Tim Moran

The 12 Days of Direct Mail

No matter what your persuasion—religious, ethnic, or otherwise—you most likely have heard (some would say “been assaulted by”) the “The 12 Days of Christmas” song during the holiday season. Here's a new version to help you remember all the direct mail items that can be used every day of the year—and not just during the holidays. On the first day of Christmas, PFL gave to me. . . .Read on.

Be Very Afraid...It’s Direct Mail—Not!

Fears about direct mail are based on stories and myths--there is really nothing about direct mail to be afraid of. Here we take a look at some of these direct mail “things that go bump in the night” to see what’s really scary and what’s not.

Part 2: The Power of Direct Mail: Types & Benefits of Postcards

With direct mail, brands can deliver one-to-one personalization with direct mail— no matter the physical nature of the items (flat or dimensional), no matter who the sender, no matter who the recipient.

Lost in the Sea of Emails? Dive into the Direct Mail Pool!

It's easy to see why your message—whether to a co-worker or a prospect or a customer—can be but a tiny fish lost in a vast digital sea. With hundreds of emails flooding our inboxes daily, it's no wonder that important messages often get lost. But fear not, there is a life preserver, of sorts: direct mail.

The Little Tale of Sister’s Irish Soda Bread

In what has become an annual tradition here at PFL, here is a reader-favorite blog we posted a couple of years ago about Irish Soda Bread—and the secret and venerable recipe for it. If you’re thinking, “What does this have to do with direct mail and marketing?” the answer is: “Nothing.” We just want you to enjoy the story and make the bread—something special to eat with your St. Patrick’s Day dinner, whether you’re Irish not. It really is the best. As is PFL.

How To Elevate Your Direct Mail to Be ‘More Than Mail’

When direct mail is elevated, it becomes more than just mail. It can be more than a postcard or a routine letter. Mail can certainly be more than sheets of folded paper in your mailbox or a package left on your doorstep. The “More Than Mail” concept empowers every marketer to transcend the expected and the forgettable. In the end, it is about fashioning powerful and memorable experiences for your customers and prospects.

What PFL Readers are Reading: From Strategy to Soda Bread

What interests our readers? We are starting the New Year off by serving up the list of the “Top 10” most read blogs on our site. What did you find most interesting and worthwhile in 2023?

‘Tis the Season to Celebrate the Customer: The Manner of Giving Is Worth More than the Gift

For businesses, the manner of giving means using a personal touch that sets brands apart and makes them feel truly valued. Celebration and recognition are essential components of a successful marketing strategy, which are amplified when using an automated direct mail strategy. The end-of-year holiday season is the perfect time to give it a go.

Pitt CTSI Finds Optimized Direct Mail to Be a Marketing Shot in the Arm

The University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) helps accelerate scientific research and clinical discoveries into modern medical techniques. One of these projects is NIH's “All of Us Research Program,” which invites one million people across the U.S. to help build one of the most diverse health databases in history. But how to go about successfully conducting such a major research program? While direct mail had always been a channel CTSI used, nobody was thrilled with how it was working. Here is the story of how the marketing team better optimized the direct mail channel for some real success.

Marketing Life in the Luxury Lane

Moments of celebration capture us at our best and commemorate our achievements. PFL recently interviewed Jan-Patrick Schmitz, CEO at John Hardy, to learn more about how customer celebration plays out in the luxury-retail world. “Understanding your consumers is key to creating meaningful celebrations and interactions with them,” Schmitz told PFL.

When You Wish Upon a... Catalog?

As was the case back in the 1930s with the Sears Holiday Catalog, the appearance of PFL's “2023 Holiday Lookbook” means the holidays have begun. PFL invites you read about the history of such catalogs, and to see what's in store from our carefully curated catalog chock full of ideas to make your holiday giving the best ever.

PFL, Naturally, Has Some Great ‘Resources’ for You

When we redesigned the PFL web site back in February, we knew that, in addition to detailing everything our technology platform has to offer, we wanted to provide readers with educational, informative, and entertaining content—preferably all three simultaneously.

How To Create Powerful Moments with Direct Mail—and Why

It’s critical to put the right message in the right form in front of customers at the right time. Direct mail plays a key role here. Ultimately, CMOs that focus on customer engagement are poised for far greater success.

Celebrating the Freedom to Connect

The 247th celebration of our country’s independence is fast approaching. While this momentous event was clearly a breaking away, it was also the impetus for a coming together—for freedom and connection are kindred in several ways. People crave personal contact—those “moments of connection” that bind us together. Here's a look at some of the ways freedom has fostered that kind of connection.

PFL & Paycor Create Powerful Moments with High-ROI Direct Mail

A while back, PFL hosted a virtual event featuring Jennifer Bellin, CMO of PFL and former marketing leader at Paycor, and Gretchen Swan, Paycor’s Senior Principal Marketing Program Manager. The discussion focused on why certain memorable experiences can cause us to take action and how we, as marketers, can learn to create those moments ourselves for our prospects and customers. Here are the highlights of this lively and informative discussion.

Promo Products: You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby!

The cheap, silly, disposable promotional junk from yesteryear doesn’t cut it anymore. No, things have changed—and for the better. A perfect example of the depth and scope of that change can be seen in PFL's recently published “2023 Spring & Summer Lookbook: Fully Branded Direct Mail Solutions by PFL.” Read on to see some samples and learn what unique trends mark today’s promotional products world.

All “Aha!” Moments Won’t Change the World—But They Can Change Your Business

It is possible for marketers to create "moments of insight"--aha! moments--that will help the audience recognize a problem so they can fully appreciate the solution you provide. These moments deliver realizations and transformations. And they drive action.

