Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

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vol. 29 No. 4 April 2016 The AuThoriTy oN DATA-DriveN eNgAgemeNT & operATioNs PM40050803 4 Writing great email copy 10 Maximizing email deliverability 16 Supplement: Marketing apps GEOFF LINTON, PRESIDENT OF INBOX MARKETER, BALANCES HIS ON- AND OFFLINE MIX. Find your optimal email marketing balance 8 FREE Register at www.financialoperations.ca GARY TANNYAN

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Transcript of Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

Page 1: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

vol. 29 • No. 4 • April 2016 The AuThoriTy oN DATA-DriveN eNgAgemeNT & operATioNs

PM40050803

❱ 4Writing great email copy

❱ 10Maximizing email deliverability

❱ 16Supplement: Marketing apps

Geoff Linton, president of inbox Marketer, baLances his on- and offLine Mix.

Find your optimal email marketing balance ❱ 8

FREE

Register at www.financialoperations.ca

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DMN.ca ❰April 2016

Vol. 29 | No. 4 | April 2016

EDITORSarah O’Connor - [email protected]

PRESIDENT Steve Lloyd - [email protected]

DESIGN / PRODUCTIONJennifer O’Neill - [email protected]

ADvERTISING SAlESMark Henry - [email protected]

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSPeter BakerJohn BoniniShaunna ConwayLee Dale

Robi GangulySimon KhalafGeoff LintonMichael Madden

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[email protected] www.dmn.ca

EDITORIAl CONTACT: Direct Marketing is published monthly by Lloydmedia Inc. plus the annual DM Industry Source Book and List of Lists.Direct Marketing may be obtained through paid subscription. Rates: Canada 1 year (12 issues $48) 2 years (24 issues $70)U.S. 1 year (12 issues $60) 2 years (24 issues $100)Direct Marketing is an independently-produced publication not affiliated in any way with any association or organized group nor with any publication produced either in Canada or the United States. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome. However unused manuscripts will not be returned unless accompanied by sufficient postage. Occasionally Direct Marketing provides its subscriber mailing list to other companies whose product or service may be of value to readers. If you do not want to receive information this way simply send your subscriber mailing label with this notice to: Lloydmedia Inc. 302-137 Main Street North Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada.

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Twitter: @DMNewsCanada

4 ❯Writing great email copy

6 ❯UNICEF Canada: Improving donor engagement with a new fundraising product

8 ❯Find your optimal email marketing balance

10 ❯Three strategies for maximizing email deliverability

12 ❯Spotlight on: E-statements

ENgagEMENT & aNalyTICS

OpEraTIONS & lOgISTICS

INdUSTry NEWS

14 ❯Environics analytics acquires the Boire Filler group

15 ❯“Selfie pay” app arrives

MarkETINg appS

16 ❯User-centric design key to driving engagement across digital properties

18 ❯know what your customers really want, thanks to cognitive commerce

20 ❯Five mobile app marketing mistakes to avoid

22 ❯Mobile app usage insights from Flurry

24 ❯Census Q&a with dr. doug Norris

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Writing great email copyQ&a with ann Handley, chief content officer at MarketingProfs

By JOhN BONINI

Writing for email may be one

of the most difficult jobs in marketing. Different segments

require different messaging. The devices your subscribers are using affect the perceived value of your copy (what’s helpful on desktop may be long and labourious on mobile).

And subject lines? You have just a few short words to compel your subscribers to open, otherwise all that copy you wrote has significantly less impact.

When it comes to writing well,

there are few people who get it more than Ann Handley. She, quite literally, wrote the book on content marketing (first Content Rules then her most recent bestseller Everybody Writes). She pioneered a movement when she founded ClickZ in 1997, one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary on the web.

Cited in Forbes as the most influential woman in social media and recognized by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers, Handley is one of the foremost authoritative voices on the topic of writing for business. Here is our conversation on how to write great email copy,

including tips on writing succinctly, achieving pathological empathy and being personable and profitable at the same time in all of your emails.

Q: Receiving emails that are both relevant and

interesting is so rare. I’m always impressed at how your newsletter from AnnHandley.com consistently achieves both. How do you approach writing such compelling emails that keep your audience engaged?

A: People don’t think before they put out the ink.

It’s much easier to write long and include everything than it is to go back, edit and decide what to include. Shorter is harder to write than longer.

I think the critical thing is to barf up that first email and then go back and swap places with your recipient in a sense and figure out “what is it I’m really trying to convey here? Am I saying things as succinctly as I can or am I being indulgent as a writer? Do I really need to include all this background or can I just get right to the point?”

Just that simple act alone of writing what you want to write, then going back to edit it with an eye toward the

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recipient is huge. It sounds so obvious and so simple, but you should look at my inbox right now. It’s filled with emails from people who didn’t do that. They just threw it up there and a five paragraph email could’ve easily been half that.

Q: If writing shorter emails is harder, how do we begin

to write more succinctly and effectively?

A: The key is understanding the one thing you’re trying to

convey. It should only be one thing. You shouldn’t have four or five calls-to-action and if you do you should really go back and reconsider sending only one email.

Every email should have just one key point. Boil down your message, not only to an elevator speech but literally a tweet. You should be able to convey the key idea in just a word. That doesn’t mean that every email has to be that short, of course, but I think the key idea behind it should be very succinct.

I make a habit of writing the key idea behind anything I write in bold at the top of my draft. This way, I can refer back and ensure that I’m always staying true to what I’m trying to convey.

Once you get clear about what it is you’re trying to say, building a short message around that and not wasting the audience’s time is much easier.

Q: You talk a lot about not just being empathetic, but

achieving pathological empathy with your subscribers. How can marketers go about that?

A: The notion of pathological empathy really means to focus

relentlessly on the recipient. And it’s something you can work at. I don’t think we’re all naturally empathic. You really do need to put yourself in the midst of the person you’re writing to.

Have enormous empathy for the problems that they’re having and don’t just talk about the features and benefits of the solutions that you offer, put it in terms of how it helps them.

I think a very easy place to convey empathy is in your calls-to-action. I love the way Joanna Wiebe of Copy Hackers words it. She describes this approach by saying, “don’t amplify the act of proceeding, amplify the value of it. So not ‘free trial,’ but rather ‘end scheduling hassles.’”

It’s a subtle shift, but it’s an

important one. Because you suddenly realize this isn’t just about starting a free trial, it’s actually about what that free trial will do for the recipient.

Q: How do successful companies align their

messaging with the problems their audience is having?

A: Talk to them. In my experience, a lot of marketers don’t

actually talk to customers. Sales talks to customers. Customer service talks to customers. But a lot of times marketing doesn’t. So just make it a point to have conversations with the people you’re communicating with.

That could mean picking up the phone every once in awhile and calling five customers and getting a feel for their challenges, or sending out a quick survey with a few challenges you want to ask about. Do this once every quarter and keep your pulse on the problems your audience is having.

At MarketingProfs, I actually get a ton of insight just by listening on Twitter. So not just sharing and broadcasting on social networks, but just listening to what marketers talk about, showing up at Twitter chats, not so much to talk but to hear the conversation. To understand what the point of view is of marketers in different industries.

That type of social prospecting can yield a lot of data that you can then use to inform the email that you’re putting out there.

Q: How can brands balance being personable, as

you often do, while also being profitable?

A: It really depends on who you are as a brand. A lot of

companies can’t easily define who they are. Sure they can say “we’re a fun company with a certain point of view,” but when you actually ask them to define it in three words, they can’t. I ask companies, “if you covered up the brand logo, do you sound like everyone else? If the label fell off your product, would everyone know who you are?”

And very often the answer is no. And a lot of companies haven’t done this exercise and know who they are, but a super simple thing brands can do is come up with three attributes that define who you are as a company and what you’re like to deal with. Using your voice to differentiate your brand is a huge advantage.

Q: How do you achieve personalization in your

own emails?

A: Pay attention to your writing and value your writing as a

way to convey all of these things we’re talking about. Personalization does not mean “Dear [first_name] here.”

Instead what it means is really taking that human tone and writing for one specific person. I do that all the time on my own blog. I always think about, “who is this really going to help?” So coming at it from that perspective and writing to one person and not just a nameless, faceless mass of people—that alone can help.

I think it’s important for companies to approach their marketing from a place of humility, to respect their audience. To put themselves out there to support their audience in any way that they can. Just starting there is a great place to start.

Q: How long should an email be?

A: In general, I think shorter is better. I think brevity always

rules. I think if you could say it more simply, you should.

