Direct Media Client Conference & Co-op 2008 Recap

Thanks to the terrific presenters, spirited attendees and hard work of the many organizers, our annual Client Co-op and Conference was another huge success! We greatly appreciate the time and energy 250 clients and guests invested in the event; we know it’s not easy to break away from busy professional and personal schedules. To those who couldn’t make it, we hope to see you next year. In the meantime, we provide here a sampling of what you missed.

We never establish the co-op program with a specific theme in mind. With clients representing all different industries and attendees with different company functions and experience, it’s a forum that’s not conducive to a centralized topic. Every year, however, a theme does tend to emerge and this year was no different.

From the presentations of the speakers, the questions asked by the audience, the discussions at the roundtables and even the talk at the ‘craps’ tables, there was indeed a prevailing sentiment. It’s best summed up by the words of Charles Dickens . . .

While certainly not the worst, everyone acknowledged that these are tough times – and at least one presenter told us things are really tough. On the social and economic fronts, we’re all familiar with skyrocketing gas and oil prices, ever-rising healthcare costs and the challenge many Americans face in just putting food on the table. Uncertainty about job security, home values and shrinking 401K’s are making everyone quite skittish.

On the business front, the work day is longer, the staffs are leaner and the expectations are higher. Technology seems to evolve faster than we can keep pace with and as soon as we’re about to implement a new online marketing concept, we hear about a newer one at the co-op!

“Fear not”! Co-op presenters tell us. From a marketing perspective, these are indeed, the best of times. Never before have we known so much about our customers, to be able to communicate with them in a manner they prefer, to test new offers on the fly or to easily open up new marketing channels. Just one caveat; stop looking at the Internet and email or web-based marketing as just an option or as something just to try. No, as presenters told us throughout almost every session . . . online marketing needs to be a core component of virtually every organization’s CRM and acquisition strategy. Catalogers publishers and fundraisers; business-to-business and business-to-consumer; start-ups and mature organizations . . . the best of times are in our grasp. It’s up to us to take hold of it!

Following is a recap of all the 2008 keynote speeches and presentations. To jump to a specific session, just click on the appropriate link in the menu to the right. If you’d like more information about any particular topic or presenter, please let us know.

The DMI 34th Annual Client Conference and Co-op started out with an inspiring session from Ken Glickman. Ken is known for his business and consumer advice and commentary and he shared some of his insights with us. His "discussion", as he likes to call it, centered on ways to constantly improve our personal and professional development.

To guarantee your own success bring value to what you do. We need a healthy belief system to help us expand thinking ability. Eliminate bureaucratic thinking and be creative.

Surround yourself with positive people. Positive people make good things happen. As a result you will feel like you can do good things too. Put these positive people in your life. Develop relationships with people doing good things. They are the ones that create the opportunities.

Ken's uplifting "discussion" gave us all an opportunity to re-evaluate and appreciate honesty, integrity, gratitude and the joy of life personally and professionally.

During the first ten minutes his keynote address, Kevin Aronin, founder and CEO of PlasmaNet Inc. just about had everyone running for their psychiatrist, or at least some Prozac . . . anything to escape the dark economic picture he painted. Then, seemingly with the flick of a switch, the world (literally, the world) go a whole lot brighter!

Kevin started with a litany of U.S. economic woes familiar to anyone who has read a business section during the last few months. Oil prices are high and going higher. Real household income hasn't grown since 1967 for the bottom 80% of the population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer sentiment is at its lowest point since the early 1980s. Home equity no longer serves as the backing for credit it did.

Depressed yet? Don't be. According to Aronin, relief for marketers lies just over the horizon - literally. "Across the borders and across the oceans live 95% of the world's population - over 6 billion people with newly minted wealth, credit cards and a cheap way to reach them - the Internet!"

What American firms have, which puts them in good stead within the global community, is superior marketing.

"Soap is just soap, a burger is merely food, coffee is coffee and the primary differentiator is marketing," according to Aronin. "That McDonald's can sell burgers in Lyon - the culinary capital of the world, or Starbucks can sell coffee in Rome - where espresso is religion, underscored the undeniable fact that the U.S. has but one export product in the final analysis - marketing know-how!"

