MailChimp Postcard Beta – A Printer’s Perspective
MailChimp, one of the most popular email service providers, launched a direct mail postcard feature earlier this summer. Several questions immediately came to mind when I heard of this: Is personalized direct mail supported? Do the postcards integrate into MailChimp’s email marketing automation campaigns? Should printing and direct mail service providers be worried? The benefits […]
4 Email Marketing Problems Direct Mail Solves for Reaching Customers
There’s a strange wind blowing. If you, as a direct mail service provider, prepare and put yourself in the right place the wind will be at your back. Consider this: Goldman Sachs Group recently invested $25 million dollars to integrate direct mail into email-based marketing automation platforms. (Source: PR Newswire) MailChimp, a very popular and […]
Do You Smell What I Smell? Clean Up Stinky Data, Stat!
If you are using your customer’s stinky old data and mail lists for email or print-to-mail campaigns… PLEASE DON’T! As printers and marketers, we have to set the bar high when working on customer campaigns, and that means using proper data hygiene methods. If your customer’s data doesn’t pass the sniff test, take the steps […]
9 Superbly Simple Ways Printers Can Increase Email Newsletter Subscribers
When marketing with email newsletters, printers can get hung up on not having a big list of subscribers. My advice is to keep it simple. Make your email sign up superbly simple that it becomes a natural part of your normal marketing and promotion routine. Your list of email addresses is one of the most precious […]
Eight Disruptors that Will Transform Email Marketing
Email marketing is changing right under our MailChimpy fingers. In fact, it’s iterating swiftly into what I call a MOBILE MOMENT, like a tweet or a text, only with more context and hopefully more staying power. This is what I say when my B2B clients ask me if email has seen its day. ‘There’s more […]
11 Tips For Turning Dabblers and Drifters into Marketing Do-ers
Do you do a little of this and a little of that in social media, email marketing, print, direct mail, and blogging? Do you dabble and drift without a specific, written marketing plan? You are not alone. I meet many dabblers and drifters in the printing industry. In every industry, as a matter of fact. […]
Print Helps Broadcast Emails Deliver Important News
Is there a better way than impersonal, mass emails to communicate important news to customers and residents? Our school district here in Portland, Oregon collects parent email addresses and bombards us with information. I would opt out, but every once in awhile something important shows up. A few months ago the district notified us that […]
Boost Email Open Rates with this One DAM Tweak
Digital asset management saved the day! I was doing the email strategy for a company that markets itself to prosperous high-tech printing companies. Because email open rates are affected by the size of the images in the newsletter, I streamlined their template. I optimized the graphics and layout so the newsletter loads quickly. It’s what […]
Caution: Dangerous B2B Marketing Fail Ahead
This is a story many of you will be uncomfortable with. It touches upon the BIG FEAR many companies have in the digital age regarding negative press, comments and reviews freely flowing through the blog and socialsphere. While some of these stories end up in the horror genre, this one about Mindfire has a very happy […]
3 Sweet Reasons To Use Email Plus Print
Remember Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ads? “Hey! You got peanut butter on my chocolate!” Yum! That’s how I feel about email and print together. Adding email to print (or print to email) magnifies the reader’s experience and improves your marketing success. They really are two great tastes that taste great together. Let’s talk about how to […]
Print Takes Center Stage
Print is moving into the spotlight in cross media campaigns. Print has stepped into the spotlight and proved it plays with others. In every integrated campaign I’ve done, the key to success has been to create high quality content and engage with customers regularly. Print is a key part of this strategy. WHY PRINT Because […]
Are You Listening To Your Customers?
Over the past few months I have been in full-blown prep mode for The Printerverse at GRAPH EXPO 2015. Part of that preparation entailed formulating panel topics, and now that they are announced, I want to take a moment and share some things I’ve learned. First and foremost, just because you think something is a […]