2021 is a perfect storm providing four challenges: Paper: inventory is limited, prices continue to rise; Postage: Mismanagement at the USPS continues to drive annual increases; PPC Inflation: privacy and competition are driving cost upward; Pandemic: while consumer confidence is still high, fears of inflation loom large. However, even the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Read More Beware the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse!
Author: Michelle Houston
What Happened This Year?!
At the height of the “shutdown” that began in late February, retailers were very unsure how COVID-19 would impact their business, their employees’ lives as well as their personal lives. Many brands reduced print, cut expensive marketing programs, and went to remote working almost immediately. There is no overstating the overwhelming effects of the COVID-19 Read More What Happened This Year?!
Let the Results Do the Talking
Last week I wrote an article about why Contribution Per Order (CPO) should be the critical revenue metric that businesses use rather than Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). As a reminder, while ROAS is an efficient measuring metric, it cannot assign health to a channel, making it a relatively useless tool. In contrast to ROAS, Read More Let the Results Do the Talking
Why ROAS is Not a Useful Metric
More often than not, we engage with seasoned ecommerce professionals tasked with running print programs while simultaneously holding some measure of responsibility for Profit & Loss statements. And as such, they tend to look at performance metrics with a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) lens instead of a more critical metric – Contribution Per Order Read More Why ROAS is Not a Useful Metric
COVID-19: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines
The economy expands and contracts in response to thousands of independent variables – one such variable, the COVID-19 coronavirus, is just the latest in a long list of examples. Still, periods of economic and social instability can be a scary time. In the interest of recalling lessons from past periods of uncertainty and helping brands Read More COVID-19: Lessons Learned from the Front Lines
Holiday Results Are In! And They Might Surprise You
Hardly a day goes by without a business pundit predicting the demise of another retailer and whether brands continue to be relevant to consumers. This holiday season, our retailers continue to fight that narrative with a variety of strategies and tactics with a mixture of results. Now that the season is almost over for online Read More Holiday Results Are In! And They Might Surprise You
Print is the New Digital Champion
Recently, I sat down with Lois Brayfield, CEO of J.Schmid, to chat about challenges and opportunities around brand position across channels. During this conversation, she mentioned the phrase, “Print is the New Digital Champion” and how they are using this in their client conversations. That discussion and Brent Niemuth’s video resonated with me so much Read More Print is the New Digital Champion
It Pays to Incorporate Segmentation
This year at our annual Integrated Marketing Summit, I taught a workshop discussing the ways retailers should incorporate segmentation to boost topline sales and increase bottom-line profits. Segmentation and relevancy would also help to counteract the continued decline in open and click-through rates as indicated in our annual benchmark report below. As the volume of Read More It Pays to Incorporate Segmentation
Using “Tried and True” Direct Marketing Tactics to Improve Email Performance
By most ROI analysis, email is one of the top ROI channels, but contributing to this high ROI figure is the very low cost of sending an email on a per customer basis. And that is part of the problem – ease and cost. I challenge you to think about this…. you are probably over-emailing Read More Using “Tried and True” Direct Marketing Tactics to Improve Email Performance
The One Test You Should Perform This Year!
By now, you’ve probably heard the term triggered postcard program. The question now is, why aren’t you testing this as part of your integrative marketing efforts? In today’s cluttered marketing environment, many retailers are challenged to find innovative ways to stand out in the print and digital marketplace. The beauty of triggered postcards is that Read More The One Test You Should Perform This Year!