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Cut costs and improve response rates with innovative solutions and end-to-end efficiencies

Postal rate increases keep coming, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. In this checklist, we’ve outlined five examples of Quad’s direct mail solutions that help take the sting out of postal hikes. Download it now to start saving time and money while improving your response rate:

When the going gets tough and extra headcounts aren’t in the cards, many marketing teams turn to creative and production partners to lend a hand, add specialty expertise or simply lighten the load. While a great production partner will do all those things and more, many times juggling the partner becomes more work than it’s worth.

In fact, 47% of marketing leaders cite a complex network of partners as negatively impacting marketing operations significantly or moderately, according to research from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by Quad.

So, how do you know if a new production partner is going to be a good fit? We’ve come up with three deal-breakers to look out for and questions to ask before you get in too deep.

Download this cheat sheet to determine if you’re contending with these deal-breakers:

Today’s consumers demand frictionless finance and as a result, financial services brands are looking for innovative ways to market effectively. Financial services data holds immense potential for meeting these needs. With the right data strategy, financial institutions can tailor customer experiences, spark the creation of innovative products and services, fortify risk management, combat fraud––and that’s just scratching the surface.

Download our 10-step guide to collecting, validating and optimizing first-party financial services marketing data in 2024 and beyond.

Key takeaways:

Marketers may be struggling to create effective marketing, but they’re not experiencing a crisis of faith

That existential crisis we mentioned above isn’t actually about marketers doubting marketing itself. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) survey respondents say it’s more important than ever that marketing play a strategic role within organizations.

The proliferation of channels is a major pain point for a lot of marketers

As the report puts it, “Today’s media mix is negatively impacting many marketers’ stress levels.” Drilling down: “More than half — 53% — say their marketing team feels overwhelmed by the amount of channels they need to manage within the media mix. Even efforts to reduce media mix complexity by teaming up with external partners with specialized skills can backfire: 59% of respondents say the need to have specialists who know about each new marketing channel creates complexity for their team.”

The challenge of managing a complex network of partners can hurt marketing operations

The HBR Analytic Services report also takes on what it calls “the marketing sector’s labyrinthine network of partners, ranging from content creators and agencies to referral partners and affiliates.” The survey findings are striking: “Nearly half (47%) of respondents cite a complex network of partners for negatively impacting marketing operations significantly or moderately. Only 34% believe they perform ‘very well’ in managing these external partner relationships.”

Overall marketing complexity by the numbers

The big picture on marketing complexity, according to the HBR Analytic Services report: “77% of respondents say their organization faces ‘some’ or ‘a lot of’ complexity within its current marketing ecosystem, and 66% say rising complexity in the marketplace is making it increasingly difficult for marketers to deliver business value to the organization.”

There’s a lot of damage caused by excess marketing ecosystem complexity

HBR Analytic Services asked respondents to detail how complexity has affected their marketing operations: “Survey respondents cite a multitude of negative business impacts caused by marketing ecosystem complexity, including difficulty optimizing campaign performance (46%), increased stress for the marketing team (44%) and less impactful marketing initiatives (42%).” Other impacts include inefficient spending (41%), campaign delays (40%) and limited transparency into campaign performance across channels (36%).

Follow the marketing leaders

As part of its survey, HBR Analytic Services asked respondents to rate their organization’s marketing on a scale of 0 to 10, and then grouped those respondents into three buckets: “leaders” (respondents who rated their organization’s marketing 8, 9 or 10), “followers” (6-7) and “laggards” (0-5). HBR Analytic Services also asked everyone how streamlined their marketing processes are — and tellingly, “While 49% of leaders report having ‘very streamlined’ processes, only 18% of followers and a mere 5% of laggards can make the same claim.”

There’s hope for overwhelmed marketers

What happens when marketing organizations push back at excess complexity and focus on streamlining? “Among those with somewhat or very streamlined marketing processes,” the HBR Analytic Services report says, “54% of these respondents say their organization has achieved greater speed and agility to respond to market trends as a result of having a streamlined and frictionless process for its marketing efforts. Other benefits of streamlined processes cited by these respondents include better customer engagement (53%), better utilization of data (52%) and greater campaign impact (50%).”

What it will take to get marketing back on course

To come full circle, as we noted above, just 30% of those surveyed by HBR Analytic Services rate their organization’s marketing as “very effective” today. Quite simply, marketing is broken, according to a lot of marketers.

