Reinventing Regal - Direct Marketing

Transcription

Direct Marketing
Vol. 23 • No. 11 • March 2011
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The Art & Science of Predictable Marketing
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Reinventing Regal
» 10
Regional Report
York Region
» 11
Direct & Personal
» 17
Canadian direct marketing pioneer emerges from bankruptcy
Editor’s letter »3
By Sarah O’Connor
Here, there,
everywhere
Directives
The only constant
is change
The list business
The list business’
evolving landscape
Capitalizing on
Google Places
Business is booming where
country meets city
»3
»4
The many sides of
Pete McLeod
The list business
down south
»4
Email marketing trends » 8
A special report
from Geoff Linton
of Inbox Marketer
In the Mail
Russ Reid helps YSM ring in a
happy holiday
DM Landscapes:
Direct mail devotees
» 23
»9
Regal Gifts Corporation president and CEO Greg
Neath amid a sampling of Regal's products.
O
Click!
»10
Search engine
optimization
SEM: The missing link
nce one of Canada’s foremost
direct marketers and most
recognizable brands, Regal
Greetings & Gifts declared bankruptcy
in August 2005, but the story didn’t end
there. The company has been reborn as
Regal Gifts Corporation and is now thriving
in Barrie, Ontario.
Regal’s brand and customer list were
acquired by new owners in the fall of
2005, and current president and CEO
Greg Neath came onboard shortly after.
Neath had previously served as president
of cataloguer Nebs Business Products
and recruited several other experienced
direct marketers to form Regal’s new
executive management team. The Regal
Gift Corporation was launched in the
winter of 2006, and is now celebrating five
successful years.
“When Regal went bankrupt it had 42
retail stores across the country and a good
core of probably about 20,000 – 25,000
regional direct sales reps,” says Neath.
“Probably the main way that they lost their
way and what brought them down in the
end was trying to be a retail company and
a direct selling company, which is almost
impossible to do. Tupperware tried it, it
didn’t work for them. It didn’t work for
Regal either and that’s why there aren’t
Avon stores.”
Neath and his team soon realized that
in order to make a successful comeback
Regal Gifts Corporation had to focus on
its strengths, which in this case meant
shifting focus to the direct selling side
of the business and forgoing any retail
aspect.
“From a marketing standpoint, the
Regal catalogue had huge distribution
 Continued on page 7
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Columns
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ March 2011
editor’s letter
Sarah O'Connor
E
ver since taking on the
editorship of this publication
last September, I’m seeing
direct marketing everywhere I go.
I’m paying more attention to which
online ads are targeted at me and how that
differs on my home computer versus my
work computer. I’m noticing the extent to
which direct mail pieces are personalized as
well as all the various techniques employed
in order to stand out in the mailbox. I’m
thinking about how I fit in with the people
in my neighbourhood and contemplating
what we all have in common from a
marketer’s perspective (as well as the ways
in which we are different).
This heightened awareness is
exacerbated every time we hit the road
and get the opportunity to meet with
the people who are driving the direct
marketing industry from coast to coast.
Some are capital D, capital M Direct
Marketers, true students of the medium
who literally dedicate their lives to the art
and science of getting the right offer to
the right person at the right time. Others
are more on the fringes of the industry,
working behind the scenes and developing
F
Coming in the
April issue of
Direct Marketing
departments
and tough competition.
On the list side, industry heavyweights
from Macromark and Cornerstone weigh
in, while Dan Cadieux of InfoCanada tackles
the Directives column. Our Click! section
features insights from 1stonthelist and
Search Engine People on new ways of
ensuring that would-be customers can find
you online.
In April we’ll be focusing on mass direct/
unaddressed mail and online coupons,
including a special report on the flyer
industry. By then the snow will have melted
and spring will have sprung. I, for one, can’t
wait.
directives
The only constant is change
even more. They are taking a much closer
look as to how they acquire customers.
On the consumer side, they are no longer
targeting basic demographic selects like
age but rather focusing on more lifestyle
elements, including outside interests/
hobbies. On the business side, more data
is modeled with attributes like business
expenses and sales volumes. This way,
marketers gain a better understanding as
to the profile of their preferred customers
making acquisition targeting more focused
which in turn drives up conversion rates.
The social media explosion felt in
with list providers to expand their offering
in the marketplace.
Although many companies are still
questioning traditional marketing like
direct mail, others are beginning to
realize that partnered with other cross
channel campaigns, direct mail is an easily
measurable and trackable medium to reach
new prospects. In the slower economy of
2010, we saw customers looking for lists of
prospects in outlying geographical areas
versus local markets. This trend is expected
to continue as customers mix direct mail
and email marketing with ecommerce,
By Dan Cadieux
or some marketers, 2010 was
a challenging transition year.
Many organizations were
focused on maintaining their base revenues
while trying to search for new business in
a slow-moving economy and, most likely,
doing it with a smaller marketing budget.
However, like any challenge, the stalled
economic recovery provided a platform for
innovation and true creativity in how we
communicate with our current clients and
search for new potential customers.
It was no different for those of us in the
list business. In 2010, we saw and continue
to see a definite shift in customer needs
and expectations. Shrinking budgets and
a greater focus on ROI have led marketers
to expect more out of their campaigns.
In response, list providers have adapted
their products and services to meet these
growing pressures. Data enhancement
services are designed to assist customers in
creating, improving and cleaning their own
customer lists. Address correction increases
ROI as undeliverable mail is decreased and
appending email addresses and mobile
phone numbers open up new mediums to
communicate with your customers. Now
an integrated campaign of a direct mail
piece followed up with an email or mobile
offer for preferred customers is possible.
However, marketers today are looking for
in this issue
Here, there, everywhere
the new technologies that are changing the
way business is done. Some organizations
do one thing really well while others offer
unique cocktails of tailored products and
services. The diversity of individuals and
organizations that fall under our umbrella
is downright dizzying, and from what I’ve
seen the landscape is growing increasingly
lush all the time.
This month we are looking at two of
the workhorses of the direct marketing
industry: the list business and search
engine optimization. These sectors have
been around for a long time, but are both
influenced by ongoing innovation, everevolving consumer preferences and habits,
The stalled economic recovery provided
a platform for innovation and true
creativity in how we communicate with
our current clients and search for new
potential customers.
2009/2010 is now the social network
phenomenon of 2011. Companies are still
trying to understand how best to leverage
this new medium. In 2011, we will continue
to see organizations allocate more of their
marketing budgets towards social media
campaigns as they try to harness the
potential. However, many feel that social
media is still in its infancy for measuring
and tracking. This has brought some
new organizations into the market that
specialize in online tracking and measuring.
Many of these organizations are partnering
making geographic limitations less of a
concern.
Email marketing continues to be as
strong as ever. However, with the new
email legislation expected to be instituted
this year, will that trend continue? Email
has traditionally been the inexpensive
component of the marketing plan. Will
that change? As the industry prepares for
the change, customers are flocking to list
providers to get in those last few email
campaigns. This influx of email service
requests has temporarily opened the
Regional Report:
Halifax
Special report: Flyers
Get the scoop on what’s
happening in the financial hub
of the Maritime provinces.
Often used, occasionally
abused, find out how this
classic DM tool is staying
relevant.
3
market to cheaper, less reputable email
service organizations offering extremely
low cost services. It will be interesting to
see the net result of this change after the
legislation is in place.
The newest emerging trend is mobile
marketing. As phones become smarter
and consumers more connected, list
providers are seeing an increase in demand
for mobile marketing services. Marketers
know that to reach the younger generation
of consumers, they will need to advertise
where this generation socializes and
responds, but just having a social media
presence, like a static Facebook page, is not
enough. Today’s next generation of new
adult consumers speak in text and SMS.
And we as marketers will need to learn their
language if we want them to listen to our
message.
2011 will be an interesting year and
the only thing that will remain constant
is change. I look forward to that change
because that is what keeps our industry
moving forward.
Dan Cadieux is President of infoGroup |
infoCanada, a changing organization in a
changing industry, and can be reached at
[email protected]
Online coupons
Industry experts from
LoyaltyOne and Convurgency
Inc. weigh in on this potential
game changer
In the Mail...........................................................9
Direct & Personal........................................... 17
Worth Knowing............................................. 18
Events Calendar............................................. 23
advertisers
Canada Post 41
Environics 41&7
Allegro Direct 44
InfoCanada45
Riso412
FSA Group413
Zone Marketing Group413
Prime Data413
Pitney Bowes Business Insight 424
resource directory
LIST SERVICES 19-20
CleanList.com
ICOM
infogroup/infoCANADA
SCOTT’S Directories
Allegro Direct
North American Direct Marketing
Direct Media Canada
Toronto Board of Trade
DM CREATIVE 20
Designers Inc.
MAILING EQUIPMENT 20
Canadian Mailing Machines Inc
Bowe Bell & Howell
CALL CENTRE PRODUCTS / SERVICES 20
EXTEND Communications Inc
Protocol
DATABASE MARKETING 21
Smart Soft
Boire Filler Group
Interact Direct
Environics Analytics
FULL SERVICE OPERATIONS 21-22
Address-All Mailing Services Ltd.
Clixx Direct Marketing Services Inc.
CMS / Complete Mailing Services
Data Direct
DM Graphics
RDP Fulfillment Corporation
Mailmarketing Corporation
Origo Direct Marketing Communications
SMART DM
The FSA Group
Wood & Associates Direct Marketing
Services Ltd.
PLASTIC CARDS 23
CDN Print Plastic
List Business
4
March 2011 ❮ Direct Marketing ❮ dmn.ca
The list business’ evolving landscape
T
he list business in 2011 is very
different than it was 10 or even
five years ago. Increasing direct
mail costs, declining response rates and
the paradigm shift caused by the internet
and search engines have created a very
different landscape for new customer
acquisition.
So what does the second decade of the
new millennium hold for the list business?
And where does the business fit within the
increasingly fragmented media world?
The changing face of direct mail
Although many companies are using
online channels for lead generation, it’s still
challenging to reach critical mass quickly.
So while these important channels slowly
generate customers or qualified leads,
many marketers are finding that they must
continue to employ push strategies to
reach their short-term acquisition targets.
That’s where direct mail lists provide value
as they enable marketers to acquire more
customers, faster.
Marketers who use direct mail are
finding, as they become more selective
about the records they take, that available
select universes are declining. In addition,
for many years now, some large volume
marketers have been moving away from
vertical lists towards using large, multisourced files. This has been driven by both
a need for an ever larger prospect universe
and by a desire to reduce acquisition costs.
These files are large enough to model that
which drives significant lift in acquisition
campaigns.
So who is having success with direct
mail? Demographics play a role. Those
marketers who target the 35-54 and the
55+ age categories find that direct mail
works well. For fundraisers, direct mail is still
the bread and butter of their fundraising
efforts. And many insurance companies,
certain types of membership offers and
other financial services marketers also find
direct mail to be a very effective medium.
Strategic use of data analytics and
modelling improves ROI
To keep direct mail acquisition affordable,
smart marketers are shifting the burden of
cost downstream. By applying predictive
models, marketers can mail fewer people,
reducing printing, lettershop and postage
costs while achieving the same number
of responders. And for those marketers
without the time or money to invest
in traditional modeling, software now
exists that reduces the complexity, costs
and timelines of traditional modeling
yet delivers some of the same benefits.
These ‘rapid analytics’ solutions are
an improvement over traditional
segmentation-based tools and allow
marketers to gain quick quantitative
insights on prospect lists.
Email finds its place in
the marketing mix
The place of third-party email lists in the
acquisition business is still evolving. While
email is a strong performer for B2B lead
generation, success has been more elusive
with consumer offers. Improvements
are being made through the increasing
availability, size and selectivity of email
lists. Also, email can be much more
effective when postal addresses are
combined with email addresses, allowing
marketers to use demographic overlays,
eliminate duplicates and apply customer
suppression files. In addition, downward
pressure on email list pricing is creating
better ROI, making email—either as a
stand-alone or as one in a series of multiple
touches—a viable acquisition channel for
many marketers.
