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Three-letter abbreviations are the curse of business communication. Everyone in marketing is familiar with ROI (return on investment) and can discuss KPIs (key performance indicators). But a relative newcomer to the buzzword circuit, at least for direct marketers, is NPS or Net Promoter Score.

In...

Doesn’t it seem like travel marketing and mobile ought to be a perfect fit?

Last week, I met with one of the leading travel conference organizers looking to firm up their speaking roster for this year’s event. We talked for a few moments about what’s most on the minds of the travel marketers he serves, and it’s clear: everyone wants mobile this year.

Hearing...

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings needs to tell all his detractors and the fair-weather fans bailing on his stock to read a book.  More specifically, they should check out a paper by Jakob Nielsen in which he postulates the exponential growth of internet bandwidth every two years.  Nielsen's Law claims the speed with which we can download Internet content (let’s just say a movie...

I confess, I love Brand.   I really do.

Blasphemy, you say, coming from a Direct Marketer?  Not at all!  Let me tell you why.

First I should clarify:  When I say “I love Brand” I don’t have a collection of shot glasses I won on eBay with my favorite teams’ logos on them; I don’t secretly flip through InStyle to see what J-Lo or...

I had a great time talking with the people who attended my session at the DMA!

I always find I learn more by preparing to speak and then discussing the topic than I ever would by attending even the best possible sessions. So I’m very grateful I had the opportunity to present.

Since I was talking about multi-channel marketing, it’s not surprising that I got a couple of questions...

Who doesn’t love “what works” articles, books and conference sessions? The yes or no. Do this. Don’t do that. It appeals to our need to draw a line somewhere.

That was the DMA 2011 session with Jay Schwedelson on email. I took a ton of notes.

Here are some highlights:

Pre-headers: Do they matter? Emails that utilize the first line of a preheader for...

Let me confess from the beginning . . . I’m not a power Twitter user. So Biz Stone’s presentation at DMA 2011 was pretty interesting to me.

Here are a few ideas I got:

Twitter will become more prevalent for evaluating products and services. I never would have thought of it that way. I think of it as more of a broadcast medium. But, it’s absolutely...

I previously wrote a blog post in which I was skeptical of Facebook’s ability to acquire new customers.  Rather, I thought Facebook was a pure retention and loyalty play.

Based on last night’s DMA 2011 Keynote, Facebook is fine tuning its pitch to demonstrate...

A July survey of brand marketing executives showed that mobile marketing still doesn’t get much in the way of respect. Yes, marketers have been spending more on mobile in the past couple of years – with...

One thing direct marketers learned a long time ago is that our target audience is always limited. Many people are just not direct-marketing responsive.

This was true for direct mail – so we would always look for mailing lists of people who had responded to direct mail in the past. When Hacker Group moved into digital marketing (back in the 20th century), we had no expectation that online...

I recently posted about the importance of correctly developing your target audience to get the most out of your campaign.

Here’s an example of what I mean by that.

A client of ours was particularly interested in developing a marketing campaign...

The era of agency specialization has reached its inevitable conclusion. I think it’s time for the pendulum to swing back.

For the past decade or so, CMOs have had to call on new types of agencies to help them with new types of media, new technologies and new ways of thinking about marketing and advertising. And it was understandable. If your agency didn’t have the technical chops...

In the overall marketing landscape, no doubt mobile marketing is one of the fastest-evolving disciplines. With so many new trends coming to the fore, it’s easy for marketers to be lured by the latest hype or cool app launch. Here’s a real-deal technology to get in front of now: Augmented Reality (AR).

If you’ve watched an NFL game on television in the last two years, you’ve...

I discussed reasons why Facebook is not necessarily the right response channel for direct marketers looking for new customers in an earlier post.

But to entirely dismiss Facebook’s power to influence opinion and behavior would be naive. I believe the following implementations of Facebook...

Recently, a client asked our opinion about trying to send prospects to a branded Facebook page as one of our calls to action. My response was, “With the right incentive, I’m confident we could use offline marketing to drive traffic to Facebook. However, I question whether this effort would translate to incremental sales.”

Here are a few reasons why I answered the way I did...

How long have we been beating the drum that demographics are a poor indicator of purchase behavior?

Finally. FINALLY, a TV media researcher has come out with a similar finding. Ad Age reports that the Chief Research Officer at CBS Corp. says that using demographics to target is “essentially...

I was right.

Two years ago, I said in Adweek that a Digital Agency of the Year was a bad idea.

Now I read in Ad Age that the Cannes...

After three years of looking at my mobile device and wistfully hoping it would magically send me a well-timed offer, it has finally happened.

