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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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Regulatory update: Why your mailing data is going to get even more valuable

By |2022-07-12T10:51:25+00:00July 12th, 2022|

The latest figures from JICMail, Royal Mail and The DMA show that direct mail is experiencing something of a resurgence. Volumes are at their highest level for years with increasing number of brands adding it into their marketing mix, it is now the most authoritative advertising channel with consumer trust higher for direct mail than any other media and with incentives from Royal Mail being extended until September it is also incredibly cost effective. And if what is in the regulatory pipeline both in the UK and EU it seems that this renaissance won’t be short lived. If anything, direct mail will become even more influential. Recent updates from the DMA in its Responsible Marketing Update webinar reveal several reasons [...]

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Want to drive an immediate response? Use direct mail!

By |2022-06-17T13:33:43+00:00June 17th, 2022|

  A new study by the DMA has been launched investigating the effectiveness of charity marketing. The research analyses 1,057 DMA award entries housed within the DMA’s Intelligent Marketing Databank and measures the number of reported ‘effects’, which are grouped into four categories: Response effects: including conversion, acquisition, sales, donations, bookings, footfall, downloads and CPA efficiency Brand effects: including brands awareness, ad recall, consideration, purchase intent, brand trust, brand perception, recommendation, customer satisfaction Business effects: including profit, market share growth, customer penetration, loyalty and shareholder value Campaign delivery effects: including reach, frequency and impressions Direct mail was found to be the most effective channel at driving response effects – particularly in the short term, which is important for charities looking [...]

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Direct mail volumes bounce back again!

By |2022-06-10T14:10:17+00:00June 10th, 2022|

The latest JICMAIL figures reveal that direct mail volumes are at their highest level for two years indicating the continued confidence in the channel post pandemic. This is reinforced by the commercial effectiveness of the medium which sees mail continue to drive digital customer engagement, footfall into physical stores and purchases at the same level it did this time last year.  However, with the cost-of-living crisis now truly showing its teeth arguably direct mail is working harder today than it was even during the pandemic. This is a result of the difficulty in driving consumer response in the wake of stressed consumer wallets and squeezed household budgets. The travel and hospitality sectors experienced the largest growth in direct mail usage [...]

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Objectif Lune Partner with The Software Bureau

By |2019-07-26T14:06:38+00:00July 26th, 2019|

Objectif Lune announce partnership with The Software Bureau to help organisations improve the speed and efficiency of their communications. The partnership sees Objectif Lune launch ‘TSB Mail Automation’ harnessing the power of the Swift Suite of data processing, data quality and postal sortation solutions from The Software Bureau. Objectif Lune will offer TSB Mail Automation software both standalone and integrated into their market leading product line of communication and mailing management software. “The Software Bureau is well known in the industry as postal automation experts and we are excited to be in partnership with them and add their technology to our portfolio, to extend our capabilities of offering customers true end to end automation.” Matt Irish, European partner manager Compliant [...]

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A Practical Guide to GDPR Compliance for Processors

By |2018-12-18T15:57:59+00:00October 18th, 2017|

If your business takes possession of personal information such as a list of named individuals to be mailed or cleansed, then chances are you will need to make changes to your business to become compliant with GDPR. Organisations who collect, store and ‘own’ data are classified as data controllers, whereas organisations who take custody and use the data for example to print and send a direct mail campaign are classified as data processors. As of May 2018 data processors such as mailing houses, printers and data bureaux will be subject to many of the same new legal obligations enforced upon data controllers. Failing to adequately prepare your business for GDPR increases the risk of fines, but will also likely cost [...]

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Central Mailing Invest in Cygnus from The Software Bureau

By |2018-11-06T10:39:57+00:00October 12th, 2017|

About Central Mailing Services Ltd With 60 staff, 3 sites and 25 years under its belt, Central Mailing is a prominent player in the direct mail industry. The £7+ million turnover business provides end-to-end direct mail facilities to predominantly Education, Charity and Performing Arts clients. Richard Morrow, Sales Director of Central Mailing points to a strategy of continuous investment in technology and equipment as the winning formula for prolonged growth. Central Mailing provides complementary data health checks to clients alongside a full range of data processing functions within their in-house data bureau. A team of 10 data professionals process in excess of 70 jobs per day handling everything from the standard deduplication and sortation through to data hygiene work combining [...]

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Why Data Suppression is Key to Compliance with GDPR

By |2018-11-06T10:40:07+00:00May 25th, 2017|

DataIQ recently teamed up with Cygnus Embedded Suppression contributor, The Ark to produce a Whitepaper discussing data suppression and GDPR. The Whitepaper puts forth the message that deceased suppression will effectively become a legal requirement come May 2018 when GDPR comes into force. While both the legislation itself and the guidelines from ICO don’t go quite so far as naming deceased suppression as a legal obligation to achieve compliance, DataIQ make the argument that failing to undertake deceased suppression increases the likelihood of a technical breach. Falling foul of the ICO for a technical breach can cost organisations as much as 2% of group turnover (find out more about GDPR here). So how do Suppression files help organisations achieve compliance [...]

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