Marketing Commentary from interlinkONE
Marketing. Web-to-Print. Warehouse Management.
Marketing Tips for Mail and Fulfillment Service Providers
Posted by 
on Tuesday, January 31, 2012 
at 12:32 PM 
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In just a few days, my beloved New England Patriots will be facing the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. And while I will certainly be rooting heavily against New York in that game, that certainly will not stop me from heading to that State in order to meet with some mail and fulfillment service providers!
On Wednesday, February 1st, I will be speaking at a meeting of the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association (MFSA) New York Chapter.
Presentation Overview
The presentation that I will be delivering is titled “How You Can Improve Your Own Marketing Efforts”.
I will focus on providing actionable items and intelligence that service providers can use to reach more prospects and generate more leads. Some of the main topics that will be covered include:
- Creating a marketing strategy and plan
- How to incorporate online marketing and content marketing into your effort
- Ideas for executing multi-channel marketing campaigns
- Ways to use social media and mobile marketing in your business
If you are in the New York area, I hope to see you there!
Event Details
When: Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Where: Club 101, 101 Park Avenue, (40th St), New York, NY
5:30 – Cocktail Reception
6:15 – Dinner
7:00 – Program
Need more information? Please visit the MFSA New York Chapter’s website >>
P.S. Go Patriots!
Tags A Return to Strategy
“Tactics, Tactics, Tactics…. Everywhere I look, all I see is tactics!”
Perhaps you have also felt that same way recently. We hear about tactics across nearly every marketing channel out there. QR Codes. Personalized URLs. Augmented Reality. SMS/Text-Messaging. Mobile Email. Social Media Advertising.
Those are just a few of the terms that we hear and talk about quite frequently in the marketing world. I know that I can often get quite excited about them!
But, while there is nothing wrong with diving in and understanding specific tactics, we run the danger of thinking of those things as bright and shiny objects that can solve all of our problems!
Instead of falling into that trap, we must be willing to increase the amount of effort and focus that we put on having a strategy.
Long-Term Solutions Come From Having a Strategy
If our business primarily consists of providing marketing services to our customers, we certainly need to pay close attention to new tools and technologies that could improve our offerings.
However, we must ensure that the things we do add (for example, a QR Code or PURL on a postcard) are not treated simply as add-ons. Rather, we should focus on integrating them into the overall marketing strategy that supports our customer’s goals.
Often, the development of a strategy will consist of us asking critical questions. The answers to those questions will not only help us decide which tools and technologies should be used, but also, how should we best use them.
Yes, I realize that some clients may come to you with a fully thought-out marketing strategy. But in today’s world, many CMO’s are running around at a frantic pace; thus, they could benefit by having a service provider offer some consultation and suggestions. If you do find yourself in that position, here are 4 steps that could help you develop and/or analyze a marketing strategy for your clients:
- Describe the Business: This sounds simple, but it’s crucial. It may help you to define key characteristics that affect branding and messaging.
- Define the Goal: The goal will help us to avoid using a new tool or tactic simply because it’s new. Rather, it will help us to ensure that the reasons we decide to do (or not do) something are done for a reason.
- Understand Who the Audience is And Where They Are: Think about QR Codes for a second. If your client is going to be placing print advertisements inside of a subway station where there is no cell service, do QR Codes really make sense? Or, if you are going to send information that is highly sensitive or private in nature, will a personalized URL actually cause people to not respond?
- How Will You Measure Success?: As a service provider, we may be constantly looking for ways to demonstrate and prove our value. However, in the rush to incorporate a new tactic, we may overlook what steps are necessary to help us measure the effectiveness of a specific tactic. By answering this question ahead of time, we will increase our chances of being able to present valuable data to our customers during the marketing campaign.
These are just a few of the questions that can help us to develop and deliver solutions that increase our revenue now and in the future. I hope that you find them find helpful! Yes, there will be always be new tactics that catch our attention, create some buzz, and get us excited (me included!). But no matter what the tactics are, having the right strategy will help to put us on the right path.
Advice from DMA 2011 – Plan and Measure
One of my favorite parts of attending the DMA 2011 conference in Boston this week was having the chance to listen to some very successful marketing agencies present case studies of their campaigns.
Some of the case studies involved big brands that were looking to capitalize on their expensive sponsorships; others involved companies that were trying to take make the best of a natural disaster; and others involved helping people in less-fortunate lands.
What Made Them Succeed
There were a number of reasons why the campaigns that were discussed at DMA succeeded. Yes, most of them had impressive creative. There was clearly a helpful and compelling message on the media. But certainly, the creative and messaging differed greatly across each effort.
But there is something that all of the successful case studies had in common: the agencies spent a lot of effort focusing on planning and measurement.
Wait. Are You Saying that Not All Marketers Plan and Measure?
In today’s world of businesses, many of us are wearing many hats. We may have less resources available to us than from a few years ago. We may feel more pressure from CEOs and VPs of Sales to get more campaigns out the door.
