News, Ideas & Commentary on PURLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Video & More

Registration is now live for the 2012 Print Solutions Conference & Expo taking place June 4 - 6 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Attend and benefit from PSDA's powerful community of distributors,
trade printers and suppliers. You'll leave the conference better informed of emerging trends and with new connections among suppliers, partners and peers.

James Michelson, author of Cross Media Marketing 101: The concise guide to surviving in the C-suite, will be presenting on cross media marketing and the staff from VDP Web will be on hand.

JFM Concepts, the maker of VDP Web, is proud to announce that James Michelson has been featured in a video interview during the PODI AppForum by ChoosePrint.org a project of the Printing Industries Association, Inc. of Southern California (PIASC).   The featured segment is entitled “Print is…A Team Player” and can be seen in its entirety here.

More information of the topic can be found in James’s book, Cross Media Marketing 101: The concise guide to surviving in the C-suite published this year by Schooner Press. It is available online at amazon.com and other retailers or at https://www.createspace.com/3537914.

JFM Concepts is a full service cross media marketing technology firm featuring the VDP Complete® marketing system and VDP Web® Online software as a service. JFM specializes in creating variable data cross media marketing technologies with Personalized URLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Phone Tracking, Video, QR Codes, and more for commercial printers, agencies, and marketing departments of all sizes. The firm knows that technology development and marketing should come together to document both improved response rates and improved return on investment (ROI).

The marketing technology experts at JFM Concepts are proud to announce they have partnered with the Great Lakes Graphics Association, part of the Print Industries Association of America, to provide cross media marketing services.

JFM Concepts has used its industry leading VDP Web® cross media marketing platform to support the Great Lakes Graphics Association in membership development and retention efforts.  The campaign included a multi-channel distribution effort to current and former association members to conduct a highly complex and detailed survey.  The questions were designed to gather detailed feedback from the membership in order to improve services to boost both relevancy and values in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Since 1886, the Great Lakes Graphics Association has represented the printing industry and its allied partners.  The GLGA is a professional trade association representing members in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin that helps businesses achieve powerful results.  JFM Concepts and VDP Web are proud to assist the Association in developing industry leading cross media marketing tools and systems to accomplish their mission.

JFM Concepts is a full service cross media marketing technology firm featuring the VDP Complete® marketing system and VDP Web® Online software as a service. JFM specializes in creating variable data cross media marketing technologies with Personalized URLs, Email, SMS Text, QR Codes, Phone Tracking, Video, QR Codes, and more for commercial printers, agencies, and marketing departments of all sizes. The firm knows that technology development and marketing should come together to document both improved response rates and improved return on investment (ROI).

Special thanks to Steve Anzalone, COO of the Harding Poorman Group for his efforts in this project.

Join JFM Concepts and VDP Web for the 2012 Webinar Series "Tools for Successful Cross Media Marketing."

In its 5th year, the popular JFM Cross Media Marketing Webinar Series is the industry standard in bleeding edge information and business strategies that can be practically implemented to show immediate results for service providers and practitioners. Discover the best professional training available anywhere, for free, all with no travel required. Register here.

Sessions

2012 Cross Media Marketing Outlook

Join James Michelson and John Fager of JFM Concepts on this comprehensive analysis of the 2012 Cross Media Marketing Outlook for both marketing service providers and internal marketers. Discover lessons learned in 2011, the trends for the upcoming year, and benchmarks you can use to develop your own strategies for 2012.

January 17, 2012 1:00 Eastern & January 19, 2012 4:00 Eastern

Cross Media Marketing 101 for 2012

Learn the ropes of cross media with this informative webinar that details what cross media marketing is and ways you can enhance current efforts without breaking the bank.

March 6, 2012 1:00 Eastern & March 8, 2012 4:00 Eastern

How To Bid Cross Media & Effective Sales Strategies

Join James Michelson, Principal of VDP Web to discuss effective pricing strategies for cross media. Learn how to up-charge and price jobs without the dreaded "scope creep" and maintain a positive cash flow while showing value to your clients.

May 8, 2012 4:00 Eastern & May 10, 2012 1:00 Eastern

More Effective Self Promo's

Our valued clients have had great success with creating self-promos and marketing cross media services. Check out the do's and dont's with James and learn why self-promotion is the way into your client's budgets.

July 17, 2012 1:00 Eastern & July 19, 2012 4:00 Eastern

Cross Media Holiday Marketing 2012

Now is the time to think seriously about holiday marketing! Join JFM Concepts to discover how holiday cross media marketing can provide sales leads and good will even without an offer or sales call to action. Learn how cross channel communications with mail, email, social media, and landing pages can turn an expense into a revenue generating activity. Your customers, clients, and prospects will love it!

October 2, 2012 1:00 Eastern & October 9, 2012 1:00 Eastern

2013 Cross Media Marketing Outlook

Join James Michelson and John Fager of JFM Concepts on this comprehensive analysis of the 2013 Cross Media Marketing Outlook for both marketing service providers and internal marketers. Discover lessons learned in 2012, the trends for the upcoming year, and benchmarks you can use to develop your own strategies for 2013.

December 18, 2012 1:00 Eastern & January 8, 2013 4:00 Eastern & January 10, 2013 1:00 Eastern

Register here.

JFM Concepts, the makers of VDP Web, is proud to announce that principal and founder James Michelson will be speaking at the Exact Target 2011 Connections conference in Indianapolis.  The session is titled “Email + Direct Mail: Response Rates on Steroids?”  Reports of "direct mail deaths" have been greatly exaggerated.  In fact, when used in combination with email, direct mail can lift response to new heights.

