Like Sports?  “Like” the WNC Sports Guide on Facebook!

To answer that question — which puzzles marketers and plagues consumers — Andrea Godfrey, assistant professor of marketing in the School of Business Administration at the University of California, Riverside, spent 39 months working with two co-authors to analyze phone, mail and e-mail communication between an auto dealership and its customers. The result was “Enough Is Enough! The Fine Line in Executing Multichannel Relational Communication,” published in the July 2011 issue of Journal of Marketing.

Although the study cautions marketers not to oversaturate consumers with heaps of communication, it also made a discovery that even Godfrey admits was a surprise: Customers are willing to take on at least twice as many direct mail messages as communications through any other medium. Because of this, the authors suggest that companies not only keep mail as a key part of their communications arsenal — but that they consider boosting their mail spend.

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Looks like Facebook has a print shop and they use print for their internal brand.

You’d think a firm with as many resources as Facebook wouldn’t need to rely on the passion of a renegade screenprinter to spread its internal messaging, but corporate cultures, especially those in the Silicon Valley, live and die on the passions of their people. For Barry, having an in-house print shop, fancy name or not, also had practical advantages. “It’s a lot more work, but being able to have an idea, design it, and then print it in a matter of hours is just amazing. You’re able to do things quicker and you have more control than if you had to send it out.”

Also, they are looking at different ways to tie print to Facebook.  You can even make Facebook business cards from your profile from Moo.

Some people are already sharing hard copies of their Facebook content in a very old-fashioned way. “We recently launched Timeline business cards,” he says. “With Timeline, you’re able to have a profile picture, your name, and other information. Through MOO Cards, you can now pull in your cover photo and stuff, and they will print a set of Facebook business cards for you. It doesn’t say Facebook on it or anything like that—it’s just your information, your content. To me, that’s a really interesting translation, taking this online content and giving it a physical form.”

1) Provide instructions near the QR Code

Yes, awareness of QR Codes has increased dramatically over the past few months. But there are still plenty of people out there that don’t know what they are or how to use them.To assist those folks, provide instructions near the QR Code on your printed materials. This could be done by simply including text (i.e. “Scan the QR Code with your smartphone”) or by incorporating an image that displays a smartphone pointing to the QR Code, or an image that depicts how the QR Code could point to a smartphone that is displaying a website.

2) Give people an incentive

As marketers first become familiar with QR Codes, they often rush too quickly to incorporate them. Thus, they’ll skip over fundamentals such as “Why would my audience want to scan this?”. Rather than just slapping a QR Code on your printed materials, develop a reason why you should have one. Will it make it easier for your audience to access a map or directions? Will it make easier for people to contact your company or to make a purchase? Include that reason somewhere on your printed materials to let people know what benefits they’ll receive by scanning the code.

3) Allow your designer to have input

In some cases, graphic designers have developed well-crafted print advertisements or direct mail pieces that they are very proud of. But at the last minute, someone may request that a QR Code is included. This may not only cause some grief for the designer (because they are being asked to make a last-minute change, one that does not necessarily fit it into their vision), but it could also negatively impact your audience. If a QR Code appears to have been carelessly slapped onto printed material, the chances of it being scanned may be reduced. Thus, try to allow your designers to offer creative input during the development process. They may be able to utilize the error-correction rate that is built into QR Codes, or to simply find a creative way to include it that will tempt your audience to scan it.

4) Educate your audience ahead of time

Yes, QR Codes exist primarily to make print interactive. But you can use other medias to increase awareness about them. Create blog posts on your website that talk about them. Produce a video that demonstrates how someone could successfully use their smartphone to scan them. Put on one your social media pages or in your email signature for a little while. Talk about them in your eNewsletter. By taking those steps, you may not only create curiosity, but you may increase the chances that your audience will know what to do with them when they see one in on your printed pieces.

5) Shorten the destination URL

This one is very important! Yes, QR Codes can hold a lot of data. But the more data that you have in a QR Code, the harder it may be for someone to scan it quickly. Make sure to use a service that shortens your URLs before generating the QR Code.

