Performance Marketing Insights Our blog, Speaking Direct, delivers info on the latest direct marketing news, omnichannel marketing strategies, creative marketing ideas, direct mail marketing tips, postal issues, and more. Avoid Another Mea Culpa with These Tips for Using Common Latin Phrases info Posted August 21, 2019 by Ashley Leone in Creative Latin is a dead language. Or dead-ish. Detective Amy Santiago states in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that “it’s just taking a long nap,” which in a way, seems more accurate. There are many reasons people continue to study Latin, despite the fact that no one really speaks it [...] + Read More Reading vs. Scanning: Sidebars Can Engage Any Kind of Mail Recipient info Posted August 20, 2019 by Marcus Johnson in Strategy and Analysis Are you a reader or a scanner? The world is full of both. That matters to those of us who include direct mail and direct response advertising as part of our marketing mix. If we don’t create direct mail designs that account for both of those information intake preferences, we risk losing a big chunk of our audience and their potential to respond. + Read More Help Us Say Adieu to (Most Of) the Summer 2019 IWCO Direct Interns info Posted August 16, 2019 by Ashley Luehmann in Careers Another year in the books that the interns didn’t burn down IWCO Direct. I think I can speak for the group when I say it was an amazing summer full of learning. Below are some final words from both the IWCO Direct interns and their supervisors, reflecting on the past three months [...] + Read More Direct Marketing: The (Really) Good, the (Not So) Bad and the (Potentially Very) Ugly info Posted August 14, 2019 by Debora Haskel in Strategy and Analysis What does the Clint Eastwood classic have to do with direct marketing? When APTech proposed the movie title as a topic for APTech’s PRINT Innovation Exchange, my mind immediately went to the concept of targeting as the Good, Bad, and Ugly of today’s direct marketing. Whistle the theme song as I explain why. + Read More How the IWCO Direct 1to1 AI Engine Improves Message Development and Campaign Performance info Posted August 13, 2019 by David Klempke, PMP in Dynamic Content Management My introduction to AI came through sci-fi novels and movies. Arthur C. Clarke‘s Space Odyssey series is particularly notable for bringing AI to the screen in the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL (a Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a sentient computer (or artificial general intelligence) that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship’s astronaut crew [...] + Read More The Intersection of Purpose and Passion: Takeaways from Digital Summit Philadelphia 2019 info Posted August 9, 2019 by Michelle Peel in Announcements I had the privilege of attending Digital Summit Philadelphia held July 24-25 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. More than 1,300 digital marketers, creative directors, marketing managers/directors, email and social media marketers, and marketing communications professionals attended its 45+ “in-depth, trend-forward digital marketing sessions" [...] + Read More “Stop Worrying About Big Numbers:” Seth Godin on Getting Specific with Marketing Personalization info Posted August 7, 2019 by Ashley Luehmann in Direct Marketing Trends At this point in my dating career, I feel like I need to rent a billboard on a major highway and throw my phone number up there. Marketers have the same concern when promoting their businesses—why don't they see ROI on their ad investments? The missing link is having a target market to narrow your audience from the big, loud world down [...] + Read More What We Learned at Recent Continuous Improvement Workshops info Posted August 6, 2019 by Meg Hanaman in Announcements The Manufacturers Alliance is an association that provides a platform for manufacturers to come together for training, education, best practice sharing, and exchanging industry ideas. IWCO Direct has been a member for many years, participating in numerous seminars and workshops [...] + Read More Plastic Straws Are Slowly Going Extinct… Good! info Posted August 2, 2019 by Blake Lewko in Sustainability As we bring our week-long look at sustainability to an end, I wanted to touch on a very big movement sweeping the nation and also the world: the extinction of plastic straws [...] + Read More Misconceptions About Paper and Print info Posted July 31, 2019 by Blake Lewko in Sustainability Paper dates back thousands of years. The paper we know today was created in 105AD by a man named Ts’ai Lun in China. Since the early 2000s, the rise of smartphones and other smart devices has made people question the sustainability of paper-based communications, while largely giving digital media a pass [...] + Read More Pages: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124Load More Articles