There may be nothing we can do to change those realities. Thus, it is absolutely possible that we may cut corners to simply get things “shipped”. We may start to simply view our marketing initiatives as one big checklist.
However, what truly matters in the end is not if we simply do things. But what matters is if we actually do things that make a positive impact.
How We Can Focus on the Right Things
The best way to create a successful campaign is to truly have a strategy and plan ahead of time (or, we could just hope to get lucky). We need to let our imaginations go a little wild. We need to think of our audience as more than a list of records in a database. We need to be willing to analyze what we hope to accomplish, what we could possibly accomplish, and then set a goal.
Then, we must be willing to spend time truly analyzing and measuring the results of our efforts.
While that may sound obvious, I’m sure that many of us would agree that we often need to quickly move on to what’s next… That might be the next channel, technology, or simply the next campaign. We miss out on identifying what has recently worked (or not), which means we lose out on finding valuable data that could improve our future campaigns.
Planning and measurement might never be sexy. But if the case studies presented at DMA 2011 were any indication, they are absolutely two of the most critical components of a successful campaign.
QR Codes, John Foley, and the Congressional Country Club
Today, our CEO John Foley, Jr. is speaking in Maryland at the Congressional Country Club. The topic that he’ll be covering is one of the hottest ones in the worlds of printing, mailing, and marketing — QR Codes!
During the presentation, titled “QR Codes in the Marketing Mix”, John will cover items such as:
- Best practices for creating and designing QR Codes
- Tools and technologies for building mobile websites
- Knowing when to incorporate QR Codes into a multi-channel marketing campaign
- Case Studies and Inspiration
Thanks are due to HP and the ColorNet Group for inviting John to speak. Here is a picture of the invitation that they sent out in the mail:
This event is being held today (September 22nd 2011) from 11am to 2pm. If you do attend, please say hello to John from all of us back at the office!
P.S. If you will not be attending this event, we’d absolutely like to encourage you to check out our QR Code Success Toolkit. It contains case studies, webinars, how-to guides, and more.
Making Sense of the Marketing Services Provider Transformation
NOTE: This is Part 2 of a 9-Part Series on Becoming a Marketing Services Provider
No matter how you dress it up, a printer is a printer. Most printers would say that it is their price and customer service that will set them apart. If everyone has the same recipe for setting themselves apart, how much difference is there?
The Practical But Necessary Steps
Becoming a marketing services provider takes some time, and there are some non-negotiable steps along the way to make the transformation complete. First, it is necessary for the online presence of the printer to be inviting, friendly, easy to use, interactive, and functional. The ability for your customers to order online is an important facet of the printer’s transformation. Customers should be able to upload mailing lists using the printer as an email service provider. They should also be able to access and download information to be distributed or printed in small quantities.
But having an online store does not automatically make you a marketing services provider. The printer has to examine cross-media marketing. As I state in the book, cross-media marketing is, “a form of cross-promotion in which promotional companies commit to surpassing the traditional advertisements and decide to include extra appeals for their offered products. The material can be communicated by any type of mass media such as e-mails, letters, web pages, or other recruiting sources.”
So you have become cross-promotional and web-friendly. Now you need to execute some campaigns.
The Importance of Self-Promotion
You are looking to drive traffic to a retail store, whether that store is brick and mortar or digital, and increase sales. There are steps that can be taken to ensure a successful campaign. Create postcards with personalized URL’s or QR codes to attract the attention of potential customers. 80% of all printed material ends up in the mail, and who knows how much of that immediately ends up in the trash. So personalizing gives your efforts a much higher chance to be received than a standardized mailer.
Once the recipient accesses the URL, have them confirm some information to expand and provide accuracy to your database. Then drive them to either take a survey or claim their special offer that you advertised on the mailer. After a couple weeks, follow up with non-responders. When customers do come into the store in response to a direct marketing campaign, track that information to measure the effectiveness. If it’s not effective, go back to the drawing board. This should hopefully all lead to increased profits, data on marketing campaign strategies, and customer contact information. All of this lends itself to one of the most important ideas in marketing: return on investment (ROI).
The Secret to Success
Data is everything. Make sure you aggregate a solid database to help you in your marketing efforts. The best database is one you create yourself. The most relevant information to your business is only known by your business. A list provider can only be so specific to your target audience.
Hop on the Mobile Train
One more big aspect of this chapter is about making print interactive. I mentioned QR codes earlier; they are the best way to integrate new media into your printed efforts. They are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by a smartphone, such as an iPhone or Android. Once scanned, they bring the user to a mobile website or landing page, creating an interactive experience for the customer. This mobile page will be stored in the phone for additional access later on, which means the proper information that you want read will be in the palm of the target audience’s hand.
The groundwork is being laid for the printer to become a full-fledged marketing services provider. In the next installment, we will talk about getting down to fundamentals to really complete the transformation.
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