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Fundraising Preference Service Update – what it means for your charity

By |2022-04-27T08:59:59+00:00April 26th, 2022|

We were pleased to read about the recent changes made to the Fundraising Preference Service. Whilst some charities might be disheartened by them – we believe they are a good thing and we’ll explain why. But first. What’s changed? People can now request that up to 10 charities stop sending them direct marketing in one go through the FPS online. The previous maximum people could suppress was three charities in one online transaction. However, people can nominate up to 20 charities by contacting the FPS via telephone. It has also been made easier for charities to see if a suppression request has been made on behalf of someone else, with the aim of helping to indicate quickly whether a potentially [...]

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Pureprint Lean DM Case Study

By |2022-04-22T13:50:48+00:00April 13th, 2022|

Several of our customers have adopted a Lean approach to advertising mail production. For example, world class print and marketing services business, Pureprint, who have embedded our Lean methodology into the heart of their approach to mail. In simple terms, Lean DM is about eradicating waste from a mail marketing campaign.  Not just the physical materials involved in mail production, but the entire process of creating advertising mail. Too many businesses are blissfully throwing money away by producing items of mail, which will never result in a desired outcome. Why would you produce and mail an item which had zero chance of success? Possibly worse than this, the item itself could deliver a negative outcome, which could damage a brand’s [...]

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The Huge Home Mover Opportunity 

By |2022-04-11T09:53:55+00:00April 11th, 2022|

Home mover monitoring is about ensuring mail reaches its intended recipient when they move house. The property market in the UK continues to boom as a result of the Chancellor’s Stamp Duty holiday introduced after lockdown 1. Despite the tax break coming to an end in September 2021, there hasn’t been any let up in demand for relocation. Home movers are at the highest they have ever been. The reality is that when we move house, most of us don’t inform everyone that sends us mail. The challenge for marketers is to stop the hundreds or sometimes thousands of pounds they spent capturing that prospect or customer from disappearing when they move home. A Marketing No-Brainer Data decay from home [...]

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Goneaway & Deceased Suppression

By |2022-04-11T09:53:45+00:00April 11th, 2022|

The pandemic has had a devastating impact on mortality rates around the world. In the UK, according to CMI, the rise in deaths during 2020 and 2021 is the worst since World War II with over 130,000 additional deaths per year. In addition around 1.5 million people move house each year. This level of constant change can lead to data decaying at rates of over 30% per year for some organisations. The Office of National Statistics estimate up to 110 items of mail can be sent to the deceased in the 12 months after their death. For businesses sending mail to people that have passed away or moved house is more than just a waste of printing and postage costs. [...]

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Lean DM – Focus on Intelligent Deduplication

By |2022-04-11T09:53:33+00:00April 11th, 2022|

In today’s more sustainably conscious world receiving the same piece of mail multiple times is not a good look for brands. Yet this is something that has happened to all of us on occasion. Maybe we signed up to a service twice or made two frequent purchases from a website or donated to a charity over the phone and also by post. Regardless of the reason, it feels like a waste and as a consumer you know somewhere down the line you and the environment are paying for that waste. Failure to effectively remove duplicates from a mailing file can also have greater consequences. One high profile charity donor received more than 10 duplicate appeal packs and immediately and publicly [...]

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Name & Address Quality

By |2022-04-11T09:53:21+00:00April 11th, 2022|

Have you ever received a piece of mail, taken a glance at the address block and had to double take? Something doesn’t look quite right. A company asking you to spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds has just written to you as Dr Rowen Wilson rather than Dr Rowan Wilson. Although deep down you know this is most likely an administration error, you can’t help but feel a little slighted. It also begs the question ‘if they can’t even get my name right, what is the experience going to be like dealing with them if I became a customer?’. 70% of consumers expect their data to be right every time. DataIQ – GDPR Identifying its impact on marketers and [...]

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2 Trends to Grow Your Direct Mail Business

By |2022-04-11T09:53:01+00:00April 11th, 2022|

What’s Going on in Direct Mail?  Direct Mail experienced a significant resurgence of interest from brands over the pandemic. Why? Because let’s face it, it works. People were stuck at home for months on end, and the excitement of receiving something, anything, through the letterbox broke up the monotony of lockdown. And as a result, consumers fell back in love with the mail. In fact, so much so, that it is now the most trusted form of communication. It’s not surprising therefore, that engagement is up. The latest JICMAIL stats show that Direct Mail frequency of interaction has increased to 4.55. Most notably this uplift has been driven by younger audiences for Direct Mail, with 25-34, 35-44 and 45-54 year [...]

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A note of thanks to Judith Donovan!

By |2022-04-06T10:16:26+00:00April 6th, 2022|

This week it was announced that industry legend, Judith Donovan, is stepping down from chairing the Strategic Mail Partnership (SMP), after 14 years at the helm. We wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks! Judith has been a massively influential figure in the industry and has been responsible for promoting and protecting the direct mail industry in many guises including running her own DM agency, to chairing the DMA. The SMP is the UK body which represents mailing and printing houses which now over 150 members. She has been credited for bringing unity to the industry by encouraging collaboration amongst mail operators. It has been announced that Lucy Swanston, Nutshell Creative and Topic Heroes managing director will be taking [...]

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