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.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Lessons in email marketing
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
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
Thursday 21 July 2011
Direct marketing budgets get a boost
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
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
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.”
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.”
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Find ways to Pique Curiosity in Email Marketing
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)
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
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Email Lists can Build Brand Loyalty
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
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
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 -
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 -
Monday 11 July 2011
Mobile Phones Boost the Power of Email Marketing
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.
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”
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.
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”
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.”
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.”
Friday 8 July 2011
“Green” DM service that offers physical mail opt-out launched
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.
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
Tuesday 5 July 2011
Direct mail drives digital response
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
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
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