Greatest Bits, Vol. II: Hidden Treasures in our Marketing Blogs In the three years that I’ve been a part of JHL, I’ve been contributing a quarterly blog post with content specific to our JHL Advance customers. It’s usually been some combination of my past experiences in annual giving, current practices and upcoming trends in direct...
Best Practices for Using Catalogs in Direct-Mail Campaigns As digital marketing costs increase, privacy and copyright issues cloud AI’s future, and placement concerns dog digital advertising, retailers are turning back to catalogs. Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Ikea – and even digital natives like Wayfair and Amazon – have rediscovered the power of catalogs to engage customers and...
An Eye on Design: Helping Your Graphic Designer Create the Direct Mail Piece You Need Special thank you to the following for their contributions: Holly Champagne, a 35-year graphic design professional and owner of Champagne Creative which has been recognized locally, regionally and nationally for their work, including national first place recognition for their...
Scheduling Your Direct-Mail Campaign For Maximum Impact: 7 Tips We were talking to a product manager the other day who has to coordinate 124 product releases every year – that’s more than ten per month! That seems like a lot, but face it – everyone in marketing is slammed right now. There’s more to do, more to...
Best Practices For Direct Mail 2023 And Beyond If you wrote a standard, garden-variety blog about best practices in direct mail, it would tell you things you already know: focus on your target audience, include a call to action, use readable fonts and colors, and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with these recommendations other than...
Leveraging Direct Mail to Market Your Giving Days and End of Year Appeals When it comes to fundraising, the term “annual giving” is assigned to any gift amount that isn’t considered a major gift. Depending on who you ask, the term itself has different meanings: To a donor, “annual” could be that one-time gift that...
AI and direct mail Every marketer is talking or thinking about artificial intelligence – and if they’re not fretting over whether it’s coming for their job they’re thinking up different ways to use it. For instance, the agency Zappi conducted an experiment where they let AI create the packaging and product descriptions for seven trendy new...
Using Direct Mail to Simplify the Donor Experience and Drive Online Giving The advent and growth of cellular technology, mobile devices and wireless internet has created a population that is continuously logged in. It seems that most of what we do – shopping, gaming, dining, entertainment – is literally at our fingertips. Many decisions made...
The QR-Code Primer, Part 2: The Best Ways Of Using QR Codes In Direct Mail In our last blog we talked about why some marketers don’t use QR codes, and implicitly, why they should. This time we’re looking at effective ways of using QR codes in a direct-mail context to improve the stickiness and impact...
Extending Your Brand’s Shelf Life: Placing a Premium in your Direct Mail Have you ever grabbed a free sample while shopping at a grocery store? Or walked through an exhibit hall and snatched some tchotchkes from an exhibitor? Or binge-watched an entire series on a streaming service during a free trial period? People like free...