Target Marketing articles from February 2001

Target Marketing archives from February 2001

Too Much of a Good Thing.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Special offers and incentives may help bring in new buyers but could make it difficult to convert to the all-important second sale EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT SWEEPS-SOLD BUYERS tend to buy again only when there's another contest. And magazine...

Kern Direct Inc.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... To start a fire, four things are needed: heat, fuel, oxygen and a spark. Check out "100 Plus S.U.R.E.-Fire Ideas To Ignite Your Marketing Results" for 109 rules, tips and ideas for building business relationships, boosting response and setting...

BetaSphere Inc.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Learn how to make your next product launch the talk of the town from a company that knows almost as much about feedback as Jimi Hendrix. In the white paper, "The Five Secrets of a Successful Launch," customer feedback solution provider...

Avidsurfer.(Review)
February 1, 2001... Turn "eyeballs" into customers. Pick up a copy of "A Case for Conversion Ratios." Contained within this 34-page report are the secrets of an anonymous dot-commer doing more than $500 million a year. Kim Wingate of Avidsurfer, goes step-by-step...

Smartseries.com.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... If you need to set up a content-management system, check out Smartseries.com. It offers a royalty-free software download that can handle the hefty task of managing the authoring, maintaining and publishing of most types, text and image files in...

Peoplestreet.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... If you change jobs about as often as you change socks, you either have very smelly feet or there are a lot of people who have trouble trying to find you. A service recently offered by Peoplestreet allows users to create instantly updateable,...

And stuff to buy.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In "High Performance Interactive Marketing," author Christopher Ryan helps delineate the blurred lines between traditional direct marketing and some of the newer forms of interactive marketing. The technologies are here to stay, but they won't...

DIRECT MARKETING UNIVERSITY: The Big Tease.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... To be successful, the headline on an outer envelope, Web banner or print ad must be arresting enough to grab the reader's attention. Because it's the first place where a reader is either saved or lost, teaser testing can improve response by...

'Twas the Night Before Christmas.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Staying up late this past holiday season were the folks at Ashford, according to WhenU.com research. An Internet pure-play accessories retailer based in Houston, Ashford offered free, next-day delivery until 2 p.m. CST on Dec. 24. To assuage...

Catalog Trends.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Change is inevitable, and catalogers are no exception. The bean counters at Abacus recently released the "Consumer Catalog Buying Trend Report" comparing catalog-shopping habits from May 1998 to May 1999 to those from May 1999 to May 2000: ...

Prescription for CVS.com.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... "Because CVS.com was part of a large retailer, unlike the pure-plays, they were under pressure right from the start to get things measured," says Mark Smith, president of Quadstone, the software company that provided a database marketing...

Optimize Your Data for a CRM Program.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Superior customer care can be a powerful revenue-generator, not a cost-constraint. It will drive loyalty among your customer base, improve customer acquisition rates, and provide an avenue for cross-selling and upselling opportunities. ...

Color Clues.(Zimmermann Printing Co.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... What's the difference between CMYK and PMS spot color printing? Knowing the answer can save you grief and dollars when sending your campaign off to the printer. Zimmermann Printing Co. offers some words to the wise about pre-press. Keep them in...

Left to Your Own Devices.(Horah Group)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Your mailing isn't going to draw much response without an order form and reply device. In "Direct Mail for Dummies," Dick Goldsmith of the Horah Group, New York, offers some advice on keeping costs down when designing these two crucial elements...

The Cost of the Paper It's Printed on.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... While postage may take the center stage, the rising cost of paper is causing increasing concern among printers. A Spring 2000 survey by TrendWatch found that 18 percent of printers listed paper pricing as their biggest business challenge, up...

Getting Engaged.(e-mail)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Personalized e-mails offer terrific opportunities for marketers to get closer than ever to really connecting with their customers, says Hans Peter Brondmo, author of "The Eng@ged Customer. "Just like building a relationship with someone, it...

One-to-one Definitions.(Backwire.com)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Backwire, a publisher of customized email newsletters, received a pretty hefty holiday bonus in December: try a seven-figure software-licensing deal with Web advertising giant, Doubleclick. The draw: Backwire's one-to-one customization...

How to Keep Visitors at Your Site.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... A good hook will get traffic to your site... once. Here's how to keep consumers at your site and keep them coming back for more. * Don't bring traffic to your site until it is perfect. * Whatever your site does, do it better than...

Boeing Offers Data at Light Speed.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... How's this for a challenge? You sell products to business customers all over the world. Those customers often need up-to-the-minute maintenance manuals and other crucial information immediately or their own customers get grounded... literally....

Optimize Customer Relationships.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Building enduring customer relationships is a critical marketing challenge faced by businesses today. Fostering these profitable relationships requires the right combination of marketing and business objectives, technology infrastructure and...