What will it take to fix it? “Efforts are underway to course correct,” the HBR Analytic Services report says, noting that 59% of those surveyed are currently increasing the use of data insights to make marketing decisions, or planning to within the next 12 months, 41% say the same for reallocating their marketing mix (e.g., platforms, networks, sites), and 34% are updating their external partnerships (e.g., agencies, consultants, vendors).

What’s next for marketers?

“Updated channels, streamlined processes, data analytics and consolidated partnerships can uncomplicate marketing, clearing a path for the seamless execution of campaigns and deeper consumer engagement,” the HBR Analytic Services report concludes.

Those are realities that Quad knows a lot about. We’re a marketing experience (MX) company that works with nearly 3,000 marketers across every conceivable vertical — from retail and CPG to health and financial services. We do that by deploying our market-leading MX suite of solutions — MX: Creative, MX: Production and MX: Media — fueled by MX: Intelligence and MX: Tech.

The bottom line: We help your marketing machine run more smoothly, saving you time, money and resources while giving you better results, speed and efficiency.

To learn more about Quad’s MX suite, click here. And to download a copy of the “Eliminating Complexity for a Frictionless Marketing Experience” from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by Quad, click here.

Why are marketers feeling stagnant?

If only 30% of today’s marketers consider their efforts “very effective,” according to HBR-AS, we’ve got a marketing crisis.

In “Eliminating Complexity for a Frictionless Marketing Experience,” a new research report from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services sponsored by Quad, experts uncover why so many of today’s marketing executives feel unsuccessful in their work. Moreover, the research goes a step further and dives into what the marketers who are satisfied with their efforts are doing right.

HBR-AS surveyed 527 global marketing executives at organizations with 10,000+ employees. The marketing research answers questions like:

Download “Eliminating Complexity for a Frictionless Marketing Experience,” for insights into what’s next for successful marketers.

Everyone is buzzing about data these days, but not all data is created equal. When it comes to marketing, the most useful data allows you to better connect with your target customers.

The key to collecting that particular data starts with understanding consumer attitudes about what they value most from what you have to offer. But just like data, not all attitudes are created equal.

We invite you to download “Tapping the power of consumer attitudes” for a look at how Quad’s research and analytics provides payors with a powerful new tool set.

 

In this Quad Insights report, you’ll learn about:

The world of direct-to-consumer (DTC) is in the midst of a full transformation. As the industry continues to grow in both revenue and competition, marketers should also expect to evolve their strategies heading into 2024.

Why wait to respond to what’s next when you can get ready now?

Quad’s latest analysis reveals upcoming trends that will be pivotal in redefining the DTC industry. Here’s a sneak peek into what you can expect:

• How many marketing channels do you need to activate for omnichannel success?
• What’s on the horizon for retail media networks and how do you choose the right platform(s) for your brand?
• What’s the future of livestream shopping in the United States and how will DTC brands take advantage of it in the year ahead?

With the future of DTC still taking shape, this is your chance to lead the way. Get ready to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape with these invaluable insights and stay one step ahead of your competition.

Today’s brands face an increasingly complex marketing ecosystem — from privacy to personalization, AI to identity, precision to persuasion, influencers to agencies.

To help make sense of it all, Quad commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the state of brands’ marketing services and partnerships in 2023. Forrester conducted a survey of 355 marketing and media strategy decision-makers at U.S. brands — and found that though brands are continuing to increase their marketing ecosystem’s complexity through the adoption of more marketing partners and tools, many are now undergoing the journey towards partner integration, leading to more effective marketing outcomes, business benefits and more impactful customer experiences. Among the key survey findings:

• Complexity within marketing teams is at an all-time high.
• Expectations of marketing teams are continually increasing.
• Incremental integration steps can lead to significant value for the business and the customer.
• Marketing integration is happening, but at too slow a pace for some brands.

Find out how your marketing team compares to its peers in “The Complexity Conundrum: How Marketers are Rethinking Integration to Unlock Their Brand’s Full Potential.”

Direct marketers managing new channels and technologies, rising costs and increasing KPIs in a wobbly economy need solid insights to break the code for success.

Quad’s new white paper, “The direct marketing revolution 2023: New consumer & marketer intel reveals how brands should shift their DM strategies,” delivers those insights. It distills proprietary research conducted with both consumers and marketers, and curates additional third-party studies. The result is a wealth of findings marketers can use to plan effective DM campaigns.

 

 

Consider:

• 39% of consumers say they are extremely/very likely to respond to an advertising promotion when they see it across multiple channels
• 74% of marketers say direct mail delivers the best ROI of the channels their companies use
• 60% of global consumers say they would quit a brand if their experience wasn’t personalized