Press Release - July 2009
'We've been pleasantly surprised by the high turn out, particularly in the poor economic climate. But it seems that regardless of the current lack of stability, marketers are as keen as ever to keep informed, to share insight, to learn and, probably most importantly, to find a way of communicating with the customers more intelligently and in a more engaging way than their competitors” said Chris James, Director at Lorien Unique.
The half-day seminar sessions are targeted separately at agencies or clients with the main purpose of explaining and demonstrating how dynamic content marketing (more commonly known as variable data publishing) can help organisations maximise their data and insight to improve the impact, relevance and effectiveness of their direct marketing campaigns.
Chris Mott, Head of Marketing at Lorien Unique said ‘We’ve run two seminars so far, one for agencies and one for clients, and the attendance has exceeded our expectations with almost 60 of our existing customers and new prospects taking the time out of their day to attend.
So, we're repeating them again in September and we'll also run follow up sessions at the beginning of December.”
The half day programme features four sessions, which start with a look at the state of the direct marketing industry before moving on to what dynamic content marketing is and how it can help marketers and their agencies to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects. They then go on to look at how to plan a dynamic content marketing campaign, the importance of data, and then case study examples demonstrate the success it can deliver with response rates in excess of 45% in some instances.
As Marketing Manager of The International Direct Marketing Fair, Mott knows what he is talking about when it comes to running events but even he was surprised by the success.
“Yes, I was delighted with the turn out. But, if you get the content right and target the right people at the right time then you always give yourself the best possible chance of success.
And dynamic content marketing is really breathing a new lease of life in to direct marketing. The technology has quickly evolved over the last few years and now allows marketers to realise the direct marketing mantra of right message, to the right person at the right time or as we like to say, any message, any person, any time.
And what these seminars provide is an educational forum to showcase, demonstrate and discuss dynamic content marketing and how it can help organisations to improve the impact and effectiveness of their campaigns”.
During the first session, titled 'Innovation in Direct Marketing', James questions whether or not the direct marketing industry has really evolved much over the last 25-years and even suggests that it has regressed.
To emphasise the point, James compares how far other industry sectors have developed during the same time period against direct marketing, whose greatest development is often cited as being email marketing. However, he argues that email marketing is simply another channel that many marketers are continually abusing in much the same way that direct mail has been abused over the years with increasing quantities, ever decreasing response rates and a poor and often lazy use of data.
He states 'I'm still amazed and disappointed at the quality and care that has been taken, or not as the case tends to be, of the direct marketing I receive daily through my letterbox, inbox and online. In doing the research for the seminars, I discovered campaigns from 25-years ago that, putting creative to one side and simply looking at the content and approach, use data and relevant content in a much more intelligent way than their counterparts today. Where big brands, with big budgets, are still sending communications with 'Dear Occupier', Dear Sir/Madam', and failing to recognise me as a previous customer and the products/services I purchased. Subsequently, they end up in the bin or being used in my presentations.”
However, this needn't be the case he states. “The technology is now available and being used to send one-to-one communications, in print, email, mobile and online. So, there really isn't an excuse for non-targeted and non-personalised direct marketing anymore. And the sooner best practice becomes common practice, the quicker businesses will prosper, the better the industry will be perceived and the faster we'll reduce our impact on the environment.”
For more information about how Lorien Unique can help you to improve your response rates, please contact:
Tel: +44 (0)8703 344400
Email: enquiries@lorienunique.com
Alternatively, click here and complete our 'Find out for yourself' enquiry form and we will contact you.