Harte-Hanks.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... * To improve the quality and productivity of customer communication via the telephone, Harte-Hanks, San Antonio, TX, now offers to its marketing clients a Web-enabled software program called PerformanceLink that enables businesses to monitor...

PeopleSoft.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... * PeopleSoft's new CRM Analytics is a pure Internet suite of applications that enables businesses to measure the effectiveness of sales, marketing and customer support activities. The suite features modules such as Sales Activity Insight,...

PreVision Marketing.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... * Campaign Optimizer, a new application for marketing campaign management, combines consumer marketing intelligence, key financial metrics and advanced analytic methods. Developed by PreVision Marketing, Lincoln, MA, the solution is available...

Direct Marketing in the Land of Oz.(Australia)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Australia is getting some well-deserved attention from the United States, and not just because it's the location of Survivor II. With an English-speaking population approaching 20 million, Australia is an attractive market for U.S. direct...

Asian CRM Comes Full Circle.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... To build complete and accurate profiles of your customers, you must be able to fully integrate all touchpoints, regardless of the medium used. Achieving media integration while maintaining the integrity and accuracy of your data has proved...

REFORM NEEDED.(Postal Service)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... It's time direct mailers stand up and make postal reform happen AS AN INDUSTRY, we pride ourselves on our ability to tailor and target our direct marketing messages to ensure maximum and positive response. Why then do we shy away from...

What Really Works in E-MAIL MARKETING.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... E-MAIL MARKETING IS IN. Everybody's doing it, which raises the question: Is everyone doing it well? Some simple principles can be applied to most e-mail marketing efforts to improve success rates. Here are some of the principles we've learned...

PRESENTATION SKILLS FOR CREATIVES...AND EVERYONE ELSE.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... I'M NOT VERY POPULAR lately. No one wants to talk to me. I've been calling friends and business colleagues to discuss speaking opportunities at Direct Marketing Days in New York. They know why I'm calling, and they don't call back. The...

Cut Costs By IMPROVING WORKFLOW.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Part One of a Two-Part Series AS A KEY DRIVER of success, every cataloger should look for opportunities to cut costs. Unfortunately, many catalogers only look to their vendors to accomplish this, instead of focusing on their own internal...

10 TIPS TO AVOID DIRECT-RESPONSE DISASTERS.(how to improve direct-response marketing strategies)(Column)
February 1, 2001... 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 10 tips that can help. 1. Keep program objectives simple and focused....

PUMP SOME LIFE INTO Your Renewal Campaigns.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... EDITOR'S NOTE: Welcome to a new column in Target Marketing that covers direct mail in all its facets--formats, offers, response-boosting tricks, design, copy and more. Each column will feature elements from select direct mail packages, giving...

PREDICTING A NEED.(Centex Home Equity Corp. marketing strategies)
February 1, 2001... CENTEX HOME EQUITY USES DATABASE MARKETING TO DETERMINE THE BEST PROSPECTS FOR ITS PRODUCTS HOW DOES A PROVIDER of second mortgages and home equity loans find the right prospects for its products--people who are in need of ready cash but...

The Economics of Online Banking.(how financial institutions can use online services to profile their customers)
February 1, 2001... IN THE SIX YEARS or so since the Internet went mainstream, it has rocked even the most staid financial institutions right down to their marble floors. Prior to the Web, competition in the financial services arena was largely regional, with...

Credit Card Mailers Try to Break the Cycle.(direct mail strategies to get envelopes noticed and opened)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... A RECENT REPORT on credit card marketing from Mail Monitor, a tracking service offered by Tarrytown, NY, research firm BAIGlobal, shows that card marketers sent 992 million direct mail acquisition packages in the second quarter of 2000. In...

"Hey, I Was Wondering".(frequently asked questions about direct marketing)
February 1, 2001... ANSWERS TO SOME OF DIRECT MARKETING'S MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS IF YOU'RE NEW to direct marketing, or you answer many queries from clients and colleagues about direct marketing, the following answers to some frequently asked...

Printing PERSONALIZED Pieces.(techniques for making direct mail personalized to each customer)
February 1, 2001... TODAY'S PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES FOR DIRECT MAIL CAN HELP YOU TARGET A MARKET OF ONE IT'S NO SECRET that personalizing direct mail pieces can generate higher response rates. But merely splashing recipients' names throughout a cover letter may...

CALLING UNCLE SAM!(tips on how to attract the government as a customer)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... HOW TO DRIVE FEDERAL BUYERS TO YOUR WEB SITE IF YOU SEEK a customer who buys just about every type of product and service imaginable, look no further than Uncle Sam. Ignore the horror stories you may have heard about arcane processes...