Emerging trends
The availability of postal information on
email lists has enabled mailers to take a
multi-channel approach to acquisition
By Bob Coles
strategies. List owners are increasingly
open to allowing both a direct mail and
email communication to their lists. Mailers
are testing all types of variations—
direct mail then email follow-up, email
then direct mail, or even two emails
bookending a direct mail effort. The result
is an evolution in list marketing from
a purely direct response channel to a
direct response channel with a branding
component, as carefully timed messages
reach prospects more fluidly.
But it’s not just the availability of email
lists that has changed the list marketing
landscape. Faced with a shrinking share of
marketer’s advertising dollars due to the
Mailers are testing all types of variations—direct mail then email
follow-up, email then direct mail, or even two emails bookending
a direct mail effort. The result is an evolution in list marketing
from a purely direct response channel to a direct response
channel with a branding component.
increase in online strategies, list owners
have responded with a few innovations of
their own. The more savvy owners have
begun to look at their own files to see what
enhancements could be added to make
them more attractive to marketers. Some of
the more notable trends include collecting
more behavioural-type information and
adding it as selection criteria. In addition
to the standard selects of geography,
recency and source, many list owners
are adding specific interests based on
survey information. While this may reduce
quantities, these more targeted lists mean
better response for marketers and more
continuations for list owners.
Another trend that is beginning to show
up more frequently is the use of direct mail
as a driver to online properties. As more
companies increase their online presence
in social media like Facebook and Twitter,
they are finding it increasingly difficult to
drive relevant traffic to these sites in an
ever-competitive marketplace. A targeted
direct mail campaign that also includes well
illustrated reminders to visit the company
on Facebook, is an important building
block in creating a relationship that may
ultimately result in a sale down the road.
Moving from the list business to the
acquisition business
20 years ago, Cornerstone was a list
brokerage and list management
company. Today, we are an acquisition
services company. Our clients leverage
our expertise to prepare and execute
multi-channel marketing strategies that
might include all or some of direct mail,
email, Google and Bing search campaigns,
Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter advertising.
The best direct response marketers never
dismiss or choose a channel based on
whether or not it’s hot. They choose
a channel based on whether or not it
works. Stakeholders in the list business—
media owners, brokers, managers and
marketers—need to understand how
“tried and true” media, such as direct mail,
can work together with new media to
achieve greater results.
Bob Coles is Chief Operating Officer at the
Cornerstone Group of Companies and
oversees Cornerstone's Marketing Database
Services, Data Products, List Processing
Services, List Brokerage and List Management
Services units. He can be contacted at bob@
cstonecanada.com, 416-932-9555, x103.
The list business down south
How U.S. lists can offer new opportunities for Canadian marketers By David Klein
We’re always being asked by our clients to
help them find ways to increase the size
or to improve the effectiveness of their
acquisition programs in direct mail.
There are many ways one can tackle this
problem (or opportunity, depending on
how you look at things). It’s widely believed
that most of the mailing results come from
two or three main variables that contribute
to the success of a mail program.
Assuming one has a successful product
that is working well in the mail already and
the goal is to increase the mail circulation
plans, we would usually suggest modifying
the offer, the mail piece or look for larger
universes of lists.
Since we are in the list business our focus
is always to try to help our clients find larger
more responsive lists to mail to. Sometimes,
however, we get so wrapped up in
searching within our known universe of
names that we miss the fact that there are
consumers and businesses, ready, willing
and able to buy, just across the border.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in
searching within our known universe of
names that we miss the fact that there are
consumers and businesses, ready, willing
and able to buy, just across the border.
The Canadian and American list markets
are similar in many ways and in many ways
they are different. In Canada, like the U.S.,
there are lots of great sources of names to
choose from. It doesn’t really matter what
market you are in, chances are you can find
highly targeted lists of individuals to mail to.
The biggest difference between the
markets is that the Canadian list market
is much smaller than the American list
market. The number of lists and the sizes
of the lists just don’t compare. The latest
count on data cards for consumer lists in
Canada that are direct response generated
is 1,090 lists. The U.S. equivalent count
is 16,000 lists. For companies looking
to target Canadian businesses there are
approximately 1,300 direct response
lists to choose from. In the U.S. there are
approximately 8,700 business lists that are
Susan Higgins
Senior account manager
Phone : 514-574-4537
[email protected]
www.allegrodirect.com
5
If You Can Visualize
Your Customers,
We Can Find Them
InfoCanada has the sales solutions you need to gain
a clear view of your business…and a clear path for
finding new customers. With details on more than 1.5
million Canadian businesses and 12 million Canadian
consumers, you can find great prospects, discover
inside connections and deepen relationships with your
best customers. Just think of us as your insider’s view
to the “perfect prospect.”
Bring new customers into focus today
www.infocanada.ca
800.873.6183
6
Features
10
The following article is the second in a series of three
articles on the top 10 tips for building successful data
mining solutions. The tips listed below are in no order or
priority and should be considered equal in terms of their
importance.
4
Understanding the data
This tip represents the core of all data mining
exercises and it applies to all media. The
benefits of any data mining exercise are only going
to be as good as its inputs or data. Without a clear
understanding of what comprises these data inputs,
misinformed insights as well as faulty results from
any subsequent analysis will yield decisions that are
not only sub-optimal but in some cases detrimental
to the organization. Organizations need to have a
discipline that manages this process with the end
result being the ability to conduct sound analytical
exercises due to a solid understanding of the data.
The process begins initially with loading the raw
data source files. An initial glimpse of what a given
source file looks like can uncover initial problems. For
example, postal code values may contain data that
is entirely numeric, as opposed to alpha numeric,
which is the Canadian postal code format. This kind
of finding would pose a question that the data may
consist of non-Canadian customers. This initial
glimpse of the data allows us to identify this type of
inconsistency as well as to identify other potential
data inconsistencies based on what we expect to
receive.
In any data mining exercise, data miners and
practitioners need to understand missing values, data
formats and number of unique values. A table called
the Data Diagnostics Report (Figure 1) is produced to
address these issues.
In the Data Diagnostics Report, the diagnostics
are indicating that there are issues with household
size and gender due to the large amount of missing
values. One approach in dealing with this issue would
be to not use these variables in any future analysis.
Another approach would be to simply create binary
variables for both fields where the variable merely
looks at whether or not there is a reported value. In
our experience, the creation of binary variables on the
reported values can provide analytical insight. This
is not that surprising if one considers that a person
proactively reporting a particular value on some
application or other type of report probably exhibits
different behaviour than someone who chooses or
neglects to report a value.
The other important finding relates to the column
representing the number of unique values for each
variable. The key insight in interpreting these numbers
is whether or not there is more than one unique
value and if a character type variable contains a large
number of values. Obviously, any variable with only
one outcome or value is not going to be useful in
any data mining exercise. A good example of this
key tips for building successful
data mining solutions
would be the use of gender in targeting insurance
products to NHL hockey players. For character type
variables with many values, the creation of binary
type yes/no variables for each value produces too few
observations that actually have the ‘yes’ outcome. In
order to provide meaning to the variable, there needs
to be a way to combine these character values into
meaningful broader groups.
Frequency Distribution Reports (Figure 2) are the
next set of reports which reveal how the values of a
variable are distributed amongst the records in our
file. These frequency distribution reports, for instance,
would indicate that tenure was not reported prior
to 1998 and that product B seems to be the most
prevalent product amongst this group of records
Another report, the Database Cohort Report
(Figure 3), represents a type of report which is
continuously generated every time updated data is
used for an ongoing analysis. Examples of ongoing
analysis would include post-campaign-type reports
or standard KBM (Key Business Measure) reports
which are generated at specific intervals of the year.
The intention of this type of database cohort report
is to quickly observe if significant changes have
occurred within the database over time.
5
Judicious use of statistics
The blind use of statistics without understanding what they mean on a practical level leads
to the likely outcome of unactionable learning. This
implies that not only the data miner understand
the results but that this understanding extends
to the business user involved in the project. For
example, correlation reports (Figure 5) should be
able to communicate the relative importance of a
given behaviour against a desired behaviour such as
response. In a way, these type of reports should be
able to describe what the desired person looks like.
The correlation report in our example here would tell
the following story about what a responder might
look like.
• Has been a customer for a long time
• Tends to spend more
• Has bought a large number of products
• Is older
• Has lower income
• Credit score has no impact on response behaviour
In building models with these above variables,
both the statistical significance of these variables and
interactions between these variables are important
in determining the final model variables as well as
the parameter estimates or weights attached to each
variable. For example, the Final Model Variable Report
(Figure 4) indicates that tenure by far is the strongest
model variable as it accounts for 60% of the model’s
contribution and is obviously much stronger than
what is indicated by the correlation results. So what is
going on? Interaction effects between all the variables
commonly referred to as multicollinearity causes the
resulting equation to comprise three variables with
tenure accounting for a significant portion of the
model’s power.
Looking at the Correlation Report and the Final
Model Report, we can see that the modeling results
convey a slightly different story than the correlation
results. But this is acceptable as the results will be
used differently for marketing purposes. If I want to
target specific names, I am going to use the model to
obtain the right names. But if I want a more complete
description of what a responder looks like, correlation
results would be the more appropriate information
to use.
As mentioned in the previous tip, some fields or
variables might contain numerous outcomes that are
By Richard Boire
Variable
Income
Customer Type
Gender
Household Size
Product Type
Customer Name
Postal Code
# of records
100000
100000
100000
100000
100000
100000
100000
Data Field Format
numeric
character
character
numeric
character
character
character
# of Unique Values
50000
4
2
7
3000
100000
50000
# of missing Values
2000
10000
50000
90000
5000
0
0
Figure 1: Data Diagnostics Report
Type of Product/
Services Purchased
Product A
Product B
Product C
Product D
Other
Total
# of
Customers
35000
40000
25000
15000
3000
118000
% of
Customers
29.66%
33.90%
21.19%
12.71%
2.54%
100.00%
Tenure
1998
1999
2000
2001
Missing
Total
# of
Customers
9800
10000
12000
8000
30000
698000
% of
Customers
14%
14%
17%
11%
43%
100%
Figure 2: Frequency Distribution Reports
Period 1 Period 2 Period 3
Record Count
Average Purchase
Amount
Average Age
Average Tenure
Etc.
Model
Variable
Tenure
Total Spend
Income
Impact on
Response
Positive
Positive
Negative
% contribution to
Model
60%
22%
18%
Figure 4: Final Model Variable Report
Figure 3: Database Cohort Report
Variable
Tenure
Total Spend
# of products
Age
Income
Credit Score
Correlation Coefficient
0.2
0.15
0.13
0.12
-0.1
0.002
Confidence Interval
99%
99%
98%
97%
95%
12%
Figure 5: Correlation Report
Average Postal Code
M5A 1J2
Index
Income
40,000
50,000
1.25
%3+ Household
52%
60%
1.15
%Landed Immig.
5%
10%
2
Figure 6: Stats Can Index Report
character in nature. This would suggest that we create
binary yes/no variables for each outcome. Yet, some of
these variables would have too many yes/no variables
with very few records actually having a ‘yes’ value.
There needs to be a way to group these outcomes
into more meaningful categories. CHAID, a statistical
routine which is often used to build predictive
models, can be used in this context to create these
categories.
Product sequencing and affinity analysis also
employ the use of statistics. Similar tools such as
correlation are used but in these kinds of applications,
different types of correlation reports are produced
to provide the necessary solutions. These types of
analytical exercises are very data intensive and result
in multiple iterations of correlation type reports.
The iterations are produced to present different
perspectives of the data. For example, we may want to
look at product sequencing and affinity behaviour by
value segment in order to see if there are changes in
these types of behaviours across these segments.
Advanced segmentation employs the use of
techniques such as clustering with the end result
being the production of distinct customer segments
whereby each segment exhibits the same behaviours
and characteristics. Any analyst building cluster
solutions will tell you that there is both art and science
involved in arriving at the right number of clusters
as well as describing the characteristics of each
cluster. This concept of using art and science actually
leads us to our next tip.
6
Combining art and science
All experienced practitioners in this area will
agree that there is a definite blend of art and
science in creating optimum solutions. Within each
exercise or project, there are specific moments where
the analyst looks beyond the science in arriving at
approaches in building better solutions. For the sake of
brevity, I will look at two examples.
