The article below originally appeared in the October 2018 edition of the J&C Newsletter. If you are not already receiving the newsletter, sign up here. 

Email marketing automation has become a competitive necessity for many organizations. While still not in use among all categories, marketers that have adapted email marketing automation report great success. In this newsletter, I will explain email marketing automation, describe its benefits and explore some ways that email marketing automation can be used to improve marketing response and conversion in different kinds of organizations.

Direct mail marketing has been around a while. In fact, the first time we saw it in its current form was in 1872. The piece that was mailed was a one-page catalog. Since then, direct mail has evolved greatly into many forms. Direct mail is still very prevalent today, even in an age of endless technologies. But how can you innovate and combine technology with direct mail?

There are a number of ways direct mail can use recent technology to connect with customers and drive better responses. Below three major ways to consider for your next campaign. Think about how you can incorporate these to engage your prospects and customers in a new way.

In 2017, an average of 269 billion emails were sent per day. That means the competition for attention in inboxes for email marketers is very high. Email marketing continues to generate high ROI for marketing departments that build a well-thought-out strategy that delivers personalized messages at the right time to the recipients. Below are three types of emails needed in a marketing strategy today: welcome emails, trigger emails and re-engagement emails. All of these emails play a critical role in the customer journey.  

Personalization in communications is not new. Direct marketers have used it in direct mail since the first computers and printers were used for marketing in the mid-twentieth century. Today, variable data printing technologies mean that marketers can personalize every word of a direct mail package, from outer envelope to letter, brochure and response device. Email marketers have had the same option since email’s first day.

Today, personalized email or direct mail communications don’t seem optional. Yet many marketers that use personalization often report poor results. So, what has held personalization back?

With the growing number of messages people receive today — online and offline — the importance of delivering a message that resonates with the user has never been more important. Creating a personalized message that creates a connection is critical, and with the increasing amount of data available to marketers, personalization options have only expanded. Personalization needs to be incorporated into all marketing, shopping and service experiences. In many of his presentations on personalization, J&C's CEO Ron Jacobs has referenced the 4 R’s of personalization from Accenture and discussed how they are key ingredients in connecting with prospects and customers. This blog will explores these 4 key components of personalization and how you can use them to better connect with your customers.

 Personalization is simply a must for marketers. Consumers and business buyers want personalized communications and organizations see a greater return when implementing it. In Salesforce’s Fourth Annual State of Marketing Report,  52 percent of consumers and 65 percent of business buyers stated they would switch brands if a vendor did not personalize communications. Personalization was once as simple as inserting the contact’s first name and maybe even a company, and that was all that was needed, but it has evolved to so much more.

Previously, data had to be collected by hand and assembled and interpreted by humans, a tedious task. Here in the digital era, that same data is easily tracked and compiled, giving marketers more data than is even necessary sometimes. Likes, shares, comments, followers, open rates, page views, traffic, time on site, are examples of data that is being tracked, but is it relevant? Distinguishing between vanity metrics and actionable metrics is key to being able to continually take action towards activities that can be traced to the bottom line. Here, we’ve explained vanity metrics, provided examples of actionable metrics, and given guidance toward finding actionable metrics for your business.

By nature, I am not a contrarian. I have written research papers, articles and books that are well researched and cite multiple sources. I seek agreement among more than one expert on best practices. That’s a safe and establishment point of view.

The number of devices consumers use is growing at a substantial rate. And that number is expected to grow even faster over the next few years. As a result, marketers have access to more data than ever to make better business decisions. It’s important to know what data is relevant to your business, how to find and organize that data and how to make data driven marketing decisions to support your strategies.

To help you in this quest, we have selected four tools that will help you glean the data you need to make the best marketing decisions for your company.