If your writing requires more space, I’m not against long messages. What I am against is wasting the time of the audience. As long as you respect the audience and you’re coming from a place of humility, I think it’s completely fine to write as long as you need to. But nothing self-indulgent. Don’t waste the time of your audience.

Q: How do you reengage an unresponsive email list?

A: Send a simple and direct message to that segment and

say, ‘do you want to be on this list? do you find value in it?’ Offer them an opportunity to speak back with you.

You might find that it’s just not going to be of any interest to them. That’s okay. I wouldn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to reengage people who aren’t interested. Ultimately, if they’re not interested, they’re not interested.

I don’t think it’s a wise action to try and reengage people after you’ve given them one last shot.

Q: In Everybody Writes, you list out writing rules for various

aspects of copy. What would you say the email rules for writing are?

A: I don’t think my approach to writing email is all that

different to writing anything else.Thinking about the recipient as

being one person, not just a mass of people or a customer segment, is enormously helpful because it allows me to write in a more natural voice because I’m writing to one person in the space of their email inbox.

The other thing that it does is it forces you to think about the value you’re trying to convey when it’s only one person.

JOhN BONINI is the growth director at Litmus, an

email testing & analytics software company

helping marketers optimize their emails for

every inbox. A version of this article originally

appeared on litmus.com/blog, as the first post

in Litmus’s new Email Copywriting Series. Visit

Litmus’ blog to listen to the full transcript of

John’s conversation with Ann.

The principles of writing great email copy

Get all of your ideas out in a i. first draft. Do not self-edit or worry about anything other than getting words on paper.

after completing your draft, go ii. back and swap places with the recipient. ask yourself, “am I being too indulgent as a writer? can I get to the point quicker?”

In regards to your call-to-iii. action, don’t amplify the act of proceeding, amplify the value of it.

Define three attributes that iv. define who you are as a company. These should dictate the voice and tone of all of your messaging.

Think about the recipient as v. being one person, not just a mass of people and/or customer segment.

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UNICEF Canada: Improving donor engagement with a new fundraising productBy pETEr BakEr

Since its founding after World War II, the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF,

has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization. And for 60 years, UNICEF Canada has contributed to the cause by raising money for food, health care, sanitation and educational programs—$35 million this past year alone.

But with 230 million children suffering in countries plagued by armed conflicts, inadequate health services and poor nutrition, UNICEF Canada is always looking for new ways to entice donors. In the past, most of its contributions—about one-third of revenues—came from a monthly donor program promoted through direct mail, email, door-to-door canvassing and community events. Contributors responded to the organization’s broad message to deliver aid where it was needed most.

But last year Deana Shaw, vice president of direct and integrated marketing at UNICEF Canada,

wondered if the organization could better connect with donors. A 20-year marketing veteran with experience in both corporate and not-for-profit sectors, she’d already helped raise over $125 million in support of children through UNICEF Canada. But with new technology changing the way Canadians accessed information and responded to charitable causes, Shaw worried that giving patterns were changing. She believed that UNICEF Canada needed to develop a new donation instrument that gave contributors more choice in how their money would be spent.

“You can’t assume that what you’ve done in the past will work in the future,” says Shaw from her office in Toronto. “We needed a product for people who were philanthropic but also wanted to see the impact of their gift. We wondered how close the donor could get to the experience of changing a child’s life.”

To create the new monthly donor product, UNICEF turned to Environics

Analytics (EA), the marketing and data analytics company, to learn more about the demographics and social values of current monthly donors. Analysts examined them using PRIZM, the segmentation system that classifies Canadians into 68 different lifestyle types. The research identified eight groups of PRIZM segments—with names like Urbane Villagers (wealthy, middle-aged urban sophisticates), Young Digerati (younger, upscale urban trendsetters) and Grey Pride (lower-middle-class suburban apartment-dwelling seniors)—that accounted for 94% of monthly donations.

EA analysts then profiled the donor groups, detailing where they lived, how they spent their time and

money, and what issues were most important to them—all to help guide UNICEF Canada’s marketing and messaging. For instance, one of the segment groups, named Older Affluent Families, expressed a strong connection to their community, which suggested that they’d respond to a message emphasizing the organization’s mission to help children. Meanwhile, another group named Young Upscale Monthly Donors scored high for global social consciousness, indicating an interest in helping people around the world. “The detailed demographic and values data provided UNICEF with insight into who donates to us and how to speak to them,” says Shaw.

“You can’t assume that what you’ve done in the past will work in the future.”

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UNICEF Canada also organized a half-dozen focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of its donors and how the donation product might be structured. The resulting marketing brief was given to the organization’s creative agency, Idea Studio, which came back with a new monthly donation product called Survival 365. With Survival 365, every time a donor makes a contribution, UNICEF responds with an emailed thank-you message detailing what life-saving products their donation purchased, such as bed nets to combat malaria or water purification tablets to provide children with clean water.

“Depending on which month we are in, the message may say that your donation of $20 provided 2,580 water purification tablets or 45 measles vaccines,” Shaw explains. “This approach helps donors feel connected to what they’re giving. It enables us to convey to someone who is supporting children through UNICEF the impact of their gift every month. That’s the power of the program.”

Last August, UNICEF Canada launched Survival 365 with door-

to-door and email test campaigns in the Calgary market. The results were eye-opening. Although the average gift amount was the same as the traditional monthly program, the attrition rate of Survival 365 donors from one month to the next was 30% lower—reflecting the “stickiness” of the new campaign among donors. At the same time, marketers quickly reached their initial goal of attracting 500 new donors across Canada.

“The results are preliminary but have been phenomenal,” says Shaw. “It’s been quite a success and there’s a lot of future potential.” Eventually, UNICEF Canada hopes to make all of their monthly programs digital-only to save money on the marketing costs. “This product is already appealing because more donors are staying on and our return on investment is higher,” she continues. “But we should see cost efficiencies improve over time with this digital-only program because we won’t have to worry about postage and production costs from mailings.”

And the product’s impact will likely be felt beyond Canada. At a recent meeting of UNICEF fundraising

leaders in Geneva, other countries expressed interest in Survival 365, including the United States, China, Australia and New Zealand. “There was a lot of excitement,” says Shaw. “There’s definitely global appeal and there are already a lot of eyes on this because we’ve had such a great result in a short period of time.”

Still, Shaw is proud of the fact that Survival 365 was developed in Canada and may become the organization’s flagship monthly product. The mother of three admits that she’s passionate about her UNICEF work and hopes to leave a positive legacy for her children. Although most young people in North America don’t experience the basic life challenges facing those in other

parts of the world, she wants to make sure her children remain aware of their plight and know there is always something they can do to help.

“We’re fortunate living in North America,” Shaw says. “But when you work for UNICEF, you’re exposed to the needs that exist around the world. And you learn that such a small amount of money can have such a big impact. If I have a product that will engage Canadians and keep them on that journey for a longer time, that’s what we’re all about.”

pETEr BakEr is vice president of Environics

Analytics, overseeing the municipal and

regional governments, university advancement

and fundraising sectors.

“This approach helps donors feel connected to what they’re giving. It enables us to convey… the impact of their gift every month.”

ENgagEMENT & aNalyTICS

North American Direct Marketing provides list brokerage, list management and direct marketing services including data processing, printing and mailing services to various Organizations which includes Consumer Mailers, Business Mailers, Advertising Agencies, Government, Financial Services and Non Profit Organizations in North America and Internationally. Our Customer Acquisition solutions include List Brokerage and List Management services of Postal Lists, Telemarketing Lists, CASL Compliant Email Lists, Alternative Media Programs, Prospecting Database Development Services and Modeling and Profiling services. Our Customer Retention Solutions includes Data Append Services, Telephone Append Services and Email Append Services. Our Customer Asset Monetization Solutions include Prospecting Database Participation Development, CASL Compliant Email Lists Deployment and Co-registration programs.

North American Direct Marketing offers comprehensive list brokerage, list management and direct marketing services including data processing, printing and mailing.For more information please contact:Kim Young: [email protected] Lewis: [email protected]

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North American Direct Marketing, 44 Wellesworth Drive, Suite 206, Toronto, Ontario, M9C 4R1Ph: 416-622-8700 • Fax: 416-622-8701 • Toll Free: 1-888-378-2711

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Find your optimal email marketing balancea major step toward reaching the next level of marketing

By gEOFF lINTON

A major charity recently asked me to give a “State of Marketing” address

to their marketing team as part of their quarterly training and planning conclave. Over 35 marketing veterans and subject matter experts assembled and we all agreed that over the past five years digital marketing has undergone an immense transformation. This transformation has had its share of negatives (increased expectations from consumers, greater complexity for marketers and tougher to measure attribution) but it’s been balanced with positives (instantaneous communication tools, lots of data, the ability to execute faster than ever and more focus on customer experience). This principle of balance is important for marketers, especially in a sensitive medium like email marketing.