The Long and SHORT of Copywriting.(tips on what length of copy is appropriate)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... POP QUIZ: WHICH LENGTH IS BETTER? SALES LETTERS COME in many lengths, ranging from one page to several. Conventional copywriting wisdom holds that long copy most often will outperform short. The maxim is, "The more you tell, the more...

PICKING UP THE PIECES.(Bits and Pieces' marketing ups and downs in the United Kingdom)
February 1, 2001... A EUROPEAN ADVENTURE TEACHES A U.S. CATALOGER A FEW VALUABLE LESSONS MOST ADVENTURES have good and bad aspects. While we generally prefer to remember only the good, we can learn some valuable lessons from the mistakes. Unfortunately, when...

BACK TO BASICS.(preventing errors in international data entry)
February 1, 2001... 10 KEY STEPS FOR MAINTAINING INTERNATIONAL DATA INTEGRITY WHAT HAPPENS to data at the entry point is critical. The way data is handled here has an impact on every later interaction with the customer or prospect. In "Deciphering Global...

50+ Web surfers.(Media Matrix reports fastest growing demographic for online music sales is over fifty)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Web surfers age 50 or older are the fastest-growing demographic for online music sales, according to a recent Media Metrix study. Online marketers should take notice of this growing number of Web-savvy seniors. Trendiness won't work for a...

Service on the Block.(Media Matrix Co. study shows service more important than price to online customers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Service, not price, was predicted to be the definitive driver for online sales this holiday season. No one would hanker too much on price as long as the products were delivered on time. But, consumers may be more price-sensitive than online...

Multi-channel With the Push of a Button.(Xchange Inc., ACP Interactive partner in new mobile phone marketing technology)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... One of the more anticipated features of advertising via mobile phones is the fact that voice and e-messaging can be synchronized. If you're interested in an offer or have more questions, simply push a button, and you can be speaking to a real...

The Politics of Privacy.(presidential candidates' web sites' privacy policies)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The candidates for November's election may have been speaking to the issue of privacy, but just how good were they at practicing what they preached? Following is a report from the now-defunct privacy-solutions provider Enonymous Corp. ...

Niche Web Marketing.(Chinese and Chinese-Americans, Chinese-Canadians)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Chinese-Americans are 17 percent more likely to own a computer than Caucasians, and 32 percent more likely to perform financial transactions online, according to Forrester Research. Companies like E*Trade have begun to target Asian populations...

THE DOUBLE SHIPMENT.(MacWarehouse and Amazon.com)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... I placed an order. The confirmation did not go through--it misread the credit card or something. So I put in another credit card number. The result: double shipment. This happened twice, once with MacWarehouse and once with Amazon.com. In...

Beyond the One-to-One Future.(marketing methods)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... RE-LEARNING THE BASICS OF MARKETING In 1993, before Web marketing even existed, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers published the most important book on the subject of marketing to an audience of one: "The One To One Future." The authors...

Raise Dollars Online.(non-profit organizations raise money online)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... TWO NON-PROFITS SHARE THEIR SECRETS FOR WEB SUCCESS ONLINE FUND-RAISING EFFORTS bring in less than 2 percent of all money earned by non-profits, according to Mal Warwick, president of Mal Warwick & Associates and co-editor of the book...

The Art & Science of "VERSONALIZING".(personalizing direct marketing)
February 1, 2001... TURN DATABASE BLIPS AND SEGMENTS BACK INTO REAL PEOPLE "I develop as clear a profile of my prospect as the available research offers and then try to match it up with someone I know and put him 'in a chair' across from me. Then I write to...

Human Resource Managers.(reaching Human Resource Managers about informational issues)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Which offers and media to use to reach these hard-to-reach mediators HUMAN RESOURCE (HR) managers are responsive to many different types of product offers. But it may take a little creativity to reach them. The typical HR manager is...

Correction.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2001... Jan. 2001 Market Focus--the listing for Gorsuch Ltd. catalog should have read: 41,633 12-month mail order buyers. Price: $100/M. Call: Mokrynski & Associates, (201) 488-5656. Target Marketing regrets the error.

WANTED: A CENTRALIZED RESOURCE.(direct marketing web sites)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... SOME MIGHT SAY direct marketing is in a conundrum and that Internet marketing may erode the direct mail industry and the businesses of list brokers and list managers. There's no denying the Internet has and will continue to have an impact...

Famous last words.(mail order frustrations)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 1, 2001... Order Killers I ENTERED THE BUSINESS WORLD in 1960 after my discharge from the army. One of the first rules I learned: "Make it as easy as possible to order." --Elsworth Howell Following are my notes from a frustrating day trying...