Avoid Another Mea Culpa with These Tips for Using Common Latin Phrases info Posted August 21, 2019 by Ashley Leone in Creative Latin is a dead language. Or dead-ish. Detective Amy Santiago states in an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine that “it’s just taking a long nap,” which in a way, seems more accurate. There are many reasons people continue to study Latin, despite the fact that no one really speaks it [...] + Read More
Reading vs. Scanning: Sidebars Can Engage Any Kind of Mail Recipient info Posted August 20, 2019 by Marcus Johnson in Strategy and Analysis Are you a reader or a scanner? The world is full of both. That matters to those of us who include direct mail and direct response advertising as part of our marketing mix. If we don’t create direct mail designs that account for both of those information intake preferences, we risk losing a big chunk of our audience and their potential to respond. + Read More
Help Us Say Adieu to (Most Of) the Summer 2019 IWCO Direct Interns info Posted August 16, 2019 by Ashley Luehmann in Careers Another year in the books that the interns didn’t burn down IWCO Direct. I think I can speak for the group when I say it was an amazing summer full of learning. Below are some final words from both the IWCO Direct interns and their supervisors, reflecting on the past three months [...] + Read More
Direct Marketing: The (Really) Good, the (Not So) Bad and the (Potentially Very) Ugly info Posted August 14, 2019 by Debora Haskel in Strategy and Analysis What does the Clint Eastwood classic have to do with direct marketing? When APTech proposed the movie title as a topic for APTech’s PRINT Innovation Exchange, my mind immediately went to the concept of targeting as the Good, Bad, and Ugly of today’s direct marketing. Whistle the theme song as I explain why. + Read More
How the IWCO Direct 1to1 AI Engine Improves Message Development and Campaign Performance info Posted August 13, 2019 by David Klempke, PMP in Dynamic Content Management My introduction to AI came through sci-fi novels and movies. Arthur C. Clarke‘s Space Odyssey series is particularly notable for bringing AI to the screen in the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL (a Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is a sentient computer (or artificial general intelligence) that controls the systems of the Discovery One spacecraft and interacts with the ship’s astronaut crew [...] + Read More
The Intersection of Purpose and Passion: Takeaways from Digital Summit Philadelphia 2019 info Posted August 9, 2019 by Michelle Peel in Announcements I had the privilege of attending Digital Summit Philadelphia held July 24-25 at the Philadelphia Convention Center. More than 1,300 digital marketers, creative directors, marketing managers/directors, email and social media marketers, and marketing communications professionals attended its 45+ “in-depth, trend-forward digital marketing sessions" [...] + Read More
“Stop Worrying About Big Numbers:” Seth Godin on Getting Specific with Marketing Personalization info Posted August 7, 2019 by Ashley Luehmann in Direct Marketing Trends At this point in my dating career, I feel like I need to rent a billboard on a major highway and throw my phone number up there. Marketers have the same concern when promoting their businesses—why don't they see ROI on their ad investments? The missing link is having a target market to narrow your audience from the big, loud world down [...] + Read More
What We Learned at Recent Continuous Improvement Workshops info Posted August 6, 2019 by Meg Hanaman in Announcements The Manufacturers Alliance is an association that provides a platform for manufacturers to come together for training, education, best practice sharing, and exchanging industry ideas. IWCO Direct has been a member for many years, participating in numerous seminars and workshops [...] + Read More
Plastic Straws Are Slowly Going Extinct… Good! info Posted August 2, 2019 by Blake Lewko in Sustainability As we bring our week-long look at sustainability to an end, I wanted to touch on a very big movement sweeping the nation and also the world: the extinction of plastic straws [...] + Read More
Misconceptions About Paper and Print info Posted July 31, 2019 by Blake Lewko in Sustainability Paper dates back thousands of years. The paper we know today was created in 105AD by a man named Ts’ai Lun in China. Since the early 2000s, the rise of smartphones and other smart devices has made people question the sustainability of paper-based communications, while largely giving digital media a pass [...] + Read More