Aug 6, 2019, 04:12 AM by Sasha Banks-Louie

Customer service execs are taking a hard look at bots for the simple reason that they can handle large volumes of calls, chats, and emails, so that service center staff can focus on the toughest questions. As the technology behind bots—known as digital assistant technology—has improved in terms of natural language processing, machine learning, and intent-matching capabilities, companies are increasingly willing to trust them to handle direct customer interaction.

Jul 4, 2019, 10:18 AM by Vlad Cristei

This is nothing new. By now you will have read countless blogs and white papers on the power of social media marketing for businesses. The long and short of it is this: social media is a very powerful and efficient way for businesses to reach their customers and find new prospects. To do this, you have to put yourself out there, be professional, update your social media profiles to illustrate your best skills and get active.

Jun 24, 2019, 10:27 AM by Rusty Langford

Jun 24, 2019, 10:15 AM by Rusty Langford

Jun 24, 2019, 07:35 AM by Rusty Langford

Customer support is customer support, right? While every company must acknowledge, respond and resolve customer inquiries or address complaints, it’s the uniqueness of their products that defines their customer experience. But not all products, and certainly not all consumers, have the same level of complexity. Such is the case with streaming services.

Jun 24, 2019, 03:49 AM by Fred Dumas

What does it take to get things done in today’s world of digital marketing services? Not only has technology completely changed strategic thinking in marketing, it has also revolutionized marketing operations, or the discipline of getting things done in marketing. The following is a summary of how to achieve excellence in digital execution and managed marketing services. We focus on three areas: identifying essential digital marketing functions, driving operational excellence, and aligning investments with your essential functions.

Jun 14, 2019, 11:01 AM by Rusty Langford

As a new frontier for many organizations, it can be hard to know what to expect when you enter the digital streaming marketplace.Knowing all the components to set up a successful streaming program can be a daunting task at best. If the customer experience (CX) is not supported effectively, this will negatively impact the customer satisfaction (CSAT), and there is a high chance that this will lead to lost revenue. Unforeseen obstacles result from inexperience or poor planning—but we can help. Based on our experience in a variety of industries, including high-traffic sports and leading entertainment brands, we’ve learned the seven key CX best practice considerations that can make or break your success.

Mar 12, 2019, 15:44 PM by None

Some of the most successful brands across industries are outsourcing their customer care with great success. The negative image of customer service and support is the result of a variety of myths about outsourcing—read on to see how these myths are dispelled.

Sep 24, 2018, 01:08 AM by Courtney Eckert

People are demanding more from their experiences with brands, both online and off. To meet these demands, you have to get to know them—each and every one of them. Because with the right information, you can make more relevant offers, at more pertinent times, in more appropriate places, ensuring you reach a more receptive audience.

Sep 20, 2018, 10:45 AM by Lane Yard

Thanks to advancements in technology and communication, it’s been a while since most of us came home to a mailbox filled with actual letters from friends and family. It was a good feeling that’s been replaced with the simple habit and general frustration of sorting through stacks of bills, coupons and credit card offers—their mundane envelopes literally creating a kind of white noise.

Sep 20, 2018, 06:02 AM by JD Metcalf

When looking at the financial technology (fintech) landscape, it’s easy to get lost in all the latest platforms and apps that seem to come onto the scene literally every day—from simple payment apps to complex robo-advisors that use algorithms to invest client dollars and automatically adjust based on market conditions.

Sep 20, 2018, 02:14 AM by Nicole Bump

Aaron Chestnut leads overall marketing strategy for First Tennessee Bank, which recently completed a merger with Capital Bank. His role includes oversight of retail marketing, business marketing, affluent/wealth marketing, brand management, customer insights, Salesforce.com and database marketing.

Sep 19, 2018, 06:50 AM by None

Sep 19, 2018, 06:47 AM by None

Welcome to Featured. After getting all kinds of inspiration and motivation at the recent Content Marketing World event, I’ve decided to switch things up a bit in my letters from the editor. It’s about to get a bit more personal around here!

Sep 14, 2018, 03:31 AM by Michael Behrenhausen

The Curiosity Factor, as explored by Andrew Davis in his keynote at CMWorld, teaches how to add tension to content to keep readers invested. “Producing content is expensive, but producing the wrong content is lethal.”

Sep 11, 2018, 04:24 AM by Nicole Bump

What do each of these pieces of content have in common? They have meaningful purpose in the world. The 7UP brand has long had a connection to the music industry, and in this piece, the brand uses that connection to help hearing-impaired individuals experience music in a new way.

Sep 10, 2018, 05:40 AM by Alex Gill

Relationships. We’ve all had them. But in order to generate positive, successful relationships, you need to invest plenty of time, care and attention. And that's no different for the ones between businesses and their customers.

Sep 10, 2018, 05:09 AM by Mike Hastings

Consumers are driving the car ownership market in a new direction: automotive subscriptions. The impact this concept has had—and will continue to have—is proof that successful product and marketing management requires constant attention to the route customers want to take in life. And it requires creating multiple routes to get there.

Sep 4, 2018, 03:43 AM by Matt Pollock

Jenny is a B2B sales associate. She's on the road a lot and she doesn't want to get caught without the proper marketing collateral for her meetings. To make sure she has what she needs at all times, she orders high volumes of materials from the company store and keeps them in her trunk.

Aug 30, 2018, 10:14 AM by Rich Romig

Clients choose an agency based on different criteria, but chief among them is the belief that the agency will simply do a better job than the others it competes against. At the core of that belief is the client’s personal experience with agency personnel or its leadership team. Once the credentials and capabilities are established and the speculative (spec) work shown, it’s people-to-people connectivity that often seals the deal, the way the right seasoning elevates a recipe into something great.

Aug 29, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Welcome to Featured, our publication in which we share the topics readers like you are most interested in each month.What resonated most with our audience in July? Our infographic on accurate attribution grabbed some attention—check it out to see why fractional attribution is the most effective method to optimize budget spend and improve MROI.

Aug 28, 2018, 06:14 AM by Karl Hellman

The idea that brick-and-mortar retailers should incorporate the interactivity of online shopping experiences has been suggested by retail luminaries for some time now. Frank Grillo, CMO of Harte Hanks, and Kim Whitler, Professor at University of Virginia, Darden School of Business, suggested it in their analysis of retailing in 2018. Some retailers—True Religion, for example—are beginning to integrate online capabilities with their brick-and-mortar stores.

Aug 27, 2018, 11:01 AM by Nicole Bump

Joe Pulizzi in his over-the-top orange suits. Content marketing legends like Ann Handley and Jay Baer. And of course, Tina Fey. Who wouldn't want to see Tina Fey?

Aug 23, 2018, 12:14 PM by Alan Kittle

I recently completed the privileged role of chairing four judging panels at this year’s DMA International Echo Awards in New York City. I was joined by over 100 judges, reviewing shortlisted submissions from over 20 countries across three grueling days.

Aug 22, 2018, 15:44 PM by Zach Nelson

This insurance brand is a leading provider of property and casualty insurance that prides itself on providing superior customer service. The company had built an effective customer acquisition model through its large network of affinity partners, but rapid and revolutionary changes in the property and casualty (P&C) insurance category were making this model increasingly difficult to sustain.

Aug 22, 2018, 05:20 AM by Alan Kittle

Soundtracks can enable powerful movie marketing. The hit Titanic song "My Heart Will Go On," sung by Céline Dion, was a great marketing tool. Titanic went on to become the second-highest grossing film of all time, and the soundtrack is in the top 50 album sales of all time. Some say the movie made the soundtrack, but this misses the obvious synergy between a movie and its soundtrack.

Aug 16, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Originally founded in the United Kingdom, this payment processing giant expanded its footprint into the United States. The brand’s unique offering benefits customers beyond basic payment processing and provides insights that can help customers grow their businesses. Their complex story had to be told in such a way that would garner optimal results for the U.S.-based operation.

Aug 16, 2018, 12:34 PM by Natalia Gallur

Our world is being redesigned through digital technologies. Technology has changed how people live, work, play and connect. And marketers are learning to use the digital experience to track signals to reach customers in a more human manner—in the moments that matter. The healthcare industry can do the same to track and engage patients in the moments that matter to them—and improve their outcomes.

Aug 16, 2018, 06:23 AM by Christopher Decker

You know what they say about assumptions, right? If you don’t, I’m not going to print it here. But suffice it to say, you should avoid making them. In life and in business, we have to deal with them, and counter with the facts.

Aug 10, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

A lot of clients ask us about where cryptocurrency is going, but the technology that tracks cryptocurrency (blockchain) holds more potential. JD Metcalf, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains how this technology can provide value to your financial services customers.

Aug 10, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Brands that produce commodity products can still make real connections with their customers (think Coca-Cola). Zach Nelson, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains how.

Aug 9, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

A pioneer in the wealth management industry has as their business a wide range of services including retirement, education funding, investment, planning and insurance to individuals, families and businesses.

Aug 6, 2018, 04:05 AM by ZACH NELSON

Marketers often use broad-stroke pillars and base budgets on a percentage increase over current spend (or other loose estimates) with the eventual tactics bearing little resemblance to the original strategic framework used to build those budgets. If this sounds like you, read on to learn about a better way of building grounded marketing program proposals that can be more accurately budgeted and ultimately produced.

Aug 2, 2018, 05:15 AM by JD Metcalf

Toys R Us has finally closed its doors. And like the sad meme of their mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe waving goodbye the finality has people buzzing and experts (for better or worse) speculating about the future of retail in an increasingly digital world. What could they have done differently?

Aug 1, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Fintech seems to be one of the biggest threats to traditional financial services providers, but worrying about all of the possible technology-based players isn't likely to help you succeed. Watch this video for a better approach from JD Metcalf, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks.

Aug 1, 2018, 10:25 AM by Scott Rhodes

As noted in a recent Gartner study, the CMO’s budget as a percent of total company revenues has dropped after years of persistent growth. The study concludes: “Marketing leaders must justify past budget commitments and demonstrate the returns they deliver to ensure the future fiscal health of marketing.”

Jul 31, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

The more time we all spend interacting with digital devices, the more we crave human interaction. And customers want marketers to get to know them as individuals. JD Metcalf, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains what this can look like in financial services.

Jul 31, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

It can feel daunting for a packaged goods brand to make an emotional connection with its customers—especially in the days of Amazon. Zach Nelson, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains how brands like Coca Cola surround commoditized products with "lifestyle wrappers" to create emotional connection and stay with the consumer between purchases.

Jul 31, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

It is the essence of omnichannel marketing: surrounding customers with relevant, coordinated messaging across channels, in the right moments. Zach Nelson, VP of Marketing at Harte Hanks, explains the strategy he calls "The Surround."

Jul 31, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Most banks and credit unions want to tap into this acquisition opportunity—and it might be easier than it appears. Find out which opportunity we're referring to from JD Metcalf, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks.

Jul 31, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

At the end of 2017, over $2B was sitting in the Starbucks payment app. Find out why this is important to banks and credit unions and what they can do about it from JD Metcalf, VP of Marketing Strategy at Harte Hanks.

Jul 26, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

On the topic of technology, new author Tej Bhattarai, Marketing Campaign Director, examines best practices for selecting and implementing the right tools for your omnichannel experience—and Laura Watson, Director of Strategy, explains the irony in using technology to be more “human” in your communications.

Jul 26, 2018, 10:43 AM by Nick LaBran

Social media is now part of just about every company’s marketing strategy. Some use it well, others, not so well. But one key element that should be part of any successful social marketing strategy is social listening.

Jul 23, 2018, 12:24 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

A decade ago when market research response rates were 35% to 40%, we could assume away non-response bias. But today, with response rates as low as 5% to 10%, we need to question whether we are getting results that represent the population.

Jul 23, 2018, 05:29 AM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

Fractional Attribution rooted in proven math and statistical techniques is a critical tool to improve and optimize the performance of an incredibly complex system of channels and media, both online and offline. Check out why top-performing CMOs are relying on fractional attribution to improve their marketing efforts—and their return on investment—in this infographic.

Jul 20, 2018, 03:57 AM by Mark Michaud

Supply chain execution for some firms is an increasingly critical dimension of marketing, differentiation, and defensible competitive advantage. As an example, consider Home Depot’s recent decision to invest $1.2 billion in its supply chain for their two thousand-plus stores as well as their growing e-commerce business.

Jul 18, 2018, 06:03 AM by Aaron Ludwig

We’ve discussed the factors you should consider when deciding to outsource your database, as well as some of the benefits you can reap from an outsourced marketing database. We’ve even covered what a good marketing database will cost (in house or outsourced).

Jul 17, 2018, 04:14 AM by Aaron Ludwig

You know the four functions of a good marketing database, but can you achieve all four on your own? If not, outsourcing might be the answer. The specific benefits you may gain from outsourcing your database marketing solution depend on your situation and goals. Generally, however, the benefits fall into 10 well-defined categories.

Jul 16, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

The dealership network of a major import automotive brand was losing after-sales revenue, an extremely important part of the dealership's overall profitability.

Jul 16, 2018, 05:54 AM by Matt Pollock

From travel and hospitality offers, to incentives on concert and sporting event tickets and that Starbucks card in your wallet, we’re a society that loves our perks. In the U.S. alone, consumers hold over 3.8 billion memberships in customer loyalty programs—and that number continues to grow.

Jul 13, 2018, 12:05 PM by Matt Pollock

Delivery options for ecommerce fulfillment are proliferating. The choice of same-day delivery or next-day or two-day shipping are table stakes. Now, consumers have the choice to go to a physical location to pick up their package themselves, saving time and money.

Jul 12, 2018, 08:50 AM by Karen Puckett

Wipro’s flagship WINNOVATE 2018 event took place earlier this year, at which Harte Hanks CEO Karen Puckett joined executives from Microsoft, Uber, Discover and Nokia in a panel discussion on Operations Transformation in the Digital Age. We captured some of Karen’s insights on technology and transformation ahead of the event in this interview.

Jun 29, 2018, 00:35 AM by KN Kasibhatla

Some say blockchain technology is as revolutionary as the internet itself. For example, Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM states "Blockchain will do for transactions what the internet did for information." Skeptics, on the other hand, point to multiple security breaches, slow transaction speeds, and severe governance inefficiencies as evidence that blockchain technology is more hype than substance.

Jun 28, 2018, 08:41 AM by Jonathan Cayton

In this final installment of our four-part series on account-based marketing, we detail six technology fields essential to supporting an end-to-end ABM process. We also suggest tools for consideration for both entry-level and advanced strategies.

Jun 28, 2018, 02:03 AM by None

Laura Watson, Director of Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains how some day in the (near?) future, machines will be able to use artificial intelligence to read our emotions and act accordingly—allowing marketers to make a big leap forward.

Jun 25, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Discover how to make the most of moving. Watch our video to learn how to drive sales and brand engagement for your business with the New Mover Marketing Suite by Harte Hanks.

Jun 21, 2018, 05:40 AM by Alan Kittle

The film Solo: A Star Wars Story failed at the box office and looks to be the lowest-grossing film in the franchise’s long and stellar (pun intended) history. Numerous critics have faulted various aspects of the film including: switching midstream from directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to Ron Howard, an unknown leading man taking over as the teenage version of an iconic character, or the release date between Avengers: Infinity War and Incredibles 2.

Jun 15, 2018, 14:05 PM by Laura Watson

It’s been a decade since Mad Men’s Don Draper and his entourage dramatized the now-antiquated approach to marketing: create a product then convince consumers they can’t live without it. For today’s marketers, given the focus on big data, personalization and one-to-one marketing, that methodology feels foreign.

Jun 14, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

prEtrak software from Harte Hanks offers real-time reporting, which lets you know the precise location of your mail at all times. Our 30-year, hands-on relationship with the United States Postal Service helps to ensure that delays are avoided and your mail gets delivered on time. As a regular user of prEtrak data, even the USPS values the insight delivered by prEtrak reporting.

Jun 14, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Enrollment continues to increase at this five-campus community college, and so has the need for student support services. With each new academic year comes predictable spikes in student information requests concerning enrollment, financial aid, and general information about student life. Student inquires of up to four times the typical need can easily stress student support staff to the limits.