The first example is the adoption of the old adage
“fish where the fish are.” To the practitioner, this might
imply that a good place to commence any analytics
is to explore those areas which have a high level of
customer penetration. More specifically within the
area of acquisition, exploring the notion of existing
customer penetration as a means of targeting new
customers certainly represents one sound analytical
approach. Future acquisition efforts would then
focus on the selection of prospects that reside in high
customer penetration areas. Of course, depending
on the level of sophistication and data environment,
other approaches would also be used in conjunction
with the fish-where-the-fish-are approach.
A second example is, what if no customer data
exists? Even the use of the fish-where-the-fish-are
approach would not apply here. So is there anything
we can do? Closer examination might reveal that
market research information has been conducted
Features
 Continued from page 6
which indicates that the purchasers of this company’s
products have higher income, have a large number of
persons in their household, and are immigrants.
The experienced analyst would realize that
although customer data is unavailable, there is Stats
Can information which relates to these characteristics,
albeit at a postal-area level. Using this knowledge, the
analyst can create a composite index of these three
characteristics which are indicated in the Stats Can
Index Report (Figure 6).
This composite index or score for a prospect
residing in M5A1J2 would be
(.33 x 1.25) + (.33 x 1.15) + (.33 x 2) = 1.45. This kind
of indexing approach could then be used to score
all prospects, thereby providing some means
of targeting for acquisition type programs that
essentially leverage the market research learnings.
Although there is something of a leap of faith, in the
sense that we are assuming that market research
behaviour can be inferred on database behaviour, it is
better than doing nothing and certainly at a minimum
should at least be tested within an acquisition
program.
From these examples above, one can observe that
intuition and judgment based on practical experience
or the art component are being used in building
a solution. The science component is done when
evaluating these techniques either through a live
campaign which will either support or refute these
art-developed-type approaches.
In the next issue, we will look at tips seven through
10.
Richard Boire, B.Sc. (McGill), MBA (Concordia), is the
founding partner at the Boire Filler Group, a nationally
recognized expert in the database and data analytical
industry.
 Continued from Cover
through the stores and the mail,” says Neath. “They
were mailing not only their rep base, they were also
mailing all their consumer customers. Because we had
limited resources and because we were coming out
of a bankruptcy we wanted to rebuild that which was
most profitable.
“Today we spend a lot less on marketing. Our
marketing as a percentage of sales in comparison to
the old Regal would probably be a quarter of what
they spent on marketing because we’re doing it
through the reps and the reps actually participate in
paying for some of the marketing costs. When we
first got here one out of every four catalogues was
purchased by a rep and three out of every four was
mailed, and now that’s completely the opposite.”
Where the old Regal mailed approximately seven
million catalogues a year, today they mail anywhere
between half a million to 700,000 catalogues a year.
“The industry that we’re in, they call it direct selling
but it really is a form of direct marketing,” says Neath.
“It’s just much closer to the ground, but it’s definitely
direct marketing. Avon, in my opinion, is a direct
marketing company. They are experts at producing
catalogues, 26 campaigns a year. It’s just that their
reach at the same cost is five times greater by using a
rep base versus going direct to the consumer.”
Neath estimates that approximately 800,000
Canadians are engaged as reps with direct selling
companies in any given year. But while Regal reps are
the backbone of the company, words on paper are still
an integral part of Regal’s structure and success.
“Probably even more than most catalogue
companies, that printed piece of paper is still it for us,”
says Neath. “Even though 80 percent of our orders
are placed online, they are not placed online in the
traditional method, it’s done in conjunction with
catalogue.”
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7
“The industry that we’re in, they
call it direct selling but it really is
a form of direct marketing. It’s
just much closer to the ground.”
Looking forward, Neath is very interested in
figuring out how to make the catalogue and the
website compliment each other better in order to
enhance customer experience.
“We’re trying to figure out where we go with that
because we’ve invested a lot of dollars in replicated
websites but we’ve really got to find a way to tie that
paper catalogue to ordering online,” says Neath. “I
think that’s where a lot of direct marketers are missing
the boat—making that paper drive more of the
activity that they want on the web.”
“Paper in someone’s hand is a massive value that I
don’t see going away. I’ve got my iPad and I read some
books on it. I think it replaces certain things well, but
I don’t think it replaces catalogues or magazines very
well. There is a long life left in our catalogue.”
Today, five years into Regal’s reinvention, Neath is
encouraged by the results the company has achieved
and notes that the direct marketing techniques upon
which the original company was founded are still
effective today.
“It was absolutely right to truly focus on being a
direct selling company, to focus all of our effort on our
relationship with our direct selling reps,” says Neath.
The resources required to grow that way were so
much smaller than they would have been if we had
tried to bring back 400,000 consumer buyers.
“We’ve done very well with the rep base and I
would say the big thing is that, while we’ve grown
[the company], it’s smaller than where we thought we
would be but it’s more focused and more profitable.
That’s probably the biggest single thing, how hard it’s
been to get the word out there.
“There are still a lot of people you’ll run into who’ll
say they thought Regal was still out of business. I hear
that all the time.”
Not content to rest on laurels, Neath is eager to see
how new technologies and consumer trends continue
to shape the catalogue and direct selling industries in
the years to come.
“I think that to be successful now in direct
marketing and in marketing of any kind you have to be
a student,” concludes Neath. “I think that it’s not even
so much predicting what’s coming next but knowing
that there are so many things you don’t know that
it would be good if you did. I think that anybody at
a senior level in direct marketing needs to devote
a large amount of their time to being a student of
different things.”
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8
Features
Email marketing
trends in Canada
By Geoff Linton
D
espite the hype around social media,
email continues to be one of the most
successful direct marketing techniques.
Email is low cost, targeted, generates higher
response and is quick and easy to measure. Research
indicates that email generates $18 in revenue for
every $1 invested (Marketing’s Contribution to
the Canadian Economy, CMA 2008), which is one
reason why it remains a key opportunity for digital
marketers.
While U.S. email marketing benchmarks are
well documented, Canadian comparables are
minimal. To fill this void, Inbox Marketer has created
a unique report. By compiling clickstream data and
tabulating engagement metrics from Canadian
clients as well as U.S. clients (where indicated),
Inbox Marketer has uncovered the latest Canadian
trends in email marketing.
Email metrics standard definitions
Email has matured over the last eight years but
one of the surprising issues is that some marketers
and Email Service Providers (ESPs) in the U.S. use
different methodologies to calculate open and
click-thru rates. To address this issue, in Spring
2010, the Email Experience Council (EEC) and the
Direct Marketing Association (DMA) introduced a
set of new standardized terms and definitions. The
methodologies used by Inbox Marketer are aligned
with these measurement standards.
Trends in Canadian open rates
Open Rates (OR) simply indicate that recipients
have viewed an email message in their inbox. A
message must be opened for it to have a chance
at being read. The calculation for open rates is OR
% = (confirmed unique opens)/(sent messages –
bounces). The average email open rate in Canada is
23.3 percent, which is four percent higher than the
U.S. open rate average (2010 Response Rate Guide,
DMA).
Inbox Marketer trend data indicates that,
in Canada, open rates (for B2B and B2C email
programs combined) increased between 2007 and
2009, but dropped in 2010.
There are several possible reasons for this five
percent net decrease in 2010:
Erosion from social media: As online fragmentation increases (particularly with the rise of
social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter,
LinkedIn and others), individuals have even more
Summary findings
• Open rates averaged 23.3 percent in 2010, a
decrease of 5.4 percent from 2009.
• Click-thru rates remained healthy at 6.4
percent, but fell two percent from 2009.
• Unique click-thru rates declined 1.3 percent
from 2009 to average out at 4.8 percent,
bucking the upward trend of the previous
three years.
• Bounce rates dropped by 0.9 percent from
2009 to 3.3 percent, which is consistent
with the downward trend in recent years.
avenues for obtaining information and communicating with a wide range of people and organizations. The decrease in email open rates could be
an indication that some of the attention that was
normally devoted to the traditional inbox has been
replaced by inboxes within social networks as well
as increased information gathering in this space.
Email list fatigue: The open rate decline could
also be associated with “list fatigue.” The longer
individuals are part of a subscriber list, the higher
the potential they may simply get bored of receiving your messages, particularly if they’re always
similar. Fatigue could be setting in if organizations
have not embarked on trying to engage subscribers
in a new way.
Impact of mobile: Another possible reason
for the gradual decline of HTML open rates is the
increasing prevalence of smart phones (mobile).
Some marketers believe that smart phones are
becoming a primary reading channel (meaning
emails are being read less on computers). In
addition, many users do not enable images on their
phones. The end result is that email messages are
likely being read, but opens are not recorded (and
the true open rates are under reported).
Competition for permission: According to
a 2010 Ipsos Reid study, the average Canadian
has 13 permission-based email relationships with
companies (up from eight in 2008). There is more
competition within the email sector for securing
consumer attention.
A word of caution: Open Rate averages can
be deceiving. It is well known that open rates are
tracked using a transparent gif image. Therefore,
image blocking and reading on smart phones are
two reasons why open rates are underreported.
This metric also varies depending on the type of
email (alerts vs. newsletters), the subject line, as
well as the quality of the content, targeting and
personalization. Overall, the open rate metric
should be used as a rough measure of success.
Seasonality can also be a factor. The highest
open rates often occur in January (the new year),
with the lowest in the summer (August).
Canadian click-thru tate trends
Click-thru rates (CTR) indicate the relevancy of
email content and are an excellent measure of
engagement. Overall, Canadian CTR rates are
healthy at 6.4 percent. Comparing CTR benchmarks
can be difficult because, according to Marketing
Sherpa, only 39 percent of U.S. emailers use the
correct methodology for calculating CTR (total
clicks/total delivered).
Although Canadian click-thru rates (for B2B and
B2C email programs combined) were relatively
consistent between 2007 and 2009, CTR decreased
by two percent in 2010. Unique click-thru rates
(UCTR) also took a downward turn in 2010, bucking
the upward trend of the previous three years.
The decline in average CTR could be the result
of a contact frequency that is too high and/or
subscriber fatigue. If recipients continue to see the
same content time and time again, they are less
likely to click. Many email marketers, however, are
still focused on offering traditional, static content
(such as articles) in their messages, rather than
Canadian Click Rates by Year
10%
9%
8.9%
8.5%
8.4%
8%
7%
6%
5.7%
5.3%
6.4%
6.1%
4.8%
5%
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2007
2008
Clicks
2009
2010
Unique Clicks
Canada and U.S. Open & Click Rates - 2010
25%
23.7%
22.1%
19.5%
20%
15%
10%
6.6%
5.3%
4.9%
5%
0%
Inbox OR (North
America)
Inbox CTR (North DMA OR (United DMA CTR (United Epsilon OR (North Epsilon CTR (North
America)
States)
States)
America)
America)
Canadian Bounce Rates by Year
7%
6.2%
6%
4.7%
5%
4.2%
4%
3.3%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2007
2008
2009
2010
Features
9
inthemail
Ask and ye shall receive
Russ Reid helps Yonge Street Mission
ring in a happy holiday By Sarah O’Connor
Annual Christmas Campaign 2010
Yonge Street Mission:
Anne Barnard-Bell – Mission Development
Officer
Paula Hinksom – Production Supervisor
John Ungr Randt – Director of Development
Russ Reid:
Jaime Kemper – Account Executive
Tim Kersten – Creative Director
Randi Lockwood – Creative Supervisor
Heidi Riehl – Group Director
Philip Tome – Account Director
Kathy Wimbish – Creative Supervisor
F
ounded in 1896, the Yonge Street Mission
(YSM) has been helping Toronto’s poorest
people for over a century. Over the years
YSM’s programs have expanded and diversified, but
serving hundreds of nutritious meals every day is still a
cornerstone of the Mission’s, well, mission.
“The Mission itself is a not-for-profit and so we rely
on individuals, foundations, corporations to provide
our funding,” explains Ann Barnard-Bell, Mission
Development Officer for the Yonge Street Mission.