In exploring international markets for his company's FreeLotto.com operations, Aronin tracked a variety of metrics - acquisition costs, conversion to paid subscriptions, retention rates and chargebacks. It wasn't always smooth sailing: The company fell victim to the "Indian dilemma," for instance.

"The customer acquisition costs were favorable, the conversion rates were excellent but the chargeback rates were untenable," according to Aronin. "As we investigated this we found that India has, on average, 32% interest rates on credit cards, $150 late fees and the highest rate of credit card charge-offs by banks in the world."

He continued to talk about other potential pitfalls, yet stressed the many, many opportunities that lie overseas. By the end of his presentation, those in the audience weren't running to see a psychiatrist; they were running to buy a world atlas!

John Passalacqua, Disney Studios and Home Entertainment
Mark Ulian, BusinessWatch Network
Keith Pietsch, Donnelley Marketing

"We must embrace the Online Channels!" stated by Keith Pietsch of Donnelley Marketing Services.In 2007, online shopping was up 20% and represented 37% of all purchases while mail order buying was down 47% and represented 33% of total activity.

Many direct marketers face the challenge of adequately tracking purchases to an original source. Keith discussed the situation of a gift marketer where 50% of 2007 holiday purchases were from an unknown source. There were three mail drops and most prospects and customers had a two or three 'promotion touches'. The business rule of attributing a purchase to the 'Last Book Received' was over-stating the impact of the

The solution was to employ a fractional allocation formula, derived from weekly demand activity reports. Depending on how many promotions an individual received and when a purchase was made, a portion of the purchase was allocated to each catalog.

In a second case study, Keith explained how site level matching was used by a business-to-business cataloger to properly allocate purchases across a broad range of SIC's and company sizes. One of the challenges here was to determine the actual decision maker or purchase influencer, not just the person who sent in the order.

Disney Studio Home Entertainment Online has grown from 15% in 2004 to 40% in 2008. And their website sales are up 50%. John discussed the issue of multiple affiliates claiming credit for the same enrollment based on pixels firing on the order confirmation page "View-through" orders (cookie-based conversions rather than click-based conversions) seemed to be inflated offline campaigns were not credited with orders that came without promotion codes.

John stated, "When crediting off-line to the appropriate place, you need to keep control!" It's you, the mailer that needs to know from where your buyers are coming.

Regression analysis was used to create an allocation of un-sourced online enrollments based on the media of sourced enrollments. The analysis worked well and 96% of the Default enrollments were accounted for in the model, 92% in the validation. As a result, Disney was able to credit appropriate media for un-sourced online enrollments. Direct mail, alternate media, online banners and other online media all received a more accurate, larger allocation.

Mark Ulian discussed key elements to help build your online business. You need a good balance of all channels, the right mix that varies from mailer to mailer, offer to offer and product to product. You need to do what works for you. Example; you may need to send a catalog, then an email, and then a follow-up email. Others may need to send an early email, then the catalog, and then a follow-up email. It's what works best for you the mailer!

He explained Recorded Views. These are opened emails that have been opened for at least 4 seconds, and then deleted. The theory here is they didn't just open and delete your email, but took the time to read it. BusinessWatch Network has seen great success in "re-emailing" to these addresses.

In the beginning, BusinessWatch Network explored all options to prospect. They now only prospect within their own contacts between files. They are 100% email acquisition. For a successful Email Campaign, mark suggested following a few important guidelines:

Mark fielded a number of questions, including, "How do you make money?" His response, "List rental!" ;-)

Tom Cook, Concord Litho
Sherry Minton, American Heart Association
David Krear, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

Tom Cook represented the printer's efforts for helping mailers make eco-friendly, responsible print production choices. He noted how there is a growing authentic interest in the marketplace for products and services that are eco-friendly. Striking a balance of eco-friendly products that can also perform well is the biggest challenge. There are four key elements in print production to green up your projects: format and design, paper selection, inks and the printing plant.

