Direct mail was never really lost but that doesn’t prevent companies from rediscovering it. The latest is Postie, which has just launched an integrated system combining access to a 320 million-name database; connections with a company’s own CRM, Web, and other systems; look-alike prospect modeling; rule- and event-based trigger campaigns; and more. Users upload creative and do everything else within the system. Sweet.
Let’s talk about digital transformation because, well, there’s no actual news today. First an IDC study for Avaya that finds most digital transformation initiatives have been “less than ‘extremely successful’” in part because IT and business managers both think they’re in charge. More disturbing, more projects focus on efficiency (62%) than customer experience (54%). Companies that do prioritize customer experience grow faster.
The mother lode of obvious news is the tech reporting team at The New York Times. It’s my dream to work there some day. Here they tell us that Amazon is favoring its own products over those of competitors. And, more obvious still, they report this actually works. Just the right tone of feigned surprise.
Just over one-third of marketers plan to either buy a new CDP (21%) or replace an existing one (13%) this year, according to this Optimove survey. Unfortunately, it doesn’t report how many have a CDP already in place, which would put the other values in perspective. It does seem that CDPs are a relatively low priority: they rank sixth on the list of new systems and eighth on the list of systems to replace.