Omnichannel Marketing Part 10: Measure It Any seasoned direct marketer knows the importance of understanding the numbers side of the business. You have to know both the left-brain (analytic) and right-brain (creative) rules for maximum success. My philosophy is “know the rules before you break them.” People often ask me for the most important direct […]
Part 5: Left-Brain Creative Creative and analytics teams are drastically different disciplines, driven by different personalities and workflows, which means that merging them takes purposeful planning. The timeline is the first big challenge. The creative team looks ahead, creating new campaigns to be launched in the future while analytics teams review the past, examining what […]
In today’s ever-evolving multi-channel world, marketers are often swept up in the frenzy of the next greatest trend. They’re looking ahead to gain the competitive edge. Sometimes though, the best way to look forward is to look back on a tried-and-true method to reach customers and generate response. That method? Direct mail. You should not […]
Ecommerce has been changing at digital speed since it showed up in the marketing world 25 years ago. Print marketing has taken 100 years to evolve from the early days of newspaper to magazines, then to direct mail and finally catalogs. Catalog circulation is the sturdy bedrock art of targeting what records to mail, when […]
How to gamble on new ideas without losing big I just spent this past weekend in Vegas. Nice little getaway. Saw a show, played a few slots, danced with a monkey (don’t ask). But as I contemplated how much to wager at the Blackjack table, it occurred to me that there are no sure bets. […]
By Chris Hayes, EVP Brand Strategy This 18th Century quote from my high school lit class got me thinking about a conversation I had with a marketing director from a well-known cross-channel brand a few weeks ago. He mentioned his company would like to do comparison research on their catalog covers to determine which ones […]
Sorry for the clickbait title. I see it all over the web, so I assumed it must get an AMAZING response, and I wanted to test it. Now you deserve a payoff, so I’ll share with you the most interesting test I helped conduct this year, in which we tested some catalog creative for a […]
“Marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most technology-dependent functions in business.” In 2012, consulting firm Gartner predicted that by 2017, a company’s chief marketing officer will be spending more on technology than its chief information officer.” (Harvard Business Review, July-August 2014) Wow, technology expense as a variable marketing cost is quite a concept! It […]
Marketing strategies and tactics are like putting a puzzle together. There are simple 100-piece puzzles that can be solved easily, and there are more complicated versions with 1,000+ pieces that require patience, persistence and perseverance. Marketing challenges range from simple emails to multipart annual campaigns. But no matter how big the puzzle or how complex […]
