What happened to the direct mail piece? The one you’d show to someone else because it was so amazing? I used to get one of those every once in awhile but now I can’t remember the last time this happened.

E-mail is fine and dandy, but does anyone remember the Pony Express, the mailman? Yeah people like to think that lovable old Andy Rooney still uses his 1920 Underwood typewriter, sorry to disappoint you, but he doesn’t, he does get e-mail.

But what in Sam Hill is our friendly pressman going to do with all his fancy die cut machines and million dollar presses? I haven’t received anything but a grocery flyer full of coupons in years and that’s got to be depressing for the mailman and the pressmen.

Is there some sort of mailing list that I’ve been kicked off of? Marlboro cigarettes used to send fancy direct mail pieces out, but that was when the family doctor recommended smoking.

Maybe I’m sounding like a e-blast ignoramus, but there are things that can be used to communicate within the physical format (print), texture, weight, and even smell.  Those are sure hard to fake amongst all the fuss in the digital realm.

Here is a great example of good ol’ fashioned creativity (and it’s even about creativity).

What is the last piece of direct mail you can recall?

This week I had an e-mail show up in my inbox that had 5 calls to action in it. Yikes! As I ponder which of those actions I was supposed to take first (call one of the 2 phone numbers, RSVP, visit the booth or e-mail), I was reminded of the important role design plays in something as simple as an e-mail marketing campaign. Not just design in the sense of images and graphics, but also how you design content, and the fact that the two go hand-in-hand.

There are plenty of mistakes made when designing an e-mail campaign. These mistakes include content that is hard to read or unclear, images everywhere and multiple calls-to-action. Below are my top five suggestions to help you avoid these digital marketing catastrophes.

1. Be clear about the audience you write for. Speak to that one person in the audience and keep it brief! Think about what you want the reader to do after they read your content and make the one call-to-action obvious.
2. Don’t make it hard to read. Break up large text boxes with sidebars or callouts. Highlight specific copy points that the audience will respond to. Use easy-to-read typefaces that are high contrast and stick to one or two.
3. Make sure it’s not dull. Write headlines to pull people in. Make sure the headline is easy to see—remember, the purpose of a headline is to get the reader to read the first line of your copy.
4. Don’t be overly decorative. Be careful using to many colors, drop shadows and every effect Photoshop has. This can often make your content hard to read. In e-mail marketing, less is more.
5. Make it believable. Create trust with design and tone consistency. Your company’s brand should already be doing this. Make sure you roll this into your digital – including e-mail – campaigns.

If you’ve got a digital marketing campaign and you need some help avoiding these mistakes or narrowing your call to actions, give Canyon a call at 480.775.8880.

Nothing is more true than this headline. Inditex is great example of this. Inditex is one of the largest and most sophisticated fashion retailers. It is based in Spain, but has a worldwide presence. You may be more familiar with the store Zara, which is owned by Inditex. Zara stores are found in select upscale, metropolitan cities (unfortunately not in Phoenix yet). In 2004, Inditex had a total of 2,244 stores. In 2010 the Inditex store count rose to 4,870—with stores in more than 77 countries. And the company continues to grow. Check out its financial data and see for yourself how well it is doing.

So how is Inditex doing so well in this economy? In my opinion, its unique business model is what makes the company so successful:

1. Innovation/creativity: fashion design and retail stores
2. Quality design, affordable prices
3. Flexibility: Rapid turnaround to adjust to changing market demands and fashion trends. New lines of clothing are being dropped into stores twice a week with the latest fashions. This is, by definition, termed ‘fast fashion.’ H&M, another fast-fashion retailer is doing the same thing.
4. Customer focus: Inditex listens to its customers and stays “in tune with its customers, who help it give shape to the ideas, trends and tastes developing in the world.”

I should note that marketing classes at state universities across the country are using Inditex as a real-world example of an ultra-successful business model.

We can all benefit from learning more about Inditex’s business model and we can begin to understand the value of being customer-centric and flexible with your products/services.

As we all know, Steve Jobs’ attempt to build a community around iTunes failed. Ping never really got off the ground—it is estimated that only around 2,000 artists joined, and many users who did sign up, ended up not liking it. One of the main issues was that Ping lacked an easy way to find out who, among your friends, was already using the service. There was no way to integrate it with Facebook, Twitter or an address book.

After months of negotiation, Apple finally solved that problem by teaming up with Twitter. Starting this week, people can use their Twitter account to share their Ping activity, preview songs and share links to purchase and download music directly from the iTunes store.

And, thanks to Twitter’s recent redesign, the shared Ping activity will appear in Twitter’s new details panel, literally transforming half of Twitter into the iTunes store.

So what do you think? When it comes to reputation management, can Twitter save Ping, or is it already too late?