Tag Archives: Marketing

10 Steps to Competent Direct Marketing

Ok, if you haven’t checked out my previous article “Direct Marketing – What is it?“, then you might want to start with that as an introduction. The following is a list I compiled to aid marketers with embracing their “Direct marketing” efforts

WHAT DO YOU ADVISE?

1- Timing is everything!

You want to roll out your “winter wear” campaigns during the snow season, not before, not when it’s not needed. This way by the time it “is” season, they are not worn down with a smattering of ads from the summer months

2- Higher quality leads are key to having a better ROI!

Again, the key term here is “quality leads”. Spamming will cost you time and annoy…better yet, let’s make sure who your sending to “has” an interest in what your selling.

3- Keep your list fresh!

Always make plans to update your list, delete dead accounts and keep it current, so that your efforts are going out to fresh prospects, not hand me down email addresses. It has been written that 40% of your returns relies on the “correct” list being used, whether it’s by direct mail or email.

4- Target those who are more “likely” to take an interest in your product

This comes from efficient profiling and a trusted database

5- Educate your customers!

Don’t just sell, sell, sell (or rather market market market ;)…..give them some intelligent info as to why they “should” choose what you are selling. Raise the awareness of your brand!

6- Build your customers profiles!

Learn and fine tune who is best suited for what. A good example of this can be seen on the Amazon.com web site. Have you ever noticed the recommendations seem to match what your interested in? HMM….it’s like they read minds or something! Make sure you have means to capture this data and analyze it. Continue reading 10 Steps to Competent Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing – What is it?

Direct Marketing! What’s it all about?

You may have heard this term thrown around over the years, or you might have already actually incorporated the style into your own marketing efforts. Those who use it, tend to stand behind it, as it’s a form a marketing that really works if you let yourself wrap your head around it. It has been called by many as one of the most “efficient” forms of marketing. now, the emphasis of this site is of course “Inbound Marketing”, however many principles began with various forms of marketing such as DM (and in many ways cross-over)

Though for the purpose of this article, my aim is to list out the key points of what it is and why it’s important. It has been a form of marketing that many have already utilized and continue to utilize to provide the best “experience” and “need” for your customers.

First a few key directives:

Spam = annoying, old school, bothersome, could and “will” put off” potential customers

Wait! what do you mean….my mailing list may be in the 1000’s, but I “do” get “some response?

Yep, well a mailing list is part of it, but not the old school spammy way. The “send it and they will come” days are a thing of the past, and it’s definitely not the way of Direct Marketing.

Remember this simple 3 step directive:

DATA–> TO INSIGHT —>TO ACTION

So what is it?

Essentially it’s the practice of taking a product and trying to sell it to those who have an “interest” in what your selling. Say for instance a friend, or an associate. Better yet, those who trust you and appreciate your efforts in marketing them things that they have a need for. It’s educating your customer, so that they can make the right decisions. It’s educating them on why “what” you have, is what they are looking for”. In short it is a form of “customer relationship management“. Continue reading Direct Marketing – What is it?

SEO Over Optimization Warnings – Steps to Take in 2012


SEO continues to get more specific and a bit harder the case of SERPs and gaining leverage. In many respects its becoming the Web that we wished for, for so many years. Though as SEO’s that means we need to wear our hats a little differently and be willing to nut-up to the changes.

The titles continue to roll in:

OVER OPTIMIZATION TO BE PENALIZED IN FAVOR OF GREAT CONTENT

What does this mean, and what are the solutions? Well if you’ve been keeping to the MO that has been preached for years, this means that if you are a great content creator…and fill your pages with valuable, semantic, relative content….you should be just fine.

If you’ve been using shortcuts to implore clever SEO tactics in the effort to overshadow lousy or small inadequate content, then this article is for you. Let’s take a look at whats being said:

Google has announced that they will be cracking down harder on sites that use SEO to the extreme without really offering value. This change includes “penalty” targeting sites that over optimize. The stated purpose is to “level the playing field” Continue reading SEO Over Optimization Warnings – Steps to Take in 2012

The Death of 1 Page SEO Sites


Sure you know the scoop by now. Pick out your keywords, grab a handfull or more of keyword URL domains and plant your seed sites into ground. The MO for this was, by doing this you claim important keyword traffic with a site URL that is also called your target keyword. Makes Sense?

I believe the technical term for this approach is called “One-Page Doorway Domains

So here’s the skinny. That worked for awhile and on few instances still works to some level. Though this, like any SEO tactic stars to become oversaturated, predictable and less effective.

Why? Because the SERPS also make adjustments to demand more from their sites.

Matt Cutts of Google delivers what appears to be bad news for mini-sites

According to the post, Google is once again changing their algorithm to penalize sites that “don’t have much content “above-the-fold”.

“In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we’re launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.” Continue reading The Death of 1 Page SEO Sites

Marketing your service, 10 Steps to selling your products in the 21st Century

I would like to thank David Meerman Scott for his initial thoughts on this. This prompted me (after one of his seminars) to take the idea a bit further to introduce solutions to the statements so that marketers have a direction or initial game plan.

The initial points represent the new laws of marketing in the 21st century

01- Generally People don’t care about your product
02- People care about themselves
03- People care about solving their problems

These were my takeaways from this session, however it got me thinking on a proposal game plan if these were what marketers were facing. The following is suggested 10 step marketing take-action plan.

Action Plan:

01-Social Engagement
(Address the problems where the problems are – (Forums, social media outlets (FB, Twitter, Linkedin…)

02- Thought Leadership
(This is a segue off of step 1 – if you can establish yourself as a thought leader, then you can leverage action plan #1 even more)

03-Email blasts (from op tin lists) (Email automation)
(Don’t just market, don’t just sell – Focus on solving first , product 2nd as a solution)

04-Useful Press Releases (targeted problem solving agenda)
(Address the problems head on, put self promotion on the back burner) Continue reading Marketing your service, 10 Steps to selling your products in the 21st Century

Marketing: 4 Top ways to Earn Attention (per David Meerman Scott)

Note: per live seminar

01- Buy Attention
(spend spend spend – buy adverts, tradeshow booth, yellow pages, ads, tv, radio)

02- Bug People
(calls, sales folks, saturate with unwanted medias)

03- Beg People
(Blasting: PR releases, Media Attention Seekers…The here i am, look at me approach)

04- Earn Attention
(Inbound Marketing – see further notes on this) Continue reading Marketing: 4 Top ways to Earn Attention (per David Meerman Scott)