So you have decided to drive people online to respond to your offer. Great. As I discussed previously, an online destination can provide you valuable information about your prospects and customers not to mention key indicators to the success of your program.

But all of that means nothing if you can’t accomplish two things: differentiate traffic by lots and get them there in the first place. That’s where vanity URLs come into play. Vanity URLs are memorable URLs that customers key in to respond to their offer. It could be a splash page off of your main corporate site, off of a programatic microsite, it’s own unique site, or a personalized URL (PURL). All executions can bring great response and eliminate unneeded barriers to success. Read more…

Giving customers ways to respond to marketing communications has never been easier. WIth new technology and an evolution in communication methods, marketers now have options for response vehicles such as: telephone, business reply cards, and websites. But which one is right for your marketing efforts?

The short answer is “all of them”. The long answer is, “Ideally, all of them in many different configurations but where budget and logistics limit your options: it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Read more…

Have a product that you are sure people will love once they try it? Why don’t you give them a taste? Providing free samples breaks down a major barrier to trial and gets your product top of mind.

According to a recent survey in Stagnito’s New Product Magazine, “96 percent of respondents indicated they are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to buy new products they have tried through free sampling. More than half say they often recommend products to family and friends, and nearly as many said they usually try a product recommended by a friend or family member.”

That number is staggering. And for good reason. Conventional wisdom would tell you that hardly anyone will pass up something for free, regardless of whether it is something they would even use in the first place. We also tend to think that favorable numbers may get artificially boosted from the simple fact that they got something for free. Read more…

Whether you are a designer or an account executive, if you consider yourself a direct marketer, you need to understand data. Before you go and jump off a building because you are a self-proclaimed “idiot at math” and the word “data” makes you cringe, think about this for a minute:

We are in the business of causing people to act. Why do we cause people to act? So that we can sell products or services, of course. That’s the benefit to the client. Why do direct marketing agencies want to cause people to act? It’s because without action, we have nothing measureable and without measureable response, we have no success or failure to the project. We are all still on the same page right?

Ok. So guess what? We can’t even begin to concept a strategically viable direct marketing campaign without data. And once that campaign launches, we can’t possibly learn anything without the proper benchmarks in place. Again, the data. And when we launch subsequent campaigns and build out more robust communication cadences, the data is our compass. Read more…