It’s My Birthday…You Can Email Me If You Want To
By Christine Winter, PR/marketing programs manager, XMPie, A Xerox Company
Today is my 25th birthday. Yes, I know. Your reaction was probably something like “Oh my goodness…you’re such a baby,” or “Good for you! Your car insurance premium will go down now.”
I’m not telling you this because I want you to send me a card or gift like my grandma did, call and sing to me like one of my co-workers did, take me out to lunch like my future father-in-law did, write on my Facebook wall like 56 of my friends did (and counting), take me shopping like my future husband is going to later, or take me out to dinner tonight like my mom and brother will….although all of these things are awesome and much appreciated. The fact is, I just don’t expect you to know that it’s my birthday. But if you do, I think it’s very smart to use that information to market to me.
You see, I’m a sucker for email lists because I crave deals. In fact, I have an email account dedicated to what most people consider “junk mail” because I hate going anywhere or shopping for anything without using a coupon. And I love it when a store or restaurant I visit often knows what I like and buy, and lets me know when it’s on sale.
But even if you are like many who don’t appreciate the constant email blasts, I think you would agree that there are some occasions where you’d make an exception – like your birthday!
So, I’d like to send out some kudos to Red Robin, Old Navy, Uno Chicago Grill, T.G.I. Friday’s, Panera Bread, Redbox, Cirque du Soleil…and I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting…for sending me emails today and over the course of the past couple of weeks to wish me a happy birthday and offer me everything from a free dessert and a free movie to $15 off my next purchase. I appreciate your intelligent, relevant 1:1 marketing, and you can bet that I’ll probably be taking advantage of your offer and coming back in the future!
The ‘Green’ Benefits of 1:1 Marketing
Filed under: Cross Media, E-mail, Marketing, One-to-one, VDP, Web-to-Print
By Christine Winter, PR/Marketing programs manager, XMPie, A Xerox Company
It’s no secret that 1:1 marketing campaigns that incorporate many different media channels have a greater reach, response and ROI. But did you know that they also have many ‘green’ benefits? Think about it…
Print is typically the first medium that comes to mind for a direct marketing campaign, and many people still prefer to receive important information in the mail. Although it seems print can’t possibly be ‘green,’ there are ways to make it more environmentally responsible (i.e. recycled paper, solid ink, duplex printing, etc.). Plus, with strategic and effective personalized print that is targeted to the right recipient with valuable, relevant information, your direct mail is less likely to hit the trash can (or better yet, the recycle bin). Read more on the “to print or not to print” debate here.
Then there’s e-media, such as email, the Web and mobile messaging, which has become more and more popular because of its convenience and cost-effectiveness. Its environmentally-friendly benefits are obvious, and when used strategically with text or image personalization, it increases the overall effectiveness of a marketing campaign. For best results, you can use e-media for the initial phase of a campaign and then follow up with print to non-responders, or vice versa.
Another great way to reduce costs and waste is with a Web-to-print solution. Take, for example, Digital Color Imaging (DCI), an Ohio-based print and Web marketing communications company that prides itself on helping clients minimize their environmental footprint. Its long-standing client Norandex Reynolds Building Products, a division of building material leader Saint-Gobain, typically sends out monthly mailers containing multiple ads, as well as announcements about discount specials, events, and featured products. The mailers are also used to announce workshops, inviting local contractors to attend and learn how to install their products.
These mailers were traditionally printed and shipped to each of its 200 dealer locations across the country where they were stored until needed. At that point, seminar-specific information would be printed on the sheets and then mailed to each recipient. Norandex sought an easier and less wasteful way of recruiting attendees, so DCI implemented a marketing portal for the company using XMPie® uStore®. This enabled Norandex branch managers to upload customer mailing lists, customize seminar mailers, and print and mail exactly the number of materials they needed on demand. Not only did this help eliminate any unnecessary printing, significantly cutting down printing expenses and reducing shipping and storage resources and costs, but it also made the marketing materials even more targeted and relevant, increasing branch participation in these local seminars from 15 to 100 percent.
What are some ways your business is reducing its environmental impact? Are there other ways to minimize the impact of marketing communications on the environment?
XMPie is ExactTarget’s “2010 Embedded Partner of the Year”
Filed under: Awards, Cross Media, E-mail, Events, General
By Ranen Goren, VP, Cross-Media Products & Enterprise Solutions, XMPie
ExactTarget, which has been an XMPie partner for the last three years powering the e-mail technology behind the XMPie e-Mail Service, recently presented XMPie with the “2010 Embedded Partner of the Year” Grand Prize Award!
This is an important milestone for the partnership between XMPie and ExactTarget because it shows that interactive marketing experts acknowledge the power of the integrated e-mail service, as provided by ExactTarget, within a complete cross-media solution, as provided by XMPie.
Here’s what the judging committee had to say about the XMPie solution.
XMPie’s embedded ExactTarget offering…
1. Provides seamless integration as part of software and services offering;
2. Enables clients to offer sophisticated use of e-mail;
3. Includes advanced personalization; and
4. Delivers a strong feature set and superior deliverability.
For example, the XMPie e-mail below includes a personalized image, greeting and URL, which are sophisticated features that have proven to increase response rates for us and our customers. XMPie makes it possible to do all of this, with the superior deliverability and tracking of ExactTarget, in one single software package that integrates print, e-mail, Web and SMS together into real cross-media campaigns.
Receiving the ExactTarget award was exciting and timely. Just the day before, I presented XMPie’s latest e-mail features of our one-to-one cross-media solution, PersonalEffect 5.0, at the XMPie Users Group Conference in Orlando, Fla. With the wealth of new features and improvements, together with the new lower pricing options offered by the XMPie e-Mail Service, we had a lot of great news to deliver.
For our customers who are not using the XMPie e-Mail Service, I believe the best news for you is that we now provide a free trial option that allows you to evaluate it very easily and for free, with no commitment at all. With this new option, every XMPie customer 
with the cross-media edition would benefit from checking out our much improved – and affordable – e-mail options.
We were a bit surprised and delighted to see that almost everyone in the audience that came to the e-mail session at the Users Group Conference is already using e-mail in their campaigns. This was a big improvement from previous years when we saw only 30 to 50% using e-mail. It shows again that e-mail has become more than just a “nice-to-have,” but rather a critical ingredient in the cross-media mix.