Some marketers may feel that direct mail marketing is not a successful use of a marketing budget. However, in a recent study titled "Finding the Right Channel Combination: What Drives Channel Choice," ICOM found that consumers in U.S. and Canada between the ages of 18-34 preferred to learn about marketing offers via mail and newspapers than online sources like social media sites. Also, 36% of U.S. respondents, across all ages, trust the mail more than email — up from 29 percent in 2008. This means direct mail marketing is becoming even more important to companies looking to reach prospective customers. If you ...

Running a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing campaign on Google is one way to increase your visibility online. Having your website show up at the top of search engines means that your company will be seen by your target audience before your competitors. Having your ads show up at the top of Google requires more than just money to bid on keywords. Google assigns each ad a Quality Score based on the keywords you are targeting. Google says it looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. ...

Cross channel marketing using one marketing channel, like direct mail, to support or promote another channel, like your website. Focusing all of your efforts on a single marketing campaign on a single channel may seem like your best bet, but it may not help increase your brand awareness. Creating an integrated cross channel campaign creates an opportunity for multiple touch points and a greater boost for your message. Cross channel marketing allows you to synchronize all of your marketing efforts into a single campaign. It puts reliable information into the hands of the consumer by delivering the same message across different ...

Your direct mail marketing campaign cannot be successful if you are not using a quality mailing list. A beautifully designed postcard for your new steakhouse restaurant is worthless to vegetarians. A quality mailing list provider should know very specific details about the people living in your target area. Here are 3 things you need to watch for in a potential mailing list provider. 1. Look At Their Deliverability Percentage Deliverability is the number of addresses on the mailing list that are bad, or undeliverable. If you want a successful direct mail campaign, you need to make sure you aren't wasting money sending out pieces ...

With the release of Google Instant, search marketers are going to be figuring out exactly how this affects their pay-per-click marketing strategies and search engine optimization. Personalization If you are signed into your Google account, then search results will be personalized to your search history. This means that different users searching the same phrase may see different search results. This means that it is important when using SEO to see the opportunities available on any content that can be searched on (digital asset optimization) and presented to searchers. In the end SEO is about creating quality content, understand the words people use ...

Once you are able to bring someone to your e-commerce website and convince them to become a customer once, you will want to figure out how to make them come back. Keeping customers is one of the most effective but neglected ways to control your marketing costs. Have your e-commerce website follow these 5 steps in order to increase your customer retention rate and create loyal brand consumers for your company. Customized Content and Suggestions - Create a section of your website that will provide customized content and product suggestions for customers. Based on what the customer has previously purchased or viewed, ...

With digital printing increasing in popularity, options, and new features, it can seem appealing to choose digital printing over offset printing. However, it is important to know exactly which type of printing will be effective for the particular marketing campaign you are creating. Offset printing, or offset lithography, is the most common high volume commercial printing technology. Offset printing creates high-quality images, and can work on a wide variety of surfaces (chipboard, plastic). Offset printing works best for high volume print runs because unit cost goes down as quantity printed goes up. With offset printing there are fixed costs associated pre-press ...

Google has announced it's latest innovation to search: Google Instant. In this post, find out exactly what Google Instant is and how it works. What Is Google Instant? Google Instant predicts what you are searching for as you type. Google's autocomplete will take what you have typed, predicts the most likely completion, and shows you those results in real-time. According to Google, some core features are: Dynamic Results - Google dynamically displays relevant search results as you type so you can quickly interact and click through to the web content you need. Predictions - One of the key technologies in Google Instant is that ...

A key element of website design is having clear call-to-action buttons and links. A "call to action" refers to copy and images that compel a user to take a certain action. Typically the action is to purchase a product or take a step in the sales cycle that will hopefully lead to a sale, like sign up for a newsletter. A clear call to action tells your visitors what you expect them to do, and what they can expect when they do that. It will lead your visitors strategically on a path through your website. One example of a website with clear ...