Jun 13, 2018, 15:30 PM by Nicole Bump

Content serves as our brand’s turn in the digital brand-buyer conversation—and each of our turns in that conversation must deliver some value to the buyer. To deliver that value at every interaction, you must have a deep understanding of your customers, what they’re trying to accomplish and wh

Jun 13, 2018, 15:24 PM by Frank Grillo

With all of the new responsibilities CMOs are being asked to shoulder, the role can sometimes feel like we’re being asked to walk on water. In fact, that’s exactly how Kim Whitler, Assistant Professor, University of Virginia, Darden School of Business and member of the Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board, calls it: a “water-walking” role. Finding the right CMO that can navigate these demanding waters is equally challenging for the CEO (evidenced by the fact the CMOs have by far the shortest tenure in the C-Suite).

Jun 13, 2018, 13:37 PM by Tej Bhattarai

Omnichannel marketing—the practice of sequencing communication across channels so that it’s connected, relevant and consistent with the customer’s buying stage—is no longer a competitive edge, but rather a business practice mandatory for survival.

Jun 12, 2018, 15:26 PM by Greg Costello

They’re the annoying ads you can’t wait to click through so you can see the video your aunt sent you of the cat chasing the laser pointer. Nobody likes pre-roll ads—in fact, YouTube has started killing “unskippable” 30-second ads, requiring the welcome “Skip Ad” button to come in after about five seconds.

Jun 12, 2018, 08:23 AM by Harte Hanks

SAN ANTONIO, May 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harte Hanks (NYSE:HHS), a leader in developing customer relationships, experiences and interaction-led marketing, won three platinum awards in the international 2018 Hermes Creative Awards for innovative email campaigns the company produced for Sony Electronics.

Jun 7, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

In a world where customers demand exceptional, relevant experiences—online and offline—single, static data points and demographics simply won’t cut it. ou cannot converse contextually with someone by knowing that she’s a 38-year old female from Denver making $67,000 per year.

Jun 7, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Your brand's content is not only competing with other brands—it's also competing with the likes of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime content for attention. You can stand out by delivering real value. Nicole Bump, Director of Content Marketing at Harte Hanks, explains.

Jun 7, 2018, 11:45 AM by Jonathan Cayton

In this third installment of our four-part series about account-based marketing, we click through the “Four Ps” essential to the process: prepare, prioritize, plan and perform. Much of marketing is about pursuit. But we’d all be spinning in circles if we did not first invest the time to identify and get to know the prospective customers we are best suited to help—and consider the ideal approach to engage with them.

Jun 5, 2018, 09:25 AM by KN Kasibhatla

n the not-so-distant past, the standard methodology in marketing analytics was to input raw data variables into statistical programs to generate marketing insights. This approach was a core element of what is referred to as CRM 2.0.

Jun 1, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Corporations are increasingly willing to connect their brands to social issues. Rather than be left behind, many companies are wondering whether they too should add a social dimension to their brand. While there are numerous risks, some of the key advantages include making the brand more human.

May 30, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

It’s that time of month again—time for an update on our hottest marketing content. And hot it’s been for data privacy professionals. Between the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica fiasco and GDPR, the marketing world has been abuzz about personal data, data privacy and trust lately.

May 30, 2018, 13:59 PM by Nicole Bump

Brian Carrier is the Vice President of Global Demand Generation, Data Insights and Marketing Technology at Xerox. Reporting to Xerox’s CMO, Toni Clayton-Hine, Brian is responsible for the company’s global demand generation and marketing technology/data strategy, including the company’s big data datamart, Salesforce.com and Marketo integration, as well as their technology roadmap. We interviewed him about his key challenges and the innovative technology he’s employing to solve them.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

We know content is important, but it can be a big challenge to create a steady stream of high quality material. Nicole Bump, Director of Content Marketing at Harte Hanks, provides three tips for producing valuable content on the regular.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone on social media, consider context audiences. Hear Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, explain why they can be a great tool for generating relevant social communities.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, explains what should be top of mind for social media marketers in 2018. You might also find value in this this post by Kate: 5 Dos and Don'ts on How to Use Consumer Data in Social

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Content that never sleeps! Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, explains an insider tip for creating an always-on content machine. Check out how to create lots of content from a few simple steps.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

While reaching a large audience with a prominent influencer sounds like a winning bet, you might be better off focusing on your brand advocates. Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, explains why—and how to find them.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Do you know what your customers want from you on social? Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, explains what it is—and how to deliver it.

May 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Social media should be about having personalized conversations. See which brand Kate Sullivan, Senior Director, Digital & Social Media at Harte Hanks, holds on a pedestal for social personalization.

May 29, 2018, 14:58 PM by JD Metcalf

August and September mark one of the busiest times of year for opening depository accounts, and the time to take advantage is now. In this second story in our two-part series, we follow six marketing steps that enable banks to identify, select and engage the best-opportunity households for new accounts. If you haven't seen the first post on finding households ripe for deposit growth, have a look!

May 29, 2018, 14:09 PM by Kate Sullivan

By Laura Watson and Kate Sullivan. Data privacy is a hot button topic right now—but being responsible with your customer’s personal data is never going to go out of style.

May 29, 2018, 11:07 AM by None

Content is still king, but only if it delivers value to those that engage with it. Nicole Bump, Director of Content Marketing at Harte Hanks, explains how to deliver this value by understanding the buyer's journey.

May 25, 2018, 14:01 PM by JD Metcalf

A sound way to increase deposits is by strengthening relationships with existing customers. In this first story in a two-part series, we lay out the four steps for growing deposits with a small but influential segment—affluent households.

May 25, 2018, 10:27 AM by Matt Pollock

We've all seen those infomercials with products that look like they would be genius—if they worked. Little egg cups that will make hard boiled eggs a cinch by replacing the hard-to-peel egg shell with a plastic case ("Never peel an egg again!"). A machine that will suck ear wax out of your ears to prevent painful Q-tip injuries. The gadget that quickly snips off all of the split ends in your hair.

May 24, 2018, 10:12 AM by Ioana Popescu

It's no stretch to say that there’s a lot of chatter on the internet creating a ton of digital noise. Today, on Twitter alone there are 350,000 new tweets sent per minute and currently 2.2 billion active monthly users on Facebook—that’s more people than the entire population of China.

May 22, 2018, 15:34 PM by Scott Rhodes

I’m going to bring up a term that might score if you’re playing buzzword bingo: “digital transformation.” The term has become ubiquitous enough that most companies are at least pretending to worry about it—and amorphous enough that no two “gurus” will give you the same working definition of what it actually means.

May 22, 2018, 15:17 PM by Jonathan Cayton

In this second installment of our four-part series about account-based marketing, we’ll venture into selective accounting and developing personas by analyzing the events that shape the client’s needs. If you haven't yet, check out the first part in this series about the five essential ingredients to building an ABM strategy.

May 16, 2018, 16:14 PM by Thea Crelin

By Daniel Rubin and Thea M. Crelin. It’s the million-dollar question that can save many insurance firms a bundle, and yet it starts so small: If you had just one dollar to spend on marketing, where would that dollar go?

May 16, 2018, 09:03 AM by Dave Francis

In my previous blogpost, I looked at the state of transportation and how to manage the current capacity crisis: that is, the trucking industry demand for freight is very high, and supply of equipment very low, which results in high prices.

May 14, 2018, 13:35 PM by Marla Schilling

The Boutique continues to nurture website visitors by providing valuable content in the right moment. We strive to do this in the most human way possible, just as if we were in a real brick-and-mortar store, helping visitors face to face.

May 11, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

What an exciting and yet challenging time to be in marketing. The demands placed on us as marketers are constantly expanding and are being driven from all areas that impact our customers’ and potential customers’ lives. Perhaps none is more top of mind at the moment than trust. People share their information with us in the two-fold belief that we first will respect it, and second, that we will use it in a way that is genuinely relevant to them.

May 9, 2018, 10:26 AM by Rich Romig

It’s practically a rite of passage. Every copywriter or art director kvetches at some point (and many never stop) about the quality/usefulness of a creative brief. Sometimes it’s an ongoing problem that can only be solved by an overhaul of the document itself—or the infusion of new personnel who simply know how to write better, more actionable briefs.

May 8, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

If we're looking to generate true dialogue on social media, we need to measure more than likes. Nick LaBran, Social Media Intelligence, provides some alternatives.

May 8, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

It's one of the biggest challenges facing social media marketers: being heard in a sea of ever increasing voices. But it's not about shouting the loudest. Hear what Nick LaBran, Social Media Intelligence at Harte Hanks, recommends.

May 8, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Are you being social on social? Or making this common mistake? Nick LaBran, Social Media Intelligence at Harte Hanks, explains what lots of marketers are getting wrong. If you want to get social right, check out one of our social listening case studies.

May 4, 2018, 09:42 AM by JD Metcalf

How much more profit would your company generate with a small improvement in new customer retention? For most firms, the answer is, “A LOT.” A simple Google search generates statistics that show it costs between 5X-25X as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain a current customer.

May 3, 2018, 15:26 PM by Asha Rangaraj

Omnichannel experience is a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience—no matter how or where a customer reaches out.

May 1, 2018, 09:17 AM by Sam Kwietniak

I am not a tech expert. I’m not even a tech-sort-of/kind-of-fan. But I am (as we all are) entwined in the industry’s every episode, with personality, privacy and productivity all at the mercy of its mercurial metamorphoses. What follows is far from a scientific forecast of what’s to come, but rather, a prophecy of what may—should the titans of technology continue to ignore the shifting expectations of today’s misused users.

Apr 30, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

At the end of the day, we're all people, and we're making decisions not just based on rational evaluation—but also based on our experiences with brands. Brands therefore need to connect with customers on a more human level. Nicole Pawluk, Director of Strategy and Planning at Harte Hanks, explains why this is particularly important for financial services brands.

Apr 30, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

For customers that avoid marketing messages, it's best to forget about "marketing" altogether. Instead, focus on creating value. Nicole Pawluk, Director of Strategy and Planning with Harte Hanks, explains.

Apr 30, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

"If you build it, they will come." Not so with mobile apps. Nicole Pawluk, Director of Strategy and Planning with Harte Hanks, explains why marketers need a plan for how to continually engage users with their mobile apps.

Apr 30, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

People have deep, emotional connections with their smartphones, which makes mobile a great place to have a genuine, human conversation. Hear more from Nicole Pawluk, Director of Strategy and Planning at Harte Hanks.

Apr 27, 2018, 15:57 PM by Aaron Ludwig

The scope of database marketing, the various skill sets required, and particularly the ways the database intersects both IT and marketing, are factors that contribute to why many organizations choose to outsource their database.

Apr 27, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

In a world where customers demand exceptional, relevant experiences—online and offline—single data points and demographics simply won’t cut it. You cannot converse contextually with a shopper by knowing that she’s a 38-year-old female from Denver making $67,000 per year

Apr 27, 2018, 15:10 PM by Lane Yard

Saving for the future is smart. Yet, historically many Americans haven’t exactly been wired to do it. So, financial advisors have long relied on scare tactics to convince consumers to save for the future: If you’re not putting at least 15% a year in your retirement fund, you’ll be working until you’re 75!

Apr 27, 2018, 11:25 AM by Terry Arnold

There are a number of trends to adjust to as the role of contact center continually changes. However, a through-line is maintaining excellent customer experience.

Apr 26, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Understand your customers' digital buyer signals to say the right things, in the right moments, beautifully on cue.

Apr 24, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

This retail company needed a better way to navigate the United States Postal Service, they partnered with Harte Hanks to ensure its promotional mail arrived in homes at the desired time. Considering that postage can account for as much as 50% of the cost of a direct mail campaign, the retailer also sought to find postage savings.

Apr 24, 2018, 13:38 PM by Michael Behrenhausen

It’s my job to work with our team as we consistently strive to put the human back into our marketing efforts. What that means is we’re seeking to create meaningful conversations and interactions by understanding the context of a client's (or potential client's) placement within the buyer’s journey. Basically, we’re listening for clues and thoughtfully responding in kind—just as you would in a normal conversation with a friend.

Apr 23, 2018, 16:23 PM by Jonathan Cayton

This story is the first in a four-part series that explores ways to leverage and effectively deploy account-based marketing. In this first part of the series, we examine the five essential ingredients to building an ABM strategy.

Apr 20, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

nexTouch is a proprietary online ordering platform that allows you to simplify fulfillment and empower your sales, marketing and channel-partner teams to do the same—saving you both time and money. Select from your corporate-branded templates and approved messaging to create, proof and print unique documents that adhere to your brand standards.

Apr 20, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

This “Create-It-Yourself Superstore” relies heavily on repeat sales to their most loyal customers, promoted through monthly direct mailings of 8 million color circulars with time-sensitive coupons. However, 15% of the mail pieces were arriving at the customers’ homes late, significantly reducing the impact of the promotions.

Apr 20, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

MagikScan is a data-driven solution from Harte Hanks designed to enhance your response rate and extend the life of your direct mail campaigns. The program starts with traditional direct mail and then adds a twist: a reusable and fun-to-activate Quick Response (QR) code that leads the consumer to ongoing offers

Apr 20, 2018, 15:10 PM by Dave Francis

"Crisis" is a strong word—but when talking about the current state of logistics, it might be an appropriate descriptor. It's not time to panic yet, but if we look at some basic economics, things are certainly getting dicey.

Apr 19, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Managing someone’s financial assets is about as personal a business as you can get. After all, the performance of customers’ portfolios directly impacts their lives—whether they’re planning for college expenses or looking toward a comfortable retirement. Yet in such a personal business, the customer acquisition process isn’t always personal. Additionally, the industry faces some daunting challenges.

Apr 19, 2018, 07:41 AM by Lane Yard

He may be in the hot seat for sharing a bit too much lately, but Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg certainly understands the value of sharing. In a 2011 interview with Charlie Rose, Zuckerberg summed it up by saying, “In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives.”

Apr 17, 2018, 15:44 PM by AAron Ludwig

We've created this worksheet to help you decide if you should seek to install or outsource your marketing database. Included are 20 factors to consider (other than cost). Think you know where you stand? Download the worksheet to find out.

Apr 17, 2018, 15:27 PM by Thea Crelin

The digital revolution has disrupted industry after industry. Now it’s happening with insurance. There are three good reasons insurance has resisted the digital revolution up to this point—and they must be reckoned with for the industry to progress.

Apr 13, 2018, 13:52 PM by Lane Yard

Let’s face it, nurturing anything takes time before you see the payoff. Whether it’s a garden, an education or a personal relationship, rushing to the end without providing the right amount of time, care and attention can compromise results

Apr 13, 2018, 08:41 AM by Chris Field

Customer data privacy is an area of intense public and governmental concern across the globe. Since customer data are often managed by marketers, companies need their CMOs to take the lead on this one. We see four major risks that must be managed immediately. If done well, the risks become opportunities.

Apr 12, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

The constant mantra at Harte Hanks is: The right message, with the right offering, designed to reach the audience at the right time. One way we make this mission a reality is to create analytics-based personas. Another way is to nest personas within the strategic context we call the 5 Pillars of Best-in-Class Marketing.

Apr 12, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Let’s start with Toys“R”Us . The childhood icon is closing its doors. What went wrong? How could they have avoided this fate? I’ve brought back a piece from October that explores how Toys“R”Us could have saved its stores. If your brand has a brick and mortar presence, click through to learn from their mistakes.

Apr 11, 2018, 10:31 AM by Matt Pollock

We've been seeing a major change in the marketplace over the past 10 years when it comes to fulfillment. Some companies are suddenly exiting the playing field, and others are slowly backing away by not investing in systems to keep it moving forward.

Apr 11, 2018, 10:23 AM by Terry Arnold

Pharmaceutical field sales forces are among the best in any industry. Well-recruited, professionally managed, thoroughly trained, strategically deployed, accurately measured, and driven by carefully designed comp plans.

Apr 10, 2018, 14:02 PM by Thea Crelin

Making the most of the investment is simply a matter of focusing efforts on the anticipated opportunities (and risks) an individual company’s change will present. By doing so, even small insurers could compete with mid-sized rivals. To get the most out of segmentation, one must keep in mind that the buyer’s journey for each segment is likely to be different.

Apr 9, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Technology has reshaped many industries, but few, in recent years, have been as disrupted as the insurance industry. With the prevalence of online shopping and consumers simply expecting a more customized experience, today’s insurers face significant challenges.

Apr 5, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

DeShelia Spann, Director of Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains why content is one of the few things that will remain constant in B2B marketing—and how to use it across the buyer's journey.

Apr 5, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

For B2B marketers to be successful, they need to take personalization beyond a name in an email to consistently serving up contextual messaging that aligns with behavioral insights and the buyer's journey.

Apr 5, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Harte Hanks Director of Strategy DeShelia Spann explains how B2B marketers can use AI to move from broad-based messaging to a one-to-one approach.

