One of the techniques that have evolved out of the rise of data analysis is hyper-targeting. Arriving on the marketing scene more than a decade ago in the form of Facebook ads and website pop-ups, hyper-targeting relies on a combination of personal profiles, buying history, and demographic data to create focused offers.

To achieve this level of marketing requires more than a mail merge, it requires automation. In this case, smart automation, which is exactly what it sounds like. Smart automation can process and match data at incredible speeds, allowing companies to respond to events and interactions quickly. Leveraging smart automation properly can create automated intelligent mail – or smart mail. So, how does it work?

There are several ways to take advantage of hyper-targeting techniques. It all starts with understanding what types of data are available, what kinds of data are legal to leverage, and what data is valuable when it comes to augmenting customer profiles. The goal is to leverage existing knowledge, augment it with profiling technology that can build a more focused picture of the campaign target, and create content that will be overwhelmingly intriguing.

Begin with the basics because the principle of direct mail marketing has not changed. Marketers send personalized mail pieces intended to connect with the right reader. With a bit more work and applied technology, they can have a much better picture of exactly who this ideal reader is. Consider this scenario: Companies with a website should have data that matches customers to their website traffic, so they can better connect customers to exactly which products they seem interested in.

By understanding exactly who is on the website and, more importantly, exactly which products they are interacting with, the marketing can make meaningful connections far more easily. Link that data to customer buying profiles and it is possible to create generic personas that build pictures of how customers with similar buying profiles behave and apply them to prospects so that prospecting campaigns focus on more relevant wants and needs in the target mailing group. In short, smart mail usage can transform website visitors into physical location visitors. When marketers connect devices to identities and can better understand consumer behavior and buying triggers, they have fully harnessed the power of smart automation.

Why Mail is the Best Medium

Mail is alive and well, and more importantly, effective. Numerous Keypoint Intelligence studies have shown that mail is part of the customer preference profile for every age group. Younger generations, including Millennials and Generation Z, respond to direct mail. The key is personalization. Based on Keypoint’s research from a 2018 consumer marketing survey, 52% of respondents stated they spent more time reviewing printed direct mail that was personalized and relevant to them.

If marketers maximize this channel, the odds are their response results will improve. Remember, only 39% of respondents in North America receive well-focused direct mail frequently, despite efforts from organizations like the USPS to convey the value of hyper-targeted direct mail pieces. Do not get caught up in the myths regarding mail usage and old habits. To be most effective, marketers must connect the physical and digital channels to achieve maximum effectiveness. Direct mail is effective, especially when it has been hyper-targeted to appeal to the user. Digital data collection makes it easier to find out who these users are. Bringing the two together, engaging with the data to find the right audience, can lead to smart mail – an AI-enabled future that will make direct mail marketing campaigns more effective at driving sales and engaging with the right audience.

The post It’s Not a Myth, Hyper-Targeting in Direct Mail Can Improve Sales appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

The Elements of Successful Retail Marketing

While the Internet has pushed technological boundaries, print has not remained stagnant. Thanks to digital printing innovations, vendors can supply marketers with numerous short-run batches of items like table tents, posters, aisle banners, channel strips, floor graphics, window clings, and even specialized floor displays—and all of this matters in the retail shopping experience!

Signage that provides direction and maximizes convenience should not be overlooked. When employee availability is at a premium, retail merchandising can often also serve to be instructional providing consumers with much needed details to inform purchase making decisions. According to The Balance, people prefer brick-and-mortar shopping precisely because it can be easier to find things and have positive interactions.

Retail firms may feel intimidated by the data collection capabilities of online megastores, but their own forms of information gathering are still invaluable. For example, in-store signage that reflects known preferences (e.g., popular brands/price points) can be quite effective.

Grow Your Business Through Print

Brands always need a vibrant array of on-premises retail marketing solutions to stand out among the clutter and sell their products. This is where a strategic partner makes the difference. The best print partners have a variety of machines to meet their clients’ distinct needs from digital, offset and large format printers to die-cutters and other finishing tools. This cutting-edge equipment is capable of creating diverse marketing solutions that can help brick-and-mortar retailers grow. Retailers can drive traffic into their stores by:

• Increasing engagement and giving online shoppers a reason to visit.
• Focusing on delivering an omni-channel shopping experience.
• Incorporating large format signage to drive point-of-sale purchases.

With the digital and physical worlds only becoming more connected over time, retailers should continue nurturing their on-premises marketing. These efforts should be informed by digital data collection and reflect changing consumer expectations.