A blend of art and scienceMarketing today is multi-faceted. More science is influencing an industry that has traditionally relied on creative horsepower and big ideas. Marketing leaders are bringing together the “right brain” creatives with the “left brain” analysts. The key will be to meld them into an agile team that can stay aligned, constantly

learning from one another. The benefit is the synergies that can be created when the two come together (1 + 1 = 3).

There is more to it than just left brain meets right brain. Balance and alignment are important for organizations who are trying to transform their marketing. There are often so many moving pieces that a balanced approach gives marketers a wider perspective and better understanding of their ecosystem.

The following are some practical tips on how companies can find a better balance, or “zen,” at three different levels (starting with the easiest and progressing to the most difficult).

Level one: Creative that resonatesOne size fits all creative doesn’t work in today’s marketing world. With shorter attention spans and constant interruptions, email creative needs to grab a recipient’s attention, be easily scannable and, most importantly, be immediately relevant. So what creative works? The answers can be uncovered through testing and measurement. Our suggestion is to deploy different creative and then use science and data

to determine what really works.[Note: the left side of the yin and

yang email diagram represents the science side, while the right side represents the science side of messaging (disclosure: yes the author

is an engineer with an MBA).Each quarter our agency conducts creative audits for

clients. Our analysts dive into the metrics and consumer behaviour, while our strategists look for creative patterns that work. Very often outlier data points appear that draw our

attention, prompting us to ask important questions like,

what happened and why?The best creative strategy is

to rely less on opinion and more

Source: The Talent Revolution in Digital Marketing, Boston Consulting Group, September 2015

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on validated learning (not surprising because great creative usually evolves from a core insight) .We have found that by more closely aligning creative (right brain team) and analysts (left brain employees) clients can improve their click-to-open rate percentage (CTRO%) by 12–30% (on a 12 month basis).

Instead of using general design principles, organizations should conduct a series of tests to prioritize the email design principles that work best for their business. Applying a set of heuristic rules can be an effective guide for better optimization.

If you want to take creative design to an even higher level, some marketers are testing biometric eye-tracking. Eye tracking video analysis and metrics prove hypothesized behaviour. In several cases, we’ve used eye-tracking to show clients what does NOT work and where the customer experience friction actually occurred.

The best balanced approach for creative is to have your creative and analytical team work in tandem in a game of “design collaboration.” Two perspectives are better than one and if ever in doubt just test the creative.

Level two: The optimal type and mix of campaignsEmail campaigns take a lot of resources. To save time, every email marketer should ideally have a contact strategy and content plan. There needs to be a careful balance of relational versus transactional messages and email campaigns shouldn’t be done in isolation.

Execution is how marketers win and marketing campaign management (MCM) can be a powerful sustainable competitive advantage. MCM excellence is about continuously and efficiently repeating five key steps: plan, design, execute, monitor/manage and analyze.

According to author and professor Mark Jeffrey, MCM can really make a difference and has a positive correlation to firm performance. Many organizations have all the pieces for MCM excellence but they aren’t aligned, partly because some stakeholders have a narrow view of their role in the ecosystem.

The four capabilities that support MCM are:

Selection: ❯ focus on key campaigns for your constituents and make sure you execute the right type of campaigns (note: it’s amazing that even today many marketers

don’t have a simple email welcome stream). Portfolio view: ❯ this is how marketers determine what messages get sent to a specific person or segment. The challenge is that in large organizations there are a plethora of campaigns and often there is no 360-degree view of who receives what. Leading email marketers assign “air traffic controllers” to be the arbitrators of what campaigns are deployed when and to whom. Different companies take varying control approaches and set rules (sending rules that establish thresholds; rules of engagement) while others highlight blackout periods where no divisional email can be sent. Adaptive learning: ❯ is a discipline practiced by many e-leaders. It involves disciplined testing and measurement. But remember, to be useful the learning must be proven, documented and shared… otherwise it gets wasted.Monitoring: ❯ marketers need to be honest about what is working and what is not. Executives need to be aware that sometimes there is conflict between competing campaigns and that some campaigns may need to be adjusted or temporarily suppressed for the greater good of the organization. The important part of monitoring is that someone in the organization needs to oversee the contact strategy to ensure it is generating the desired results and that recipients have a good customer experience.

Level 3: The right talent on the bus, sitting in the right seatsBuilding a top performing digital team takes time and careful planning. Once the marketing vision and strategies are confirmed it is time for the tricky task of determining the optimal organizational structure. Top organizations hire a diverse mix of people with experience in different sectors. Additionally, team leaders should be versed in many of the nine skill areas outlined in the Digital Marketing Skills Framework.

There is a shortage of digital marketing talent, so you will need a mix of subject matter experts and leaders who can see the holistic picture. But also make sure you have redundancy and people who can challenge each other. Innovation and excellence come from asking the deeper questions. Don’t forget about strategic partners because they can provide informed opinions on scorecards, benchmarks and best practices that work.

The final element of talent is to nurture a culture of intrinsically driven and curious marketers. Encourage them to meet smart peers from outside their organization and to scour the internet for the latest conference presentations and notes. Have them allocate two hours of time, once a quarter, to think more deeply about their marketing and what the really important questions they should be asking are (see sidebar). In a world of marketing disruption some of your core beliefs will get outdated; constant learning will keep your perspective current.

Final thoughtsIn an agile working environment, balance and alignment can sometimes be sacrificed for speed but remember that collaboration and integrating different perspectives is a stronger approach. While one of the downsides of balance is that not everyone gets their way (all the time); trade-offs are sometimes necessary for the greater good (for the holistic mission). You don’t have to always chase the micro goals. It’s more important to do the right things in a thoughtful manner. From my 25 years of industry experience, marketers who harness the above three levels of balance will find themselves achieving transformational outcomes like uber-engagement, a loyal base and massive ROI!

gEOFF lINTON is the president of Inbox Marketer.

Questions marketers should ask themselvesBusiness model validation:

What are the fundamental drivers ❯

and assumptions about our business? are they still true today?How are we building sustainable ❯

competitive advantages?

Marketing planning:Who is my core audience? How well ❯

do we really know them? What are the key communication ❯

periods for our team?How many tests did we conduct ❯

this year? Where is the learning documented? Did we develop “bankable” insights?

When planning a tactic:How does this strategy/tactic help ❯

my plan? Is it in alignment with our organization? Does it generate measurable ❯

results that are tied to our KPIs?can we gain strategic insights that ❯

I can share?How can I create a greater amount ❯

of valuable data (for myself and other internal teams)?

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OpEraTIONS & lOgISTICS

By MIChaEl MaddEN

Let’s get one thing straight: deliverability is

sexy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It’s

the only way your emails get seen, opened and clicked on. And if you can increase your deliverability by even just one per cent, it can have a significant impact on your ROI.

But achieving high deliverability rates that could make even a mailman jealous doesn’t come easy. Think of it this way: as an email marketer, you’re like the friendly neighbourhood mailman. Every house that you deliver email to has a guard dog (ISP). And on days when you have junk mail (spam) or aren’t friendly to folks on your route (poor IP reputation), these dogs will chase you away and only let you deliver some of your mail. To maximize your email deliverability, you need to be familiar with these three deliverability tactics:

1 Set lower bounce thresholdsWhen you hear the word

“bounce,” you might think about fun

trampolines or bounce houses. But for marketers, when an email bounces, it’s like bouncing on a trampoline except without all the fun and about 100 times the danger. Okay, I might be exaggerating—but there are definitely some business risks involved. To understand why, let’s first define soft bounces and hard bounces.

Soft bounce: A temporary problem with email deliverability that can be due to an unavailable server or full inbox.Emails that soft bounce over and over again should be retired from future campaigns. If an email continuously

soft bounced 10 times in the last 10 campaigns, it might be soft bouncing for reasons other than a temporary server issue. To keep your deliverability rate high and the risk of that soft bounce becoming something more, it’s best to retire that email for good.

Hard bounce: A permanent failure to deliver an email, usually as a result of the email address being non-existent, invalid or blocked.The fewer hard bounces, the better. ISPs prefer senders to have low hard bounce rates because it shows that you

take care of your email lists and keep them fresh. Furthermore, because a hard bounced email may be invalid, non-existent or blocked entirely, it’s a great candidate for a spam trap, which is an inactive, deliverable email address owned by an ISP to catch spammy senders.

