New moms ♥ Active moms ♥ Super moms ♥ every MOM

Posted on May 14, 2012 by TWO Chicago

Did this catch your eye? It definitely got our attention. We chose to write about this for two reasons: (1) because it was just recently Mother’s Day and this sample subject line is literally speaking to MOMS… so on behalf of The Weinstein Organization, Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all of you Super Moms and Grand Grandmas out there! (2) It is a recent clever trend in email marketing that you should be aware of.

Many retailers, such as Red Envelope, are capitalizing on the use of symbols, such as hearts, in their subject lines to call greater attention to their promotional message and to stand out from the clutter, or should I say competition, in your inbox.

There are many symbols available to choose from, but you need to ensure that they support your message and are legible in small point sizes. If it is squished and doesn’t make sense, it is not going to help increase your open rates.

It is also a good idea to test the symbols across multiple email clients (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.) and mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, Blackberry, etc.) before deploying your email campaign to ensure that the majority of your audience can see them. There will always be consumers with outdated equipment that cannot get the full impact of your message, but many email clients have been improving their support for world languages as well as their support for these symbols commonly known as Unicode.

Potential Idea? Favorable Response Test it on Your Next E-Marketing Campaign!

Postal Service QR Barcode Promotion Is Back for the summer. Don’t Expect to Save Very Much.

Posted on May 7, 2012 by TWO Chicago

For the Summer 2011, the United States Postal Service (USPS) initiated an incentive program for First Class and Standard Class mailers using a Quick Response (QR) Code in their mailings. These are codes that can be scanned by smartphones and lead to a personalized website landing page providing targeted offers, a coupon, an immediate response form, a video describing your product, etc. (Check out this list for more QR Code ideas from Flyte Web Marketing)

Smartphones now comprise over 50% of the mobile phone users, and the percentage keeps growing every quarter. QR Codes are an excellent idea for the USPS since it merges printed direct mail with the growing mobile technology, and it must have been successful. The USPS is repeating the promotion for 2012 for Standard Class Mail sent in July and August. To qualify the mailer must register in advance.

Last year’s incentive discount was 3%. This year the discount has been reduced to 2%. Any discount from the USPS is appreciated, but this discount amounts to $20 savings for every $1,000 in postage. Not much of an incentive.

For example, for a mailing of 100,000 pieces at an average Standard Class postage rate of $0.262 per piece normally would be $26,200. Add a QR Code to the mailing and the savings amounts to a whopping $524.

QR Codes are not very attractive and there are specific size and other requirements to make sure they can be scanned by smartphones. We encourage clients to test QR Codes. QR Codes are very actionable, can be tracked and measured, can increase overall response, and they’re “cool”. But, don’t add a QR Code simply for the USPS incentive discount. It’s not much, and the cost to program the appropriate landing page may be more than the discount received.

Making Data Fun Again

Posted on April 30, 2012 by TWO Chicago

As Direct Marketers we understand the importance of tracking results and being able to analyze the response from any given project or campaign. It is in this data where we can determine if a campaign was a success and gain valuable insight as to what is driving response. Often times, this data gets buried into endless spreadsheets and boring graphs and charts which doesn’t always do this valuable information the “justice” it deserves. So, how do we make this data relevant? Say hello to the infographic.

The infographic is not a new thing by any means but the way it can visualize what can often times be considered “boring stats” has made data and statistics fun and interesting again. In many ways the infographic accomplishes the same thing that The Weinstein Organization strives to do every day – blending the art and science of Integrated Marketing.

Below is an infographic courtesy of TAMBA, which breaks down the stats, explaining why Pinterest is so powerful with its consumption-friendly audience. We thought this was a great example of how powerful an infographic can be. What do you think?

Are you getting paid for that post?

Posted on April 23, 2012 by TWO Chicago

A new form of advertising is starting to spread around your social networks and it may make you think twice about clicking on your friend’s latest posting. A new service is being offered that allows users to share videos and get paid every time someone in their social network views that video. So, is this going to be another form of spam for social media or is this the next best way to drive conversions?

The concept seems sound and for advertisers this seems like a win-win. They get access to people’s private social media networks and for viewers it appears that their friend is posting an interesting video for them to see. As long as advertisers are providing unique and interesting content, then their videos should have an exponential reach to their target customers. And for the people that are posting the videos, they won’t get rich, but if they are posting videos that they would normally post, then a little extra cash doesn’t hurt either.

Is this going to be the next big way to reach potential customers in a highly targeted way, or will it be written off by advertisers and consumers as another form of spam? Only time will tell, but if this new channel of reaching customers works, then you might want to think twice the next time you are about to click on that funny video clip your buddy posted.

Re-Think Engagement As Direct Response

Posted on February 27, 2012 by TWO Chicago

AdAge Digital published an interesting article called “The Brutal Truth About Social Media: It’s Okay To Be A Little Antisocial”. The point of the article was that “most” consumers will “never” engage with your brand or your content, so it’s really okay to treat social media like a broadcast medium.