In this article, from InterlinkONE,  VP of Sales Karen DeWolfe shares three practical tips to help you succeed with your direct mail efforts. 

One of my favorite people in the print industry, Margie Dana, wrote a fantastic piece this week that was titled “How Direct Mail Packs a Punch in 7 Ways“.

For companies that run direct mail campaigns, the ability to effectively measure the highs and lows of those campaigns is vital to the success of their advertising as a whole. The following tips will have you well on your way toward making the most out of your company’s direct mail marketing:

1. Utilize a tracking software system that will measure the statistics of your campaign easily and efficiently:

Yes, there is no denying that it may cost less money to send emails than it does to send direct mail. However, if the act of sending direct mail to your audience could bring you better results, wouldn’t you want to do that? Of course! However, we must put forth the effort to prove that is true.This may primarily mean that we set up our campaigns and landing pages in a way so that direct mail responses are measured differently than responses to your emails, social media posts, or activities on another channel. Response mechanisms such as QR Codes and personalized URLs can help us measure direct mail effectiveness as well!

2. Select a focused audience versus conducting a blind mailing effort, thus increasing the potential for successful contacts:

The days of spray-and-pray must be a thing of the past. This is certainly true from a budgetary perspective. But it also should be true from the fact that technology makes it easier than ever to create targeted, personalized materials and by doing so, we can increase our response rates.By segmenting our audiences, we can deliver direct mail pieces that may have text, images, and offers that are relevant to each individual.

3. Ensure that your direct mail pieces are both informative and aesthetically pleasing:

We must never forget marketing fundamentals. Sure, it can be fun to get excited about new marketing channels (i.e. I’m so excited that I can add a PURL to my mailers!) However, we must not neglect putting forth an effort to ensure our direct mail pieces look good and tell a compelling story.

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Where should marketers allot their budget dollars in 2012? Chief Marketer recently talked to several marketing professionals to get their opinions in several key areas of spending:

•    Jim Wheaton, cofounder/principal, Wheaton Group/B2BMarketing.com
•    Grant Johnson, president/CMO, Johnson Direct
•    Barry Kirk, solution vice president, consumer loyalty, Maritz Loyalty & Motivation
•    Michael Kahn, senior vice president, client services, Performics
•    Ian Wolfman, CMO, imc2
•    Jill LeMaire, senior director, Aspen Marketing Services, a division of Epsilon
•    Alex Campbell, co-founder and CEO, Vibes Media

DIRECT MAIL:

WHEATON: Many database marketing professionals think direct mail is an obsolete communication channel. But we have seen direct marketing companies that were significantly damaged—and in one case, destroyed—by a sudden and dramatic shift of dollars from print to electronic media. Often, we find that such unfortunate decisions are driven by a failure to properly measure campaign effectiveness in today’s complex world of overlapping promotional channels.

It is important to be channel-agnostic. Properly analyze the data, and let your findings help guide you to the best ways to invest your promotional dollars across the various channels. We have seen examples in which rigorous analysis indicated that the investment in print should not be shifted to e-commerce. With one company, the data showed that increased expenditures were warranted in both print and e-commerce. With another company, which began as in Internet pure-play, investment in e-commerce turned out to be close to ideal. However, the data indicated that significant incremental investment in print would be cost-effective.

JOHNSON: Mail continues to be the best way for marketers to identify and reach out to prospects. As mail volume is down, the chances of being noticed are even better. Mail will be used by smart marketers to build their customer base; it will also be used after a contact by a prospect was made. It works wonders in taking the engagement started by social media to a marriage by closing the sale, and the amount of personalization that can done based upon that data at hand is remarkable. It’s also more cost effective to uber-personalize than ever before, which makes mail a wise spend. Don’t forget to test mail on the back-end, especially for two-step programs where a prospect has requested additional information. You should also test a letter and other direct mail components in an initial order that has shipped. Test different messaging and offers here, as that’s a trend you will see more and more of in the coming months.

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