August 20, 2007
CASE STUDIES
#1. Email vs Postal Mail Test: How One Organization Lifted ROI 30%
SUMMARY: Not every fundraiser uses email (alone or as part of
their marketing mix), but it's a tactic worth testing --
especially with rising printing and mailing costs, not to
mention lagging response rates.
See how one organization pitted a series of emails against their
usual direct mail package and tripled the number of donors and
walkers for their annual fundraiser. Using email, they signed
up three times as many participants and increased ROI 30%.
Click to continue
(Open access until August 22nd)
#2. How to Turn a Trade Show Speech Into a Podcast That Becomes a Lead Machine
SUMMARY: Don't have enough marketing material at the beginning
of your lead cycle? A software company servicing the banking
industry turned a client's speech at the industry's big trade
show into an educational podcast.
As a result, their cost per lead dropped 71%. They also closed
millions of dollars in new business, and the podcast is still
generating leads.
Click to continue
(Open access until August 22nd)
#3. How Reader's Digest Mined Purchasing Data to Personalize Catalogs & Lift Conversions 74%
SUMMARY: Digital print capabilities have made it possible so you
don't have to send out the exact same postal mail piece to each
of your prospects. In fact, you can arrange products based on
past purchase behavior and other data or even change the size
of your mailer.
Reader's Digest Canada has results from a new mailing where
they tested four catalogs with varying levels of customization.
Conversions increased as much as 74%.
Click to continue
(Open access until August 21st)
#4. How Sharing Your Content With Partner Sites Revs Online Subscription Growth
SUMMARY: If you're dealing with a fragmented market that makes
attracting subscribers difficult, you can broaden your reach
and go where the traffic is.
An online directory for creative professionals targeted media
partners with similar users and built databases on their Web
sites to highlight subscribers' work. The plan is paying off:
site searches have increased 37%, and subscriptions are up 40%.
Plus, more users are converting into paid members.
Click to continue
(Open access until August 23rd)
Research
#5. New Research: 5 Steps to Better Marketing Operations
SUMMARY: With marketers required to operate more like a business
unit, more are turning to a formal strategy to manage the
function. We got an exclusive peek at new research and tactics
on what to expect when creating a Marketing Operations approach.
Includes marketing's biggest pain points and developing systems
to address them. Plus, how to conduct regular MO reviews that
will improve your marketing performance.
Click to continue
(Open access until August 21st)
HOW-TO & INTERVIEWS
#6. PR Interview: How to Reach IT Project Managers
SUMMARY: Since many project managers work alone, it's particularly
vital to be able to discuss strategies and tools with experts and
colleagues. A leading information source for IT project managers,
gantthead.com offers the largest community of industry
professionals, while ProjectsAtWork is the No. 1 online magazine
for project managers. We interviewed editors from both to let
you know how to pitch them.
Click to continue
(Open access until Aug. 24th)
#7. Fame: Enter Adweek Magazines' Buzz Awards; Speakers Sought for Houston Conference
Here's a quick listing of the latest marketing, ad and PR
awards you can nominate yourself for.
Click to continue
(Open access = permanent)
INTERACT
#8. SherpaBlog: New Direct Postal Mail Results Indicate Re-Mailing Works Even Better in the Internet Age
I was listening to a presentation by Rab Govil of Naehas
yesterday, when one stat really made me sit up. His agency
tested mailing follow-up campaigns for two different B-to-B
clients. In both cases, they sent the same offer to the same list
twice in a row, waiting roughly three-four weeks between mailings.
Nothing startling there except for the fact that both campaigns
were sent via postal mail.
Now, we all know postal direct mail still works, and, in fact,
can work exceptionally well in these days of email overload. But
it's so much more expensive per piece that many marketers I know
have cut back on follow-up mailings, which were routine 10-15
years ago. Instead, they may invest in multiple media channels,
such as search and email.
Here's what startled me: in both cases, the results for Rab's
second postal mailing were far closer than I expected to the
response rates for the original wave. For example, one original
wave got a 1.90% response rate with the follow-up achieving 1.46%.
Click to continue
(Open access = permanent)
#9. Help Wanteds: 68 New Jobs & 2 Seekers Available
The past week's new posts including Forbes, Scholastic and
Charles Schwab. Plus, learn how to post your own opening.
Post your own opening by going here ...
(Complimentary service).
#10. New Book Offer: 'Value Acceleration: The Secrets to Building an Unbeatable Competitive Advantage'
Those of you who have spent any time or money on marketing that
failed will appreciate this insightful hardcover. Mitchell
Gooze and Ralph Mroz put together a concise guide that includes
real examples and explains how to manage marketing and merge it
with sales activity. In it, the authors emphasize the need to
adopt tools that offer competitive advantage.
Taking risks is the way to attain 'Value Acceleration,' or the
process by which a company's value increases at a faster rate
than its competition's. Gooze and Mroz place so much weight on
marketing since it is the only remaining function that is not
outsourced. They see marketing as a process that needs to be
integrated with other aspects of a company by applying management
techniques and thus improving its chances of surpassing the
competition.
Filled with charts and graphs, the book stresses the difference
between marketing and promotion, the latter being the back end of
the former. They believe the front end of marketing includes
knowledge of market and customer, resource allocation process and
a link to product development.
Gooze and Mroz donated five copies for Sherpa to give away.
Toss your name into the hat here to try for one ...
(Ends 08/27/07)
+ Last week's book offer: These five lucky marketers will get
their own copies of 'CoolHunting: Chasing Down the Next Big
Thing' by Peter Gloor and Scott Cooper:
- Cindy Collem, US Datamining, Dallas, TX
- Thomas Ferro, Bank of America Card Services, Wilmington, DE
- Amy Sullivan, bebe Stores, Brisbane, CA
- Tanya Tseplovitch, Mirovaya Technika, Saratov, RUSSIA
- David West, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, FL
P.S. Did a friend send you this? Go Here for your own copy - it's award-winning, useful, and complimentary.
P.P.S. Got questions, comments, or ideas for editorial?
Email Editorial Director Tad Clarke at TadC(at)marketingsherpa(dot)com
or call Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 -- thanks!
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