PHILADELPHIA DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
FALL 2012
direct views
11 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Take Less Time 7 Tips to Generate Leads Online with Pinterest
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
The Cool and the Old School Geff Rapp, Group G Direct, Inc.
I
t’s common to hear debate in our industry about what the future holds for direct marketing.
There’s a camp that is convinced interactive marketing channels will essentially replace traditional direct mail in the very near future. Some may argue it has already happened. At the risk of sounding overly defensive for the “old school” camp, the reality is direct mail isn’t going away anytime soon. And that’s a good thing. Direct mail brings unique aspects to the marketing mix that simply can’t be accomplished in the same way by electronic channels. The tactile and physical nature of direct mail is something that can still be very compelling when done well. Competition is good … integration is better Those of you who make your living exclusively leveraging the newer direct marketing channels — online, email, social, mobile (and cool stuff that is being invented as you read this) — please stop cringing and humor me for a moment more. I realize that to some extent we all compete for pieces of finite marketing budgets. The more marketing dollars that are allocated to channels we don’t manage, create or sell leaves less for those we do. So it can create inherent competition among agencies, channel providers and even within an organization’s own marketing department between “online” and “offline” factions. Normally competition is healthy. Here, however, it can be counterproductive. There is no “I” in team, but there is an “I” in Integration.
The rule: multiple channels outpull The most successful direct marketing programs leverage the integration of multiple channels. Holistic strategies combine online, social, SEO, banners, emails, mobile messaging with direct mail. Each effort builds off the other. People react and respond to each of these communication types differently and the combined effect of a well-designed multi-channel approach almost always outpulls a single-channel approach. It is no coincidence that this year’s Benny Award Best of Show winner was a multi-media campaign with well-integrated mail and web aspects. This award wasn’t given just because the campaign looked pretty or cool (which it did by the way), it was given because it performed. If you are already practicing integrated marketing, you know the score. If you aren’t, the good news is that the PDMA has an incredibly diverse membership that encompasses virtually every aspect of direct marketing. You don’t have to look far to find someone to “integrate with.”
Geff Rapp Group G Direct geff@groupgdirect.com
Table of Contents President’s Message................................................................... 2 The Future of Direct Mail........................................................... 3
PDMA Calendar At A Glance November 14, 2012 “Philly DM’s Founding Fathers” December 6, 2012 Hope for the Holidays Celebration: Wine Tasting and Fundraiser January 16, 2013 “New Year, New You! What Every Marketer Needs to Know about Personal Branding For registration information visit the PDMA Web site at
www.the-pdma.org.
2013 Outlook: Cloudy with a Chance of Direct Mail...................................... 4 7 Tips to Generate Leads Online with Pinterest ................. 5 11 Ways to Make Social Media Less of a Time Suck..................................................................... 6 The Power and SEO Behind Blog Commenting.................. 10 News & Notes.............................................................................. 11 PDMA Career Center.................................................................12 New Member-Only Benefits Preferred Parnter Program.......................................................13 Renew and Reap the Big Benefits........................................... 14 Welcome New PDMA Member..............................................15
Cover photo credit: OkayMaybeNot via photo pin cc http://www.flickr.com/photos/7893273@N02/3318647890/
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Thank You to Our Advertisers.................................................15
The Future of Direct Mail Warren Hunter
D
irect Mail is not only alive and well, but it is the direct marketer’s most powerful tool. Despite the recent rise in postal rates and printing costs, direct mail continues to be the workhorse of the direct marketing world. It is the only medium that can tell us so much about those who do and do not respond to our offers and buy our products. It is also where we can test creative, test offers and learn about our consumers in depth by using the incredible power of data and analytics that is available today. Why is “Direct Mail” Perceived as “Junk Mail?”
Every other medium is supported by advertising — but when marketers support the postal system with “advertising mail” — the consuming public calls it “junk mail.” Why do you think direct mail is perceived as junk by so many? Quite simply, it is because so much of what we get in our mailboxes is simply not relevant to our wants and needs. We can surf past an ad on TV that’s not for us. It’s a quick delete on email. A flip of the page in a magazine. But when it’s in our mailbox we have to carry it, sort and trash or recycle what we do not want. But — what we want, we keep. We read it, we order from it — or we save
it for a time when we have more time. It has real shelf life. No other medium can deliver what direct mail delivers. A study by Millward Brown says that “physical media leaves a deeper footprint in the brain.” That means materials that consumers can touch and feel resonate more with them than what can be delivered electronically.
How to Harness the Power of Direct Mail
Our job as direct marketers is to use the power of the data that we can harness today, and make sure we are doing our very best to put a message that’s relevant to every recipient in their mailbox. That’s a tall order — but we’ve only failed if we’ve failed to try! In that vein, let’s build models that target our prospects, use digital printing to vary the copy and the images to fit each household and actually save some trees by mailing fewer pieces while maintaining (or improving) response rates and sales. And, let’s not forget that we still only have four seconds to capture the consumers’ attention and imagination with our headlines, copy and formats. In today’s direct marketing landscape, we also
have new tools that can make a printed piece work as multi-media with the simple addition of a QR code. We can tell them more, show them more, take them to YouTube® channel or a web site.
