It’s Not Too Late to Register for the XMPie Users Group Annual Conference
By Frannie Garvey, operations manager, XMPie Users Group
In the coming month, XMPie Users will be gathering to learn the latest knowledge and trends within cross-media communications at the XMPie Users Group Annual Conference in Boston. Will you be joining them? It’s not too late to register for this exciting event that brings together the best in the industry.
XMPie Users Group Conference
September 9– 12
Boston, Massachusetts
Conference Highlights
- Sophie Vandebroek, Xerox Chief Technology Officer and President of the Xerox Innovation Group, will deliver a keynote session, “Knowledge Work in 2020: Are You Ready?”
- Three educational tracks for technical, design, and marketing professionals
- Sessions featuring the XMPie management and technology teams, Adobe, InfoTrends, fellow customers, industry professionals and partners
- Networking opportunities to connect with other XMPie users and customers
- Pre-conference tutorials providing deep-dives on programming and designing with the XMPie solutions
- Picking up where the Best of the Best Awards left off, the Xcellence Awards will be presented at the conference, showcasing attendees’ marketing campaigns that display the best practices and growing trends within cross-media communications
Download a copy of the agenda to review all of the great sessions planned!
Registration
Non Member Registration Rate: $895 USD
BEST VALUE! Member Registration Discounted Rate: $595 USD
Additional Pre-Conference Tutorials: $249 USD
Reserve your spot today to meet, interact and learn from the best!
Accommodations
Join us at The Revere Hotel Boston Common and take advantage of our discounted room rate of $209 a night if you reserve by Monday, August 27th. To receive this special attendee rate you must book online with the code “XMPie,” or call the hotel directly at +1 855 OREVERE (855-673-8373).
For more information on travel, transportation, local attractions and weather, click here.
We look forward seeing you in Boston!
5 Tips For Integrating QR Codes Into a Campaign
By John Arnsdorf, product marketing manager at XMPie, A Xerox Company
Even though QR Codes have been around since the mid 90’s, their adoption rate has only recently taken off. This is due in part to a larger population of people toting smartphones with higher resolution cameras, larger screens, faster Internet connections, and lower data rates. Between July and December 2010, QR Code scanning increased an astonishing 1,200% across North America, according to a report from mobile payments and marketing company Mobio Identity Systems Inc. Additionally, a separate study found that 57% of Facebook and Twitter users said they have scanned a mobile barcode at least once in the past year, while as many as 40% had done so 5 or more times in the past year. Considering the Facebook population surpassed a staggering 900 million active members earlier this year, that is a lot of people scanning a lot of QR Codes. Now that QR Codes have gone mainstream, the challenge is to utilize them in new and creative ways that engage customers and allow them to interact with brands in a whole new way.
I am frequently asked by customers, “How can I use QR Codes in my marketing campaigns?” The real question is, “How can you more effectively use QR Codes in your marketing campaigns?” It is not enough to simply slap a 2D barcode onto something; you need to thoughtfully incorporate QR Codes into each touch point; use one to link to online content, use it as a vehicle to interact with customers, or create experience around your brand. Personally, I don’t like answering a question with a question; however, so I’ve written 5 tips to get you thinking about how you might integrate a QR Code into your next campaign.
- Make a QR Code part of the call-to-action. I’m more likely to make the effort to scan a code if I know it might lead me to a personalized coupon, contest, game or something that is out of the ordinary and unique. I might even scan a code to reveal a surprise, but it better be good. It’s always a good idea to offer a strong motivator to entice your target audience into scanning your QR Code.
- Use QR Codes in your signage and displays. I’m a foodie. Consequently, I frequent a lot of wine and cheese shops, and other specialty stores, to learn about and buy the products they sell. Even though I like learning about the products I choose to spend my money on, I don’t like stores that litter the shelves with information about each product. Displays should have just enough information to draw me in and use QR Codes linking to supplemental information, such as varietal information, tasting notes and food pairings.
- Use QR Codes to save your customers time. If you are inviting your loyal customers to an event, use the code to add the event to their calendar with all the relevant details. If you are prospecting to new customers and want them to visit your brick-and-mortar, use the code to give them a map with door-to-door directions. QR Codes can contain up to 4,296 alphanumeric characters, so use them!