Hitting a spam trap will severely hurt your deliverability and sender reputation, especially with a specific ISP, and could potentially put your IP address on a blacklist, an online database of spammy senders. Once your IP is on a blacklist, you’ll find it awfully difficult to get your emails delivered.

So what should you do to improve your soft bounce and hard bounce rates? Employ a bounce management strategy! Here’s how:

Managing soft bounces: Whether you use an email service provider (ESP) or a marketing automation solution, you should be able to set a soft bounce threshold. Oftentimes, these are set to a conservative number like 10 soft bounces = a hard bounce or an email that should be retired from

Three strategies for maximizing email deliverability

When an email bounces, it’s like bouncing on a trampoline except without all the fun and about 100 times the danger.

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OpEraTIONS & lOgISTICS

email campaigns for good.Managing hard bounces: Retire

all invalid address hard bounces immediately. Most email providers and marketing automation solutions do this for you, but not all do, so make sure that any email that hard bounces is removed from your list. And if you’re using an ESP where you load email lists into the campaign from an external data source like SQL tables or Microsoft Access, be sure to regularly export all of your hard bounces and add them into a suppression list after each campaign. Then, scrub them against your email database when

running a list selection.

2 Don’t buy listsWhether you’ve been doing email

marketing for a while or you’re a brand new business just starting up, buying an email list and having a larger email database can seem attractive, but it’s generally a poor practice and it may be detrimental to your deliverability rates and sender reputation. Here are four reasons why:

Unsolicited emails:i. If your recipients have never heard from you before or never opted in to receive your communications, your emails could look like spam to them. When an email recipient marks you as spam, your sender reputation will decrease and ISPs will be suspicious of your activities. With enough spam complaints, you could land your IP on a blacklist, ultimately making it harder for all your future emails to be delivered to the folks who actually opted-in to your communications.Quality:ii. You can’t always trust the quality of a list. You don’t know where the names came from, whether the email addresses are correctly formatted and whether they’ve been scrubbed for spam traps or syntax errors. The email addresses could be old and the

demographics can be all over the place. You just never really know what you’re getting yourself into.Spam Rate:iii. Email service providers and marketing automation solutions typically have spam rate thresholds in place so if you receive a certain percentage of spam complaints per email delivered, they may terminate your contract. This is because if you are using IP addresses associated with an ESP or marketing automation solution and you’re sending spam, it’s a bad reflection on them as well to ISPs. And they need to maintain good

standing relationships with ISPs to properly service their other clients. I’ve heard that for some ESPs, if your spam rate goes above 0.5%, they’ll reach out to you to do a full audit of your sending behaviours and list hygiene practices. They don’t want to jeopardize their business reputation just because you had to buy some lists.Bad metrics:iv. This one should be obvious. Your email metrics will plummet with bad lists! These people didn’t want to hear from you, so very few of them will open and click your emails. Is getting a few email clicks worth losing customer engagement? No, especially when you have to explain the reason to your executives.

3 Segment by engagementGetting an ISP to love you is no

easy task. Getting all of them to love you is arguably more difficult than getting your celebrity crush to love you. Believe me, I know (you know

where to find me, Adele). The number one thing ISPs love to see is high levels of engagement, which means lots of recipients opening, clicking, reading, scrolling and engaging with your emails on a regular basis.

When you have high email engagement, ISPs will allow the majority of your emails to hit the primary inbox because the demand from your recipients is high. This is called inboxing, which is the percentage of emails that hit the primary inbox as opposed to the spam folder or junk folder. So how do you use email engagement your advantage to

get more email inboxing?Let’s take a look at four

scenarios based on this mock situation:

Let’s say you send 100,000 emails that all get delivered. Of those 100,000 emails, 20k engaged within the last 90 days and the remaining 80k haven’t shown any engagement in more than 90 days (the numbers in the examples are made-up based off of my previous experience with

campaigns of this nature).Scenario A: If you were to just

send emails to the engaged group of 20k, the open rate would be 18%, the click-through rate would be three per cent and the unsubscribe rate would be zero per cent. I’m assuming the unsubscribe rate is zero per cent because typically when people just engaged, they aren’t likely to unsubscribe. So these are great metrics!

Scenario B: Conversely, if you only sent an email to the 80k group of unengaged emails, the open rate would be three per cent, the click through rate would be 0.2%, and the unsubscribe rate is a little high at 0.31%. Metrics that could definitely be better. Again, these numbers are just to illustrate a point.

Scenario C: Now, if you send an email to all 100,000 at the same time, the open rate would be a six per cent open rate, with a 0.76% CTR and a 0.25% unsubscribe rate. This example is probably what most marketers

do and therefore the metrics you’d expect based on this example.

Scenario D: If you take a different approach and only send the email to the group of 20k engaged email addresses first, wait 30 minutes and then send the email to the group of 80k unengaged emails, you’ll get better inboxing rates. This is because when you send emails to engaged recipients first, the ISPs will boost your reputation based on the high engagement on that email. So, when you send to the group of unengaged emails, you’ll actually get higher inbox placement just because you warmed up your sender reputation.

In this example (and similar experiences I’ve had), by sending the 20k engaged emails first, inboxing for the group of 80k unengaged emails increased from 55% to 70% when email sends were staggered. The overall effect on inboxing was an increase from 63% to 75%, which definitely moves the needle!

Key takeaway: If you stagger your sends by engagement, you’ll see higher deliverability rates and much higher inboxing. This is a really cool strategy that not too many people use today but it is extremely effective.

Deliver resultsGet your emails delivered and placed in the primary inbox by following the three deliverability strategies I’ve outlined. First, set lower soft bounce and hard bounce thresholds to reduce your risk of hitting spam traps and hurting your sender reputation. Second, do not, I repeat, do not purchase lists. You can’t always control for list quality or cleanliness. Lastly, stagger your email sends by levels of engagement. You’ll achieve better inboxing and overall stronger email metrics.

MIkE MaddEN is a demand generation program

manager at Marketo. He works on email

strategy, execution, and analysis. Outside of

work, he is a big fan of M&Ms, early morning

rounds of golf and hiking. A version of this

article originally appeared on the Marketo blog

(blog.marketo.com).

Is getting a few email clicks worth losing customer engagement? No, especially when you have to explain the reason to your executives.

When you send emails to engaged recipients first, the ISPs will boost your reputation based on the high engagement on that email.

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Spotlight on: E-statementsE-statements deliver:

On-going communication with a brand’s most loyal customers ❯

Customer-specific information on point totals and reward levels ❯

A regular reminder of the loyalty program’s benefits ❯

Additional opportunities to earn points and redeem awards ❯

E-statement performanceBecause loyalty programs target a set of best customers, it is not surprising that e-statements performed quite well compared to standard promotional mailings from the same brands.

The majority of the campaigns analyzed contained the following account-related features:

Account number ❯

Point balances ❯

Points or dollars required to achieve the next reward or program level ❯

A link for account management ❯

Program benefits ❯

Account-related links received an average of 29% of the clicks in these mailings. Even though loyalty points and rewards were the focus (and in many cases, the main images) of the emails, links to other products and offers received more than 50% of clicks. This represents an opportunity for brands to consider and test new creative elements, product information and offers to include in their e-statements.

Areas of opportunity:A navigation bar listing the main product areas for the brand received as ❯

much as 25% of overall clicks. Calls-to-action to “Shop Now” or “Book Now” typically received between ❯

five and 10% of clicks. “New Arrivals,” “Hot Products” and “Your Next Getaway’ also caught ❯

loyalty members’ attention.

Summary E-statements provide on-going, personalized communication with a brand’s most loyal customers. In addition to valuing the loyalty program information in e-statements, customers clearly respond to promotional links throughout these emails.

Source: Experian Marketing Services, Q4 2015 Email Benchmark Report

FOr MOrE INFOrMaTION, please contact Experian Marketing Services’ strategic services

team at [email protected].

OpEraTIONS & lOgISTICS

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Industry news

acquisition will expand Ea’s custom consulting capabilities

By Sarah O’CONNOr

On March 21, 2016, Environics Analytics (EA) announced that it had acquired the

Boire Filler Group, the Toronto-based data analytics company that specializes in predictive analytics, data management, business intelligence and customer-centric service for a wide range of clients including Hudson Bay Company, Nestle, CAA and Whirlpool. The acquisition will expand EA’s data and analytics services, particularly as they relate to custom consulting and data analytics program design.

