The 4 Most Common Mistakes in B2B Content Marketing

One of the largest challenges facing online marketers is how to create and utilize content that resonates and then delivers the targeted leads that sales is looking for. The days of sending a list of contacts to sales is over. Some creative marketers call these lists suspects. To sales, they are a waste of time. Inbound marketeering requires 2 simple things: First, you need to be found and that requires the basic techniques of understanding how prospects search and the keywords they use. Second, you need to have compelling content that meets the prospects needs.

Here are the 4 most common mistakes marketers make:

1. Assuming we know how to describe our target audience: While internally we may define them one way, the prospects often defy our attempts at simple definitions like industry name or company size. You can see this reflected in registration page questions like “Please define your industry”. What does someone from 3M say? They are in dozens of industries from Post-it Notes to Stethoscopes.
2. Not understanding our target audience’s pain points: Simple surveys using free tools like SurveyMonkey or Zoomerang can provide quick and easy access to a prioritized list of prospect pain points. How do you know you are hitting the right audience when you conduct a survey? Use your existing customers as the base.  Interview them to understand what drove them to seek a solution, how they found you and why they chose you. Then, audit your existing content to see if it meets those prioritized needs and use prospect language instead of your own.
3. The “halo effect”: The halo effect is essentially the rule that targeted content will produce more contacts outside your target than inside. Why? Aside from the obvious issues in mistakes #1 and #2, our customers’ ecosystems are larger than our targets. Some people leave one industry and bounce to another but remain entrenched in its concerns. Manufacturers have parts suppliers and wholesalers and retailers that sit on either side of their supply chain. All of them share in some level of the main pain points you will uncover in your customer surveys. Often, pains are shared across many industries. You can make this work for you by using every contact identified in your content marketing efforts to help you and your customers.
4. Assuming the target audience only searches for content within very specific vertical websites: Sales is often the culprit of this misconception. Are you selling to medical device manufacturers? If so, sales may say you need content on Medicaldevice.com but the fact is, more prospects start their search on Google.com than anywhere else. According to the study “The Role of Search in Business-to-Business Buying Decisions,” 65% of respondents stated that they prefer search engines to review sites, manufacturer sites and industry portals.

Outsourced Marketing: Does It Make Sense?

1. Higher-Quality Output
Because of the highly competitive nature of the advertising industry, outsourced firms must perform at a very high level to keep clients satisfied. That means going the extra mile, working "over budget," and meeting the high demands of the client.

2. Cost Efficiency
Although outsourcing might not necessarily provide cost savings (at least in the short term), significant savings are a reality, as you pay only for time used. In an outsourced environment, there is no downtime that eats away at budget. In addition, if there are no projects, there are no costs; whereas with in-house staff, overhead costs remain constant regardless of how much work is available.

3. Economies of Scale
More often than not, in-house teams are backlogged on projects due to numerous initiatives happening at once or a simple lack of resources to get things done. Outsourced firms, on the other hand, must complete projects on time—and, therefore, ensure that they have the resources to start and finish projects efficiently.

4. More Collaboration
By nature, outsourced firms are much more conducive to collaboration and problem-solving. An in-house team is often limited to the opinions of an immediate group or manager, whereas outsourced firms tend to call on a vast array of experts, professionals, and colleagues to assist in developing new marketing campaigns.

5. Faster Work
Outsourced firms can simply work faster. They have the ability to collaborate, pull in additional resources as needed, and delegate work to subject-matter experts. In-house staff, on the other hand, finds solutions on their own, self-teach to fill any gaps in expertise, and sacrifice initiatives when resources get tight.

6. A Bigger Pool of Talented Professionals
Outsourced firms have specialists either in house or on hand in important niches and can use those skills to produce higher quality, on-target materials.

7. More Flexibility
Outsourcing provides the ability to upscale and downscale resources based on the projects at hand. That flexibility allows for additional cost savings in the long term.

8. Helps Companies Focus on Core Competencies
Advertising/Marketing and Public Relations may not be a core competency at your organization. Some companies are not set up to foster creative outreach or collaborative design; hence, their options are limited. But outsourcing to an organization with a core competency in creative marcom programs removes the burden of managing styles and expectations that many firms are not necessarily equipped to handle.

9. Better Technical Expertise
Expecting that a small in-house team remain aware and current of all emerging technologies is unrealistic. For an outsourced firm, however, that expectation is valid.

Improve Your Effectiveness with Pre-Show and At-Show Promotions

Promotions are the hidden weapon for attracting foot traffic when you have committed your company to trade shows.

Done correctly, they work!

Consider these statistics: 1. The average trade show has over 400 exhibitors, where the average attendee will visit about 21 exhibits. That attendee walks the show with a list of 75% of the exhibitors he/she wants to see. 2. You can boost your trade show lead counts by 33% with promotions, even though they require only a small percentage of your trade show budget.

Pre-show promotions could consist of direct marketing (both direct mail and email) programs to attendee list sorted by job function,customer/prospect contacts, advertising in show magazines, in-room promotions or publicity announcing new product/service capabilities. At-show promotions could consist of on-site demonstrations, promotional giveaways, white papers, or press relations.

Sales & Marketing: Tips on Exhibiting Success

All efforts at a trade show ultimately impact sales. A relationship can begin or be enhanced, an image reinforced or adjusted, personnel trained or recruited, products demonstrated and feedback obtained about new products introduced. They all support acceleration of the sales cycle.

So how can sales and marketing become allies in this most powerful marketing communications tool?

• Plan together from the beginning.
• Discuss the rationale for show selection.
• Create objectives that are meaningful in terms of the organization’s overall goals

Prepare an integrated pre-show communication program

What will marketing do?

• Obtain targeted mailing lists and e-lists from the show producer
• Create a new page on your website for the show highlighting what the exhibit experience will be
• Prepare specific trade press advertising
• Advise the press of the organization’s participation
• Organize press kits and press conferences.

What will sales do?

• Generate a mailing list of current customers, prospects called on, but not yet closed and prospects on the list that have not yet been called.

Evaluate the current booth layout to determine if it will work for the next event. If not, why, and what can be done about it? Together, sales and marketing have to evaluate what activities will be planned for the exhibit and determine if they are workable. In most organizations, the first time that sales sees the exhibit is at the show during the walk-through, just hours before the show opens – too late to make any changes that might be necessary or advantageous to accommodate the sales function.

Trade shows work. They work for organizations that understand how exhibiting fits in to their marketing mix, and understand that both the Sales and the Marketing functions have to work in sync to achieve a positive return on their exhibiting investment. Trade shows work if Sales and Marketing plan completely, execute aggressively, and follow-up thoroughly, together.

Tips To Strengthen Your Search Ad Campaign

Every company is looking to generate traffic from search engines, which can result in qualified leads for more income revenue. So, how can you improve and strengthen your pay per click strategies and other search advertising?

1. Create an objective with a defined goal:
   Some companies want to see more revenue from their online advertising programs, while others want to create more of a branding image. A more defined objective that incorporates both sales and branding is to increase product/service sales with your company's highest profit margins. This approach will allow you to formulate a search advertising strategy that can monitor and track results and make modifications to meet the traffic goals to your website.
2. Optimize and diversify your search criteria:
   Google is the recognized leader in the search advertising world, but with a large search engine comes more competition for ad space using similar "keywords". Today, there are many other reputable search engines that offer successful search programs. Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo, Miva.com, Search.com and Ask.com are some good examples. By conducting multiple search marketing campaigns using different search engines, you will be able to compare the ROI and make adjustments to your ad budget.
3. Limit and narrow your Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
   Instead of trying to fit your entire SEO into one ad, diversify your search ads to focus on a specific product or service capability. Instead of writing a pay per click ad for all your company's products, use different ads for different products with more specific applications, for example, "XYZ company develops cost-effective sensor connectors for blood glucose monitoring devices".
4. Develop specific landing pages on your website:
   By using you own unique URL's, you can direct traffic and monitor the result to specific landing pages versus your homepage. By using this pay per click method, it will help convert visitors to more qualified leads, which, can result in generally more revenue.

How to increase B-to-B sales without spending more on marketing

More often than not, your existing contact database can serve as a source to boost sales without spending more money on marketing and advertising. By going through your current contacts, you will probably have a high number of "warm" leads from previous campaigns and trade show visitations. In addition, customers that had purchased from you several years ago, are now considered prospects but can now be a "warm" lead. Remember, these companies had expressed interest in your product(s) or service, but weren't ready to buy at that time. In advertising, we refer to these potential leads as lying in a dark hole. By selecting these "warm" contacts from your existing database and by conducting strategic direct marketing promotional programs
(E-Marketing, Webinars, White Papers), you can start to develop a more positive relationship marketing program for direct sales and rep follow ups for more qualified leads.

E-mail marketing continues to be a low-cost, effective and measurable strategy. This is especially true for suppliers targeting a technical audience that prefers to communicate online.

Yet every marketer looks for ways to increase response rates to their e-mail programs. Increased response can be measured in terms of higher open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. Depending on the size of your list and the nature of your offer, a slight increase in any of these metrics can have a noticeable positive impact on your bottom line.

First and Foremost: Match Message to Audience
The number-one factor in determining response rates is matching message to audience. The better you understand the needs and wants of your audience and can target your message to meet those ideals, the higher your response rates will be.

Once you have a good match between message and audience, here are five other ideas to try to increase response rates to your marketing e-mails.

1. Write Compelling Subject Lines
Like writing headlines for newspapers, subject line writing is an art in itself. Good subject lines hint at what the e-mail is about and are relevant to your audience. Better ones also include an element of urgency and uniqueness.

2. Personalize the "From" Line
If your marketing e-mails are always sent from your company name, try using a person's name in the "from" field instead. It can be your Applications Engineer, Sales or Customer Service, or an individual salesperson. Remember, people do business with people build relationships with people, and buy from people.

Having an e-mail come from a person also opens up opportunities to use a more conversational and personal tone in the communication, rather than the impersonal, businesslike tone so many e-mails have.

3. Clarify Your Call to Action
It's surprising how many marketing e-mails lack a clear or obvious call to action. Whether your intention is to have recipients download a technical specification sheet, make a purchase or register for a Webcast, your call to action should appear near the top of the e-mail and be visually apparent.

If your e-mail is HTML, use graphic buttons or other images to attract the reader's attention to your call to action. Asking users to register for an event? Use a bold button saying, "Register Now." Promoting a new product? Show a photograph of the product with a link to more information.

