Target Marketing articles from March 1997

Target Marketing archives from March 1997

The secrets of a successful test. (tests of mailing lists)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... The first commandment of successful mail-order is "test," said the late-great Walter Weintz. These days, testing is a must for all direct response media Editor's Note: Walter Weintz was circulation director of Reader's Digest and inventor of...

Tweaking your control. (direct mail control testing used by the Center for Science in the Public Interest)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... TESTING ELEMENTS OF YOUR CONTROL HELPS IDENTIFY WHAT'S WORKING So you have a successful control? Great. But instead of resting on your creative laurels, now's the time to test. There are basically two methods to choose from: adaptive and...

Assuring list-test reliability. (direct mailing)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... IT'S ALL IN THE SET-UP - FROM HOW MANY NAMES YOU MAIL TO THE GOALS YOU ESTABLISH FOR THE TEST In order for a list test to be considered reliable, it has to yield results you can bank on. You need to be able to look at the data you get hack...

How to develop & test offers. (direct response advertising)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... DON'T EVER TAKE YOUR OFFER FOR GRANTED. IN FACT, HAVE THE NEXT ONE READY TO GO IN CASE YOUR CURRENT OFFER STARTS TO SLACK OFF Offers are one of the most misunderstood and often under utilized elements of direct response advertising. Why? Too...

A simple way to use RFM. (recency, frequency and monetary value in segmenting a database in direct mail advertising)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... TESTING AND TRACKING ARE REQUIRED TO SEE WHAT'S WORKING - AND WHAT'S NOT With all that has been written about RFM and all the service providers, lecturers and software firms that specialize in RFM, one has to ask, "Why doesn't everyone use...

Testing on the 'Net. (direct marketing using the Internet)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... TAKING YOUR BEST SHOT IN CYBERSPACE LIKE DIRECT MAIL - or for that matter any direct marketing medium - when you think you have a product to offer on a Web site, the key word still is test. One huge difference is that the World Wide Web is more...

Testing on the telephone. (market testing in telemarketing)(includes related article)(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... TELEMARKETING ALLOWS YOU THE FLEXIBILITY TO TEST AND MAKE CHANGES ON THE FLY. IF SOMETHING'S NOT WORKING, IT'S EASY TO STOP AND CHANGE IT What's great about the phone is you can tell in a few hours if something's bombing," says telemarketing...

Jazz up your direct mail.
March 1, 1997... 11 IDEAS FOR DRAWING INTEREST TO YOUR MAILINGS AND, HOPEFULLY, BOOSTING RESPONSE The public threshold for boredom is pretty low; give 'em the same thing more than once and you've lost their interest and their enthusiasm. The only time this...

Building a relationship with the b-to-b customer. (business-to-business)
March 1, 1997... FOLLOWING THESE DATABASE MARKETING PRINCIPLES WILL HELP YOU STAY ON TARGET It's dangerous to believe that technology can solve your database problems. Don't get me wrong; technology is great. But it's too easy to become intoxicated with the...

Giving consumers a choice. (opt-in and opt-out mailing lists in direct marketing)(includes related article)
March 1, 1997... DIRECT MARKETERS ARE ASKING CONSUMERS WHAT TYPES OF MAIL THEY WANT One response to consumer complaints over unwanted mail is the opt-in or opt-out service which allows consumers to receive less direct mail. An opt-out list will remove...

Cashing in on collectibles.
March 1, 1997... CREATE A DESIRE AND YOU CAN GENERATE A PROFIT Let's get to the great dirty secret of the American economy, namely that people still love to buy things. Things help make you feel better about yourself, improve your status (or perceived social...

Global selling on the Internet. (direct marketing)
March 1, 1997... PUTTING THE 'WORLD' INTO YOUR WEB SITE Your catalog made its long-awaited entrance in the world of cyberspace. You hired the best Web development team money could buy, and you're using the latest commerce technology to make your customers feel...

Predictive modeling for non-statisticians. (usage of predictive modeling in direct marketing)
March 1, 1997... PUTTING THE ODDS OF CATCHING MORE CUSTOMERS IN YOUR FAVOR The traditional definition of predictive modeling is described as predicting which customers (or prospects) will take a specific action by comparing a group of customers who have taken...