A Quick Note on USPS
There is no doubt that postage is likely the single most expensive part of any direct mail campaign. In the near future, postal rates will continue to increase because there is less first class mail due to electronic banking, billing and bill pay. Standard mail— advertising mail — supports the postal system. Doing less mail and smarter mail is not going to put the volume in the system that the USPS needs to survive. However, I believe that the USPS will find way to survive and thrive — even as we do our jobs better than ever before.
Key Takeaways
Direct mail is KING. We need to do our best to make it relevant. n Printers & lettershops should challenge their agency and company clients to innovate. n The Postal Service WILL survive. n DIRECT MAIL is the BEST . . . way to reach your prospective and current customers and the primary way to spend your client’s money. n n
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••• For nearly 35 years, Warren has helped marketers reap the fruits of their marketing investment, first as a marketing director and officer at various insurance companies, and since 1988 working with clients as an agency consultant. He has served clients in many categories — financial services, business-to-business, utilities, and life, and property and casualty insurance. Warren has served nine years on the ECHO Board of Governors of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), on the Board of Directors of the Professional Insurance Marketing Association, is active in the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation and is a frequent speaker. He can be reached at whunter@dmwdirect.com.
Graph courtesy of Mintel Comperemedia
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2013 Outlook: Cloudy with a Chance of Direct Mail Dennis Ashcraft
W
ith all the dismal reports coming out of Europe, China and the US, the experts tell us we can expect global economic growth to slow to an average of about 3 percent per year until at least the middle of the next decade. The near-term forecast for the US is right in line with that of the global economy: The Conference Board predicts US GDP to be between 2.0 and 2.5 percent in 2013.
So what does all this economic foul weather mean for the direct mail industry? Times are changing, and while all this negative activity can cloud the outlook, I would say we have an excellent chance of direct mail in 2013. Direct mail is holding its own. In fact, you might even say direct mail is in the right place at the right time. Thanks to its core nature of delivering measurable results and a host of dealseeking consumers who are reading their mail, direct mail is still a viable part of the marketing mix. Companies are tweaking everything from databases to messages in search of more immediate sales over image-building marketing tactics, and getting more bang for their marketing buck as a result. All this leads to better-targeted, more meaningful and personalized messages across a variety of platforms that lead the consumer where you want them to go. The Envelope Manufacturer’s Association is celebrating its 100 anniversary in 2012. You can bet they have seen a lot of ups and downs over the years, yet here we are a century later, and direct mail is still a viable marketing tool. The rapid decline we experienced in 2008-2009 slowed substantially in 2010, then increased slightly in 2011 and
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Direct Mail is holding its own. In fact, you might even say direct mail is in the right place at the right time. 2012. Although envelope sales were flat throughout this past summer and value/m only rose slightly during that time, we are seeing some increasing order activity for the fall. Envelope usage continues to shift from transactional to direct mail. New players are emerging, either as start ups or printers who are expanding. This is due to great deals on envelope equipment, which has been in oversupply. As the industry continues to consolidate, full service seems to be the new mantra. If you weren’t a margin-seeker before the great recession, you are one now. Envelope companies continue to focus on lean manufacturing, fine-tuning their processes and coaching their employees on productivity and efficiency. The USPS continues to hold the line as well. This is not the first time the postal service has had to reinvent itself. It has been growing and changing with America ever since Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General in 1775. Postmaster General Pat Donahoe is doing everything he can by continuing to consolidate, optimize and innovate. In addition to working on providing better service, the Postal Service continues to focus on enhancing the value of mail. The USPS marketing team is busy working on its 2013 promotions calendar, which should include some interesting offerings such
as coupon/mobile commerce integration, click-to-call and interactive print. As the lines continue to blur between direct mail marketing and cross media marketing, social media and mobile marketing will continue to exert their influence on direct marketing strategies. Yet despite the economy and the confluence of emerging technologies, direct mail marketers have not experienced significant losses. Companies that have chosen to use more cost effective and targeted direct mail marketing over other forms of advertising, will, in the future, look once again to more traditional forms of advertising such as TV and radio. As a result, we will see pressure not just from digital marketing but from other forms of marketing as well. Despite the challenges ahead, I am confident the USPS and mailing industry will continue to work together to meet these challenges. Economies may grow and falter, companies may come and go, but human nature never changes. Consumers still want to open, read and respond to offers that come through the mail. Despite all the advancements in technology and innovations in social media, direct mail still wins hands down when it comes to building customer loyalty. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Dennis Ashcraft is a sales representative for Colortree Group, which strives to be the best litho provider in the direct mail industry. He served on the Exhibitor Advisory Committee for the 2012 DMAW Bridge Conference. Reach Dennis at dashcraft@colortreeva. com or 800-222-2962.
