Lobcast Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Welcome to the Lobcast Podcast: Mixers and Marketing. Join us for a drink as we talk about different marketing topics.
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re talking all things Artificial Intelligence and how it’ll change the way we do marketing. Joining us is Optimove’s Founder and CEO, Pini Yakuel, to discuss AI’s role in marketing.
Key highlights include:
- What marketers need to consider when integrating AI into their marketing strategies and campaigns
- How Optimove leverages AI technology in its platform
- How AI can personalize marketing campaigns and use customer data effectively
- How marketers can find the right balance between human decision-making and machine automation
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re doing things a bit differently today. We’re taking a second look at our 2023 State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report and seeing how marketing teams in the real world are delivering mail consumers want to take action on.
Key highlights include:
- Our 2023 State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report shows that 64% of consumers say that direct mail has inspired them to take action, including exploring websites and reviews or making a purchase
- Personalization matters as 68% of consumers are more likely to engage with a message/communication from brands that are personalized to them
- In our 2023 State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report, we found that 54% of consumers agree they are more likely to purchase from a brand that prioritizes sustainability
- Make it easy to take action! 39% of consumers are likely to scan a QR code on a piece of direct mail and take action
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re revealing some of the major findings from our 2023 State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights. This edition of the report shares insights into how consumers feel about direct mail marketing.
Key highlights include:
- 64% of consumers say that direct mail has inspired them to take action, including exploring websites and reviews or making a purchase
- 65% say an offer or promotion caught their attention. Offers are key to getting recipients to open and read direct mail
- Personalization continues to be a key element for marketing success in direct mail. 68% of consumers are more likely to engage with a message/communication from brands that are personalized to them
- 54% of consumers agree they are more likely to purchase from a brand that prioritizes sustainability
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re discussing all things A/B testing in our marketing strategies, including direct mail. Learn more about running statistically significant A/B tests and improve your overall marketing campaigns by accurately analyzing the results and applying what you’ve learned.
Key highlights include:
- A/B testing in both direct mail and email can help improve campaign effectiveness and ROI by providing valuable insights into what resonates with your target audience
- There are many personalization elements you can A/B test to drive lift. The ones that immediately come to mind are CTAs, CTA placement, offers, copy, lifestyle imagery used, the possibilities if you partner with tech companies like Lob are really endless
- The general results analysis time for direct mail is 45-60 days
- Statistical significance is essentially a fancy term for proving whether a result is due to chance or a true result of your testing efforts. Essentially, a probability measurement
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re talking about ROI - Return on Investment. ROI is a key metric most marketers track and we’re breaking down the ROI on direct mail marketing.
Key highlights include:
- According to our 2023 State of Direct Mail, 74% of marketers agree that direct mail delivers the best ROI, response rate, and conversion rate than all other channels used
- 62% of consumers say they take action due to a direct mail communication they’ve received from a brand
- The most successful direct mail campaigns are in winback, referral programs, and hand-raisers (also known as In-market leads)
- There are three key metrics to analyzing direct mail ROI: Response rates, lead rate, and sales rate
If you want to dive deeper into the topic of ROI, please download your complimentary copy of our eBook: The Modern Marketer’s Guide to Crush ROI & Budget Goals with Direct Mail at https://lobdemo.co/directmailroi.
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re talking all things optimizations in marketing workflows and direct mail, as well as sipping on some old fashioned cocktails.
Key highlights include:
- Learn more about the RVA principle in marketing optimizations: Recency, Velocity, and Accuracy
- Leveraging technology to automate and optimize marketing campaigns, whether digital-based ones or direct mail campaigns
- What problems marketers are looking to solve through optimizations, such as reducing campaign costs or increasing ROI per campaign
- What metrics to track to effectively measure A/B tests and marketing campaign optimizations
Access your complimentary copy of our eBook: Optimizing Direct Mail for Maximum Results at https://tinyurl.com/optimizingdm.
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re mixing up piña coladas and talking all things personalization in marketing campaigns.