The post Shopper Marketing: Using the Retail Space Effectively appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

Our ancestors were on to something with major staying power – research shows that color is capable of boosting brand recognition by 80%. Not only that, but by choosing specific colors for your designs, you can evoke a certain kind of feeling from passerby. Brands use color to convey a personality or set of values–speaking clearly with a simple shade of red or blue. For example, seeing a green logo in the grocery store conjures up the sense that this brand is health-centric. There are many meanings behind each color, so it’s essential to use colors that align with the feelings and values you want your brand to represent.

Not only can color be used for subconscious meanings, it can be used as an emphatic design element. It is a silent salesperson calling-out what is important, enhancing the messaging or directing a person’s attention. A carefully considered color coupled with relevant and targeted messaging in a crowded environment accomplishes more than any plain sentence ever could. Further, enhancing print communications with color increases brand effectiveness as well as the perceived value of your marketing collateral, creating more for your buck with a simple splash of sea foam green.

The power of color calls for the critical measure of quality control. An inaccurate hue or subtle shift in shade could spell disaster for your brand. The slightest flaw may create a set of colors that are slightly off, resulting in a domino-effect that could negatively affect the impact of your campaign. A high-quality printer will have daily procedures for quality control, calibrating color across a myriad of substrates, ensuring your brand colors are true.

So, when you consider your next marketing venture, play around with some color – who knows what you may stumble upon?

The post Impactful Marketing with Color appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

Personalization Begins with Analytics

To effectively tailor communication methods, businesses must understand their customers’ demographics. Factors like gender, household income, and attitude toward technology can play a major role in identifying ideal communication channels. For example, tech-savvy early adopters are much more likely to prefer digital communications than people without smartphones. Furthermore, response rates increase when relevant information is delivered in a way that doesn’t feel like spam. Consider the following statistics:

• According to research from Experian, e-mails with personalized headings and subject lines are 26% more likely to opened.
• Businesswire concluded that location-specific digital campaign ads are 20 times more effective than traditional advertisements.

Captivating with Personalization

Customized content is essential. It enables a message to transcend the persistent monsoon of information.  Data from the Radicati Group found that the average employee sends and receives roughly 121 e-mails per day. Additionally, Branding Bricks research indicates that the average person spends more time online than with all other media outlets combined. Businesses that track behaviors and learn individual preferences gain success across all channels by targeting audiences with relevant messages. In addition to being more cost-effective than the standard “spray-and-pray” approach, delivering appropriate communications that capture consumers’ attention fosters engagement and loyalty.

The post Physical vs. Digital: How to Choose appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

Image Source: USPS

Adding Supplemental Content to Mailing Campaigns

Can mailers take advantage of Informed Delivery, too? Yes! When the USPS created Informed Delivery, one of its primary goals was to merge the world of physical mail with the digital landscape. Mailers can extend their physical mail items with custom images and external website links. This supplemental content can then be accessed through the user interface options of Informed Delivery, including e-mail and mobile apps. Using a single mailer ID (MID) encased within an intelligent mail barcode (IMB), mailers can craft and direct multiple campaigns with every single piece of hardcopy mail they send.

Informed Delivery features open the door to increased engagement. Recipients can interact with brand offers via direct mail, increasing its value and allowing the mailer to begin communicating before the mail item has even reached the mailbox. According to data collected by the USPS, should the interaction prompt an e-mail, 60% of that e-mail on average will be opened and engaged with on a daily basis. If others within that same household are also part of the Informed Delivery service, the mailer can communicate to them, too—regardless of whether their name was included on the envelope.

Informed Delivery also enables the creation of elaborate multi-channel marketing campaigns with pieces of physical mail while providing better tracking data. Communicating companies know whether a mail recipient has engaged with their communications as well as how the recipient engaged with them.

By leveraging Informed Delivery, marketers can create multiple, measurable digital interactions from a single physical touch point, optimize physical mail, and increase its return on investment without tying up significant resources.

The post Getting the Most from Informed Delivery by USPS appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

How Can Marketers Sell Sustainability?

Communicating the message of environmental sustainability to consumers must begin in the marketing stage. Marketers should highlight each eco-friendly process used during a product’s lifecycle. For instance, a business that uses digital printing can highlight the benefits of aqueous inks, which produce less waste as a byproduct during printing. Marketers can also highlight digital printing’s ability to create short, customized runs, which reduces their carbon footprint with less waste byproduct.