7 Tips to Generate Leads Online with Pinterest Chris Horton
I
n case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest is hot. In just the last year, the virtual pinboarding site has seen its web traffic grow from 700,000 unique visitors to 20 million — half the unique visitors of Twitter®. According to data from Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence Survey, one in four consumers acknowledge that they are spending less time on other social media sites in favor of Pinterest. Brands are finding that a presence on Pinterest translates into sales. Roughly 25% of consumers reported purchasing a product or service after discovering it on Pinterest. Long presumed to be a social site dominated by women, Compete’s survey found that that 37% of males bought a product or service after seeing it on Pinterest, as opposed to just 17% of females.¹ The muscular traffic growth of Pinterest, coupled with the strong tendency of users to eventually purchase items discovered on
photos back to case studies or positive user reviews you’ve gotten from these happy campers. Just make sure to get permission from your customers first! Use Hashtags: Pinterest supports hashtags to make your content more search-friendly. If you’re promoting a new campaign or launching a new product/service, create a pinboard around it. Make sure to tag it with the same hashtag you’re using on Twitter® and Google+® to synch your social marketing efforts.
the site, should be enough for marketers and business owners to sit up and take notice. Admittedly, from a workflow perspective, nobody wants to deal with another social network. However, if these numbers have left you convinced, here are seven tips to pin your way to the top: ² Post Blog Images: Get in the habit of pinning the main images from each of your blogs. Make sure to link each image back to the related blog post, and included CTAs and landing pages to capture prospect lead data. Info-Graphics: People love data that’s put into a visual format. Challenge your graphic designer to take company or industry data points and convert them into a compelling info-graphic. eBook and Whitepaper Covers: If your company has created an ebook or whitepaper, take the front cover and pin it onto your Pinterest brand page. As with blog images, make sure to link it to the corresponding eBook/ whitepaper, and include a CTA and landing page. Photos of Satisfied Customers: Prospects love to see pics of happy customers. As an added bonus, link any pinned
Create a Video Gallery: Many people don’t know that you can pin videos on Pinterest. In fact, the site’s homepage has a separate tab for videos. Make sure to add any business-related videos you may currently have on your website or YouTube® to your Pinterest brand page. As with YouTube, you’ll want to add links and CTAs to give prospects a simple path down the sales funnel. Measure Results: As you add more images
to Pinterest, use any analytics tools at your disposal to measure web traffic and lead generation performance in order to discern which images are working and which aren’t. Try to find patterns in successes and failures, so you can pin image and video content that is most likely to generate leads and convert sales.
Follow these seven tips, and your brand should be able to generate leads online with Pinterest in no time. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Chris Horton is a contributor for Minneapolis Internet Marketing Company SyneCore Technologies. He is an informative resource for those involved in online marketing, earned media, app development, digital signage, software development, and various digital marketing technologies.
¹ Compete, “Pinning Down the Impact of Pinterest” ² Hubspot, “How to Use Pinterest for Business”
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11 Ways to Make Social Media Marketing Less of a Time Suck Social media marketing: tweet a
hashtag, post a picture of my lunch, like a photo in my news feed. Nailed it. Uh, not really. And if you’re doing social media marketing — real social media marketing — you know that. If you add up all the hours you spend doing social media marketing, it’s likely not that much time compared to all your other marketing activities. But because of the pace at which social media operates, our minds (and cursors) always seem to be floating over to one social media network or another. If you’re anything like me, that kind of constant distraction is paralyzing to your overall productivity. Luckily, we’ve found ways to minimize the distraction social media marketing leaves us all open to. Take a look at 11 ways we use (and love) to keep social media from becoming a total time suck.
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Corey Eridon
Compose your updates
in advance. _______________________________ Let’s say you have to update your company’s Twitter account with new content every hour during the business day. Do you click around trying to find content to power those eight updates every hour, or do you find that content in advance and bookmark it? Hopefully, it’s the latter ... otherwise you don’t have much time left to do anything else but search for social content. That’s why we created a social media publishing schedule — an Excel template that lets you input all of your social media status updates for each social network, organized by the date and time you’d like to publish them. Take a look at one of the worksheets in the template; this one’s to help you organize your Twitter updates, specifically: Using a template like this, you can set aside an hour on Friday before you leave the office and input all of your social media updates for the following work week. That way when you get into the office Monday morning, you’re not left
scrambling to find enough compelling content for all of the social networks you need to manage.
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Maintain a content repository. _______________________________ Did you just laugh at the idea of crafting a week’s worth of social media updates in an hour? If so, you might need a content repository. We actually included a content repository right in our social media template, because we find it so useful to have it to refer to within our scheduling document. See below. Basically, this is the place that you can keep all the content you’d like to promote and resurface in social media— because the more content you create, the harder it will be for you to keep track of it all. So put in your ebooks, your blog posts, your infographics, everything you will want to re-promote at a later date in social media. Then you’ll be able to jump over to this tab in your spreadsheet every week and quickly find content to promote! Just be sure to include an expiration date if the content isn’t evergreen so you don’t accidentally
promote, say, a webinar that has already taken place. No more pulling content out of thin air, marketers!
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Use a collaborative tool to share your schedule. _______________________________ Social media content can come from more than just you, you know! Take the burden off of yourself and make your social media presence richer by including other people in crafting social updates. You can upload that social media scheduling template to a Google Docto a Google Doc, and share it with other people in the marketing department or throughout your company. When you have the days and times for when you’ll be publishing updates in the spreadsheet, it makes it easy for everyone to see what slots are available for promotion. You can even block off certain slots as “Reserved” for your own updates to ensure the content you need to promote doesn’t get swallowed up by other people’s updates. Just make sure you communicate three notes about this collaborative approach to social media content creation: Establish a deadline for when content needs to be added for the following week; communicate that the spreadsheet is first come, first serve; and make it clear that the social media manager has authority to veto updates that aren’t appropriate or in line with the team’s goals.