Apr 5, 2018, 13:53 PM by DESHELIA SPANN

For several years now, the concept of personalization has been largely driven by quantitative and qualitative data. Leveraging demographic and firmographic insights to engage with existing and potential customers became the go-to-market strategy for many marketers.

Apr 4, 2018, 05:53 AM by None

Modern technology and operations management in your fulfillment process can deliver on both improved performance and reduced costs. This makes choosing the right fulfillment partner a business-critical decision.

Apr 3, 2018, 15:24 PM by Terry Arnold

Often, for your customers, the first point of interactive contact with your business is via your contact center. Whether it's through asking a question of your brand on social media or through your online chat feature, emailing, or calling to speak with a representative, the caliber of this particular interaction can make or break whether a customer decides to continue to interact with your brand (and what they share with their networks about their experience).

Apr 2, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

We are in the middle of a paradigm shift in the tools and capabilities driving customer relationship management (CRM) marketing. While the discussion of omnichannel and one-to-the-moment marketing has been around for some time, very few firms are executing this vision, despite a significant increase in enabling technologies.

Mar 29, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Retail banking is increasingly a customer-driven industry. The surge in mobile banking alone is evidence that customers want access well past “banking hours”—and they’re willing to shop around until they find a relationship that works for them.

Mar 29, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Bad things happen when customer data generated by one component of the marketing technology (martech) stack is out of sync with another. In other words, customer data integration (CDI) can be a serious problem.

Mar 29, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

Consuming today’s digital media is all about personal preferences and the individual user experience. When, where and how we watch our favorite shows or events is as personal as the clothing we buy. Our experience in engaging with a brand dictates whether it’s worthy of our precious time and attention.

Mar 29, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Harte Hanks Strategist Beth Curtis-Clarke explains why B2B brands need to go beyond metrics and facts to humans and emotion in their marketing—and provides tips for getting started with storytelling.

Mar 29, 2018, 13:45 PM by Thea Crelin

Agility may be key to surviving an industry in flux, but when it comes to the insurance business, successfully keeping apace means understanding if fleet-footedness is necessary for fleeting change.

Mar 27, 2018, 13:51 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

Sure, IBM’s Deep Blue knew how to maneuver a rook for a serious game of chess, but when it comes to anticipating your best customer’s marketing needs, the artificial intelligence program is kept in check by one sweeping figure: 2.5 billion.

Mar 23, 2018, 13:50 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

With the recent data privacy scandal involving Facebook and a research company called Cambridge Analytica, the issue of personal data is seeing a whole new level of attention. In this light, adhering to privacy laws is all the more important.

Mar 23, 2018, 13:45 PM by Marla Schilling

Take a step back and think about how technology has played an integral part of making tasks easier and in turn, increasing our efficiency as humans.

Mar 22, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Some brands are doing great account based marketing—and having fun with it. Alex Gill, SVP of B2B Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains how IBM is successfully using social listening to drive their ABM efforts.

Mar 22, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Account based marketing (ABM) is a hot trend in B2B businesses, but not everyone is getting it right. Alex Gill, SVP of B2B Strategy at Harte Hanks, explains some of the mistakes brands are making with their ABM.

Mar 22, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Alex Gill, SVP of B2B Strategy at Harte Hanks, defines account based marketing (ABM) and its goals.

Mar 22, 2018, 09:32 AM by Nicole Bump

The definition of customer retention is simple: a customer continues to transact with your brand. But achieving customer retention? Not so simple. In fact, as Scott Neslin, Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, explained at a Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board meeting, customer retention is downright difficult to achieve in practice and can be expensive to boot.

Mar 21, 2018, 11:29 AM by Aaron Ludwig

Building and managing a database marketing solution is not merely data warehousing, as some companies mistakenly assume. It is a complex set of activities that cut across both IT and marketing, and that involve specialized skill sets in a number of areas. Most IT staffs can build the data warehouse easily, but that is only the beginning of a successful database marketing initiative.

Mar 19, 2018, 16:53 PM by Michael Behrenhausen

How do banks personalize their customer experiences in the digital age while still maintaining the comfort and familiarity provided by branch locations? That's just one of the questions within the financial services industry we have explored. It's all a part of our efforts to make marketing more human and provide thought leadership in the rapidly evolving world banks and financial institutions are challenged with navigating.

Mar 19, 2018, 13:49 PM by Karl Hellman

The following is an interview by Dr. Karl Hellman with Alan Kittle, SVP Creative and Strategy at Harte Hanks. Karl was curious about Alan’s perspective after an extended series of meetings with clients across the USA and Europe. Karl’s question topics ranged from the 5 Pillars of Best-in-Class Marketing to social issue advertising.

Mar 19, 2018, 11:26 AM by Nicole Bump

Who would buy a mattress online, you may ask? Well, I would, for starters, and so do a lot of others—the online mattress industry is worth about $1.5B. But because a mattress is typically considered a 'fit product' that customers want to try out in person, these bed-in-a-box companies have had to innovate their customer experience to provide value to the buyer in other ways.

Mar 17, 2018, 15:26 PM by Nicole Bump

One of the goals of the Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board is to provide value to our professional members and others like them. Developing talent is a common challenge that most marketing leaders face. How do we grow the next generation of marketers? And how can we continue to develop as leaders ourselves?

Mar 15, 2018, 15:58 PM by David Chandler

That’s not how we do things at Harte Hanks. We believe communication is critical to creating attention-grabbing creative work. That’s why we employ an agile process—one in which our clients are included in every step of the journey, from brief to delivery. It’s only by doing this that we can create content that truly engages your customers in the moments that matter

Mar 15, 2018, 15:58 PM by David Chandler

That’s not how we do things at Harte Hanks. We believe flexibility is crucial when it comes to creating truly creative work. That’s why we employ an agile process that allows us to react at a moment’s notice. Because to reach your customers you need to create relevant, engaging content, and you need to do it quickly.

Mar 15, 2018, 15:58 PM by David Chandler

That’s not how we do things at Harte Hanks. We believe collaboration is key when it comes to creating truly creative work. That’s why we employ an agile process—one where teams are fluid, and everyone works together. Because to reach customers in the moments that matter you need to create relevant, engaging content, and you need to do it quickly.

Mar 15, 2018, 13:43 PM by Jon Dome

We've established that people will perceive your brand based on their own experiences with it. And if those experiences are unremarkable—or worse, negative—your customers won’t miss you when you disappear. The best way to design a remarkable experience is to design it around the customer’s needs throughout the buyer’s journey.

Mar 14, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

I’ve taken a slightly different approach at choosing content this month. Each of the pieces provides different insights on market segmentation—starting with Tony Ulwick’s new piece on milkshake marketing, published in Marketing Journal. In this piece, he explores the limits of traditional segmentation and how segmenting markets by jobs to be done may be a more effective approach.

Mar 14, 2018, 15:09 PM by Korey Thurber

When traditional “database marketing” first took off in the early 1990’s, marketing performance measurement and attribution was quite simple. We generated sales and direct mail campaign performance reports using a handful of dimensions. Attribution was easily derived through business reply cards (attached to direct mail pieces), phone numbers or tracking codes.

Mar 13, 2018, 15:44 PM by None

A major technology company was interested in recognizing and capturing business change indicators related to their offerings. These include news items such as when, or if, a business is hiring, moving, expanding or receiving investments. Often, this type of information is stored in a wealth of unstructured data on public websites.

Mar 9, 2018, 09:36 AM by Terry Arnold

What happens when a brand overextends itself beyond its core business competencies? It fails. That's usually where outsourcing as a solution comes in. But some brands worry about how a strange new outsourcing partner could ever possibly know their business well enough to do take over vital functions like, say, inside sales.

Mar 9, 2018, 09:24 AM by Rusty Langford

It’s time to wrap up our series on strengthening the foundations of your customer support channels. Once you’ve mastered these basics, then and only then should you jump into the tempting waters of shiny and new technologies like artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and virtual reality.

Mar 8, 2018, 09:24 AM by Mike Hastings

Auto marketers can best respond by focusing on three major areas: the retail experience, the connected car, and new mobility patterns. Out of these three areas, we suspect a major shakeout in the digital phase of the retail experience will happen first. Those brands that radically enhance their ability to digitally connect with auto buyers and make their digital marketing more human will enjoy outsized rewards.

Mar 7, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

If you think the whole world is your oyster, you're wrong. At least when it comes to marketing. No product or service can be all things to all people. To make the most of your limited marketing budget, you must hone in on those opportunities where you are most likely to succeed.

Mar 7, 2018, 12:39 PM by Natasha Silensky

Does this sound familiar? You and your significant other have plans to go out on a Friday night. One of you has a very specific expectation for the date night but wants the other to make the plans on their own, while still meeting some unarticulated expectation. It’s not mind reading but may as well be—the planning partner is playing a guessing game, working off assumptions, which inevitably leads to the anticipating partner’s disappointment.

Mar 5, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

This issue of Featured includes our top content from January 2018. Several of our most-read pieces this month illustrate the challenges marketers are still grappling with around getting their teams to design and execute on the experiences customers want.

Mar 1, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Jason Burns, Senior Social Media Manager at Harte Hanks, explains the rise of live video and how brands should be integrating it into their content and social strategies.

Mar 1, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

A company in the pet care industry was shipping a high volume of samples to consumers, veterinarians, breeders, retailers and shelters. They uncovered that their existing data files contained abnormally high address problems which were driving up failed delivery attempts and increasing cost of shipping—causing the company to lose both money and product.

Mar 1, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

A consumer packaged goods brand in the skincare industry was losing money and opportunities because of incorrect or bad mailing addresses stored in their data files.

Mar 1, 2018, 13:15 PM by Rusty Langford

Welcome to our second post about customer support channels to master this year. There’s a lot of talk about using new and impressive technologies—like artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and virtual reality—to improve support and the customer experience

Feb 27, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

We are committed to creating data-driven conversations with customers. We build data and martech strategies and systems that cater to individual customers, in the moment, in ways we know they will respond to. The process rests on three guiding principles:

Feb 23, 2018, 13:06 PM by Jon Dome

Understanding your customer’s needs and the value of the customer experience should be common by now. Unfortunately, when you look at many retail organizations, there are still only a handful that really get it.

Feb 22, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

Harte Hanks managed the printing of sales collateral and point-of presence (POP) displays, conducted sales training, procured promotional items, completed kit assembly, and distributed over 2,500 complex launch kits.

Feb 21, 2018, 12:52 PM by Nicole Bump

As a New Hampshire-ite, I need really good winter boots if I’m to leave the house between November and March. The last time I was in the market for such boots, I saved up and splurged on a pair of LL Bean’s infamous Bean Boots. They were pricey, but I was confident that if they weren’t up to snuff after a long winter of snowy, slushy treks to my kids’ bus stop, I could return them and find something else that was.

Feb 21, 2018, 12:40 PM by Rusty Langford

Remember that old cliché, don’t put the cart before the horse? In other words, don’t get ahead of yourself. There’s a lot of talk about using new and impressive technologies—like artificial intelligence-driven chatbots and virtual reality—to improve support and the customer experience. But there are well-established communication channels that brands should (and in many cases, need to) focus on mastering first.

Feb 20, 2018, 16:09 PM by Nicole Bump

Over the past year, we've been on a journey to becoming agile marketers. We consider this to mean being able to have real conversations in real time with our potential buyers, providing them value throughout their journeys with our brand.

Feb 20, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Kay Lemon, Accenture Professor of Marketing, Carroll School of Management at Boston College, predicts that consumer packaged goods manufacturers will continue to learn more about their end customers through data and technology—enabling them to build relationships directly with their consumers.

Feb 20, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Ken Bernhardt, Regents Professor of Marketing Emeritus, Georgia State University and Chair of the Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board, explains the value customers can expect from the Harte Hanks-Wipro partnership.

Feb 20, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Scott Neslin, Albert Wesley Frey Professor of Marketing, Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, explains why brands are seeing such excessive product returns and provides advice on how to reduce return rate.

Feb 20, 2018, 15:11 PM by David Chandler

Agility is everything in this new age of agency. Customers expect to be spoken to in the moments that really matter to them, so brands have to be prepared to respond, and rapidly, creating content that is relevant, timely and—above all—engaging.

Feb 15, 2018, 08:48 AM by Rusty Langford

By using social media as a customer support channel, you give customers the option to solve their issues when and how they want. You can also use social to proactively mine insights about your trending support issues.

Feb 14, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

You must know your customers and their context more deeply to achieve more human marketing.

Feb 14, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Success isn't about how loud you shout or how far you push your message out. Work out your best opportunities for success and engage with those most likely to say "yes, yes, yes!"

Feb 14, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Don't be a creep. You must know your customers and their context more deeply to achieve more human marketing.

Feb 14, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

You must know your customers and their context more deeply to achieve more human marketing.

Feb 14, 2018, 14:35 PM by None

You must know your customers and their context more deeply to achieve more human marketing.

Feb 12, 2018, 16:00 PM by Rusty Langford

Need some strategic direction on how to improve your customer support experience? Thinking of testing out a new support channel small scale before committing? Not sure how to train your agents to support your new app?

Feb 12, 2018, 13:10 PM by Rusty Langford

Going with the biggest contact center doesn't always mean it's the best. Find out if your contact center has you stuck in a templated approach.

Feb 12, 2018, 09:11 AM by Terry Arnold

Welcome to the last of our myth-busting series on outsourcing customer care. Here’s a quick look back at what we learned from the previous entries: A strong customer care partner will keep you in the loop—not in the dark. A good outsourcing partner will encourage your team to be as involved as you want to be in every stage of the process.

Feb 9, 2018, 14:06 PM by Marla Schilling

In my last post, I discussed the launch of the newest channel of conversation available on our website: live chat. At the time of the launch we were unsure whether or not website visitors would actually use this new channel of conversation – but it didn’t take long for us to see that this channel of conversation is quite popular. The most obvious progression after installing live chat was testing out a chatbot.

Feb 8, 2018, 15:16 PM by Frank Grillo

We’re navigating a landscape in which the customer is in control. For a brand to succeed, someone needs to take ownership of that customer—and often step in and "be the brand," as well. More often than not, we’re seeing the CMO put into this role. But are they hindered by too many high expectations and too many required skill sets?

Feb 7, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

We live in the “Age of Me.” Buyers call the shots. Brands don’t control the buying process. Winning share of wallet means winning share of attention. Buyers expect companies to make offers that are interesting and relevant in the moment. Anything less is an unwanted intrusion.

Feb 6, 2018, 14:01 PM by Iain Fuller

Direct mail is still one of the most effective methods of engagement out there. these seven principles can help your message break through and acted upon.

Feb 6, 2018, 09:25 AM by Rich Romig

You could argue that with each increasing Roman numeral, there are fewer and fewer Super Bowl “ads” to review. Sure, there are 30- and 60-second short, brand-sponsored films, special effects bonanzas, comedy routines, music videos—most with a little product demo or placement within—but many aren’t “commercials” in the selling-something sense of the word.

Feb 5, 2018, 16:06 PM by Karen Puckett

Some years ago, “…Best Buy’s management team realized a big box filled with stuff wasn’t all that appealing to a lot of people.” This is when the company began to focus squarely on providing customers with a better experience.

Feb 2, 2018, 15:35 PM by None

Feb 2, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

This pharmaceutical brand produces a leading drug that treats a chronic disease. The company identified an opportunity to provide patient support tailored to the needs of each individual living with this disease. The objective was to provide a personalized, human-based approach to support that could scale to a global level in order to improve patients’ personal outcomes and empower them to live their lives to the fullest.

Feb 2, 2018, 11:58 AM by Karen Puckett

It's pretty well known at this point that technology budgets are moving from the chief information officer to the chief marketing officer (CMO), chief digital officer (CDO) and chief customer officer (CCO). Marketing leaders now allocate 27% of their expense budget to technology, which equals 3.24% of overall revenue (compared to 3.4% of revenue by the CIO).

Feb 1, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

Marketing automation is more than the latest corporate buzzword. It’s a powerful strategy and tool that allows companies to nurture prospects with highly personalized, useful content. It helps convert prospects into customers, and customers into brand ambassadors.

Feb 1, 2018, 12:17 PM by Iain Fuller

We've taken a quick look at which CMOs are fully utilizing all the opportunities the bite-sized social platform offers--in no more then 280 characters of course.

Jan 30, 2018, 16:14 PM by Michael Behrenhausen

We recently set up a conversation between Harte Hanks CMO Frank Grillo and Kimberly Whitler, Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, to discuss the current and future state of retail both digital and physical. The two ended up having a lively, insightful exchange of ideas.

