Rhonda Basler

It’s not easy being friends with a marketer.  Marketers like to watch television commercials, get mad if the mail is thrown away before they get to see it, and hijack their friends’ smart phones to see what new text-based marketing campaigns they have received.

Talented marketers are always on the lookout for the next creative idea and never want to be the last one to know about a new technique, strategy or tactic.

Currently, the marketing world is buzzing about QR Codes as a way to optimize the offline-to-online experience like never before. Ready for the next marketing craze? Although few have tried it, everyone is intrigued by the idea of personalizing QR Codes, allowing marketers to bridge users from an offline ad to a personalized online experience on their mobile device. So let’s look at the true potential of using Personalized QR Codes, and then lift up the hood and understand how...

Marketers are taking another look at direct marketing, and focusing on print automation and cost reduction as key drivers of profitability.

As the economy shows signs of shifting in a more positive direction, many companies are revisiting direct marketing programs that were profitable years ago, but were cut during the height of the recession to reduce marketing budgets.  Contrary to the boom years, most marketers are cost cautious these days when setting up programs.  We are willing to try new things, or revisit the old, but not in the same way as the past.

As marketing practitioners, our fresh focus on marketing operations, marketing procurement and the marketing supply chain, have made us better business people and I contend, more successful marketers from an ROI perspective.

Print Automation is Less...

Hidden costs are lurking in the unused printed materials hoarded by your sales and field marketing personnel.

Did you know that 72% of sales and field marketing personnel over-order or stockpile materials? (Yep. That’s right. It’s not a typo.) According to a study by the CMO Council, 59% over-order by 20-25%. These extra materials go straight into the individuals’ secret stash.* Start adding up the costs of the secret stashes in your company and you quickly realize that if over-ordering were eliminated, the marketing budget could be dramatically reduced, or redeployed on more valuable efforts.

Why Does Over-Ordering Occur?

Probably every cliché we learned as a child applies:

• Be prepared.
• Save for a rainy day.
• Stay ahead of the game.
• Marketing departments and/or processes are not reliable. (OK, we didn’t learn this as children, but it is what many sales reps and field marketers believe.)
...

Don’t risk alienating your audience by using a PURL inappropriately.

Personalized URLs (PURLs) or personalized landing pages are definitely a game changer for direct and database marketing.  With PURLs, all that great data you’ve collected about your prospects or customers can be used to construct a truly personalized online marketing experience with customized data, imagery, offers and the all-important pre-populated form.

The key to success with a PURL campaign is creating a great user experience.  If there is a poor user experience, it really doesn’t matter if you have a personalized landing page or not.  So, here is a short list of things...