4. Make Links Speak to Benefits and Action
Your marketing e-mail likely contains one or more links back to your Web site. But the old standards of "more info" and "click here" are weak. Links should work harder for you, promising benefits and results. Here are two examples of strong link text: "Request Your Copy of DC Motors Digest" or "Read about new developments in laser technology." They're a bit longer than "click here" — and much more compelling. Which one would you click on?

5. Pay Attention to Landing Pages
Marketing e-mails often link to landing pages on your Web site, a single page focused on a specific idea and a clear action you want the visitor to take. Its purpose is to convert a visitor into a lead or sale. While not part of the e-mail itself, a well-designed landing page will help increase conversion rates on your e-mail campaigns.

The appearance of the landing page should be related to the look and feel of the e-mail, if you are using HTML e-mail with graphics and layout. This lets readers know they are in the right place and creates a sense of familiarity. Landing pages should also be rich in specific content related to the call to action, allowing visitors to get what they came for.

Keep Track of Your Tactics
When you try the above ideas, be sure to keep track of changes in response rates to find out what is working and what isn't. With each marketing e-mail you can continue to gain intelligence that will help you continually improve response rates.

Reduce carbon emissions with Custom Modular Exhibits

Custom Modular Exhibits: Worth (27 times) their weight in (Carbon Emissions Reduction) gold

It may surprise you just how much an effect lightweight modular exhibits can have. Consider this: By shipping a 20’ x 30’ custom modular exhibit (rather than a 20’ x 30’ traditional custom exhibit) to just one show reduces by nearly 2 times its own weight the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere. That one-show carbon emission reduction is more than a car owner switching to a hybrid car for a year.

What about over the exhibit’s lifetime? If that exhibitor uses a 20’ x 30’ custom modular exhibit at 3 shows a year for 5 years, that reduces 62,299 pounds, or 27 times the exhibit's weight, which is the amount of carbon emissions from going into the atmosphere! Your own potential carbon emission reduction will vary according to your number of shows, show locations, and booth sizes.

Based on these calculations, you can make a profound difference in reducing carbon emissions simply by choosing a custom modular exhibit over a traditional custom exhibit. 

5 tips for goal driven giveaways at trade shows

If you plan to use giveaways in your booth, what's your strategy? An effective promotional premium should reinforce your company's image and message in addition to supporting your communications goals at the show. With budgets tight, no one can afford to waste money on a premium that doesn't fulfill objectives. So before you order those pens and key chains, a quick review of the desired results might be in order.

1. Is your market highly targeted? Choose high-end premiums for qualified prospects and a lesser giveaway for everyone else.

2. Do you have a new product or service and you want everyone in attendance to know about it? Choose a premium you can give to visitors you come in contact with.

3. Want to pull your primary prospects to your booth? Try sending a premium pre-show that has a second half or related item that's obtainable at your booth.

4. Want prospects to order on site? Provide a special premium for on-site orders with upgraded premiums the more they buy.

5. How about lead cards? Offer a premium for those visitors who fill them out or sit through a presentation or demonstration.

25 Ways to Build Permission-Based Email List

Developing a cost-effective email list poses a challenge.

As you browse the list below please keep these helpful tips in mind:

1. Feature a Sign-Up Form on Each Page of Your Site – Be sure to remember this basic concept. Sign-up opportunities should be ubiquitous throughout your site.

2. Promote Benefits on the Sign-Up Page – Enhance subscription value with sample emails, testimonials and strong call to action copy.

3. Offer Opt-In Incentives – Incentives like white papers, and special reports significantly increase conversion rates.

4. Optimize Your Site for Search Engine Placement – Optimize current and archived newsletters for search engines to increase traffic and subscriptions.

5. Pay for Search Engine Services and Promote Your Email on the Landing Page – If you pay for search services like Google AdWords be sure to include email subscription information on the landing page.

6. Add Opt-in Check Boxes on Demo Requests, White Papers and Registration Forms – Well-executed forms and pages may improve conversion rates by 50 percent or more.

7. Include “Send to a Friend” Options – Generate new subscribers with minimal effort if bundled with promotional campaigns.

8. Use Direct Mail and Catalogs – Encourage email subscriptions on all print ads.

9. Direct Employees to Include Messages and Links in Email Signature Lines – Add “Subscribe to the Company X Email Newsletter” to employee email signatures.

10. Direct Call Center and Sales Employees to Obtain Permission and Capture Email Addresses Over the Phone – Instruct call center and sales staff to ask customers and prospects if they’d like to receive newsletters or promotional email.

11. Send Post Cards to Customers Encouraging Them to Subscribe to Email – If you have postal contact information for customers but not email addresses, send a post card with opt-in sign-up offer and URL.

12. Hand Out Sign-Up Forms at Public Speaking Engagements and Seminars – Promote your newsletter in presentations and handouts.

13. Implement Rented List Campaigns and Subscriptions – Promote your company in email campaigns and landing pages when you rent email lists.

14. Promote Sign-Ups in Confirmation/Transaction Emails – Add messages and links to opt-in pages of all confirmation and transaction emails.

15. Include Opt-in Line on Credit Card Receipts – Not an obvious method, but may be quite effective.

16. Add Opt-in Message to Warranty and Product Registration Cards.

17. Add Sign-Up Message to Invoices.

18. Promote Your Email/Newsletter in Articles and Article Attribution – Include a reference and link to your newsletter after the byline on articles in trade and consumer publications.

19. Promote Your Email/Newsletter in Other Company Publications – Promote online newsletters in print newsletters, magazines and brochures. Add “Sign up for our monthly newsletter at www.companyX.com/subscribe.html” after “Visit www.companyX.com for more information.”

20. Include Newsletter Subscriptions in Trade Show Lead Generation Forms – Obtain permission to send your monthly newsletter to booth visitors.

21. Promote Your Newsletter/Promotional Emails in Industry Directories and Sites.

22. Distribute Press Releases Based on Newsletter Articles – Newsletters with topical articles may warrant a press release. Make sure the press release includes links and information on how to subscribe.

23. Include Information and a Link to Your Newsletter in Press Releases – A good option for smaller companies. Include your company newsletter and other resources in press release copy.

24. Include Opt-in Information on Customer Satisfaction Surveys – Ask permission to communicate valuable information via email newsletters and promotions.

25. Include Opt-in Forms in Product Shipping Boxes – Advertise email promotions on packing slips and direct mail cards with links to your site. Many retailers and catalogers also include promotional offers from non-competing companies.

Want to know how exhibitors select trade show events?

The following research conducted by Trade Show Week revealed the following:

How Do Exhibitors Select Events?

1. (tie)Lead gathering opportunity
   (tie)Tradition, we go to same shows annually
2. Perceived ROI or ROO potential
3. Attendee demographics
4. If competitors are participating
5. Attendance numbers and projections

Primary Exhibit Marketing Goals

1. (tie)Gathering leads
   (tie)Brand awareness
2. PR and media impact
3. Providing audience education and interaction

Exhibitor Challenges:
Booth Design and Drayage

• Challenge: keep the booth “fresh and cutting edge while sticking to the show budget”
• Design and drayage costs are seen as easier to control 73% of exhibitors “very closely” and “somewhat closely” track the weight of their exhibits and materials
• More common: lighter metals, fabric, lighting and sound
• Modular and portable exhibit houses are generally in a stronger position than pure custom houses

What is the Best Time to Send an Email Promotion or Newsletter?

1. Send Duration (SD)

Are you sending out 400 emails or 40,000? Depending on the technology solution or provider you use and volume being sent, it might take anywhere from a few minutes to many hours for your software or ASP solution provider to actually send the emails out to ISPs for delivery to the end recipient. ACTION: Monitor and understand this duration period and make sure you factor it into your calculations.

2. Queue Factor (QF)

Are you are using an ASP solution or sharing a mail server with others in your company? If so, keep in mind that when you've pressed the send button your emails will go "in the queue" to be sent. If you schedule them on a day and time such as Tuesday morning (when a large percentage of emails are sent), your emails may be in the queue behind many other companies or departments of your company, and may take longer than you anticipated before they are actually sent. ACTION: Understand if the "queue factor" applies to you and add this estimated time into your calculations.

3. ISP Factor (IF)

Not all ISPs are created equal. Some ISPs deliver emails they receive immediately, while others may take an hour or in some cases 12 or more hours to process emails. Secondly, some ISPs utilize volume-based filters, so sending too many emails to a single ISP within a short time may cause your emails to be blocked - and sent to the ISP blackhole.

4. Schedule Time (ST)

If you've followed this far, you now have a good understanding of all the factors that may affect email delivery and open times. So let's put the formula to work with an example:

Formula: DOT - (IF + SD + QF) = ST

Example: 1 p.m. - (1 Hour + 1 Hour +.5 Hour) = 10:30 a.m.

In this example, through exhaustive research and analysis you've determined that the ideal time for your emails to reach customers & prospects - 10:30 a.m.

Even if you don't take the time to undertake the analysis outlined above, at minimum you should do the following:

Put a stake in the ground as the ideal time you want your recipients to open their email.

If you are sending a high volume of emails, schedule your emails well in advance of the desired open time. If your volume is fairly low, then perhaps an hour or so in advance might suffice.

Get out of the habit of referring to "hits" on your website

Getting a higher return on investment from your marketing communications

From a marketing communications perspective, conventional wisdom used to be “throw some money at advertising and marketing to create awareness and sales will follow.” Marketers were more interested in building awareness and brand recognition, and there was no linkage between sales and marketing. Lots of assumptions were made and there was little accountability.

All that has changed, especially within the past few years. Now, sales and marketing are inextricably linked, and it’s all about return on investment. Marketing budgets are now scrutinized to squeeze the most value out of media plans and PR activities.

Return on investment (ROI) … what is it and how do you get it when you’re trying to reach a target market with sales information about your product or service?

Getting a better ROI from marketing communications is all about taking the time to really understand who you are trying to reach and what it is that they really want. It also requires finding the most cost-effective way to reach that very specific target audience.

So what do you do? You practice something called targeted marketing. You find multiple, more focused ways to reach a highly qualified, targeted audience. And you start by doing your homework on whom you really want to reach. For example, don’t say that your target audience is engineers. Go that extra mile to confirm that the person you really want to talk to is the senior design engineer who’s driving specifications for board-level components. Target, target, target.