Jan 30, 2018, 08:46 AM by Terry Arnold

We’re three for three so far in our busting of common misconceptions on outsourcing customer care and feeling pretty good about it! Looking back, some of the finer points we’ve noticed: it’s key to work with the right partner who has the relevant experience and the resources required.

Jan 29, 2018, 14:59 PM by John Deighton

Before the great recession of 2007, retail was quite adventurous. The idea of retail as theater was explored in everything from Niketown to American Girl to the Lego Store in Chicago’s Watertown. The recession forced us back to safer territory.

Jan 29, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

In the world of modern marketing it’s all too common to see irrelevant ads and ineffectual attempts at engagement. To make a difference and an impact there needs to be a genuine effort at speaking to the customer personally and in the moment. Thinking that a single data point or sending me a note on my birthday is personalization is just wrong.

Jan 26, 2018, 09:23 AM by Steve Acuna

Sometimes, 1 + 1 actually equals 3. Or 4 or 5 or more. And today I'm suggesting that if retail brands were to team up with the consumer brands they sell, they would both be able to better serve their customers and end up at that 3+ number.

Jan 25, 2018, 14:37 PM by Frank Grillo

Traditional segmentation and targeting are all about effectiveness and efficiency. We are all familiar with a classic use of segmentation and targeting: offering a luxury product at a high price to the affluent and a stripped-down, low-cost version to the masses.

Jan 24, 2018, 10:21 AM by Mike hastings

As automakers gather this week and last in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show, they’re celebrating impressive 2017 sales—especially of trucks and SUVs that generate big profits. But the outlook for 2018 and beyond is a little less clear.

Jan 23, 2018, 12:51 PM by Steve Acuna

Many brands operate under the assumption that their marketing communications and advertisements define the brand. In reality, you can tell customers what your brand is all day, but people will perceive your brand based on their own experiences with it. And if those experiences are unremarkable—or worse, negative—your customers won’t miss you when you disappear.

Jan 18, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

This month’s issue of Featured showcases some of our most popular articles from December. Included are 2018 marketing predictions from our Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board academic members—including John Deighton, Kim Whitler and others.

Jan 18, 2018, 14:11 PM by Terry Arnold

This series examines a variety of myths and misconceptions that give outsourced customer care a bad rep (when, in reality, it's often a solid strategy that improves customer experience and frees up resources to focus on your core competencies). Each post also provides some suggestions on how to find a reliable contact center partner to meet your needs.

Jan 18, 2018, 08:44 AM by Terry Arnold

We’ve already debunked two prevalent myths regarding outsourcing customer care: I’ll lose touch with my process and my customers and I’ll lose both my control and my quality. We found that knowing what to look for in and ultimately working with the right partner with relevant experience is key.

Jan 14, 2018, 14:44 PM by None

We’re all aware of the many challenges facing the retail industry—but what piques our interest more than the challenges is all of the opportunity. By getting to know customers more deeply and engaging them with valuable, human experiences, there is great opportunity for retail brands to stand apart from competition and secure a place in the new digital world.

Jan 4, 2018, 09:33 AM by Michael Behrenhausen

We need to understand our buyers' journeys in order to add value for them every step of the way. A look through our 2017 content showcases a variety of thought leadership on the topic. Below, you'll find some of our most-read, most insightful buyer's journey pieces. Have a look:

Jan 3, 2018, 13:06 PM by Terry Arnold

The very phrase “outsourced customer service” can bring to mind poorly-lit phone banks filled with ashen-faced employees reading from call scripts in monotone voices. It probably feels impossible to trust this group of faceless strangers with your consumer interactions.

Jan 2, 2018, 16:33 PM by Nicole Bump

If you’re producing and mailing marketing collateral, it’s probably costing you a decent chunk of change. From print costs to postage, direct mail can be costly. But with the right industry know-how, you can optimize direct mail pieces, reducing costs through efforts like envelope changes, switching up the mail schedule and ensuring optimal postal discounts.

Jan 2, 2018, 14:07 PM by Jon Dome

Too often customers are forced to search through a warehouse-like environment as they comb over large amounts of inventory to find the products that meet their needs. Racks are stuffed, it's difficult to find sizes, and complementary items are all the way across the store. Helpful product experts and stylists are few and far between—if they exist at all.

Dec 27, 2017, 12:49 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

To succeed in today’s market, brands need to establish an integrated analytics framework that enables access to insights derived from wide variety of data points. Enabling a truly analytics-led marketing ecosystem helps brands to make more informed decisions at every step of the buyer’s journey and optimize return on marketing investment (MROI).

Dec 21, 2017, 16:05 PM by Michael Behrenhausen

Marketing technology is changing faster than we can keep up. Capturing relevant, useful information from vast amounts of data and tailoring it to reach customers on a human level is just one of the challenges marketers faced during 2017.

Dec 20, 2017, 09:32 AM by Michael Behrenhausen

As we wrap up 2017, it's a good time to reflect on the past twelve months—including some of our most-read thought leadership. Here, we take a look at retail, one of the most hotly discussed segments in marketing right now. Will brick and mortar survive? How can you best achieve an in-the-moment, omnichannel experience? Can anyone beat Amazon?

Dec 15, 2017, 13:06 PM by Dave Francis

To me, the idea of being a Sherlock Holmes-style detective can be pretty alluring. While few people one could ever live up to Arthur Conan Doyle's supremely skilled sleuth, sometimes it can be fun and beneficial to do a little detective work in our own lives. In fact, I was presented with a logistics mystery that, in my mind, needed solving.

Dec 14, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

In the highly competitive banking industry, regional banks face enormous challenges without the benefit of huge marketing budgets and resources that national banks enjoy. To remain profitable in a highly-connected era, this regional bank realized they had to adapt to customer needs in more relevant ways—both quickly and cost effectively.

Dec 11, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

A well-known semiconductor manufacturer was using a print-and-distribute model, printing a large number of materials to be shipped to fulfillment operations in Europe, Southeast Asia and North America.

Dec 8, 2017, 14:55 PM by Frank Grillo

Our mission at Harte Hanks is to make marketing human. Not that we reject marketing technology, big data, market research, analytics, and so forth. Quite the contrary, we are expert users of all of these tools. But too often marketers let the tools do their thinking for them. They put the numbers first and people second—sometimes leaving the human element out altogether.

Dec 8, 2017, 10:44 AM by Matt Pollock

We have an information security client that was drowning in their own success. They're total rock stars in their field. They were seeing wild growth, but they were being stretched thin because of this growth. This presented an issue where members of their team were forced to take on responsibilities above and beyond their capabilities—involving their mail, distribution and trade show presence (among others).

Dec 7, 2017, 08:07 AM by Jon Dome

You have big plans for growth—customer experience improvements, increasing digital investment, creating an integrated martech stack that provides a holistic view of customer....

Dec 1, 2017, 14:35 PM by None

Understand your customers' buyer's journeys to add value every step of the way.

Nov 29, 2017, 12:48 PM by Karen Puckett

Marks & Spencer CEO Steve Rowe recently explained in Marketing Week that the British multinational retailer is looking to use data to "make M&S great again." In other words, he believes data will help M&S return to its former glory of one of the world's leading retailers.

Nov 27, 2017, 14:46 PM by Steve Acuna

Just in case you didn’t know, there’s still only 24 hours in a day. And the constant demands on our time and work/life balance are nothing new. Only now, there are more options, more channels, and more content vying for our attention during those 24 hours.

Nov 22, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

Based in the United Kingdom, this payment processing giant expanded their footprint into the United States. The brand’s unique offering benefits customers beyond basic payment processing and provides insights that can help customers grow their businesses. However, their story is complex and must be told in such a way that will garner optimal results for the US-based operation.

Nov 22, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

In the early 2000’s, this global technology leader relied on marketing staff spread across multiple centers in Europe for its campaign execution. Services were delivered at a non-standardized, regional level with little to no reporting or management structure in place.

Nov 22, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

Every interaction between a company and a customer needs to bring value. It must engage the customer properly based on what we know about them, where they’re at in their buyer’s journey and what are they looking for.

Nov 20, 2017, 14:21 PM by Zach Nelson

Overall, Holiday 2017 is looking good. Holiday spending expectations continue to rise in large part due to improved household finances. In fact, almost 80% of consumers expect to spend the same or more this holiday season.

Nov 17, 2017, 12:40 PM by Nicole Bump

The most obvious way Target’s focus on the needs of this underserved segment comes to life is with two separate entrances: “one for time-starved shoppers who only need to pick up a few items, and the other for people who want to leisurely browse the store.”

Nov 17, 2017, 11:58 AM by Alan Kittle

The average heavy smartphone user checks their phone 150 times a day. 150 TIMES A DAY. On top of that, they—or more accurately, 90% of “they”—think that’s healthy. Their need to experience micro-euphoric moments again and again, all day and often at night, fuels this behavior, and it’s creating an entirely new set of expectations in the way businesses interact with them.

Nov 15, 2017, 12:58 PM by JD Metcalf

The trend toward more personalized, human marketing will impact banks in a number of different ways. The first, and one of the most critical, is customer retention. About 46% of banking customers would strongly consider switching to one of the GAFA tech giants (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) if they offered banking products.

Nov 10, 2017, 14:55 PM by Matt Pollock

How many thrillers and action movies start with a phone call to set the plot into motion? So did this one. Like a good movie, what you’re about to read had plenty of thrills—both for us and our client. And luckily, thanks to some solid teamwork and cliffhanger rescues, it had a happy ending.

Nov 10, 2017, 14:08 PM by Anthony Ulwick

How to apply strategy and innovation to build a rock-solid foundation for your marketing organization. After decades of analyzing innovation failures, I repeatedly isolate one factor that stands out above all others as the lead culprit. Ironically, it is the customer. More specifically, many innovations fail because they rely on what customers say they need.

Nov 10, 2017, 10:24 AM by JD Metcalf

Consumers are demanding a more personalized banking experience. Right now. If banks wait to offer this form of on-demand engagement, they risk being left behind. But many banks, including major brands, don’t have the resources to build a personalized, automated system.

Nov 8, 2017, 14:47 PM by Frank Grillo

Got a loyalty program? Great. Chances are you’re seeing some incremental spend if you’re using the resulting data effectively. But true brand loyalty cannot be earned by dolling out rewards or tier status alone. It takes more than that. It takes authenticity and a reciprocal loyalty to the people that support the brand—employees and customers alike.

Nov 3, 2017, 16:00 PM by Karen Puckett

Philip Kotler recently published an article on MarketingJournal.org called “Will the 4th Industrial Revolution Kill Store-Based Retailing?” In it, he asserts that the internet, mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) have brought us to the point of another industrial revolution—one that is killing brick and mortar retail. He points to closures of stores like J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Toys R Us.

Nov 3, 2017, 15:08 PM by Matt Pollock

What if I told you I was working with a client who was throwing away a brand-new BMW every week? You'd look at me like I was crazy, right? Well, I've seen it. Ok. Not literally, but figuratively. As in cash money.

Nov 2, 2017, 14:02 PM by Marla Schilling

In my last post, Behind the Scenes: Our Unprecedented Journey Into Making Marketing Human, I promised to discuss the launch of our newest channel of conversation available on our website: live chat.

Oct 27, 2017, 10:18 AM by Alan Kittle

Artificial Reality? Virtual Reality? Frivolous, empty fun, right? No use, of course, for the serious-minded architects of brilliant branding. Well. Think again.

Oct 24, 2017, 11:22 AM by Jd Metcalf

By JD Metcalf, Laura Watson and Nicole Pawluck. Several of our thought leaders have recently addressed the changing role of brick-and-mortar stores in an increasingly digital retail world. Do they still matter? Or is brick and mortar dead? Frank Grillo, CMO at Harte Hanks, explored the continued.

Oct 23, 2017, 16:18 PM by Frank Grillo

Even though many agree that pushing content is unwise, we keep doing it. I wonder if the problem is rooted in the marketing term “content” itself. Do digital shoppers say to themselves, “Mmm, what I need right now is some good old-fashioned content.” I don’t think so! In that early, learning phase of the buyer’s journey, aren’t they thinking something more like “Mmm, I would like to learn more about this and how it relates to my life, how I feel, what I need, or what I want to do.”

Oct 20, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

By implementing the Customer Engagement Hub, this technology company sought to connect data and systems to deliver successful onboarding at scale.

Oct 20, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Customers in all industries now demand relevant, personal communications and exceptional customer experiences—financial services is no exception. Bank of America knew it needed to connect with its massive client base in more relevant ways, not only to maintain existing clients, but also to cross-sell and add value.

Oct 20, 2017, 15:11 PM by Frank Grillo

As Ken Bernhardt, Ph.D., explains, the consumer is a lot different now than he or she was just five years ago. All consumers have more information at their fingertips, courtesy of mobile, and therefore take much different buyer’s journeys than they did in the recent past.

Oct 18, 2017, 11:38 AM by Nicole Bump

Stories are the thread that holds the fabric of society together. Storytelling lets people see things they haven’t actually seen. Our primitive ancestors told tales of their discoveries, fears and heroism. Storytelling was our early survival masterstroke.

Oct 18, 2017, 10:32 AM by Karen Puckett

In his article The shockingly sad but true story of Toys R Us' decline, Roger Hamilton explains that Toys R Us recently filed for bankruptcy after a losing battle with Amazon to be the ecommerce giant’s exclusive toy provider. While many may attribute this bankruptcy to the continued decline of brick and mortar retail, this failure is not a matter of digital versus physical or online versus offline.

Oct 17, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Welcome to our first edition of Harte Hanks Quarterly magazine, showcasing the latest marketing news and views.

Oct 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Take an increasingly competitive and pressurized global market for technology products. Add constantly evolving buyer behavior, and then factor in social media’s growing influence on buying decisions. These trends represent remarkable opportunities provided you have the right tools and insights.

Oct 13, 2017, 10:29 AM by JD Metcalf

We've established that mobile is the new battlefield for customer experience—enabling brands to execute a one-to-one, in-the-moment marketing strategy.One of the newest weapons in this battle for mobile dominance is the payment app.

Oct 12, 2017, 10:29 AM by Karen Puckett

Mohanbir Sawhney and Robert C. Wolcott recently published a piece on marketingjournal.org called A New Charter for Chief Marketing Officers which explains the need for CMOs to have a broader, more strategic role with more influence in the C-suite.

Oct 5, 2017, 15:15 PM by Nicole Bump

From airlines and hotels to gas stations and drug stores, customer loyalty programs abound. Scott Neslin, Professor of Marketing at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, argues that, while many brands initiate loyalty programs to generate incremental sales, the real value in a loyalty program is the data it generates.

Oct 3, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

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Oct 3, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Bad data costs you money and limits the success of your direct mail campaigns. Check out common pitfalls and how to fix them to save money and optimize mail performance.

Oct 3, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Oct 2, 2017, 17:36 PM by Nicole Bump

Think back to about five years ago. Could you have imagined that we’d already be riding in driverless cars? That Americans would be checking their mobile phones 8 billion times per day? Or that the CMO role would be spending more on technology than the CIO? Marketing is a new world from just a few years ago—which our Marketing Advisory Board discussed at our August meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Oct 2, 2017, 16:02 PM by Nicole Bump

Agile marketing is a hot topic—and for good reason. Customers expect brands to interact with them contextually, in close to real time, and marketers are struggling to keep up with this pace of change. We showcased how Harte Hanks is trying to solve this problem at our most recent Marketing Advisory Board meeting.

Oct 2, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

An international oil and gas company was contracting with a large number of vendors to provide print, fulfillment and call center functions to support marketing fuels, lubricants and specialty lines of business. Internal management time, effort and cost to coordinate these operations became unsustainable.

Sep 27, 2017, 15:30 PM by Nicole Bump

What do car insurance and travel booking have in common? Each of these industries has largely cut out "the middlemen." Insurance companies like Geico, Progressive and State Farm make it simple and convenient to buy car insurance online and are successfully reaching customers directly through traditional and digital media channels.

Sep 27, 2017, 13:56 PM by Nicole Bump

According to a recent forecast on emarketer.com, spending on digital will see double-digit growth at a rate increasing from $83 billion in 2017 to $129.23 billion in 2021. This follows on the heels of digital spending passing TV for the first time in 2016. However, in having to up their focus on commitment to budget and resources, some marketers are beginning to worry about the return on investment (ROI) on digital marketing.

