According to a major survey of marketers by Adobe, marketing has changed more in the last two years than in the previous fifty. So how do we know what best practice now is or even, at a minimum, good practice?
How to tell if you’re ready for today’s world of marketing and business.
When it comes to marketing, AI will continue to impact the sector in two ways. Firstly, the types of jobs marketers will do and, secondly, the way campaigns are conceived, run and measured.
iAddress is a unique SMS/text function, developed by instaGiv – the charity mobile text specialist. iAddress changes the donor acquisition landscape by enabling charities to engage with and recruit supporters by text, complete with their postal address details to instantly grow their supporter bases.
The data collected via iAddress is fully owned by the charity and can be downloaded into prepared opted-in mailing lists at any time.
Fast and simple data capture means charities can reach out to new and different profile groups for supporter acquisition and immediately add new donors with postal addresses to their supporter database or CRM system. New donors recruited via text donations can be added to integrated fundraising programmes, for regular giving, donor communications and stewardship. iAddress has been successfully piloted for Macmillan Cancer Support and The Eve Appeal with impressive levels of response up to 70%.
With an easy to use data collection request added to a post-donation thank you response text, iAddress invites donors to text their name and postcode directly to the charity as part of the fundraising campaign or call to action. Latest automated address verification technology checks the postcode and confirms the address with the donor via a bounce-back text for 100% accuracy.
Iain Williams, director of instaGiv said: “As text communication becomes an increasingly agile and flexible route to supporter engagement and fundraising, iAddress enhances the channel’s potential for donor acquisition and ongoing relationships. By adding this function to text campaigns we’re enabling charities to do so much more than fundraising appeals for one-off donations. Creative and engaging campaigns raise funds and can now quickly and very simply grow your supporter base for ongoing communications via phone, text and post for fully integrated fundraising and donor stewardship programmes.”
Macmillan Cancer Support used iAddress to support a DRTV campaign launched at Christmas 2014. Text donations were followed up by a call centre but for donors who could not be reached by a phone call, Macmillan implemented an iAddress text that stimulated more than half of those donors to return accurate name and address information.
Macmillan’s Andrea Jones (pictured left), Individual Marketing Function manager – Acquisition Dialogue, managed the campaign. She said: “As part of the Macmillan Christmas Star Appeal we used iAddress to contact supporters who we previously hadn’t been able to speak with over the phone. It meant we were able to capture correct postal addresses and make sure that they received their Christmas Star on time. We experienced a response of over 50% and were able to add these individuals to our supporter database.”
The Eve Appeal ran a smaller and more targeted campaign and experienced a 70% response rate.
The two leading industry bodies in the UK, the DMA and the IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) have come together under a newly formed group to promote the highest standards and professionalism in one-to-one marketing.
Headed up by group CEO, Chris Combemale (pictured), the merged organisation will become the largest marketing trade body and provider of specialist qualifications in Europe, serving a £14.2 billion industry with a workforce of more than 530,000.
The combined business is on a mission to create a stronger profession by helping every company and every individual member to be better at what they do. It will focus on protecting and growing the one to one marketing industry, inspiring the best talent through advocating best practice, innovation and excellence as well as providing the highest quality training and qualifications available to organisations and individuals.
Julia Porter (left), chairman of the UK DMA, said: “The recently launched DMA Code and Guides establish a modern framework for responsible marketing in our profession. IDM training provides the skill sets and knowledge needed for practitioners to succeed. They are two halves of a shared mission that will be better achieved together.”
Melanie Howard and Caroline Worboys, who co-chair the IDM, said: “The newly created group is committed to continuing the purpose for which the IDM was established, namely supporting, attracting and developing talented people into the one to one marketing industry. We believe that the value of the IDM brand, the importance of reputable qualifications to the industry and our role in attracting high quality talent to the industry will be expanded in a shared future.”
The DMA and the IDM will continue to operate as separate brands. The DMA’s corporate memberships and the IDM’s individual membership will remain in force. IDM remains a brand that helps individuals become better at what they do through training and qualifications and continuous professional development while the DMA brand helps companies to have a better business. Over the coming months the group will explore synergies to enhance the value and experience for all members.
In addition to Chris Combemale’s appointment as group CEO, Ken Goulding has been appointed group finance director. Jane Cave has been appointed as managing director of the IDM and Rachel Aldighieri will be the interim managing director of the DMA.
The merger will also see the industry’s two main charities, the IDM Trust and the Direct Marketing Foundation, come together. The newly formed trust, a single charitable institution, will provide grants and bursaries to help attract, inspire and educate the most talented young people to enter the profession as well as support issues around fairness to consumers. The trust will continue to distribute ear-marked legacy funds from the co-founder of the IDM, the late Derek Holder, as bursaries to support those who want to enter the profession and gain qualifications and experience.
The design team says the office in SoHo – which it has dubbed its ‘Oval Office’ – is the next step in strengthening its ‘Mr.Prezident’ service for a rapidly growing client base in the US.
The Prezi Design Agency was founded in 2011 by Pieter Bosschaart and Paul van Hattem, to challenge the concept of corporate presentations. And Mr.Prezident, an official Prezi expert, has been designing creative and professional presentations for various brands and corporations ever since. In 2014, 30% of all incoming business came from within the US. Opening up a US office is the logical next step, says the company, which now employs a team of 20. The Manhattan office will be led by Celeste van der Spoel.
With creative roots in international advertising and experience within the US market, she will take charge of all Mr.Prezident’s US activities. She said: “There’s a market to explore for Mr.Prezident and we have great things to offer. I’m sure that our ‘design thinking’ and Dutch straightforwardness will not go unnoticed.”
Pieter Bosschaart, a Mr.Prezident founder and the current chief commercial officer for the design team, said: “The world of presentations is expanding and the United States is at the centre of it. Lots of companies are looking for experts that can help tell and visualise stories. By opening up a New York office, we’re making sure we will be there to help. Working from two different time zones will only strengthen our service, as we will be able to produce in the Netherlands when it’s night-time in the US.
“We’re extremely proud that we were able to take this big step forward and cross the Atlantic and we’re looking forward to expanding our business internationally.”
More about the company’s ethos and advice on making a more impressive presentation is here.
The retail industry has been abuzz with the idea of personalisation, where brands aim to deliver better customer experiences by tailoring content and offers. Clever retailers are taking this one step further and enriching this customer experience by using contextualisation, which looks at the content visitors engage with or what they purchase, as well as why they did so, says Amanda McCreary.
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Integrating Facebook advertisements as part of a ‘traditional’ DM campaign has become a well proven and low-cost lead generation, branding and direct response mechanism. Adam Williams discusses use of Facebook as part of a DM campaign.