“We take very limited government funding, and that’s
just for a couple of very specific programs, but we
don’t want to rely on government dollars for the work
we do.”
For many years, YSM has depended on regular
direct mail campaigns to fund its programs.
“We’ve created a really strong base through
direct marketing, and that forms the bulk of the
revenue that we bring into the organization,” says
Barnard-Bell. “Direct mail is the way that we can reach
the most people in the most cost-effective way. We
do an acquisition campaign twice a year, around
Thanksgiving and then at Christmas, and then we do
regular appeals to our existing donor base.”
For the last 10 years YSM has partnered with Russ
Reid, a marketing firm that specializes in nonprofit
organizations, in order to connect with donors.
Last October they executed the Annual Christmas
Campaign 2010, which was sent to YSM’s existing
donor based, about 33,000 households in the
Greater Toronto Area. The campaign revolved
around a place mat bounce-back feature
encouraging donors to send the signed
place mat back with their gift, to be used
during the Mission’s special Christmas
dinners.
“Because we are working with people who are
struggling in poverty, food becomes a really central
piece to our work,’ says Barnard-Bell. “We use that
as our entry point and we continue to use that in the
direct mail side and then as we to develop a deeper
relationship with our donors we’re able to talk to them
a little bit more about the broader services that we
provide.
“In all of our direct mail and in this particular
campaign, the ask is around $3.11, which provides a
meal to a person. It’s really identifiable but it’s also
doable. It makes it so that everybody can have an
opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life.”
“It’s easy to grasp, easy to understand that
$3.11 will provide a nutritious meal for a hungry
or hurting person in need,” concurs Philip Tome,
Account Director for Russ Reid. “In fundraising it’s
really a matter of breaking down what can seem
insurmountable to donors. People can relate to
providing a meal for one person in need or five people
in need more easily than the reality for Yonge Street
Mission, which is that they serve hundreds of
meals every day. That can be difficult to appreciate
because you feel like a drop in the bucket.”
While Russ Reid and the Yonge Street Mission
are direct marketing veterans at this point, the
importance of this particular campaign weighed on
their minds during development.
“This campaign was the launch of our fiscal year
and it was also the true launch of our Christmas
campaign,” explains Barnard-Bell. “What we as an
organization know is that probably half of our revenue
comes in through October/November/December,
and so having a successful Christmas campaign is
huge for us.”
A weak ROI means fewer people can be feed over
the holidays and fewer beds can be made available
through the long, cold winter.
“The economy has been our biggest challenge in
2010,” says Tome. “Although we are technically, by
definition, out of the recession, the psychological
impact of the recession is still weighing on Canadian
donors to the point where it was extremely difficult to
raise funds across Canada in 2010. And, frankly, it got
even more challenging around Christmastime.
“It’s not lost on us that the success or, rather, failure
of a program could have an impact on the number
of people that are fed or the number of beds that
are made available to homeless people benefiting
from these programs,” says Tome. “I think in order to
succeed in [not-for-profit fundraising] you need to
be motivated by [the high stakes], but you can’t let it
paralyze you.”
The goal for the campaign was a 20 percent
response rate and while in the end the results fell
slightly short, with an 18.3 percent response rate, a
larger-than-predicted average gift meant the Yonge
Street Mission’s fundraising goal was achieved.
“The results reinforce that we’re right on in terms of
our strategy for the time of year,” says Barnard-Bell. “As
we delve into the data around it as well that also helps
to inform the tweaks that we’ll put in place for Easter
and next Christmas.”
An unexpected outcome of the campaign was the
personal touch that many donors added to their place
mats.
“We get lovely, amazing notes that are written
on these placemats back to people and they’re just
encouraging for people who are really struggling and
having a hard time,” says Barnard-Bell.
“It’s not lost on us that the success or, rather,
failure of a program could have an impact on
the number of people that are fed or the number
of beds that are made available to homeless
people benefiting from these programs.”
10
Search Engine Optimization
profiting from the online Revolution
Web Marketing/Online Integration/Internet
Initiatives/eCommerce Tactics/Digital Transactions
SEM: The missing link
Round out your portfolio with search engine marketing
By Chris Genge
Unless your marketing portfolio contains
a well managed search engine marketing
component, you are leaving a substantial
amount of sales on the table for your
competitors.
For years, most companies have been
doing fairly well working with their
conventional marketing campaigns. This
may have included direct mail, email
marketing, trade shows, yellow pages,
internal marketing, and media advertising.
much easier to comparison shop online
and the internet is a convenient way for
people to source products or services
they need. Statistics reveal that a lot more
people are using search engines to find
and purchase what they are looking for.
The key to using SEM successfully is to
have a well managed campaign that is
of proper size for your market. You need
good online visibility to attract people
to your website and you need a good
website that can sell your products or
can be implemented individually or in
conjunction with each other depending
on the type of market coverage you want.
SEO tends to deliver better and
certainly longer lasting results overall
but takes much more effort and time to
properly set up and attain the visibility in
the search engines. SEO requires a time
frame of three to six months to set up
and implement properly, which for some
companies can be a deterrent. The up side
for companies who do pursue SEO is that
The key to using SEM successfully is to have a well managed
campaign that is the proper size for your market.
While the effectiveness of some of these
forms of marketing has flattened or
dropped off during the recession, many
companies have cut back or completely
stopped their marketing efforts, waiting
for the recession to end.
Unfortunately, this strategy leaves
many great opportunities untapped or,
worse, open to your competitors. Search
engine marketing (SEM) offers substantial
opportunities for successful marketing
when you consider that even during this
recession online purchasing has increased
exponentially.
With better online security, consumer
confidence has improved dramatically. It’s
services.
In a well-managed SEM campaign
the sales per dollar spent can vary from
$5 to $1 up to $60 to $1 (or better). This
means that for every dollar spent on SEM
you receive $5 to $60 in sales. Therefore,
if the ratio was a decent $10 to $1, for
every $1,000 spent on SEM you could
expect $10,000 in sales. The actual ratio
depends on your product demand and
your website’s ability to convert interested
visitors into buyers or leads.
In terms of online marketing, there
are essentially two options for SEM. They
are search engine optimization (SEO)
and PayPerClick (PPC). SEO and PPC
they now have a greater opportunity for
long term success.
If properly set up and managed, SEO
can potentially provide the biggest return
on investment. When compared to PPC,
SEO usually delivers five to seven times
the volume of interested visitors to your
website and often converts at a much
higher rate than PPC. SEO is a process of
ensuring that your website is readable by
the search engines.
Your website needs to be keyword
optimized to ensure the search engines
understand the relevance of your website
to what is being searched for. The more
relevant your web page is to the search
term used, the more likely your web page
will be shown in the search results when
someone is looking for something related
to what you offer. Many keyword search
terms now have millions of competing
pages. For your web page to get ahead of
this many competing pages requires the
expertise of a good SEO expert.
PayPerClick (PPC) is the closest cousin
to conventional advertising. You can set
up ad groups that contain lists of keywords
that the search engines use to display your
ads when it meets your campaign criteria.
Once your ads are added to the campaign
they are normally reviewed and approved
within one to two days so they can start
running on the search engines right away.
You can specify regions where your
ads run, times of the day, maximum
cost per click and monthly budgets. The
criteria can be changed as required and
changed on a daily, weekly, monthly basis
depending on what suits your business
model. PPC ad campaigns and individual
ads can be turned off or paused when you
don’t want them to run.
If your monthly PPC spend is in
excess of $2,000 per month it is highly
recommended that you use a professional
PPC campaign manager to set up and
maintain campaigns. PPC campaign
managers use visitor and conversion
tracking to make decisions on any
adjustments needed to maximize the
returns and attain the best results. Since
we know that the 80/20 rule applies and
most of the clicks are not productive,
PPC campaign managers are there to
decrease wasted clicks and improve cost
of acquisition costs.
In summary, you can develop a better
marketing portfolio by including either
SEO or PPC into your existing marketing
activities. SEO and PPC are marketing
opportunities that most companies have
yet to explore; sometimes citing the lack of
resources to implement successfully.
In light of the decreasing effectiveness
of conventional marketing strategies and
in terms of overall marketing success (sales
per dollar spent), the real question is how
can you afford not to implement an SEM
strategy? A good SEM marketing firm can
help you explore the opportunities for
using either SEO or PPC, individually or in
conjunction with each other.
Chris Genge is the President of 1st on the List
Promotion Inc, a website promotion firm that
specializes in search engine optimization
and pay per click management services.
Chris writes on current and emerging search
engine marketing theories and has been
involved in the SEO industry since 1997.
Capitalizing on Google Places
Six tips for leveraging the free local search phenomena
By Jeff Quipp
You may have noticed the appearance of maps, logos,
stars, and push pin images working their way into the
Google search results lately, particularly when the
search query contains a city parameter. This has been
part of an ongoing effort by Google to improve its
search results for those looking for local businesses.
The concept
The idea behind these local listings and maps is that
when searchers google using a city search parameter,
Of course, it’s now up to business owners to
populate the Google Places database with accurate
information. The more information a company
provides, and the more likely it is accurate, the more
likely Google is to show it. Keep in mind, Google’s goal
is to provide its users with the information they’re
looking for with respect to local businesses, at a
glance, and the rest with one click.
While there are currently a couple variations of
local results, the local listings Google generates
(defined as those listings with a link to the company’s
While Google states that 50,000,000 Place pages
exist, only 4,000,000 have been claimed so far.
they’re looking for a local business. In fact, Google
research suggests that as much as 20 percent of total
searches have local intent. Having done significant
research on the topic, Google knows that there are
certain types of information that people searching
for local businesses typically wish to see, including
proximity, hours of operation, consumer reviews,
special offers, pictures, videos, brand names carried,
payment methods, delivery areas, and more. Not
having a central repository of this information from
which to draw, however, Google constructed Google
Places. Google then populated the basic listing
information in Google Places with data it could scrape
from websites, purchase from Yellow Pages publishers,
and get company owners to provide.
Google Place page) in their search results are primarily
restricted to businesses with physical addresses in the
area. This provides local businesses a real advantage
over national or international organizations that do
not have a physical local presence.
Opportunity knocks
The key as always is to rank as high as possible for
relevant terms, as top rankings generate the most
visibility, clicks and, ultimately, business. The real
question then becomes; how can a business improve
its placement within these local results?
The first step is to claim/verify the listing(s) or Place
page(s) associated with a business, if they haven’t
been claimed already. It’s free of charge but while
Ranking for the variation of local results shown in the image above requires very strong rankings in the organic Google results (ie. the nonsponsored results), which in turn is a function of the number and quality of other sites from across the web that link to a particular site and page.
Google states that 50,000,000 Place pages exist,
only 4,000,000 have been claimed so far. To claim
a company’s Place page(s), all a company needs to
do is visit http://places.google.com/business. It is
recommended that as much information as possible
be added, recognizing that local searchers do often
prefer to see images of people, videos, hours of
operation, delivery areas, and so forth. Failure to claim
a listing doesn’t necessarily mean that the listing
will not appear in the local listings, but will almost
certainly result in lost opportunities when potential
clients cannot find the information they’re looking for
within a Place page. Also, the more the complete a
profile, the better it ranks (generally speaking).
Also, in order for a listing to appear in the local
results for a particular city, it is required to have a
physical address in that city. While it may be possible
to fool Google in the short term with false locations,
P.O. boxes and the like, Google has more pHds than
NASA and will eventually identify and penalize
offenders.
Best practices
It is important to choose relevant categories for the
business when claiming the Google Place profile and
up to five can be selected. The more relevant the
categories, the better the chance that their selection
can help boost the listing’s appearance within the local
results, and the more keywords a listing can potentially
appear in response to.
Entice existing clients to leave positive reviews for
each location a business has. Positive reviews are one
of the elements that can aid specific Place pages to
receive better placement amongst the local results
in Google Maps and even Google itself. Perhaps even
more important, positive reviews attract searchers’
attention to a listing. The more reviews relative to
competitors, the more a listing stands out, the more
likely it is to generate business.
Regional Report
Regional
Report:York
By Sarah O’Connor
Andrews Direct Marketing
Zone Marketing Group
RISO Canada Inc.
