Brian Giese's Blog

Is Direct Mail Really Hurting the Evironment?

DM News released the results of a survey today that counted how the recipients of direct mail (you and me) see it's effect on the environment. It posts that nearly half of the 1,000 US adult respondents surveyed by DM News and  and Pitney Bowes guessed that advertising mail from US households counted for more than half of the country's municipal waste. More than one-third said it counted for slightly more than one-third of that waste.

DM News cited the Environmental Protection Agency as saying that advertising mail was responsible for just 2% of all municipal waste in the United States. Yet, more than two-thirds of respondents said they would have a higher opinion of direct mailers if they used recycled paper and cardboard. Another half said they would think more highly of unsolicited mail if they knew there was an agency seal of approval or "green mail" label awarded by the industry itself. I don't know but I think direct mail has some PR work to do here.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration (CDI), and campaign management. The use of marketing automation makes processes that would otherwise have been performed manually much more efficient, and makes some new processes possible. Marketing automation is an integral component of customer relationship management (CRM).