4
Schedule your updates to auto-publish. _______________________________
some manual updating (on LinkedIn, for example). But you can still automate a good chunk of your publishing using a tool like HubSpot’s Social Media tool or HootSuite. If you’re interested in autopublishing social media content but need some help, we’ve broken down the nuances of doing so in this blog post.
5
Set up social media monitoring. _______________________________ While creating your content in advance is a serious boon to productivity, social media marketers should still be leaving room for timely updates, too. What if a news story breaks? Or someone covers your company in their publication? Or someone publishes an excellent blog post you’d like to share with your network? That real-time content is critical, and you can set up monitoring to ensure you see it coming through. We’ve set up Google Alerts and alerts in our own social media monitoring tool for not only our name and our executives’ names, but also industry terms we like to write about, too. That way we don’t have to rely on visiting the right site at the right time to hopefully see an important story in a timely fashion.
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Establish your company’s social media policy. _______________________________ If you know exactly what you should and should not do on social media, it
becomes much more natural to create content and respond to fans and followers. Think about it — how laborious is it to comment on a picture of a friend’s new puppy? Not too hard, right? Because it’s you talking. If your company has a social media policy that details exactly what you should and should not say in social media and the tone you want your company to convey, it’s way easier to quickly create content and interact with your fans ... because that kind of detail and forethought gives your company an actual personality. It’s much easier to be social when you have a personality ;-) Check out some noteworthy examples of corporate social media policies if you need help getting started on your own.
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Set up a triaging methodology. _______________________________ Part of being in social media means you have to be, you know ... social. That means people will start coming to you for lots of things. Do you have a resource for this? Do you sell that? Why did you screw these up? I want to talk to someone in your sales/customer service/accounting/IT department! That can all get extremely overwhelming and cause a lot of fumbling and scrambling around ... if you don’t have a methodology to triage all of the requests coming at you from your social networks. For example, if a sales or
11 Ways continued on next page
Now that you have all this content ready and raring to go, dip your toes in some automation to make your life easier. I know, I know, social automation is the worst — except that it really isn’t if you approach it correctly. We’ve recently published a blog post that breaks down the do’s and don’ts of social media automation if you’re on the fence. Not every social network makes it easy to auto-publish, so you’ll have to do FALL 2012 | PDMA directviews | 7
LinkedIn and Google+ let you assign admin roles, too, but you’re out of luck with Twitter. So either keep your company’s Twitter login credentials under wraps, or give some serious training to anyone you give those credentials to!
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Pre-schedule your checkins throughout the day. _______________________________
11 Ways continued from previous page customer service inquiry comes in to us through social media, we know exactly what to do without even a moment’s thought: Go to Salesforce.com, and search for the person’s name. If they’re in Salesforce, identify their lead owner or dedicated customer service representative. If they’re not in Salesforce, send the request to a manager to assign to one of their reps. Contact their dedicated rep, send the request that came through on social media, and ask them to contact the fan or follower. Respond to the fan or follower — privately if that nature of the request requires it — saying their dedicated rep will be in touch via their preferred contact channel. It runs like clockwork, and everyone in the company is used to this protocol, making it easy to triage these issues and ensure everyone gets prompt social follow-up!
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Leverage networks’ admin features. _______________________________
Sometimes, more hands are better than one. Sometimes. It can get a little scary for social media managers, though, when too many people are involved in social media marketing. Specifically, if they all have administrative access to the accounts. Because while you know the nooks and crannies of each network, not everyone is as knowledgeable as you. So how do you leverage the help of your fellow coworkers without having them, essentially, screw everything up? Make use of the admin features on social networks! On Facebook, for example, you can now assign specific roles for users that limit their ability to do things like create posts, respond as your company in comments, or create ads. See above.
Even with a monitoring tool set up, you’ll have to check in to each of your social networks throughout the day to respond to comments and interact with fans and followers. Some marketers feel like they need to respond to everyone on social media immediately. While immediacy is great, your network also understands that you aren’t glued to your computer screen at all times. It’s alright (and important for your productivity if you don’t have an employee dedicated only to social media monitoring) to set aside specific times during the day for social media monitoring. Depending on your level of engagement, a good schedule might look like: 9, 11, 1, 3, 5. At those two-hour intervals, you can pop in to each social network for a few minutes, respond as needed, and then get back to work without having monitoring looming in the back of your mind every ten minutes.
10
Use tools to create visual content. _______________________________
You know you should be creating visual content to share on social media, but you’re not a graphic designer. What do you do? Leverage some of the visual content creation tools that make the task easy as pie! If you have a smartphone, you should have no trouble finding apps that make you look like a visual content creation genius. There is, of course, the much-loved Instagram to take your photos from blah to beautiful. And there’s a new favorite of many marketers, Over, that lets you overlay text over photos for that kind of content that will get you seriously high engagement.
And if you’re loving the proliferation of memes, you can create your own in seconds for free over at memegenerator. net. The key to all of this is that these tools are insanely simple, and with them it takes you literally seconds to create the visuals you need to power your social media marketing.
