Articles by Chris Van Houtte
Blog Archive
The Best Practices for Transferring Data to Your Marketing Partner
Consumer data is the fuel pushing today’s data-driven direct mail campaigns to new heights by providing the ability to create highly personalized, relevant offers that consumers respond to. For example, in the not-too-distant past, a pet food retailer might have sent the same offer for a discount on a popular brand of dog food to […]
5 Security Questions to Ask Your Marketing Partners
One-to-one messaging is alive and thriving in both print and pixel-based marketing channels, and combining physical and digital marketing has been proven to increase response rates. To unlock this value, marketers are tapping into data they’ve never had available before and, more importantly, never before shared with marketing partners. From that perspective, while the focus […]
What Are the Hot Topics for Security Audits?
You don’t have to work in IT to know that data security is a pressing issue for most organizations. Whether it’s a retailer, restaurant, or voting system, all you have to do is read or watch the news to understand someone or something is always trying access data they shouldn’t. Businesses must always be vigilant […]
How We Define Our Best-in-Class Information Security Management System
The past few months have been busy ones for our Information Security team. This is the time of year when many of our clients update their documentation on their vendors’ information security practices. Our team has been completing surveys and meeting with client audit teams to help them understand our Information Security Management System (ISMS) […]
A Process to Avoid Being FUD Up with Cyber Security Issues
In October, my colleague, John Murray, attended the CSX Cybersecurity Conference in Las Vegas where security professionals from around the world gathered to network, strategize and share new tools and perspectives on cyber security. This conference showcased many threats that businesses are facing today, such as hackers, denial of service attacks, ransomware and insider threats—just […]
How an Automated Workflow Benefits Direct Marketing Programs
Fans of late night infomercials may recall the famous tagline for the Ronco Rotisserie Oven: “Just set it and forget it!” In some respects, that’s how automated marketing programs are designed to function. Business rules and logic are defined and an automated workflow is developed that allows for systematic processing of client data to generate […]
Completing the Security Puzzle
I think we can all agree that the best way to tackle a puzzle is to start with the edges. But as we all know, even when the border is finished, there’s still a ways to go before the picture is complete. We’ve talked in the past about the importance direct marketing service providers need […]
The Perpetual Race: Beyond the Information Security Audits
In case you missed some of our blog posts, IWCO Direct’s compliance and security team has been keeping busy. As we announced last year, achieving ISO 27001:2013, PCI DSS v3.1 and HIPAA certification is part of our job. But even knowing that “compliant” is where we aim to be, you might not know the work […]
MLB Opening Day: Get Your Popcorn, Get Your Peanuts, Get Your Email Open Rates
Even though last year was rough for my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, I have more hope for them this opening day. With the changes in our bullpen and our core lineup being healthy, I am optimistic that the Tigers will win the division and have a solid chance at reaching the World Series. As […]
3 Technical Tricks to Empower Your Email Marketing Campaigns
I read and process email all day. Keeping my inbox manageable is a daily struggle. I read almost every email – quickly deleting emails I don’t need, filing emails I may need later and responding to emails that need my input. My inbox often dictates my schedule and stomps all over my carefully planned to-do […]
