One of the newest and most intriguing ways marketers are integrating mobile with the traditional power of direct mail is through  QR codes or Quick Response codes. These two-dimensional barcodes can feature PURLs that drive users from printed material to the Web via smartphones. QR codes can turn a printed direct mail piece into an interactive mobile call to action, allowing static messages to become a quick-scan hyperlink to just about anything online.

Why Mix Mobile and Direct Mail?

The Nielsen Company recently predicted smartphones will take over featyre phones next year.  Although smartphones first became popular among business people, today many new buyers select them for personal use. Additionally, faster mobile web connectivity is growing, and mobile web search is becoming one of the most common uses for these devices.

Marketers, of course, have been watching the growth of smartphones with a keen interest in how best to use this technology to connect with consumers. Increasingly smartphones are becoming an integral part of the daily lives of consumers. Many people don’t leave home without them and view their smartphones as very personal devices. While the relatively new field of sending marketing messages directly to consumers’ mobile phones has its place, many people are worried about privacy. A recent study indicates young adults would rather receive marketing messages via postal mail. The study, titled Finding the Right Channel Combination”, conducted by ICOM, surveyed consumers from 18 to 34 years old and found these young adults overwhelmingly preferred to learn about marketing offers via postal mail rather than online sources. The study also found only 25 percent of respondents perceive getting more postal mail compared to a year ago, while nearly three times that amount said they’re getting more email. There is a great opportunity to gain these consumers’ attention and interest by using direct mail.

The point here is, as is so often the case, integrating these two marketing channels will help companies achieve a higher return on investment on their campaigns.

For 5 ways to acheive higher returns using QR Codes, contact Southwest Direct today at 800-968-5798 or visit www.swdirect.com.

Have you rediscovered direct mail yet? If you’re frustrated with email marketing, you may need to integrate direct mail back in the mix.   Here is an excerpt from PRWeb:

A recent surge in the volume of direct mail marketing has prompted a new generation of marketers, many of whom feel the need to become better acquainted with direct mail fundamentals. Many marketers are rediscovering direct mail. They’re disappointed by e-mail’s responsiveness and are learning that social media is fairly ‘soft-sell.’ But a lot of today’s marketers aren’t comfortable with direct mail basics, the way earlier generations were. As evidence of the recent surge in direct mail spending by marketers, may be the increase during the past six months in the volume of mailing list rentals. List rentals rose 20 percent during the second half of 2010, as compared to the first half of the year. The surge comes as the result of “a wonderful opportunity for direct mail marketers. The disappearance of direct mail from in-boxes has created a huge void that marketers should take advantage of. It’s almost a novelty to get a piece of direct mail nowadays and that scarcity is creating an unprecedented boost in response rates. All marketers should think hard about testing postal right now.

SouthWest Direct can get you on the right path! Contact us today to rediscover direct mail! 800-968-5798 or khaverly@swdirect.com

A mobile site is a bare-bones version of the PC version that gives users all the basic information they need on-the-go – nothing more, nothing less.  Creating a mobile version for your website may seem like a daunting task. What information should we include or omit for our mobile site? What about the design? How fast will it load? Will it look good on every phone?

Landing Pages for mobile are no different. Here at Easypurl, we consider ourselves to be masters of the Mobile Landing Page. No other cross-channel marketing platform offers such a wide breadth of tools to help you reach out to your customers and prospects in this exciting marketing medium. Our Mobile Landing Page templates, for example, are optimized to display and function correctly on 98% of mobile device platforms. Moreover, these templates are designed for focused messaging and faster load times.

We also have the tips and tricks you’ll need to create the most effective mobile website around:

1. Use a Mobile Template

Mobile Templates from Easypurl.com are ready-to-use and extremely light-weight – which means they can be displayed faster on a mobile device. Moreover, our Mobile Templates are already optimized to display and function correctly across all the major mobile devices and operating systems, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Web OS, etc.

2. Design with Screen Size in Mind

Mobile device standards change faster than you can say “Blackberry.” At the start of any project, research the most popular devices and design based on their requirements. As of the publication of this post, industry best practices say start with a 240×240 screen size and leave ALL content within the 240×240 stage. For anything beyond the initial 240 x 240 size, use a repetitive background.

You should also consider the sizing of banners before designing them:

Small banner: 112 x 21

Used on displays that range from 128 x 128 to 128 x 160.

Medium banner: 158 x 30

Used on displays that range from 176 x 208 to 176 x 220.

Large banner: 212 x 40

Used on displays that range from 240 x 320 and larger.

3. Color Change

Use simple colors. If the original design uses “cool blue” and “Pastel orange”, the colors that the majority mobile users might actually see could turn out being “bright blue” and “Florida orange” instead.

4. Navigation is the Key

A lot of overseas mobile phones do not use the 4-way key navigation. They can only navigate with 2-way or “up and down” navigation. Softbank devices, Nokia, etc. have 4-way navigation and, therefore, everyone speculates that it is all that is distributed through out the world. Don’t make this mistake!

5. Know Your Images

Accepted Image types include.png, .gif, and .jpg. As in normal web design make sure to use the standard image types only. No .tifs!

6. Don’t Always Depend on .CSS

Not all mobile browsers allow for the use of .css, so keep that in mind while creating your mobile landing pages. If you need assistance, contact SouthWest today at 800-968-5798!