Source: Environics Analytics 2011, PRIZM C2
Insource
The FSA Group
11
Regional Report
12
Business is booming where
country meets city
York's regional government offices in Newmarket, Ontario.
J
ust north of the Greater Toronto Area you’ll find York
Region, home to a little over a million residents. York
Region stretches from Steeles Avenue to the south
to Lake Simcoe to the north and encompasses the towns of
Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Georgina, King, Markham, Newmarket,
Richmond Hill, Whitchurch-Stouffville and the city of Vaughan. It’s
also Direct Marketing’s home turf.
York Region straddles the boundary between urban and
rural and while many residents commute south into the GTA for
work the area hosts a healthy commercial and industrial sector,
including a bustling direct marketing industry.
“We’ve been here, in Richmond Hill and Aurora, for over 50
years,” says John Campbell, Director of Marketing for Andrews
Direct Marketing. “We’re strategically placed between Toronto
and Barrie and we’re close to 400 series highways so there’s easy
access.”
York Region’s central location makes it attractive
for client head offices and direct marketing service
providers alike.
“All [our clients’] head offices are in the GTA so
it makes a lot of sense to be in the area because all
of the decision making is done here. We’ve tried to
position ourselves in the middle of all the different
manufacturers,” says Dennis Pitselis, President of Zone
Marketing Group.
Fish where the fish are
Unlike in other areas of the country that have been
featured in regional reports, everyone we spoke to in
York Region said that the bulk of their clients where
located within York Region and the Greater Toronto
Area, while at the same time acknowledging that York
“All of our clients’ head offices are in the GTA, so
it makes a lot of sense to be in the area because
all of the decision making is done here.”
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Regional Report
Region is an ideal location from which to
serve remote partners.
“I would say that for the most part our
customers are north of Toronto,” says Tim
Wakefield, President of Insource. “There's
a very good cross section of customers
in this area, we've got several other letter
shops around here, printers, binderies.
But we also deal with south-western
Ontario so we'll be in Fort Erie, we'll be in
Cambridge, we'll be in Guelph.
“We do have a location in Montreal,
we also have a sales rep in Vancouver,
but there are times where our people
from here will go coast to coast. For our
primary customer base this is an excellent
location.”
“I would say that about 20–25 percent
of our clients are based in York Region,”
says Campbell. “The rest are in the GTA,
with some clients in the States. We’re
doing daily runs to the Buffalo USPS.”
“We have clients across Canada and into
the U.S. as well, but I would say predominantly they would be within the Toronto
area and Montreal,” says Janice Dumphie,
Account Director for The FSA Group.
“I really do believe it makes a
difference when someone can come to
your operation and take a look at a job
running,” adds Account Director Esme
Hurst, also of The FSA Group.
“There’s a string of manufacturers
along the 404 and then there’s another
area all in Mississauga, so all our clients are
in very close proximity,” says Pitselis.
Location, location, location
York Region’s extensive network of
highways as well as close proximity to
Lester B. Pearson International Airport and
the U.S. border make it an excellent place
to do business.
“For us, access to the 407 is very
important,” says Wakefield. “We demand
our staff take the 407, I don't want them
on the 401. If we can spend an hour on
the 401, we could spend that hour in front
of our customer. The access to the 407
is huge for us. I love the fact that people
have to pay for it and most people refuse
to use it, it's great for us.”
“I think Markham’s a great area for high
tech companies and there’s a great pool
of labour here,” says Dumphies. “I think
the 400 series highways and the airport
are probably just as important as the
border, because we have our own trucks
and we cross the border regularly and
we drop mail into the U.S. So the border
matters and the airport matters as well,
we’re doing regular runs there. We’re Royal
Mails largest customer here in Canada and
we have postal agreements with 13 post
offices around the world, so we’re making
that run to the airport pretty regularly.”
Public transit is also an important factor
for employees.
“One of the key things is we’re located
right by the GO station,” says Pitselis. “A
lot of people are used to commuting
downtown and this is a great alternative.
We have a lot of local talent and we like to
be in an area that’s easy to get to; traffic is
not an issue.”
Working from home
It is difficult to overestimate the appeal of
working close to home and avoiding a rush
hour commute to and from the city.
“Markham happens to be an excellent
area. It's close to the 407 so there's
very easy access for our customers and
there's very easy access for our staff,” says
Wakefield. “We have service technicians
that have to get to our customers and they
have to get to our customers immediately.
The other side of it is I live in Pickering
and this is, in my opinion, the best central
location for our GTA, southern Ontario
customers to get to.”
“I live in Newmarket and the person
that I opened a business with here on
behalf of RISO lived in the Markham area,
so we both had a bias toward staying
reasonably close to our homes,” says Gord
Leah, General Manager of RISO Canada.
While real estate is at less of a premium
than in the downtown core and larger
operations have more options in terms of
space, both residential and commercial
real estate in York Region is becoming
more and more in demand, and as a result
costs are rising.
“There’s some cheaper space
elsewhere, Aurora is not the cheapest
place to be,” says Campbell.
“A good part of our marketing effort
is actually to show our product and to
do demonstrations on our product and
a lot of what helps us to sell our product
is the speed of it and people seeing it in
action,” says Leah. “Sometimes it’s difficult
to get people to come from downtown
Highway 407 connects York Region from east to west
Toronto or from Mississauga to this
location because of the distances. By and
large people still come, but if there was
anything that would be one of the, let’s
say hiccups that we get into.”
The evolving industry
Being located so close to Toronto while
maintaining a unique perspective means
that direct marketers in York Region can
quickly spot emerging trends within the
industry.
“Probably the biggest thing we’re
seeing is the change in print technology
and not just personalized mailing but
personalized prospectus, personalized
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14
Features
Who we
met with:
Andrews Direct Marketing
John Campbell, director of
marketing for Andrews Direct
Marketing
Formerly Andrews Mailing
Service, Andrews Direct
Marketing offers a wide range of
tailored services including digital
printing, data services, mailing
and fulfillment.
publications, personalization not just on
one page but throughout,” says Campbell.
“The cost of the technology for digital web
is coming down and the quality is coming
up. I wonder if litho is going to go the way
of the film camera.”
“As the technology gets less expensive
we’re able to offer that to more customers
at a more affordable price,” concurs
Dumphie. “That has been a big focus, to
get the cost down for customers so that
Zone Marketing Group
Dennis Pitselis, president of Zone
Marketing Group
Zone Marketing Group is a
full service interactive event
marketing company that
specializes in capturing prospect
data onsite and converting that
prospect data into sales
they can actually take advantage of what
digital means for them, which is being
able to target and pull in variables and
really create a custom, unique piece for
each customer.”
Onward, upward in 2011
“There's guarded optimism, particularly
in our industry, the direct mail, direct
marketing world,” says Wakefield. “There
are very strong competitors out there,
“I think Markham’s a great
area for high tech companies
and there’s a great pool of
labour here.”
RISO Canada Inc.
Gord Leah, general manager of
RISO Canada Inc.
RISO Canada strives to create
fundamentally unique new
technologies in paper-based
communication through an
approach that emphasizes
productivity, cost containment,
and versatility.
with TV and radio, and newsprint is still a
competitor.”
“I would say that 2011 is riding some
stability that started six months ago,”
says Campbell. “That started even in the
summer of 2010, at the end of Q3 and
through Q4. People are clearly off the thin
ice now. 2011 is continuing to move on
the same momentum it left off with in Q4.
Orders are back up to 80 percent of what
they were and that’s good news for us as
far as a leading indicator.
“People are feeling better about doing
business. I think part of it is people are just
so sick of not getting business done or
moving forward. We’ve made it through
the worst and things seem to be getting
a bit better so people are venturing out a
little bit more.”
Insource
Tim Wakefield, president of Insource
Insource’s process strategists
are dedicated to supporting
and supplying cutting-edge
technology in to the industrial
marketplace by partnering with
mailers.
The FSA Group
Rob van Velzan, president of The
FSA Group
The FSA Group offers total direct
marketing solutions with end-toend services including variable
digital print, FSA Datalytics, email
deployments, fulfillment, and
more.
solutions for data-driven
communications
execution of variable
digital print campaigns
steve falk – [email protected]
www.primedata.ca
Features
dmn.ca ❯ Direct Marketing ❯ March
2011
February
2011
Pro bono: When marketing matters more
15
9
As a U.S. direct marketer mailing into
list as the universe of available names is
an acquisition perspective I can pick up a
McNeilly
David Klein is CEO of Macromark, Inc., a
direct response generated. The upside to
the Canadian market I should expect
much smaller.
lot more names to By
addBrenda
to my house
list for
leading, highly reputable and progressive
marketing in Canada is that the individuals
higher response rates but less choices and
As a Canadian direct marketer mailing
retention purposes.
acquisition, retention and monetization list
on the lists (all
beingfamiliar?
equal) tend
opportunities
in segmented
and category
into theTrue
U.S.Patriot
market I should
expect
it’s notinvolved
something
your company has
oesthings
this sound
You’re in a meeting.
Olympics,
The Canadian
Anti-Fur Alliance,
soldiers
back into children,Ifwhich
mailing
media company. Macromark is recognized
to be 50 percent
100ofpercent
more moment,specific lists.Love,
The good
newsHouse,
here isUnicef,
that thethe International
lower response
rates butout
more
choicesof what appeared
already done,
it may be time to take
In thetoheat
the marketing
Covenant
Fund
packages
to be then
toy soldiers,
as one of the industry’s fastest-growing direct
responsive than
whatflare,
oneand
would
lists have
a much
greater
and
and turned
a look
justbeacross
thereading,
border and explore
passions
justexpect
when ittoseemsout-of-category
things
for Animal
Welfare,
Fashion
Cares and
theopportunities
White Ribbonin segmentation
but when opened
out to
children
marketing agencies with over 300 consumer
find
in get
the U.S.
for me
category
specific lists. The
goodand
news
herebikes.the
opportunities
that can
be found right
might
out of hand, someone says “hey, calmchance
down, of working
Campaign.
I’vesince
had response
the transformational
experience
playing
riding
Y&R’s
parent company,
WPP,
and business-to-business clients, in the U.S.,
Thenot
Canadian
market
is more responsive
rates tend toofbebeing
higher
to of
begin
with.campaign
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is that
while response
rates
lower in to pro bono
in your
ownthat
backyard
withanlittle additional
we’re
saving lives
here.”
part
a global
that
resulted
in
is soare
committed
work
they have
Canada and Internationally.
than
U.S. market,
as individuals
perare.
piece mailed
profit will
be much
higher of cosmetic
generaltesting
I have aon
much larger
of of it oneffort
needed wpp.com,
in changing
the mail piece,
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sometimes,
when
we’re very,invery lucky, we
the almost
complete
cessation
entireuniverse
showcase
their website,
under
Canada
receive
fewer pieces
from an acquisition
won’t impossible
names and
lists to choose
from. TheResponsibility.
per
call centre or fulfillment facilities.
As skilled
marketers
we getoftomail,
useon
our mad powers
animalsperspective
in the 1980s.but
It’s Ialmost
to describe
Corporate
average,
than U.S.
mailthe
recipients.
be able to add
many names to my house
piece mailed profit may be lower but from
It’s definitely worth exploring.
of persuasion
to make
world a better place—with
thisasfeeling.
pro bono work. And it’s not just an opportunity or an
Of course there are lots of reasons why agencies do
Motivate staﬀ
obligation, it¹s a gift.
pro bono work. Here are my top 10:
There is a buzz and energy that swirls around the
In
Continued
from
page
standards now refer to “delivered”
(versus
80-84 percent
North
eMarketing leaders use published metmy career I’ve
worked
on8pro-bono creativeCanadian email marketers are getting
creation of as
prothe
bono work
in agencies.
You haveinto
see America for
engaging
through
more particibetter at listPassion
hygiene.for
In fact,
bounce
“accepted number” of messages
(whichit yourself
Q3to2010).
leadersit.typically
rics with caution. They prefer to establish
campaignsrecipients
for the Toronto
Humane
Society, Special
the the
cause
and experience
truly Email
understand
That obtain an
patory content that is representative of the rate has decreased
by almost
halfget
since
it directly
inbox). into other
IPR of
moreclient
than work,
90 percent.
