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Why not challenge some of your friends or colleagues to beat your score. Just click here and send a link. If you think you’ve got the best score why not publish it below, we would love to hear from winners!

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and we’ll see you all in the new year…

All the best the Keepa Team

The report found that ‘Marketing ROI’ had jumped to become the most important trend for marketing executives. Social media had been high last year, but now focus was all around measuring the activity, building retention and loyalty.

Even though marketers understand the idea that social has to be part of their overall strategy, many are sick of hearing about it. Social media has become one of the most important buzzwords, but it has also become one of the most annoying, with nearly 30% of executives tired of it. Twitter, specifically, has got on the nerves of nearly 15%, and socal networking was in the top three trends marketers were most tired of hearing about.

All this said, social spending will increase. A survey of Marketing Executives indicated social tactics were most likely to increase in 2010.

So dispite a move towards measuring ROI, Social is still viewed high on strategy.

Our view is simple, you need to measure everything you do and constantly review what has taken place, ROI is vital to any business. Gone are the days of a ‘Hit & Hope’ stragegy, it’s all about being targeted, personalised and and the ability to measure in fine details.

But only a very small amount of people are taking advantage of it. In today’s world everything is ‘on demand’, films, TV even software (including ours!) so why not print?

Digital printing and ‘Print on Demand’ lets you print very small quantities as and when you need them. Unlike offset or litho printing presses, which traditionally use plates made from film, new digital presses takes your digital files and prints direct from them. There’s no plates involved at all. All this results in cheaper setup costs and faster turnaround. What if you’ve got time and you want items in bulk? Luckily our solutions allow you to mix ‘On Demand’ with bulk printing.

Here’s some logical reasons why, in print, you should ‘go digital’:

You can Print as little as one

Seriously, your print runs can be low, even for full-colour printing, and because there is hardly any setup costs you won’t be hit with huge unit costs. With traditional offset printing, consumers tend to print far more than they’ll ever need due to the decreasing price structure. Many people waste 30 percent of what they print.

Quicker Turnaround

You can print a small quantity of your corporate brochures in time for that important event next week. Lead times are much shorter with ‘Print on Demand’. You can get new business cards for that last-minute business trip.

Individual Bespoke Print

You can print different versions of your pieces for different markets and test out their effectiveness before you settle on one look. Plus you can change the content more often with digital printing, keeping your material current and accurate. So print less brochures every quarter and update the copy, instead of printing thousands of brochures per year and living with outdated and incorrect information.

Personalise

You can personalise your documents by taking advantage of the latest technology called ‘Variable Print on Demand’. It lets you practice ‘one-to-one marketing’, because every piece has different content. It marries a database with the design template. And every printed piece has different information to help make it more personal, more attractive, and more effective. Plus, you get higher response rates with VPOD.

You could use this so every salesperson or executive have their own version of sales materials, tailored specifically for his/her own clients or prospects. Or create co-branded print with a few clicks of the mouse.

No Wastage

Finally you can say goodbye to wastage. With digital printing, you can reduce or even eliminate waste by only printing what you need when you need it. Does that tick the environmentally friendly box?

Easy to Manage

It’s easier to manage. With offset printing you have to manage the print files and revision versions, we all know what a nightmare that can be. With our ‘Print on Demand’ solution you can forget print files. We’ll manage it for you and give you a handy online order facility so you can place orders anywhere in the world at any time of day.

Digital vs Offset

So we might have convinced you digital is the way to go but remember its not always the right method. Our solution gives you the tools to manage POD, VPOD and bulk print. You’ll know when to make items ‘On Demand’ and when to print in bulk and store. Now that’s convenient.

To get a full demonstration of Print On Demand – Get in touch today.

But what must you do to ensure that you do not waste your precious marketing pounds? How can you measure the quality of the data that you currently have, and decide what you must do to improve it?

Why not download our datasheet on Data Cleansing Services Data Cleansing Services

What?

What do we mean by optimising your marketing data? The idea may sound a little abstract but the principals behind data optimisation are actually very straight forward. In a nutshell, we are attempting to ensure that we have not only enough data, but also the right type and quality of data to achieve our particular marketing goals.

A typical data optimisation project will need clear answers to at least some, if not all, of the following questions:

• What are our key marketing goals, and what activities are we planning to carry out?
• How much data, and what type of data, will we need to support these goals?
• What data do we have and how good is it – e.g. how suitable is it for say emails, direct mail, and telemarketing?
• How much more data will we need in additional to our current data set and what will be the most cost effective means to sourcing that data?
• Does our data strategy encourage us to collect the right type of data to allow us to segment and analyse our prospects and customers effectively?
• How will our data be managed, maintained and refreshed to ensure that the data quality and sufficiency does not deteriorate?

Why?

Why should you consider a data optimisation project? Essentially, because your data is your most valuable asset. It tells you all about your existing customers as well as providing the means to reach and impact your potential customers.