Ten former Boire Filler staff members, including founders Richard Boire and Larry Filler, have joined the EA team. Boire is a nationally recognized expert in data mining and analytics with 30 years of experience and a regular Direct Marketing contributor. Filler brings over 25 years of experience in relationship and database marketing and particular expertise related to transforming data into insights that can be leveraged to drive more effective CRM results.

Responding to marketers’ changing needsJan Kestle, president and founder of EA, emphasizes that while there was a small degree of overlap between EA’s data services and modelling and those of the Boire Filler Group, the two companies never saw themselves

as direct competitors and often collaborated.

“There were many points in time when we partnered and when the clients that Rich and Larry were working with would have our data or Rich and Larry would acquire our data to use in the work that they were doing,” Kestle explains. “Over the past few years we’d seen a phenomenon happening where customers were saying to us, ‘we like working with you and your data… but what we really need help with is getting our data together, integrating it, managing it and designing the analytics process.’”

In response EA had expanded their custom consulting services with a small dedicated team to help marketers gain a 360-degree view of the customer, but found that the demand for these services was far greater than their internal team could address. This gap has largely motivated EA’s recent string of acquisitions, including SM Research, Pivotal Contact and now the Boire Filler Group.

“The fact that we had customers who wanted us to help them with their data management was a big incentive to figure out how we could expand our resources there,” says Kestle. Instead of asking time- and resource-strapped marketers to juggle multiple service providers, it made more sense to offer

these clients, many of whom were already working with both EA and the Boire Filler Group, an integrated service to help them acquire, cleanse, integrate and act on their data.

“This really allows us to offer our clients the optimal solution,” says Filler. “I really think that this is great for the marketplace.”

“[EA is] a little bigger but we’re both boutique agencies,” says Kestle. We both specialize in diagnosing a business problem, understanding what the right tool is to answer the particular business question, helping clients use the data, helping them implement and measure their results. We’re very agile and hands-on. So culturally it was a great fit.”

In addition to expanding EA’s custom consulting capabilities, it is expected that the particular expertise of Boire, Filler and the rest of their team will help shape future data products and software from EA.

Sometimes bigger really is better“The data environment analytics is evolving very quickly, and I believe that there is a need to bring more people to the table to look at problems, to look at data,” says Boire. “I think what’s exciting is that we are now part of a big team and we can start to be more forward thinking—the Internet of Things, telematics, it’s all data. It’s

very exciting. What’s really exciting is its no longer just 12 of us; it’s 100+ and growing.”

When asked how this acquisition will change the profile of the types of clients EA serves, Kestle notes that while Boire and Filler do bring expertise in sectors that EA traditionally has not done much business, including risk management, contact centres and operations management, the primary motivation for the acquisition is closer partnerships with existing customers, with expanded products and services that better address their needs.

“When you’re able to provide more tools, solutions and scale to an enterprise or to a client, the ability to be a bigger and better partner and to do better things is really what this, from our standpoint, is all about,” agrees Filler. “It’s moving from a tactical model to really helping clients build their whole analytics strategy.”

“By joining with EA,” said Boire is a release, “we will be able to access EA’s incredible data and services and strengthen the analytics, modelling, consulting and data management expertise that we offer. I truly believe that by joining the talents and experience of our two companies, we’ve created a powerful organization that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Jan Kestle Richard Boire Larry Filler

Environics Analytics acquires the Boire Filler Group

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Industry news

“Selfie Pay” app arrivesMastercard, BMO introduce first biometric corporate card program in canada, U.S.

By Sarah O’CONNOr

BMO Financial Group (BMO) and MasterCard have begun a phased launch of Identity Check, the first

biometric credit card program in Canada and the U.S. that will enable cardholders to verify transactions using facial recognition and fingerprint biometrics.

Quickly dubbed “Selfie Pay” by the media, Identity Check will be used to verify online purchases. If an e-commerce transaction is flagged as questionable by MasterCard, cardholders who opt in to the program will be prompted to provide their fingerprint or “selfie” via the Identity Check app on their mobile phone. That information will then be matched against an authentication signature based on previously provided biometric information that is converted into an algorithm and stored on MasterCard’s servers. Once the match is verified, cardholders can return to the merchant site to complete their purchase.

Simpler and more secureThis new functionality is intended to increase the security of payments that don’t require a face-to-face interaction by reducing the likelihood of the card being used by anyone other than the cardholder. Participation is voluntary; no cardholder will be obligated to switch from using passwords to using Identity Check.

At a press briefing hosted by MasterCard and BMO in Toronto on

March 23rd, Catherine Murchie, senior vice president of North America processing, enterprise security & network solutions for MasterCard, explained that customers are frustrated trying to keep track of all of their passwords. As a result people tend to make their passwords simpler

but this makes them less secure. Selfie Pay offers a convenient alternative without sacrificing security.

“It’s always exciting to introduce biometrics to new cardholders,” says Murchie. “They quickly realize that they don’t have to sacrifice convenience for security. By snapping a selfie or scanning a fingerprint, the person becomes the password.”

“Mitigating the risk of fraud is always our top priority, and the inclusion of this technology is going to make payment authentication easier and strengthen the security of the entire payments ecosystem,” said Steve Pedersen, vice president, head, North American corporate card products, BMO, in a release.

Beyond enhancing security, Pedersen also hopes that customers will enjoy using the app. “I look at this as a customer experience driver in particular,” he noted at the media demonstration. “To make the customer experience that much better is so important to us as an institution and this is going to be a key driver for us. And we believe our customers are going to very much enjoy this capability.”

Coming to a card near youBMO and MasterCard have begun rolling out Identity Check with corporate cards issued to BMO employees in Canada and the U.S. as of late March 2016. The objectives for this first phase include establishing and improving best practices in corporate environments, developing better protection against potential fraud and continually minimizing the need for customer service inquiries. While no further launch dates have been announced, more cardholders may have the chance to try Selfie Pay this summer.

“I don’t characterize this as a pilot, I characterize is as a soft launch,” says Pedersen. “We are very comfortable with the tool. We are going to go through the normal shake out phases of any new product launch. But this is for Bank of Montreal a soft launch”

“The person becomes the password.”

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MarketIng apps

User-centric design key to driving engagement across digital propertiesSix customer-focused product planning tactics that will change how you design and build your sites, apps and other digital properties

By lEE dalE

Why user-centric design?

Simply put, when encountering a website

that does not help a user accomplish his or her goals, the vast majority will simply go to another site. For example, for sites that are not optimized for mobile 79% of mobile users will switch to another site.

It’s no longer enough to publish a site, app or other digital product, drive traffic to it and deem the effort a success. Digitally savvy consumers demand their needs be met and will abandon your properties in droves if they don’t deliver. With these six tactics, you can meet that demand. Your success begins by changing your frame of reference from platform and features to customer journeys and user needs.

Tactic 1: Understand your customer’s journeyWhere the customer is on their customer journey when visiting a digital property helps you understand their goals while using that property. This knowledge allows you to provide the information, interactions and calls to action you need in order to help the user to the next step in their customer journey.

Aligning each digital property to its place within the customer journey means that you not only optimize for the user, but you optimize for the business in driving the user towards the next step in your marketing, sales, purchase or support funnel.

The next step following from the customer journey is to look at those channels, platforms and needs defined by the journey to help crystallize the individual properties that will drive the user towards marketing goals. Whether a website, app or other, each of these products plays a specific role and should be considered on an individual basis to serve both user and marketing needs.

These additional tactics help you deliver more effective digital products by framing each product around your customer’s context of use.

Tactic 2: Design to meet user goalsWhether you’re working on a website, app or other property, when you design to meet user goals, you set each digital property up for success. A good first step is to look at each property independently, consider your most

common users and determine what tasks they look to fulfill when they visit that property. For example, if a retail store website is not e-commerce enabled, it is most likely being used by the customer to research products, locate stores, operating hours and contact info, while checking product stock or sales at physical locations.

In this case, you need to balance the goals of those key users to make it as easy as possible to find the information they need to take the next step in their customer journey. From a marketing point of view, your task to convert that website visitor into a customer is to ensure they have the information and motivation they need to take a trip to the store, where a transaction can take place.

Tactic 3: Consider a customer’s first priorityAn even more powerful way of defining how to best shape a digital property is to consider your primary

user’s first priority. For example, if most users of a retail store website are there to quickly find retail store location information in order to get to a brick and mortar store, the site needs to be optimized around supporting this first priority.