Now you can concentrate on how to most effectively reach your highly qualified target. Because you’ve selectively reduced the audience to a critical few, perhaps they can receive a hand-addressed postcard or letter, or a personalized email with helpful links and a relevant white paper or case study. And everything you do should drive them to your website for more information and an interactive contact vehicle that enables them to query you and provides some details on what they really need. Send abstracts of white papers to relevant trade journals for use as articles to further reinforce your credibility. Tweak your website to include a wide range of links to relevant trade publications and industry or trade association websites, and try to get these sites to post links to yours. All these things cost very little money, yet they can go a long way toward creating visibility for your company and product or service.

Five tips for achieving a higher marketing communications ROI:

1. Know your target customer. Do your homework and research to determine who REALLY would buy your product or service.

2. Hone your message. Focus on customer pain—the thing or things that really present a challenge to your potential customer—that your product or service will “cure.” Communicate with clarity.

3. Be creative in disseminating your message. Don’t blindly rely on traditional methods that may or may not work for your specific circumstances. Seek alternative methods, such as Internet-based initiatives.

4. Find ways to “get found.” Generate case studies, abstracts and articles for trade publications. Make sure your website is updated regularly to include new and better content and links for increased visibility. Foster online relationships with industry marketplaces, trade journal sites and professional organizations. Position yourself as an industry expert—line up speaking engagements and conduct seminars when possible.

5. Repeat. Once you find the right mix of message and media, repeat as often as possible. If you have a limited budget (and who doesn’t?), don’t mail a fancy, full-color brochure once; produce several less expensive direct mail flyers instead so that you can hit your target several times for increased awareness.

Good ROI for your marketing communications efforts comes from doing your homework, understanding what you’re trying to accomplish and setting goals. Do this and you can sleep easy, knowing your program is working as hard as it possibly can.

How To Plan and Promote a Webinar

One great way to interact with customers and prospects is a seminar. However, busy schedules and tight budgets often limit the number of people who can attend. But recent technology has made seminars on the web, called "webinars", a cost-effective alternative. Here's how to plan and promote a successful webinar.

Determine your goals

Do you want to educate your customers and prospects? Generate qualified sales leads? Launch a new product? Develop and maintain loyalty? You should know exactly what you hope to gain before you start planning your event. Don't simply host a webinar because it's the trendy thing to do.

Select a valuable topic

It should have value for your audience, not just for you. It can be about industry trends, legislation, management issues, manufacturing strategies, marketing tactics, or any topic that would be helpful and relevant. It can also be about new products or services your company offers, however, it should be educational, not a blatant sales pitch. The more valuable your topic, the more attendees will get out of it and the easier it will be to promote.

Choose an experienced speaker

Speakers can be company executives, managers, product specialists, and others who are knowledgeable about the topic and have good presentation skills. Your speaker should have all materials and activities prepared well ahead of time, including PowerPoint slides, interactive polls, Q&A, demonstrations, etc...

Work out your technical issues

If you choose to host the webinar yourself, make sure you have people on staff who have the appropriate experience, especially technical staff. If you choose to hire an outside provider to host your webinar, be sure you know well in advance exactly how it will work and what services are included in their fee. You should also be able to tell attendees how to participate.

Promote your webinar widely

Treat it like a major event and get the word out with a mix of media, including direct mail, email, newsletters, news releases, website announcements, space ads in industry publications, etc... Seeing your message in a variety of places increases the excitement and boosts enrollment.

Get the word out early

Since webinars do not require travel arrangements or time away from the office, you don't have to provide as much advance notice as traditional seminars. However, it helps to get people thinking about it and anticipating the event. It's a good idea to announce your webinar and start the enrollment process about six to eight weeks in advance with reminders every week or so until the event.

Use direct mail and email

These are the media that are most likely to reach each of the people in your target audience. Ads,

news releases, newsletter blurbs, and other outlets can easily be missed. However, mail is delivered to particular people. Direct mail in particular is ideal for putting your announcement in front of every member of your audience.

Make registration fast and easy

The best way to do this is to create a special registration page on your web site. All of your promotional announcements should direct people to this page where they can enter information in a form. However, you should also offer other options, such as a reply form in your direct mail, toll-free phone number, and fax number.

Use good direct marketing techniques

If you plan to charge a fee for attending your webinar, be sure to charge enough to make the event seem valuable but not so much that you exclude a large portion of your audience. And use incentives, an early-bird discount, guarantee, and other persuaders to boost enrollment. If you prefer to make the webinar free, emphasize the potential value and exclusivity of the event.

Maximize your investment

After your webinar is over, you can offer transcripts of the presentation, provide results from polls, issue news releases based on information presented by speakers or attendees, make offers for additional information, announce upcoming webinars and so on. You can also post a streaming video of the event on your web site or offer it for sale.

6 Things You Should Know When Marketing to Engineers

1. Engineers look down on advertising and advertising people, for the most part.

Engineers have a low opinion of advertising. The lesson for the B-2-B marketer?  Make your advertising and direct mail informational and professional, not gimmicky or promotional. Avoid writing that sounds like "ad copy." Don't use slick graphics that immediately identify a brochure or spec sheet as "advertising." Engineers want to believe they are not influenced by ad copy - and that they make their decisions based on technical facts that are beyond a copywriter's understanding.

2. Engineers do not like a "consumer approach."

There is a raging debate about whether engineers respond better to a straight technical approach, clever consumer-style ads or something in between.  Those who prefer the creative approach argue, "The engineer is a human being first and an engineer second.  He will respond to creativity and cleverness just like everyone else." Unfortunately, there is much evidence to the contrary.  In many tests of ads and direct mailings, I have seen straightforward, low-key, professional approaches equal or outpull "glitzy" ads and mailings repeatedly. Engineers respond well to communications that address them as knowledgeable technical professionals in search of solutions to engineering problems.

3. The engineer's purchase decision is more logical than emotional.

Most books and articles on advertising stress that successful copy appeal to emotions first, reason second. But with the engineering audience, it is often the opposite.  The buyer carefully weighs the facts, makes comparisons and buys based on what product best fulfills his requirement. Certainly, there are emotional components to the engineer's buying decision. For instance, preference for one vendor over another is often based more on gut feeling. But for the most part, an engineer buying a new piece of equipment will analyze the features and technical specifications in much greater depth than a consumer buying a stereo, VCR, CD player or other sophisticated electronic device. Copy aimed at engineers cannot be superficial. Clarity is essential. Make it immediately clear what you are offering and how it meets the engineer's needs.

4. Engineers want to know the features and specifications, not just the benefits.

In consumer advertising it is known that benefits are everything, and that features are unimportant. But engineers need to know the features of your product - performance characteristics, efficiency ratings, power requirements and technical specifications. Features should especially be emphasized when selling to OEMs, VARs, systems integrators and others who purchase your product with an intention to incorporate it into their own product.

5. Engineers are not turned off by jargon - in fact, they like it.

Jargon can actually enhance communication when appealing to engineer and other technical audiences. Why is jargon effective? Because it shows the reader that you speak his language.  When you write direct response copy, you want the reader to get the impression you're like him. Speaking his language will accomplish that. Actually, engineers are not unique in having their "secret language" for professional communication. People in all fields publicly denounce jargon but privately love it.

6. Engineers have their own visual language.

What are the visual devices through which engineers communicate? Charts, graphs, tables, diagrams, blueprints, engineering drawings, and mathematical symbols and equations.You should use these visual devices when writing to engineers for two reasons.  First, engineers are comfortable with them and understand them. Second, these visuals immediately say to the engineer, "This is solid technical information, not sales talk". The best visuals are those specific to the engineer's specialty. Electrical engineers like circuit diagrams. Computer programmers feel comfortable looking at flow charts. Systems analysts use structured diagrams. Learn the visual language of your target audience and use these symbols and artwork throughout your communication

Does Your Website Pass Muster?

Your web presence should be part of your business plan, regardless of your business goals.

Sure, it comes with all sorts of problems, but no other tool is as adept at task-accomplishment. And no channel provides anywhere near the wealth of analytic data. But since the Web is still a relatively new medium, there is no shortage of models and postulates for how to run a site. Spend any time on the Web and you'll find that many of them are dead wrong.

Like most companies with a Website, you probably could be doing a better job with yours, but perhaps aren't sure where to start.

Before you start tweaking and troubleshooting, you need to make sure you have a clear idea of what it is you want your Website to do.

Is your goal simply to sell? build an online community of your products' users? or are you simply promoting your company's core capabilities?

Only once you know what you're trying to do can you go about measuring how well you're doing it.

Design of the Times

One of the most basic areas to look at is how your site is designed. The graphical interface is important here, but so is architecture.

We've learned from IBM ads that your logo in flames looks "really cool" but does next to nothing for sales.

What you should be looking for in terms of a graphical interface is something reflective of your company's brand image and marketing campaigns, and above all else, intuitive and easy to use.

There are several ways to go about discovering whether or not your customers are having an easy time navigating your site.

First off, you can ask them:

Conduct a usability study wherein you set people down in front of computers with your site and then ask questions about the experience.

Another option is to employ a pop-up survey that asks, between pages, why certain choices were made and what is expected of the next page.

Other sites simply analyze server logs to see what paths customers take through the site, where bottlenecks occur and where they exit.

Make It Personal

The great thing about the Web is that it can be hardwired to your database. From there, you can do all sorts of personalizing based on what you know about your customers. But because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should.

Are You Interacting?

While the spam deluge means that e-mail prospecting will remain problematic, the Internet still is magic when it comes to dealing with your house file.

Where your web site factors into your customer service and CRM programs is through cost avoidance. Think of your Website as a 24-7 customer service rep.

Example:

Add a FAQ page that answers customers' and prospects' questions.

Put a series of case studies/white papers on a page(and update it regularly) that provides solutions to users in different industries.

Remember, the key to a strong Web presence is a sense of purpose

Estimating Response to Business-to-Business Direct Mail

The question: "What kind of response can I expect from my lead-generating mailing, and what percentage is considered good for business-to-business (B-to-B) direct mail?"

Percentage Response

The number of inquiries produced per thousand pieces mailed varies dramatically depending on a number of factors. However, we can make the following generalizations.

If your mailing has a hard offer, you can expect a response rate in the range of 1 percent to 1.5 percent. A hard offer is any response choice that forces the prospect to try the product or have direct contact with a salesperson. These include meetings, demonstrations, presentations, so-called "free consultations" (sales meetings in disguise), demo diskettes selling for nominal fees, and 30-day trial offers.

On the other hand, if you have a soft offer–such as the offer of a booklet, gift or special report, you can expect a response of 1 percent to 4 percent; some mailers with good offers and highly targeted lists can get 5 percent or more.