Consult with your printer to find formats that maximize the equipment and reduce waste such as the layout of components on the sheet or decreasing the size or weight of your piece to save postage. Test is best - compare the production savings versus the performance. Come up with the right design. Eco-friendly papers allow you to demonstrate your organization's commitment to the environment in a visible way on your printed materials. If you are using eco-friendly papers, be sure to the display a logo indicating your eco-friendly choice. If given the choice between two similar products, 83% of consumers will choose those that are environmentally friendly. Request inks made with renewable resources such as vegetables or soy. Lastly, since you are doing all you can to go green you want your supplier to make green initiatives also. Review your printing plant's environmental impact statements, recycling efforts and waste collection systems. While all these elements are important, Tom stresses to test small changes and not to make too many changes at once.

Sherry Minton spoke about the DMA's Commitment to Consumer Choice (CCC) guidelines that apply to all DMA members using mail to communicate with consumers. The discussion revolved around how mailers could deal with this policy to address the consumer, environmental and privacy concerns from their customers. She explained that American Heart puts this "opt out" language on their disclaimer insert. They have seen no increase in donors/prospects opting out of their mailings to date.

David Krear noted what a challenging time this is with the green initiatives that mailer are facing today. Mailers need to think list hygiene and data management. It is important for fundraisers to remember to comply with the wishes of their customers. If they are telling you they get too much mail, try reaching them via the internet. If you listen to your customers wishes, they will be willing to donate money. List hygiene is also important. Remember, something as easy as applying the deceased database to your house file will help save on mailing expenses.

Garry Woodrow, Harlequin Direct
James Lynch, Reader's Digest
Bob Andersen, Direct Media

The session was an interesting discussion about the different aspects and common practices that are involved in effective model building. The first speaker James Lynch from Reader's Digest started by mentioning the three major types of models used today in direct mail; the Good Customer Match, Mailed Match and Classic Response models. Jim went on to explain that he found the Customer Response Model to be the most effective for most Reader's Digest models and that two keys are first understanding the product and sales approach as well as the demographic of the list and second having a good understanding of the list definition and how that contrasts the non-buyers.

Bob Anderson followed by explaining that he found the Good Customer Match model to be very effective in his recent list models he's built. It's important to understand what names are being sent from the mailer and what type of customer they are looking for before beginning the process. Also, the expectations of the mailer must be clearly defined so that the resulting model delivers an appropriate customer to the mailer. Some look for long term value and some are more interested in up-front response rates. Bob also believes that letting the data drive the results, using all forms of data is important rather than starting with preconceived outcomes.

Garry Woodrow actually has found in working with Harlequin, that sometimes the best approach involves using more than one model approach. This may be more involved and costly but can provide improved results. Usually, this is not an option for straight list rental but rather for more involved data partners to his file.

All three modelers agreed that to build an effective model, it is best to avoid an extensive time lag in the data pulled from the mailer file to when the model will be employed. If there is a big time difference from when the data sent to when the model is built, the data must be "synced up" in some way to account for the lag.The offers should also be similar if not the same to have consistent results.

The session was very informative and offered different views and approaches to effective model building and application. All agreed however that predicting human behavior can be a complicated task, but with the right experience and knowledge of the process there is always a way to make the data work for any mailer.

Pat Henley, National Geographic Society
Ari Gersen, Boardroom, Inc.
Andrea Vitale, illy café, USA

Ari Gersen from Boardroom Inc spoke about how to perform email append without damaging existing business. He went over a "3 Prong Approach" to make E- append successful. He discussed phasing in E-appends slowly. With this approach you send out, for example, 50,000 emails at a time over a period of 4-6 weeks instead of mailing all 250,000 at once. He suggested segmenting the universe into panels based on customer levels (multi buyers, single buyers, infomercial buyers). Therefore, you would mail to your multi buyers first, then the single buyers, then the infomercial buyers. He suggested using high risk IP addresses. The results of the 3 Prong Approach are no blocks at ISP level, continued 99% delivery to existing audience and 92% average delivery rate to the universe.

Ari discussed some of the dangers and risks of e-append such as customer alienation, spam complaints, decreased delivery rates and ISP blockers. The challenge of e-append is to maintain your original customers while increasing your file size. He showed that this could be done by first mailing to 25% of your list and increasing it slowly.