Connections 2011 is the world’s largest interactive marketing conference with more than 3,000 global marketers attending the three-day event Sept. 13-15. Connections ’11 follows ExactTarget Connections ‘10, which welcomed more than 2,000 marketers to Indianapolis and featured a lineup of industry titans including Virgin Group Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and a private concert from Grammy Award-winning band Train.

If you cannot make the event, please contact us to obtain a copy.

To obtain a copy, contact us!

Order now at: https://www.createspace.com/3537914 or amazon.com!

JFM Concepts, makers of the VDP Web cross media marketing platform is proud to announce that James Michelson, founder and principal, has been invited to present in the Advanced Marketing Track at Exact Target’s Connections 2011 to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 13-15, 2011.

The title of the session will be “Integrated Cross Media Marketing with Email, Direct Mail, SMS Text, SEO and Landing Pages for the Print Services Distribution Association (PSDA)”.

Join James Michelson, author of  “Cross Media Marketing 101: The concise guide to surviving in the C-Suite” and founder of embed partner VDP Web® as he creates and executes an integrated cross media marketing campaign that combines email, direct mail, landing pages, web, SMS-Text  and more into an integrated campaign to market the 2011 Print Solutions Expo.   In this session, discover how multiple marketing channels were coordinated and how personas were developed to deliver highly personalized content to prospects of the Print Services Distribution Association.  The speaker will re-create the process from start to finish on how content was created, channels selected, and follow up conducted in order to boost response rates, improve tracking, lower costs, and document return on investment.

The session will explore acquisition, lead generation, and sales techniques from this highly successful integrated campaign.  James will detail how pre and post-show follow up was conducted in order to maximize the impact of the event and to cross-sell / up-sell other association products and services during the campaign.  Detailed reporting metrics will be shared as will actual samples of content.  Items to be covered include:

• Developing personas
• Determining the correct contact channel
• Coordinating content and channels
• Developing a contact matrix and content for each persona
• Follow up techniques
• Results
• Lessons Learned
• Best Practices

Attendees will leave the session with a checklist of activities required to design, implement, and effectively track an integrated cross media marketing campaign using any combination of channels.

 

Connections 2011 is a must-attend event for ExactTarget customers. Sessions will appeal to those responsible for interactive marketing strategy and execution at all levels—from Vice Presidents to Email Marketing Specialists to Web Developers. Anyone looking for new ways to engage with customers through the latest interactive marketing tools and best practices is encouraged to attend. And because the educational value of Connections is unlike any other in the industry, attendees will be able to immediately apply what they learn to their marketing campaigns, prompting extraordinary impact on program results.

Susan M LaChance
Vice President Consumer and Industry Affairs

Susan:

I was sorely disappointed to receive the survey request from your department and the follow up post card last week. 

To remain relevant and profitable, the USPS must follow the Service’s own advice to business customers and integrate digital and web elements into the marketing mix.  If you want advertisers to accept the power of direct mail in the digital age the USPS must lead from the front with cutting edge applications that highlight the power of mail.  The web call to action was hidden in the small print in both the letter and the follow up card and required arcane logins and passwords.

The direct marketing solicitation sent by your office was antiquated, ineffective, and counter-productive to growing business customer confidence and utilization of the Post Office and its services.   By not following its own advocated best practices, The USPS is making the process of selling direct mail to marketers that much harder.

I strongly recommend you, your staff, and contractors review "Getting Personal – Direct Marketing Practices that Deliver", published by the USPS in 2008.

Lead or be left behind.

At a minimum, this is what the direct mail piece should have contained to capture attention and increase response and provide a positive example to possible business customers:

• Color & artwork personalized to individual recipients
• Size bigger than 3 x 5 to stand out from bills and junk
• Personalization (name, industry, title, industry graphic & artwork)
• Easy to access online survey without the need for usernames and passwords
• Tracking to measure who visited website but did not take further action by individual

The folks at Campaign Monitor shared the following stats about mobile email marketing that I wanted to pass along to our readers.  They analyzed their data from all email clients and more than 3 billion messages from May 2009.  The chart says it all.

The mix of mobile email clients is no surprise either.

I agree with the author of the original study, that it is time to pay attention to how your emails look on mobile devices, including tablets and to consider this as part of your cross media marketing strategy.

JFM Concepts and VDP Web® are proud to announce the publication of their latest case study on direct marketing for Education. Successful cross media tactics for admissions, events, alumni relations, planned giving, donations and more are covered. Campaign goals were to decrease cost, improve response rates, document and measure return on investment, and simplify the follow up process. Download the case study for free at http://education.vdpconcepts.com.

The VDP Web® cross media marketing platform has been deployed by public and private educational institutions of every size to deliver outstanding results. Successful projects have been launched by organizations as diverse in size and mission such as The University of Michigan and Northeast State Technical Community College to regional Christian institutions such as Calvin College and Grace Bible College. Not-For-Profit institutions such as Harrison College and various secondary schools have also used the system for admissions, alumni relations, fund raising and planned giving. Integrated campaigns have been cost effectively run for multiple departments without the need for internal technical assistance or support.

 
University of Michigan Landing Page, one of many samples in the case study.

There are common challenges faced by the academic institutions detailed in this case study. The goals of all the campaigns that follow were to decrease budget, lower man hours required for follow up and fulfillment, increase response rate and add personalization to generate leads. Each of these projects was executed by one decision maker and did not require the support of other departments. The cases examined assume that additional budget expenditures for new projects is unlikely, IT and other internal technical support is not available, and that the department does not have additional manpower resources to dedicate to a new project. If any of these assumptions are not true, so much the better.

It is possible to implement a basic cross media marketing strategy without any major changes to the current marketing mix. Unique landing pages, QR Codes, new 800 numbers, and SMS Text can be added to any existing marketing channel to add new data collection mechanisms and start a two way conversation with prospects, students, alumni and donors.