I’m a soccer mom (and baseball, basketball, speed skating, you name it). Bottom line, we’re busy. I work, and aside from finding time to make fabulous pies, I hate to cook. I’ve longed for some savvy restaurant to figure out how to...

New technology is loaded with pitfalls. All of us ought to know that by now.

One of our competitors began calling themselves mobile marketing experts. They sent out a news release announcing a new website dedicated to “mobile marketing best practices and thought leadership.”

I went to check it out. The site itself is not optimized for mobile viewing.

I’m...

I wanted to share this article from MobileMarketer on "Six mistakes to avoid in mobile advertising this holiday season."

This list could be considered a good reminder, but only #6 is really specific to mobile.  Although mobile is new its fundamentals should not stray from good direct marketing basics and...

We recently had presentations from two very significant media organizations. I’m pretty sure that just about everyone in America has heard of both these companies.

It surprised me that, in both of these presentations, they were not able to answer questions about ROI of their solutions because A.) they were so new  B.) they don’t  track through to sale and C.) at the...

I’m currently championing mobile marketing with our clients – and I have several good reasons for doing so, even though early results may not immediately justify my enthusiasm.

Did I say that? I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone to ignore results before!

However, in this case I believe our short-term thinking is likely to get in the way of our long-term...

If someone in this blog says “measurement isn’t everything,” you may be expecting the next phrase to be “it’s the only thing.” Or maybe that’s just me. I grew up in Wisconsin, where Vince Lombardi’s famous quotes were tattooed inside our eyelids.

I mean it. Measuring...

Over the past year, I’ve spoken with marketing leaders from a number of companies who are grappling with just what yardstick to use when measuring their return on marketing dollars spent. In these economically challenging times, there’s an ever-greater focus on accountability. What to measure — and how...

Here’s a great way to NOT prove the effectiveness of advertising: Ask people if they think it works on them.

An Adweek Media/Harris poll discovered that very few people admit that advertising sways them.

You could have knocked me down with a feather.  (That...

” that gave me pause.  Business Implications of Facebook LiteI stumbled across an article called “

I’ve...

Read a helpful Marketing Sherpa article on mobile marketing that interviews Jeff Hasen, CMO of HipCricket.

My favorite bit is this:

Strategy...

Just read another article about the poor, beleaguered banner ad in Mediaweek.

The Online Publisher’s Association and comScore want us to know that banners are about more than clicks. This follows efforts by the IAB and Microsoft to do the same thing.

True,...

Isn’t it odd that, whenever you have firsthand knowledge about something you read in a newspaper, you realize the article is full of inaccuracies? I say this as someone whose college major was Journalism (about 500 years ago) – so I sympathize with news writers. It’s never easy to pull together every stakeholder’s perspective and have a...

If you’re getting started in new and emerging media, I’m going to recommend checking out Brian Gilbert’s new audio conference on April 22, sponsored by The Competitive Advantage.

Brian is our VP of Integrated Marketing, as well as a contributing writer for The Competitive...

It’s easy to use this forum to poke at what others do. Making fun is fun -- and I indulge that guilty pleasure here often enough.

So, please note: I just read a recent interview that made me want to stand up and cheer. And I am telling you about it here, hoping this kinder, gentler post will provide contrast to those meaner, snarkier ones I usually write.

Beverly Thorne, SVP...

I wrote a guest column published in Adweek’s online edition yesterday that’s gotten some interesting reaction.

I suggest that awarding a "Digital Agency of the Year" is an anachronism, because we’re now at the point where every marketer...

I was talking to a friend yesterday about her small business and found out she knew absolutely nothing about search-engine marketing. She’d never heard of Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter.

As I thought about it, I realized that SEM can be overlooked by some of the bigger players, too.

So here’s a reminder. Put it on your to-do list. Whenever you run a direct marketing...

If the new theme of 2009 is "doing more with less," as Carolyn said yesterday, a great place to look is your own database.

Customer acquisition is even more expensive in a downturn, so taking good care of the customers you have should be a very high priority. VERY high. You know your competitors will...

Traditional direct marketers look at costs with an exacting eye.  All costs are included.  This is the only honest way to approach measurement, budgeting and goal-setting.  And most importantly, it’s the only way you can effectively optimize your spend across channels to maximize your return.

I started talking about the Good and Green Conference in yesterday’s post. You might wonder why I went.

Hacker Group launched an internal green initiative a year and a half ago and we started the Green Marketing Coalition this past spring. The Coalition looks at marketing...