Not only is it essential to make location information available on the site, but you’ll need to make it obvious how the customer finds these details right from the homepage, provide an easy and intuitive method of finding their ideal location and include the information your user needs to make it to the store, with a clear map and hours of operation.

Tactic 4: Design for the right mix of devicesMany of your customers will access your digital properties across multiple

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MarketIng apps

devices. It may be that customers will access multiple properties on different devices, or even the same property on multiple devices. First, consider what devices your core customers are using to connect with you. In their day to day, do they frequently use desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones or other connected devices? Depending on which devices your customers use, be sure you target them with digital properties that can be made available across those devices.

If your customers are accessing different properties on specific devices, are those digital properties optimized for the screen sizes of those devices? And if the same digital property is being accessed across multiple screen sizes, does the property adapt as needed to the screen size? This is an essential question

when you consider that 30% of mobile shoppers will abandon a transaction if an e-commerce site is not optimized for mobile use.

Tactic 5: Adapt to your customer’s environmentWe’ve talked about making digital properties available across the right mix of devices for your customers, now let’s consider the environment your customer is in when they’re using a specific device. For example, does your customer primarily use their desktop at work? Their tablet at home? Their smartphone in store? Consider that for each of these different environments, your customer may prioritize different goals. For your retail store, does your customer want to build a product wish list at home? Are they most likely trying to find the location of specific product when they’re in store?

Ask yourself: what needs are you serving based on where the customer

is and what device they’re using in that environment? Your retail store website shouldn’t just adapt to fit a screen size. The information, interactions and primary calls to action should adapt to the environmental context of use, serving the customer’s need in the moment.

Tactic 6: Consider network access requirementsIn an increasingly mobile world, a digital property that fails to provide the information a customer is looking for when they’re on the go can mean the difference between a delightful customer experience and a lost customer. If your property relies on network access, will your customer have wifi access? If cellular access is required or the speed of the network is slow, how will your site, app or service respond? It’s respectful to be considerate of your customer’s data and optimize for speed, but it may even be essential your digital property performs well on older, slower network connections if you’re serving a new market. For subway commuters, or locations with spotty network

access, you may even need to allow your customer to interact with your property when they’re offline.

Putting it all togetherFollowing these tactics for taking a user-centered approach to delivering digital products can mean the difference between spending money on non-effective digital properties and delivering digital products that make a bottom line impact.

From the customer journey through to considerations around context of use, you have the ability to reframe your digital properties to ensure exceptional customer experience across channels, devices and customer segments.

lEE dalE helps companies bring digital

products to market that make a bottom

line difference, ensuring that all consumer

touchpoints in a product lifecycle meet their

promise for the business and its users. As

co-founder and director of product strategy at

Say Yeah, Toronto’s multi-channel experience

design studio, Lee delivers award-winning

digital products, each with a focus on driving

real-world business value while engaging

users in unexpectedly magical ways.

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MarketIng apps

Know what your customers really want, thanks to cognitive commerce

By ShaUNNa CONWay

The world is awash in data, most of it unstructured,

and the volume is growing rampantly.

Consider that by 2020, it’s expected there will be 44 zettabytes of data in the world—the equivalent of 170 newspapers being delivered daily to every man, woman and child on the planet. What’s more, 80% of most of the world’s data is “dark data”—data including videos, images, audio files and conversational text that is nearly impossible to understand, reason and learn from. With this rising tide of data, coming from an increasingly wide number of sources, the challenge lies in how to analyze it, gain insights from it and apply those insights to drive desired outcomes.

Nowhere is this truer than in the world of retail. In order to make use of the vast majority of the data assets that are available out there, we need a new paradigm; we need cognitive commerce.

Interconnected systems across sales channels—in-store, online, mobile and call centres—capture and retain vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. Each customer’s journey is a well-documented trip that leaves a long trail of data: purchase information; lifetime value; where the buyer spends time on a site; how much is being spent in a channel; where and when customers prefer to buy; and what may have caused them to defect. Add external sources into the mix—think social, economic or environmental data—and what emerges is a vivid portrait of customers and market opportunities.

One way retailers can harness all this data is to invest in cognitive commerce—sophisticated systems that are capable of aggregating a seemingly infinite volume of information and infusing it with a level of intelligence or cognition never before available. This means deeper human engagement is now possible because cognitive systems can create

a more nuanced picture of each individual and be more anticipatory. In short, it allows retailers to better understand their shoppers—learn about their specific behaviours, personalities and emotions, as well as identify which brand messages are most impactful.

Recently a team of developers from IBM Commerce have harnessed the computational power of Watson—a cognitive computer system—to create the IBM Watson Trend app. This downloadable, free mobile application takes Watson’s vast understanding of natural language and machine learning to uncover consumer preferences and detect patterns and trends that explain why people choose particular products or brands.

By distilling the sentiment of tens of millions of online conversations from thousands of sources like social media sites, blogs, forums, comments, ratings and reviews, the IBM Watson Trend app reveals how consumers are feeling about a particular product they own or are considering to purchase. It provides both consumers and retailers alike with a daily view of the top 100 trends, while also predicting the hottest new products before they sell out. The app even detects which products will become fleeting fads and which ones will have longevity.

This past holiday season the app identified several popular products and the stories behind them. For example Watson discovered that consumers are flocking to brands that offer “barefoot running” or “natural running” shoes marketed to help prevent injury. It found that Nike shoe owners in particular are talking about Nike’s Free, the Air Max and Flyknit Racing Shoes, which offer colour and design versatility as both athletic and casual footwear.

The app also reported that parents were looking for more “edutainment” focused gifts for their kids, which is why MeccaNoid—a personal robot that teaches children from ages eight to 12 how to create, learn and code was

so popular. And with Star Wars mania at fever pitch this past holiday season, Watson also identified the buzz around a pricey BB-8 that responds to human voice commands and shows and records holographic videos.

Retail companies also benefit from applications like the IBM Watson Trend app to determine what makes people tick, to differentiate themselves from the competitors and to build longer lasting relationships with all their key stakeholders.

Imagine that you own an electronics company and a photography student is navigating through your website to purchase a digital camera. If you know exactly what information is most important to them—say that it is waterproof and can be submerged in water up to 100 feet, or that it can also tolerate dust, shock and extreme cold temperatures—then you’d know that it’s highly likely they will buy a KeyMision 360 Nikon camera and have that camera well stocked. Thanks to the IBM Watson Trend app you’d also know that conversations around Nikon cameras tend toward people who are just getting into higher-quality photography and that the trend is widespread across the United States. Like interacting with a sales associate, this student’s retail experience could be influenced by the best choice presented—one he or she might have not discovered on their own.

There is no doubt we are living in a consumer-centric world greatly influenced by emotion. To establish a competitive advantage, today’s retailers need to know exactly what

their customers want, when they want it and what price they want to pay for it. Cognitive commerce can give retailers all this information—allowing them the ability to provide shoppers with instant gratification; build consumer loyalty and drive better business results for their enterprise.

ShaUNNa CONWay is IBM Canada’s business unit

executive for commerce. With over 10 years

of demonstrated success in consulting and

services experience, Shaunna is responsible

for IBM’s go-market strategy in marketing,

channels and customer segments. By building

strong strategy and general management

capabilities, Shaunna is recognized as a

leader in large and complex outsourcing

pursuits, operations, business development

and consultative support.

The new IBM Watson Trend App, a new way for shoppers to learn the top trends of the holiday season, and also predict the hottest products before they’re sold out. Using Watson’s natural language and machine learning technologies, the free iOS app understands why people are choosing certain products or brands, from Lego’s multi-generational appeal to Nike’s stylish running shoes that tap into the “barefoot running” craze (Jon Simon/Feature Photo Service for IBM).

Page 19: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

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MarketIng apps

Five mobile app marketing mistakes to avoid

By rOBI gaNgUly

Mobile has changed the landscape of consumerism in a few short years by

becoming our favourite tool for reading the news, watching television, communicating, socializing, shopping, making decisions, navigating… for just about everything!

As a marketer, mobile is a very powerful place for you to connect with your audience. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Since mobile is such a personal medium, it is the easiest place for marketers to make massive mistakes that will turn off a customer forever.

We’re here to help you avoid making those mistakes. Here’s what you should be looking out for and what you can learn from those who have come before you:

1. Treating the mobile experience like it’s the desktopToo many mobile experiences are just smaller versions of the brand’s desktop, enabling the exact same functionality but trying to shrink it down to the small screen. A mobile app is an entirely different vehicle for experiences and it should be treated differently for the new opportunities it provides.