One of the main reasons that even the best formulated marketing plans fail, and direct marketing campaigns consistently underachieve, is poorly targeted and populated data.

However, buying and maintaining data is expensive. You need to ensure you buy enough and the right type of data to support your plans, but not too much! Data that is not utilised quickly goes out-of-date! Optimising your data and its usage ultimately enables you to spend less to achieve more.

How?

Documenting your activities, objectives, expected results and timetable will provide a simple forecast of the data required, broken out by sector, geography or category. This will allow decisions to be taken on what data is required, exactly when it is needed, and which type of activity is most likely to deliver the results that are needed. You may need to enhance your existing data, or buy new data targeted directly to a campaign. For example, you may have 5,000 contact records already, but can you identify how many of them are in the correct business area, how many have up-to-date email addresses and telephone numbers, etc.

Our data analysis report will help you to quantify what you have got, and what you need going forward.

Your data is most likely held in several different systems, guarded jealously by different people. You probably have customer data held in the finance system, sales people will have data in a CRM system or personal spreadsheets, marketing will have their own database of ‘suspects’, often gathered from different sources over time, and so on.

All of this data is valuable, but in different ways. The first task is to gather it together and analyse its quality and completeness. For example, finance data may hold different attributes from sales data.

You may need to involve your marketing, sales and finance department to determine what data there is, and how to extract it. Once the data has been assembled and enhanced you can decide on how it is to be used and if the enhanced data should go back into the original systems.

Take action now!

Contact us to arrange an initial meeting when we can review your plans and assess the suitability of your data. Using our simple scorecarding we can quickly identify any areas for improvement and recommend tactics to achieve them.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zog/5249099/

• Update it frequently
• Make sure the content helps other people

However, while most businesses start off with great intentions, their blog quickly finds itself in the “neglected” pile.

If you would like to re-ignite your blog, or just get one started, here are common roadblocks that you may run into. But then some tips and tips on how to overcome them, and ensure your blog remains a productive channel in your marketing efforts.

I don’t know what to write about…

• Write about subjects that you’re comfortable with. Are you the go-to person at your company for coming up with wording or phrases? If so, write posts about how to write effective copy in marketing efforts.
• Write about what you are interested in – new technology, new services, industry news, etc.
• Write about things that make you more productive. It could be a tool on the web, or just a strategy for managing your to-do list. That kind of advice will be appreciated by all readers, regardless of their industry.
• Subscribe to other peoples blogs – See how others write and what they are writing about.

I don’t have the time to write…

• A blog post does not need to be long! In fact, many people read multiple blogs and news sites each day. Therefore, if your posts are brief and to the point, it may increase the chances that people will read them.
• Once you start writing blog posts, you’ll be surprised how often ideas for new posts pop into your head – often at random times. Therefore, find some way to jot those down. It might be in a Word document, or it may even be in the “Notes” feature on your iPhone.
• Use pictures! Do you have a chart or some other sort of image that can help tell the story? If so, plug it in. People will appreciate it – and it will eliminate the words that you have to write.

I’m very, very busy already. My to-do list is full.

Treat your blog post like an important appointment, or an anniversary. Tell yourself “Every other Tuesday I will write my blog by the end of the day” and stick with it.

These are just a few tips and tricks that could help. Let us know if have any specific questions about ways to get your blog going!

Image credit: Annie Mole

While using multiple channels in a marketing effort may increase the time needed on your part, it does not need to be hard. In fact, you want to use similar creative on your print piece, email, and landing page.  The messaging and call to action on the different channels should be consistent.

Thus, you need to think of your target audience and come up with content and creative, create your direct mail piece, email, and landing page. Once you have those assets ready, it’s time to execute. Here is a sample campaign idea for targeting your prospects across multiple channels, multiple times:

Week 1:

• Direct Mail (1) – Personalised landing page drives people to on-line response
• Email (1) After mailing drop, email is sent with link to landing page

Week 2:

• Direct Mail (2) to non-responders – General URL drives people to landing page

Week 3:

• Direct Mail (3) to non-responders – PURL drives people to landing page
• Email 2 – to non-responders

But more than that, you can also combine multiple channels by using auto-responders.  For example, let’s say someone responds to the PURL from the direct mail piece. On the landing page, they answer a few questions regarding what they’re interested in.

Well, as soon as they hit Submit, an email could be automatically sent to that individual.  The email may thank them, and also provide links to PDFs related specifically to what they expressed an interest in.

Yes, in a scenario such as this, you are reaching out to people multiple times and across multiple channels.

Sure, some people may opt out. But that will happen in any marketing effort.

Overall though with this approach, you will greatly increase your chances of converting these people from targets into members of your prospect database.

If you have answered yes to any of those questions, that is great. Most companies don’t!

I am guessing a lot of companies may take the approach of “on the fly” marketing. When inspiration hits, or you receive bad news from your finance and accounting team, you put the wheels in motion to do a direct mailer etc.

In business, you absolutely need to be flexible. You need to be willing to make adjustments to your priorities and marketing activities when circumstances call for it.

