Planning in an Election Year
Discover Why Mail or Blast Dates Matter Even More This Fall
Welcome to the Presidential election season. If you are planning to repeat a successful holiday campaign this fall, fasten your seatbelt and keep your eye on the road. Things might get rough and tumble as direct marketers navigate familiar waters along with a rash of conflicting mail dates, election day distractions, postal service blues, and the prospect for a holiday season where businesses and fundraisers might do incrementally better than in 2011. Careful planning of mail or blast dates is especially important this year. Read about how to protect and support your mailing plan.
What’s New
‘Big Data’ Is Overwhelming Many Direct Marketers
It’s the era of “big data,” but most marketers are still going with their gut rather than statistics. According to a recent Corporate Executive Board study of nearly 800 marketers at Fortune 1000 companies, marketers use data in just 11% of customer-related decisions! The rest of the time, they rely on intuition, past experience, peers, experts and one-off customer interactions. Some marketers may lack the statistical skill to find the raisins in the “big data” rice pudding. For example, an Executive Board five-question test of statistical aptitude found only 6% of marketers got all questions right. But even the study’s data junkies performed poorly as the “big data” flood swamped their ability to filter and channel information. Get help with your data challenges.
What’s Working
Emotional Advertising Can Be More Profitable Advertising
In today’s swiftly viral digital and social climate, marketers may need to let the heart rule the head creatively. In a recent article in chiefmarketer.com, Orlando Wood, managing director of BrainJuicer Labs, the research arm of the BrainJuicer marketing consultancy, cited their data showing that emotion-based advertising is actually more profitable than more rationally conceived marketing. Emotional ads win in terms of higher viral impact, increased sales and lower price sensitivity. Per Wood: “We’ve found that emotional response (to an ad) was a better indicator of the business effects than any of the traditional advertising measures, such as message understood, clarity and branding or persuasion.” Emotional impact can be a double-edged sword, with positive intensity winning fans and negative reactions costing sales, but non-profit efforts have more leeway, according to Wood. In cause marketing, any emotion raising the cause profile boosts sharing and results. Read more on the study.
Industry Survey
Are you planning to increase your direct-mail spending in 2013? (Click one) YES NO
Results of previous Industry Survey: About 55% of respondents report positive results from their 2012 social media advertising.
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