A mobile customer will quickly discard overwhelming designs that mimic desktop content page-for-page. It’s fairly common to assume that a customer will input as much information on the mobile device as they do on the desktop. But input is much more time consuming on mobile devices and it’s important to design with that in mind. The reality is that

the small screen can be a blessing, as it enables you to focus on what is truly important.

Beyond design, mobile provides uniquely powerful abilities. For example, mobile apps have the benefit of being able to know where we are all the time. It makes our lives easier when we can tap a button, be located on a map and then be shown all gas stations, Vietnamese restaurants or bus stops near us.

What you can do:Simplify your customers’ lives by focusing their attention on the few things that truly matter. If you already have a desktop site or app, pare down the functionality to a few core tasks. Then learn from your customers about what they really miss from

your desktop version. You might be surprised to find that they don’t notice anything is missing.

2. Building an app without a plan for marketing itAt this point, we’ve all heard the amazing download numbers coming out of the app stores. But that aggregate number doesn’t mean your app will garner huge downloads just by publishing it in the app store. Companies with existing web presences and audiences can take advantage of their assets to properly market and promote a new app.

Even though your website landing page shouldn’t be an overwhelming advertisement for your mobile app, when your customers visit your website they should know that there’s an

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optimized mobile app available as well.You also should spend time getting

familiar with the most common mobile app discovery paths. App stores are the primary method of app discovery, but still too many app publishers completely neglect the importance of their app’s title, keywords and descriptions.

In addition, it is important to encourage happy customers to leave reviews. Too often, only unhappy customers leave negative reviews while satisfied ones remain silent. Once someone finds your app in an app store, they look to reviews to see whether the app is worth downloading. If you’re not focused on getting your happy customers to leave reviews, you’re losing thousands of potential customers.

What you can do:If you have an existing web presence, take the time to tune it for your mobile visitors. Use all of your communication channels to let your customers know about your app. Bring existing assets like your Twitter account, email list or Facebook page to your app’s marketing activities.

In addition, you should be proactively setting your app’s title, keywords, descriptions and screenshots. There are some great tools for improving your app store optimization (ASO) that will help customers find your app in the app stores. Check out MobileDevHQ, SearchMan or Appnique.

Finally, make sure your ratings and reviews reflect a positive image of your app. In order to market your app successfully, you need to have a proactive approach to getting happy customers to leave positive reviews in app stores. Consider in-app prompts that remind customers to leave reviews after completing a significant action like making a purchase, using a coupon, or accomplishing an achievement.

3. Building a mobile website and trying to pass it off as an appWith over 750,000 apps in both the iTunes App Store and Google Play, the bar for an app is extremely high.

Publishing an app that is, essentially, a launcher for a mobile website communicates to your customers that you don’t really understand mobile. It will quickly lead them to search for an alternative app that is native.

This is because native apps are built

for a world full of spotty internet connections and limited time. Sure, it’s great when you have five bars of LTE connection, but apps need to work in the subway, on the plane and even in dead spots.

Building a mobile app can be a daunting task, and building a native app for multiple platforms can be overwhelming. It’s understandable that many companies attempt to build an app that is purely web-based in order to simplify their lives. This is the wrong approach, though. Consumers aren’t concerned with the complexity of your development process; they’re purely focused on their own experience.

What you can do:Instead of attempting to support every platform out of the gate, focus on one platform. Use it as an opportunity to learn about what works and resonates with your customer base. If you absolutely must release on multiple platforms, employ a cross-platform programming language that assists in the delivery of native apps for multiple environments. Options in this space include Corona Labs, Appcelerator, PhoneGap, Xamarin, and Icenium.

4. Assuming that people will come back to your app “just because”The number one problem in the mobile app ecosystem is retention. For most apps, 90% of the people who download your app are gone within six months!

An investment in a mobile app for your business requires an understanding of why people would return to use your app on a regular basis. Have you built a game that is easy to finish? Is your app’s utility more novelty-driven than recurring in nature? Have you assumed that you’d be placed on someone’s home screen after just one use? If so, you’re likely to fall into the large bucket of apps that struggle to retain customers for longer than a few days.

People return to your app because it has ongoing value for them, not because you’d like them to. It’s very important to accept this and focus on designing your app from the outset to answer the question: why would anyone use this more than five times?

What you can do:Fortunately there is a lot you can do to address the retention issues. There are two key strategies you can employ:

Design around a consistent and ❯

recurring use case. This requires

that you truly understand what customers want from your mobile app, why they use it, how they use it and when they use it. If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you need to invest in research with your customer base, either through focus groups or within the app using real-time in-app surveys.Create engagement mechanisms ❯

for your app to re-connect with consumers and remind them of your app’s presence on their device. You can generate reasons to engage, like exclusive content or benefits for your customers (discounts, rewards, content packs, etc.) available only through the mobile app.

You also can use frequent updates to remind customers about your app and demonstrate that you’re continuing to improve it. Be sure to include the changes in the update description to highlight what customers can look forward to and encourage them to open the app.

5. Ignoring your app’s customer baseMobile’s true power comes from its personal nature. When your app is installed on a consumer’s device, they have you in their pocket all day every day. This provides a perfect opportunity to listen to your customers and engage with them in a personal manner. You can delight them with your acknowledgement of their worth to you as a customer.

Too many companies are investing in mobile apps and then making it impossible to take the last step of connecting to the people who download the app. By creating two-way communication channels within your app, you can make each and every consumer feel special, at scale.

Customers will have issues, questions and suggestions when using your mobile app. The reality is that consumers today have higher expectations than ever before when it comes to customer service and responsiveness. We all expect companies to be listening to us and serving our needs as a course of business. In the mobile app space, the main channels for communication are the ratings and reviews tabs in app stores. For the consumer, this is terribly frustrating as the app stores leave no room for dialogue and remarks or feedback left cannot be given a response. This can make

a company look like it isn’t listening or trying to address the customer’s commentary.

What you can do:Consider building in-app communication tools to make it easy to submit feedback inside the app. Listen to customers before they’ve gotten frustrated enough to visit the app store. If you don’t have the time or resources to build these tools internally, look for services that provide in-app feedback or intelligent ratings prompts in order to solve your problems. You’re likely to find that the ROI on these services is significant because of the way in which it helps you grow retention, ratings, reviews and research—the four Rs of the app business.

It is well worth a marketer’s time to make customers feel valued and create a way for communication to happen between the brand and mobile customer in-app. Mobile apps that engage their customers, listen to them, develop relationships and iterate find themselves with a loyal audience of fans who tell others about the app and spend time giving feedback to make it better.

Mobile apps are an incredibly powerful way to connect with your customers and drive your entire company’s marketing efforts forward. In order to be successful, it’s important to spend time upfront planning your marketing efforts so that you can take advantage of the unique qualities of mobile devices. By avoiding these five common mistakes, you can improve your app’s chances of success and create a powerful marketing tool for your company.

rOBI gaNgUly is the CEO of Apptentive

(apptentive.com), the easiest way for every

company with an app to talk with their

customers. When he’s not at the office,

you can find him running, reading, cooking,

spending time with friends, or hanging out on

Twitter (@rganguly).

a vErSION of this article originally appeared

on the Kissmetrics blog (blog.kissmetrics.

com). Kissmetrics is an analytics tool that

tracks individual and group visitor behaviour

from their first anonymous visit, through

each conversion, to their customer lifetime

value—across all their devices. Through best-

in-class onboarding and support, Kissmetrics

is set up to show trends that matter to your

company so that you can easily optimize your

marketing machine. Thousands of marketers

are using Kissmetrics to increase conversions,

reduce churn and drive more revenue.

Page 22: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

// 22

❱ DMN.ca April 2016

MarketIng apps

Mobile app usage insights from FlurryMedia, productivity and emoji apps contribute to another year of stunning growth

By SIMON khalaF

In the seven years that Flurry has been reporting on mobile app usage, we have seen nothing but growth and this year the trend continued.

In 2015 overall app usage grew by 58%. In this context, we define app usage as a user opening an app and recording what we call a “session.” With the exception of Games, every app category posted year-over-year growth with Personalization, News & Magazines and Productivity leading the way with triple-digit growth.

The mobile industry has matured fast. In fact, seven years into the mobile revolution, Flurry tracks over 2.1 billion smart devices worldwide on a monthly basis. While the growth rate has declined (58% in 2015 compared to 76% in 2014 and 103% in 2013), it remains stunning as rates like these are rare in mature industries. What was even more impressive is the majority of that growth rate came from existing users versus new users. In fact, we estimate that in 2015 40% of the 58% total growth in sessions came from existing users, compared to 20% in 2014 and 10% in 2013. This jives well with the report we released last summer, Mobile Addicts Multiple Across the Globe, showing a fast increase in mobile addicts.

