With Love from Uganda

This is really beautiful!

You know those emails that you get from the Prince of Uganda, or wherever, that just happens to have overthrown the government there and must escape? But first they have to get all their money out of the county, and you were picked as the one they would like to send the money to. Because you’re an honest, nice person that they can trust (read as “naive American”).

“Just send me your bank account number and I’ll wire the money. And shhhh….don’t tell anyone…”

Well, I suppose response is down, because Tom here at the office received this clever direct mail piece the other day instead of the typical email! Seriously — from his relative Kyuma Tsuneo who has a ton of money to give good ol’ Tom. (I’m just having a hard time connecting Tom, a nice Connecticut family man who rarely leaves the 203/914 area codes, having family roots abroad with Kyuma…just sayin’).

I must say though, these guys are clever.  And persistent. At least Kyuma used the  basics of direct response marketing:

• Personalized letter
• Live stamp
• Scripted signature

Magjak Company News

By Bruce Browning | Magjak

It’s happening more and more. You buy a blue widget at a website, and hey, presto! – it shows you a red, green and beige widget you just might like, too! Welcome to the growing art of cross-selling. Sometimes annoying, often successful.

How might cross-selling work for your business? Could you offer product suggestions to your customers in a way that would draw them in – and convince them to buy again?

Of course you could. The key is  to use accurate and intelligent data mining.

Here are three steps to take to build a winning cross-selling campaign:

Analyze individual customer data. Focus in on individual customer preferences based on the specific products or services they’ve bought in the past. Yes, you need to create a unique profile for each and every customer. Trust me: It’s worth taking this time upfront.

Define how likely each customer is to buy. Score each customer profile in terms of potential product sales. A good marketer will develop metrics that measure each customer’s worth, and how close he or she is to buying — and assess any risk factors involved. This process will also help determine what products to push to what customers.

Target and cross-sell. A truly refined data-mining process will provide the specific data you need to map your customers’ buying potential across a number of factors. By plotting out this data, you can isolate a group of loyal customers most likely to buy. Now match each customer to the appropriate products in your warehouse – and sweeten the deal with a discount! Voila! Fresh, new sales.

True, this post simplifies a complex process. But a sophisticated marketing services provider understands the technical details involved, and can analyze your customer data to make cross-selling work for you. Give it a try!

Magjak Company News

Wow! Seems like March and April are hot with presentations and events around Magjak.

One customer called us on a Thursday and needed presentation material shipped that Friday for an event in Chicago! These were 3-ring presentation binders with tab dividers and full-color content. Mission accomplished.

On another Thursday a client needed presentation material for their upcoming NIC National Conference…in Chicago. These were Wire-O bound presentation documents with color covers and vibrant content pages. Due Friday…again. Mission accomplished!  (What’s up with Chicago…and Thursdays??).

Outside of trying to give your print service provider more than a day to turn around your handouts…here are a few tips for your next event.

Here are 4 Tips to When Planning Your Next Conference/Event

1. Content & Design: These days your audience is used to engaging content. They see it all day long on their computers, tablets and mobile devices including video, sound and motion graphics. When building your presentation think about how to design it with these elements in mind to keep your audience engaged, all while using appealing visual graphics and design best practices.
2. Don’t Stop at Just Handing Out Hard Copy. You’ll want to think about having your content available in other formats, such as on a USB, DVD or online. Online versions are great for viewing on multiple devices such as a laptop or tablet.
3. Paper Options for Your Handout: When you print your hard copy handout, you typically want to use nice paper to help convey your brand and event. 70# text is paper that is thick enough to put some oomph behind your content. Don’t use coated or even silk paper since writing on those papers is challenging, even though they may look a bit slick.
4. Binding Options for Your Handout: When it comes to binding, you have a few options. Here are a couple of the more popular ones:
   • 3-Ring Binders - Pros: good for lots of content; strong. Cons: a bit bulky; pages can fall out if not packed properly; need more desk space than alternatives.
   • Plastic Coil - Pros: very strong; pages flip over so need less elbow room. Cons: might not be the look you’re after.
   • Wire-O - Pros: very strong; pages flip over so need less elbow room; most popular. Cons: not as strong as Plastic Coil; pages can fall out if not handled properly during shipping or binding.