Sep 19, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A global, top-ten semiconductor manufacturer sells parts for computers, mobile phones, and other devices. Historically, the company relied on distributors to sell small- and medium-sized customers and fielded direct sales teams for large accounts. All sales orders were fulfilled by a global network of independent distributors.

Sep 19, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Marketing. It has until now, been viewed as companies pushing their messaging out into the world and trying to get consumers to buy more. That just doesn’t work anymore. Customers are calling the shots. If marketing is going to have any chance at success, it must be delivering value to the consumer and helping to solve the problems this person has set out to solve, in the moment they need to be solved. This goes beyond one-to-one marketing.

Sep 19, 2017, 15:22 PM by Korey Thurber

Machine learning has officially reached buzzword status. But once you separate the reality from the hype surrounding this type of artificial intelligence (AI), it becomes obvious that machine learning will be a key component for more contextual, human marketing moving forward.

Sep 18, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A long-standing leader in the office equipment and business services industry historically used a decentralized approach to marketing. Each global region had its own marketing organization and was independently accountable for most of the company’s market planning and execution. This approach was highly responsive to local markets and customer needs.

Sep 18, 2017, 09:06 AM by Frank Grillo

Gartner recently released a new report: CMO Strategy Survey 2017: CMOs Go All in on Customer Marketing, but at What Price? The report’s conclusions are based on responses from 359 marketing leaders, split evenly between the US and UK.

Sep 14, 2017, 13:59 PM by Brett Eckrich

We’ve previously talked about how artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to drive personalization in a B2B marketing situation. So, how do we put that AI into action and create a two-sided, thoughtful conversation that adds value for the buyer? We need a strategy for the implementation of these conversations and the proper technology to enable successful interactions.

Sep 13, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

This month’s Featured—a monthly digest of our four most popular marketing articles—contains insights from marketing leaders Korey Thurber, Marla Schilling and Cheryl Strauss Einhorn. Hear their thoughts on topics like how machine learning can supercharge marketing, what to do when a good strategy is not enough, and why we need to enter an era of demarketing.

Sep 11, 2017, 13:39 PM by Karen Puckett

Nordstrom just announced a bold new retail concept called Nordstrom Local, which it will test in West Hollywood starting October 3, 2017. The store features a host of services, but carries no dedicated inventory. Instead, customers can access a variety of services such as: fashion consulting from a personal stylist, lounging with a handcrafted expresso or a glass of beer or wine, selecting merchandise to transfer in for inspection, trying on selections, custom fitting and alterations, or even getting a manicure.

Sep 8, 2017, 08:59 AM by Kevin Gaherty

The invention of the app has made our lives easier. A good app on my phone can significantly reduce my time needed to accomplish a task or solve a problem. However, many of us interact with several different brands on a daily basis, and that can lead to what industry experts call “app fatigue.”

Sep 6, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

As humans, we have an infinite capacity to adjust our conversations in real time based on others' turns in the conversation. Digital marketing needs to act this way, too, and technology like AI can help.

Sep 5, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Aug 31, 2017, 16:57 PM by Marla Schilling

I recently watched the film “Hidden Figures,” which tells the story of three brilliant African American women at NASA, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe). These pioneering ladies were truly the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into space.

Aug 29, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A Fortune 100 retailer decided to discontinue tobacco sales to reflect its health-conscious brand values. While the change gave the brand social clout, this retailer now needed to fill a $1.5B gap from lost tobacco sales and lost impulse purchases from tobacco customers. Episodic marketing campaigns based on static data weren’t going to cut it.

Aug 29, 2017, 13:55 PM by Korey Thurber

Machine learning is essentially giving computers the power to learn from experience, very much like humans do (learn more about what machine learning is and who is already using it well).

Aug 28, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Buyers leave digital signals behind. Marketers must learn to understand them.

Aug 28, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Frank Grillo, Harte Hanks CMO, discusses the role of personas and the buyer's journey in one-to-moment marketing.

Aug 28, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Harte Hanks CMO Frank Grillo chats about content as the digital equivalent to a face-to-face conversation.

Aug 23, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Panasonic Business was working with five different agencies in five different countries across Europe to generate leads for its 11 product lines. Each agency had different marketing systems, different levels of selling skills, and of course, different languages. Results in terms of quality and quantity of leads was uneven. Panasonic found it overly complicated to manage all five agency relationships.

Aug 23, 2017, 09:21 AM by Anubhav Mishra

You might have trained people at work. You’ve possibly trained, or know how to train, a pet. But do you know how to train a chatbot?

Aug 21, 2017, 13:51 PM by Korey Thurber

From a hype perspective, machine learning is just about at its peak. Overnight, it seems, everyone went from knowing next to nothing about it, to speaking about it every day. “Marketing attribution” and “omni-channel” went through similar buzzword phases, though Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone beyond buzzword status: a recent Gallup poll found that 26 percent of Americans fear the technology will eliminate their jobs.

Aug 18, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Significant and varied marketplace disruptions were creating challenges for one of the world’s most innovative and enduring brands. Smartphones and content streaming were eating into this consumer brand’s sales of core product lines like cameras, stereo systems and music players, camcorders, and even TVs. The shift away from physical storefronts, and the rise of dominant online sellers like Amazon, added to the challenge of connecting with customers.

Aug 17, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

We’ve selected the 5 best insights and articles from MarketingJournal.org and Harte Hanks. Welcome to Featured – a monthly digest of our six most popular marketing articles. This edition contains insights from marketing leaders like Kim Whitler and Frank Grillo. Hear their thoughts on topics like what CMOs are getting wrong (and how to fix it), defining your brand’s purpose, and getting to know your customers more deeply—beyond traditional personas. Enjoy!

Aug 17, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A U.S.-based technology company was facing increased pressure from competitors stealing market share from their flagship product. Relying primarily on a marketing automation tool to deliver leads to reps, campaign performance was steadily declining.

Aug 17, 2017, 10:28 AM by Korey Thurber

Marketing activities create a deluge of data. Today’s marketers face, at times, an almost overwhelming number of challenges when it comes to deploying truly personalized, choreographed and impactful communication streams across the customer journey.

Jul 31, 2017, 13:58 PM by Marla Schilling

In my last post, The War Room: The First Roadblock of Many, I promised an explanation on why we changed our name from the “War Room” to “The Boutique.” Now, I know you have all been sitting on the edge of your seats, not able to sleep or eat due to the extreme anticipation, so I apologize for delay on my part. And, not to fear, the war room has not fallen apart. In fact, the opposite.

Jul 28, 2017, 15:08 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

Advances in marketing technology have made it possible for companies to collect or purchase significant amounts of prospect and customer data. What to do with this data – how to transform it, disseminate it, and render it usable – is the topic du jour for marketers, and this is where artificial intelligence, or AI, enters the conversation.

Jul 26, 2017, 11:09 AM by Steve Acuna

Thousands of years ago, Chinese sages created a metaphor for looking at the paradoxes of the world around them. They observed Yin and Yang opposites everywhere they turned: Shadow cannot exist without light; Creative innovation cannot succeed without disciplined order; Sun Tzu’s Art of War is full of passivity being the most effective, vigorous, active strategy.

Jul 25, 2017, 09:31 AM by Elizabeth Crouch

If you can deliver more contextual, relevant interactions throughout the buyer’s journey, your customer will be more likely to engage with, purchase, and renew your product or service. But for most companies, achieving this marketing nirvana of a connected, behavior-driven journey is a complicated challenge.

Jul 14, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

For years, retailers have been told that to compete in the new ecommerce world, they need to have a well-established omnichannel organization. The 2016 holiday season proves that the time has come—and it is not going away. Retailers that do not have a solid omnichannel strategy that lets customers shop whenever and however they want to shop are going to be left in the dust. How do I know this? Let’s look at the evidence.

Jul 13, 2017, 11:53 AM by Nicole Bump

On June 22, Harte Hanks CMO Frank Grillo and Marketing Advisory Board member Katherine Lemon, Ph.D., were featured as the keynote presentation at Wharton's Consumer Response to the Evolving Retailing Landscape conference.

Jul 12, 2017, 11:45 AM by Steve Acuna

Take everything you’ve learned about building personas upon traditional demographics, ball it up, and throw it out the metaphorical window. Done? Good. The single BEST way to build your personas is to understand the situation and context for why your customers will purchase your product or services.

Jul 11, 2017, 15:35 PM by Frank Grillo

Marketers occasionally need a reminder that they can lose sight of their true mission, which is to discover and deliver what customers really want.1 When marketers enthusiastically tee up the objective to integrate online and offline marketing, it is easy to get side-tracked: Where is the “customer” in “media integration”?

Jul 7, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

CMOs are automating multiple marketing functions at a growing rate. According to Gartner: “CMO marketing tech spending is on track to exceed the CIO technology spend.” The same report indicates that marketing technology budgets now surpass advertising expenditures. These are shocking trends and reflect a sea change in marketing, information technology, and business in general.

Jul 7, 2017, 10:24 AM by Karen Puckett

A New York Times article asks, “Is there any home purchase more confusing and fraught with anxiety than buying a mattress?” Many people would answer ‘no.’ Somewhat akin to buying a new car, the process can be complicated by myriad choices of brands and models, plagued by hard selling and hidden costs (warranty, delivery), and let’s not get started with the returns process.

Jul 6, 2017, 15:56 PM by Jon Dome

My last post discussed a question posed at our most recent Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board meeting: is there still a need for brick and mortar? The Advisory Board members went on to discuss how mobile is transforming the customer journey.

Jul 5, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

This San Francisco-based technology company provides tools to develop and test native mobile applications. Their systems could see customer behavior in the usage analytics platform, but it was hard to tie behavioral data to an individual customer. It was even harder to personalize communications at scale based on what a customer did or didn’t do. It was therefore a big challenge to reengage customers that had abandoned their carts.

Jul 5, 2017, 11:22 AM by Steve Acuna

The legendary Harvard Business School marketing guru Ted Leavitt says, “If you’re not doing segmentation, you’re not doing marketing.” He is pointing out that segmentation increases the effectiveness and efficiency of your initiatives. It enables you to target, communicate, and sell accurately.

Jun 30, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Customer engagement just got bigger and better. Harte Hanks and Wipro have partnered to bring you super personalized human marketing at scale.

Jun 27, 2017, 16:02 PM by Kylie Peters

Millennials, born between 1980 and 1999, are now the largest living generation—but if you're trying to target the millennial persona, you're making a mistake. Take another look at that first sentence to see why: we're talking about a broad range of people between the ages of 18 and 37 with very different banking needs.

Jun 26, 2017, 11:43 AM by Katie Sweet

Machine learning has been described as the science of getting computers to act without being specifically programmed to act. While for some, that definition can bring to mind nightmarish images of machines taking over the world, it is actually a great way to automate marketing activities to make them less time consuming and to provide better experiences for your customers.

Jun 22, 2017, 15:41 PM by Kylie Peters

In my last post, I discussed how the bias of mental accounting can affect financial clients, particularly in the problem recognition stage of the buyer’s journey.

Jun 22, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Jun 22, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

A buyer's role and situation plays an important part in determining what his or her journey will look like. As marketers, we must be able to understand this context and engage each person relevantly.

Jun 22, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Jun 21, 2017, 08:49 AM by Karen Puckett

If you work in retail or consumer industries, you’re well aware of the challenge that ecommerce is creating for brick and mortar stores. Sears, Kmart, Macy’s, JC Penney, and many more brands have announced the shutting of stores this year in response to this pressure.

Jun 19, 2017, 16:13 PM by Frank Grillo

Over the past few years, retailers have been increasingly focusing on optimizing their digital channels and online shopping experiences, while many have been closing their physical store locations. After all, brick and mortar is going by the wayside, right?

Jun 16, 2017, 10:25 AM by Frank Grillo

A conversation between Professor John Deighton of Harvard Business School and Frank Grillo, CMO of Harte Hanks.

Jun 13, 2017, 11:30 AM by Elizabeth Crouch

Customer expectations have changed. Consumers expect seamless, relevant experiences with brands, regardless of the device or channel they happen to be on. In particular, B2B customers expect meaningful communications that are appropriate to their current stage in the customer journey and their relationship with your company.

Jun 12, 2017, 13:36 PM by Frank Grillo

The biggest risk in the growing use of personas in digital marketing is to presume too much. When this happens, you are not personalizing your interaction with the customer, you are alienating them. You are falling victim to persona myopia.

Jun 7, 2017, 16:55 PM by Kylie Peters

If you speak to anyone in a client-facing financial services role you will inevitably hear about the frustration and mystification that comes with dealing with what seem to be irrational customers. When your role is to help your clients make sound financial decisions—be it regarding retirement, refinancing a home or even just opening a savings account—it can be challenging to present the best possible solution only to have them turn it down.

Jun 5, 2017, 14:13 PM by Candi Williams

In a day and age when people are wise to mass marketing and fairly skeptical of things written on the side of a bus, how do you get your brand’s voice to resonate? You’ve got to keep it real. For Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, this involved pulling up a pew in a cosy coffee shop with London ‘grime’ rapper, JME (nee. Jamie Adujuna). No big deal, some might say

May 31, 2017, 15:56 PM by Jon Dome

Tami Mohney, CMO of Modell’s Sporting Goods, posed this question at the latest meeting of the Harte Hanks Marketing Advisory Board—a provocative question, indeed, especially when asked by the CMO of a brand that heavily relies on brick and mortar stores. One might be tempted to think that the model is dying and that eventually everything will be replaced by online stores like Amazon. But if that was the case, Amazon would not be opening their own physical stores.

May 25, 2017, 15:49 PM by Anne Balistreri

Remember when marketing was done through human interactions? It seems like it was ages ago. Although the emergence of digital has changed our methods, there is one fundamental rule that has not changed: people buy from people they like and trust.

May 25, 2017, 11:20 AM by Marla Schilling

In my last post, I touched on the importance of bringing the human back to marketing and that this would be the focus of our “war room.” I promised this post would give you a look into our first meeting and why it was nothing like NASA Mission Control.

May 24, 2017, 15:00 PM by Candi Williams

A bad first date is no one’s friend. But a bad piece of content is even easier to run away from and never return. And it turns out the two things have more in common than you might think – we’re not talking terrible pick-up lines and awkward silences either…

May 17, 2017, 11:10 AM by Marla Schilling

One day, our CMO Frank told a bunch of us marketers that he wanted us to create a daily “war room.” I heard “war room” and immediately thought NASA Mission Control: headsets, walls of monitors, super high security requiring those fancy retractable badges and some sort of eyeball scanner.

May 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

This luxury auto manufacturer had a new vision of a more connected consumer experience that would meet buyers where they are across the customer journey. Initially rolling out across two European markets, they needed a partner to connect all internal silos and champion customer centricity.

May 15, 2017, 15:28 PM by Harte Hanks

In my last post, Rise of the (Marketing) Machines: How to Tame Them, I discussed the challenge marketing leaders face in bridging the gap between the journey experience their audience expects and the technology requirements to deliver on those expectations.

May 9, 2017, 15:52 PM by Frank Grillo

In 2007, John Deighton and Leora Kornfeld1 wrote an article exposing how marketers in the 1990s had incorrectly predicted the future of digital marketing. Back then, it was commonly assumed that the internet would be harnessed by marketers to increase their influence with consumers.

May 3, 2017, 15:04 PM by Paula Crerar

Content marketing is already a well-established tactic for B2B companies. According to Content Marketing Institute, 88% of B2B marketers are using content marketing. And most marketers already understand how content fits into a demand generation strategy: you create great content, promote that content across channels, encourage people to fill out a form in order to download high-value content, and then deliver those leads to your sales team for follow-up.

Apr 20, 2017, 11:59 AM by Kylie Peters

Synchrony Financial understands that those big buys in life often don’t happen on a whim. Behind every major purchase are real people weighing up their options and deciding to part with their dollars to fulfill different needs based on their individual situations. For lenders, it’s important to understand this buyer’s journey so you can better guide potential customers down the path to purchase (using your dollars).

Apr 19, 2017, 15:35 PM by None

Apr 17, 2017, 07:09 AM by CHRISTIAN SARKAR

Professor Scott Galloway speaks about how Amazon is disrupting retail. His insights are worth close attention. Not only has Amazon changed consumer shopping habits, it has changed the relationship between shareholders and investors.

Apr 14, 2017, 11:57 AM by Harte Hanks

It’s no secret that technology has changed the game when it comes to marketing. We all know the customer is now in charge of the journey. Add to this an explosion in engagement channels and content, and marketers find themselves awash in a sea of priorities.

