In the same day, John A. Greco, Jr., President & CEO of The-DMA and the BtoB magazine sent news of how the direct marketing industry and direct mail industry are getting hit by the recession.

In an email to members of the DMA, John highlighted how the DMA as an organization had to restructure, do more with less resources and even cancel some of its non-signature events. Its signature events: DMA’09, DMDays, Non-profit federation conference and the email evolution conference will still run along with events with its partners.

In an independent report by Christopher Hosford, BtoB reported a $1.7 billion drop in direct mail spending last year, down from $58.4 billion in 2007. According the Winterberry group, this was its first drop in 60 years. 2008 saw drops in direct mail spending in financial services (down 16.6%), technology (down 16.6%), travel and leisure (down 4.7%).

What to do about it:

Transform your business to adjust to the economy

How? Read Jon Oakes’ recent post: Can’t dance and it’s to wet to plough

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Finding out detailed information about your prospects is made easier everyday. If you are currently using services like Hoovers, Linked In, Jigsaw etc.. You should check out TheOfficialBoard. This new service will provide users with the organization chart to the largest companies. It is basically a report of who the executives are, who reports to [...]

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I found this while cruising the web. It is sponsored by HP and content is provided by various experts in the marketing field. When I say experts, I mean “experts”… Guy Kawasaki (check out his new R8), Dane Carlson, John Jantsch and more. It contains information on topics varying from brand strategies to creating marketing [...]

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or how has it changed your marketing?

My friend @minxuan posted her slides on Slideshare on how twitter changed her life with a few tips that marketers that are just trying to build a following will be able to use so they don’t spend all day (away from work) on Twitter.

See her slides here…

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The conversion rate, in marketing terms, is not rocket science. Simple formulas can equate to the optimal conversion rate. Depending on the initiative and objective, there are multiple formulas that will give you the conversion rate you are looking for. I cannot say which formula works for which objectives, but I can tell you a [...]

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The current economic conditions, intensity of rivalry and reduced consumer spending makes all marketing initiatives seem like uphill battles. As veterans of marketing wars, you are all probably accustomed to fighting uphill battles. Fighting under the overcast of massive media clouds and content contamination, maybe uphill battles are the only battles in a marketing war. [...]

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Can your prospects hear what you have to say?”

Marketing is often mistaken as “just” a function in a business’s value chain. As marketers, we all understand that “marketing” is “communicating.” What some of us don’t understand is effective marketing, like effective communication, is a two way system that requires the delivered information to be received. This blog post is might mean something to you or it could also be just a bunch of text displayed on your monitor.

As individuals, if we really tried, we are extremely good at communicating and getting our point across. We may verbally express it, blog about it, display an emotion, exhibit a gesture etc… The key here is we never just stick with one channel of communication, but a combination of multiple channels. Think about a time when you were going through emotional distress. You were probably not as talkative as usual (cahnge in behavior), vented about it with some friends and posted it as a facebook status update.Several methods were used to communicate your distress.

As marketers, we can also apply the multi-channel approach to communicate with our prospects. We are often frustrated when we do not get the response rate we want. It does not always mean the offer is of no interest to the prospect. Ever considered that they just didn’t get the message or forgot about it? Do not expect miracles to happen with a single email blast or a single direct mail campaign. Try combining emails with pURLs, direct mail with pURLs, email and direct mail… better yet, do all of it.

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Ever watched an ant trail? After a close examination, most people would probably agree that it is one of the most efficient systems in the world. Despite its efficiency, the slightest disruption will paralyze all efforts. Think of what happens when an ant trail approaches an unexpected crack on the sidewalk or if a leaf falls in the middle of it. Efficiency immediately evolves into chaos and all efforts made will yield no results.

Ever wondered why some of your best marketing efforts did not achieve desired results? Basically, what you thought was the best marketing initiative was just an ant trail that got disrupted by a leaf or a crack on the sidewalk. There was an objective, a plan and an investment of sufficient resources, but there was propably no effort made to anticipate disruptions and a reaction plan. This is why we marketers should value the importance of a follow up plan and make it a part of every marketing initiative.

If the content appears to be too abstract, here is an example to better illustrate my point. With a newly purchased car, I was in the market for modification parts or anything that will put an extra shine on it. About two months ago, while going through my messages in my Outlook inbox, I received an email from Acura promoting OEM parts in my gmail account. At the point of contact I was excited to see what Acura has to offer, but I also had to finish replying to several important messages in Outlook. I saved the message and intended to return to it later that day. As I was finishing up replying to the never ending list of messages, I was summoned to a meeting by my boss, received a couple of phone calls, and got several RSS alerts. I forgot about the offer message from Acura after a series of distractions. I did not recall the message until just now, as I am writing this blog post.

Acura had a plan of targeting all new car owners and the message was appealing to their target, but there was no follow up plan. It has been over two months now and I, as a consumer, am not as excited or motivated to install modification parts on my car. As consumers, we occasionally experience sudden urges to make a purchase that we later realize we can live without. Acura did not anticipate the disruption, a series of distractions, as a barrier to their initiative. If I had received a follow up email shortly after receiving the first offer message, I would probably have some new rims on my new car by now.

Disruptions can be costly to marketing efforts and cannot always be anticipated. Fortunately, unlike ants, we marketers can learn from mistakes and past experiences. We may be startled by a leaf in our path the first time, but we should have a plan of going around it the next time we encounter it. Until we make an effort to anticipate disruptions and have a follow up plan in place. we will not be able to prevent our efforts from falling into cracks it may come upon.

Disruptions will and can occur in any part of your marketing cycle. Check out these links for more insights on follow up marketing initiatives:

Customer service, Customer Relations, & Networking

Just something to think about…

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