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Eliminate the clutter in your analytics. _______________________________
Social media is one of those channels that marketers have simultaneously too much data to analyze, and not enough. Don’t get bogged down in all that high-falutin’ data! Spend less time looking at the fluffy metrics that really mean nothing to your overall marketing success, and just focus on a few core metrics.
For example, have you ever exported Facebook Insights? Man alive is that spreadsheet huge. You could spend days sifting through that data, and probably not find much actionable insight in it (makes the name ironic, don’t it?). In reality, you can narrow that spreadsheet down to just three columns to get the information you need to know. You can also take advantage of closed-loop social tools, like the integration between HootSuite and HubSpot, that lets you quickly align your social media activities with lead generation and customer acquisition. You know, the whole reason you’re doing social media in the first place.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Corey Eridon is a graduate of Boston University and holds an degree in English and History. Before joining the marketing team at HubSpot, Corey was a content marketing consultant specializing in content creation, editing, and SEO. Corey learned about HubSpot through her consulting gig, hearing many clients talk excitedly about the HubSpot platform and using it to track and analyze their content. After following the Inbound Marketing Bog, being blown away by the software on joint consulting calls with HubSpot’s awesome IMCs, and seeing other companies try to emulate the HubSpot company culture, her interest in joining the company grew to astronomical heights. Luckily, the Inbound Marketing Manager position was posted soon after and the rest it history. Outside of HubSpot, Corey is an incessant traveler who enjoys baking, outdoor adventures, Renaissance literature, and spontaneous reimaginations of popular commercial jingles.
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The Power and SEO Behind
Blog Commenting
M
ost people didn’t have a clue what kind of impact blog commenting can have on increasing the SEO of your website. Most Internet people did and have been doing it for a while. Now it’s become more mainstream, and everyone seems to want to jump on the blog commenting bandwagon. But let me caution you, because there’s a right way and a very wrong way to do this. I’ll explain both. Creating a Blog Commenting Plan
The first step in blog commenting is creating a plan and, of course, knowing who you’ll be engaging with. Here are a few ways you can get started: • Deciding who to follow: Who will become part of your online networking tribe? These are the people influential to your industry. They might be competitors to you, or spokespeople. They might also be authorities in one way or another. Whoever they are and whatever they offer, it should somehow dial into what you are promoting. I recommend that you make a list of the top 5-10 names. Don’t go overboard for now. I’m sure there are more people you could engage with, but to start, focus on just a few. You can grow the rest of your list from there. Once you have your list, you’ll want to start following their blogs and also find out where they are appearing. This might mean commenting off of their website, I’ll explain in a minute why that’s important. First, let’s look at how you can organize this information: • RSS feeds: This is the quickest and simplest way to get started. Subscribe to their RSS feeds and keep all of these in your online reader, or Google iPage®. That way you can spend a few minutes in the morning going through your blog posts to see which ones you want to comment on.
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• Twitter®: This is another great way to find content to blog on. Follow your favorites on Twitter and follow the links to their blogs. This will often give you great insights into the biggest and most popular posts on their websites. Don’t forget to comment on their Twitter posts, too! • Google Alerts: Another great system for finding good content to comment on. Plug in the names of the folks you’re following. Also, enter their blog URLs too! Often bloggers will reference a blog post and not the name of the person blogging. Having this link as one of your Alerts will allow you to follow each and every mention of this blogger. So, why do you want to blog off their site? Anytime a blogger is featured on a website, it’s likely that site is one you’ll want to follow too. Or, at some point you may also want to blog comment on that site as well. It’s a great way to network with folks who might one day interview you!
Tips for a Great SEO Plan
• Frequency: I generally recommend you try to comment on 3-5 blogs a week. I also recommend you spend no more than 30 minutes a day ferreting through blogs and posting, anything more becomes a time-drain that will prevent you from keeping up this work. • Engagement: Remember that each
comment is no different than a post you would write for your own blog. You’d never consider writing “great post!” on your site and leave it at that, right? You should consider writing short but thoughtful posts for your blog comments. Offer additional insight, another perspective, or a link to where the reader can get more information. Don’t be salesy, that’s the first way you’ll get blasted.
• Quality over Quantity: As per the
above note: make it count. Don’t worry about the amount of posts you do, but spend the time considering the quality of the comment itself. You’ll find much better engagement and response when you do.
Where’s the Juice?: The SEO juice from this strategy will be apparent in the incoming links that now direct to your site. Each time you post a comment it will ask you for your URL (if you’re already registered on a particular site, the login will remember your URL and post it in each comment). While not all blogs allow follow links, there’s a lot of debate on no-follow blogs and whether they are still good for SEO. What is “no follow”? No follow is a term used in the SEO world to describe sites that can block your outbound link (the link to your site), using a No Follow Tag. See here for more on no follow: www.google.com/support/webmasters/ bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=96569. The No Follow essentially tells Google not to consider your link when ranking for algorithm. Even though you may get referral traffic, Google will act as if you aren’t even on the site. Meaning, you may get traffic from the link, but no “link juice” per se. This deters a lot of SEO people, but my take is this: If a link from a high-traffic site will get you traffic, why not post there? We still see a significant amount of traffic from links posted on No Follow sites. Also, keep in mind that search engines pay a lot of attention to social sites like Twitter and Facebook®, which are both No Follows. The point being, a strong SEO plan should include blog commenting. Not just for the SEO benefits, but for the engagement and connections blog commenting brings with it. Consistent, high quality posts will not only bring you great traffic, but also fantastic connections as well. Good luck! Reprinted from “The Book Marketing Expert newsletter,” a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques especially for authors. www.amarketing expert.com.
