For crucial life decisions, I consult my head, my heart, and my gut. At least two of the three need to be in agreement for me to act. But marketing decisions are not life decisions, and marketers in general make most of their decisions based on their experience and their instincts. Of late, however, as… Read More
Lately I’ve been reading predictions that direct marketing is dead. Maybe its got a slight case of indigestion. But dead? Not hardly. It’s still a huge industry, with 2012 expenditures estimated by the Direct Marketing Association at $168Bn, generating sales of almost $2,000 trillion. That’s over 50% of all advertising, accounting for over 8% of… Read More
As more marketers become aware that successful cross-sell requires knowing what products to offer to each individual customer, the question everyone now wants answered is “How do you do that?” If you send out individualized marketing campaigns emphasizing cross-sell, how do you determine what products to offer to each customer that they have not previously… Read More
When companies choose media for direct marketing campaigns, their knee jerk media choice is usually email. It costs so much less to create and deliver than a letter, brochure, or postcard. The process is painless and usually produces results that make the boss happy. So, what’s not to like? Mail can outperform email Email is… Read More
Too many times I’ve heard marketers complain that “I’m data rich but information poor.” They’ve got transaction data, clickstream data, survey data, demographic data, you name it. There’s no doubt they have many data points for each of their customers. Despite these troves of data, the most common direct marketing campaigns are what we call… Read More