Andrea Vitale's approach to E-CRM is based around Lifecycle Marketing. Illy's customers are BtoB Food Service, Customers such as Whole Foods, and online one-shot buyers. They also have a subscription program.

Illy offers driven emails and customer engagement. They set limits on how many emails they send out a month as not to bombard the customer. First, they send out direct mail and then 3-4weeks later they send an email. This has made the response lift, as some people are more responsive via mail and some via email. They also segment their customers into groups catering to each group. All members receive a newsletter and a year-end thank you email. The Thank You email has been really successful as it lets the customer pick a free gift from 6 different items.

Pat Henley from National Geographic Society has the tough job of being the in house email consultant for over 25 internal divisions. Together Pat and her team maintain the master calendar, manage vendor relationships, set-up and deploy all campaigns, monitor usage of the master list, meet frequently with internal clients to discuss strategy, creative and testing.

Servicing so many divisions can be very challenging as the objectives of each division can vary. Pat helps to make each division meet their goals without damaging the entire program. Some of the most common objectives among the divisions are to increase revenue through sales or advertising, build a sense of community, boost publicity, raise retention rates and convey time sensitive information.

Monica C. Smith, Marketsmith
Darrel Edwards, Cosmetique
Ed Mallin, InfoUSA Service Group

Three highly experienced direct marketing veterans presented their ideas on meeting today's challenges and opportunities, along with a few thoughts on how on what to think about moving forward.

Monica began the session by stressing the importance of surrounding yourself with people who love what they do and who love your brand too! Employees who have fun are much more productive than those who just 'show up for work'. She went on to talk about what it takes to persuade a customer to make a purchase; to realize that the customer has
many different options these days and you need to communicate with them in their preferred manner. Remember that price will almost always be a key factor is directly proportionate to rising or falling response rates.

She went though a checklist of other important things to always be aware of: know your P&L numbers, know our brand, recognize how big it can become and keep an eye on your mission.

After briefly describing the InfoUSA structure and the synergies with Direct Media, Ed Mallin talked about today's economic and business climate. Yes, it's challenging, frustrating and at times, scary. However, it's also exciting and exhilarating; pressure in on, it's game time!

More than ever, those of us in the services business must be true partners - we have to live in our clients' world, understand their business inside and out, and continually bring them new solutions. We need to spend less time with 'what was' and focus on 'what will be'! He reminded everyone of the importance of online marketing is "The digital world shift is most dramatic shift in our lifetime, and it's not going away," he said. "This is an important business reality. Look at InfoUSA - we're investing millions in online acquisition and retention tools."

Like Monica, he shared some thoughts on things to always keep in mind; sometimes you do need to micromanage, people make the biggest difference on how a business is run, continue to look for deals and opportunities and yes, know your numbers.

In describing how we must all regain our passion and perform a little self-examination, Darrell Edwards, stated, "Standing in quicksand feels good (warm & cozy) until it reaches your nostrils. Yes, passion for what marketers do is essential, he said. "If you don't have it, failure is around every corner."
At the same time, you need to be aware key business metrics and how they can change. Too often marketers calculate lifetime value, apply it to their customer base - and then don't recalibrate it.

"If your company was just been bought by a venture capital firm, or postage rates go up, [your customers'] lifetime value is about to change," Edwards said. It's a good measure of how much an organization should invest in business in order to be there in the future, he added, but calculations will change, especially in down times.

The people we are trying to market to put gas in their cars, food on tables, or keep homes - first," Edwards said.

Even without down times, the Internet has radically changed some business models. When Cosmetique first started, it was a continuity club for makeup. But as the consumer has increasingly demanded control of what is purchased, and when that purchase is made, that model has proven less viable.

Only 20% of people are staying in the club, Edwards said. The continuity club model works if a marketer is selling a product unavailable anywhere else, but if that's not the case, "the world is your marketplace and the world is your competition," he said.

"Web buying is the biggest trend to hit the industry in decades" stated Jim Coogan, President of Catalog Marketing Economics. "Some catalogs see over 50% of their orders placed on the web". In this session Jim focused on the variation between web buyers versus customary mail order buyers, as well as finding ways to manage your web buyers.