News & Notes
Want to tell the direct marketing industry your great news, promote your new employees, or publicize your marketing successes? Then e-mail your information to PDMA and we will tell the DM world all about it! All submissions must be e-mailed and received two months prior to the publication month. Harte-Hanks Promotes Four Company Leaders and Restructures Harte-Hanks announced today that it is realigning roles and responsibilities of key leaders within Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing in four areas—customer solutions, customer strategy and engagement, customer delivery and people—to structure the company for future growth and enhance the customer experience. Brian Dames has been named executive vice president of customer solutions. Dames, who is already a corporate vice president, has been with the company for five years. Prior to his new role, he was responsible for leading the database and data services business of Harte-Hanks. In addition to these responsibilities, he will now oversee Trillium Software®, international operations, Aberdeen Group®, our technology market solutions, The Demand Curve™, and other business-tobusiness offerings. Jeannine Falcone has been named executive vice president of customer strategy & engagement. Falcone, who is also currently a corporate vice president, has served with Harte-Hanks for close to 20 years. She currently leads The Agency Inside® and its digital solutions businesses.
In addition to these responsibilities, she will assume leadership of the contact center businesses, strategy and insight team, as well as the national sales team and marketing. Tony Paul has been named executive vice president of customer delivery and has also been promoted to corporate vice president. Paul has been with Harte-Hanks since 2010 and has led the direct mail, mail supply chain and fulfillment businesses. He will continue his leadership of these businesses in this new organization. Andrew Harrison has been named executive vice president of people and has also been promoted to corporate vice president. Harrison has been with Harte-Hanks for 17 years and will continue his leadership of human resources operations, as well as working closely with the other Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing and corporate leaders on organizational transformation, change management, business performance improvement and training and professional development.
DMW Direct Captures Four Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) Awards DMW Direct, a leading direct response advertising agency, recently garnered four awards from the prestigious Professional Insurance Marketing Association (PIMA) at its 2012 Marketing Methods Competition (MMC). The company received a Gold, Silver and two Honorable Mention awards for its work on behalf of Chartis Private Client Group, Meemic Insurance and two additional insurance clients. “We are honored to receive this recognition,” said Bill Spink, EVP and Chief Creative Officer at DMW Direct. “Hard-nosed response results are an integral component of PIMA Awards criteria, and we are proud to once again be among this group of winners who not only display outstanding marketing and creative strategy, but also deliver measurable results for their clients.” DMW Direct won a Gold medal in the Other Media category for a Television campaign created on behalf of a Philadelphia-area health insurance carrier. The campaign helped to position that company’s new, lower-premium health plan as a top choice for the senior market. By the time the campaign had run its course, the plan had captured a 200% boost in sign-on rate, with over 10,000 new enrollees. DMW Direct also received a Silver medal in the Lead Generation Campaign category for a direct response campaign developed on behalf of client Chartis Private Client Group. The series of mailings helped promote auto and homeowners insurance coverage tailored to the unique needs of high net worth individuals, with household assets of $5 million or more. The campaign
News & Notes
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Online Quote Form
www.vftl.com
610-524-8900
800-345-1323 ce Sin 2 196
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News & Notes
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was an overarching success, with qualified leads doubling and the quality of response improving two-fold. Finally, DMW Direct captured two Honorable Mentions, one in the Mail Solicitation for Guaranteed – Issue Product/SimplifiedIssue Product category for a campaign designed on behalf of client Meemic Insurance and one in the Self-Promotion – Company Members/Business Since 1975, PIMA, has brought together individuals and companies that are dedicated to marketing insurance and sharing their industry expertise. PIMA’s annual MMC Competition recognizes outstanding achievement in marketing among PIMA members.
PDMA Career Center The Career Center is an online resource for both Job Seekers and Employers. If you are a PDMA member, you may post your resume or job opening for free locally. If you post it nationally you may do so a reduced rate. Visit www.the-pdma.org. Job Seekers PDMA members have the ability to search the job database, post resumes and submit real-time online applications. • Advanced job searching options • Control over your career advancement • Increased exposure for your résumé • Optional e-mail alerts of new jobs Employers PDMA is your online resource for top direct marketing professionals. Post your next job opening on the PDMA Online Career Center. • Quick and easy job posting • Quality candidates • Online reports with job activity statistics • Simple pricing options Visit www.the-pdma.org and then click the Career Center tab.
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Calling All Members! Get Involved! The PDMA “year” began July 1st and the Board is busy organizing committees and projects. If you would like to contribute in a meaningful way to the direct marketing industry, you should get involved with PDMA. Below are committees who are looking for regular members and project members. Just email the PDMA office (Contact@The-PDMA.org) and let us know how you would like to be involved.
Annual Golf Outing – takes place each summer and requires
members to secure sponsors and golfers as well as helping on the day of the event. This is a great day-long event with unlimited networking possibilities.
