If you read Direct Marketing News, you know that Bruce Biegel, Managing Director for the Winterberry Group, identified SoLoMo as a marketing “focus” for 2013, as reported by Editor-in-Chief Ginger Conlon. But do you know what SoLoMo is?
In a nutshell, SoLoMo combines social media, local business, and mobile technology to identify a mobile user’s location and relay local incentives, offers, deals, coupons, etc.
Advantages:
• You can create highly personalized and customized offers based on the recipient’s previous transactions and through the customer’s likes and shares on social media.
• It speeds the purchasing process.
Disadvantages:
• Privacy is a key concern. According to Kerry Doyle’s Cisco article, “SoLoMo: Why It Matters and What You Should Know,” last August Congress was considering 26 different bills addressing wireless privacy issues.
• Consumers worry about the security of making mobile payments. Regulations are expected to be forthcoming.
• SoLoMo bypasses an organization’s website, eliminating any possibility for providing additional information or upselling.
• It requires the creation and maintenance of an app.
A relatively new trend, SoLoMo is still working out the kinks, a task Biegel expects will extend into 2014. However, it stands poised to become another important technological avenue for marketing departments of all sizes.
Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.
Friday, January 18, 2013
AMiable Solution #45: 2013 Marketing Cliffs Notes: Seamless Acceptance
As the United States Postal Service enters 2013, it does so with an eye toward the future and the role of technology, including Seamless Acceptance, in it.
Seamless Acceptance is the Postal Service's effort to "fully automate verification of commercial mailings performed during postal processing of the mail." Utilizing Intelligent Mail barcoding (IMb) Full-Service, it focuses more on electronic acceptance of mail pieces with less postal clerk interaction and less paperwork, adding container barcodes to the mix, pallet, sack, and tray; bypassing the postal clerk inspection as the mailing enters the production system; and adding electronic drop-ship clearance and postage. As the Business Mail Entry Manager in Merrifield, Virginia, put it, Seamless Acceptance will allow her to "check it (a mailing) in, charge it, and process it without ever seeing it."
The benefit? According to the USPS's Comprehensive Statement - 2010 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations, 2010 Performance Report and 2011 Performance Plan, "Information obtained from mailings in process helps to determine address accuracy, verify mail preparation quality, validate correct postage, and, with the use of Confirm service, track individual pieces as they move through the system. Seamless acceptance will help the Postal Service partner with customers by capturing and sharing information about mail errors earlier in the process." In other words, your mailpieces will enter the delivery system faster and cleaner.
How can you prepare for Seamless Acceptance? The program requires specialized equipment and barcodes, which your mailhouse should have. Talk to your vendor about its procedures for complying with the Seamless Acceptance process.
Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.
Seamless Acceptance is the Postal Service's effort to "fully automate verification of commercial mailings performed during postal processing of the mail." Utilizing Intelligent Mail barcoding (IMb) Full-Service, it focuses more on electronic acceptance of mail pieces with less postal clerk interaction and less paperwork, adding container barcodes to the mix, pallet, sack, and tray; bypassing the postal clerk inspection as the mailing enters the production system; and adding electronic drop-ship clearance and postage. As the Business Mail Entry Manager in Merrifield, Virginia, put it, Seamless Acceptance will allow her to "check it (a mailing) in, charge it, and process it without ever seeing it."
The benefit? According to the USPS's Comprehensive Statement - 2010 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations, 2010 Performance Report and 2011 Performance Plan, "Information obtained from mailings in process helps to determine address accuracy, verify mail preparation quality, validate correct postage, and, with the use of Confirm service, track individual pieces as they move through the system. Seamless acceptance will help the Postal Service partner with customers by capturing and sharing information about mail errors earlier in the process." In other words, your mailpieces will enter the delivery system faster and cleaner.
How can you prepare for Seamless Acceptance? The program requires specialized equipment and barcodes, which your mailhouse should have. Talk to your vendor about its procedures for complying with the Seamless Acceptance process.
Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.
AMiable Solution #44: Tips for a Happy New Year: Remember Yourself
If you're among the population of folks that checks work email while on vacation, reads reports instead of magazines on the beach, and texts reminders to colleagues from the holiday dinner table, then this blog is for you.
Hard work, dedication, accessibility, and attention to details will help you analyze, create, and execute your way through a successful career. However, all work and no play won't help you live longer or healthier.
The drive to succeed at work isn't an uncommon one, but the need to put a successful professional life ahead of a healthy personal one is largely all American. Back in May 2003, Hara Estroff Marano reported in Psychology Today that Americans work 100 more hours per year than the Japanese and up to three more months a year than Europeans. And, according to the article, "Why Your Brain Needs a Break," Americans are the only workers in the world who don't get mandated paid vacation leave.
There's good reason to pull your nose away from the grindstone. In the 2011 article, "Why Your Brain Needs a Vacation," CNN reported that removing your brain and your body from your work environment allows you to re-approach your work with a fresh perspective. An idea for that campaign you've been struggling to create or update may occur to you or become much clearer after a much-needed vacation. The further away from work you get--literally--the more your perspective improves. Can't afford a vacation overseas? You can still gain the benefits of a vacation simply by immersing yourself in a new environment and paying attention to new things.
To really maximize the happiness benefits of a vacation, you need to plan your vacation in advance, not on a whim. According to Tara Parker-Pope in a 2010 New York Times blog, researchers in the Netherlands found that the simple act of planning and anticipating a vacation did more to boost individuals' happiness than the vacation itself. And, taking multiple shorter vacations instead of one long one helps make the good times last throughout the year.
So go ahead : enjoy your end-of-year holiday activities. Spend a relaxing evening in the company of family and friends. Get out and enjoy a neglected activity or pastime. Then, make sure you make plans to use your hard-earned vacation time in 2013.
Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.
Hard work, dedication, accessibility, and attention to details will help you analyze, create, and execute your way through a successful career. However, all work and no play won't help you live longer or healthier.
The drive to succeed at work isn't an uncommon one, but the need to put a successful professional life ahead of a healthy personal one is largely all American. Back in May 2003, Hara Estroff Marano reported in Psychology Today that Americans work 100 more hours per year than the Japanese and up to three more months a year than Europeans. And, according to the article, "Why Your Brain Needs a Break," Americans are the only workers in the world who don't get mandated paid vacation leave.
There's good reason to pull your nose away from the grindstone. In the 2011 article, "Why Your Brain Needs a Vacation," CNN reported that removing your brain and your body from your work environment allows you to re-approach your work with a fresh perspective. An idea for that campaign you've been struggling to create or update may occur to you or become much clearer after a much-needed vacation. The further away from work you get--literally--the more your perspective improves. Can't afford a vacation overseas? You can still gain the benefits of a vacation simply by immersing yourself in a new environment and paying attention to new things.
To really maximize the happiness benefits of a vacation, you need to plan your vacation in advance, not on a whim. According to Tara Parker-Pope in a 2010 New York Times blog, researchers in the Netherlands found that the simple act of planning and anticipating a vacation did more to boost individuals' happiness than the vacation itself. And, taking multiple shorter vacations instead of one long one helps make the good times last throughout the year.
So go ahead : enjoy your end-of-year holiday activities. Spend a relaxing evening in the company of family and friends. Get out and enjoy a neglected activity or pastime. Then, make sure you make plans to use your hard-earned vacation time in 2013.
Do you have a better suggestion to offer or a challenge you'd like help with? Say it here. Your comments are always welcome.
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