Key highlights include:
- 79% of consumers are only likely to engage with a brand’s offer if that offer has been personalized to reflect previous interactions that the consumer has had with the brand
- Preference centers provide insight into what your customers want, and you can aggregate learnings to uncover trends within your own customer database by age, gender, household income, size of family, type of purchase, etc. You also create a new level of trust with your customer because you show them you care about their wants and only wish to provide them with communication they look forward to
- Before setting up any automated workflows, it's important to have a clear strategy in place that outlines your goals and how personalization will help you achieve them. This strategy should take into account your target audience, their preferences and behaviors, and the specific messages or offers you want to deliver
- Social media sentiment, seasonal trends, local events, and customer behavior patterns are variables marketers should pay attention to in order to improve campaign performance
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re sipping on orange margaritas and talking about a different type of direct mail: operational mail! Like marketing mail, this type of mail benefits from automation, integration, and optimization.
Key highlights include:
- Organizations sending operational mail can improve results and customer engagement by A/B testing mail formats, and including marketing messages relevant to the customer.
- Direct mail automation improves workflows, allows resources to be reallocated to impactful work, and provides tracking information for regulated industries.
- Those sending operational mail need to have quality data hygiene practices in place to ensure mail is personalized and sent to the right recipients.
- An easy way to increase efficiency with operational mail is to partner with a company that has an expansive print delivery network.
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re putting our marketing measurement skills to the test. From CPA to ROI, we’re talking all things marketing metrics and what marketers should keep in mind when analyzing the results of their campaigns.
Key highlights include:
- Marketers should start by matching the right marketing channel to budgets and goals to more effectively track results
- Marketing tools modern marketers should use to report on campaigns include Marketo, Salesforce, and Tableau
- Marketers should run A/B tests to improve marketing results and know what metrics to track to ensure the test was successful
- Marketers should make sure the whole marketing team is aligned on how to interpret the metrics and data and has access to the same dashboards or reports
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re talking about marketing data! They say a picture is worth a thousand words but the right customer data could be worth a million dollars (much like the complementary cocktail!). Listen in to hear how we can be more strategic when it comes to marketing data and marketing lists.
Key highlights include:
- Using third-party data to supplement your existing customer intel OR drive a more personalized experience with a new prospect helps you then develop intelligent mail campaigns - and stronger program ROI.
- The most successful data strategies usually start with either the lowest-hanging fruit OR incredibly smart modeling technology.
- Our own State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report showed that 52% of consumers expect campaigns to be personalized for them. With third-party data, marketers can better supplement their understanding of their existing customers and initial details on their prospective customers for better personalization.
- Data should be at the heart of your strategy. It should be what you start with, well before you consider the creative, offer, copy, tone, and format. Data has the power to tell you how your customers want to be reached, and spoken to. So don’t rush to get a single campaign out the door and hope it sticks.
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re springing into action and talking about spring marketing strategies. From freshening up marketing campaigns to planting new campaigns in your plans, we’re sharing best practices and things marketers should be thinking about in the spring.
Key highlights include:
- Freshen up campaigns at least once a year to ensure content hasn’t gone stale or outdated. Figure out ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle campaign assets
- Leverage preference centers to make sure holiday messaging isn’t triggering to customers or prospects
- Direct mail is seasonless in that it can and should be used all year long as part of an omnichannel or multichannel strategy. 72% of marketers use direct mail with email marketing, and 46% pair it with paid social
- Marketers should follow the idea of ABT or Always Be Testing. A/B Testing isn’t a season-based strategy, but a year-round one
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re discussing how those in marketing operations can spring clean marketing workflows, whether it’s forms or programs, while sipping on some whiskey sours.
Key highlights include:
- Not all touchpoints (or MQLs!) are the same, but you can always look at the performance of a given program from the perspective of intent-vs-reality
- Warning signs that a marketing program needs attention, such as changes in email deliverability, conversion rate changes over time, or unexpected or zero results
- What campaigns need regular maintenance and what operations needs deep cleans, as well as what marketing reports to pull
- MOPS teams should be leading the charge to simplify, standardize, and turn forms into global resources
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast we’re talking about the power of intelligent mail and how it fits in your marketing strategy.
Key highlights include:
- Intelligent mail, on the other hand, is connected, personalized, and scalable. It targets consumers and helps brands expand awareness, boost response rates, and increase ROI.
- Consumers also want mail. In fact 44% of 18-34 year olds told us that direct mail is a great way for them to get to know companies they aren’t familiar with.