Apr 13, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Being an effective marketer is one of the most challenging – yet rewarding – jobs today. It’s become almost a cliché to refer to marketing as being in a state of flux, but it’s true. New channels come and go, media consumption behaviors shift, but ultimately, modern marketers simply can’t be successful without a sound marketing strategy based on a rich understanding of their customer. Though that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?

Apr 12, 2017, 12:55 PM by Korey Thurber

As banks and credit unions face increasing pressure to compete with fintech innovations, peer-to-peer lenders and digital payment channels, it becomes more crucial than ever to optimize marketing spend and understand which channels provide the greatest ROI.

Apr 10, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

Years-ago marketing was done primarily through human interactions; think personal and door-to-door sales. As time went on, marketing became depersonalized as demographics and databases drove direct mail and telemarketing. As the internet took off, customer relationship management systems (CRM) enabled digital and email marketing, and things became even more depersonalized.

Apr 10, 2017, 11:53 AM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

A lot of our conversations lately have been focused on providing the right content to the right person at the right spot in the buyer’s journey—marketing in the moment. This is not a simple task, given the explosive growth of customer data we have at our fingertips, driven by the various touch points across digital, social, mobile and traditional channels.

Apr 10, 2017, 06:27 AM by None

San Antonio, TX – Harte Hanks (NYSE: HHS), a leader in customer relationships, experiences, and interaction-led marketing and Opera Solutions, a leader in Data Analytics, announced the market availability of their data and analytic solution delivered through Opera Solutions’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning platform, Signal Hub™.

Apr 6, 2017, 13:47 PM by Steve Acuna

There are only a few products in the world that are designed to meet everyone’s needs equally. For the most part, if you think the whole market is your opportunity, you’re wrong.

Apr 5, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

There are two unassailable truths about customer service. First, companies really don’t want their customers to have to use support channels. Second, and perhaps more importantly, customers do not want to call customer support.

Apr 4, 2017, 09:44 AM by Korey Thurber

An overwhelming amount of financial marketing executives—96 percent, according to The Financial Brand—feel that measuring ROI is a challenge. And 47 percent struggle to accurately quantify their department’s impact. That’s the bad news, the good news is that marketing is increasingly being seen as a revenue center within financial organizations—but with that comes a greater responsibility to deliver, measure and understand the ROI across the different touch points.

Mar 31, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

An online leader in luxury retail consignment earned $100M in its first year (2014), with plans to reach $1B by 2019. To fuel this ambitious growth, the company must continuously expand its membership of customers, who consign their high-end products for resale to other buyers.

Mar 28, 2017, 12:11 PM by Michele Fitzpatrick

Let’s pretend you’ve just moved homes. You probably expect to receive a few postcards from local retailers congratulating you on your new move and welcoming you to the neighborhood with a coupon for things like new dishes and towels. You’re a “new mover,” so that makes sense, right?

Mar 27, 2017, 15:17 PM by Kylie Alexander

In a recent interview with Quirk’s Media, Nancy Vogt, VP of Customer Experience with Zions Bank, discussed the implications of an important factor in market research: survey fatigue. She explained, “In recent years, as we’ve become ever more cognizant of survey fatigue, we’ve had to think long and hard about our priorities when designing a survey, considering each question to decide whether it is just ‘nice to know’ or whether the response will be actionable.”

Mar 23, 2017, 14:23 PM by Frank Grillo

Google indicates that mobile had a 20% increase in market share, while time per visit declined 18%. eMarketer predicts that by 2020 mobile will represent 74% of digital ad spending. These and similar findings led Google to conclude that mobile consumers move through their journeys in spurts rather than sessions, and that the “micro-moment” is the new battlefield where brands achieve success or failure.

Mar 22, 2017, 10:12 AM by Alan John Kittle

Is there a winning formula for brands looking be part of social buzz during major events and holidays? Nick LaBran, my fellow social intelligence guru at Harte Hanks, and I hypothesized that both national and global events would raise significant interest from brands looking to “news-jack” the use of social channels and insert themselves into conversations taking place.

Mar 21, 2017, 10:05 AM by Nicole Bump

Airbnb Super Bowl ad promotes certain values. Does the company live by them? Elsie Maio is on a mission – to empower high performing businesses to profitably align with the wellbeing of humanity. Since 1994, she has been touted as a practical visionary in the field of high performance brand strategy – helping clients get ahead of emerging global trends in business and society, long before it became fashionable.

Mar 20, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A leading consumer electronics brand offers several rewards programs for their customers each year. However, the vendor helping this brand with ordering and fulfillment of these reward orders was taking weeks to validate and deliver items to the consumers—which feels like forever! In addition, the company didn’t offer email or chat support when customers wanted to check up on their reward status.

Mar 20, 2017, 13:35 PM by Katie Sweet

Imagine that you’re a marketer currently researching a new martech solution for your team. At the beginning of your search when you land on one company’s website, what are you looking for? If you’re like me, you want to understand what the company does and whether the solution is relevant to your current needs — as fast as possible. You don’t want to wade through pages and pages of website copy and other content to make this assessment.

Mar 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

In 2015, a leading health insurance provider began selling Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and quickly became the state’s top provider of these plans. Due to the dramatic increase in call volume for both MA and under-65, Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, the insurance provider needed a contact center that could provide a better customer experience, while meeting all regulatory requirements.

Mar 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A prominent quick service restaurant (QSR) had a legacy contact center vendor whose agents serviced many other QSR’s just like them. They needed to design and enable a better overall support experience for their customers consistent across locations.

Mar 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

A professional sports league streams its games to a variety of connected devices, which means a variety of customer support requests. Its contact center struggled to resolve customer issues with consistent responses because its agents had to work with several outdated, disparate technologies.

Mar 16, 2017, 15:44 PM by None

As a leading global provider of fleet cards, FLEETCOR serves over 500,000 commercial accounts with millions of cardholders across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa and Asia. The company has achieved significant growth by acquisition in international markets

Mar 15, 2017, 16:53 PM by Jennifer Miles-Losapio

Jay Baer, Marketer, Author, Speaker and President of Convince and Convert, is known for saying: “Make your marketing so useful people would pay for it.” In other words, every interaction our brands have with a customer should deliver value to that customer. One-to-one marketing is no longer good enough—even though we’re just getting there. To provide value with each and every interaction, we must understand who individuals are and speak to them contextually, one-to-one, in the moment in which they are situated.

Mar 10, 2017, 10:14 AM by Alex Gill

Customer experience marketing is a proven antidote to the complex buyer journeys that characterize the B2B sector today. The goal is to serve highly relevant content to buyers in the right place at the right time, enhancing lead nurture and conversion to deliver better revenue growth.

Mar 8, 2017, 14:28 PM by Frank Grillo

McKinsey and Company recently published an article called The new battleground for marketing-led growth that explains in detail why marketers need to “win attention for their brands at the very beginning of a shopper’s journey.”

Mar 8, 2017, 14:17 PM by Frank Grillo

McKinsey and Company recently published an article called The new battleground for marketing-led growth that explains in detail why marketers need to “win attention for their brands at the very beginning of a shopper’s journey.” McKinsey’s research shows that, for shopping-driven categories (like cosmetics, personal computers, autos and financial services), the ratio of initial consideration to market share explains more than 60% of the variance in growth of market share.

Feb 23, 2017, 13:05 PM by Kylie Peters

Esther Lee, CMO of MetLife, admits that for most financial services companies, marketing is typically equivalent to sales support. When she arrived at the company in 2015, she found that many of her marketers were just “brochure ware people.” Standard volume-based strategies weren’t cutting it.

Feb 10, 2017, 10:38 AM by Marcy Strauss Axelrod

Every CMO must take stock of where their organization is and make decisions about what’s most important for the future. This can be an overwhelming process, with priorities coming from business units, IT, customer service, and the executive team, among others.

Feb 10, 2017, 10:02 AM by MARCY STRAUSS AXELROD

Every CMO must take stock of where their organization is and make decisions about what’s most important for the future. This can be an overwhelming process, with priorities coming from business units, IT, customer service, and the executive team, among others.

Feb 8, 2017, 16:39 PM by Scott Rhodes

For most of us, our smartphone is practically an extension of our body. The vast majority of brands today, however, are struggling to orchestrate outstanding intuitive mobile customer experiences. The smartphone is truly ingrained in our daily lives. As Google notes, 87% of us always have one by our side always, and 67% of us check it within 15 minutes of waking. Among other things, this means mobile technology is the primary channel in which we interact with brands, communicate with friends and family, read the news and restock our toothpaste (love you, Amazon app.).

Feb 6, 2017, 14:22 PM by Alan Kittle

No football team had ever come back from such a large deficit. No QB had ever won five rings. No Super Bowl had every gone to overtime. The Patriots became, arguably, #GOAT late on the 5th in Houston. No wonder millions took the 6th off work and school!

Feb 3, 2017, 11:36 AM by Ryan Moats

Historically, brick-and-mortar retailers have approached development of their online storefronts fatalistically. Companies thought that increasing online business couldn’t happen without poaching from brick-and-mortar storefronts—and if anyone was going to poach brick-and-motor business, it might as well be that same company’s online business. Online and bricks-and-mortar retail were treated as two separate animals. To grow online business, many companies thought they had no choice but to sacrifice bricks-and-mortar sales. All advances in online functionality for customers meant directing those customers away from brick-and-mortar locations.

Feb 2, 2017, 10:51 AM by Frank Grillo

Case study from Dr. Karl Hellman. In our 3-second attention span world, social media marketing often grabs attention with dramatic discounts: 30% off or more. But discounts erode profits and detract from brand equity: “Thirty percent off? What’s wrong with this product?”

Feb 1, 2017, 10:28 AM by Nicole Bump

Have you ever imagined that each of us, as individuals, would own our personal data and be able to sell it to marketers? We may be headed in that direction.

Jan 27, 2017, 11:39 AM by Frank Grillo

Case Study from Dr. Karl Hellman. We live in a cluttered marcom world: thousands of messages bombard us every day. Here’s how a professional services firm cut through and grew their business.

Jan 25, 2017, 11:26 AM by Ryan Moats

For years, retailers have been told that to compete in the new ecommerce world, they need to have a well-established omnichannel organization. The 2016 holiday season proves that the time has come—and it is not going away. Retailers that do not have a solid omnichannel strategy that lets customers shop whenever and however they want to shop are going to be left in the dust.

Jan 19, 2017, 11:56 AM by Frank Grillo

We all know by now that consumers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to marketing and the customer experience in 2017. To meet their ever-increasing expectations, we’ll need to get to know them at a deeper level than ever before and speak to them more contextually than we’ve dreamed possible.

Jan 19, 2017, 03:42 AM by Walt Ruday

How do you get to the answer of determining how one agency sets themselves apart? In my experience in the agency world, most, if not all, advertising agencies talk like they are selling you the same thing: 50% creative idea generation plus 50% management and organization of those ideas so they can conjure up a truly innovative execution.

Jan 13, 2017, 01:00 AM by Candi Williams

Data, data, data. It’s at the heart of just about everything today and getting cleverer by the minute. But what does that mean for creativity? Right now, data-driven creative is a much-discussed topic in the marketing world. And for decades, we’ve been marrying data and creativity to make amazing things happen. Here are just some of the reasons we champion the winning pair and some top tips for making it work for your business.

Jan 12, 2017, 12:00 PM by Frank Grillo

We’ve been discussing the importance of meeting customer demands for context and personalization in 2017. So far, we have established that we need to think beyond one-to-one marketing and focus on the small data to succeed in this Age of ‘Me,’.

Jan 10, 2017, 14:29 PM by Sana Ansari

How big of a role should Facebook play in your organization’s digital funnel and overall conversion process? Bigger than you might think.

Jan 9, 2017, 09:38 AM by Frank Grillo

We’ve established that this is the year of the consumer. We’re living in The Age of ‘Me’, and that means that as marketers, we really need to understand who our customers and our prospects are—and we need to use that to speak to them contextually.

Jan 5, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

You can’t get through the day as a marketer or customer experience professional without hearing about the importance of the customer journey. Yes, we all know that the customer should be at the center of all we do. Those of us in the contact center have been putting the customer first for decades.

Jan 4, 2017, 16:40 PM by Ryan Moats

Many retailers are beginning to feel like competing with a dominant force like Amazon is a losing battle. In the recent article “Can your brand win vs. Amazon?,” eBags.com CEO Mike Edwards examines the struggle for vendors and retailers to remain profitable in the shadow of the online retail giant. Amazon offers lower prices, convenience, a wide selection, product recommendations, a range of shipping options and a personalized customer experience. They’ve set the standard for customer expectations, and if you ignore that standard, you won’t succeed.

Jan 4, 2017, 09:01 AM by Frank Grillo

Reading through the many 2017 marketing predictions, there is one resounding theme: consumers are running the show. As Forrester says, all markets are on the move in response to consumer demands—even utility companies are launching customer experience initiatives.

Jan 3, 2017, 14:44 PM by None

While retailers think they’re doing a pretty good job with personalization, customers aren’t so sure. Retailers say personalization is tough because it’s hard to get to know the customer.

Dec 23, 2016, 07:09 AM by Simon Lodge

Attention has become more than simply an ingredient of advertising–it’s become the currency of success. In today’s digital age, marketers look to create ‘thumb-stopping moments’; unique periods of time where consumers see enough value in what they’re being shown to pause and fully absorb. Moments that deliver empathy-sparking cues; resonate with an individual’s humour or hit deep, emotional triggers hidden away in the brain’s hippocampus for years.

Dec 19, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

Tony Ulwick is the pioneer of jobs-to-be-done theory, the inventor of the Outcome-Driven Innovation® (ODI) process, and the founder of the strategy and innovation consulting firm Strategyn. He is the author of “What Customers Want” (McGraw-Hill) and numerous articles in Harvard Business Review and Sloan Management Review

Dec 10, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

It’s impossible to keep pace in today’s competitive marketplace. With the advent of digitization, new markets, competitors and opportunities can appear overnight. But what does it take to be able to serve up multichannel insights and optimize customer-centricity? A well-built Advanced Fractional Attribution Solution.

Dec 8, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

Big data is revolutionizing marketing. We now can monitor and measure almost anything in our increasingly interconnected society. Most importantly, we can track the customer’s journey and generate longitudinal data at the most granular level.

Dec 7, 2016, 12:21 PM by Nicole Bump

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about Donald Trump’s tweets and tweeting behavior (like here and here and here). Dan Rather explains that this is because he is the first “social president,” just like John. F. Kennedy was the first “television president.” They were not the first presidents to use these media, but they were the first to use them effectively. Therefore, the tweeting is newsworthy.

Dec 5, 2016, 04:09 AM by Michele Fitzpatrick

Customer centricity, the customer journey and the customer experience are the big buzz in marketing. But customer centricity takes a lot of time and money. How can you be sure it’s paying off? You’re making changes, but are they the right changes? You have 1,000 priorities; what’s your best course of action RIGHT NOW?

Nov 28, 2016, 11:30 AM by Stacey Butterworth-Smith

Recently Bristol played host to some of the finest social media minds in the country with over 1,500 attendees participating in 50 fact-packed Social Media Week events across the city. Harte Hanks sent a team to investigate.

Nov 18, 2016, 09:44 AM by Candi Williams

If you think effective design is just about getting the Pantone colors right and knowing your jpegs from your pngs, think again. Designing something that looks good is one thing. Creating something that people enjoy using again and again, that genuinely engages, and achieves the intended outcomes – that’s a whole different ball game. And one you might find referred to as ‘experience design’ or XD.

Nov 17, 2016, 14:35 PM by None

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Nov 14, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

Harte Hanks (HH) and Strategyn co-developed a strategic marketing service based on the premise that just as consumers “hire” products to do specific jobs, they also hire retailers to help them execute the “buying job” as they proceed along their buyer’s journey. To test the efficacy of this new service, HH and Strategyn focused on looking for strategic opportunities to help struggling brick-and-mortar businesses fight back against the relentless pressure from online competition.

Nov 9, 2016, 15:54 PM by Michele Fitzpatrick

The buyer journey and customer journey mapping are the big buzz in marketing. But do you actually know what a journey map is versus an experience map? Lifecycle map? Process map? Ecosystem map? To make the matter more complex, Forrester outlines four different journey mapping methodologies, each to be used for different objectives. AND each type of agency has its own objectives and processes for mapping.

Nov 3, 2016, 10:59 AM by Michele Fitzpatrick

Everything you learned in school and early in your career about marketing and product promotion is now table stakes. It used to be enough to get it right with the product and you’d find buyers. Now, you must get it right with the product AND with the customer experience to be successful in marketing.