Sales

Some practitioners object, stating that percentages are irrelevant and that sales results are the only true measure of direct mail success.

The problem is, sales are more difficult to tally in lead-generating programs than in mail order. One reason is that the direct mail piece does not do the whole job of selling; many other factors contribute. What's more, many companies don't have an adequate system for tracking leads through to sales and reporting on the results.

Still, if you're able to track sales, then percentage response may not be as important to you. Some companies, for example, sell a product so highly specialized that their percent response is miniscule–a small fraction of 1 percent. Yet the large dollar amount of each sale more than pays for the cost of mailing large quantities to get those few hot leads.

Establishing a Baseline

The first mailing gives a "baseline" against which future efforts can be measured. If you're pleased with the level of response generated by mailing No. 1, then consider that a good response for your product in the marketplace. If mailing No. 2 equals or a exceeds that level of response, consider it a winner.

Products

The nature of the product itself has a dramatic effect on response rates. If it is used by a large number of the prospects you mail to, response will be higher (an example might be selling bandages to hospital purchasing agents). On the other hand, if your product is highly special- ized and of interest to only a small portion of the market, the response will be significantly lower (an example might be a specialized type of heart monitor of interest to only one hospital in 100).

Format

Format can make a big difference in how well your mailing pulls. As a rule, sales letters mailed in business envelopes pull better than self-mailers. But sometimes this is not the case. Letters can make an appeal to the prospects' rational or emotional sides in order to build their interest in the product.

But, if they are already predisposed to buy the product–e.g., if it's something they're familiar with and don't have to be sold on its merits then a self-mailer, featuring a photograph that readily identifies the product being sold, may do as well or better.

Offer

As stated earlier, the specific offer being made in the mailing can make a big difference in response rates.

One area of indecision among mailers is whether to use the popular "free booklet strategy." In this type of mailing, the reader is offered an incentives free booklet, report or other helpful information he will receive for responding.

Usually the booklet or report offers how-to or technical information the reader can use on the job. For example: "How to Improve Direct Mail Results"–from a firm offering direct mail services.

These offers can boost response and are especially effective in markets where prospects are flooded with direct mail offers or are not excited about services and products and need an extra incentive to take action.

The key is to know how to introduce the booklet offer without overstressing it. If the whole mailing is based around the booklet offer, you will get a high volume of low quality leads–people who just want a free booklet but don't want to hear about your product.

A better approach is to talk about the reader's problems and how your company, service or product can solve these problems. Then bring in the booklet offer as an extra sales incentive, without putting complete emphasis on it. Experiment with copy approaches until you achieve the right balance between quality and quantity in your response.

Follow These Simple Rules To Create and Manage a Successful B-to-B Direct Marketing Program

10 COMMANDMENTS

B-to-B marketers continue to shift considerable resources toward direct marketing, both on-line and off-line. The rationale is a nearly universal mantra:
The good news about direct marketing is that it's measurable.

But measurability is a two-edge sword, and there's a dangerous flip side to the direct marketing promise:
The bad news about direct marketing is that it's measurable.

When programs work, everybody takes the victory lap. When programs fail, the program manager takes the fall, no matter how much "help" he or she receives from other team members. Much of the help others give is personal opinion, rather than professional judgement. You constantly hear things like, "that doesn't send me", or "I wouldn't respond to that" - all from people who don't even qualify to purchase the product.
You can defend yourself from the well-meaning interference of others and reduce your chances of error dramatically by avoiding the mistakes other have made. Just follow these 10 b-to-b direct marketing commandments-professional, not personal, judgements proven in head-to-head testing.

1. Lists are not an inventory item.
Too often, lists are treated like an inventory item, not a key strategic component of the campaign. The first and perhaps the most important thing to do is to research the available list universes and put together the best list targeting possible.Then do the best job you can of defining the key emotional drivers within each segment. For example, a CEO may have very different concerns than a CFO or a design/engineer. You can't start the creative process until you know what makes these people tick.

2. Avoid objective pile on.
The kiss of death for a direct marketing campaign often starts with the seemingly innocent statement, "As long as we're already talking to them, why don't we..."Just say no! If the goal of a campaign is to generate a lead, that should be the sole objecitve. When you add additional objectives-increased company or product knowledge are good examples-response rates go down. Add even more objectives, response rates go down again.

3. Sell salvation, not products.
Too many b-to-b direct marketers create "product sheets in drag" programs-feeds, speeds and technobabble only a product manager could ever care about. People don't want your products; they want what your products do for them. You have to appeal to their self-interest, not yours, to be successful.

4. Make an emotional connection.
You have 12 to 20 seconds to grab them and avoid the trash can or the delete button. The best way is to make an emotional connection, not a rational one. For example, here are two ways to brand the same white paper:
12 ways you can avoid the coming technology downturn
or
12 reasons you should consider Acme's version 2.0
Testing proves the emotional position beats the more rational position hands down.

5. It's the offer, stupid.
Offers are the best and fastest way to make an emotional connection. A good offer will not only generate an initial response, but it will also generate higher readership of the rest of the communication. Quite simply, an offer is the fastest way to communicate "what's in it for me?" and get consideration.

6. Don't give them a choice.
When you make an offer, don't give them a choice. Confronted with a choice, prospects are afraid of making the wrong one and protect themselves by making none.

7. Work backwards from point-of-sale.
Start with the customer and then work backwards to define how the selling system works. Then build your program around the way the selling system works in the real world. You won't change customer behavior. So don't try. You can't change tele-sales or field-sales behavior either, so understand what they do and how they do it and then support the selling systems that are already in place to maximize sell-through.

8.Avoid thundershower marketing.
Too often b-to-b marketers key off of product launches or arbitrary campaign plans and ignore field capacity issues. If, for example, the field organization can handle 100 leads per week, give them 100 and no more. If you give them 2,000, they can still only work 100, and the rest go down the drain.

9. Avoid panic marketing.
Panic marketing almost never works. If the customer needs nine months to make a decision, direct marketing can't affect sales this quarter. If the customer needs 18 months to make a decision, direct marketing can't affect sales this year. Panic marketing almost always leads to thundershower marketing, which makes things even worse. The proper way to use direct marketing is to generate qualified leads on an ongoing basis. Then, if the quarter needs help, the sales force can use incentives to convert the qualified prospects on file into buyers.

10. Simplify the approval process.
Research shows that the more complicated the approval process, the lower the response rate. To improve program performance, get as many people out of the approval loop as possible. Next, change the approval rules to limit people's input to those areas where they can apply professional judgement. Personal opinion is an unqualified marketing survey of one, and we all know what that's worth.

Following these 10 simple rules should help you create and manage more successful b-to-b direct marketing programs.

From: Target Marketing, September 2000

How do you create synergy among your direct mail, e-mail and web site marketing strategies?

Test, measure and track results.
It's the only way to know for sure what's right for your audience and offer. It's also an excellent way to stay informed about changes in your customers' behavior.

Stay sharp.
Because the Internet is an impulse medium, the response cycle to offers made on your web site or in e-mail promotions is faster than with direct mail. What works and is appropriate for another company and its customers isn't necessarily appropriate for you and yours. Visit other web sites. Read your own e-mail carefully.

The more relevant, the more effective.
Critical to the success of every customer communication vehicle is how successful you are at making the message as personally relevant to the individual as your data, budget and know-how will allow.

Direct mail has more staying power and is portable.
When your customers or prospects turn off their computers, your e-mail messages to them and your web site disappear. However, because of its physical presence, your direct mail piece or catalog has staying power. This also explains why direct mail has a longer response cycle than e-mail.
Direct mail is perceived as more personal than e-mail. Indeed, because of direct mail's portable physical presence, it can be taken on business trips or passed along to a colleague. Plus, when you add your URL to the piece, you've produced a portable billboard for building web site traffic.

Give your customer or prospect a specific reason to visit your web site.
For example, the National Arbor Day Foundation (www.arborday.org) recently produced an integrated direct mail and space advertising campaign inviting people to cast their votes online for a national tree. Their goal was two-fold: increase Americans' awareness of the value of trees, and generate web site traffic.

Testimonials remain a useful marketing tool for all three communication channels.
Solicit testimonials and use them on direct mail components, as well as on your web site's home page, your all-testimonial web page, or as a compelling opening or closing for a push e-mail.

Current studies show that direct mail is more effective than e-mail for driving people to a web site. Test this to see if it holds true for your audience as well.

Test sending an e-mail follow-up to a direct mail piece.
Or try sending an e-mail announcement of an important customer mailing that will follow. One of the marketing advantages of e-mail is that it's fast, easy and inexpensive to produce compared to traditional direct mail. Test how you can use this to help increase direct mail response rates.

Make it easy to contact you however they choose.
Put your URL on all your offline communications - space ads, order forms, letters, brochures, catalogs, Yellow Page ads and package inserts.

As with traditional direct mail, e-mail overload is increasing.
There's more in people's "in" boxes to sift through and less getting opened and read. Here's another case when sound direct marketing techniques apply. Use your subject line to entice readership, much like your teaser copy gets people to open the outer envelope. Make your opening sentence as compelling as the opening benefit statement of your direct mail letter. And give your reader a strong incentive (that is, offer) to take action.

Be as creative with your web site and e-mail offers as you are with those used in your direct mail.

Make it as easy as possible for customers to communicate through whichever channels catch their fancy at any given moment. It should be simple, seamless and more than just satisfactory. The result will be stronger customer relationships and an impressive return on your investment of time and money.

A Checklist Of No-cost or Low-cost "Must Do's" That Will Increase Your Marketing Effectiveness

Calling Customers.
It costs practically nothing to get on the phone to interview your customers and prospects, but the information you get from these conversations can make-your company millions of dollars. If you know how customers buy and how they want you to sell to them, you can avoid marketing sin numero uno: guessing. No need to conduct a fancy focus group. You just have to get on the phone and have a conversation with your customers. Don't "survey" them-it's rude, boring and nonproductive. Call a customer a week, and you will be miles ahead of your competitors whenever the market shifts.

Testing concepts.
Again, a cheap but critical action. After you've got a mockup of an ad, brochure or web site, show it to a couple of the more helpful customers you've talked to. Use their input to make it better. Call first, then, while you're on the phone, email a PDF of the ad or printed piece (or fax it), or email a link to a web site and have them tell you what they think as they see it for the first time. This act will ensure that the piece will actually work.

