"SPECIAL REPORT Engaging Customers – Modern Thought on Reaching the Current Consumer" - Recent economic indicators describe a consumer climate that is different than virtually any in recent history, and consumer product and service businesses are having a tough time closing sales and encouraging sales traffic . . .
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"SPECIAL REPORT Dimensional mail" - Want to boost response in your B-to-B mailings? Need to break into new markets, find a new application for an existing product to a new audience? . . .
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"SPECIAL REPORT Branding Direct" - The term “Branding” has been in use in American marketing vernacular since the 1800s, first being used for cattle in the west to identify members of the herd belonging to a single owner, but . . .
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"Get Personal with Direct Mail" - By its very nature, direct mail promotions are designed to be one-to-one communication vehicles. As marketers, we are all aware of this in the back of our minds, but . . .
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"Brand Extensions Can Save Your Business" - A Company’s brand is one of its largest, most important assets, one that takes years to develop, one that must be nurtured, massaged, cultured and maintained. For broad-based product and service companies . . .
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"Brand Effectiveness Key to Membership Growth" - The visibility, awareness and effectiveness of your organization’s brand directly impact your ability to recruit and retain members. If your organization isn’t the first thing member prospects think of when they turn to industry issues, there’s work to be done. . . .
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"10 Things You Can Do To Boost Attendance at Your Next Conference" - Everybody likes something for nothing, but most business people have become spoiled by attending meetings and conferences on the company’s dime. Well, based on current economic conditions, some of your member’s companies may have precious few dimes to spare . . .
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"Premiums Still an Effective Tool to Spur Publication Subscription Sales" - Premiums or bonus gifts have been used for years to boost sales of everything from cars to cereal and snacks. This is still an effective technique today under the correct circumstances . . .
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"Research Data Drives Effective Creative Strategy" - Without the underpinnings of solid market research or customer data, the best creative design and execution is just pretty pictures. To drive response, design must be anchored with accurate reliable customer research data . . .
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"Let Customer’s Imagination Flow for Effective Research" - Bare bones quantitative research data on customers is only one method used to extract useful information to inform your marketing efforts. Right-brain, emotional qualitative research can provide unique insights to customer buying behavior that can be invaluable to creating a successful marketing campaign . . .
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"Consultants Offer Flexibility, Hands-off Productivity" - Not every organization has the skill sets or talents resident in their staff resources to get that occasional project completed in a manner consistent with their usual quality standards. Sometimes it’s just an unforeseen staff absence that needs filled. There are good cases for hiring a consultant to provide some short-term assistance . . .
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"Integration is Key to Campaign Effectiveness" - The whole is much greater than the sum of the parts when speaking of full-scale marketing campaigns. When the individual pieces interact to support each other and drive response toward a central target, response rates improve dramatically . . .
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"List, Offer, Copy–Priorities Still Hold True Today" - Direct marketing is often called a game of dollars – getting the basics down and understanding where to put in the time, money and effort where it will do the most good and return the results you need. Success is often a matter of a fraction of a percent response, which can represent thousands of dollars in sales. Properly aligned priorities and careful execution will yield profit, misplaced effort and sloppiness in execution can cost you . . .
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"10 Things You Can Do To Boost the Effectiveness of Your Direct Marketing" - If you think of your outreach marketing program as the volume control for the information reaching prospective members or customers, it would be a simple impulse to turn up that switch when you needed more members, or wanted to launch a new program – improving your communication quality, focusing the message, boosting the frequency and breadth of the media carrying it to increase sales or membership in one simple motion . . .
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"Basics Prevail When I Comes To Direct Mail" - Despite postal increases, paper price increases, regulations tightening for security and machineability reasons, direct mail is still the most effective way to reach a defined large scale audience, build sales and brand awareness, and move units. It is direct, it’s accountable, it’s relatively predictable and efficient, and it can be tested and refined to maximize results. For those just entering the arena of marketing, and for some seasoned professionals who are stuck in a rut or have been cornered by their corporate circumstances, sometimes it’s best to return to basics to boost response, for the keys to success are often there in plain sight . . .
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