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Hot Take: Direct Mail is Just as Sustainable as Digital Marketing

by Digital MarketingDirect MailMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNewsOffline Strategy

With our focus being print marketing, brands can be hesitant to test into direct mail. Why, might you ask? Sometimes it’s perceived to be less efficient and environmentally friendly than digital marketing. However, we’re here to debunk that myth.

It’s commonly perceived that digital marketing is sustainable because there is less labor involved in marketing online than the manual labor of creating paper and print to launch a campaign. However, both channels have their benefits and drawbacks – with print having just a few less drawbacks when it comes to the environment.

Key Stats about Paper & Print:

  • – Paper can be recycled up to seven times.
  • – The paper, pulp and print sector is one of the lowest industrial emitters of greenhouse gases, accounting for 0.9% of European emissions in 2021
  • – Since the 1990s, the average water intake per ton of paper produced has decreased by 42%.
  • In 2021, around 90% of the water used in the European paper industry was returned to its source.

 Key Stats about Digital:

  • – The world generates more than 68MM tons of e-waste every year (source: UN via Bloomberg) and of that, only 22% is collected and recycled.
  • – Businesses and individuals are increasingly using ‘cloud’ services. These mega data centers store almost everything we do online, including our web searches, our social media posts and our online statements.
  • – The ICT industry accounted for 4-6% of global electricity use in 2020, which is more than 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
    • The electronic waste problem is also colossal and growing. In 2019, the industry was responsible for a gigantic 53.6 million metric tons of e-waste across the world.
      • That’s equivalent to the weight of 350 cruise ships.
      • E-waste is expected to increase to 74.7 Mt by 2030 and reach as much as 110 Mt by 2050, unless we change our practices.[2]
  • – In 2019, just 17% of global e-waste was collected for recycling. In fact, recycling activities are not keeping pace with the global growth of e-waste. Non-environmentally sound disposal and treatment of this waste stream poses significant risks to the environment and to human health.

Often, marketers think digital is a better investment from a sustainability perspective. However, this is a common misconception. In fact, the channels are pretty similar when it comes to environmental friendliness – with Print arguably being more sustainable. There are an abundance of factors that impact the carbon footprint for digital – energy consumption of Data Centers, end-user devices, internet infrastructure, lifetime of digital devices, email server efficiency, transmission networks, and more. In turn, the carbon footprint of a printed piece consists of paper production, printing process, distribution, end-of-life (how a piece is recycled), design, and size. Good news: there are solutions and best practices in place for all of these.

So, what should you do?

We wholeheartedly believe in the power of an omnichannel strategy – but it does begin with Print. Last month, we talked about complementing your Direct Mail touch points with Digital. It’s a must in today’s digital age! This month, we are recommending you complement your digital with direct mail while making the world a better place.

Sources: Twosides.info, Device42, Chat GPT (Personal communication, January 2024)

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Second Half of 2024 Will Give Marketers A Run for Their Money! (Conclusion)

by Digital MarketingDirect MailMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNewsOffline StrategyUSPS

Key Event #2: Shortened Holiday Season 2024

Thanks for following along in our series of key events in the second half of 2024. It’s hard to believe it’s already mid-October! Today, we’re going to discuss the impacts of the shortened holiday season, how to combat them, and what you may do afterwards to kick 2025 off on a good note.

As you know, the holiday season is the most important time of year for most marketers. However, did you know there will only be 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year? This is the fewest possible number of shopping days for the traditional holiday season. Therefore, marketers need to be extra prepared for the shortened shopping season to ensure you get the sales you need.  

This summer, we talked about the election. It’s important to note that consumers will be fresh off the election (which, as a reminder, they are preoccupied about the economy, macro effects, and more).   

So What? 

This shortened season really will have an impact on both consumers, and you as marketers. However, history is on your side! 2019 was the last time consumers had a 27-day holiday shopping season, which was also pre-Covid. By having a pre-Covid time to look back, it’s likely that shoppers will follow similar shopping trends as they did then.

What You Need to Know:

When there is less time to shop, consumers have historically started their holiday shopping earlier. In fact, Epsilon reported that higher revenue was generated two to three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and the two weeks afterwards (when comparing 2019 to 2023).

Our Recommendations: 

Be strategic with this shortened shopping time frame. Manage shipping deadlines; stay vigilant about inventory; execute campaign launch dates; and optimize circulation plans.

Begin marketing communications earlier than usual. This will be key to sustaining and/ or growing revenue. Aim to get customer shopping with your post-election and pre-Thanksgiving.

Be prepared for evolving shopping behavior. Recognize that younger consumers tend to wait longer to shop during the shortened holiday season while older generations plan ahead. Personalize your marketing efforts accordingly.  

Focus on the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving and immediately afterwards. As noted above, this was a key period in 2019.