Tracking.
Your company is probably still trying to get up and working a CRM system that will track every lead through to the eventual sale. But you're not there yet. Instead, use individual URLs that aren't difficult to type, as in www.mycompany.com/free1.

Specific web site pages.
Don't just send your prospects to your homepage. Send them to a page that is a perfect, seamless follow-on to your ad, including the same graphics and message. If your managers want you to send them to your homepage "so they can see everything we offer," tell them that it is much better to put a big, obvious "HOME" button on a more campaign-specific site. Otherwise, you end up making prospects hunt for the specific product(s) you advertised, which wastes your advertising and web site dollars-and irritates potential customers.

Include an offer and a call to action.
These days, all marketing should be considered "direct" marketing. You send them to a specific web page, then to register to receive the white paper or other free-but-useful information.

Give salespeople hot leads.
Salespeople do respond to urgent, hot sales opportunities. How about an email that says, "At 10:52 today, this person downloaded the white paper on network solutions. Please call this person within the next 24 hours and let me know, by replying to this email what happened. Such "they just downloaded" emails can be set up to go out automatically to the right rep. For example, when you capture the prospect's email address, have them identify their region (Northeast, South, etc.) from a pull-down menu of your sales rep territories. Or, you can have the leads go to your pre-qualification group.

Map out the entire buying process.
Spend a few hours with your top salespeople breaking the typical sale into its specific stages - i.e., "awareness," "exchange of information," "presentation," "justification," "close" and "ongoing satisfaction." The idea is to identify all of the players involved in the buying process, the questions they ask, the answers that satisfy them, and the best way for marketing to deliver the information needed to complete the sale.

Going through the above process often reveals holes in your selling process. Your salespeople will admit, "We have no problem getting their attention, and the presentation goes fine, but we often lose the sale in the "justification" phase. Fix it and your sales will go up.

Educate your executives.
Most top managers don't come from marketing, yet their decisions affect everything you do. Your best defense is a good offense: devote at least 5 percent of your time educating your top execs.

If you do these things, and your competition doesn't, you will gain marketshare. And gaining marketshare is the best way to move up in a down market.

Positioning your product.

When your customer is an engineer, brand is irrelevant and positioning is key. Positioning is informing your customers on how to use your product and why that product best serves their purposes. The goal is to elevate the stance of the company with important and significant customers. Today, the strategic fundamental is demonstrating value. Marketers need to focus on fashioning a position, not a brand. Focus on a defensible position by accurately and continuously reevaluating customers and competitors. Why brand when positioning will do?

Useful Tips About Permission-Based E-mail

According to research conducted by sales and marketing advisory firm IMT Strategies, based in Stamford, CT., more than 80 percent of e-mail users have given marketers permission to send them e-mail promotions, and 70 percent of customers respond to these offers more than once.

If marketers refrain from saturating customers with e-mail, response rates to permission-based marketing will remain high for the next two to three years.

Attention without alienation
The most effective permission-based e-mail implementation will offer:

• Easily created, yet highly targeted e-mail messages that communicate with prospective customers in a personal, relevant way.
• The ability to pinpoint, cross-sell and upsell incentives to the segments most likely to respond.
• The functionality to test everything
• A response manager to monitor audience response in real time, that can then be routed to appropriate departments based on predefined rules.
• Tight integration between a company's e-mail and traditional campaigns.

Analyze this
The success of e-mail marketing is not just about getting permission; it's also about learning from the dialogue-or lack of it. Timely analysis of campaign performance enables firms to adjust messages and volumes.

Privacy and preparation
When properly executed, a permission-based e-mail campaign is very cost-effective, resulting in a significantly greater return on investment and stronger, more personal customer relationships.

Importance of Web Site Design Features when Customers/Prospects Visit Your Site.

A survey conducted by Knowledge Systems and Research Inc. found that web surfers are easily frustrated: Users average only four clicks on a site without finding what they seek before they abandon it and 83 percent then move on to another site instead of using a search function or calling customer service. Nearly 80 percent of users rate ease of use the most important feature in web site design.

The following, in order of importance, are web site design features that customers/prospects regard as important criteria when visiting web sites.

9 Tips to Avoid Direct-Response Disasters

This quarterly column's purpose is clear: to help direct marketers avoid mistakes that can crash program performance and threaten their career trajectory. Following are 9 tips that can help.

1. Keep program objectives simple and focused. Working toward a single objective typically will generate the highest response. If the objective is to generate a lead, for example, concentrate on that singular objective. If it's to get people to register on your Web site, focus on that, and move all subsequent requests and sell-through offers to later communications. If you ask recipients to do too many things, they'll do none of them. When you give them too many options, they get confused and become afraid of making mistakes, so they do nothing.
Rule of thumb: Every time you pile on one more objective, your response rates will fall by 50 percent or more.

2. All copy platforms and offers should support your single, clearly defined objective. In direct marketing, good copy and offer structures essentially are arguments to convince your prospects to do what you want. If your objective is to generate leads, your offer should reward prospects for responding. If it's to get them to register on your Web site, reward them for registering, not for doing something else.
Rule of thumb:There always should be a 100 percent connection between what you want them to do and what you're going to give them when they do it.

3. Sell-through offers can be dangerous. Is "save 20 percent" a good offer? Not always. If you've been selling software for $100, for example, and now you're willing to sell it for $80, offering a 20 percent discount might be worth testing. In the mind of the buyer, saving 20 percent by spending $80 on an impulse sale is a smart, justifiable decision.
Now let's look at "save 20 percent" in another context. Assume you're selling an integrated solution into the enterprise: total budget $10 million. Buy now, save $2 million? In this case, the purchase is consultative and considered, not an impulse buy, and a large team will make the decision. That team will work at its own pace and make the decision based on the company's internal policies. Discounting signals desperation on your part. And desperation tells prospects that you'll push them to go faster than they want to go. So they protect themselves by not responding.
Rule of thumb: Be careful with sell-through offers; you might scare your best prospects away.

4. You've got 12 to 20 seconds to win their hearts. Every program you do - direct mail, print, e-mail or Web - has only 12 to 20 seconds from initial appearance in front of your target to the trash can or delete key. You don't have time for a long wind up or to build to a great finish. Hit prospects hard with the offer and tell them what to do to get it. The offer and how to get it must be the first and last thing they see.
Rule of thumb:: If you're not going to make a hard-hitting offer, save your money.

5. Direct marketing is not a communications branding opportunity. Strong offers are what makes direct marketing work. If your programs aren't working as well as they should be, improve your offers and strip away as much brand messaging as you can. Your response rates will improve dramatically.
Rule of thumb: Brand messaging often gets in the way.

6. Make your copy easy to understand and relevant to the recipient. Talk to them in their language, not yours. Talk about what they care about. Don't use jargon and techno-babble unless you know that your gibberish is exactly the same as theirs. If you can't explain your product or service in two or three crisp sentences, don't even try. When your product or service is hard to understand, prospects won't work at comprehending; they just stop reading. (Some of the most successful programs for complicated products never even mention the product; talk just about what the product will do for them. Try it, it works.)
A camel is a horse designed by a committee. What has this got to do with direct marketing? Frankly, a good deal, as the next two items will demonstrate.

7. Reduce the size of program development teams. And if you can't, change team members' roles and responsibilities. When everyone has input and veto power, it's impossible to create a racehorse; you'll always get a camel.
Rule of thumb: One person must take responsibility for program performance; the rest should support that person with resources and information.

8. Simplify the approval process. This is a second surefire way to turn racehorses into camels. Quite simply, the more people in the loop, the worse program performance gets. Why? Great programs are created by writers and designers who have unique insights into how to convince strangers from a distance. They know, for example, that changing a word or two or making a specific emotional appeal can lift response rates by two or three times or more. The greater the number of people who review and approve a program, the greater the chance edits will take away that advantage. If you can't reduce the number of people in the approval process, change their responsibilities. Let the product manager, for example comment on product descriptions, but not on offer structure.
Rule of thumb:Try to keep team members focused only on their areas of competence.

9. Keep detailed program performance records. I've talked to 32 prospective clients in the past eight months. Of those, 30 had done direct marketing before, two hadn't. Of the 30, only four could show me historical performance of past programs in detail. All the money and time their companies invested was wasted. And 26 out of those 30, or 87 percent, are doomed to repeat the failures of the past. There's an 87 percent chance you and your company are not keeping detailed records. Do it for your company. Do it for yourself.
Rule of thumb: The information you collect can make you truly an expert in direct marketing.

From: Target Marketing February 2001

Building Up the Brochure
12 Tips for Creating Better Brochures

Brochures are a mixed bag. They come in different shapes and sizes. Some are splashy, four-color jobs printed on glossy paper; some consist of a single sheet folded in thirds. A brochure can stand alone or it can be part of a multi-component package.

The tone of a brochure is distinctly different from a letter or a specification sheet. While a sales letter should have an intimate me-to-you familiarity, a brochure can be less personal.

The brochure can be used:

• as a handout
• as a supplement at seminars
• as part of a direct mail package
• in response to a request
• to support other sales literature
• as part of a multi-step selling process
• to stay in touch with customers, investors or prospects
• to build and reinforce your company's image

Before writing and designing the brochure, consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the brochure?
• Where does it fit in my overall marketing?
• What do I want it to do?
• Regardless of purpose, however, successful brochures have many elements in common. Here are 12 techniques you can use to improve your efforts.

1. Use a strong cover headline.
The front cover is the first thing the reader sees. You have a few precious seconds to make a powerful impact. Don't squander it.
Headlines like "The XYZ Company Makes A World of Difference" or "We're Up To Big Things At Acme Industries" are fluff. They tell readers nothing; worse, they don't entice them to look inside the brochure. Instead, follow classic attention-grabbing starters. For instance, a headline can:

• Pose a question: "Do You Know Where IC Manufacturing Is Headed?"
• Stress a benefit: "Maximize The Efficiency Of Your Coating Operation."
• Offer news: "What You Should Know About Helium Leak Detection." (Making something newsworthy is a particularly powerful device.)

2. Use a reasonable amount of text in each page.
Make your brochure easy to read. Nothing is more of a turn-off than plowing through acres of text. A brochure should be an engaging reading experience. Map out appropriate blocks of copy that communicate your message in manageable pieces.

3. Use easy-to-read type faces.
A dizzying array of fonts may be exciting for you, but will it increase readability? Mix and match typefaces sparingly.

4. Indent your body copy.
Studies have shown that copy is easier to read when it's indented five or six spaces.

5. Use subheads to break up copy.
Subheads make a natural break in your copy flow, just as chapters let readers pause and think in a book. Subheads are hooks that can lead the reader from one selling section to another.

