Marketing Resources and Tips

SEO Tip: Screaming Frog Website Crawler

Technical SEO: Screaming Frog SEO Spider Website Crawler – Product Review I was on Twitter a month ago and a digital marketer asked the audience “Which SEO tools do you find most valuable?”.  The responses poured in.  We heard familiar names like SEMRush,...

Improve Response Rate with 60-30-10 Rule

The Fundamentals of Direct Marketing Often people will ask me, “What is the secret formula to a successful direct marketing campaign?”  In my opinion you have to start with the 60-30-10 rule.  It is one of direct marketing’s most fundamental principles and it is a...

The Secret Strategy of Collection Agencies

How to use direct mail to generate urgency and huge response rates.   Collection agencies are relentless about generating response.  It’s their business.  They’ll send letters and call you to get you to pay.  They’ll even send Luigi to your house to re-possess...

Does your direct mail campaign work?

How to track phone calls from your direct mail campaign.   This is the $64,000 question after all, isn’t it? We get this question from most every person we talk to. And while there are many variables that determine the success of a direct marketing campaign...

Increase Response with Ethnic Marketing

Make your marketing messaging relevant to your target customer. Ethnic marketing is very important within the world of direct marketing. Direct marketing is most effective when you utilize the data that you have on a consumer to make the marketing piece more...

Increasing ROI with One-to One Marketing

When marketing is like a message from a good friend. How can direct marketers cut through the noise, make an impact and get a profitable response?  Telemarketing calls are affected by the do not call list and emails are often caught by the spam folder. With direct...

Getting Event Triggers from Public Records

Government data is a treasure trove of valuable information. Data from public records help to drive marketing campaigns and is available through government resources. Innovating from the public records data allows us to help our clients get the most out of their...

The Opposite of Spam and Junk Mail

Imagine a marketing message that makes your customers happy. Unsolicited messages are considered spam; spam can appear in the form of email, direct mail, and telemarketing. A message that is irrelevant to a person's needs at the time is considered spam. Trigger Direct...

Life Stage Marketing

People buy specific products at specific times in life. Life Stage Marketing is another way to describe what Trigger Direct does. It's about looking for stages in people's lives where they are apt to make big purchase decisions. Examples include newlyweds, empty...

Secret Strategies with New Homeowner Data

How to use a New Homeowner List to Win New Customers We have many clients coming to us asking us for New Mover/New Homeowner information. And there are many choices each with specific marketing strategies in mind. So let’s go through them all.   First of all, a...

The Postcard vs. Letter Controversy

It is a timeless direct marketing question. We get this question all the time at our agency.... "Which is better? A postcard or a letter in an envelope?" Before I answer this question, let me say upfront that there are issues far more important, such as making sure...

3 Data Analytics Strategies for Greater ROI

Direct marketers test to prove what works.   1.    Build a Laboratory for Testing. If you are striving for greater ROI, then you better get into the measurement business, and quickly.  One of the essential truths of direct marketing is “If You Can’t Measure It,...

Will Your Mail Pass the 5 Point Inspection?

A direct mail test and getting grilled by a future father-in-law Imagine that you are a nervous single guy in your late 20's asking for your beautiful girlfriend's hand in marriage. You want to propose the old fashioned way... down on one knee with the diamond...

The Death of Junk Mail

Junk mail is mailed indiscriminately in large quantities. Today, Junk Mail died. Printers everywhere are mourning. Consumers and environmentalists are celebrating. Old school direct marketers are gasping. Postal carrier back muscles are feeling relief. I am in charge...

Marketing Metrics your CFO will Love

The corporate language of a VP of Marketing Direct marketing may be the bean counter’s ultimate dream simply because, unlike virtually every other marketing media, direct marketing is 100% accountable. Metrics like response rates, click through rates, conversion and...

Dream 5 Step Response Analytics Process

How to use response analytics to measure the success of direct mail.   I dream about direct marketing. I must be sick. This morning I woke up and had a vivid memory of my dream last night. No, I didn't fall off a cliff and wake up just before I landed. Instead I...

When Marketing is a Winning Slot Machine

When marketing is like a slot machine that rarely loses.   This week my beautiful wife and I decided to jaunt to Vegas for 3 days. I nice respite from our day-to-day activities in San Diego... but, wow, is it hot out here. 112 degrees when we arrived yesterday. A...

Huge Returns & the Elimination of Junk Mail

Create a laboratory for direct mail innovation. Last summer I read Tom Peter's book Re-Imagine (which I highly recommended). Peters encourages business leaders to innovate. To create laboratories. To break models, push limits and invent mind blowing new solutions for...

Dude, present an offer!

How to set your direct mail campaign up for failure.   It just blows me away when smart business people invest in a marketing campaign only to make absolutely certain that it will fail. They choose not to present a compelling offer. Right now our agency is...

CASE STUDY: 85.7% Response 3-Step Letter

Direct mail campaign where 600 of 700 respond. Objective: To update an existing mailing list and announce a new Technical Information Service. Strategy and Execution: The 3-stage direct mail campaign was targeted to 700 electronic design engineers.  In the first stage...

Case Study: Boost Response 50% w/ Promos

Customers will open 3D and lumpy mailers. Promotional products, when used in conjunction with a sales letter or as incentive to respond, can make a significant difference in direct mail response rates. The use of promotional products can also significantly improve a...

Case Study: 9.55% Response Rate w/ Promos

How to your direct mail response rate.  Promotional product mailings can dramatically improve response rates for campaigns involving other media, such as print advertising. The following study demonstrates this effect. For this 1996 study, Dallas Marketing Group and...

Case Study: 51.3% Sales Increase w/ Promos

Creative direct mail campaign that results in a huge sales increase.   Objective:To Motivate resellers in a sales contest. Strategy & Execution:The Santa Ana, CA-based computer software/hardware distributor figured a chance to ride the famed Orient Express...

No B.S. Time Management, by Dan Kennedy

Reclaim your time and money with time management skills. You've gotta love a book whose title is:No B.S. Time Management for EntrepreneursThe Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Guide to Time Productivity and Sanity While this is a recent book review,...