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Direct mail effectiveness soars

By |2023-03-23T10:05:54+00:00March 23rd, 2023|

Direct Mail experienced something of a renaissance during the Covid years – lockdown prompted a wide scale love affair with the letterbox. People enjoyed receiving mail, it provided a welcome break from the mundanity of being at home ALL THE TIME! This week, as we mark three years since the first lockdown back in 2020, it seems fitting that the latest figures from JICMAIL reveal that mail’s engagement is still on the rise. Mail open and retention rates both soared by four percent year on year. Over Christmas (Q4 2022) open rates hit 77 per cent and retention grew to 66 percent demonstrating the importance of mail within the marketing mix. At a time of year when consumers are more [...]

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ICO calls for SMEs to be more data aware; we call the ICO to do more with #HelptoGrow! 

By |2023-01-31T08:27:16+00:00January 31st, 2023|

The Information Commissioner is urging SMEs to check they have the right data protection practices in place to help sustain and develop their businesses. The UK regulator says getting good data practices in place from the start will save businesses time and money, and boost customer confidence. A recent survey, commissioned by the ICO reveals that 91 percent of people worried about having their personal information sold to other companies without their consent, and 87 percent worried about a company losing their personal information. And this is not surprising considering a survey by the DMA found that only 10 per cent of SME leaders felt that they were complaint with current data protection laws. Another shocking report found that half [...]

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Decision Marketing: Direct Mail revival beats rivals

By |2023-01-04T09:28:09+00:00January 4th, 2023|

Martin Rides writes for Decision Marketing about the role of mail moving forward into the new year. You can read the article here or below Brexit, Covid, supply chain chaos, cost of living crisis, economic freefall, postal strikes, train strikes, nurses strikes, economic freefall, worst and longest predicted recession… yep, the country is royally screwed and teetering on a knife edge. There’s no dressing it up, this year has been a shocker and next year is going to be even tougher for the marketing industry. Everyone is battening down the hatches and putting survival plans into place. Yet, there is one small glimmer of light… The resurgence of direct mail as a legitimate and effective marketing channel. If nothing else, [...]

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Charities need to focus on inspiring positive emotions as cost-of-living crisis starts to bite

By |2022-12-19T14:09:24+00:00November 29th, 2022|

The cost-of-living crisis is really beginning to show its teeth when it comes to charitable donations. According to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) UK Giving Report nearly 60 percent of respondents said that the crisis will negatively impact their ability to donate. In April, one in 25 people reported that they had already cancelled a regular donation to charity, and by October this had risen to one in ten as a direct response to the rising cost of living. Similarly, 1 in 12 people said they had chosen not to make a one-off donation whilst a large number also said they had reviewed how much they give to charity. Due to this less than rosy outlook, many charities are shifting [...]

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With recession on the cards – now is the time to take a different approach to data hygiene

By |2022-10-20T07:37:31+00:00October 20th, 2022|

New research from housing specialists Hillarys.co.uk reveals the horrifying truth that a staggering 40 per cent of UK homeowners only clean their house once a year with five per cent admitting to only cleaning if they have guests coming to stay overnight. The most common excuses were a lack of cleaning products and inertia caused by the fact that the house is only going to get dirty again, so what is the point? However, researchers from The London School of Tropical Disease and Medicine say that there is increasing evidence to suggest that a messy house affects both mental and physical health. In fact, an unclean home can make you more susceptible to colds and flus as well as stress [...]

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The end of the road for GDPR?

By |2022-10-05T14:56:16+00:00October 5th, 2022|

Is the UK going to be free of the constraints of GDPR? If Michelle Donelan’s speech at the Conservative Party Conference is anything to go by, then GDPR’s days in the UK are numbered. The new secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport said GDPR had been inherited from the EU, and its bureaucratic nature was limiting the potential for businesses. She announced that the UK would be replacing GDPR with its own business and consumer-friendly, data protection system. It wasn’t clear if this was to be the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (which itself has superseded the Data Reform Bill), or an entirely separate initiative. Whichever it may be, apparently the plan is to protect consumer [...]

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Charities shouldn’t put the data cart before the horse

By |2022-10-04T07:07:09+00:00October 4th, 2022|

New research shows that charities are falling behind when it comes to data. With the cost-of-living crisis now really beginning to show its teeth resulting in a sharp decline in donor numbers and donation value, data is now a critical capability for charities to master. However, data doesn’t have to be complex. More on this later… first, let’s have a look at the findings of the State of the Sector Data Maturity Report. The study measured 1,000 charities and rated their data maturity through five stages, from ‘Unaware’ to ‘Mastering’ across seven key themes: Uses, Data, Analysis, Leadership, Culture, Tools, and Skills. When it comes to data leadership over half (53 percent) of those surveyed said that there is no [...]

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As the cost-of-living crisis bites, mail stays in the home for longer

By |2022-09-09T08:03:04+00:00September 9th, 2022|

The latest stats from JICMail, the joint industry currency for ad mail, show that there has been a significant increase in the amount of households retaining their mail. More households are choosing to file their mail away for later use or take it out of the home. The new data which covers the period from April to June 2022, shows that close to half of mail (44 percent) is still live in the home after 28 days, which is a significant increase on Q2 2021. It is thought that this is because households are placing more importance on mail content in economically challenging times. The research finds that overall, 94 percent of mail is engaged with, i.e., it has at [...]

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Sustainable mail – reducing waste through data

By |2022-08-31T16:00:21+00:00August 31st, 2022|

According to Accenture almost one third of Europe’s largest companies have pledged to become Net Zero by 2050. Whilst a study from Deloitte shows that 67 per cent of SMEs have started using more sustainable materials in a bid to reduce their carbon footprint. No matter what industry or size of organisation; the environment is now a major element of ongoing business strategy which is being filtered down operationally for implementation. Making pragmatic changes is the key. Small steps across all areas of the business add up to major change. For organisations that use direct mail MarketReach and The Strategic Mail Partnership (SMP) new guide https://www.marketreach.co.uk/resource/using-mail-more-sustainably provides advice that helps businesses make their direct mail campaigns more sustainable -from choosing [...]

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Why direct mail is good for charities during the cost-of-living crisis

By |2022-08-12T10:16:36+00:00August 12th, 2022|

Everyone will be feeling the pinch – more expensive food, more expensive energy, more expensive fuel… more expensive everything. For charities this is not good news, as when household expenditure rises, donations dwindle. As a result, two marketing objectives take precedence at this difficult time: The retention of existing donors The recruitment of spontaneous one-off gifts For objective No.1 data plays an important role. It is critical that charities are reaching out to their regular donors in a meaningful way to ensure that the relationship is maintain, particularly if the donations dry up during this exceedingly difficult period for many households. Contacting people that have moved house (and despite the depressing economic climate, home moves are still far outstripping those [...]

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