Do You Know About SIFE?
Once again it's time to play “Figure out the ad.” You do have time for that in your busy day, don't you? Whenever I see an ad headline like this one for an organization called SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise), I think of Robert Di Niro in the movie “Taxi Driver.” Are you talkin' to me? ...
E-zine Education
WE'VE ALL GOTTEN them. Some of us, to our vexation and bewilderment, have produced them: e-mail marketing newsletters that fail to keep recipients opening...
Viva Direct!
WHILE YOU'RE RELAXING on your upcoming vacation to San Francisco for DMA06 (yes, I laughed maniacally when I typed the word we'll be in a constant flurry...
Magical Thinking
JUSTIFICATION IS THE name of the game when it comes to determining a direct marketing budget. It's no longer good enough to make generalizations about...
Memo to APWU: Get Real
What's up with the American Postal Workers Union? Here's an organization that's supposed to secure the long-term best interests of a key sector of the...
Don't Stop Now
ARE YOU ACTING JUST LIKE most other small businesses out there? Do you ignore or fail to communicate to your existing customers often enough? I'm not...
First Impressions
A NEW SUBSCRIBER OPTS IN to receive your newsletter. Great! So you respond with a simple thank-you, right? Not exactly. The right welcome message can...
Leading Questions
HAVE YOU EVER RECEIVED A bad sales call? Perhaps the salesperson barreled through the script without bothering to engage in dialogue. Maybe he stammered...
I Want My $2,000 in Pennies
THIS PAST SUMMER McMurry, a midsize marketing agency in Phoenix, sent out a postcard announcing its pending reopening. As part of its campaign, it offered...
Prism Restructures Marketing Group
Leslie C. Bacon has been named group publisher of Prism Marketing Media Strategies, a new unit that includes Direct, Multichannel Merchant, Promo and...
It's Good to Be King
Treat your best customers with care Top customers deserve special treatment. You can afford it, and they expect it and thrive on it. So business marketers...
If You're Going
There are worse places to be than San Francisco in October. So stop worrying, and relax on the flight by reading this issue of Direct. We hope you'll...
Think Before You Contact
In direct marketing the call to action is critical. If you capture how a prospect or customer historically responds via mail, the Web, inbound call, face...
Put It to the Test
Testing is critical to success in direct mail. And of course, the same theory applies online. The Web is extremely conducive to testing from both cost...
Ring True
Want to turn that phone call into a sale, and maybe even into an ongoing relationship? Follow these pointers: Don't remind prospects that you've already...
Eight O'Clock Coffee Blends TV, Web
Eight O'Clock Coffee has one of the oldest brand names in America. But the company launched as a private label by A&P Stores in 1859, sold to an investment...
Harrumph. Obfuscate. Complicate. Harrumph
When I deliver a speech or communicate in print, one of the words I eschew is That word, and its cousins such as and any compound word whose second half...
What's Next, a Pitch From the Hazardous Waste Unit?
HERE'S A NOVEL IDEA: Only a credit card company's marketing department should craft its pitches. Its lawyers, operations and accounting people should...
Take It From the Top
THERE'S AN OLD SAYING THAT IT'S LONELY AT the top. If that's true, our agency leaders should look around. They're in good company this issue. Direct talked...
A Step Ahead
You want fries with that? Ah, the classic cross sell: offering customers something that complements perfectly what they've already expressed an interest...
Sells Like Team Spirit
The New England-New York rivalry plays out regularly on baseball diamonds and football fields. But online, who wins? We spent some time perusing the sites...
Nothing But the Truth
WHEN A NEW WRITER ENTERS the copywriting game, he or she studies the masters to see what they did and how they approached their prospects. When I started...
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
IT'S REALLY VERY SIMPLE It's obvious what went wrong with the MIT Sloan Management Review's e-mail promotion: It's virtually impossible to profitably...
Femail Creations Starts a New Business
In 1996 Lisa Hammond was working as an office manager on a construction site in Las Vegas. The need to do something meaningful led her to start a catalog...
Social Anxiety
I went to Lollapalooza this summer, and I fit right in. The ticket came from a friend, and I declined at first, a little put off by the image of my gray...
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