Direct Mail

I did something unique this year. I bought my mother a bouquet of roses for Valentine’s Day. What a good son, some would say. Why is that special, say others. OK, admittedly I always get my mom flowers for Valentine’s Day, usually making the purchase on Feb. 12 because I forgot. This year, as I…

Maybe you’ve heard Megan Brennan, the 74th Postmaster General of the U.S. Postal Service, discuss the agency’s efforts to modernize and meet the challenges of the 21st century. If you haven’t — and let’s face it, postal mail flies well below today’s tech-targeted radar — you might be surprised to learn that the Postal Service…

Speakers discuss why print still works, how it can be integrated into a multichannel marketing mix, and the future of catalogs.

With more and more money being thrown at digital marketing every year, now is a great time to look at ways to maximize the impact of your print campaigns and restore balance to your marketing efforts. Why? Events like Valentine's Day in February, Mother's Day in May, along with Easter in April mean that the first two quarters of 2015 are practically crying out for personalized communication!

Retailers such as Ann Taylor and J.Crew have refashioned their direct mail brochures as "style guides." Besides magazine-type content like interviews with celebrities, these print pieces include fashion tips and trend reports. Here's a quick look at two examples that recently popped up in the mail — specifically, how they deliver a rich experience to readers while at the same time keeping direct mail very relevant.

Retailers and deal sites have already started their annual game of Leak-the-Black-Friday-ad. But it's starting to look like stores' fights to keep the ads off deal sites may be as much about posturing as they are about confidentiality. More than 30 retailers' ads have already been released -- somehow -- to deal sites this holiday season. By Tuesday, sites had already gotten copies of ads for deals starting the day after Thanksgiving for Sports Authority, RadioShack and Kmart.

If you rely on direct mail to bring in business, you've probably had a bumpy ride the last couple of years. Well, time to turn that around with the aid of some very handy "response boosters." Specifically, here are 3 tips for boosting direct mail response during crazy economic times, from the just published "Strategy & Tactics for Boosting Direct Mail Response" report, courtesy of Direct Marketing IQ and Chief Content Officer Ethan Boldt.

During July and August, the U.S. Postal Service is offering an up-front 2 percent discount on Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats and cards (presort and automation) that include a two-dimensional barcode or print/mobile technology that can be read or scanned by a mobile device. When scanned, the technology must activate a link directly to either a mobile-optimized web page that allows the mail recipient to purchase a product or service or to a mobile-optimized and customized web page uniquely tailored to the mail recipient and accessible by a personalized URL.

Direct mail is an integral part of any holiday marketing campaign. As a channel, print delivers a uniquely engaging and tangible experience. It's a quietly insistent communication that integrates well into any campaign and even affords some holiday fun. What follows are four direct mail concepts retailers can leverage to drive relevant offers, increase store traffic and build customer loyalty during the holidays:

In financial trouble that has it on the brink of default, the U.S. Postal Service is making an aggressive appeal to catalogers and other advertisers to ramp up their mailings. The theory is that their revenue can make up for steep declines in first-class consumer and business mail that has migrated online.