direct marketing
Give me that old time marketing religion (at least on occasion)
Yes, yes, yes. I’m completely on board with focusing a lot of time and energy on inbound marketing.
But direct mail ain’t dead yet.
Case in point:
The other day, my sister Trish received an in-bound post-card mailing. Now, the fact that it was from a crackpot with a get-rich-quick scheme is beside the point.
The point is [...]
A losing proposition
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how half the battle with direct mail or e-mail is getting someone to open up the piece and seeing what you had to say.
Well, I just got a direct mail piece that won half the battle, but abysmally failed the other half - and irritated me [...]
Half the battle
The other day, I got a letter in the mail that kinda-sorta looked personal. The reason it kinda-sorta looked personal was because, rather than using a printed return address on the enveloped, they used a sticker with a real person’s name on it.
Now, because I don’t know this particular Colleen T, I really knew it [...]
"Stamps are underrated." (Seth Godin)
Seth Godin generally has something interesting to say, and yesterday’s interesting thing to say was on how over-use of e-mail/free-mail is hurting it as an effective marketing medium. And Twitter is next. Godin’s point is that, when something is free and easy-peasy, it will be widely adopted - but that wide adoption may lead to [...]
"A fabulous example of how not to cold e-mail people"
The other day, John Whiteside - former colleague, friend forever, and one of the best all-round marketers I know - sent me the following note:
I thought you might enjoy this email; it’s a fabulous example how not to cold-email people. I read it and have no idea what they do, other than obviously send out [...]
The Marketing Times They Are a Changin’
I’m still a believer that direct mail - if done carefully - is still an element in the B2B tech marketing mix, but there’s no denying that the times they are a changin’.
Since the article is brief, I’ve included the entire piece from BtoB Online reporting a pretty dramatic decrease in direct mail spending last [...]
Two-fers
I usually don’t chintz out like this, but I’m running out of steam, and I do have two posts over on Pink Slip this week that actually relate to marketing. So here goes:
On Monday, I wrote about a “citizens marketer” effort by Wal-Mart that I found interesting (and, surprise-surprise, a bit revolting).
On Tuesday, I [...]
A few thoughts on direct mail vs. e-mail
I recently recommended that a client test a direct mail program to augment their online efforts. Sure it’s expensive, but when I looked at the company’s demographic, which didn’t exactly scream ‘tech-oriented’ or ‘I live online’, I thought it was worth a try.
But it did get me thinking about the pro’s and con’s of [...]
What’s in Your Swag Bag?
Last week, iMedia Connection had an interesting article entitled, “The ROI of quality swag” by Leah Messinger. (Here’s the link, but I’m not sure if you need to be a subscriber.)
Her premise is that “in an increasingly digital world, sometimes it takes something physically tangible to push your business goals further.”
I couldn’t agree with her [...]
Marketing the Gardner Museum
There was a fun article in the Boston Globe the other day on a novel attempt to market the Gardner Museum. For those not familiar with “Mrs. Jack” or her Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner was a late 19th/early 20th century Boston grande dame who, with her husband, traveled extensively - and collected all sorts of [...]