However, by laying out a marketing plan ahead of time, we can avoid a lot of the crashes and emergencies that arise every year. Along with that, we can avoid the trouble that some of us fall into – doing hardly any marketing at all!

I’m sure we all have the best intentions when it comes to promoting our business. We all want to do the right things to create a buzz about our product and services. But obstacles arise – maybe it’s time and resources… maybe we have a mental block on what the creative should be, or what the message should say. Or we feel that we don’t have the tools to execute it.

A marketing plan can help us prepare for and overcome those types of obstacles.

A marketing plan should be simple. It certainly involves a bit of thought and planning, as well as some honesty. But there is no need to make it complicated.

Filling in the 4P’s on a blank piece of paper may seem challenging. But, it doesn’t have to be. Start by thinking of what you’ve done in the past… How did you market your company last year? Or 3 years ago? Pay attention to how other people are marketing their business. A little bit of inspiration can go a long way.

After you’ve taken the step of defining your mix of marketing activities, the next step is to get out the calendar. Yes, you need to set goals for your business, and then set the actual dates for when you will execute the activities that you will reach those goals.

For example, here are a few possible activities that you should put dates on:

• Send out an e-Newsletter to my current customers on the 1st of every month
• Send out a promotional direct mailer 4 times a year (January, April, July, October)
• Run Holiday promotions (July and December)
• Place advertisements in March, May, and November
• Open House in June

There are certainly other items that you could identify on your marketing plan… But starting with the 4P’s and your calendar can really help you to succeed. Once you have it all filled out, don’t file it away! Make sure that it is visible to you over the months to come. This will help serve as a reminder for the activities that you have planned out…. it will help keep fresh in mind the priority and urgency that we all strive to have in regards to promoting our business.

The reasons are the data clients are providing only contain names and mailing address. In those scenarios, a personalised URL could be created. But then the only unique part about their landing page was the “Dear [FirstName]” line.

One thing to acknowledge is that personalised URLs are not the best fit for every campaign. You need to consider the data you have, but also the demographics of the target audience, the timing, the offer, etc.

However, if you only have a list of names and mailing addresses, does this mean that you should never do personalised URLs?

The answer to this should be a resounding “No”!

For one, if you are trying to show off that you can do personalised URLs, simply sending out a simple postcard containing one may catch the attention of a customer that does have great marketing data and they may be able to see the value you can offer by combining your marketing services with their data.

Also, with a bit of creativity, you can add a “personal” twist to what seems like the most mundane data list. Here are a few examples:

* Distance – We recently saw a campaign that was for a gym. The customer used an online program to calculate the distance from each recipient’s house to the gym. They then converted the mileage into steps. The postcard and landing page all displayed the following – “[FirstName] – you are only xxx steps away from achieving your fitness goals”
* Location – This one would work best when you are doing a mailing that targets contacts across multiple counties. Maybe you put the County seal on the appropriate mailer or landing page
* Gender – This one might be a bit too sensitive – but, there have been campaigns where users displayed different images and offers based on a person’s gender (which was determined by looking at the Title field)

These are just a few examples of how you can use name and address data to add personalisation to a campaign.

Here is one more way that you could demonstrate the personalisation capabilities that you have:

* When the user gets to the landing page, let them know they are about to experience personalisation in action – Sell it as an interactive tool.
* Have them answer a few basic questions. Perhaps, “what is your favourite colour?”, “favourite food?”, or “favourite time of day”? These questions would be dropdowns – thus, there is a fixed amount of answers.
* Upon clicking Submit, present the user with a landing page that is custom, based on the answers they provided to those 3 questions.

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service. It enables you to send and read other users’ updates, known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 bytes in length.

Why should you use it? – People will follow you. You can then provide information that they may find useful (perhaps links related to stories that affect your industry, or links to content that your company provides). Also, people post personal items on Twitter. This could help present the “human” aspect of your company to others.

Join us on twitter: www.twitter.com/keepa_ltd

Youtube

YouTube allows you to upload, share, and view videos online. You can also link to or embed these videos in your website and landing pages.

Why should you use it? – Video is a great way to get your message across. People are bombarded with marketing messages… Sometimes a video is the one that gets your prospects attention, and also delivers your message.
Blogger

A blog is a website which is usually maintained by an individual or a group of people. It typically stands apart from your corporate website because a lot of times they offer commentary. Typically, the topics are related to something in your industry… or common challenges that people in your business face each day.

Why should you use it? – A blog can be a great way for people to become familiar with YOU. Perhaps they are not in the mood to read the sales-related material on your website, so they click on your blog. From there, they become familiar with your expertise and what you care about – all the while seeing the link to your company website on the page.
LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. As of February 2009, it had more than 35 million registered users, spanning 170 industries.

Why should you use it? – The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections.

Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

* A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second degree connections) and also the connections of second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
* It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one’s contact network.
* Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
* Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.

Link with our Director: www.linkedin.com/in/paulmitchellkeepa