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.
Monday, 11 July 2011
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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