Back on June 16, I posted a piece about better targeting for cable television advertisers in response to a Wall Street Journal article. The article’s writer was concerned about tighter targets meaning less advertising dollars going to cable. I thought this was short-sighted. If I may quote myself here:

I see this as an opportunity...

Economic uncertainty can bring opportunities for brave souls.  Many business advisors are telling marketers that -- while cost-cutting is important -- cutting marketing budgets too much can be deadly. Considering the marketing mix becomes crucial when there’s little room for error.

Here’s data from an

The continuing off-target discussion about behavioral targeting is a real frustration to me. 

In MediaPost’s Behavioral Insider, there’s an interview with comScore’s vice president of product management, Steve Dennen.  He’s touting a new product that purports to help advertisers better...

It’s not funny . . . but I had to laugh.  According to a study by Aegis Group’s Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) reported in Ad Age, nine in 10 financial executives don’t use return-on-investment metrics to set marketing budgets.  Why?  They don’t believe the numbers.

That’s...

I just read a blog post by someone more curmudgeonly than I am.  The post is even called ''A Cranky, Skeptical Loudmouth Looks at Social Media Marketing.''  Delightful!  Wish I'd thought of that title.

I'm so cranky, I found something in this post I had to disagree with (although much of it made a...

Why are online media plans based on gross impressions?

It continually frustrates me that impressions is considered a key metric by many marketers.

For one thing, you have no idea if you've made any kind of impression.  Back in the day before VCRs and DVRs and TiVo, when you ran a TV commercial, you could pretty much count on having some impact on the subconscious.  Unless,...

Email may not be as sexy as advertising on Facebook or launching a mobile marketing campaign but, for most of us, it's the bread and butter of online marketing.

Email is also more complicated than it looks.  Sure, my Mom can send an email to me and my sister -- but that doesn't make what e-marketers do any less complex.  When I was seven years old, I could write a thank-you note...

Marketing Charts says "integrated marketing communications" is the number one priority of senior marketers. They surveyed 157 members of the Association of National Advertisers.

That's nice. But it looks like it may be putting the cart before the horse....

We've seen it in the past. Direct marketing spending holds up, even when the economy tanks. When you have the numbers to back you up, it's easier to justify spending on direct -- even when you can see the cost-per-sale go up.

Six or eight months ago, before the word "recession" had been spoken aloud, the outlook for online marketing was hot. Now it's gotten even hotter.

Just so...

We probably don't need a survey to tell us that. After all, except for financial planning services and long-term care insurance, little in this life seems specifically aimed at people over 55. (I exaggerate. But only a little.)

What...

It seems like everything is being offered free -- and I'm starting to get worried.

It started in 1984 with "information wants to be free" -- which, according to Wikipedia, was said by a computer hacker first. The guy actually said that the right information in the right context is extremely valuable, but our means of disseminating information is getting cheaper. Regardless of what...

I'm all for jumping on big, dumb ad agencies. You've seen me do it right here in this blog.

But who really does get social media as an advertising channel? Even the social media owners trip up -- as Facebook did when they decided to publish details about what you buy online to your friends....

This is from last Monday's (February 11) Wall Street Journal:

A new media research company, TRA — for "True ROI Accountability for Media" — is taking another crack at the problem. It merges data from people's cable set-top boxes with consumer-purchase...

In Gmail, they just set up a Spam folder — no refinements. It's spam or it's in...

One evolving theory: that advertisers should pay more attention to people's viewing patterns than to their demographics, such as whether they are a twentysomething or a male. Fans of the NBC Universal show "Heroes," for example, whether...

Third on the list was conversion rate and measuring ROI was fourth in importance on the list. Revenue was sixth out of eight options....

The online revolution has brought upon us precise ways of measurement from the early buying cycle of prospects to the...

Direct marketers have been talking about behavioral targeting probably before most of us were born. What we meant was buying behavior. If someone had responded to a direct marketing offer — in just about any way, shape...

I check my home mailbox less than once a week. Sometimes I just go get my Netflix movies and leave the rest of the mail behind. I won't go into the reasons why, let's just assume the voices tell me to do it that way, and move on.

So I suck at getting my mail. But I check my email...

Hacker is not a common name....

That got me thinking about the creative work for campaigns across multiple media. I don’t think it’s necessarily a cut-and-paste idea for your creative team. The creative concept and tone ought to be different with non-addressable media than they are with mail – mainly because you’re talking one-to-many, rather...

Direct response TV may not be right for your product. However, if you’re marketing a consumer product at a decent price point, you can’t dismiss TV out of hand. Is there a niche audience that particular programs or channels target that’s...