Keeping with tradition,
Austin & Williams is pleased to present this year's predictions for
what the New Year will hold in the world of advertising. Social Media and Mobile are hot topics, as well as the ever-evolving topic of SEO,
but our staff is also forecasting a return to some of the classics,
such as print and direct mail. If you thought 2010 was an exciting time
for advertisers, hang on for 2011!
Have you noticed that your mailbox is starting to fill up again? Direct mail (DM) is slowly returning as a tried-and-true method of marketing. Smart marketers are realizing that direct mail is still an important marketing tool.
This fall, our son will be a freshman at a small engineering school at
a university in upstate New York. When my husband and I say our
good-byes, we’ll also breathe one huge sigh of relief. It’s not because
we’re happy to see him leave (not really, anyway), or because his
partial academic scholarship makes his private school tuition just
about affordable, or even because he’ll get to continue to pursue his
passion for soccer at the varsity level. It’s because the college
selection process – which has pretty much consumed our lives for the
last two years – will finally be over (at least until our daughter
becomes a junior in 2011).
I'm amazed every time I get a letter that starts off "Dear Ken Greenberg." Amazed because for as long as I've been in the business, it's been pretty easy to address the letter properly - the way you would if you were actually writing one: Dear "Mr. Greenberg," or "Dear Ken." As a result, when I see "Dear Ken Greenberg", I know I'm reading junk mail. Even if it could be important, I'm immediately turned off. How would Mr. John H. Jones, III, feel if he got a letter that started "Dear John H Jones III?" (They never get punctuation right, either.)
What's so difficult about doing it the right way? Nothing really. It simply takes more time to run a single field containing all the parts of a name through special software or routines that will break it apart. Yet I can't imagine that any good mailing house doesn't have that software.
Effective personalization increases response. In most cases, having a person's name on the mailing piece and in the letter makes them pay more attention than when they get a piece addressed to "occupant" or "current resident."
With the countdown to the New Year fast approaching, annual “best
of/worst of” lists, forward-thinking forecasts and soon-to-be-broken
resolutions are all the rage. Not to be left out of the fun – but not
quite ready to share our weight-loss goals or the bad habits we’ll
break – here’s our predictions for the world of marketing in 2010: hang
on; it’s going to be quite the ride!
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