How often
does one
the chancemake
to rescue
child into a recipient’s
energy cascades
paying
makesGood deliver- their own goals and focus on the trends in
social media realm (such as polls, surveys,
2007.
it is also important
to tracktowhere
ability
requires
vigilance
andthe
discipline.
the metrics (rather than focusing solely on
soldiers, save an animal, give shelterHowever,
to a homeless
staff proud
come to work
and
be associated
with
requests for feedback, links to video,
The dropperson,
in bounce
rates our
could
indicate
delivered
messagescause
end up
(that’s
absolute numbers). For example, if there is
support
military,
protectthe
battered
women
and
reminds us all of the bigger picture.
invitations to social media conversations
email marketers
arecancer?
taking aFor
more
diligent
where
deliverability
Interpreting the benchmarks
a steady decline in program CTR and this is
or fight
many
agencies and
marketers
there comes in).
and more). Email leaders, on the other
approach toislist
hygiene,
as well
Deliverability
is a quality
assurance
As indicated previously, the DMA’s U.S.
a trend mirrored in industry, it will be clear
a special
cause
thatas
affects them profoundly,
one that
awards
hand, use dynamic content techniques
implementing
besttopractice
techniques,
metric
that isAnd
measuredThe
by acynics
third party
benchmarks
mirror
the Canadian
that the decrease isn’t a challenge that is
is dear
their hearts,
often for personal
reasons.
would have us
believe proclosely
bono work
is all
to deliver relevant information and offers
such as the “double
opt in,”
which a point in their
QAcareers
tool like
Return Path.about
Deliverability
Inboxno
Marketer
isolated to a specific email program. But
when they’ve
reached
where
ego and winningmetrics
awards.of
There’s
denyingclients. Both
matched to an individual subscriber.
confirms subscribers’
emaila addresses
the destination
ofsome
the messages.
groupscampaigns
have clientsinwho
are market leaders if your email trend is opposite to industry,
they can make
difference, they stepmeasures
up.
that
of the most famous
history
Another reason for the declining CTR
and ensures they really want to receive
It forecasts the proportion
messages
that utilize
best practices
with a direct
this indicates there are areas of the email
haveofbeen
pro bono. Certainly
the annual
award shows
trend is that a number of digital marketers
informationSocial
from aresponsibility
particular company or
that are delivered to oneare
offithree
places:
program that require further optimization.
lled with
pro bono marketing
creative andapproach.
Saatchi’s United
This Y&R campaign raised awareness of child
are reporting that their enewsletters are
brand. Overall,
the Canadian
thehere,
inbox,
junk folder
or missing.
According
to North
American
benchOverall, Canadian email metrics are
Though
there’s anbounce
elementrate
of altruism
thethe
reality
Nations
Voices campaign even
took home
a Lion
in
burn victims in Mexico.
underperforming. According to Marketing benchmark is that
closeit’stoconsidered
the U.S. benchmark
Return
Path
has
more
than
650
sample
marking
data
from
Inbox
Marketer,
the
declining
as the industry matures. Email
more than desirable to for an
2008. Some awards shows, like the CMA’s, have even
Sherpa, a significant proportion of eMarof 3.7 percent
(2010
Response
Rate
Guide,
email
accounts
—
all
with
different
DMA
and
large
ESPs,
open
rates
range
still
provides
highertoresponse
rates
than
agency to help charities and community groups, or to
created their own pro bono category.
presidents and CEO’s continue
support pro
bono
keters obtain a two to five percent CTR for
DMA).
combinations
of
ISPs
and
email
clients.
between
19.5
percent
and
23.7
percent.
mail,
online
banners
and
paid
search.
give back. Many agencies limit their pro bono clients to
“Award” is not a dirty word. Awards make clients and
work. I like this.
their enewsletters. From our experience,
proportion
make
Click-thru
rangeand
between
one at a time or per year, and set aside aThe
finite
bucket ofof messages
charitiesthat
famous
too, and
put theirrates
products
causes 4.9 percent Email is also much more cost-effective
best in class enewsletters generate more
Deliverability
it straight
into
the inboxon
is called
the Inbox
andAs6.6
These benchmarks
are
(based on a cost per click basis). It is more
non-billable hours, to ensure that paying
clients
don’t
a pedestal
for all to see.
forpercent.
the stage-walk,
that’s a Generate
Pr
than 10 percent CTR.
Marketers often
get
confused
with
the
Placement
Rate
(IPR).
Return
Path
indicates
close
in
proximity,
suggesting
they
are
a
important
than
for adds
emailtomarketers
suffer.
little bit of alright too.
There’s no question
than
an ever
agency
its profile
differences between “delivered” versus
that 20 percent of legitimate messages
good reflection of current industry and
trends.
to
maintain
good
list
hygiene,
reputation when it takes on a pro bonomonitor
cause,
Canadian bounce rates
“deliverability.”
Delivered
is defined as
still don’t get to the inbox
(messages
are
It is important to note, however, particularly
that
deliverability,
seize
key
Creative
opportunity
attract
new business
if the campaign
picks
upinsights
awards.for
Butsmarter
even
The good news is that, just as Canadian
the numberPro
of messages
that
did
NOT
diverted
into
junk
folders
or
go
“missing”).
although
general
benchmarks
can
help
targeting
and
continually
optimize
email
bono work is different. It affords creative latitude
When pro bono work gives an agency the chance
in the absence of awards, marketing media are often
bounce rates (for B2B and B2C email
bounce (# Delivered
= # Messages
Sent
-#
Therefore,
the average IPR
is 80 percent.
email
performance,
messages
to cut
throughstories
the clutter
and risk-taking
that’s rare
in agency
work. It reveals
to show
what it’s got, thegauge
resulting
publicity
can these metrics
more than willing
to cover
feel-good
aboutand
pro
programs combined) have declined in
Bounces) and
this
metric
is
highlighted
on
According
to
Return
Path,
the
average
vary
depending
on
the
senders
and
the
achieve
maximum
results.
what creatives are truly capable of and pushes us to
attract future paying clients, and facilitate important
bono work.
recent years, the trend continues in 2010.
the deployment
interface.
EEC
industry
IPR in Canada istop-tier
75 percent
industry
our limits.
Last The
yearnew
Y&R Johannesburg
did a brilliant
introductions. Still,
there sector.
are no guarantees
Grey Canada brings dignity to life with real
Pro bono continues on page 18
direct mail campaign for Unicef about turning child
and agencies have no illusions about this, yet their
objects atop bus shelters.
D
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Features
16
Engaging customers with
emotionally intelligent email
T
ake a moment to notice how
much you rely on email, your
mobile phone and the social
web today. Consumers are increasingly
well informed because of the tremendous
richness of digital information available to
them. When a consumer reads an email
from a brand or product their expectations
about content and offers is based on
their prior online and offline experiences
and opinions from their social network.
With the explosive growth of mobile and
social media, many brands are embracing
multichannel permission-based marketing
with email still leading the way.
What has changed? As the New York
Times describes in a 2009 article entitled
“Mining the Web for Feelings, Not Facts,”
the ever-growing mountain of data on
the web is creating a new virtual currency:
online consumer opinions and feelings.
Essentially, this cumulative effect is
amplifying the influence of personal
opinions on brands to the extent that they
affect whether a company’s products and
services fail or succeed.
At Lymbix, we specialize in understanding how word, phrase, string, and
punctuation choices make people feel.
We’ve been identified as a global leader
in the sentiment space after receiving
considerable media and interest from
users about our ToneCheck technology.
While our sentiment analysis technology
allows any form of text-based communi-
emails as much as 50 percent of the time.
In response to this problem, we
developed ToneCheck, a free Outlook
add-in tool that uses detailed sentiment
analysis to flag content that may be
perceived negatively by the reader. In
essence, the tool identifies the emotional
definition of words and phrases in real
time, helping users improve the clarity of
their communication. We’ll be offering a
new version in March 2011.
The English language relies heavily on
the use of specific words to convey tone,
which in turn reveals the type and nature
of a relationship with a boss, seller, buyer,
customer or prospect. As David Shipley
and Will Schwalbe write in their book,
Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to
Do It Better, “the words you choose can be
formal, casual, or somewhere in between;
they can be literal or figurative; they can be
precise or vague; understated, correct, or
exaggerated; simple or complex; common
or rare; prosaic or poetic; contracted or
not.” What often happens is that over time,
most people forget what their relationship
is to the person they are writing. Their
choice of words and, more importantly,
their tone are often misunderstood as
negative.
2. Be aware of brand bias
Assume your email recipient already has
a strong bias toward your brand before
your email arrives. They may have been
By Matt Eldridge
marketing and social media channels to
increase revenues. Internally, marketing,
communications and customer service
departments collaborate to leverage
email, mobile and social channels in
order to obtain customer permissions.
Passengers can text their email address
or become fans of the Facebook page
while in the airport waiting area or from
their seats in the airplane. The company
also runs direct mail promotions in order
to entice customers to share their email
addresses.
4. Dig deeper into the data to find
influencers
The need for companies to measure brand
reputation online as well as the tone
tolerance of all incoming emails using
digital tools is a growing trend. Lymbix
sentiment analytics tools go one step
beyond the existing tools. Rather
than just measuring positive,
neutral and negative consumer
sentiment, our analytics
measure eight levels of
emotions with varying
degrees of intensity.
Thanks to the
evolution of the social
web, companies
are now able
to monitor
across all
Studies show that people misinterpret the
meaning and tone of emails as much as
50 percent of the time.
cation to be “tone checked,” our add-in
for email specifically helps people avoid
sending the wrong message within that
medium by alerting them to instances
where an intentionally negative tone
is detected. This provides a significant
advantage for front-line support agents
in helping them understand underlying
frustrations expressed by their customers. It also supports marketers trying to
understand how people really feel about
their products by monitoring online social
media conversations.
In this article, I want to highlight five
strategies that will help direct marketers
improve email campaigns and become
more emotionally intelligent when
communicating with consumers in
multichannel digital environments.
1. Choose the right words
Beyond writing well, understanding
the emotion and tone of your words for
every interaction plays an important
part in reducing the chance of being
misunderstood. Studies show that people
misinterpret the meaning and tone of
influenced by your website, an ad
banner, social media sites or customer
reviews. Also, assume the prospect or
customer has read your email and is
not interested in buying immediately.
Instead, they are interested in interacting
to determine if your online reputation
aligns with the conversation and ongoing
dialogue you have with them. Carefully
connecting emotionally and responding
appropriately to customers on their
terms is the direct marketer’s
ongoing challenge.
3. Consider any electronic
messaging as email marketing
Marketers can no longer view
mobile, social media, RSS and email
as silos because they now act as
revenue drivers for one another. Email
marketers understand permission-based
marketing best and are in a good position
to collaborate in social media and mobile
channels using an integrated approach.
Southwest Airlines is a good
example of a company that has
been successful in combining email
online channels for the most intense
conversations about brands, products,
and services. By getting a pulse on what’s
being said, companies are in much better
position to respond appropriately to
influencers. Developing ongoing dialogue
with influentials is an effective way to
spread your message to huge numbers of
people.
5. Measure everything: quantitative
and qualitative
Due to its universality, email fundamentally
serves to bring people closer together
or drives them further apart. In a
multichannel universe, measuring the
good, the bad and the ugly about what
consumers are thinking and feeling is a
necessary part of brand and reputational
management. Direct marketers are
adept in monitoring and reporting the
impact of programs quantitatively. Where
they sometimes fall short is effectively
measuring their emotional content
through an ongoing two-way dialogue
as well as monitoring and appropriately
responding to all that is being said about
them on the social web. Responding to
market demand, Lymbix continues to
develop partnerships with companies
to develop social CRM, eDiscovery and
sentiment analytic applications that
quickly mine and monitor large volumes of
text for tone tolerance, brand health and
reputation.
247,000,000,000 emails are sent every
day. Of these, how many have compromised or destroyed relationships based
on a message that should never have
been sent? Appealing to common
sense and ‘smart’ monitoring tools,
direct marketers are in the best position to manage emotionally intelligent
email conversations.