Annual Holiday Fundraiser – takes place each December. The
committee needs members who can help create event ideas, as well as secure sponsors and auction items and prizes. This is a fun event that will make you feel good!
Annual Benjamin Franklin (The Bennys) Awards – takes
place each June and requires assistance in finalizing the entry forms and guidelines as well as the promotional materials. Help us help promote the direct marketing industry.
Monthly Meetings – Help plan and organize seven meetings that
require unique topics and speakers. Members could also assist in meeting promotion. This is an opportunity to bring to Philadelphia the topics and speakers who will raise the level of knowledge for all direct marketers.
Direct Views Magazine (Copywriting, Planning, Proofing) – We
need contributors and ideas that could require assistance for one issue or all four. If you would like to have an article published, let us know!
Membership Committee – Help reach out to new members and
those who are interested in membership as well as developing new benefits and fun rewards. The Membership Committee welcomes guests at meetings. If you want to increase your contacts in the direct marketing field, this is the place to be!
Did You Know?
There are many PDMA membership benefits and services that you might want to take advantage of and so receive full value for your dues! Here are just a few:
Printed & Online Membership Directory
Receive our printed membership directory with members listed alphabetically and by company. Each company is also encouraged to provide a company description. PLUS — Access the online directory, in the members-only area; you may search for members by last name or company. This is a member-only resource to get new business and make new contacts.
Career Center Online www.the-pdma.org
You can find employees in our PDMA Career Center … or a new position for yourself. As a PDMA member, you may post your resume or job listing locally for free. Non-members pay a fee for this service — your PDMA membership is covered with just one posting! PDMA members can also post jobs nationally for a reduced fee. PDMA members may also post their resumes locally for free and then discounted, nationally.
Benny Discounts
90 Commerce Drive Aston, PA 19014-3209 (610) 859-0500 www.actionmailer.com
Affinity Insurance Services 159 East County Line Rd Hatboro, PA 19040 (215) 293-1127 www.aon.com
Com-Pak Services
265 New Albany Road Moorestown, NJ 08057-1105 (856) 802-1900 www.com-pak.com
FWD>Direct
100 East Lancaster Ave. Suite 100 Downingtown, PA 19335 (610) 518-0800 www.fwddirect.com
Japs-Olson Company
7500 Excelsior Blvd. St. Louis Park, MN 55626 (952) 932-9393 www.japsolson.com
SEI
1 Freedom Valley Drive Oaks, PA 19456 (610) 676-1000 www.seic.com
The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks
Spectra Data Group
777 Township Line Rd., Ste 300 Yardley, PA 19067 (215) 456-750-6600 www.harte-hanks.com
461 North 3rd Street, 3rd Floor West Philadelphia, PA 19123 (215) 383-6401 www.spectra-data.com
DMW Direct
United Health Group
701 Lee Road Suite 103 Chesterbrook, PA 19087 (610) 407-0407 www.dmwdirect.com
PDMA meetings address real business issues affecting the direct marketing industry as well as providing great networking opportunities. Members can attend these business building meetings at a discounted rate. That’s a savings of $14 off the non-member rate. Attend just 10 meetings and you have more than covered your annual dues. PLUS, as an attendee at any of our monthly meetings, only members receive the meeting attendance list with contact information.
Your membership also earns you a discount on every Benny entry you enter in this prestigious industry award competition. If you submit just four entries, you cover your annual dues!
Thank You to Our Platinum Members Action Mailers, Inc.
Member Meeting Discounts & Special Services
680 Blair Mill Road Horsham, PA 19055 (215) 527-2859 www.unitedhealthgroup.com
Shape the Future: NominateYourself! As a member of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association, your opinion counts and you can be a part of the group of people that decides the future of PDMA. You may nominate yourself — or a colleague — to serve on the 2013-14 PDMA Board of Directors. This year we are especially looking for those who create the direct marketing for their businesses. Direct marketers in the financial, health and insurance businesses would be most welcomed, and would complement those already on the Board. Each PDMA Board Member holds a responsible committee position. Board Members establish both short- and longterm goals and policies; come to understand and resolve issues facing the direct marketing industry; and help to keep that business community strong and thriving. So let your voice be heard! Let the Nominating Committee know that you want to be a part of the direct marketing business future!
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Renew and Reap the Big Benefits It’s time to renew your annual membership in the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association. Members renewing by January 15, 2012, will continue to receive all of their membership benefits without interruption.
Reap the Benefit of Visibility With your renewal, you and your business can be listed in the annual Membership Directory! All members are listed alphabetically by last name and also by company name in the printed Membership Directory, and your business will be entitled to a company profile printed under your company listing.
Reap the Practical Benefits Your membership in PDMA provides unique benefits for you and your business. In addition to the Membership Directory, you may also post resumes and job openings on the PDMA website for FREE. You can attend all meetings and events at a discounted rate, and then continue the networking benefits after the event with a member-only complimentary contact list of all attendees.
Reap the Unique Benefits Preferred Partner Program: Brings together suppliers and consultants who will offer discounts to PDMA members. Right Start Internship Program: Brings together Member organizations and students for summer internship programs. The PDMA will help make the connection with local colleges and universities to find the right fit for your marketing and communications positions. Career Coach Program: The PDMA provides a complimentary 1:1 coaching session for members who have been displaced or who are in career transition. Members have access to experienced advisors who can assist them with their personal and professional brand, and can point them in the right direction.