He began his session by pointing out the difference between web buyers and traditional mail order buyers. Web buyers, as we all know, order from the web. Most web buyers typically know what they are looking for when they are on a site and make the purchase. These are called "Pure" web buyers as opposed to catalog generated web buyers who have received a catalog, but made their purchase online. Most web buyers do not have source codes as traditional mail orders buyers do. Web buyers are also price shoppers before being brand shoppers. Catalog buyers are looking for that specific brand and browse an actual catalog to view the items being sold.

Jim then concentrated on the keys to managing web buyers, which began with segmenting buyers by channel. Segment the web buyers into pure web, catalog generated web and multichannel buyers. He then spoke about segmenting the web buyers by doing a matchback, segmenting by keycode and capturing original source codes every way you can. This is vital!

From there he spoke briefly about modeling the web buyers at co-op databases. Modeling your pure web buyers will allow you to understand how different they are compared to your traditional catalog buyers. You may also find fresh prospecting name models and list universes.

The tactics for mailing web buyers include changing the contact strategy by mailing catalogs with fewer pages, send web buyers ink-jet messages with promotional offers and drive them to clearance or sale landing pages.

In the last part of the session, Jim reflected upon the rules to converting web catalog requestors. These 8 rules entail; mailing the catalog immediately after the request is made, sending a thank you e-mail with in 1 hour from the initial request, offer a promotional deal to pull the requestor in, sending a stream of follow-up e-mails and finally only mail the catalog 1-2 times.

Michelle Feit, ePost Direct
George Aspland, eVision
Chris Longo, ePost Direct

This session was designed to inform othe audience about a couple of effective online acquisition tools and products and how to effectively convert online leads to real buyers once they reach your website.

Our session started out with Michelle Feit, who is President of ePost Direct, discussing the use of "B-to-B Online Co-Registration" products as a tool for online lead generation. We learned that online co-registration "ad spend" is expected to top $300 Million this year and there are very few scalable co-reg products in the B2B space. Michelle's message focused on a number of the advantages to using a "co-reg" product like ePost's B2B Co-Registration Network. Those advantages include the highly qualified nature of the leads, and the fact that their program is a "pay per lead" platform that removes the normal cost exposure advertisers have traditionally come to expect in order to test a program of this size.

Leads are generated by dynamically serving up ads anywhere on a site that uses an online subscription registration form or logon function.

Our next panelist was Chris Longo who is a former DMI employee and currently functions as VP of Email List Management at ePost Direct. Chris's segment focused on the use of high quality controlled circulation email subscriber files for online or email prospecting efforts and in order to drive leads to an advertiser's website. Chris focused primarily of the ePost managed Business Email Network (BEN) file which allows mailers to test a broad range of controlled circulation magazine files as a group that currently totals over 15 million opted-in subscribers. Chris highlighted a number of benefits to testing and rolling out to a file of this size for a few main reasons. First, due to the nature of the subscribers on this file and the fact that subscriber have to fill in a "detailed demographic and firmographic qualification card" in order to qualify as a responder, the BEN file has very deep, granular firmographic selects that allow both for strategic segmentation but also offers a scalable universe for possible roll outs or annual licensing arrangements.The strategic benefit of licensing the BEN product is cost savings. Depending on the arrangement, an email file that is typically $300 to $400/M can be reduced to as low as $50 to $75/M under the terms of a licensing deal.

Our final speaker was George Aspland who is the President of e-Vision, a firm that specializes in web optimization and online lead conversion techniques. Like in any of the traditional direct marketing channels, it is important to test and according to George, when it comes to converting leads that have come to your web site, the most important thing a marketer can do is test, test, test. George talked about a very hands on approach to managing and optimizing website landing pages which can yield significant increases in online lead conversion rates. The idea is to test against "control" landing pages in order to determine the optimal offer positioned in the optimal place on ones website. George presented a case study of a company that was able to increase their online conversion significantly through the use of a "persuasive path for conversion" where a blue print of a given website essentially maps out an optimal path that takes one's web visitors down a website path of persuasion that is designed to optimize the website visitor's experience and ultimately yield a higher lead to conversion ration.