Trip the Insight Fantastic

“Insight” can be acquired in many ways—experience, reading, conversation, research, to name a few. You can consciously try to gain more insight into something, or an insight can hit you like a lightning bolt—generally called “eureka,” and “aha” moments. The question is, are you ready, wise, and prepared enough to make use of an insight? 

Direct Mail for the Digital Age, Part 3:

Recently, PFL hosted a virtual event based on the findings of a PFL-commissioned Forrester study titled, “Direct Mail for the Digital Age.” The first in the series of blogs explored where direct mail is today and where it looks to be heading. In Part 2, we examined how the ability to personalize and measure modern, automated direct mail makes all the difference. Here we hear what the roundtablers had to say about putting it all into action. All data and analyses in the blog are from this report.

Direct Mail for the Digital Age, Part 2:

Recently, PFL hosted a virtual event featuring CMO Jennifer Bellin, VP Customer Experience Kara Trapp, and Forrester Research’s VP and Principal Analyst Laura Ramos. This roundtable discussion was based on the findings of a Forrester-PFL co-created report titled, “Direct Mail for the Digital Age.” The first in the series highlighted the “Power of Engagement.” Here, in Part 2, we examine how the ability to personalize and measure with modern direct mail makes all the difference. All data and analyses are from the research report.

Direct Mail for the Digital Age, Part 1:

Recently, PFL hosted a virtual event featuring PFL CMO Jennifer Bellin; VP Customer Experience Kara Trapp; and Forrester Research’s VP and Principal Analyst Laura Ramos. This roundtable discussion was based on the findings of a PFL-commissioned Forrester report titled, “Direct Mail for the Digital Age.” What follows is the first of a series of articles highlighting insights from the webinar.

Don’t Just Engage, Elevate!

More and better digital marketing isn’t going to change that people today have limited attention, making it harder than ever for marketers to connect with customers and prospects. Many of today’s innovative marketers see the inclusion of physical mail as a key tactic to address this challenge. What can rise above the routine is the concept of "elevation."

How a Handwritten Note Elevated One Executive’s Customer Experience

Global executive Jan-Patrick Schmitz recently found a handwritten note on his seat on a flight out of Frankfurt. It got him thinking about how businesses must think about ways to enhance customer experience with more personal moments, personal touches, such as this note. This is the story of the note.

It’s a ‘Brand’-New Day for PFL

Our new brand, our new look and design, are all ways to say to today's marketers that direct mail is the way of the future, and we are here to partner with you to make the process simple and successful.

The Media Speaks, So Listen: Direct Mail Is Back with a Vengeance

Digital marketing was all the rage a decade ago, and the media was quick to sing its praises. But it became so ubiquitous that people are now pretty sick of it. Digital fatigue is a real thing—it, too, has been written about extensively over the past year or so.

Salesforce Report: Customers Want to Know and Be Known

Our CEO, Nick Runyon, sends out these great Sunday night “Updates”—musings, really, that are sometimes about our business, sometimes about his personal philosophies, sometimes just “hey, hope everyone’s doing well and ready for another successful week.”

Attention Economy, Meet Hybrid Experience

This article, from almost a year ago, still resonates today. This is one of our most popular posts. As we emerge from the pandemic and get back to business as usual, nothing has really changed–in fact, people’s attention might even be harder to secure today than ever.

Engagement, Not Reach, Is the Marketer’s Challenge Today

We’ve come a long way from the early digital marketing days covered by CMO.com. And, in some ways, what’s old is new again. And the combination of digital and physical marketing—the hybrid experience—is the future of marketing.

Pssst [YOUR NAME HERE], Have I Got a Deal for You!

Strategies must evolve with the channel. Many marketers don’t recognize the availability or value of modern hybrid platforms that marry the best of digital and physical and make direct mail even more effective.

Bringing Direct Mail into the Digital Age

Direct mail has been an effective tool for marketers across industries since the dawn of, well, mail. In fact, research shows that more than half of consumers want direct mail from brands that interest them. What’s more, 70 percent of them say these physical engagements are more personal than online interactions. Now it’s time for direct mail to realize its full potential in the digital age.

Personalization v. Personal: A Story of Two Couples

And that is how “Personal” beats “Personalization” every time, in every way.

The Little Tale of Sister’s Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Last year, we ran this blog about Irish Soda Bread and the, until now, secret and venerable recipe for it. If you are thinking, "What does this have to do with direct mail and marketing?" the answer is: "Nothing." Maybe it's just our way of "breaking the script," as suggested by the Power of Moments. In any case, if you like want something special to eat for your St. Patrick's day dinner, try it out. It really is the best.

February Celebrations: The Romantic and the Cynic

Part of PFL’s business involves helping its customers celebrate both big and little occasions—a successful meeting, a new employee, a long-time customer, or a holiday.

PFL Predicts: What’s In Store for Business in 2022?

The leadership team at PFL has some considered thoughts about what it’s going to take in the business, marketing, and technology areas to make 2022 better than 2021.

Holiday Traditions Around the World: It’s a Physical Gift

As we approach that time of the year when giving gifts, both personally and for business, is top of mind for many of us, I wondered what gift-giving looked like around the world.

The Real Secret to Amazon’s Success

PFL has created a way to deliver authentic human experiences—much like those Amazon serves up—by orchestrating impactful direct mail in an ecosystem fueled by data.

It’s a Hybrid World

Our 21st century is more of a hybrid world than ever. Home and office; public and private; online and offline; digital and analog. At PFL, we have created a platform to accelerate relationships with prospects and customers that can help move businesses forward in this new world.