Direct Magazine - June 30, 2010

Stephani Wright, national sales manager, Focus USA:

We've seen a total shift in how marketers view e-mail. Not only is it fast, measureable, and responsive, it allows the same targeting as a traditional postal campaign often at half the cost. Marketers can get immediate response and action. E-mail helps to build relationships, loyalty, and trust for a brand while still leaving the choice in the consumer's hand. They can dictate everything from the frequency of communication to what that communication is about.

We try to strategize with our clients on ways to market to the right people at the right time and because integrating e-mail marketing into your strategy is not difficult, it has become so much more popular. Often a client can be ready to go in two weeks with a campaign.

E-mail alone is an important branding tool. Consumers spend a lot of time at their computers; it makes sense to include this channel in a marketer's loyalty and acquisition strategies. Trend we are seeing include dual-push campaigns where we integrate both the postal and e-mail component, where one reinforces the other and gets the message out twice to the same consumer in a different way which helps with branding. We also use multiple-touch campaigning as a way to encourage brand recognition.

Areas where we see e-mail marketing flourishing: insurance offers with the auto, health, and life markets, health and fitness products, education and self improvement offers, and travel. We've even helped to move some nonprofit clients into the online channels with success.

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Direct Magazine - June 23, 2010

Stephani Wright, national sales manager, Focus USA:

Business-to-business is an area that Focus has gotten involved in more heavily in the past year or so. From a personal standpoint, we are seeing some major shifts in B-to-B targeting from the postal area into e-mail just as we are seeing with our consumer business. Whereas two years ago, our management team received five to 10 pieces of mail a day, this year this has dropped to one to two pieces a day. Conversely, targeted e-mail messages have grown from one to two a day two years ago to more than 20 a day today. And B-to-B is seeing the same shift as the consumer area to online spending and social media.

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Direct Magazine - June 16, 2010

Stephani Wright, national sales manager, Focus USA:

Social media is a medium that can help with branding efforts. Many marketers are using their pages to offer coupons or alert current consumers to sales or new products. In this way, social media helps the consumer stay closer to the brands and creates a following.

I think the big question on everyone's mind then is how to monetize the channel. Because of the existence of large compiled databases, social media data may not be a source of "new names," but [it could provide] new data that adds value to existing databases. With two-thirds of the world's population on some sort of social media or blogging site, there is new behavioral data about consumers that we didn't have access to before now. Traditional analytics like profiling still help take a snapshot of your customer. But if you can use social data, you can better understand how to engage your customers, talk to them and hear what they are saying about you.

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Direct Magazine - June 10, 2010

Stephani Wright, national sales manager, Focus USA:

We've saw a spike in insurance marketing in 2009 and it continues to grow, both with postal and e-mail initiatives. Health, beauty, anti-aging, and diet are recession-proof areas -in economic downturns as they're an inexpensive way for consumers to treat themselves. Self-improvement through education and job training is another area where we have been seeing growth. We've also seen a resurgence of low-end catalogers and financial offers, such as credit cards.

Another area we saw tremendous growth in 2009 despite economical conditions was in the Canadian market. Budgets are lower, but because Canadians do not receive as much mail as Americans, and lists are not as plentiful, your offer stands out. Not only have Canadian marketers done well, but U.S. companies prospecting into Canada are also having success. It is a great time to tap into this premium market.

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Direct Magazine - August 2009

Today we meet Amy Carraher, vice president of sales at Focus USA. A 20-year industry veteran who's brokered lists at such firms as Mokrynski & Associates, RMI Direct Marketing and 24/7 Mail, she sees the role of the list broker expanding from its original definition.

"They have to be part of their end users' team," she says. "They can't work in a vacuum anymore - they have to be on the pulse of everything. They have to bring so much more to the table."

At Focus USA, where she's been for the past seven years, Carraher works with the brokerage community and also gets involved with mailers' prospecting strategies, offering ideas on penetrating new markets.

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