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E-Business Forum-brought to you by Fineline Printing Group

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The Cross Media Edition — April 2011

>> FEATURE: Three Proven Ways to Get Your Message Noticed
>> 8 Key Takeaways for Personalized URLs
>> Get Your Free Fineline Primer on QR Codes
>> QR Codes and PURLS in Action: A Case Study
>> Save a Forest: Print Your Emails

Feature Article
Three Proven Ways to Get Your Message Noticed

On any given day, the average customer will be exposed to 2,904 marketing messages, pay attention to 52, and remember only four. So, how do you rise above the clutter? Here are three proven ways:

Offer multiple ways to respond with cross media tactics
Use highly personalized and customized content with variable data printing (VDP)
Provide a series of touchpoints (using both offline and online channels) that tie together for a common purpose (getting a response, closing a sale, etc.)

This article looks at the first point, cross media. Future articles will look at the other two.

Why Cross Media?
The best marketing communication is no longer a static medium. By combining multiple media—offline like print advertising, direct mail, and signage; and online like email marketing, web advertising, and blogging—you take advantage of: the comfort, tangible appeal, quality, and reach of print, plus the immediacy, tracking, and instant response of the Internet.

Read full article.

8 KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR PERSONALIZED URL’S

by DirectMarketingIQ

The most effective current demonstration of the offline-online marriage? Personalized URL (PURL) campaigns. Why?

First, because direct mail remains very visible, and it’s a part of the daily life of most Americans. Unlike other marketing avenues, such as billboards, commercials, and emails—all competing for prospects’ attention and loyalty—direct mail is the only channel that physically gets into people’s hands in their homes. Second, a personalized URL placed on a direct mail piece maximizes the power of the internet for that medium.

Go here to get eight free takeaways presented in the best practices portion of the comprehensive $47 report, "PURLs for Profit: Your everything-you-need-to-know guide to personalized URLs."

GET YOUR FREE FINELINE PRIMER ON QR CODES

Increase Response Rates, Conversions, and Your Bottom Line

This new Fineline QR Code Primer is a quick read and will get you up to speed on the features and benefits of this proven (free) technology and cross media tactic.

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two–dimensional bar code) that can be scanned with mobile technology to automatically launch a website containing product or marketing content. They enhance the communication experience and make interaction easier, more immediate, and more rewarding.

Go here to get your complimentary issue and learn more.

QR CODES AND PURLS IN ACTION: A CASE STUDY

See how combining an appealing offer and offering multiple response mechanisms provided a successful campaign for this convention and visitor’s bureau.

In the autumn of 2010, the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau sponsored the "Savor the City" traffic generation campaign to increase awareness of participating restaurants. Patrons of participating restaurants were given digitally printed cards encouraging them to visit the campaign microsite via a unique URL or via a QR code. Participating restaurants learned valuable demographic information about their patrons to refine future marketing efforts.

Read full article.

SAVE A FOREST: PRINT YOUR EMAILS

It’s okay to use paper. Trees are renewable, recyclable, and sustainable.

A recent Wall Street Journal op–ed carried this message to remind folks that trees are renewable and computer servers use far more fossil fuel than most understand.

"We appreciate and applaud people who are sensitive to environmental issues. We both love forests and are avid environmentalists. But we are going to continue to print out those necessary emails without guilt," say authors Chuck Leavell—a tree farmer, environmentalist and author—and Carlton Owen—a forester, wildlife biologist and CEO of U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities.

In fact, Chuck’s email tagline reads: "Notice: It’s OK to print this email. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of Americans. Working forests are good for the environment and provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America today than we had 100 years ago."

Honest, it’s okay to print. Trees are renewable, recyclable, and sustainable.

Read full article.

Updated postal pricing went in effect April 17, 2011. Click to order our new double–sided Mail Chart with the new prices for First–Class, Standard, and Periodical mailing. This poster is a great way to have this new pricing–as well as letter–sized dimensional standards and envelope sizes–available at a glance, whenever you need it.

QUICK READS

Eat Out on Thursday

On Thursday, April 28, make a difference–go out to eat! Dining Out for Life benefits Hoosiers with HIV/AIDS. For a list of participating restaurants that will donate a percentage of your meal’s bill to the Damien Center, go here. Fineline is a proud sponsor of Dining Out for Life.

Guess Who I Am.

He was born in 1984 in White Plains, New York and grew up with three sisters in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He began writing software as a child in middle school and was privately tutored by a software developer, David Newman, who described him as a "prodigy".

While still in high school, he created a music player called the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user’s listening habits. Both Miscrosoft and AOL attempted to recruit him, but he chose instead to enroll in college.

Not only excelling in computer programming, math, astronomy, and physics, by the time he reached college, he could already read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek. While attending Harvard, he quickly became known for reciting lines from epic poems such as The Illiad.

As a sophomore and just for fun, he built a site which would rate the attractiveness of fellow classmates. It rose in popularity to such an extent, the college had to shut it down because it has overwhelmed the server.

His ability to see blue best, due to his red–green colorblindness, was a large influence in the creation of his company in 2004. By 2010, he had acquired over 500 million users. In that six year period, he turned down several offers from major corporations offering to buy his company in a multi–million dollar deal. He was quoted in stating his reasons as, "It’s not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people..."

Who Am I?