Oct 28, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

The power of connection. As consumers, we don’t like being told what to do. Or how to feel, or how to react. We want to experience things for ourselves, in our own time and on our own terms. And it’s exactly that notion that led to a paradigm shift away from traditional marketing, giving rise to experiential marketing approaches.

Oct 28, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Trust is earned, not bought. From our newsfeeds to on-demand TV ad spots, we are being marketed to everywhere we look. In fact, it’s estimated that today’s consumers are bombarded with anywhere from 3,000 to 20,000 ads and marketing messages every day.

Oct 28, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

We are living and operating in the era of ‘me’. An era where customers increasingly expect personalized experiences that are relevant, useful and, most prominently, human. We’ve seen it develop in brands – from Coca Cola’s memorable #ShareACoke campaign to the shopping giants like Amazon, eBay and Ocado’s ongoing personalization strategies.

Oct 28, 2016, 12:10 PM by Terry Arnold

Social media has become one of the BIG THREE customer service channels—especially in B2C—joining phone and email to form the triad of support modalities. But customers have high expectations, and there aren’t many companies meeting them.

Oct 27, 2016, 13:41 PM by Barbara Basquill

Before a snowflake has fallen or a holiday decoration is placed, retailers and consumers indices’ have already planned on the sales expectations they want to achieve. While the digital frontier shows no sign of slowing, now is the time to prepare for 2017.

Sep 22, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

The digital landscape has grown prolifically over the past decade. Today, social media is ingrained in people’s daily lives with consumers using social platforms to share their experiences and opinions – often about brands and products.

Sep 22, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

A leading international technology corporation selected Harte Hanks to develop and implement a visionary social selling model to help seize opportunities presented by social media’s growing influence on buyers. By leveraging the right tools and insights they were able to better interact with buyers across online channels in order to drive lead-generation.

Sep 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Social listening for B2B is much more effective than you might think. Introducing the Harte Hanks Social Intelligence Toolkit. There’s a world of prospects on social. Are you listening?

Sep 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Explore the minds of marketing’s thought leaders.

Sep 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Digital disruption is undeniably unpredictable. As a marketer, the digital frontier can be a dangerous place if you aren’t armed with smart technologies. But for those who do take advantage of these digital technologies, the benefits can be substantial.

Sep 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Today, 350,000 new tweets are posted every minute and with 1.65 billion monthly active users, there are more people on Facebook than the entire population of China.

Sep 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

The social landscape is booming. For B2B businesses, this means vast and valuable opportunities. But, how do you cut through the social noise and tune into the conversations that will have the most impact on your brand?

Sep 21, 2016, 07:19 AM by None

The social landscape is booming. Every minute of every day, consumers are using social channels to discuss their experiences, feelings and opinions on brands. And this presents rich opportunities for B2C businesses to build strong, meaningful relationships with consumers.

Sep 19, 2016, 15:36 PM by Kevin Gaherty

In a continuing effort to improve their customers’ experience, Apple recently began releasing iOS 10 and will continue throughout the fall. The release includes features and issues that will have a direct impact on email marketers

Aug 26, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

MVMT, an ecommerce company selling minimalist men’s and women’s watches sought to optimize performance across all viable digital channels while rapidly scaling conversions.

Aug 26, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

The CEO of a niche internet retailer met with Harte Hanks to discuss customer acquisition costs. The retailer’s largest budget line item – bigger than payroll, was Internet advertising. The cost-per-lead threatened profitability and was not sustainable, but the CEO felt he had few options and little leverage with his suppliers.

Aug 26, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

The Grommet is a product-launch platform in the form of a highly curated online marketplace, for products by Makers that haven’t hit the big-time yet. At noon ET every weekday, they share a new product’s story and make it available for purchase on the site.

Aug 22, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Developments in virtual reality are gathering pace. Adoption rates are up and the depth, breadth and quality of content is steadily increasing. Forbes reported that from January to March 2016, $1.1 billion dollars was invested in VR. That compares to $2 billion in the whole of 2015.

Aug 17, 2016, 13:41 PM by Barbara Basquill

It certainly doesn’t feel like the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders. We’re experiencing a volatile stock market. Department stores and big retailers are struggling. A recent spike in oil prices could further impact consumer spending. However, despite a sluggish economy through the first half of 2016, the housing market has continued to be undeniably strong.

Aug 16, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

With the evolving marketplace and increased customer empowerment, businesses find themselves in a quickly changing customer experience environment. Harte Hanks has been in the business of producing engaging and effective customer interactions to drive business results for our clients for many years.

Aug 16, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

In many industries, markets and businesses, contact center efficiency and—surprisingly—customer satisfaction don’t directly drive customer loyalty. Customer loyalty grows instead from the totality of interactions, including all forms of engagement, known as the customer experience. This is what moves the business forward.

Aug 16, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Most of the companies we work with have a difficult time executing against a unified customer experience as different groups within the organization have different definitions and perceptions of what that experience should be. Customer Service tends to have a reactive approach, measuring performance through CSAT.

Aug 16, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

A few weeks ago, I participated in a webinar with CRM magazine and discussed how to create smarter customer interactions and more effective contact centers. I have dedicated the last several years at Harte Hanks to specializing in Customer Experience Support solutions, leading a team of technology experts who specialize in Oracle Service Cloud for Contact Centers.

Jul 27, 2016, 09:57 AM by Laura Watson

In our last article we discussed how the advent of IoT is bringing marketers an overwhelming amount of data, behemoth data, that can be synthesized into usable knowledge that can drive more effective customer journeys. With companies having access to all of this data, we’d like to talk more about how this data can be optimized and utilized to have the largest impact on your organization.

Jul 22, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Through our partnerships with multiple data sources, Harte-Hanks’ New Mover Data is one of the most powerful new mover marketing data sets available. Harte Hanks utilizes sources that obtain and update residential contact information daily from more than 3,000 sources. The data is processed by applying a variety of algorithms, confirming a move, and not just a name change for example.

Jul 7, 2016, 12:19 PM by Laura Watson

Being connected via wearables without your mobile device is already a reality with untethered Tech, like Android Wear and the Samsung Gear S2, which both support e-SIMs tapping into your pre-existing cell network at no extra cost. It’s a good bet that every smartwatch brand will have an LTE version by the end of 2016, which means that while there’s a vast number of facts and untold nuggets of information that could surprise even big data’s most ardent followers. Big Data is about to become behemoth data.

Jun 22, 2016, 12:24 PM by Laura Watson

With the advent of smart technology, we are getting ever closer to the Orsen Wells imagined world of Big Brother oversight in everyday interactions…and many of us are starting to like it because it makes our decision-making easier, our lives more efficient and allows us to do more of the “fun stuff” we’d all rather be doing.

Jun 20, 2016, 07:06 AM by None

Jun 20, 2016, 06:41 AM by None

Jun 8, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Developments in vertual reality are gathering pace. Adoption rates are up and the depth, breadth and quality of content is steadily increasing. Forbes reported that from January to March 2016, $1.1 billion dollars was invested in VR.

Jun 7, 2016, 07:54 AM by None

Harte Hanks (NYSE: HHS), a leader in customer relationships, experiences and interaction-led marketing, won the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association's 2016 Best In Show Award for an innovative email campaign the company produced for Sony Electronics.

May 13, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

Today’s typical customer is hyper-connected and has more choices than ever before when it comes to finding the information that’s most relevant to him or her. Undoubtedly, this customer has traditional mailers coming through the post office and hundreds of TV channels with thousands of advertisements and infomercials constantly bombarding him or her. There are a multitude of blogs, product review and recommendation sites, as well as thousands of websites and comparative shopping sites just a simple finger tap away on an amazing array of devices.

May 10, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

A large consumer electronics manufacturer was caught off guard by a customer complaint that went viral on social media. While responding to this trending issue, the company realized it should have a more strategic presence in social communities.

May 10, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

A large entertainment provider was launching a subscription service to offer their live events online. A big portion of the millions of customers that had previously purchased each event on cable or satellite would now be purchasing a subscription to stream online. The organization needed a contact center partner that could quickly scale to handle all customer inquiries, including billing, product and technical support. The partner also needed to provide customer support across multiple channels, including phone, email, chat and social, ensuring that each subscriber could properly stream the event on their device-of-choice and was satisfied with the service.

May 10, 2016, 15:16 PM by Alana Griffiths

Over the past five years, content marketing has become a major strategic theme occupying B2B events, editorials and analysts. Many brands have jumped on the content creation bandwagon – the internet is awash with blogs and white papers, infographics and video. And it keeps on coming.

May 4, 2016, 13:00 PM by Adi Clark

I’ve spent much of my career working in data-driven marketing roles and delivering insights for B2C brands, but over the last decade the balance has shifted and I now work almost exclusively with B2B businesses. While some of the differences between the two worlds are to be expected, such as the availability of different data types and the more complex buying cycle in B2B, in fact there are a great deal of similarities in the techniques and types of analysis that can be carried out for B2C and B2B. So why aren’t B2B brands making as much use of analytics as their B2C counterparts?

Apr 29, 2016, 15:35 PM by None

Apr 26, 2016, 11:44 AM by David Chandler

On April 12 virtual reality trailblazers from across the globe descended on Bristol for VR World Congress. As you’d expect, many attendees were gaming professionals. But some speakers and exhibitors explored VR in relation to wider areas such as data visualisation, engineering, medicine and education.

Apr 19, 2016, 15:24 PM by Rusty Langford

Most of the companies we work with have a difficult time executing against a unified customer experience as different groups within the organization have different definitions and perceptions of what that experience should be. Customer Service tends to have a reactive approach, measuring performance through CSAT, response time, and reaction to market “noise”.

Apr 12, 2016, 13:47 PM by Michael Krueger

How to get over what is keeping you up at night. And, I don’t just mean those crazy neighbors next door. In your competitive market, how can you keep pace with customer needs? How can you be certain that you are investing in the right channels to acquire more customers? What if you were told you had to decrease your budget – where would you first look to cut?

Mar 31, 2016, 13:43 PM by Alan John Kittle

We’ve been urged (well, that’s maybe overstating a little) to follow up on the pre-SXSW evaluations post. In it, Alan opined that the three “tracks” most likely to get most industry attention were Wearables, IoT and VR/AR.

Mar 21, 2016, 15:44 PM by None

In today’s retail landscape, little debate exists about the importance of data analytics in decision making. The applications of analytics in the retail industry are wide-ranging and include merchandise assortment, geographic site selection, store layout, pricing and markdown strategies, e-commerce site design, enhancing the shopper experience, and all the various applications within direct brand-consumer interactions.

Mar 3, 2016, 10:58 AM by Alex Gill

In our recent session at B2B Marketing’s InTech event in London, we considered how demand generation can be improved through a convergence of technology and people.

Mar 2, 2016, 12:16 PM by Alan Kittle

As I prepare for my second pilgrimage to Austin, to immerse myself in all that is emerging and mind-blowing in our industry, I thought I’d curate some of the information the organizers are now sending to registered attendees. There are three very important customer engagement trends, or “tracks” as SXSW calls them, that every marketer will want to evaluate.

Feb 25, 2016, 13:02 PM by Korey Thurber

There is a critical need for Analytics Driven Insight in the Financial Services (FiServ) sector. The customer journey is no longer solely about the in-branch experience or siloed traditional marketing deployed by marketers. Today, a FiServ institution can influence the customer experience across a multitude of interaction points.

Feb 23, 2016, 18:50 PM by Alex Gill

“The importance of customer experience is on the rise; marketing is on the hook”. So said Gartner for Marketing Leaders in a 2014 research report. It predicted that customer experience, not product differentiation, would be the new battlefield for organisations wanting to achieve standout. And it said marketing would be expected to ‘create exceptional branded moments at every customer touchpoint’.

Feb 4, 2016, 15:26 PM by Heather Curtis

Automation is a fairly young, up-and-coming concept in the marketing industry, so it is understandable that there would be misconceptions in the beginning about what it is and what it does. As we start 2016 and “marketing automation” becomes less of a buzzword and more of a mainstream strategy, Harte Hanks wants to set the record straight on the facts about marketing automation. Here are three myths that we want to clear up:

Jan 25, 2016, 14:44 PM by Alex Gill

The B2B demand-marketing ecosystem continues to evolve at a rapid pace. It’s driven by emerging technologies, tactics and buyer behaviors, alongside other well-established factors that continue to shape the discipline.

Jan 21, 2016, 07:21 AM by Marketing

Frank, I’ve heard you say that companies are working hard to transition from product and channel-centricity to true customer-centricity. What does it take to make this transition? This question cuts to the core of everything that we are doing at Harte Hanks.

Jan 12, 2016, 15:11 PM by Natalia Gallur

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software offers a great deal of potential for the pharmaceutical industry. However, this is a complex sector, riddled with regulations surrounding sensitive data. It is not easy to find a solution that fits business needs while complying with relevant laws. This is especially true at an international level when different rules need to be observed for different countries.

Jan 5, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

One of the most powerful (and talked-about) digital marketing trends over the past year-plus has been the proliferation of data. At 3Q Digital, we believe that 1st-party data – your data, gathered by you and unique to your business – is the most powerful and highest-quality data available. And there’s a huge bonus: it’s free

Jan 5, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

“How are we doing?” This is the first question marketers ask us about their Google AdWords account. For a long time, we struggled with this question. We would go into lengthy explanations of PPC best practices and discuss conversion rates, account structure, and competitive benchmarking. Often this detailed analysis didn’t give the marketers any more comfort; it just created frustration. “OK,” they’d say, “I know I have to improve a lot of things in my account, but does that mean I’m absolutely terrible or close to perfection?”

Jan 5, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

Once upon a time, on a search engine far, far, away, a search engine marketer could purchase a very obscure keyword (perhaps thousands of such keywords) and make a tidy profit as a result of the incredibly high conversion rate (CR) and incredibly low cost per click (CPC). This technique – known as “mining the long tail” – was a staple of every savvy SEM’s bag of tricks.

Jan 5, 2016, 14:44 PM by None

The basic building blocks of any search engine marketing campaign are keywords. As John Battelle wrote in his seminal book on search engines – The Search – a search engine is nothing more than a “database of intentions.”

Dec 17, 2015, 10:33 AM by Rusty Langford

Social media is quickly becoming a critical factor in augmenting and enhancing your customer support strategy. Last week, I participated in an industry roundtable hosted by CRM Magazine on the subject. When businesses think of social media, it’s often in terms of marketing or public relations. And while social media is a great tool to help extend both, its impact goes beyond promoting and marketing your company. Increasingly, social media has become a powerful contributor to customer service and support. Customers are now powerful influencers. They take to social media to talk about brands and products – positively and negatively – in an attempt to influence their peers and the brands they buy from. So how do you influence the influencers, and utilize social media to enhance your customer service?

Dec 15, 2015, 15:35 PM by None

Our latest work for the Samsung Mobile's Global Social team showcases the fun you can have if you add the Gear VR to a Galaxy ecosystem built around your smartphone.

Dec 15, 2015, 15:35 PM by None

Our latest work for the Samsung Mobile's Global Social team showcases the fun you can have if you add the Gear VR to a Galaxy ecosystem built around your smartphone.

Dec 11, 2015, 11:52 AM by Simon Lodge

As marketers, digital savvies and media gurus, whenever virtual reality (VR) comes into conversation, it’s safe to say we can’t help but drop a bold reference to Minority Report, The Matrix or Back to the Future. These pop-culture films made technologies of the future sexy; or at least provided recognizable uses for them.

Dec 9, 2015, 10:55 AM by Alan John Kittle

Marketing has always been a blend of art and science. But the rise of marketing technology has tilted the scales heavily towards the science end of the equation. This is not necessarily a bad thing – the digital revolution has armed marketers with information and techniques that drive more accurate, cost-effective campaigns. Essentially, technology has eliminated a good portion of the “guesswork” traditionally associated with marketing. Again, this is a wonderful development for marketers. Technology allows us to personalize our approach to better connect with audiences and do a better job of meeting their needs and desires. But too much technology can have negative effects – namely, the erosion of creativity.

Dec 3, 2015, 15:40 PM by David Rodnitzy

Marketers are overwhelmed with tools and channels, and most of these – OMG! – have a three-letter acronym (TLA) that we use to theoretically make it easier for us to discuss them (and of course, to make us feel like we are in the know!). DSP, SEM, PMD, PLA, SEO, FPD, LOL, CRM, FAN, GDN . . . the list goes on and on. BTW, “LOL” on the previous list refers to “laugh out loud,” ICYM!