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Program and Event Discounts: Only members can attend events and meetings and enter the Bennys at a discounted fee.
What Are You Waiting For? Renew and Reap the Big Benefits!
Simply go online and log in and your renewal invoice will be waiting for you. If you would like us to email you and invoice or take your payment over the telephone, just let us know. Individual Membership: $140 per person One person may join and attend meetings and events at the member’s discounted fee. If you leave your employer, the membership stays with the individual. Corporate Discount Membership: $125 per person (three or more members) Firms that want to sign up three or more employees receive a discounted fee per person of $125 each—a $15 savings per person! Individual member names must be given to PDMA, but the names can be changed at any time upon written notification.
Platinum Membership: $1,125 (Company owns unlimited memberships) All employees attend meetings and events at the discounted member fee and receive the DirectViews magazine and other communications. PLUS— your business receives PDMA website recognition and a link to your website, along with Platinum sponsor listing in the PDMA magazine, DirectViews and in the Membership Directory.
Preferred Partners Diamond Technology Services Contact: Bill Stuart freeconsult@4-dts.com (610) 370-6019 Free 2 hour consult, free review of telecom bills, if no savings = no charge, if work = 20% off normal rate www.4-dts.com
Health Insurance | USI Affinity
Contact: Jim Pitts Jim.pitts@usiaffinity.com 1-800-265-2876 ext. 11377 Direct: (610) 537-1377 Employee Benefits | Free quote | group rates www.affinityhealthplan.com
Jobecca Technology Group Contact: Michael Schatz eschatz@jobecca.com (215) 891-9503 15% off all services www.jobecca.com
Kelleher Associates
Contact: Tammy Beil tbeil@kelleherllc.com (610) 293-1115 10% discount for customized executive transition services for 3, 6, and 12 month programs www.kelleherllc.com
Lindy Powers
Contact: Lindy Powers Lindy@lindypowers.com (610) 347-1079 20% off Portrature www.lindypowers.com
Makarios Consulting
Contact: Rip Tilden riptilden@mc-llc.com (610) 909-7580 Free 90 minute consultation www.makariosconsulting.com
MTM Linguasoft
Contact: Miriam Siftar info@mtmlinguasoft.com (215) 729-6765 10 % off any translated content over 1000 words www.mtmlinguasoft.com
Welcome New PDMA Member
THANK YOU TO THE ADVERTISERS in this issue of Direct Views.
Please utilize these Direct Response Experts when you can: ABC Mailers Anthony Bucolo at (856) 241-2100 Independent Graphics Sal Caimano at (215) 205-6859
p. 15
Karen A Ehman Key Account Manager Glatfelter Paper 228 S. Main Street Spring City, PA 17362 (610) 558-4574 karen.ehman@glatfelter.com
p. 9
Japs-Olson Company Back Cover Debbie Roth at (952) 912-1440 Nova Label Alan Fine at (800) 246-0506
p. 7
Valley Forge Tape & Label Co Paul Myers at (610) 524-8900
p. 1 1
Thank you to our Meeting Sponsor September 27 Luncheon Demystifying the Changing USPS Landscape
PHILADELPHIA DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
Editors Design/Layout Printing Lettershop
Marie Caldwell Joanna Smith Gotwald Creation, inc. Independent Graphics, Inc. fmi direct, inc.
PDMA Office 11 Bala Avenue, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004 Voice: (484) 270-5141 Fax: (610) 664-5599 Email: contact@the-pdma.org Website: www.the-pdma.org For advertising rates and schedules for all PDMA publications and sponsorships, contact Sheree Goldflies at 856-430-9887 or email Sheree at shereeg01@comcast.net. All ads must be submitted by the 15th of the month prior to the publication month. PDMA 2012-2013 Board of Directors President Geff Rapp Group G Direct, Inc. Secretary Graham Ruffels QDMH Treasurer Mark Mandia DMW Direct Chairperson Karen Keenan Integral Metrix Group, Inc. Vice-Presidents Linda Barba Project Marketing, Inc. Marj Bicknell Bicknell Creative Christopher Long LongEffect Melanie Vivian Kreischer Miller Directors Aleka Agapitides IBSDirect Marie Caldwell Aquent Studios Anthony Campisi Annodyne, Inc. Jacqueline “JB” Carl Genex Services, Inc. Nancy Harlan Siemens Enterprise Lisa Mark Innovation Print & Media Group Jacqueline Ricchey Diamond Graphics Print Leslie Schultz The Agency Inside Harte-Hanks Joanna Smith The Philadelphia Protestant Home Christine Wagner Direct Choice, Inc.
FALL PDMA DirectViews is published quarterly by and for members of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association and other interested direct marketers. For more information, visit www.the-pdma.org.
FALL 2012 | PDMA directviews | 15
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Print • Imaging • Lettershop • Postal Logistics 7500 Excelsior Blvd. • St. Louis Park, MN 55426 • 952.932.9393 • www.japsolson.com Call or Fax for our Sample Kit to be mailed to you: Email: droth@japsolson.com Fax: 952-912-1900 Phone: 952-912-1440 Name
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