Social media. Everybody’s doing it, right? And that may be exactly why you shouldn’t. Turns out real estate agents using social networks are getting lost in the crowd, while postcard marketing is what’s getting results. Why? The average inbox receives 60 to 100 messages a day, but the average mailbox sees only one or two postcards. Guess sometimes it pays not to keep up with the competition.

For years now, the buzz has been that print’s dead. Funny, considering that despite major shifts in the publishing world, consumers still want print magazines. That’s not saying they won’t give e-readers a try. It’s just that, given a choice, they still want to physically hold their magazines. But your content had better be tailored to their interests, otherwise you’ll get overlooked — regardless of channel.

California-based zpizza grew its loyalty database with mailers featuring a pizza-shaped scratch-off area that revealed a code, which recipients texted to the company for a prize. The mailings generated almost 2,000 text entries and a 20-percent spike in registration for ztribe, the pizza chain’s loyalty club.

TechnoServe, a nonprofit that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries, tested matching gift language in a recent prospecting package. In one package, the foundation sponsoring the matching gift was mentioned by name; in the other, readers were told that a “very generous donor” had made the offer. Donors preferred transparency. The letter naming the sponsor generated a higher response rate (+20%) and average gift (+$3.75).

Need a way to boost donations to your nonprofit? How about offering them a check? The American Parkinson Disease Association garnered more than 30,000 new donations in 2008 by offering prospects a $2 check. Recipients could cash the check even if they didn’t wish to send a gift, but many chose to make a donation.

Aperture, a fine art photography magazine, found that a plain white control envelope tallied 10 percent more subscription orders than a more expensive green envelope with identical content inside. The more expensive green envelope, which was expected to stand out in a pile of mail, had been predicted to garner more responses than the white envelope.

Avoiding travel industry clichés like “Be sure to book now,” Lindblad Expeditions instead opted for a more sublime package with a DVD featuring a travel experience in the Galapagos Islands. Surveys found the package was well received and the DVD had a high view rate.

The Orthodox Union’s NCSY included a personalized membership card, visible through the outside envelope, in its latest renewal campaign, generating better response rates (4 percent to 6 percent) and more donations than previous campaigns. The organization found recipients within the target community tend to like being part of a larger group.

Health care providers have learned that cheerful marketing ploys can also improve consumers’ attitudes toward medical care in general. But the humor must be relevant to a customer benefit, not just humor for humor’s sake.

City Harvest is showing that appearances really do matter by soliciting donations with a real brown paper bag as its envelope. A letter from the New York-based charity is headlined, “Most likely, having enough food to fill this lunch bag isn’t a problem for you. Not everybody is so lucky.” Few other tactics have worked as well for the group’s acquisitions strategy.

Timberland created the “Green Index,” which lists such information as the amount of energy consumed to manufacture a particular shoe, and shares the database with competitors to set a transparency standard for the shoe industry.

One San Francisco retailer’s Web site steers customers to a national database where they can search for the closest recycle center that accepts their direct mail discards, like the retailer’s own glossy catalogs.

Epicurean magazine Saveur doubled its response rate by abandoning its courtesy voucher in favor of another marketing strategy: the magalog. There are a lot of offers in the magalog, from sweepstakes to discounts.

Wal-Mart introduced a packaging scorecard for its more than 150,000 products to determine whether the company and its suppliers can conserve natural resources by reducing packaging and sourcing more sustainable materials.

Sixteen percent of Volvo Rents’ customers account for 89 percent of the company’s business. As a result, 89 percent of the marketing budget is devoted to that 16 percent.

Kodak began offering a high-quality printer that saves up to 50 percent on ink cartridge costs not long after it discovered that the cost of ink was the No. 1 consumer dissatisfaction with home printing.

Subway Restaurants teamed with Database Marketing Group to offer a system-wide program that allows owners to go online, customize their mailings and mail any week they choose. The overall result: while the actual size of the mailings is smaller, the overall efficiency is significantly higher than that of larger mailings.

Tight demographic focus is key to developing a successful marketing persona. By aiming at a small group, you can make a relevant message, according to marketing firm McKee Wallwork Cleveland.

Epicurean magazine SAVEUR doubled its response rate by abandoning its courtesy voucher in favor of another marketing strategy: the magalog. There are a lot of offers in the magalog, from sweepstakes to discounts.

Timberland created the “Green Index,” which lists such information as the amount of energy consumed to manufacture a particular shoe, and shares the database with competitors to set a transparency standard for the shoe industry.