There’s some validity to this point in that the consumption of your message and content is a form of engagement. As long as your message gets out there to your audience and they see it, watch it, or read it then your mission may have been accomplished. This has worked for traditional media, so it must work for social and digital too, right?

It might work, but how would you even know it? That’s why we believe effective social media marketing is really a direct response approach.

Social media is a wonderful catalyst for incentivizing response from a relatively stable, uniquely measurable, and highly scalable (thanks to viral marketing) audience. These are characteristics that we direct marketers love, which is why you should re-think how you define engagement.

Engagement by most social media standards loosely means fostering a 1:1 relationship with your audience and getting them to “have a conversation” with your brand. But that is really wishful thinking and a misdirected goal.

Brands and organizations need their audiences to RESPOND in meaningful ways that advance their goals. That could be a sale, or an email sign-up, or a re-post, or a download, or a click to a landing page. Or any trackable and measurable action that you specifically incentivize your audience to take.

When you think about Social Media Engagement as Social Media Response, you can begin to apply successful and proven direct response marketing techniques in ways that no other media can.

It Used To Be Called “Interactive”

Posted on February 23, 2012 by TWO Chicago

Remember way back (circa 7 years ago) when digital media was called “interactive”?

It seems as if many marketers have forgotten that the roots of digital/online/social media are in the now time-worn idea of interactivity. Isn’t that the wonderful inherent advantage of marketing and communicating on the internet? The ability to engage in a real-time back-and-forth with your customers and prospects is something that can’t be replicated by TV, Radio, Print and Mail.

Instead of just simply pushing out content on your social media portals, email campaigns and web pages, use them simultaneously as broadcast networks and response channels. Instead of just requesting a like or a follow, incentivize a click to a landing page. Lead them to a pURL. Reward people for sharing your content. Encourage them to come back and bring their networks to your brand.

Think responsively. Promote interactivity. Push Marketing and Pull Marketing can coexist on the internet.

Put “List Maintenance” On Your 2012 To-Do List

Posted on February 16, 2012 by TWO Chicago

You’ve devised the right strategy, crafted the right message and followed all the best practices for generating high response rates for your direct mail campaign. But if you don’t focus the same amount of attention to your mailing list, all that hard work (and a lot of money) can be wasted. With the January USPS postage increase, make 2012 the year you place extra effort to List Maintenance.

The Weinstein Organization offers many List Maintenance services to help ensure your list data is accurate, meets USPS mailing standards, improves deliverability and ultimately increases the effectiveness of your campaign:

Data Standardization: Includes address standardization, ZIP correction, ZIP+4 coding, delivery point coding, carrier route coding
NCOA (The National Change of Address) Process: Updates old addresses to new addresses when consumers or businesses move.
Data Appends and Enhancements: Adds phone numbers, demographic criteria (age, HH income, Home Value, ethnicity, etc.), and Customer Profiles (buyer behavior codes) to your data so you can better understand who your customers are, and target your message more effectively.
CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System): Improves accuracy of 5-digit ZIPS, Zip+4, carrier routes and delivery point bar codes, and helps achieve the lowest possible postage rates.
Merge/Purge: Combines multiple data files and removes duplicate data, which saves you money in print production and postage.
List Hygiene: This process “cleans” your list by correcting addresses, spelling of names, punctuation, and removes any extraneous information that can hinder the deliverability of your mail piece.

Make your list as accurate and efficient as possible to ensure that you don’t waste money, time and resources. Effective list management should be an ongoing process throughout the year. With 20% of the U.S. population moving each year, a “good” list from 6 months ago may not now have the most accurate and up-to-date information. Contact your TWO Account Executive for more information on our List Maintenance services.

Think Before You Leap: Making Social Media Marketing Work For Your Business

Posted on February 7, 2012 by TWO Chicago

Many marketers say, “We know we need to do social media marketing” without actually taking a good, hard, analytical look at how. So we’ve provided a list of considerations to determine how social media can be an effective marketing strategy for your business.

Know Your Goals: What do you want to accomplish, and why? Do you want to increase awareness? Build customer loyalty? Acquire new customers? Mine your audience for new demographic and psychographic insights? When you have concrete goals, you’ll have a better idea of how to use social media more effectively.
Make Sure You Can Measure: Anyone can count likes, shares, follows, re-Tweets and video views. But think about measuring specific actions beyond social media engagement that can have more of a direct impact on your business. Can you move the audience from your Facebook page to a landing page where you can capture their email address? Or consider a specific call to action at the end of a YouTube video that encourages the viewer to visit your website to download a coupon. Think about what kind of user activity you can measure beyond your social media pages.
Post With Purpose: Whether addressing Facebook fans, Twitter followers or YouTube subscribers, make them a compelling offer that can only be acquired through social media. That takes mere customer engagement up to another level and strengthens loyalty and retention. Social media shouldn’t be thought of as just a web portal—make it an interactive ecommerce solution.

At The Weinstein Organization we consider social media to be an effective direct response marketing channel with many opportunities. Contact us to find out how we can help you turn “likes” into trackable, measureable responses.