6. Use "text helpers" sensibly.
Call outs, bullets, sidebars, check marks and similar design elements have been known to assist readability and comprehension. But don't go overboard. An overabundance of boldface, italics or all caps can disrupt the reading experience and defeat the purpose.

7. Use action photos.
People respond to other people. You can make more of an impact with a picture of your product in use than with a lifeless shot.

8. Use photo captions.
Captions should run below the photograph.

9. Prove your claims.
The adage in direct mail is, ""The letter sells, the brochure tells." If your brochure is part of a package, it can help you prove the claims you make in your letter. Talk about the features of your product-then translate those features into powerful reader-centered benefits. Tell the whole selling story.

10. Include contact information.
Every piece of sales literature that leaves your office must have this. Include your company name and address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail and/or Web site address-anything that allows the reader to get in touch with you. If you can attach a contact person's name, all the better.

11. Tell the reader the next step.
The reader has read your brochure. Now what? Do you want her to call for an appointment? Request additional information? Visit your Web site? Place and order? You should clearly and vigorously indicate the action you want her to take.

12. Include an extra order device.
You can raise your response rate by including an additional order device in the brochure. You can't be certain which piece in the package the reader will look at or lose. A second order device that restates your offer overcomes this handicap-and may help capture additional orders.

Adopt these suggestions and you'll increase your chances of turning out a more successful sales piece.

Business-to-Business Ad Strategies

Business-to-Business advertisers need to create tactical messages to attract new customers, but they also need to build brand. Unlike business-to-consumer, business-to-business advertising focuses 20 percent of their messages on brand-building and 60 to 80 percent of the efforts on customer acquisition. In other words, a consumer layer of advertising is secondary to the tactical marketing work that generates leads.

Campaign Tactics: Questions B-to-B companies should consider when crafting an ad strategy.

• How large is the target audience? Companies with tiny vertical markets have different needs and do not always warrant mass media strategies.
• How mature is the business? Just-seeded companies should focus on marketing efforts that will allow for customer acquisition, typically direct marketing.
• Is there competition? If so, how fast is it moving? If the company is a first mover in a category, it will need to create messages that promote the brand and explain how its product/technology works. If it is entering, or is part, of a crowded field, it needs to build its brand and differentiate itself from rivals.
• What roles will co-marketing play? B-to-B startups that provide services or product bundles that involve other company brands may be able to leverage those affiliations to define their own, newer brand. Unlike business-to-consumer marketing who share eyeballs of "fickle" consumers, B-to-B
• dot-coms share active, loyal customers and higher per-customer revenues.

Segmentation Secrets

• A re-mailing or re-contact can get 50 percent of the response of the initial contact.
• Two-time buyers respond 40 to 60 percent better than one-time buyers.
• A segment of customers will drop in response by 50 percent each year they do not buy.
• The biggest single segment in any database is usually one-time buyers of popular items.
• Buyers who spend a small amount on their initial purchase are likely to continue to spend less than average on future purchases.
• One-time buyers who made small purchases are often unprofitable to re-contact in 18 months or less.
• One-time buyers are more likely to buy again soon after their first purchase.
• When selling to businesses and consumers, businesses typically have a higher acquisition cost, but also typically have a lifetime value eight to ten times higher than consumers.
• "Best customers" are often heavy users and aren't loyal to one supplier.

Measuring Online Advertising Effectiveness

Television has Nielsen ratings, Radio has Arbitron. The Web-well, the web has served up an endless parade of yardsticks that always fall short of describing what advertisers need to know. Back when MicroSoft was rolling out its first edition of Windows 95, "hits" were still a popular measure of Website activity. Since then, "page views" and "click-throughs" have passed in and out of popularity. Now, it's buzzwords like "unique visitor" and "return on investment" that entice the sophisticated web buyer. Unfortunately, all these measures share one common flaw; None neatly measure audience activity, or the revenue generating potential of a website, in an easy-to-digest figure. What does this mean in the long run? There is no one standard for online audience measurement, which is bad news for ad buyers looking for the simple answer online. Each web advertiser will use its own yardstick to measure web advertising effectiveness. Retailers selling books will require a different response level than a website selling content. Evaluating audience data for online marketers is more like taking a Rorschach test: You're likely to see only what you are looking for. Bottom line: All a client wants to know is if their advertising helped them make money.

10 Major Trends for the 2000s

1. Overseas economies boom. It is just over ten years since the Berlin Wall fell. The 15 countries of the European Union now comprise a gigantic 375 million people. Another six countries with 63.3 million people are preparing to join. Asia roars back. In 1999, Japan's Topix index had its biggest annual gain in 27 years. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index had its best gain in six years. Russia will continue to be the exception to the boom, though even there is hope. The new acting president, Vladimir Putin, has spent time in the West and is aware of the benefits of law-based capitalism.
2. E-commerce will get personalized. Software tools for making great e-commerce sites will explode in number and sophistication. So will the demand for them.
3. The hot IPO market of 1999 will switch to Europe and Asia, where IPO frenzy is just taking hold.
4. The Wal-Marts of the world will learn e-commerce and, hopefully, bring customer service to the Web. Many of the plucky startups that promised the "lowest prices on the planet" will find their going suddenly getting very tough.
5. Advertising will dry up for smaller dot coms with dubious business models, and heavy reliance on mythical, gigantic advertising revenues.
6. Linux will take off. Despite Windows 2000 making a huge splash, Linux will increase its popularity. Companies like Red Hat (RHAT) will make Linux easier to use. Pretty soon, operating systems won't be universal, but will have niches, e.g. Linux as a Web server.
7. Business to Business e-commerce will explode. Sites, services and tools. Buyers get lower cost supplies, a broader range of supplies and potentially zero inventory. Sellers get broader markets. The ultimate global marketplace.
8. Electronic payments schemes will get much better. Smart cards, credit cards and micro-transactions on the Web will become easier, more accepted. Digital signatures will become broadly accepted. In October, Jesse Ventura became the first governor to put his digital signature on a document.
9. Telemedicine will explode. Today patients travel half way across the globe to have doctors view their X-rays and speak with them. It will all be done electronically.
10. Forecasting, as usual, will stink. Business Week's 50 famous stock pickers guessed end-1999 NASDAQ at 2,081. It came in at 4,069.31. John Kenneth Galbraith says economists are great at predicting the past.

From "GartnerGroup's Laws of Technology-Enabled Marketing" (Strategic Advice Research Note)

1) FEATURED FINDINGS

* FREE! GartnerGroup's Datapro Says Server Synchronization to Increase Productivity for Enterprises Using Handheld Devices

As more workers try to have real-time, online access to their business applications when using portable devices, such as handhelds and smartphones, server synchronization software will be the technology that makes this happen more efficiently, according to Datapro, a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (Press release: http://www.gartnerweb.com/dq/static/about/press/pr-b9971.html)

* FREE! GartnerGroup's Dataquest Says Mobile Satellite Services Market to Reach 8 Million Terminals by 2004

With several operators expected to become operational during the next two to three years, the market for satellite voice services is forecast to grow from an estimated installed base of 211,212 terminals at the end of 1999 to 8.32 million terminals by 2004, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group, Inc. (Press release: http://www.gartnerweb.com/dq/static/about/press/pr-b9970.html)

* FREE! Demonstrating IT's Contribution to Business Success

For senior managers, communicating key performance metrics and the contribution of the IS organization to business success is essential. An annual IT report is an excellent way to achieve this goal. (Commentary: http://www.gartnerweb.com/public/static/hotc/hc00085200.html)

2) GARTNERGROUP NEWS

* FREE Trial of Gartner Letter - Internet Business Strategies

Receive a free 60 day trial of Gartner Letter. Gartner Letter is designed to help you make informed decisions about how to use the Internet to deploy e-commerce and interactive marketing initiatives. https://gartner11.gartnerweb.com/secure/gletter_form.html

3) EVENTS

* Gartner Clarity - February 3, 2000, New York City, New York
E-business strategy...Got one? On February 3, GartnerGroup presents an all-day event to answer the question: "What should I be doing now to make sure my company can play to win in a world forever changed by e-business?" Visit http://www.gartnerclarity.com to find out more about how to experience the e-business event of the year, either on-site or via the Web!

* GartnerGroup and Advanstar Communications present iEC: Internet & Electronic Commerce Conference & Exposition: Business to e-business at the Jacob K. Javits Center, New York, New York, February 29 - March 2, 2000.
The world of electronic commerce moves at warp speed. Don't be left behind grappling with traditional business models. This iEC conference sorts it all out and takes you to the next level of e-commerce, e-business and e-services. Plus, you'll hear from our six fascinating keynote speakers who have carried success in e-commerce to dizzying heights: Cramer of TheStreet.com; Diller of USA Networks; Jones of Travelocity.com; Malamud of Invisible Worlds; Nacchio of Qwest Communications; and Walker of Priceline.com http://www.iec-expo.com

4) CLIENT AUDIOCONFERENCES

Note: Audioconference participation is open to clients of the sponsoring service. If you would like more information on audioconferences, please call 1-800-780-0857.

* Evaluating CRM Solution Vendors
January 28, 2000 * 9:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m. EDT

Given the immaturity of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) marketplace, it is difficult to differentiate which products constitute a viable Front Office Application Suite. Customer Service and Service and Support, Sales Force/Marketing Automation, and Field Service software packages offer varied, and often confusing, solutions and strategies from different types of vendors, but none is a complete panacea for end-users. http://www.gartnerweb.com/public/static/events/atc/jan00atc/ddi_nit.html

* Networking E-Business Imperatives
January 31, 2000 * 10:00 a.m. & 2:00 p.m. EDT

The demands that will be placed on network executives for network planning and implementation will no longer be confined to one's own enterprise. With the imminent arrival of e-business, clients must not only determine which networking issues will become important components of their e-business development strategies, but also which networking issues will become networking e-business imperatives. http://www.gartnerweb.com/public/static/events/atc/jan00atc/nbm.html

True, False or Neither?

No doubt consumers believe advertising has many fine qualities. Truthfulness, alas, is not one of them. In a survey conducted for Adweek by research firm Alden & Associates of Hermosa Beach, California, people were asked, "Do you think advertising generally tells the truth?" A huge majority (80.8 percent) of respondents said "no"-and not, we fear, because they believe advertising invariably tells the truth. Women were more likely than men to be naysayers, by 82.7 percent to 78.4 percent. In the face of such skepticism, some advertisers will redouble their efforts to seem truthful. Others may decide believability is such a lost cause that they should focus their messages in more promising directions. Indeed, more and more advertising features an off-the-wall brashness that makes any question of truth or falsehood seem quite beside the point.