This session featured tips on how to beat your control. According to Paul, it's vital to "Test, test, test." The top ten tricks according to Paul & Caroline were examined:

They added two bonus tips: Don't be a Cheapskate and Kill 'em with Kindness. Be kind to your creative department; don't shoot down all of their ideas no matter how different they may be.

They also covered 3 different types of vouchers - Plain, Fancy & Hybrid. They found that all worked in their own ways. Plain worked well when marked with "Guaranteed lowest rate" or your prompt attention is required. "Certain colors such as blue or gold work well and stand out nicely. Simplicity counts. Fancy worked well when there are many pieces such as editorial chits, stamps, and buck slips. Free gifts are also a good idea. Marking this on the outside package is helpful as well. Hybrid - This is the newest approach. "Everything works." This can include a brochure, letter, and note from the editor in some cases; the more the better.

In a highly educational and revealing session, Andrea and Steven spoke of how to use online social media to an organization's advantage.

Andrea opened the session defining Web 2.0 as a trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. Andrea is currently implementing the use of Web 2.0 in her current projects with the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America (MAWF).Web 2.0 is a great way to begin communication with a younger audience. One way of engaging this segment is through the use of widgets on social networking sites, such as Facebook. MAWF is running a promotion prompting these social networking users to place the widget on their site. In doing so, MAWFA will give that user $10 to donate to the cause and in turn MAWF will also donate $10, a $20 donation to gain the interest of young donors. Doing this gives the user a chance to share their support of the cause with their friends, and their friends of friends, increasing the face time value for the organization, continuing a viral cycle.

Steve expanded on this topic by describing the difference between Social Networking and Web 2.0.The ASPCA is able through social networking to go where "they," potential donors, are. This is a means of engaging them rather than talking at them. You are able to learn more about who they are and make it easier for them to do something for you, i.e. drive traffic to your website, drive donations (new donors), sign petitions, and increase new subscribers.

Steve related content on social networking sites to bumper stickers - just as you would place a bumper sticker on your car to show your interest and support for a topic, placing increased content on a site like Facebook or Myspace describes yourself by showing others who you support. However, content on these sites does not always generate hits to your website. The advantage of using other sites to get your organizations cause out is that of increased awareness, allowing users to share interests and get help from their friends to support your cause, and these users can blog about your organization and related issues. You'll also be able to gain data about your donors by having them fill out surveys to receive photos, stickers, ringtones, etc...The downside is that you must be able to give up control of this content and let your guard down. If you're not secure enough to do this, your organization can build its own community. This will allow you to have control, but you will lose volume and increase staff work.

The ASPCA has also initiated Text Messaging into the marketing campaign. This allows donors to subscribe to "tip of the week" by texting DOG or to give a $5 donation that is automatically added to your phone bill by texting "give. "This is an added means of engaging your donors.

In closing there is a massive market of future donors that fundraisers need to start engaging. When asked "how do you determine which tool to use?" the panel responded that it is the type of content that matters the most...Nonprofits need more engagement than commercial users. You have to ask yourself what is the message you want to get out there, and what is it that your users need?

Andrea Glatzer, CMG Interactive
Renee Warner, American Heart Association
Diana Estremera, Direct Media, presenting for Joan Smyth Dengler, Covenant House

Unfortunately, Joan wasn't able to attend, but Diana showed how Covenant Hose has become so successful in raising funds online. She began by showing a YouTube video 'Did You Know?' (Shift Happens) and gave statistics on worldwide information regarding the growth of digital information & things to come in 21st century. She asked: 'Is the online medium taking over direct mail?' The answer is 'No'; even though action is taken online, motivation often comes from mail pieces received. However, online marketing is growing at a faster rate... 25-50% this year vs. 3% for direct marketing.