- Make it easy for your customers to give you money. Like many of you, I get countless donation letters from every not-for-profit under the sun. The vast majority of them expect me to fill out a form, write a check, and worst of all, find an envelope and stamp. I’m sorry, but that takes too much of the precious little time I do have, and chances are I don’t have a stamp. I think I am still using the same book of forever stamps I bought years ago. Give me a QR Code I can scan that links to a personalized site with all my information filled out and a place to enter my donation and pay with PayPal, and you’ll get my financial support.
- Give your customers something they can keep. Sometimes, after a long day at work, the last thing I want to do is spend the next 1-2 hours cooking dinner. So, I turn to my restaurant drawer, which is stuffed to the brim with to-go menus that are typically hand-folded photocopies of photocopies. These notoriously poor reproductions of the normal menu are my take-away impression of the restaurant. What a lost opportunity to ‘wow’ me. Restaurateurs, if you are listening, use a QR Code outside your establishment, which links to a PDF of your menu that I can download and keep on my phone. Now I can have your menu instantly accessible anytime I feel like going out for a bite to eat.
However you choose to use a QR Code in your next campaign, make sure you leverage what you already know about your customers and give them a personalized experience. And if you don’t know anything about me, use the QR Code to get me to a page where I can tell you a little about myself. If I think there is something in it for me, I’m liable to give up a little information.
Recap: Data Analysis and List Profiling for Higher Campaign Response
By Bruce Meberg, senior vice president of Business Development, USADATA, Inc.
In order to reach the right audience for direct marketing acquisition campaigns, companies need to know as much as possible about their customers. Appending additional fields of information to each customer record is a great first step. There are several great business elements (e.g., industry, company size) and hundreds of potential consumer elements available (e.g., age, income, gender, marital status, home owner, life stage cluster, interests, etc.). A life stage cluster is a group of households with similar demographic characteristics and propensity to buy certain products and services.
One approach to gaining insight into customers that provides much of the benefit of high-end custom models, but at a fraction of the time and cost, is to append life stage clusters to each record, then analyze which clusters are appearing in the customer file more than would be expected (based on the cluster’s average share within the target geography). The highest 10-20% (7 to 15) of “indexing” clusters from the profile analysis can then be used to select prospect lists for acquisition campaigns. Life stage clusters offer a simple (single dimension of 60 or 70 different segments) yet powerful method, since they are based on a pre-defined model that was created using advanced statistical methods.
Life-stage clusters, such as Personicx, also come with rich background information on each cluster, so it is possible to create a modified message or variable data images for each cluster. Analyzing campaign response is also simplified…just look for the clusters with the highest response rate and use this information to fine tune the next campaign. All in all, a great way to get started on the path to higher response rates and marketing return on investment!
USADATA is a cloud-based/Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) company that combines consulting, data and technology to help its customers improve direct marketing ROI. The company’s data neutral experts have access to all leading compiled databases and specialty lists, and help businesses find new customers more easily and cost effectively through a combination of data (mailing lists and sales leads), consultative support, and easy-to-use technology.
This was a short recap of a recent XMPie Customer 1to1 Webinar series session. For more information on this topic and to learn about special XMPie customer promotions, visit www.usadata.com/xmpie.
XMPie MC for iPhone: Cross-Media Campaign Tracking & Analysis On-The-Go
Filed under: Cross Media, General, Marketing Analytics
Today, I am excited to announce that XMPie has just recently launched its very first XMPie iPhone application – and it’s free! It’s called XMPie MC (Marketing Console) and is available in the Apple iTunes Store.
The application allows you to view and share your uProduce Marketing Console Dashboard reports directly from your iPhone. You can magnify the reports to show the table as well as the chart, and you can also refresh the report to update it with more current data and send the report via e-mail. This powerful capability provides new opportunities to continue the dialogue and provide meaningful follow-up within moments of a customer or prospect interaction.
Timothy Perrett, technical solutions specialist at XMPie, gives a brief demonstration of the application in this YouTube video.
Again, this free XMPie MC (Marketing Console) application is available in the Apple iTunes Store. We hope you find it intuitive and beneficial to your business! If you are not currently a user of XMPie’s uProduce Marketing Console for campaign tracking and analysis, and would like to learn more, please visit www.xmpie.com/mc.