- Intelligent mail is integrated with other channels. Our 2023 State of Direct Mail said that in an omnichannel marketing strategy, 72% of marketers pair it with email and 46% pair it with paid social.
- Intelligent mail is sustainable and all mail sent through Lob is carbon neutral.
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we’re talking about direct mail marketing trends for 2023 and sharing findings from our 2023 State of Direct Mail report.
Some key highlights include:
- 74% of marketers agree that direct mail delivers the best ROI, response rate, and conversion rate than all other channels used
- When it comes to tracking marketing results via direct mail, the use of personalized URLs decreased from 48% in 2022
- The report showed that 58% of marketers have more marketing budget allocated to direct mail compared to 2022
- Our 2023 State of Direct Mail report shows that in an omnichannel marketing strategy, 72% of marketers said they pair direct mail with email, 46% pair it with paid social, 45% pair it with SMS/MMS, 25% pair direct mail with a podcast, and 21% pair it with organic social
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we’re talking about how marketers can slide into a new DM - Direct Mail.
Some key highlights include:
- A recent study of 600 marketers proved that when adding direct mail to an omnichannel comms plan, marketing campaigns experienced a lift of 63%
- Finding the right fit for direct mail in your marketing funnel, whether it’s top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, or bottom-of-funnel
- How to get buy-in from your CMO or executive leadership team to add direct mail to your marketing toolkit
- Why you should pair direct mail with email, as it’s proven that when pairing these marketing channels together, the response rate can increase by as much as 27%
On this episode of the Lobcast Podcast, we’re talking about timeless marketing tactics while sipping on some tequila sunrises.
Some key highlights include:
- Word-of-mouth marketing: How marketers can use today’s word-of-mouth marketing, such as testimonials, in campaigns
- Public relations: Learn when to invest in PR or place sponsored content
- SMS marketing: Build trust with prospects and customers with SMS marketing or push notifications
- Direct mail marketing: Learn where direct mail fits in the marketing funnel
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we're discussing marketing resolutions and marketing trends for 2023.
Some key highlights include:
- Top 2023 marketing trends: short-form video, human-focused content, influencer marketing, a focus on UX or the customer experience, agile marketing, social responsibility and reputation, and podcasts
- A finding by Adobe that the average user now watches 19 hours of video content every week
- 95% of consumers are more loyal to brands that are transparent and genuine, and 75% would pay more to support genuine brands
- According to Asana, 93% of marketing professionals use influencer marketing to: increase brand awareness, build trust, reach their target audience, drive conversions, and connect to a wider market
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we're about marketing budgets, specifically budgets and money-saving tips for direct mail marketing.
Some key highlights include:
- Marketers allocate between 10-50% of their marketing budget to direct mail
- The 3 Ps of direct mail budgeting: Printing, postage, and production
- How address verification saves money upfront and on the back end by reducing Return To Sender rates
- The biggest money-saving tip for direct mail marketing: Automate it!
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we're discussing marketing mail, both electronic and direct. We'll talk about both marketing tactics and when campaigns should utilize them and when marketers should combine their powers to drive marketing ROI.
Key highlights include:
- 72% of marketers are using direct mail and email in tandem in their customer journeys
- 44% of consumers aged 18-34 surveyed in the State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report agree that direct mail is an important way for brands to build relationships with them
- How one brand used email with lower-value customers and direct mail with high-value customers to drive higher campaign ROI
- Tips and tricks for using A/B test results to inform other marketing mail campaign elements
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we're discussing some findings from the 2022 State of Direct Mail Consumer Insights report and how marketers can leverage these insights to improve their direct mail marketing strategy - or add it to their future campaigns.
Some key highlights include:
- The finding that 44% of consumers prefer direct mail as a communication channel for brands they do not know
- 62% of consumers reported taking action on a piece of direct mail
- 51% of consumers sometimes or often share direct mail with friends and family
- Intelligent direct mail is targeted, personalized, trackable, and has a high ROI
On this Lobcast Podcast episode, we're discussing marketing trends in direct mail and sharing findings from the Lob 2022 State of Direct Mail report.
Key highlights include:
- 67% of marketers agree that direct mail delivered the highest ROI of any channel they use
- Pairing direct mail with email marketing can drive a 27% response rate
- Top metrics used to measure the effectiveness of direct mail marketing include response rate, revenue generated per mailpiece, and ROI