Research shows that younger generations appreciate direct mail, however, focusing on more sustainable practices can increase its effectiveness further. For example, if organizations use only recycled paper to communicate with their audience and inform them of these efforts, Generation Z consumers will likely be more open to receiving additional mail-based customer communications.

An organization’s best bet is to directly state a sustainability objective whenever possible. If the cardboard used in a product’s packaging is made from recycled materials, this information should be highlighted with a label or certification. Verification of these practices should be handled by an independent and trusted third party. For example, consider the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a non-profit, independent organization that maintains standards designed to enforce eco-friendly practices. By gaining endorsements from a neutral and well-known party, businesses can effectively show their consumers just how much they care for the environment.

Generation Z consumers are coming of age during a time when the environmental future of the planet is uncertain and highly publicized, so they are concerned about sustainability—and they want the brands they interact with to care about it too! Marketers can make their offerings more attractive to this age group by clearly demonstrating how their firms are practicing and prioritizing sustainability. As we move into the future, businesses can remain relevant among younger consumers by positioning themselves as responsible stewards that are truly concerned about maintaining a sustainable business space.

If your business is interested in stepping into the sustainable-oriented realm, please contact us at Tukaiz. We have years of experience in producing and working with recyclable materials and can help you and your organization shift into an environmentally friendly printing model.

The post Using Sustainability to Grow Your Gen Z Audience appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

You should also tie-in loyalty programs to drive customer retention. Studies show those restaurants that tailor their offerings to match customer needs and promote customer loyalty gives customers a more personal experience. More adventurous restaurants are incorporating contests, event previews, and interactive games into their menus as well. National chains alter menus to reflect significant events in each operating region and local food choices.

Include promotions on the menu and link those to table tents, rack cards, window decals, and other signage throughout the restaurant to deliver consistent and relevant messaging to customers. Consider campaigns that encourage social media engagement or games to entertain patrons (or keep the kids occupied). Today’s diners aren’t looking for just a meal, but an experience.

Taking advantage of frequent menu updates isn’t as expensive as you’d think. Technology has increased the affordability and sustainability of shorter runs, reduced the cost of frequent printing, and helped enhance the dining experience. When it comes to your menus, don’t be afraid to change things up to find what works best for your restaurant. It will take time to find a winning formula, but hopefully, this guide can help you find what can boost your sales.

The post Profiting with Menus: Are You Leaving Money on the Table? appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

The digital revolution has opened up many new opportunities for visibility. Because nearly everyone in the US has Internet access, businesses can conceivably use it to reach all viable prospects. At the same time, however, there is a new medium in play—search engines. To truly excel at marketing in the digital age, businesses must master the art of search engine optimization (SEO).

Visibility is Paramount

The companies that perform best in today’s environment are easily found and seen by their potential consumer base. Since the vast majority of Internet users navigate the web through search engines like Google and Bing, businesses must ensure that their websites rank highly in this medium.

Obviously, Google is currently winning the search engine war. It has become so popular that it has become a verb—many users find information by “googling” it. For businesses that are interested in prioritizing a single search engine, Google is the obvious choice because it has software controlling the order in which sites rank in its search engine results pages (SERPs).

Although the software is constantly changing, here are a few basic rules to help achieve visibility on Google:

• Secure your webpage. Google is stringent about the safety of its users, so the presence of detected or suspected spam or malware is a surefire method to be ignored (or flagged) in its search results. A general rule of thumb—if it looks like spam in an e-mail (i.e., containing ALL CAPS or numerous spelling errors), it will appear problematic to Google.
• Optimize your webpage for mobile. Google understands that its users search via an array of devices, so it prioritizes websites that work well across multiple hardware formats.
• Use niche keywords. Businesses with an incredible amount of resources fight over generic terms and phrases. Getting specific can separate your webpage from the competition and place it at the top of numerous search results.
• Keep the content coming. Search engines like Google prioritize websites that are frequently updated to ensure that their users find relevant information.
• Ensure that the content is keyword-optimized.

The Importance of Scalable Organic Growing

For some companies, the idea of prioritizing an SEO presence may seem like overkill. After all, a firm with great salespeople and a strong tradeshow presence might feel like it is already drawing the intended audience to its website. Unless the organization is working in an incredibly niche market, though, there are always new clients to be had—and some of them may be invisible to the firm until they make first contact!

