Marketers invest significant time and resources in creating campaigns they hope will engage their target audiences, increase sales and grow their businesses. But, of course, in today’s marketing environment, hope is not enough. Marketers need to be able to make confident marketing decisions about how they invest their marketing dollars – which channels to use and when to use them – in order to achieve the greatest return on their investment.

Tags: QR Codes, marketing campaign, email marketing, direct mail marketing, brand awareness, marketing data analytics, data-driven marketing, customer data management, Actionable Marketing Data

A client recently asked me, “Why should I consider including direct mail in my marketing mix? And if I were to use direct mail, how would I track it in a meaningful way?”

You may have asked yourself these very same questions. With the shift to less expensive, metric-rich digital channels, many marketers abandoned mail as a way to reach customers and track engagement.

But marketers are always looking for the most effective ways to break through to media overloaded consumers, which is leading a growing number to revisit direct mail, particularly as part of a multichannel marketing strategy.

Tags: multichannel marketing, email marketing, direct mail marketing, marketing resource management, local marketing, multi-channel marketing

Email marketing has a high return on investment. It’s a great way for local franchises to connect directly with consumers in their markets—and whether you’re sharing news about a specific event or communicating as part of a broader campaign, email marketing can grow brand loyalty, generate leads and boost sales.

Tags: email marketing, marketing resource management, franchise

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Get caught up with the April Marketing News Snapshot.

Tags: facebook, Twitter, mobile, marketing, email marketing, social media, mashable, charity, instagram, trend, future, centscere, social startups, marketingprofs, news, digital, brands, emarketer, direct marketing news, snapshot, local marketing automation

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Get caught up with the March Marketing News Snapshot.

Tags: facebook, Twitter, mobile, marketing, email marketing, social media, charity, instagram, trend, future, centscere, social startups, news, digital, brands, emarketer, direct marketing news, snapshot, local marketing automation

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Get caught up with the February Marketing News Snapshot.

Tags: facebook, Twitter, mobile, marketing, email marketing, social media, charity, instagram, trend, future, centscere, social startups, news, digital, brands, emarketer, direct marketing news, snapshot, local marketing automation

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Since this is our last post of 2013, we’d like to wish everyone a happy holidays and happy New Year. We’ll see you all back here on the blog in 2014!

Tags: facebook, google, mobile, B2B, B2C, advertising, email marketing, social media, video, december

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Get caught up with the November Marketing News Snapshot.

Tags: big data, email marketing, Gmail, small business, youtube

Stay better informed as a marketing professional with this monthly series highlighting the latest developments in all things marketing. Get caught up with the August Marketing News Snapshot.

Tags: marketing news, CMO, Twitter, IT, LinkedIn, advertising, email marketing, social media, August, CIO, video, Gmail

While perusing the Internet for new ideas and to keep myself updated on the latest business happenings, I came across this excellent presentation on marketing localization and thought it had some very interesting statistics that make the case for why you need to localize your marketing efforts. The first number isn’t a huge shock, but does lay the foundation for nearly everything I’m about to say: 97% of consumers do online research before making a local purchase. Translation: If you can’t be found locally and aren’t targeting locally, you aren’t going to beat the competition.

So how are companies making their local presence felt? In short, many aren’t. We all know one of the laws of marketing is to be where your customers are. Yet somehow, the fundamental tenet has slipped many companies’ minds. According to ReachLocal, of marketing organizations surveyed:

Tags: branding, SEO, email marketing, MRM, social media, localized marketing, marketing resource management, direct marketing, paid search