In fact, a study by Forrester Research shows that when it comes to “influence impressions” generated on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, 6.2% of online adults are responsible for 80% of those impressions.  When it comes to “influence posts,” such as blog posts and posts on review sites, 13.4% of online adults create 80% of the posts. So, while you obviously want to treat all of your customers right, it’s worth making a special effort to keep these folks engaged and talking about your company. But how do you know who they are?

Jay Baer recommends targeting your marketing efforts toward those demographic groups which contain the highest numbers of influencers, and that’s not a bad way to get started. However, wouldn’t it be nice to know exactly who your most influential customers are, and to be able to reach out them and reward them personally? That’s one of the things that Dukky allows you to do-pinpoint exactly which of the customers responding to your direct mail or email campaigns are sharing your offer with their friends and families, as well as showing you which of your respondents’ were able to generate the most responses for you via social sharing. With our technology, you can watch in real-time as your offer travels across Facebook and Twitter, as well as by email and SMS.

Once you’ve found out who your most influential customers are, it makes sense to try to reward them. After all, if someone is bringing you a lot of new customers, giving them a little something back is simply a good business practice.

It’s always exciting to share our client’s success stories and hear first hand how impacting their campaigns are to their business. Our goal is always 2 things: Conversion and Redemption, and we refuse to stray from making sure our clients get both!

To view the article follow the link:

http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/direct-mail-tuneup-gives-saturn-greenville-better-lead-mileage/1

Thanks again to Target Marketing Magazine for featuring this campaign’s success on their site.

BrandWeek & MediaWeek | Anthony Crupi | September 8, 2009

BMW is kicking the tires on a direct response campaign targeting luxury auto enthusiasts, turning to an often undervalued marketing platform as a means to entice Mercedes, Volvo and Audi drivers to come in for a test drive.

In a bid to draw likely buyers to their local BMW dealership, last week the New Orleans-based DRM firm Dukky began sending out some 25,000 mailers to premium vehicle owners in the Tri-State (New York-New Jersey-Connecticut) area. Upon registering for a test drive, the recipients of the direct mail material are presented with a $25 American Express gas card.

Participating consumers are directed to visit a unique URL, which directs them to a personalized activation site powered by Dukky. Once the user has registered for a BMW test drive, he or she can share the promotion via email or social networking sites. The digital activity feeds into a dashboard which reports back to the client in real time, thereby creating a database of purchase intent and user feedback.

Although the DRM strategy may seem a bit low rent for the likes of BMW, there are a number of advantages to targeting the mailbox. “BMW for years has been all about acquisitions, whether you’re talking email lists or traditional mailing lists,” said Scott Couvillon, chief marketing officer, Dukky. “By its very nature, direct mail is much more impactful than even the greatest email because it’s there and it’s tangible. Then you take the next step with the PURL and you’re getting feedback on an individual consumer level.”

Couvillon added that Dukky’s ability to track the target’s subsequent interaction with the material, from signing on for a test drive to alerting friends to the offer on his or her Faceboook page, is what separates the initiative from the shills for garage door openers and pizza chains that clog the mails.

“We have no interest in dethroning Valpak,” Couvillon said. “Our technology allows a highly respected brand like BMW align itself with what is essentially an interactive coupon.”

Consumers were also targeted by the specific brand of vehicle they currently own, said Erik Wennerod, vp, director of CRM at Dotglu, the interactive unit of Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners. “Quite frankly, we wanted to go after each one of the 25,000 competitive vehicle owners with a message that was targeted to their demonstrated preference,” Wennerod said. “So for the Volvo owners, we went after them with a safety message. With Audi, it was tilted toward performance. With Mercedes, it was all about luxury.”

The gas card works as an incentive to get prospective clients deeper into the purchasing funnel, down past the initial part of the decision-making process where people start talking themselves out of a buy. “For better or worse, they start to add practical reasons for not buying,” Wennerod said. “One of the advantages BMW has is, once you drive one, there’s a much more emotional experience that takes place. If we can get them to that step, the car takes care of the rest.”

Wennerod expects activations to begin later this week, as the first recipients of the mailer begin making the jump to the online site. “One of the things we love about this is it’s essentially a turnkey approach,” Wennerod said. “Dukky was able to turn this around very quickly, from the DRM piece to getting the microsite online. It all went live literally just a few days before Labor Day, so we’re hoping to start getting the first round of feedback toward the middle of the week.”

While the typical return on direct mail is less than 2 percent, Dukky’s marriage of DRM, online and social media allows the company to guarantee returns of 8 percent. And in the case of the BMW promotion, Dotglu’s exposure is minimal. “It’s a variable cost deal,” said Wennerod. “We only pay for the people who take the test drive. That’s a lot of upside.”