From Catalog Age Weekly, on marketingclick.com

34 Test Ideas for 2010
Consider these tips when you're looking for ways to up your response

In search of ways to boost your response rates this year? Look no further. Here are a host of test ideas for you to consider.

1. Add the word FREE to your outer envelope teaser copy or to the subject line of your e-mail sales message.
2. Focus on "selling" your offer, not your product or service. Give your targeted audience a good reason to respond.
3. Let your customers choose how they want to respond (phone, mail, online, fax), and use this information for future two-way communications.
4. Study customer complaints as a source of breakthrough response-generating ideas.
5. Use double envelopes to reach multiple audiences at the same address and at the same time(meaning:glue/tip a smaller envelope on the outside of a larger one, or put one envelope inside the other; i.e. To the Design Engineer, To the CFO).
6. Eliminate or shorten voice mail menus and customer waiting time.
7. Focus on one major benefit that differentiates you from your competition. If you have several major benefits, create a series of mailings, ads or e-mail messages that focus on one major benefit at at time.
8. When you're budgeting for advertising remember that 20 percent of your customers produce 80 percent of your sales-identify that 20 percent, then budget and communicate accordingly.
9. Segment your customer and prospect audiences and create targeted messages to each audience (keeping in mind that the same product or service may have different benefits for different audience segments).
10. Know where the "hot spots" for highest readership are in your direct response advertising and use them effectively.
11. Studies show that ad headlines draw 28 percent more attention when placed in quotation marks. Why? Because it appears more important.
12. Never assume the decision-maker is the only individual with whom you need to communicate; decision-influencers can be door-openers to big sales.
13. Test a phone follow-up to non-respondents (especially within your customer base).
14. Keep it simple to respond whether by phone, fax, online or mail.
15. Use a two-step sale (lead generation and lead generation fulfillment kit for sales follow-up) for complex and high-ticket products and services.
16. Provide a special 800 number to your best customers to put them at the front of the queue with no voice mail menus and a real, live person to talk to right from the start. Promote it as a special Preferred Customer Only privilege.
17. Give people a reason to visit your Web site or pick up the phone and call NOW-use offers to create urgency and response.
18. Always include your guarantee-and make it a benefit to your prospects and customers.
19. Put your deadline on the outside of your envelope or in the subject of your e-mail-especially when writing to customers.
20. Don't let the excitement of new technology divert you from what you know works. Instead, integrate proven ideas into new applications.
21. Make it fast and easy to respond by pre-filling response cards and order forms with as much information as you can.
22. Make sure to include a business reply envelope (BRE) whenever you ask for confidential information.
23. Reactivate catalog sales by sending a postcard with a reminder photo of the most recent catolg mailed and a strong offer for orders placed by a quickly approaching deadline.
24. Print your Web site address and 800 phone number on everything.
25. Change the color of the outer envelope of your control mail package (leave everything else the same).
26. Dramatically minimize time required to download sales information and graphics at e-commerce sites.
27. Send immediate cross-sell and/or upgrade bounceback offers after making a sale: happy, satisfied customers are more likely to buy again.
28. Use stores, online and print catalogs to reinforce each other-you never know where your customer may start window shopping, or through which medium he or she will ultimately buy.
29. Include a deadline in your offer (along with a believable explanation for it).
30. Invest in saying, "thank you"-every customer communication doesn't have to generate a sale.
31. Use direct mail to generate Web site traffic; use e-mail to announce important customer mailings.
32. Product photos with a human or human element in them attract more attention and generate more reponse than those without.
33. Update e-commerce sites often; 80 percent of Web site visitors are repeats and timely information is the number one reason people give for visiting Web sites.
34. Develop a memorable direct response message and reinforce it in all media.

Consider these tips when you're looking for ways to up your response

In search of ways to boost your response rates this year? Look no further. Here are a host of test ideas for you to consider.

1. Add the word FREE to your outer envelope teaser copy or to the subject line of your e-mail sales message.
2. Focus on "selling" your offer, not your product or service. Give your targeted audience a good reason to respond.
3. Let your customers choose how they want to respond (phone, mail, online, fax), and use this information for future two-way communications.
4. Study customer complaints as a source of breakthrough response-generating ideas.
5. Use double envelopes to reach multiple audiences at the same address and at the same time(meaning:glue/tip a smaller envelope on the outside of a larger one, or put one envelope inside the other; i.e. To the Design Engineer, To the CFO).
6. Eliminate or shorten voice mail menus and customer waiting time.
7. Focus on one major benefit that differentiates you from your competition. If you have several major benefits, create a series of mailings, ads or e-mail messages that focus on one major benefit at at time.
8. When you're budgeting for advertising remember that 20 percent of your customers produce 80 percent of your sales-identify that 20 percent, then budget and communicate accordingly.
9. Segment your customer and prospect audiences and create targeted messages to each audience (keeping in mind that the same product or service may have different benefits for different audience segments).
10. Know where the "hot spots" for highest readership are in your direct response advertising and use them effectively.
11. Studies show that ad headlines draw 28 percent more attention when placed in quotation marks. Why? Because it appears more important.
12. Never assume the decision-maker is the only individual with whom you need to communicate; decision-influencers can be door-openers to big sales.
13. Test a phone follow-up to non-respondents (especially within your customer base).
14. Keep it simple to respond whether by phone, fax, online or mail.
15. Use a two-step sale (lead generation and lead generation fulfillment kit for sales follow-up) for complex and high-ticket products and services.
16. Provide a special 800 number to your best customers to put them at the front of the queue with no voice mail menus and a real, live person to talk to right from the start. Promote it as a special Preferred Customer Only privilege.
17. Give people a reason to visit your Web site or pick up the phone and call NOW-use offers to create urgency and response.
18. Always include your guarantee-and make it a benefit to your prospects and customers.
19. Put your deadline on the outside of your envelope or in the subject of your e-mail-especially when writing to customers.
20. Don't let the excitement of new technology divert you from what you know works. Instead, integrate proven ideas into new applications.
21. Make it fast and easy to respond by pre-filling response cards and order forms with as much information as you can.
22. Make sure to include a business reply envelope (BRE) whenever you ask for confidential information.
23. Reactivate catalog sales by sending a postcard with a reminder photo of the most recent catolg mailed and a strong offer for orders placed by a quickly approaching deadline.
24. Print your Web site address and 800 phone number on everything.
25. Change the color of the outer envelope of your control mail package (leave everything else the same).
26. Dramatically minimize time required to download sales information and graphics at e-commerce sites.
27. Send immediate cross-sell and/or upgrade bounceback offers after making a sale: happy, satisfied customers are more likely to buy again.
28. Use stores, online and print catalogs to reinforce each other-you never know where your customer may start window shopping, or through which medium he or she will ultimately buy.
29. Include a deadline in your offer (along with a believable explanation for it).
30. Invest in saying, "thank you"-every customer communication doesn't have to generate a sale.
31. Use direct mail to generate Web site traffic; use e-mail to announce important customer mailings.
32. Product photos with a human or human element in them attract more attention and generate more reponse than those without.
33. Update e-commerce sites often; 80 percent of Web site visitors are repeats and timely information is the number one reason people give for visiting Web sites.
34. Develop a memorable direct response message and reinforce it in all media.

Have You Done Your Homework On Japan?

Direct Marketing Facts You Should Know

Japanese are avid collectors of facts and statistics and there is a wealth of information available for any marketer doing business in Japan. The breadth and depth of data the Japanese government and other Japanese organizations collect allows easy access to statisticians, market researchers and anyone who needs accurate information fast. Unfortunately, many U.S. companies marketing in Japan do not utilize a lot of the information that is available, and probably for the simple reason that it often isn't available in English (or they do not seek it out).
Surprisingly, even the most basic information-such as how orders by mail are placed, phone rates and payment methods-can help U.S. direct marketers modify their tactics to succeed in the world's second largest economy. For example, one U.S. company marketing its seminars by mail noticed a 25 percent increase in response when it offered payment by postal remittance to its Japanese customers. Although the logistics of setting up an account from the United States took time and patience, it succeeded in lifting its response significantly.
Apart from boosting response, knowing the market and its customers can also help save money. Knowing that Japanese prefer to place orders in writing, one catalog company adapted its order form to encourage its customers to order by fax or mail. This strategy succeeded in lowering its average order cost for Japan.

Placing orders in Japan

Compared to the U.S. direct mail market where some 98 percent of orders are placed by phone, the number of Japanese phone orders is relatively small.
The high cost of calls is the main reason that orders by phone are fewer in Japan than in the United States. Customers are reluctant to pay such costs, and many marketers are also reluctant to pay and do not offer toll-free dial services. A three minute phone call can cost as much as 78 cents in many locations.
Japanese telephone rates are based on increments of 10 yen (8.6 cents). Ten yen will buy three minutes for a local call, but the farther away, the less time it will buy. Although privatization and new competition are predicted to lower costs, no significant changes have yet occurred.
When you consider that 100 kilometers is only 62.5 miles, a three-minute call to outside your immediate environment can easily cost up to 78.3 cents. All local calls up to three minutes will cost 8.6 cents.
In addition to the high cost of telephone calls, Japanese tend to prefer written orders since they are more accurate than verbal orders. A written order also can serve as a record in case any disputes arise. Another reason many Japanese prefer written orders is that some Japanese names are difficult to spell, and it is sometimes hard to explain the correct kanji over the phone.
Another way of placing orders that is gaining popularity is through the Internet. Significant growth in online orders is expected this year due to the current Internet boom in Japan. Japanese analysts predict that the number of Internet orders will exceed fax orders in the next 18 months.

From an article by James Dempster in Target Marketing

How Will the Internet Age?