Diana went on to describe how Covenant House raised $1,000,000 online last year and provided advice on what other fundraisers can do to increase online revenue:

For 18 months, Andrea Glatzer solely oversaw online fundraising for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and she too shared terrific suggestions on raising money inline:

Renee Warner Spoke about AHA's 'Online Donation Enhancements Project' and steps they took to make the site more user-friendly and how they redesigned the donation page to increase donations. They began by evaluating competitor sites and found that most used fewer steps to complete donations. They also offered various ways to give, described how funds would be used, registered new users and posted confirmation pages. AHA implemented online surveys to obtain demographic information, determine why visitors acme to the site and ask why a donation wasn't made. When they redesigned the donation page, they provided options for different types of gifts, such as memorials and tributes. They included an 800# customer service number and encouraged donors to register for future emails and contributions.

The results were dramatic. AHA went from seeing half of their visitors dropping off at the index page to 100% making it through the first page and 66% making it through the second page. Completion rate doubled from 12-24%; Income increased 37% over prior year; average gift increased 10.8% and the overall number of donors rose 23%!

Allen Rosenberg, Marke Communications
Peter Spiers, Elderhostel
Joe Mediate, KooKoo Bear Kids

"The strongest challenges in the marketplace are the limited channels, direct mail and internet". Allen Rosenberg spoke about Home Bistro, which sells prepared foods, and these two channels used to generate customers. The three main ways to have consistent branding across these channels are to share information, have proportionate funding and to attract customers by one channel and purchase in another.

Peter Spiers finds that within his company Elderhostel, a not-for-profit leader in educational travel for adults, the main channel is their catalog. He also mentions that their "secret weapon" is the call center which answers highly specific and often unique questions. He then explained their multi channel buying tactics including their purchase process which often includes all media. The customer will look at the catalog and find the program they are interested in and go to the website for more information to place their order. From there, they will use the call center which will, as stated above, provide them with answers to additional questions for the customer to place the order.

Joe Mediate discussed the marketing and branding of his company KooKoo Bear Kids. KooKoo Bear Kids markets their products through their catalog, the Internet, email, print ads, package inserts and through retail outlets. The Internet produces 60% of their total orders. Subsequent to receiving an online order, KooKoo Bear sends a customer at least two email offers every week. They also promote their merchandise through banners, affiliates and search engine marketing (SEO), striving to achieve high ranks organically.

The Internet is, in effect, "the validator" to the catalog. Joe discussed in detail the use of the Internet for not only marketing, but for branding too. Just like with marketing, with branding, Joe suggests to "Test, Test Test", to always change what you're doing and to revisit strategies often. He also believes strongly in tapping into blogs related to the KooKoo Bear customers, using the terrific feedback provided by his customers.

Marijke Bekaert, HCI Direct
Helen Gunn-Meyer, International Masters Publishers
Lorraine Kamp, Suarez Corporation
Kristen Cuddy, Direct Media

This session focused on the benefits and challenges of package insert, space and DRTV advertising.

Marikjke and Helen represent firms in the continuity arena and their views on package inserts were very similar. With the current cost of paper and mail constantly going up they are very committed in their efforts to package inserts. In the package insert world there is limited space available so mailers need to have a good understanding of the programs available. When inserting into a "continuity club" program you should find out at what point in the cycle are inserts being inserted. Are they going into the start-ups, which will give you a better upfront response or are they inserted into the subsequent shipments of multi-buyers? This will give you a better payer. You need to know what you are looking for so that you can select the correct programs. Package inserts may allow you to reach people you may not be able to reach through traditional means due to the DMA suppressions. You may be able to get a marginal list rental file to work in the package inserts. You need to commit to tests and retest.

Our other speakers, Lorraine Kamp from Suarez Corp and Kristen Cuddy from Direct Media discussed some of the benefits of Space Ads and DRTV.

Much like package inserts, good creative is key to success. Your creative is your salesperson so you need to be sure that the creative is getting your message to the customer. With space advertising, good positioning is also crucial. Be sure to know the media you are working with and what you could expect to gain. Adjust the creative to the publications. Testimonials really help sell the product.

Remnant advertising is a great place to start but it's a competitive environment; make sure your negotiation skills are sharp! You need to know your profit margin and what CPM's are needed. When asked about black and white vs. color ads, Kristen stated that it all depends on the product. When she is working with the apparel clients, color is always more beneficial. For other merchandise or services, black and white is always cheaper and can often be just as effective.