Why does Dukky’s direct response platform combine traditional direct mail with new media technology? Based on a study conducted by the DMA, 42% of interested direct mail recipients prefer to respond to offers online. So Shawn Burst, founder and direct mail pioneer, developed a suite of products to capitalize on this finding by providing a stimulating online user experience combining gift cards and coupons.

A psychologically validated phenomenon, “coupon stigma,” partially explains the generally low usage rates of less than 2% of the traditional direct mail coupon offers. A Journal of Consumer Research study demonstrated that coupon users are stigmatized by others as “cheap.” The study confirms longstanding common knowledge that coupons are, in many cases, not socially acceptable. The Dukky Platform sees higher-than-normal redemption rates because both its offline and online distribution methods avoid this “coupon stigma” by completely changing the frame of reference: both physical and online coupons are reinvented as personalized gift cards.

This innovative patented technology will now be offering a web-service API for direct mail companies and agencies to build scalable, reliable direct mail solutions on the proprietary framework which was built using Amazon’s Elastic Cloud, Content Distribution Network and Simple Storage Service (S3). The API is also integrated with a custom Interactive Voice Response (IVR) component which allows consumers to activate offers over the phone.

Some of the other API features include: personalized URLs, custom landing page development, social media integration with over 45 social networks including Twitter and Facebook, customer profiling, segmenting and automated responders, e-commerce and live analytics reporting.

“Fortune 500 retailers worldwide have shown much interest in our current platform and we feel the API web service is the next appropriate step in the growth of our company,” says Shawn. He states that “you have to see it to believe it” and encourages companies to try out the live demo, which can be viewed at here.

Dukky is sponsoring Unjunk Mail, a site that provides consumers a way to control the deals they get from Dukky, connect with other top Do Not Mail sites, and learn, discuss (and vent!) about unwanted mail.  Dukky and Unjunk Mail share a common goal: help consumers get more of what they do want (deals) and less of what they don’t want (junk mail). In the end, marketers win too.

Today, Triple Pundit did a piece on Dukky and Unjunk Mail and dug into the question of why a direct marketing company would sponsor a Do Not Mail service. Check it out here.

Rewards programs are designed to provide employees or customers a connection with your brand that allows for feedback for improvement and a better relationship overall. But these loyalty programs often result in silence and a liability on your books. Typical efforts to encourage rewards redemption often serve to cost you money with limited member response and few points redeemed.

Enter Dukky who guarantees that our direct marketing platform developed specifically for loyalty and rewards programs will not only increase redemption of points, miles or credits, but also encourage meaningful feedback from members. All without the expense and coordination of yet another expensive merchandise catalog or ignore-able e-mail campaign.

The way our direct response program works is simple. We put together an attractive mailer with up to 40 personalized gift cards that reduce the number of points required to purchase specific merchandise in your program. These gift cards are good for any range of dates you set.

If the recipient is interested, they visit an activation site through a personalized URL (PURL). There, they activate the cards by indicating which products they are interested in and verifying their contact information, adding e-mail or mobile number if you like. From there, they can forward the offers to their colleagues through e-mail or social networks, navigate to your redemption center directly to shop or complete a survey to provide you with member feedback in exchange for bonus points. All of this activity feeds an online dashboard that allows you to monitor the marketing program’s performance in real-time.

Best of all, we put our money where our mouth is by offering you the option of performance based compensation. Rather than pay per unit like traditional direct mail, only pay for the quality of performance compared to your traditional redemption efforts. If we don’t beat your benchmark, pay less than our cost. If we do, pay relative to performance of the program over your existing efforts.

To talk to us about setting up a program for your client or the program you manage directly, let us hear from you at sales@dukky.com or by calling 1.888.796.2770.

Additional Dukky Direct Marketing Products:

• Travel / Hospitality
• Tradeshows and Conferences
• Catalogs
• Online Aggregators
• Retailers
• Membership Programs

– Scott Couvillon, Chief Marketing Officer

Change the Game, Not Just the Frequency

Catalog Product Details: The major concerns for catalogers are obvious and getting bigger by the day. The expense of creating and mailing a catalog to acquire customers means ROI is seriously challenged before it even gets started.
Catalogs do a great job of showcasing a product portfolio but they do not provide immediate feedback or value. So while marketers are well aware of the cost of sending a catalog out, it’s harder to measure the return. And smaller postcard or e-mail efforts come across as just that: Small.

Dukky’s direct marketing platform for catalogs provides a way to showcase products in a format that has both value and immediacy. The platform also gathers feedback from recipients whether they make a purchase or not.

With Dukky, you can put incentives towards the purchase of your products in the form of personalized gift cards directly into the hands of your potential customers. Whether testing a Dukky against a snail-mailed or e-mailed program, we will lower your costs and increase your returns.

The way our program works is simple. We put together a mail piece with up to 40 personalized gift cards that give an incentive to a near term purchase.  Feature up to 40 products or a smaller number of offers ranging from free shipping to a percentage off of total purchase good for any range of dates you set.

