COVID-19
Blog Tag
Resiliency is a Key Characteristic of Strong Business Continuity Plans
Are we close to living in a post COVID world? It doesn’t feel like we are there quite yet. When shutdowns in the U.S. began in early 2020, it felt like some temporary, rarely thought-about contingency plan that needed to be enacted for a short while before the world went back to normal. Who could […]
After the Pandemic, Customer Journey Maps Are More Important Than Ever
At IWCO Direct, our number one priority in building successful omnichannel marketing campaigns is to understand our clients’ business. Not just what our clients’ needs might be from a brand and corporate standpoint, but truly, what are the needs of their buyers. We have a rigorous approach to our campaign planning that involves understanding the […]
Four Ways Pandemic BC/DR Planning Helped Us Get Back to Basics
If your business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan was mature enough before 2020, you had probably found a good cadence of maintenance updates. Reviewing, updating, and refining your BC/DR plan to be ready for action likely included closing some gaps from exercises and plan testing, updating roles and responsibilities due to employee changes, and […]
2020 Year-End Postal Issues Update
As one of the most challenging years in recent memory draws to a close, we wanted our final postal issues update of the year to reflect on what has been a bumpy year for the U.S. Postal Service and take a look at what may be ahead in the coming year.
Holiday Shopping Trends Reshape Retail Direct Marketing Efforts During the Pandemic
Before we explore the latest holiday shopping trends, I want to wish our readers and subscribers a safe and healthy holiday season! The holidays are a special time for traditions—decorating, baking, gift giving, and—my favorite tradition—shopping. For my annual shopping trip, I gathered my shopping list, my direct mail and email ads and coupons, and […]
Are Critical Communications Part of Your Disaster Recovery Plan?
This year has proved to be stressful and challenging for most businesses, and Mail-Gard is no exception. When the COVID-19 pandemic began this spring, we had the challenge of protecting our employees and finding ways to safely work together while also supporting our clients with their own challenges caused by COVID-19. We’ve all discovered a […]
Match Your Holiday Marketing Efforts to the Moment
Every year around Halloween, the Leone family gets together for Spooky Dinner. It all stems from past Halloweens when the Leone children were living at home and ate my mom’s halloweenies (pigs in a blanket) before trick-or-treating. My parents decorate their house and everyone arrives in costumes and brings a Halloween themed dish to share. […]
How Verticals Have Adjusted Marketing Approaches to COVID-19
We’ve been analyzing how various verticals have adjusted their marketing approaches to COVID-19 and the impact on direct mail volumes. When the Winterberry Group released “The Outlook for Data Driven Advertising and Marketing 2020” in January, they projected direct mail to increase 0.6% and digital channels to increase an average of 14.5%. Then the COVID-19 […]
A Discussion of Direct Marketing Trends with the AMA Southern Connecticut
I recently participated in a virtual panel for American Marketing Association’s southern Connecticut chapter on direct marketing trends titled "An Industry Reset: The Resurgence of Integrated Marketing and Direct Mail.” There were some 60 marketers from the greater New York area in attendance who had great questions for me and the other two direct and digital marketers on the panel. Here are a few of those questions and a summary of some of my responses:
Pandemic Lessons for Disaster Recovery Plans
It’s hard to believe that more than six months have passed since we had our first COVID-19 preparedness meeting. Clients began reaching out to Mail-Gard about their disaster recovery plans in late February after officials from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes […]