When looking at DRTV you need to know how much inventory you have available. You also need to be sure your inbound call centers are ready to handle the call volume and back-up should be available. Scripts need to be written and tested. You need to be prepared. Depending on the product, this could be a good testing vehicle.

When asked if one should use direct mail, space ads and inserts simultaneously, it was advised that it can be done, but offers and creative should be consistent. You do not want to confuse the customer with different pricing.

With the continual rise in paper and postal costs, all of the panelists are very committed to alternative media marketing.

Overall, each presenter discussed the importance of online communications using email, Web2.0, and Social Networking.

Reggie began by and stressing the importance of creating a dialogue with customers. While just about everyone is using email to talk with their customers, there are still many out there who fail to turn it into a unique experience. In addition to personalizing emails in subject lines or salutations, she shared tests where clients measured static emails against emails using very simple animation. Animation test cells performed almost 50% better. The two simple rules when using animation are to use GIFs instead of Flash and use small file sizes (fewer than 50K).

Reggie also discussed methods of recouping up to 15% of abandoned shopping carts simply by using a series of triggered emails and escalated offers. Since most companies save shopping cart items for a couple of weeks, it makes sense to send reminders since the customer has already taken some action.

Customer reviews are also proving to be an important part of the decision making process with consumers as "non commercial content is perceived as more reliable". Encourage consumers to provide reviews with discounts ad coupons.

Auren shared the hidden marketing potential behind Social Networking. While Social Networking is the relatively new kid on the block, Auren shared some statistics that really got everyone's attention.

First, Social Networks are consistently the #1 websites on the internet (aside from search engines) with "21% of all online page views coming form Social Network sites". There are also more people under 30 on Social Networks than there are people watching MTV, VH1, and Comedy Central combined. Finally, the fastest growing demographic on Social Networks are 35-45 year old mothers.

"People will listen to and believe friends over ads" and while the above stats appear to be too big to be considered 'Grassroots', social networks really do allow a ground up opportunity to wide array of business. One of the most compelling points is that you are communicating (directly or indirectly) with people where they already are.

Auren's company, Rapleaf, helps businesses understand their consumers, by aggregating various data points including demographics, psychographics, friend links and social media footprints. This allows clients to "effectively plan online ad campaigns and engage with consumers across Social Networks".

Ellen informed and entertained the luncheon audience with a talk on the changing demographics and attitudinal trends of the American population.

According to Ellen, marketers really need to understand how today's consumer looks and how they differ form one another. New breeds of consumer have vastly different demographics, attitudes, values, and lifestyles than they did even a few years ago. Ellen sees the major trends related to the maturing of America, the emergence of minorities, and changing household composition.

Marketers must develop relevant marketing strategies that recognize attitudinal shifts and demographics. The good news is that there is plenty of opportunity for marketers that understand diversity. Marketers should position products appropriately and create relevant advertising.

While her presentation was fact-filled, it was also punctuated with many humorous observations and at time, hilarious punch-lines.

Pat Kachura, the Senior Vice President of corporate responsibility for the DMA spoke about the do not mail myths and consumer awareness. With so many programs and services promoting to end direct mail the DMA is gearing up to get its message out to the marketers and legislators.

The concerns of the consumers are about volume, irrelevance, identity theft and the environment. There now is a mail preference service in place where you the consumer can say what kind of mail you would not like more of and what kind of mail you would like more of. Last year because of the mail preference service 939 million pieces were not mailed. Consumers are afraid to recycle their catalogs because of a fear of identity theft but only 3-4% of all cases of identity theft have been because of data taken off of direct mail pieces. The DMA has an environmental program, which includes holding environmental forums, list hygiene, buying paper from certified forests, recycling and pollution reduction, packaging and design and printing.

There are a lot of organizations that promote the end of commercial direct mail such as greendimes.com, 41 pounds and many others. These organizations cannot take your name off the list and have made $50 million saying they can. The DMA has now introduced the Commitment to Consumer Choice. The key components to the CCC are education, monitoring and enforcement. With this new program the DMA hopes to end do not mail myths once and for all.