be working with the IPM, we hope we can help to to promote promotional marketing and its benefits to organisations and to the regulatory authorities. It is essential organisations are educated in best practice and in the effectiveness and versatility of a wide range of promotional marketing techniques. We hope the assosiation with the IPM will help to further progress and grow our business.

CFL able to target New 18's...

2011-01-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

As from the end of January CFL Marketing will have access to a nation wide database of people turning 18 years of age.

CFL are credited with introducing the idea of targeted birthday mailings to the late night leisure sector and If there is ever a "key moment" to target - its an 18th Birthday.

From our experience and research new 18's are 15% more responsive to a birthday mailing than any other milestone.

For more information, samples or a data count in your area please drop us an email - philm@cflmarketing.co.uk for more information.

Email marketing is the most profitable digital channel...

2011-01-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

Email marketing is the most profitable digital channel for 38 per cent of brands, a new study shows.
According to the research by EpiServer, which was carried out at this year's ad:Tech conference, company websites and blogs were most profitable for 21 per cent of the marketers questioned.

A further 16 per cent said Facebook drew the highest return on investment (ROI), placing it Just ahead of mobile marketing.

Aonther recent study from StrongMail found that email marketing will be key for brands next year.
The research revealed that 65 per cent of marketers expect to increase their spend on email marketing, while 57 per cent also said they would boost their investment in social media.

CFL have been providing an email marketing service for a number of years. For information on how email marketing can boost your business feel free to contact us on sales@cflmarketing.co.uk or give us a call on 01225 705582

http://www.cflmarketing.co.uk/

Mobile marketing to account for 3.4% of spend in 2015

2011-01-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

Mobile marketing will account for 3.4 per cent of the total global ad spend for all media by 2015, a study suggests.
Mobile marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing media mix, according to a new report from Berg Insight.

The firm predicts that the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market will grow from €1.7 billion (£1.4 billion) in 2009 to reach €13.5 billion in 2015, accounting for 15.7 per cent of the total digital advertising market spend.

Mobile will also make up 3.4 per cent of the total global ad spend for all media, the report suggests.

CFL have been providing mobile marketing services for a number of years via the CFL Media Console which can handle all aspects of digital and SMS Marketing. The Console gives the user online access to their database form which they can choose to:

•Send an SMS broadcast to all or selected parts of their database.
•Send an Email broadcast using either plan text or HTML imagery to all or selected parts of the database.
•Set up two-way interactive campaigns such as text-to-win competitions.

CFL can also send out 1 off high volume SMS broadcasts from a given database using the console. Give us a call for more info - 01225 705582