Leverage postage offers. This will help with spend and add efficiency to your direct marketing efforts (we can help sort through this with you!).

Complement your Direct Mail touch points with Digital. Enhance conversion rates with increased frequency of messaging and the speed of digital. Perhaps go deeper in your models, both house and prospect, with digital-only communications that include countdown messaging. Offer free priority shipping with a purchase over a specific value to capture share from those last minutes shoppers, create gift guides and bundles for the holiday shopping challenged…increase the value of that basket or order size! 

As fellow marketers, we are your partners. Please reach out to discuss your direct marketing strategy for the next few months. 

As always, we’re wishing you all the success this holiday season.

Source: Epsilon

 

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Second Half of 2024 Will Give Marketers A Run for Their Money! (Continued)

by Digital MarketingDirect MailMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNewsOffline Strategy

Key Event #2: Presidential Election 2024

Thanks for following along in our series of key events in the second half of 2024! Today, we’re going to discuss how to market during the 2024 Presidential Election, which is right around the corner on November 5th. While there are large political and worldwide implications, there are also huge impacts to marketers.  

So What?  

Historically, consumer behavior is highly influenced by presidential elections. Several factors influence consumers during this time such as political events, economic conditions, and social issues.

There is a shift in consumer spending and the way in which people are consuming media both offline and online changes. For example, while Connected TV may be a usual channel that drives conversion for a brand throughout the calendar year, it may not be during an election year; if you’re a mailer, you may think about testing different formats and in-home dates. 

Most notably, presidential elections fall at the beginning of the all-important holiday shopping season (more on holiday later!). Therefore, it is important to be aware of when and how to spend your valuable marketing dollars.

 Our Recommendation: 

  • Stay top of mind. Get in front of your best customers and prospects with relevant messaging in the channels, where they’re most engaged. 
  • Get prepared for the short holiday season. Launch holiday campaigns earlier than usual to capture consumer attention. Reinforce with holiday offers after the election hype subsides but before shoppers gear up for their holiday shopping. 
  • Create a post-election marketing plan. Reinforce your campaigns prior to the election with holiday offers to hype up customers for the upcoming season. Create motivation and urgency for shopping early.
  • Remain positive. While consumer spending may dip during the election, it typically rebounds quickly afterward. 

Insider Tip for Catalogers / DM:

If you are planning to be in the mail around the election, get in touch with one of our experts to analyze your circulation plan: info@mediahorizons.com. Based on our position in the marketplace, we have specific recommendations with timing as it relates to your brand and product assortment.

Stay tuned for our recommendations for marketing for the shortened holiday season! We’re here to help drive your omnichannel strategy forward.  

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Second Half of 2024 Will Give Marketers A Run for Their Money!

by Digital MarketingMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNews

Key Event #1: Summer Olympics 2024

Beginning next month, there is tons going on for the remainder of 2024. From the Summer Olympics; to the upcoming presidential election; followed by a shortened holiday season, 2024 is keeping marketers on their toes.

This is the first of a three-part series highlighting how marketers can prepare for these three big events.

First up: Summer Olympics. The 2024 Summer Olympic Games begin in Paris on July 26 and will last through August 11. The Tokyo Games set a record for NBC’s US TV sales: $2.25B, which was up 20% from the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016 ($1.5B in spend, for reference). With more devices available than ever before, this year’s Paris Games will take over every screen possible on every platform – that means Connected TV (CTV), cable, websites, apps, games, and social media.

So what?

With the Olympics taking over so many devices, we don’t recommend trying to compete. Based on past Olympic events, consumers will not spend much in these two weeks (July 26-August 11). However, we have good news! Spending will be up the two weeks prior (June 22-July 6) (Psst! Just in time to move the needle for July 4th sales and promotions) and resume the week after the Olympics are completed.

Our Recommendation:

Seize the opportunity presented by the captive audience during the Olympics by maintaining consistent messaging before and after the games. Post-Olympics, leverage the potential for increased spending as consumers re-engage with the market. Here are some specific digital tactics to explore:

  • – Programmatic Display & CTV
  • – Paid Social Media
  • – Influencers
  • – Content marketing
  • – Native Advertising
  • – Partnerships
  • – Experiential Marketing

Most importantly, this doesn’t just go for digital media. Get your catalog in-home by June 21; send your Direct Mail piece by June 24. Then, get your next pieces in the mail by August 12, tying these drops to your digital marketing efforts in Search and Social Media.

Stay tuned for our recommendations for marketing during the Presidential Election! We’re here to help drive your omnichannel strategy forward.

Sources: Epsilon, eMarketer, LinkedIn

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How GA4 can optimize your holiday marketing strategy

by DataDigital MarketingMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNews

It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is right around the corner. In fact, there are only 9 weeks until Christmas! As a direct response agency, we’re towards the end of planning for our offline clients. However, there’s still time for digital!