From a category perspective, four categories grew faster than the average.

Personalization apps saw their sessions balloon more than 332% in 2015. These apps range from Android lock-screens to Emoji keyboards. When we looked deeper into the category, we noticed that the majority of the growth is coming from Emoji apps (mainly keyboards) giving consumers the ability to share customized correspondence in their favourite messaging apps, such as Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Line and Snapchat. It was not a surprise then to see Kim Kardashian’s app “Kimoji” skyrocket to the number one spot on the Apple AppStore on its launch day.

News and Magazine apps grew a whopping 135% in 2015. This growth validates the trend in media consumption we reported on last summer, signaling a shift in media consumption from television and PCs to smartphones in general, and phablets in particular, as we will discuss later.

Productivity apps continued the trend that started in 2014, with 125% sessions growth in 2015. In fact more and more consumers, especially teens and college students, are using their smartphones, phablets and tablets as their primary computing device and their sole device to access email and other productivity apps, like Google Docs, Quip, Slack and

Page 23: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

// 23

DMN.ca ❰April 2016

MarketIng apps

the Microsoft productivity suite.Lastly, Lifestyle and Shopping apps grew 81% in

2015, following 174% growth in 2014. This growth rate validates reports from early 2015 that mobile commerce is “growing like a weed.” It already accounts for 33% of online commerce in the U.S. and 40% of online commerce on a worldwide basis.

Inch by inch, mobile and its apps absorb the media IndustryWhile the overall growth rate of 58% paints an interesting picture, our analysis dug a bit deeper by looking into growth rates cut by categories and form factors, especially phablets. In the Growth Rate of Media Apps Over Indexes on Phablets chart we compare the year-over-year session growth rates of the News & Magazine, Sports, and Music, Media, & Entertainment categories on phablets and all devices combined.

The growth rates of these three categories dramatically over-indexed on phablets compared to the growth rates on all devices combined. Growth in News & Magazines apps on phablets was 5.3x that of all devices, meaning phablet users are engaging in these apps at a much higher rate than the average smart device user. A similar pattern emerged for Sports and Music, Media & Entertainment apps, at 5.16x and 4.19x respectively. It appears that the extra inch of real estate has made the phablet the ultimate media consumption device.

The picture got much clearer when we looked at year-over-year growth in time spent and cut that by form factor. Time spent on phablets grew 334% year-over-year (2.9 times more than the average), compared to 117% for all form factors. With time spent on mobile surpassing that on television and phablets posting astonishing growth in media consumption, it appears that the cable industry

will find in the phablet and its apps its long-awaited digital nemesis.

The phablet: the unstoppable media consumption deviceOnce labelled a fad (even by us at Yahoo), phablets have become the unstoppable media consumption device. Twenty-seven per cent of all new devices activated for Christmas this year were phablets and 50% of all Android devices activated in the same timeframe were phablets.

We say “unstoppable” because if the current trends hold, the phablet will become the dominant form factor by October of next year. The Time Spent on Mobile Grows 117% Year Over Year chart shows our forecast for worldwide device distribution by form factor through the middle of 2017. Also interesting to note is that small phones will be extinct by the second quarter of 2016. It’s clear consumers want their content and they want it on a bigger screen.

3.2 trillion sessions and countingIn 2015, Flurry tracked a mind boggling 3.2 trillion sessions. When we started eight years ago, we never thought that our counters could reach these numbers. But we have been fortunate enough to have a front row seat watching the mobile revolution unfold and absorb (and in some case demolish) industry after industry. On January 1st 2016, 12:01 a.m., our counters reset to zero and the guessing game started again. Which industry will mobile and its apps absorb in 2016?

We will have the answer a year from now, but for now: here’s to emojis!

SIMON khalaF is SVP, product & engineering, publisher

products at Yahoo. A version of this article originally appeared

on the Flurry blog (flurrymobile.tumblr.com).

In 2015, Flurry tracked a mind boggling 3.2 trillion sessions. When we started eight years ago, we never thought that our counters could reach these numbers. But we have been fortunate enough to have a front row seat watching the mobile revolution unfold and absorb (and in some case demolish) industry after industry.

Page 24: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

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❱ DMN.ca April 2016

2016 Census

By Sarah O’CONNOr

One of Canada’s leading experts on the Census, Doug Norris, Ph.D., is a senior vice

president and chief demographer at Environics Analytics. He joined EA in 2006 after nearly 30 years with Statistics Canada, where he served as director general of social and demographic statistics.

Q: As a true statistics and demographics “geek,” what

is your response to the return of the long-form census?

A: I am certainly very happy about the return of the mandatory

long-form census. The quality of data from the voluntary National Household Survey was problematic at the neighbourhood or small area level, and those are the data that are essential for businesses and many social programs. In addition to the reinstatement of the long-form, two other changes for the 2016 Census are noteworthy. First, the sample for the long-form will be 25% of households, larger than the 20% sample used in 2006 and earlier censuses. Second, in order to reduce the burden on Canadians and to improve the quality of the income data, the 2016 Census will not ask questions about income but rather use information reported to the Canada Revenue Agency on tax returns. Moreover, the income information will be obtained for all respondents and not just those responding to the long-form, as previously was the case. This will be a major improvement in the quality of the income data.

Q:Why does the return matter to direct marketers?

A:In order to do efficient and effective marketing, direct

marketers require small area data in order to target populations of interest. As I indicated, the quality of the 2011 NHS small area data was reduced due to the voluntary nature of the survey that yielded a response rate of only 68% and resulted in response bias. The reinstatement of a mandatory long-form census—together with a larger sample and much better income data—will allow direct marketers to do a better job at targeting. This year will be the first time income data will be based on the total population rather than just the long-form sample, and this should allow for better targeting at the small area or neighbourhood level.

Q: You have not been resting on your laurels in the 10 years

since the last long-form census. I wonder, are there demographic trends that you have identified through alternative sources of information that may have largely gone unnoticed by the general population but which you suspect will come to light when the results of the census are made available?

A: The 2016 Census will update major trends in population

growth, the aging population and increased cultural diversity. One of the trends we have been following over the past few years is the development of the downtown areas of our large cities, mainly due the construction of condos. It will be interesting to see

how the population of downtown areas is changing. Some local reports point to overcrowding in some schools and this news suggests young families may be an emerging target group in downtown areas. A second trend we have been following is the spreading out of immigrants to non-traditional immigrant areas such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan and even the Atlantic region. It will be interesting to see if immigrants who originally settled in these areas have remained there and how the newcomers are changing the cultural diversity of urban areas other than Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

Q: What key pieces of information cannot be

gleaned from sources other than a long-form census and that you are therefore most eager for the 2016 Census to reveal?

A: The main purpose of the census is to provide accurate

and comparable data for all parts of the country, both large and small communities. In addition, it provides data on detailed population subgroups such as the Aboriginal population, immigrants by country of birth, specific industries and occupations or specific fields of study. Although Canada is the fastest growing country in the G-8, population growth varies widely across Canada and many parts of rural and small-town Canada are in fact experiencing population declines. The 2016 Census will help us understand how these areas are faring. The census also will provide a valuable source on providing a detailed look

at how various generations are doing. Today, marketers are particularly interested in the young Millennial generation that will be 18 to 35 years old at Census time. Have they left the family nest? To what extent are the older Millennials purchasing homes versus renting? How are they faring in the labour market? The Boomers will no doubt also be of interest as the oldest Boomers turn 70 in 2016. Have they decided to downsize to a greater extent that their predecessors? What is the income situation of the close to 40% of women in their 70s and 80s who are living on their own? There are many such questions the census will help us answer—and no doubt there will be a few surprises.

Q: When will we be getting the results of the 2016 Census?

A: According to Statistics Canada’s release schedule for the

2016 Census, the first release of the population and dwelling counts will occur on February 8, 2017. This will be followed by age and sex data in May and data on families, households and language in August. The data from the long-form census will be released in three waves in September, October and November of 2017. This schedule for the long-form data is 10 months earlier than for the 2011 NHS, when the last release did not occur until September 2013. Of course, not all data on a topic will be available on the day of release. However, the compressed schedule is a welcome improvement in timeliness over the last census.

Census Q&A with Dr. Doug Norris

Page 25: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016

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Page 28: Direct Marketing Magazine April 2016