Predictions for the 21st Century

1. Connectivity will become ubiquitous.
   The capital markets enthusiastically support the growth of connectivity by whatever means, including wireless, copper cable, and fiber optic. Connectivity becomes an assumption, not a complicated arrangement, and it's definitely not about wires.
2. The future will be streamed, not downloaded.
   It's a commonly held assumption that digital distribution will replace the analog distribution system that traditionally delivers services and information-based products.
3. Flat-fee pull will be the norm.
   Digitization and data networks liberate content from control over its quantity and destination, in much the same way that broadcast of radio and television remove control over the number and location of listeners or viewers. Control over quantity and destination are customary requisites for establishing pricing schedules that leverage maximum price over marginal cost. If control is lost, price falls and hovers at or near marginal cost of delivery.
   The Net of the future will exhibit flat-fee/no-fee pull, where we choose to monetize our presence by tolerating advertisements or by paying a subscription fee to banish the ads and the loss of privacy. We've already seen online services adopt the flat-fee model, as have telephone companies such as Sprint and AT&T. Where these companies once billed us for our activities and their duration, we now enjoy a smorgasbord of communication for one price.
4. The future is a small, small world.
   Technology and the Internet will shrink the world at least two ways, by eliminating distance and by making smaller the devices we create. Nanotechnology will shrink the devices we use and the materials we need, more efficiently allocating scarce resources.
5. There will be a renaissance of creative expression.
   Technology's deepest impact will be from enabling the digital delivery of art, such as music, movies, books, and other intellectual property. The effects will go deeper than just changing the way we listen to popular music. Currently, we kill art regularly due to our need to balance the costs of distribution with its rewards. Once a delivery is digitized, art need never die, and new art can come to life that might not otherwise find an audience.

From an article by Jim Griffin in Business 2.0

Use the Internet to Drive Your Direct Mail

The Internet may turn out to be a direct marketer's best friend. Rather than viewing cyberspace as a threat to traditional mailing, savvy innovators are using the Web as an enabling force for customization.

There's a new movement afoot to take advantage of digital technology and create real-time, turn-key direct mail programs.
Companies with two- or three-level distribution have struggled for years to find ways to support re-sellers and dealers with customized direct mail programs. The challenge has been finding ways to support highly personalized, customized four-color printing for small quantities.

Where the Web Comes In

Enter the Internet. The beauty of the Internet process is that those end-users can enter information directly into a database at the front end. For business-to business marketers, this small insight can pay big returns in a direct mail program.

Imagine for a minute that you have a distributed sales force of 5,000 independent reps; each wants a customized mailer for 200 customers. And each has Internet access. The solution is to establish a promotional extranet, where reps can come online to a password-protected Web site and customize their own direct mail programs. The customization database is built in real time, with each rep selecting the components of the mailer.

Reps then view prepress proofs through the Internet and a compiled printing file goes straight to a digital press or prepress.

From an article by Jeffrey Morris in Target Marketing

E-commerce Companies Find Direct Mail Essential for Internet Economy

A mailing study by Pitney Bowes, the postage meter company, reveals that 59% of all companies who market on the Internet increased their mail volume as a result of their e-commerce efforts. Direct mail is used by nearly 70% of survey respondents, and direct mail was cited also as the most effective tool for getting customers to go to a Web site.

Build Your Own Database

Direct marketing databases are what separate efficient and successful direct marketers from the lucky and less successful ones who try to rely on creative skills and instinct alone.

E-Mail Marketing as a Two-Way Street
Extend the value of existing relationships.

One of a business' most valuable assets is the customer file, the list of customer contacts with whom a relationship has been established. By extending these valuable contacts to the electronic channel, direct marketers can leverage e-mail to generate profitable relationships and increase returns through cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Thus, using e-mail as a two-way response mechanism, businesses can develop highly relevant and personalized outbound campaigns, and extend offers that are not economically feasible through other channels, such as fax and postal mail.

attributed to B-to-B Special Report

Customer Relationship Management

Direct marketers work hard to acquire customers which requires both monetary and human resource investment, observes Gerald Reisberg, vice president, Dun & Bradstreet. "Managing them is key to growth," he says.

Why is customer relationship management paramount? "It costs at least five times as much to acquire revenue from new customers than existing customers," says Reisberg.

One tool that can help direct marketers better manage customer relationships is computer telephony integration (CTI). Through the use of pop-up screens, this technology allows customer service representatives to:

• Use profiles of customer buying habits to make more relevant suggestions;
• View a customer's billing history to expedite questions and facilitate better resolutions; and
• Quickly identify merchandise in stock and delivery times.

According to Reisberg, the key to successful customer relationship management is empowering your associates to facilitate customer relationships. Remember, your customer service representatives are the front line of your business.

Empowering your reps will also allow you to turn a negative into a positive. You should "hope to encounter problems so you can turn problems into opportunity and create customer loyalty." You can ensure the loyalty of your customers by seeking out any area of dissatisfaction and remedying the situation, turning a dissatisfied customer into a satisfied customer.

attributed to Target Marketing

Measuring Campaign Effectiveness

The biggest issue in business-to-business is that the users you target often are not the people placing the orders. It's usually the purchasing agents who place the orders.

So how do you measure the effectiveness of your campaign? If you are marketing a high-tech product, one way is to track warranty registration cards and match them against your audience. Even this isn't foolproof because in a large company the product might first go to the IT department and the card may never reach the user.

Another way to measure effectiveness is to match by company or site. For instance, if you send five direct mail pieces to a business, and you receive an order from anyone at that same site or business you can infer that you get a 20% response rate. This is less precise than in the consumer world. You have to make some statistical assumptions.

A third option is to add a special character to your basic stock number to identify the promotion.

attributed to Target Marketing

Web Site "Don'ts"

Believe Information Technology Will Be Cheaper Next Year

New computers may cost less next summer, but it will never be less expensive to build an online presence than it is right now. Top Internet marketers and many university professors predict that brands are the key to online success because they help people sift through a glut of choices.

Have No Champion

The absence of an Internet zealot to lead the way is guaranteed to make your Web site mediocre. Without an in-house champion to research the newest and most exciting possibilities for your site, it will quickly dissolve and your once golden opportunity will quickly turn into a dead-zone.

attributed to Target Marketing

100 Tested Direct Marketing Ideas (updated monthly)

Phase I - General Approach

1. Direct marketing has to ask for an immediate action and then track, record, analyze and store the results of that action in a database for future retrieval and use.
2. General advertising is cerebral and refers to a future action. Direct marketing is behavioral and refers to a present action.
3. Most products with thin profit margins don't lend themselves to direct marketing (e.g. mass market packaged goods).
4. Look for products that can be enhanced, continued, upgraded, fragmented, or personalized.
5. Direct marketing adds a service dimension to a product.
6. To find out what your response rate must be, construct a break-even model (how many units must be spent to recover marketing costs, fully loaded costs, etc...)
7. Never embark on a direct marketing program without a written plan.
8. Direct marketing (database marketing) must have proper contacts within database, i.e. all specifiers and purchasers, for the most productive and effective response.

Phase II - Mailing Lists

1. Response lists generally work better than compiled lists.
2. Your own customer/prospect list will generally far outpull any other list.
3. Recency, frequency, and amount of purchase are the key components of a response list. Recency is the most important
4. Remails of the same package to the same list within three-four months normally suffer an approximate 25% degradation in response.
5. When evaluating mailing lists, find out what the level of continuation usage is (i.e. did the test work, and did the mailer return for more names?)
6. Mail small samplings of lists 1st class occasionally to monitor list maintenance and updating.

Phase III

1. Never test trivia: e.g. color of signature.
2. Only test offer, positioning, copy, timing, formats, graphics, lists, products, media mix.
3. Test only one variable at a time.
4. Use test cells large enough to be statistically extrapolatable: rule of thumb is you need a minimum of 50 responses. Better idea: use probability tables.
5. Always roll out sequentially: Rule of thumb is never increase a test cell more than five times.
6. Re-test. What didn't work last year might work this year
7. Continue at all times to try to beat your control.

Phase IV

1. Envelope mailings usually outperform self-mailers.
2. Self-mailers are often more cost-effective in business-to-business situations.
3. Computer personalization usually increases response.
4. Involvement devices-tokens, stamps, etc.-normally increase response. \
5. When the objective is to sell something, long copy usually outperforms short copy.
6. Folds should be used interruptively in direct mail brochures.
7. Copy acronym #1: AIDA-Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
8. Copy acronym #2: PPPP-Picture, Promise, Prove, Push
9. Copy acronym #3: SELWARB-Start Every Letter With A Reader Benefit.
10. Copy acronym #4: METHOD-Motivate, Elucidate, Tangibilize, Humanize, Over-Simplify, Direct

4 Reasons why eMarketing has become so popular as an advertising medium

Online advertising is a great medium for promoting products and services. You can leverage a large audience as well as align with the interests and content of a publication readers already have a relationship with and trust.

There are four primary reasons why eMarketing has become so popular as an advertising medium.

1. They are affordable
2. Trusted digital newsletters can lend credibility to your promotion
3. Promotes increased traffic to your website
4. Can provide lead generation for sales

With all of the concerns about spam and unsolicited email these days, publication's eNewsletters are an excellent way of using a familiar resource to deliver your message.

Want to Know the Elements for Successful Prospect Email Marketing?

Email is crucial when it comes to developing valuable prospect relationships. It’s direct, it lets you showcase brand and product messages, and it drives immediate calls to action. Focusing too much on graphics and not enough on substance; using long, tedious copy and amateur design; failing to understand how your customers receive, read, and respond to messages—these all quickly derail an email marketing campaign.

1) Graphic elements are critical
Changing your message content and format is encouraged but it’s also important to maintain a visual consistency. Make sure your message is concise and easy to read. Take advantage of different font sizes and text colors to separate headings from content. Focus your message on encouraging the recipient to click through the email and act. It’s important that the desired landing page is easy to navigate to without the risk of losing interest.

2) Content is crucial
Make your offers clear. What are you offering that is of value? Be sure to state your offer clearly, succinctly, and up front.   
* Ensure that the content is valuable. Rely on a short, punchy introductory statement or two, and then link to
   the full article content.
* Keep it short.
* Personalize it. 
* Use snappy subject lines. Shorter subject lines result in a 52% lift in open rates and a 69% lift in clickthrough
  rates.

3) Timing is everything
A message scheduled for the beginning of the workday may not be as effective as one sent later in the afternoon or over the weekend. Be aware of time zones.  Think about frequency. Prospects are more likely to unsubscribe if the onslaught of messages feel like a nuisance.

4) Users need control
Offer a choice of topics. If you are publishing different types of content, give prospects a choice to receive some types but not others.  Simplify your unsubscribe process. Make it easy with an unsubscribe link within your email.

5) Factor in mobile requirements such as Smartphones
It’s crucial that your message displays correctly on iPhones, Blackberry, and Android devices. Include a link to the online version because it will allow people to see the email in its intended form inside a browser as opposed to viewing it through an email client.