Whether you’re thinking about launching a test or sticking with tried & true channels that you know work for your brand, we’re excited that it’ll be the first holiday season with GA4. In fact, GA4 may be your secret weapon. Here are four benefits of GA4 that may help your holiday season be the most successful one yet.

More insights into the funnel

As we all know, a well-executed and focused marketing funnel helps brands serve relevant, meaningful, and actionable content at the right time – using the right channel. With GA4, brands have even more insights into the funnel.

A new aspect of GA4, Explorations, allow you to build custom funnel visualizations of the steps in your user’s journey on your website. The funnel exploration gives you insight into what paths are leading to abandonments in the conversion process, how to enhance your user experience and improve your conversion rate.

To put it into simpler terms, you can see when a customer viewed a product, added it to the cart and then made a purchase. It’s clearer than ever before! Inside scoop: In many cases, Universal Analytics (UA) relied on sampled data due to restrictions around hit limits. GA4 doesn’t have those same limitations and therefore, it is more reliable in terms of 100% real data.

Easier, stronger integrations

GA4 plays nice with other Google products! In fact, you can set up audiences in GA4 and then leverage them in Google Ads. Guess what? It’s even more simple to use Google Ads. By creating a link between GA4 and Google Ads, you can use your conversions from GA4 in your Google Ads account. Today, Google Ads can help drive qualified traffic to your site, augment engagement and increase in-store visits.

What’s more – GA4 offers free linking to BigQuery, which is raw GA data that’s used to run SQL queries. By having access to Big Query, you can build any logic in there. The truth is: the API from GA4 has its limitations like any complex system, so this is a feature that many GA users have been clamoring for. Additionally, GA4 users can also download historical data (UA), so they can look at YoY comparisons (keep in mind that UA will be shut down in a few months!).

Build audiences for better targeting

With GA4, the conditions and criteria that you can set up for audiences are limitless! Brands and marketers alike can get creative. By building audiences in this manner, your targeting can be much more powerful and effective.

By default, you will automatically have two audiences linked: all users and purchasers.  You can make additional audiences based on actions captured in GA4.  For example, users who have not converted, users with multiple purchases, high-value purchasers, users who abandoned at checkout, etc.  You have the power to set up audiences based on criteria that is important to your business.

Pro tip! Using the new predictive capabilities to build audiences is also an effective tool to refine your targeting strategy. You can create an audience of users with a high probability to convert by using a remarketing campaign. Or, you can focus on users who are likely to churn and target them with re-engagement campaigns that have personalized offers.

Consistency among devices

Now you can combine website and mobile app usage data in one GA4 property, allowing for more robust cross-device and cross-platform tracking. For example, marketers now have visibility into how many users start their experience on your mobile app and then switch to your website to complete their purchase. You can measure how your marketing channels perform across different platforms all on one platform: GA4.

We realize that the shift to GA4 was a big change. But do you remember when Google rolled out Universal Analytics in 2005? We do – it was stressful, and it took time for everyone to adapt. Change is difficult for all of us, whether there’s a lack of trust or time, the transition takes time. However, UA has officially stopped processing data. This is important: if you’re still connected to UA, the data is no longer accurate, and you’re measuring results incorrectly. Additionally, there are so many more insights to glean from GA4! Just ask us. Not only are we happy to share more benefits, but we can help organize your GA4 account, or transition you to the platform if you haven’t done so yet (we won’t tell anyone!).

Woman,Shopping,For,Christmas,Online

The Ultimate Lesson: How Back-to-School Can Prepare Marketers for Holiday 2021

by with No Comment Marketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNews

As the global supply chain continues to struggle to keep up with consumers’ needs, the Back-to-School (BTS) market is the latest segment to be negatively impacted. With many children back to learning in-person this fall, the feared shortages for supplies unfortunately have become a reality.

 

Results showed that about 50% of consumers spent less on BTS shopping last year (source: Times Record News). While we are still waiting on this year’s results, given increasing demand for the continued shortage of BTS essentials, the numbers likely will be similar if not lower.

 

Observing the challenges that BTS shoppers have faced, there is much to be learned for the upcoming holiday season. With the recent chip shortage, not only is the BTS market suffering, but so are huge industries like automobiles. This will undoubtedly affect the types of products and offerings available for the holiday season. Video games, cell phones, cars, and home appliances all use chips. We need to be prepared for the most desired products to be more difficult to purchase.

What BTS Can Teach Marketers for Holiday 2021

Launch Your Holiday Marketing Campaigns Earlier

Tailor your marketing strategy to the 2021 calendar. This year, Thanksgiving is earlier and holiday shopping will begin sooner. We predict the buying cycle will therefore change. There will be five weeks of shopping leading up to Christmas. Consumers will be shopping earlier and longer further adding to the disruption in traditional holiday shopping habits.