Dec 3, 2015, 11:43 AM by None

The challenge for any brand is to break through the clutter and keep online communities engaged through authentic communication— particularly at pivotal moments like a flagship product launch. The Galaxy Note 4 was launched in 2014 and had been praised by the tech press for its great productivity features, which Samsung had promoted across the vast network of its global marketing efforts.

Dec 1, 2015, 15:35 PM by None

Nov 24, 2015, 14:44 PM by None

How do you enable customers to seamlessly shift from traditional to new entertainment services? How do you control the flood of consumer purchases and inquiries on a new online platform? In 2014, a major entertainment provider faced these challenges as they launched a new online subscription service.

Nov 20, 2015, 14:44 PM by None

The strategic consumer relationship program, which married data analytics and insights with creative content, increased patient adherence and treatment success, and converted patients into brand advocates.

Nov 18, 2015, 10:38 AM by Alana Griffiths

The evolution of the customer journey from vendor-led to the modern, customer-empowered experience has all but killed the idea of a “campaign.” Marketing to today’s consumer is not a short-term affair – it requires a sustained effort that provides the consumer with relevant and useful information at the right time and place.

Nov 16, 2015, 12:48 PM by Alex Gill

The modern customer journey is consumer driven and often fractured. Unlike the linear, vendor-led customer journeys of the past, the buyer is now in full control. With endless options – and a bevvy of information about each product or service readily available for consumers – marketers must devise new ways to attract customers and secure brand awareness and loyalty.

Nov 10, 2015, 11:57 AM by Alan John Kittle

Smart B2B brands have been learning from their B2C cousins about wrapping messages up in a more appealing way for years. Some B2B players have a clear vision of the role video needs to play and how to make the viewer experience both enjoyable and meaningful. Plaudits where they’re due!

Nov 9, 2015, 11:39 AM by Adi Clark

What if you knew what your customers wanted, when they wanted it? With predictive marketing analytics, gazing into the future is entirely possible. While predictive analytics is not a new concept – marketers have often tried to use past performance to predict future behavior – the dawn of the information age has amplified its effectiveness and usability. Predictive analytics allow marketers to focus efforts and maximize their budgets by identifying targets who are ready to buy and by eliminating those who aren’t.

Nov 6, 2015, 08:05 AM by Karen Puckett

It’s been almost two months since I took the role of President & CEO of Harte Hanks. In that time, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting our clients in Philadelphia, Burlington and San Francisco, amongst other locations.

Nov 4, 2015, 16:15 PM by Chris Ronald

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been exploring the four biggest marketing challenges faced by B2B tech companies. Whether you’ve been following along or just tuning in now, you can find the first three installments about utilizing all available tools and technologies, leveraging high-quality, real-time data and generating ROI with less budget and fewer resources on our blog.

Nov 2, 2015, 15:35 PM by David Rodnitzy

Last week I had lunch with an incredible group of people: an Academy Award-nominated director, a 21-year-old nuclear physicist, and a New York Times columnist. Just another day in the glamorous life of a digital agency executive, right?

Oct 27, 2015, 12:39 PM by Stacey Greene

This is my third blog post on contact service solutions this month. This blog series has been designed to help our readers understand and create “smarter customer interactions” including recommendations on customer experience technology solutions. This week, I want to share insights and tips on how to improve customer experiences through the creation of strong agent workspaces.

Oct 19, 2015, 18:38 PM by Chris Ronald

If you’ve been following my four-part series on the biggest challenges impacting B2B tech companies today, you’ll have already picked up some tips on maximizing your tools and technologies and generating high-quality, real-time data.

Oct 19, 2015, 10:33 AM by Stacey Greene

Last week, I published a blog post to help our readers create smarter customer interactions from a custom experience standpoint, including recommendations on customer support websites. This week, I’ll share some insights and tips on how to improve customer experiences through the voice channel.

Oct 16, 2015, 09:01 AM by Natalia Gallur

Patient support programs play a vital role in facilitating better disease management and treatment optimization. Traditionally pharmaceutical companies launched such initiatives on a local level. However, from a regional perspective, this sometimes resulted in patchy and fragmented support.

Oct 16, 2015, 01:38 AM by Chris Ronald

A couple of weeks ago, I kicked off a blog series about the four biggest challenges faced by B2B tech companies. If you missed the first installment about creating an ecosystem that makes use of all available tools and technologies, you can read about it here.

Oct 14, 2015, 17:41 PM by David Rodnitzy

Last week, we shared some key insights from our 3Q Digital Growth Summit at Levi’s Stadium, where we hosted 150 colleagues, partners, and clients to discuss the newest and most critical trends in digital.

Oct 13, 2015, 10:58 AM by Stacey Green

A few weeks ago, I participated in a webinar with CRM magazine, and discussed how to create smarter customer interactions and more effective contact centers. I have dedicated the last several years at Harte Hanks specializing in Customer Experience Support solutions, leading a team of technology experts who specialize in Oracle Service Cloud for Contact Centers. Today, I’d like to share my thoughts and experiences on defining what a “smarter customer interaction” means, as well as suggestions on customer support tools that can improve your overall customer experience.

Oct 13, 2015, 09:20 AM by Stacey Greene

A few weeks ago, I participated in a webinar with CRM magazine, and discussed how to create smarter customer interactions and more effective contact centers. I have dedicated the last several years at Harte Hanks specializing in Customer Experience Support solutions, leading a team of technology experts who specialize in Oracle Service Cloud for Contact Centers.

Oct 8, 2015, 14:14 PM by David Rodnitzky

In digital marketing, the one constant is change. 3Q Digital gathered 150 colleagues, partners, and clients to Levi’s Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ers and Super Bowl 50, for a day- long dive into the newest, emergent, and most critical trends in the digital space – including the true growth drivers companies must embrace going forward.

Sep 29, 2015, 10:02 AM by Chris Ronald

Nearly every industry today is affected by our increasingly digital world and has had to make adjustments – or in some cases, complete business model overhauls – to stay relevant. It is more important than ever before to connect with customers using the technology and channels that are now so pervasive in everyday life.

Sep 28, 2015, 13:46 PM by Karen Puckett

Six years ago, when I first started working with Harte Hanks as a board director, I was impressed by the company’s commitment to creating smarter customer interactions. Since 2009, Harte Hanks has grown in impressive and necessary ways to stay at the forefront of both the marketing services industry and the digital evolution.

Sep 25, 2015, 05:23 AM by David Rodnitzky

The key to our system is that we use a global workforce & technology to create smarter automated communication, for often less than an entry level wage minus the expensive benefit costs.

Sep 23, 2015, 15:52 PM by Kevin Berthiaume

In today’s digital world, direct mail is often overlooked. Yet as one of the most effective marketing tools around, direct mail is a key cornerstone of many successful campaigns. With a response rate of approximately four percent, direct mail far surpasses other channels like email marketing and paid search, with response rates for each clocking in around 0.1 percent.

Sep 14, 2015, 09:30 AM by Anthony Figgins

Last week I posted a blog about the basics of marketing automation—what it is and how it can help you create more relevant, personal customer interactions. This week, I want to take you a layer deeper into the powerful world of marketing automation and provide insight and tips into the right tools you need, how to get started and how you define and measure success.

Sep 10, 2015, 14:53 PM by Anthony Figgins

Marketing automation is quickly becoming one of the most valuable technology tools for both B2B and B2C marketers. The right tools can save you time and money, and they can showcase ROI faster. However, like with any technology platform, there can be a steep learning curve. Here is what you need to know to get started.

Sep 4, 2015, 08:51 AM by Andrew Harrison

Long gone are the days of achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty by simply selling them a good product. Now more than ever, it takes consistent positive brand interactions, from consideration all the way through to the post-sale experience.

Aug 31, 2015, 10:36 AM by Anthony Figgins

It’s no secret that marketers have it tougher today than ever before. A saturated market place, overwhelming amounts of brand messages and shorter consumer attention spans are just a few of the challenges we face. Reaching your customers at the right time, on the right channel, with the right message, in less than 30 seconds isn’t exactly a walk in the park.

Aug 26, 2015, 11:39 AM by Tim Smallwood

Throughout my years of primary and secondary education, I often heard comments about how a fellow student “screwed up the curve by getting a high grade on the test.” Ten years after graduation, I’m finding that the concept of weighted distribution is still practical and relevant.

Aug 19, 2015, 14:07 PM by Linda Clasen

The dog days of summer are quickly winding down. Back to school season is in full force, which can only mean one thing: it’s time for marketers to shift gears towards the upcoming holiday season.

Aug 12, 2015, 15:23 PM by Alan John Kittle

Snapchat. WhatsApp. Tumblr. Instagram. It seems that every day, a new must-have mobile app is being downloaded on smartphones and tablets across the globe. In the fast moving world of mobile, it’s hard to keep track of where your customers are spending their time and how to connect with them across the plethora of social networks.

Aug 3, 2015, 09:00 AM by David Rodnitzky

We live in an age where the customer – not the company – dictates your brand. In the old days, you could put out a massive advertising campaign with the moniker “Fly the Friendly Skies” and convince consumers that your airline was the nicest around. Today, an angry customer can create a video called “United breaks guitars,” and millions of consumers will share it in second.

Jul 30, 2015, 09:00 AM by Seth Romanow

When Less is More. Often times, the discussion about data is around quantity – we think we need more data, more sources, and more insights. But marketers are already inundated with data. Getting more data is not the challenge – getting quality, useful data is. If we can shift our mindsets to getting more out of the data that we already have, we will open up an easier path of understanding what quality data is telling us. Quality data results in trustworthy reporting and truer insights, which can help us deliver more effective campaigns thorough better targeting, messaging and content.

Jul 28, 2015, 09:55 AM by Ben Chacko

Last month, I attended Call Center Week in Las Vegas and shared my thoughts on the key trends coming out of the show. There was a lot of chatter about how new technologies are helping to create enhanced efficiencies in the contact center setting.

Jul 23, 2015, 09:20 AM by Michele Fitzpatrick

The banking industry is constantly evolving based on legislation and regulations, a changing competitive field, and changes in the expectations and needs of the customer. One of the most dramatic changes has been the digital revolution, resulting in more and more consumers expecting the same quality of experience across channels in all categories of products and services.

Jul 14, 2015, 11:56 AM by Seth Romanow

Last week, I responded to web analytics expert Avinash Kaushik’s popular blog Occams Razor where he “de-mystified” misconceptions about digital marketing and analytics. I talked a bit about the proper use of data in effective marketing. This week, I’m going to address why “Cookies! Cookies are all we need!” is a myth, and how other technologies should be used to create a more useful single customer view.

Jul 6, 2015, 10:22 AM by Seth Romanow

A few weeks ago, Avinash Kaushik, digital marketing evangelist at Google, shared his perspective on how to “de-mystify” misconceptions about digital marketing and analytics on his popular blog, Occams Razor. While he made several excellent points, the myth-busters that resonated most with me were in relation to creating a data-first strategy and…Cookies! Cookies are all we need! I’m going to talk about the proper of use of data in driving effective marketing in this blog, and tune in next week to learn about how to go beyond cookies and use other technologies to create a single customer view.

Jul 2, 2015, 15:41 PM by Sean Mcentee

As you may recall, Harte Hanks acquired 3Q Digital earlier this year. This post was originally published on 3Q Digital’s blog. We’ve decided to repost it here because it contains practical tips around how to better understand who your audience is and how they are behaving–to connect with them in a more meaningful way.

Jun 25, 2015, 13:40 PM by Ben Chacko

Last week, thousands of customer service executives gathered in Las Vegas at the 16th annual Call Center Week. There are many reasons why Harte Hanks attends this global, premier conference for contact center leaders, and this year was the most heavily attended that I have participated in.

Jun 16, 2015, 11:58 AM by Craig Murray

Of the myriad of industries affected by the shift to digital, the postal service may have been amongst the hardest hit. With the introduction of email and texts in the early 2000s, hand-written letters became increasingly antiquated and the decline of traditional mail began. It continues today as short digital communications – IMs, Snapchats, tweets and Vines – become the preferred method of interaction amongst younger, and increasingly older, demographics.

Apr 24, 2015, 08:39 AM by None

Harte Hanks (NYSE: HHS), a leader in developing customer relationships, experiences and defining interaction led marketing, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its B2B research businesses, Aberdeen Group and Harte Hanks Market Intelligence, to subsidiaries of Halyard Capital.

Apr 6, 2015, 15:51 PM by Heather Anding

You may have heard by now that Harte Hanks has acquired 3Q Digital, one of the most widely respected, independent agencies in digital marketing.

Mar 25, 2015, 10:27 AM by Alan Kittle

During Twitter co-founder Biz Stone’s session, he talked about his new venture – Super – a heavily visual social platform described on their App Store page as, “Bold opinions become tiny works of art.” It’s Snapchat meets Pop Art! Heavily inspired by Barbara Kruger, this is Biz’s latest attempt to build something that allows users to share their thoughts built off opening statements like, “I LOVE” or “I’M ALL” or even “ONCE UPON A TIME” … the convergence of gallery images and text overlays is anarchic and encourages self-expression and personalization way beyond Instagram or Twitter.

Mar 16, 2015, 07:16 AM by Brian Dames

Today I am pleased to announce Harte Hanks has acquired 3Q digital, a performance marketing agency with extensive expertise in managing digital paid media. This addition to the Harte Hanks portfolio represents more than just growth for the organization, it represents our commitment to innovate and lead intelligent customer interactions.

Feb 26, 2015, 13:00 PM by Maitreyi (MJ) Jha

Today’s customers are engaging with your brand through an ever-expanding number of devices and channels, giving you unprecedented customer insight.

Feb 20, 2015, 12:56 PM by Michele Fitzpatrick

What if I told you that you could get a complete picture of your customer experience, down to granular detail around each point of interaction? A picture that would identify problem areas, assess what’s broken and provide instructions for and the economic value of fixing the problems? Sounds like this would be a pretty fantastic opportunity, right?

Feb 4, 2015, 15:06 PM by Nicole Bump

As the managing editor of this blog, it’s my job to make sure we have a steady stream of new blog content. If you manage your own corporate blog (or even a personal blog), I’m sure you know how challenging that can be. No matter how many subject matter experts (SMEs) you ask for a post, you still often turn up empty handed. The following are some hacks I’ve come up with to make sure I always have something to publish.

Jan 13, 2015, 14:23 PM by Nicole Bump

Wouldn’t it be great if we could weed out all of those people that won’t buy, regardless of what we send them? AND weed out all of the people that WILL buy, regardless of our marketing? Oh, wait, that’s what incremental modeling (aka uplift modeling) does.

Jan 13, 2015, 09:31 AM by Nicole Bump

I’m not terrible with numbers. I’d even go so far to say that I’m data-driven in my marketing. But terms like incremental modeling and uplift modeling still sounded a little intimidating when I was assigned to create some marketing materials on this analytics solution. But I put on my big girl pants and got the run-down from one of our analytics experts.

Jan 6, 2015, 10:03 AM by Nicole Bump

Back in January 2014, we introduced the Knowledge Shared, Knowledge Gained program to give back to the communities where we live and work by providing marketing services pro-bono. Teams from Harte Hanks worked with non-profits in Greater Orlando to identify each organization’s business goals and create marketing plans to achieve them.

Dec 18, 2014, 09:30 AM by Linda Clasen

Over the last 20 years, I’ve seen massive amounts of change in retail marketing. Company leadership is asking for new thinking to drive the business, and any new tactics need to drive measurable results more quickly than ever. Internal pressures are made greater by the pace at which the customer’s behavior is changing. It’s daunting.

Dec 15, 2014, 13:09 PM by Linda Clasen

MyLowe’s, PowerUp Rewards by GameStop, My Best Buy—you’ve heard about lots of successful retail loyalty programs, and you may even belong to one of them yourself. And you may be thinking, “Hey, we need a program like that!”

Dec 10, 2014, 10:53 AM by Nicole Bump

When you think of customer support, you probably think about calling into a contact center. But I’m not a big fan of the phone–and I’m not alone in this sentiment. As early as 2012, we’ve been seeing a decline in millennial’s use of voice minutes, and we just recently found out that many in this general age group have stopped listening to their voice mail.

Nov 18, 2014, 10:26 AM by Seth Romanow

In my last post, I discussed how building an ideal customer profile is the first step to successful inference marketing—using data from a variety of sources to learn about the customer without requiring him or her to fill out a form. In this post, I’ll go into a little more depth about why you should take the time to build an ideal customer profile and how to get it done.