Matt Eldridge is the co-founder and CEO
of Lymbix Inc, a global leader in sentiment
analysis technology specializing in tools
that help people and organizations be
understood clearly. For more
information, please visit
www.lymbix.com.
Column
17
direct&Personal
by Billy Sharma
The many sides of Pete McLeod
station after graduating as a journalist. He candidly replied, “Well, the
announcer’s job paid only $149 a week and I had to travel to Brampton,
while the other job paid $200 per week and was located downtown.”
He then went on to tell me, “My position with Canadian General
Electric as a Specialist, Media Communications was a great first job
because I got to do print ads, direct mail, posters, brochures and PR
pieces—you name it, I did it all.”
Since then he has worked for numerous places including T. Eaton
Co., Stone & Adler, Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Grey, OgilvyOne Worldwide
and Carlson Marketing before joining Cossette, where he is currently a
Creative Group Head.
Pete has been happily married to Kim Yokota for 25 years and they
have a 16-year-old son named Robert, who they think is terrific.
“I love it all. I’ve been fortunate to have done everything from
TV, radio and print to direct response, PR and interactive. I look
forward to continuing with all aspects of the business.”
emember Jerry Della Femina’s famous words: “Advertising is the most fun
you can have with your clothes on,” or the wonderful times
depicted on the hit show Mad Men—gloriously long lunches,
shoots in exotic locales, big budgets, plenty of gifts from
suppliers and daily dry martinis, both during and after work.
At best that’s the stuff of wistful memories; at worst it’s an annoying
reminder that the golden age of advertising may be over. Luckily a few
stalwart veterans still remain. One such person is Pete McLeod.
No, I am not insinuating that he is as old as the good old days. I am
suggesting that he is a seasoned creative person and a real craftsman. I
also found out during my recent conversation with Pete that there were
many surprising things about him.
R
Pete the Humble
While most people in the advertising and direct marketing industry love
to talk or, dare I say, brag about themselves, Pete, on the contrary, is an
extremely shy and humble individual.
It took some prodding for him to finally admit, “I have been told
that I don’t self-promote enough. That one is 100 percent true. I detest
boasting. And even though I, and the team around me, have won
hundreds of awards, the ones I am most proud of carried real business
results. While any award is fun to receive, the ones that made the cash
register ring are the only ones that really matter.”
Born in New Jersey, Pete moved to Canada in the early ‘60s when his
dad, who was working for the Bank of Nova Scotia, was transferred to
Toronto.
After graduating with a BAA in Journalism from Ryerson College, he
was offered a job as a radio news announcer but turned it down and
accepted a position with Canadian General Electric as Specialist, Media
Communications.
I questioned him as to why he didn’t accept the job with the radio
Pete the Professional
“My first presentation of any real consequence was to IBM while I was a
writer at Stone & Adler. I was so nervous my voice failed me.
“I somehow muddled through it, but that night I said to myself, ‘that
will never happen again.’ And it hasn’t—from that moment on I have
loved presenting to clients.”
He told me, “After 30+ years in the business, I still love what I do. And
as each year passes, I’m still getting better.”
I know his words are genuine. Pete is a person who respects the
craft of copywriting and savours every moment of it. When I asked him
whether he’s ever wanted to call it quits after all these years, he smiled
and shot back, “No, and that’s the beauty of this business. Every day is
different; every day is a new challenge and always with the possibility of
coming up with something memorable.”
As Pete said, “I love it all. I’ve been fortunate to have done everything
from TV, radio and print to direct response, PR and interactive. I look
forward to continuing with all aspects of the business.”
Pete the Multifaceted
Another thing I learned about him is that he is a reader with varied tastes.
He loves it all: non-fiction, fiction, history, biography, you name it.
“I have a book going all the time. I read mostly now on my Kindle.” Two
of his favourite books are The Blind Side and Money Ball. He also enjoys
watching varied sports. He is a huge fan of baseball, football, hockey
and basketball. Recently Pete has rediscovered a love for photography, a
hobby he pursued as a teenager.
The other thing that interests him is social networking. “It’s incredibly
fascinating. I am a relentless keep-in-touch guy. You meet a lot of
fascinating people in this business so you should try to keep in touch and
make sure you have lots of old friends.”
Pete the Wise
Pete has been very fortunate to have some fantastic people guide him
through his career. He openly admits that, “The biggest influence in my
life was Pat Harvie. She taught me to always go further than I thought I
could—to push for the unexpected.
“And my other great influence was Judy Elder. She was able to distill
the most complex thoughts in a way that made them simple.”
Now, Pete feels he has to give back, to pass on his knowledge to the
younger creative and account people along the way.
“I have been told that I am too soft on the people who report to me.
I have been encouraged to show more ‘tough love’. I can’t tell you how
strongly I disagree with this. I think your duty as a leader is to build people
up and help them to maximize their strengths. I don’t think people want
to follow someone they are afraid of. You have to remember that this is
advertising; yes it’s a business, but you have to have fun along the way. If
you can’t have fun in this business, well, you’re in the wrong business.”
Billy Sharma is president and creative director of Designers Inc. He can be
reached via email at: [email protected] or by telephone at:
416-203-978.
18
News
WORTHKNOWING
TNA appoints new marketing
head for North America
TNS, the world's largest custom
research company, has announced the
appointment of a new marketing executive
for its North American business, Cheryl
Max. Cheryl joins TNS from IBM, where as
Director Global Marcom Capabilities she
was responsible for facilitating the shift
and growth of IBMs global marketing
communications capabilities.
"We are thrilled to have Cheryl on
board to lead our marketing efforts in
North America. She will play a vital role
in generating business growth through
marketing innovation," said Sam Thayer,
Chief Development Officer, TNS. He
continued, "Cheryl brings a wealth
of experience in driving marketing
transformation and digital strategies that
deliver strong ROI."
Max spent 13 years at IBM working
across the company's PC division, Systems,
Global Technology Services and Corporate
Headquarters. Prior to joining IBM, her
tenure included roles at Royal Doulton
Canada in brand management and J.
Walter Thompson Advertising as a global
account director. Cheryl is also a frequent
speaker at industry conferences, providing
insights and expertise on the changing
landscape in marketing capabilities.
"I am delighted to be joining TNS
North America at this time," said Cheryl
Max. She continued, "With TNS' strong
regional presence, sector expertise
and competitive offer I see significant
opportunities to grow the TNS brand
across the U.S. and Canada in ways that
reach and resonate with our markets."
Cheryl will be based at the North
America headquarters office in New York.
listwatch
Reader's Digest ULC Masterfiles
With nearly 2,000,000 records combined, these deduped databases will offer mailers the
opportunity to reach valuable prospects from the various Reader's Digest brands and
products. The Masterfiles also offer multi channel marketing opportunities with over
1,000,000 email addresses available.
Sources for the Masterfiles include: Product Buyers; Subscribers to Reader's Digest,
Best Health and Our Canada; Reader's Digest Newsletter subscribers and Sweeps
Entrants.
For more information please contact Rosa da Silva at [email protected].
Harlequin Canada Masterfile
This is a list of buyers of romance novels from a continuity book program from Harlequin
books. The average member receives four to 12 books each month. Median age of readers
is 35 - 40 years.
Harlequin buyers have profiled as: Having HHLD income as $51K and a large
percentage have HHLD income $72K+; Having elementary and high school aged
children; Dog owners (50%+); Highly responsive to DM, Catalogue, Flyer offers.
For more information please contact please contact Brigida Maxwell-Beckwith at
[email protected] or 416-932-9555x186.
Going Green Opportunity System buyers
Contac names Andrew Mitchell
Senior VP of Marketing Services
Contact Services Inc., a leading provider of
end-to-end data-driven communication
and supply chain solutions, is pleased to
announce the appointment of Andrew
Mitchell to the company's executive
management team as its new Senior Vice
President of Marketing Services.
Mitchell moves into this new role to
work closely with Contac's President,
Michael Thompson who, while steering
the vision and mission of the organization,
will be able to simultaneously draw from
Mitchell's wealth of loyalty and financial
services knowledge and experience.
Mitchell joins Contac from LoyaltyOne™
(best known for operating Canada's AIR
MILES Reward Program™) where in his role
as Vice President Business Development,
he lead all efforts to build and launch
a national consumer coalition loyalty
program for the U.S. market. Prior to his
work with LoyaltyOne developing their
rewards program, Mitchell spent eight
years with Royal Bank of Canada as Vice
President, RBC Rewards and Partnerships.
There he was the strategic architect
behind the design and launch of RBC
Rewards™, a bank-wide customer loyalty
program best known for driving the
double-digit annual growth of RBC's Visa
portfolio.
Thompson said that his familiarity with
Mitchell's professional achievements
encouraged him to bring Mitchell on
board. "It is with great pleasure that I
welcome Andrew Mitchell to Contac.
Andrew is a performance-driven
professional with the experience and
drive to bring our core technological
competencies to a new level of innovation
and success across a host of different
industries," said Thompson, noting that,
"the addition of Mitchell to our executive
team will bring a quantifiable added value
to Contac's operations."
Mitchell said that he is eager to cultivate
both his role within the company as well
as the management of the Marketing
Services Division. "I am pleased to be
joining the team at Contac," said Mitchell.
"There is an undeveloped potential to
Contac's technological capabilities that
demands nurturing and encouragement.
I look forward to working with a company
that is as dedicated to innovation and as it
is to its clients."
Based out of Toronto, Ontario, Mitchell
is a graduate of the Master of Business
Administration program at the University
of Ottawa and has been active in the
community, most recently serving as
a member of the Sick Kids Foundation
Corporate Advisory Committee.
Mitchell has also been recognized for his
contributions and received numerous
industry-related awards.
Individuals on this high end buyers file are all looking to get themselves involved in a
money making work from home opportunity system. Upon receiving a direct mail piece,
or a telemarketing call, buyers were anxious to get started raking in the big money with
this program. For an average investment of $200.00, via credit card, and no other monthly
fees, these money hungry entrepreneurs are ready to become their own boss and set their
own hours.
For more information please contact Dave Boyd at 845-230-6300 x327 or daveb@
macromark.com.
Get citations for each business location
appearing in Google Places (or in Google
Maps, from a searcher’s perspective), from
as many other sites as possible. Citations
in this case are defined as mentions of the
exact business name, phone number, and
address on other sites across the web. The
number of citations for any business can
be found by visiting its Place page (which
in turn can be found by searching Google
Maps for the business name, then clicking
on the link in the listing that says Place
Page) and checking the number of listings
under the More About This Place heading.
One technique for finding potential
citation sources is to examine the citation
sources competitors are utilizing.
Finally, achieving high rankings for a
wide variety of local results requires very
strong rankings in the organic Google
results (ie. the non-sponsored results),
which in turn is a function of the number
and quality of other sites from across
the web that link to a particular site and
page. The key then becomes finding the
means of getting as many other relevant
sites linking to a web page as possible.
Some such techniques include asking
suppliers and clients to link to it, writing
articles and blog posts for other sites
with proper accreditation, submitting a
site to directories, and even writing great
content, knowing that a small percentage
of those who read it will ultimately link
to it.
Local search is growing very rapidly and
offers exciting marketing opportunities.
Those companies aware of the potential
and equipped with the knowledge to
capitalize on location-based search will be
the net beneficiaries.
Jeff Quipp is the CEO of Search Engine
People and can be reached at jeff@
searchenginepeople.com.
dm People
Kijiji Advertising Group
Olive Media
Twist Marketing
Twist Marketing
Molly Cunningham
Kijiji Advertising Group
has announced that Molly
Cunningham has been appointed
to the position of Senior
Account Executive, Advertising
Sales. Effective immediately,
Cunningham will join Kijiji
Advertising Group and represent
its comprehensive advertising
solutions to agencies across
Canada.
Krista Kadai
Krista joins Olive Media as the
Head of Partnerships and Product
Development for Olive Elite. In
this new role, Krista will leverage
her deep understanding of the
Canadian digital landscape, as
well as strong relationships with
publishers, to build upon Olive’s
Elite portfolio of premium sites.