 

No matter who you are targeting this year, timing is everything. We recommend keeping timing—when you want your customers viewing your products and services—at the forefront. All touchpoints will be affected, and even more reason to keep your marketing strategy fresh.  

 

Continue to Bet on eCommerce & Test New Channels

Retail eCommerce sales are projected to make up almost 19% of total holiday retail sales this year (source: eMarketer). Due to the pandemic, we saw more of an online push last year than ever before, which continued to propel marketers’ digital spend forward. This year, retailers are again putting emphasis on eCommerce, and we are expecting a similarly early start to the holiday season, especially due to rumors that Amazon will promote a second Prime day this fall. Additionally, offering earlier holiday sales would ideally help avoid fulfillment issues later in the season.

 

With increased digital adoption and more time spent online, there has never been a better time to explore other digital avenues such as Connected TV (CTV) and Digital Audio. Check out our most recent post on “Why CTV Right Now?” to learn more about this channel.   

 

Understand that Location Matters: The “Shop Local” Trend Endures.

In January, we shared retail predictions for 2021 with many of them ringing true. Specifically, “Shop Local” prevails, and will be especially important to keep in mind. With consumers’ potentially negative BTS experiences tied with last year’s holiday shopping, many will shop locally to avoid dealing with inventory issues, shipping delays or added fees.

 

Focusing on your targeted acquisition strategy as well as paid search (hint: check out geo targeting capabilities) is especially relevant this year.  

 

Increased Foot Traffic Is a Possibility.

With a pandemic that’s lasted for 1.5+ years, consumers understand what it means to shop in-store. They are now familiar with BOPIS and physically shopping in PPE. Due to the current state of the supply chain, it is possible that traffic in traditional stores may increase slightly this holiday because of consumers’ BTS shopping experiences and anticipation regarding inventory issues and shipping delays.

 

We recommend accounting for this pickup in your CRM systems, holiday promotions and marketing communications. 

 

Rely on Customer Loyalty…Keep Your Bottom-of-Funnel Customers & Prospects Close.

Being familiar with your brand, having experience with your customer service team, knowing the quality of your products and services…are all increasingly important factors. As more consumers experience delays with BTS products and gear up for holiday, they will rely on the brands they know and love. Additionally, they will likely present a higher AOV than top-of-funnel or newer customers because they trust your brand, regardless of supply chain issues or warnings about shipping delays.

 

Not sure who your target customers and prospects are or how to identify them? Uncover powerful insights with data & analytical tools like forecasting, attribution, database management, and digital operations. 

 

Overall, experts say that some of the shortages and frustrations surrounding BTS materials and equipment could have been solved by shopping earlier. In fact, they warn “start shopping online now” (source: News10). That said, the pointed execution of your marketing campaigns featuring strategy and revenue generation are our goal. Taking into account the many macro challenges this year presents, we look forwarding to ‘acing’ this test together!

Sources: Times Record News, eMarketer, ©2021 Insider Intelligence Inc., Ask Wonder, Tech Walla

Compliance,Rules,Law,Regulation,Policy,Business,Technology,Concept.

Data Compliance: How to be a Smart Marketer in 2021

by DataMarketing StrategyMarketing TrendsNews

While the U.S. does not have one federal law that regulates the protection of personally identifiable information (PII), PII is protected by several sector-specific laws. The major players are the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are just some examples of laws that apply to customer protection, financial institutions, telemarketing, commercial emails, and European markets.

While there is much to consider, businesses in the U.S. can be data compliant by fulfilling the requirements of the GDPR, understanding state-specific regulations, creating a comprehensive and detailed privacy policy, and employing data encryption and security. Please find more detail on how to be a “smart marketer” below (including bonus tips!).

Safety,Concept:,Closed,Padlock,On,Digital,Background

Five Reasons to Keep Data Privacy at the Forefront of Your Omnichannel Strategy

by Marketing StrategyNewsSearch
According to a recent survey, 40% of marketing executives conveyed that a lack of legal clarity is a barrier to implementing stricter privacy practices at their organizations. While we understand the ambiguity of today’s data policies – especially with COVID-19 causing delays and distractions – marketers must be as proactive as possible about data privacy. Here’s why:
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The Pandemic Effect:
Five Search Optimizations to Help Your SEM Efforts This Year

by Marketing StrategyNewsSearch
There’s ample evidence that the pandemic had a huge impact on search behavior in 2020. These changed search behaviors coupled with our new current realities can help bring a renewed focus on your search marketing optimization efforts right now. Below we outline five simple optimization tips that can assist your SEM programs and yield immediate results today.