Keep these tips in mind, and you’ll create a focused and effective mobile website in no time! Does your company have a great mobile website? Let us know in the comments

CASE DISTRICT VII CONFERENCE 2011

Booth 4

MARCH 3-5, 2011

HYATT REGENCY CENTURY PLAZA

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

The key to the success of email marketing initiatives on a long-term basis is consistency. Organizations contemplating the use of address verification tools will find that the design needs to be consistent if the initiatives are to be as effective as possible.

Follow your consistency through to your templates and stick to the same (or at least a similar) design depending on if you are sending out your newsletter, promotional or transactional email.

The key to boosting brand awareness and ensuring that customers recognize the emails simply by their design.

And, according to a recent study of 10,000 visitors to the largest e-retail sites carried out by market research company ForeSee, the majority of consumers believe that communication from brands through email is far more acceptable than social networking interactions.

SouthWest Direct incorporates successful email marketing into direct response campaigns and knows what it takes to generate leads thorugh email markteting.  Email marketing also works best when coupled with other direct response mediums, such as direct mail. Call SouthWest Direct today to find out how you can use email marketing and direct mail to boost your branding and lead generation today. 1-800-968-5798

Visit SWD at booth 112!

Click Thumbnail to go to show homepage!

Happy New Year from SouthWest Direct!

Depending on who you ask, the traditional form of direct mail marketing for your business including collecting customer addresses, preparing advertisement leaflets, applying postage and mailing them, all took a backseat to email marketing in the last few years.  Email marketing with its extremely low operation cost, instant gratification and the ability to connect with a large number of consumers at the same time emerged as a far more preferable alternative. Thus, leaving the traditional marketing style of physically posting newsletters, direct mail marketing for your business took the form of sending advertising communication through emails. With information being sent from one corner of the world to another within seconds, the speed of the new system was its biggest advantage. Email marketing allowed entrepreneurs to reach out to consumers with personalized and dynamic messages. Advertisers too could connect with email subscribers who had opted-in to receive email communication from them. But as with any overused system, flaws emerged in email marketing too.

The biggest problem associated with email marketing is the possibility of being viewed as spam emails. Everyday internet users receive a large number of unsolicited emails posing as genuine business communication. The increasing number of spam emails has led to the development of stronger spam filters, spam laws and users being more cautious about the mails they receive. Emails with subject line resembling spam emails are now automatically sent to the spam folder or are deleted without even opening, which ultimately costs the marketer.

With the development of newer applications like blogging, article writing, affiliate marketing and social networking, the dimensions of online marketing are undergoing further change. However, email marketing still occupies a major position in the marketing world. The way we do it at SouthWest Direct is to combine the positive aspects of both traditional marketing and online marketing to create a form of blended marketing.

With this type of marketing strategy, email marketing can be combined with direct mail marketing for your business to achieve greater results. Emails can be used to introduce an advertising campaign which would create awareness among the customers about your product or service, which can then be followed up by direct mails. Alternatively, a direct mail campaign can also be followed up by emails containing purchase links which would enable the customers to land up directly on the shopping page. Hence, email marketing utilized with traditional direct mail is the most effective form of marketing.

Let the professionals at SouthWest Direct give your lead generation a boost in 2011 with combining email and direct mail! Call us today at 239-768-9588.

We stumbled across this article by Randy Spurrier, NimbleFish CEO. It really hits the nail on the head! The most important point of the article? Keep the dialogue going! We concur! Read it and learn…

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24606.asp

If you have questions about getting your direct mail to work smarter, contact SouthWest Direct today at www.swdirect.com or call 800-968-5798.

Thinking about using Facebook to brand your business? Before you do, consider the Facebook Facts! 

1. Facebookers (FB) like food! The FB pages with the most followers contain something about food – pages that has content about ice cream has the most followers!

2. Stay away from buzzwords!  FB business pages with words like “optimizing, leverage, blogger, and marketing” has the least followers!

3. FB pages most liked by users contain content about movies, TV shows, and books. Least liked FB page content? Religion, bars and pets

4. FB has a mainstream audience who want to be entertained! Boring content will get you nowhere on FB.

5. FB post titles with numerical digits in them get shared the most.

If your product or service supports these audience characteristics, FB is a good fit!  If not, better look elsewhere!

For more information about utilizing social media for your marketing campaign, contact Southwest Direct today at 800-968-5797.

1. Know the market.  Know which markets respond to which print media.  SWD can show you how to print wisely and make it count!

2. Mix it up.  Know what mix of media gets the best reponse. SWD can help you evaluate and measure returns in order to use the right mix for your target audience and message. Let your print support other media.

3. Keep it clean.  SWD will keep your mailing lists current, purged of duplicates or disinterested parties, and accurately targeted.

4. Use technology.  SWD can help you determine the right printing method for the right job, including digital and variable data printing for personalization. Targeting a smaller, more specific audience gives increased personalization and ROI options.

5. Take advantage of valuable additional services.  SWD is your consultant and can offer you a range of different services to get the most optimal ROI from your campaigns.

6. Make it stand out! Don’t forget to consider features such as embossing and special varnishes that will make your piece POP and keep it memorable for readers.