Angie Chiang
Angie Chiang, who has two arts
and literature degrees from
Carlton University, brings solid
research, copy writing and
analytical skills as well as an
in-depth knowledge of social
media to Twist Marketing. Angie is
also continuing with her Doctorate
in Communications and Culture at
the University of Calgary.
Steve Kibble
Kibble is a seasoned pro with more
than a dozen years of agency and
freelance expertise as an account
manager and strategic marketer.
His passion for social media and
mobile marketing are in demand
with our roster of clients looking
for exceptional brand-toconsumer relationships.
19
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- Inkjet Envelopes or Direct Impression
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- Inserting: Automated and Manual
- Address Verication/Correction and Postal Sortation
- Addressed Admail and Publication Mail
- Data Entry and Database Management
- Polybagging, Tubing, Hand Assembling & Kits
- Photocopying, Collating, Stapling, Folding & Printing
Clixx offers Marketers the perfect mix of
technology, production equipment, a new
60,000+ sq ft secure facility and Industry talent
with an unwavering commitment and passion
to ensuring your success.
CLIXX Direct
Marketing Services Inc.
44 Metropolitan Road
Toronto, On M1R 2T6
416-609-1638
416-609-2550
We offer complete solutions to deliver:
• Direct Mail
• Regulatory Documents
• Digital Print on Demand & Web-to-Print
• Warehousing, Fulfillment & Distribution
www.clixxdirect.com
Contact Us:
Our services include:
Mike Todd
Ext 234
[email protected]
Scott Biel
Ext 217
[email protected]
Michele Broad
Ext 237
[email protected]
James Scott
Ext 225
[email protected]
• Data Processing & Forms Design
• Response Management
• Digital Asset Management
• Digital Laser Printing in B/W & Full Colour
• Ink-Jet Printing in B/W & Colour
• Complete Lettershop Services
• Bindery & Finishing
• Warehousing, Fulfillment & Distribution
• Print Management
Success happens when everything Clixx
Resource
Directory
DATABASE MARKETING
22
Resource
Directory
FULL SERVICE OPERATIONS
• Target using precise demographic profiling
with our NEW Location Intelligence tool.
• Do-it-yourself direct marketing.
Powered by:
▶ Data Processing
▶ Data Entry - New Service
▶ Print Management
▶ Complete Lettershop
▶ Fulfillment & Distribution
24/7 Contact Number: (416)201-1420
Specialist in Emergency or Fast Turnaround Projects
75 Superior Blvd.,
Mississauga, ON, L5T 2X9
www.datadirect.ca
Tel: 905.564.0150
Fax: 905.564.6621
Toll Free: 1.877.247.1464
For more information
please contact:
Debbie Major
905.564.0150 x108
Norm Burns
905.564.0150 x107
GREENER DIRECT MAIL IS HERE
Group Canada
Canada’s
We are The Lowe-Martin Group,
s
Most Environmentally Progressive Printer. Our
Full Service Direct Mail solutions are proof that
as a marketer you can have a positive impact on
the planet without limiting your creativity or reach.
Here’s why:
FSC Supplier
Supporting responsible forestry
Lowe-Martin provides comprehensive data, laser and lettershop
g
with state-of-the-art offset and full-colour variable p
printing
g all
together
in one secure facility. Our one-stop solution eliminates the cost and
environmental impact of the packaging and transportation associated
with a multi-vendor approach. Interested in finding out more?
Contact: Patrick Coyne at 905-670-7100 [email protected]
Ottawa contact: Joe Goski at 613-741-0962 [email protected]
PLASTIC CARDS
High quality offset PLASTIC CARDS, manufactured in Canada
. Runs from 250 to 1,000,000
. Magnetic stripes, card encoding
. Bar codes, smart cards
. Card personalization
. Fast turnaround times
We have assembled a unique blend of talent and equipment to offer
you an invaluable “Fully Integrated” DM solution. WE DELIVER:
•
•
•
•
LEADING EDGE DATA PROCESSING
MULTI-IMAGING SYSTEMS
EXTENSIVE LETTERSHOP SERVICES
RESPONSE CAPTURE
MAILMARKETING CORPORATION
• ANALYSIS AND FULFILLMENT SERVICES
• CALL CENTRE SUPPORT
• E-COMMERCE SUPPORT INCLUDING
WEB HOSTING
www.mailmarketing.com
455 GORDON BAKER RD. TORONTO, ONT. CANADA M2H 4H2. T: 416.490.8030 1.800.508.3941 F: 416.490.8455 E: [email protected]
www.cdnprintplastic.com
Tel: (416) 240.7775 1.877.236.7746
Fax: (416) 241.0825
91 Kelfield St. #6, Toronto, ON M9W 5A3
[email protected]
Authorized resellers for:
. Zebra Card, Datacard, Fargo,
Evolis card printers
. Photo ID cards and systems
News
DMLandscapes
EVENTS
CALENDAR
Direct mail devotees
Many Canadians have a love/hate
relationship with direct mail. They
welcome it when it involves money-saving
offers or provides useful information,
but they’re not so thrilled when they’re
bombarded with offers for products
and services they don’t need—just ask
the senior citizens getting childcare
promotions or the apartment dwellers
being offered lawn services. If you
want a guarantee that the recipient will
open a direct mail piece—be it a sales
pitch, donation request or informative
brochure—the accompanying map is
about as good as it gets. It displays the 6.5
percent of Canadians who tell researchers
that they “always” open and read directmail letters, according to Environics
Analytics (EA) and PMB. These passionate
letter openers are a different breed
compared to the 29.8 percent of Canadians
who only “sometimes” or “often” look
inside the unsolicited envelopes stuffed in
their mailboxes. But that’s not to say
they’re all alike.
Among Canada’s
direct mail devotees, you’ve got your
young city fashionistas who like getting
announcements about private sales
on Manolo Blahnik boots. And you’ve
got your older, settled townies who’ve
been responding to nearly every
coloured-ribbon fundraising appeal for
years. As a group, they’re concentrated
geographically in cities along Canada’s
southern tier, with particularly high
percentages found in markets like
Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Thompson, Manitoba and
Petawawa, Ontario. In terms of lifestyle,
EA’s PRIZMC2 segmentation system
shows that the top-ranked
segments include Single
City Renters (young,
apartmentdwelling
urban
Direct mail readers like. . .
Bingo halls
Horror movies
Exercise at home
Attend figure skating
Crafts
Country Music TV
Canadian Idol
Canadian Geographic
Reader's Digest
Sources: Environics Analytics, PMB
singles and couples), White Picket Fences
(young, middle-income exurban families),
Les Chics (sophisticated, urban Quebec
couples and singles) and Golden Ponds
(downscale small-town seniors). Many
are active, working-class households that
enjoy camping, country music, movies
and exercising at home. They have a
self-reliant streak as seen in their fondness
for making crafts, doing their own car
maintenance and shopping for bargains at
second-hand clothing stores. Their media
preferences include outdoor publications
like Canadian Geographic and Outdoor
Canada, as well as reality and game shows
like Canadian Idol and Deal or No Deal.
For businesses and not-for-profits
wanting to make direct mailfriendly consumers part
of their marketing mix,
research by EA and
PMB shows that they’re
particularly responsive
to rewards programs
at grocery stores,
coffee shops
Direct mail tossers prefer. . .
Amusement parks
Bicycling
Tennis
Amusement parks
Hardback books
TV Golf
CBC Newsworld
Canadian Business
MIRROR
Where direct mail is always read
Province/Territory
Index
Yukon Territory
123
Saskatchewan
116
Manitoba
115
Nova Scotia
114
Newfoundland and Labrador
113
Prince Edward Island
111
British Columbia
106
Alberta
104
New Brunswick
103
Ontario
102
Northwest Territories
98
Quebec
88
Index of 100 = national average
and discount department store chains like
Zeller’s and Wal-Mart. They like messages
that evoke their interest in the outdoors,
country music, honest work and low-tech
living. Even in today’s digital age, these
consumers like to sit down and mull over a
tangible, real-world direct mail piece in a
way that they never can with websites. Not
just fond of opening direct mail envelopes,
they also have high rates for reading
catalogues, coupon booklets and flyers in
newspapers and magazines.
Share of Canadians who always read direct mail envelopes,
compared to the national average of 6.5 percent
(index=100)
 Constant Readers (high index: >120)
 Solicitation Friendly (above-average index: 100-120)
 Un-Appealing (below-average index: 80-100)
 Total Tossers (low index <80)
Sources: Environics Analytics 2011, based on PRIZM
direct marketing
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
PUBLISHER
Mark Henry - [email protected]
Richard Boire
Dan Cadieux
Bob Coles
Matt Eldridge
Chris Genge
Vol. 23 | No. 11 | March 2011
EDITOR
Sarah O'Connor - [email protected]
DESIGN / PRODUCTION
MedeGroup - [email protected]
SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER
Michael Braun - [email protected]
PRESIDENT
Steve Lloyd - [email protected]
David Klein
Geoff Linton
Jeff Quipp
Billy Sharma
LLOYDMEDIA, INC.
HEAD OFFICE / SUBSCRIPTIONS /
PRODUCTION: 302-137 Main Street North,
Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Phone: 905.201.6600
Fax: 905.201.6601 Toll-free: 800.668.1838
[email protected] www.dmn.ca
EDITORIAL CONTACT:
Direct Marketing is published monthly by
Lloydmedia Inc., plus the annual DM Industry
Source Book, List of Lists .
Direct Marketing may be obtained through
paid subscription.
Rates:
Canada U.S. 1 year (12 issues $48)
2 years (24 issues $70)
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
23
C2
April 5, 2011
Toronto, Ontario
CMA Predictive Analytics Workshop
With the explosion of information,
businesses are now able to produce
results and ultimately measure
performance for any given initiative. But
how are solutions developed from this
information and, more importantly, how
do businesses action these solutions?
Workshop instructor Richard Boire will
outline a four-step approach to building
a predictive analytics solution, the types
of tools that are developed as Predictive
Analytics Solutions, the alignment of
solutions with marketing objectives, and
operationalizing the solution.
April 12
Toronto, Ontario
Mobile Marketing Conference
The phenomenal growth in mobile
marketing over the past three years
shows no signs of slowing down and
it has become a key component in the
marketing mix.
On April 12, hear from leaders in the
world of mobile marketing including RIM,
Tagga, Nielsen, 5th Finger and more—as
they share case studies, best practices and
research insights to help you make the
most of your mobile marketing plans. This
exciting half-day conference also features
a series of roundtable discussions and is
a great opportunity to network with your
peers.
May 4, 2011
Toronto, Ontario
Retail Advertising and Marketing
Symposium
For retail marketers, the RAC 2011
Symposium is the place to engage with
industry thought leaders to discuss the
hottest issues impacting marketing and
advertising in the Canadian Retail Sector
today. This year the Symposium will throw
a spotlight on both the opportunities and
challenges that retailers face keeping up
with the changing face of technology to
answer the question: How can retailers
embrace technology and transform their
organizations to drive marketing success?
For details visit www.racsymposium.ca.
and PMB.
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.
POSTMASTER:
Please send all address changes and return all
undeliverable copies to:
Lloydmedia Inc.
302-137 Main Street North
Markham ON L3P 1Y2 Canada
Canada Post Canadian Publications
Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40050803
Printed in Canada: Metroland Media Ltd.
printed on 100%
recycled stock
THIS ISSUE OF
DM MAILED BY:
Complete Mailing Service
1-888-683-2501 • 416-755-7761
www.completemailing.com
Insurance
Financial Services
Communications
Public Sector
Insight = Opportunity
GO.PBINSIGHT.COM/OPPORTUNITY >
All organizations need visibility into the “ground level”, with their customers and citizens, in their markets
and communities. Ultimately, all organizations aim to acquire new customers, serve existing customers
and uncover opportunities for growth-while also streamlining processes, mitigating risk and maximizing
proﬁts. Pitney Bowes Business Insight bridges the gap between what’s happening locally and what needs
to happen organizationally. Our solutions, software and services help you discover the insights that
uncover your opportunities.
Solutions for Customer Intelligence, Communications and Care.
Every connection is a new opportunity ™

Reinventing Regal - Direct Marketing

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