With an optimized website, traffic—even visitors with no prior meetings/introductions—can reliably find an organization’s information, products, and preferred method of contact. This will cause traffic at the website to grow at a scale that is not possible with traditional sales and human presence alone. This scalable organic growth is vital for fostering sales, and can help mitigate company situations that might otherwise be losses.

SEO marketing is the way of the future in today’s digital landscape. All traffic flows through search engines, and the best way to be seen on the road is with a highway billboard, figuratively speaking. Companies that can’t compete will not be seen, and (to keep the highway analogy going) will likely end up on lesser-traveled paths far away from the main circuit.

The post How SEO Fuels Marketing in the Digital Age appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

1. Internet of Things

The Internet of Things involves having products connected and “speaking” to each other. For example, you can have a refrigerator that monitors the amount of milk you have and, when running low, will order you a fresh gallon. Appliances can work together through software that connects them and will allow you to control them via your phone or through voice commands. As the year goes on, you’ll see more and more smart technologies being released and implemented into everyday products, making everything more accessible and, strangely enough, easier to use than ever before. This year will be a big era for smart appliances and a bigger use of IoT.

2. Augmented Reality

AR became relevant when Pokémon Go was first released in 2016. Since then, there has been an explosion of its use. Brands have created digital experiences that people can interact with from their homes. For example, IKEA created an app that lets you see what furniture would look like in your place. A person can shop from their couch and immediately see what coffee table would compliment the love seat they’re in without having to get up! Look for more brands implementing AR into their marketing in the upcoming year. We’ve also recently posted an article about AR in a previous Tuesdays With Tukaiz article if you’re interested in further reading!

3. Blockchain

Blockchain, a system of algorithms and records that is the foundation for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is being used for more than just digital cash. With more companies adopting this technology, blockchain will change how brands and consumers interact, allowing for safer and easier transactions across the board. Walmart will be implementing Bitcoin’s underlying tech into the farm-to-market-monitoring of vegetables and other produce, while some firms on Wall Street are rolling out programs to help make stock trading more secure (e.g., Bakkt, Fidelity). 2019 is the year blockchain becomes your dad’s tech.

4. Mobile First

3.7 billion people do their browsing on their smartphones. With Internet speeds becoming faster, 5G around the corner, and better phones coming out, that number is only going to increase. If your content doesn’t look good on a mobile device, you won’t be able to bring consumers in and engage with your company as effectively. Follow the principles of responsive web design so that, whatever size screen a person uses, your website and content looks great, whether on a massive desktop monitor or a palm-fitting iPhone 5c. Examples of great mobile websites can be found here.

5. Faster Loading Times / Single-Page / AMP

In the same vein as Mobile First, 40% of people give up on websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Having a shorter loading time will make sure people are at least seeing your website. There are several ways to accomplish this, ranging from single-page (examples) to AMP. Whatever method you choose, keep in mind that Google now ranks websites on speed among other criteria. So, this year will call for some rebuilding or maintenance across the web to stay competitive.

6. Chat-bots With Artificial Intelligence

AI has seen some big leaps forward with self-driving cars, AI-infused air conditioners, and, with wide adoption, chat-bots. Brands are using chat-bots to create a less expensive customer service option. They also have built opportunities to interact with characters or offer solutions in aspects outside of product-related issues, such as recommending books on Facebook Messenger or Starbucks’ Barista. As AI becomes more advanced, you’ll start to notice less and less whether you’re talking to another person online, or a high-functioning chat-bot.

2019 will move even faster than last year in its technological advancements, as we see 5G begin its rollout, self-driving cars getting the kinks out, and humanity’s continued exposure to the digital world merging with the physical. Tukaiz will be prepared for the rising advances, as our world quickly becomes less like the Flintstones and more like the Jetsons; make sure you are, too.

Have a wonderful 2019 everyone!

The post 6 Technology Trends Tukaiz is Watching in 2019 appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.

Tukaiz created 3D replicas of the following Chicago icons:

• John Hancock
• Willis Tower
• Marina City
• Smurfit Building
• Aon Building
• Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
• Picasso Sculpture
• L Tracks and Trains

The exhibit is open from now until January 5th with varying holiday hours throughout the season. Visit The Walnut Room and check out our Chicago skyline as well as the other extravagant decorations on display!

Interested in this kind of environmental design? Contact us at Tukaiz.com and we would be happy to work with you on making your space look as special as this one!

Merry Christmas from Tukaiz!

The post Tukaiz and Macy’s Build on a Chicago Holiday Tradition appeared first on Tukaiz Marketing.