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| | June 29th, 2007 |
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| "The Difference" |
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| IN THIS ISSUE: |
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| A LETTER FROM MONICA C. SMITH |
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| Dear Colleagues, |
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| I want to thank you for the tremendous feedback from our last email newsletter. I look forward to reading your comments on our latest issue. |
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| We sincerely endeavor to provide real time actionable and forward-thinking content. |
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| In this issue, I would like to raise a concern which is vital to us all: Privacy, which in the upcoming election could become a hot topic and raise the specter of regulation of direct mail activity. We need to be sensitive to this possibility to make sure it does not blindside us. We must provide the necessary support, encouragement, and momentum to our industry association to stay on top of this issue. |
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| As an entrepreneur myself, I am keenly aware of the burden unexpected legislation and regulation can impose on an enterprise in this tough economy. We have developed a few tools we urge you to take advantage of which are designed to help find savings and manage marketing operations most cost effectively: |
| 1. | Add-A-Smith (Name) Calculator that helps you determine if adding names to carrier routes with 7, 8, or 9 names will save money and/or actually reduce costs. |
| 2. | Marketing Staff Calculator which helps you assess your marketing department needs and costs. |
| 3. | Print process operations review with printer to determine specific areas for cost savings in printing and/or postage expense. See article below. | |
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| We are providing an excerpt from a whitepaper we wrote based on Susan Pizzano's SRO presentation at ACCM, Navigating Overcharted Waters - To Co-op or not to Co-op. We also talk about the need to have extraordinary laser focus on the numbers of your business through search engine optimization—not only the "how to" but the dollars and sense of it. And, finally, we take a look at the changing technology environment, having fun exploring some of the new vocabulary of Web 2.0. |
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| From my team to yours we wish you, your family, and your team a safe and happy Summer. |
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| My Vest Best Always, |
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| M- |
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| PRIVACY AND MARKETING: WALKING THE TIGHTROPE |
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In today's increasingly complex and electronic landscape, we as direct marketers are caught in a sort of catch 22 - we want as much information as we can access and yet we must be very careful that we respect people's right to privacy and do not share data that people do not want shared. Our direct marketing community has experienced privacy legislation for the past 10 years concerning email, faxing and telemarketing. Direct mail is currently the only direct communication channel which is not subject to such laws. However, there are those among our elected officials who would like to change that and they appear to be gaining momentum. Read more.
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| NAVIGATING OVERCHARTED WATERS - TO CO-OP OR NOT TO CO-OP |
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| While co-ops have been around for almost 20 years, we are still looking for the magic keys to use them to best advantage. Marketsmith Executive Vice President Susan Pizzano provided insight and recommendations to demystify the process of working with co-ops, to make sure mailers gain the greatest benefit from taking co-op names in her presentation, Navigating Overcharted Waters - To Co-op or Not to Co-op, at the ACCM conference this Spring to rave reviews. |
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| Below is an excerpt from the white paper we have created from the presentation. |
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| Working hand in glove with your co-op account rep is critical to making sure you have the best service and that you generate optimal results. Here are six rules for interaction with your Account Rep at each co-op. These recommendations are focused on consumer co-op databases. Read more.
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| DON'T IGNORE ORGANIC SEARCH |
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| We recognize that perhaps hundreds of articles have been written on optimizing search results. However, what we have discovered is that until a company is ready to focus on that arena, the extent of the industry literature is irrelevant. And at the time a company IS ready to focus, the extent of the information available is overwhelming, and generally provided by a company that is trying to sell a service or product. Read more.
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| TEST WOUR WEB 2.0 IQ? |
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| Can you define the following terms? (Answers given at the end of the article) |
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| 1. | Wiki |
| | a. | Hawaiian for fast |
| | b. | A paddle used in cricket |
| | c. | A user-based form of website collaboration |
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| 2. | Mash-up |
| | a. | Web application integrating complementary elements from two or more sources |
| | b. | What happens when a shopping cart is overloaded |
| | c. | A category on the Food Network |
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| 3. | Vlog |
| | a. | Typo |
| | b. | A blog which contains video |
| | c. | Log of video on content on a website |
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| 4. | RIA |
| | a. | Retail Industry Association |
| | b. | A Korean car |
| | c. | Rich Internet Application |
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| 5. | RSS |
| | a. | Really Simple Syndication |
| | b. | Realtime security services |
| | c. | Rich, smart, and sassy |
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| 6. | Ajax |
| | a. | The foaming cleanser |
| | b. | Greek hero |
| | c. | Web application that uses an engine to process user requests in real time |
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| 7. | BitTorrent |
| | a. | A method of sharing movies over the Internet |
| | b. | Computer malfunction |
| | c. | Small rain storm |
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| Read more. |
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| PRINT AND POSTAGE PROCESS REVIEW SAVES MONEY |
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| Marketsmith has found opportunities to save our clients tens of thousands of dollars through modifications to their printing and postage operations. We consider a variety of options tailored specifically to our clients' business models, needs and objectives. Solutions are different for every client. This past week, we have held direct conversations with printers for two of our clients. For one client, we were able to lower printing and postage costs by $55,000, which was 12% of their total cost. For the second client, we identified $101,000 annual savings in postage costs alone, which was 5% of their expense.
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| We would be happy to work with your printer to determine what potential savings are available to you. We will perform this analysis on a contingency basis. Pay us just 5% of what we save you for the year. You do not have to accept or pay for any suggested change that you feel is inconsistent with your business model and objectives. |
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| Please call Susan Pizzano at 973.889.0006 to set up a consultation. |
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