Call Magjak the next time you need to put together kick-awesome presentation and marketing support collateral for your event. From signage to pre-event invites and marketing to presentation handouts, our team will turn “blah” into “wow”. And of course we’ll print and ship the presentation documents to any location worldwide. On a Thursday

Magjak Company News, Print Production, Mailing & Fulfillment

By Bruce Browning | Magjak

Yes, the world is embracing mobile at an astounding rate, but marketers beware: That enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily translate to a heavy-on-the-mobile marketing strategy.

According to the 2012 Digital Advertising Attitudes Report conducted by YouGov for Upstream, two-thirds of consumers say they are “turned off” by unwanted advertising on their mobile or smart phones.

Two-thirds!  Just one more reason to go multichannel, if you ask me.

Here are three tips for maintaining an effective multichannel marketing mix, based on recent  survey findings about consumer preferences, as reported at Marketing Charts:

Keep using email for ads and promos. Upstream says that 34% of consumers prefer to receive ads and promotions via a detailed email. That’s more than double those who prefer a short text-only message such as a tweet, Facebook message, Google Adwords message, or SMS (15%).

Use Facebook, Twitter, and email for customer updates. According to a recent report from AYTM Market Research, short messages from Facebook and Twitter (32%) and emails (27%) ranked as the leading ways consumers prefer to get updates from their favorite brands.

Target and personalize your messages. According to the Upstream survey, 26% of US (and UK) consumers say they are more likely to respond to messages tailored to their personal interests. And 22% are more likely to respond to promotions that are location-specific.

Finally, don’t forget the importance of adding direct mail to your marketing mix. As I noted in a previous post, 50% of US consumers prefer direct mail to email, and 25% of recipients feel direct mail is more trustworthy than email, according to a recent study by Epsilon.

What’s the bottom line here? To connect with your customers on a personal, relevant level, consider a balanced cross-channel approach to your advertising outreach. Personalized, multi-channel communications boost multi-plied response — and create more loyal customers.

Source: Marketing Charts.

Magjak Company News

By Bruce Browning | Magjak

I’m always pushing the virtues of multichannel marketing. It offers customers a choice of ways to engage with you, learn about you — and buy from you.

The US Postal Service apparently agrees. As reported at Digital Nirvana, the USPS Mobile Commerce and Personalization Promotion is offering discounts in 2012 to direct mailers who add mobile to their marketing mix.

Basically, all you need do to qualify for the discount is put a mobile barcode on your mail piece that, when scanned by a cell phone, links back to an ecommerce website.

Now, of course, there are rules and regulations to follow to get the savings, but a good printer/mailer can handle all of those for you. With some help, you could, say:

• Create a personalized postcard targeted to customers sure to be interested in your latest product. Let’s say it’s a garden tiller designed to make spring planting easier.
• Include a mobile barcode on the back of the card that, when scanned by their cell phone, directs them to a website featuring the tiller – which they can order with a click of a Buy button.
• Or add a barcode that, when scanned, will lead your recipient to his or her very own personalized webpage (PURL) showing a bunch of gardening-tool options based on that person’s customer data.

The USPS discount can apply to Standard Mail and First-Class Mail letters, flats, and cards. Like I said, a good printer/mailer can handle the compliance details.

Wondering how this might generate some real ROI for you? Give me a call at 914.468.7052, or send me an email at bruce.browning@magjak.com. We’ll take a look.

Cross-media campaign, Direct Marketing, Magjak Company News

Fast and Easy Online Customization and Ordering of Marketing Collateral

Magjak Company News