If the recipient is interested, they visit an activation site through a personalized URL (PURL). There, they activate the cards by indicating which products or offers they are interested in and verifying their contact information. They can also add e-mail or mobile contact indicating that as the preferred means of contact in the future. From there, they can forward the offers to peers through e-mail or social networks, provide feedback on additional offers or the perceptions of your Brand in general and navigate directly to your homepage to start browsing. All of this activity feeds a dashboard that allows you to monitor the program’s performance in real-time, even before the first purchase is made.

To talk to us about a customized program to address your challenges, let us hear from you at sales@dukky.com or by calling 1.888.796.2770.

Additional Dukky Direct Marketing Products:

• Travel / Hospitality
• Tradeshows and Conferences
• Loyalty / Rewards
• Online Aggregators
• Retailers
• Membership Programs

– Scott Couvillon, Chief Marketing Officer

Awareness Does Not Equal Attendance when It Comes to Tradeshows and Conferences

The Classic Problem: Typically, conference and tradeshow marketing is focused on generating awareness.  You leverage the equity of shows past and simply remind attendees of the timing and location of this year’s event.  The problem is that this outreach rarely results in compelling creative or anything substantive to consider.  So the radio spots, postcard mailers, e-mails and other creative goes largely ignored and attendance is what it is.

Solution: The Dukky direct response platform changes the result of marketing your event from raising awareness to increasing attendance. Whether business to business, business to consumer, local or requiring travel, our program allows you to not only communicate the details of your show, but also engage the potential attendee with a preview of what the show has to offer.  In addition, the process  generates valuable feedback that allows you to improve your event for your specific audience well in advance of the actual show.

The way our program works is simple. We put together a mailer with up to 40 personalized gift cards with offers from your exhibitors and sponsors. In the case of shows requiring travel, we might include offers from accommodations, restaurants and local attractions.  These offers serve to minimize the cost of attendance while previewing the experience you can expect. Interested recipients visit an activation site through a personalized URL (PURL). There, they activate the cards by indicating which products they are interested in and verifying their contact information, adding e-mail or mobile number if you like. From there, they can forward the offers to their peers through e-mail or social networks, complete a survey giving you feedback, and visit your site to purchase a ticket or for more information. All of this activity feeds a dashboard that allows you to monitor the marketing’s performance in real-time.

To talk to us about how this could specifically benefit your project, let us hear from you at sales@dukky.com or by calling 1.888.796.2770.

Additional Dukky Direct Marketing Products:

• Travel / Hospitality
• Loyalty / Rewards
• Catalogs
• Online Aggregators
• Retailers
• Membership Programs

– Scott Couvillon, Chief Marketing Officer

Why is Dukky, an innovator (we like to say ‘disruptor’) in the direct mail industry, going to next week’s Loyalty Expo?

Well it turns out that our new technology has an application for Loyalty and Rewards programs that forward-thinking, web-savvy industry leaders will likely appreciate. We’re combining online and offline components to help you engage customers and monitor your relationships with them in real-time. Dukky’s Loyalty and Rewards platform not only increases redemption of points, miles or credits, it also encourages meaningful feedback from members. All without the expense and coordination of yet another merchandise catalog or e-mail to the membership database that has little to no impact.

Rewards programs are designed to provide employees or customers a connection with your brand that allows for feedback and a better relationship overall. But these programs can result in silence and a liability on your books. Traditional efforts to encourage redemption are expensive and often result in limited member response and few points redeemed.

Enter Dukky.

The way our program works is simple. We put together an attractive mailer with up to 40 personalized gift cards that reduce the number of points required to purchase specific merchandise in your program. These cards are good for any range of dates you set.

If the recipient is interested, they visit an activation site through a personalized URL (PURL). There, they activate the cards by indicating which products they are interested in and verifying their contact information, adding e-mail or mobile number if you like. From there, they can forward the offers to their colleagues through e-mail or social networks, navigate to your redemption center directly to shop or complete a survey to provide you with feedback in exchange for bonus points.

All of this activity feeds a dashboard that allows you to monitor the program’s performance in real-time.

We’d love to talk to you about how we can adapt our platform to work for your program. Come say hello at our booth at the Expo….or we’ll come looking for you.

Dukky technology provides marketers real-time feedback on how their program is performing and who is responding to their offers. Marketers can slice and dice the collected information in a variety of ways and then download the data from our performance dashboard.

Traditional direct mail campaigns that blast out mailers and catalogs to homes across the country rarely know when their offers are opened, passed on to a friend of the recipient, or tossed into the fireplace. Dukky is using its patented technology and the power of social networks to track all of this activity.

The final results look pretty cool. And armed with Dukky’s performance data you’ll likely be the smartest marketer in the room. Check out examples of our dashboards below: