PHILADELPHIA DIRECT MARKETING ASSOCIATION
SPRING 2013
direct views In Sync with Digital Marketing
Reinforce Your Brand with Web Marketing The New Age of Customer Experience
PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Putting the Active into Interactive Geff Rapp, Group G Direct, Inc.
I
was observing my teenage daughter the other evening as she slouched on the couch ensconced with her regalia of electronic media assaulting her senses as she did her “homework.” At one point she had text conversations going on her iPhone, Facebook post threads on the laptop, YouTube videos streaming, Pandora blasting on her overpriced Beats headphones, blog entries on some site I’d rather not know about — all this while supposedly working on an essay for AP Lang class. I also was astounded that all this was accomplished with a bare minimum of movement. Just a bit of a flurry of fingers and a slight shifting of the eyes from device to device let me know she was even alive and conscious. It has lead me to the realization that much of “interactive” media actually requires very little activity. So that got me thinking about how much of what we call interactive media is actually used in a way that evokes action — a measurable, calculated response (other than trolls on Yahoo message boards). We all realize the best marketing efforts combine traditional and interactive media. But I think it is important that we make sure the interactive channel efforts we use actually ask for an action to be taken. It seems intuitive but often that is missing. I imagine my daughter five years from now as a recent college grad (fingers crossed) being targeted with a myriad of offers through her electronic appendages. Simply showing her something shiny isn’t going to make her take action — if you want her to buy your product you are going to have to ask her to do exactly what you want her to do very clearly (several times in my fatherly experience). As much as I like to think it, my daughter isn’t unique. More and more we will be marketing to an increasing number of established adults who have never been without the internet or
cell phones or some other “interactive gadget” that connects them to whatever it is they are connecting to. That is an incredible amount of information competing for a limited amount of attention span. And as that happens, successful marketers will be the ones who aren’t afraid to make the “ask” and to prod the audience from their sensory overload to actually do something. Direct marketers, let’s put the active back into interactive. And speaking of activity — don’t forget to mark your calendars for two great upcoming PhillyDMA events. The 2013 Benny Awards Thursday June 6th at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Center City, Philadelphia and the PhillyDMA Annual Golf Classic on Monday, July 29th at the Edgmont Country Club in Newtown Square, PA. We hope you’ll interact with us there! Geff Rapp Group G Direct geff@groupgdirect.com
Table of Contents President’s Message................................................................... 2 2013 Benny Awards..................................................................... 3 MultiScreen Response Marketing........................................... 4 A lead or not a lead, that is the question!.............................. 5 Creating the Perfect Storm........................................................ 6 You Aren’t Working? What’s Wrong with You?................. 7 Reinforce Your Brand with Web Remarketing..................... 8
PDMA Calendar At A Glance Thursday, June 6
2013 Benjamin Franklin Awards The Academy of Natural Sciences
The New Age of Customer Experience.................................. 9 Promoting Wine in A New Global Marketplace................ 10 Event Photos..................................................................................11 Renew and Reap the Big Benefits............................................12 Did You Know?............................................................................12
Monday, July 29
Preferred Partners Program.....................................................13
PDMA Golf Outing
PDMA Career Center.................................................................13
Edgemont Country Club For registration information visit the PDMA Web site at
www.the-pdma.org.
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News & Notes............................................................................. 14 Welcome New PDMA Members........................................... 14 Shape the Future: Nominate Yourself....................................15 Thank You to Our Advertisers.................................................15
2013 Benny Awards Make history amidst pre-history! Let’s celebrate the best direct markeing work of last year and party the night away with Benny winners! All winners, including the Best of Show and the Direct Marketer of the Year will be announced. You will enjoy a networking reception in the North American Hall and Butterfly exhibit and then join the dinosaurs to enjoy a sit-down dinner/dessert and the awards presentation. Let the dinosaurs catch the debut of your patented victory dance!
The Benjamin Franklin Awards Thursday, June 6 The Academy of Natural Sciences 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19103 6 pm to 10 pm in the house to see the newest crop of Benny winners (including you?).
With Dinner:
Members/Entrants: $95 / Non Members: $110
You’ll have the entire night to schmooze with your peers, plus you’re guaranteed the best seat
Includes cocktail reception, sit-down dinner, awards presentation and dessert. …or just go wild for a little while.
Join us for dessert and the Benny Awards ceremony only. We’ll keep the cash bar open for you. Either way, it’s sure to be an evening you won’t want to mis.
Without Dinner: $50
Includes awards presentation, dessert and cash bar.
You be the judge!
For the first time, the PDMA is offering a People’s Choice Benny Award. Attendees can vote as often as they like for $1 per vote. At the end of the night, we’ll announce the winner.
Don’t worry about parking!
Discount parking is available within easy walking disance of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Get details when you RSVP.
RSVP Deadline: May 30, 2013
Go to www.pdmabenny.com or call 484-270-5141.
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MultiScreen Response Marketing Greg Marta
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he proliferation of smartphones, tablets, QR codes and smart TVs has ushered in a new interactive marketing era: multiscreen response marketing. By mid-2012, 90% of all media consumption happened on a screenbased device. Prospective customers rarely engage in a single channel and follow a linear conversion path. As a result, two distinct behavior patterns have emerged. Prospects hop between devices to maximize their time by capturing “in between” moments. This sequential behavior can be as simple as checking email on a smartphone while waiting in line, or window shopping at home on a laptop and checking for coupon codes once they’ve arrived at the store. Examples of simultaneous behavior include researching travel options on a laptop and then booking on a smartphone app, or watching a television commercial and Googling additional information on an iPad. Here are a few multiscreen response marketing best practices:
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DRTV commercials need to have easyto-remember vanity URLs; a live, paid search campaign on Google and Bing with keywords and ad text directly tied to the commercial; and a landing page that effectively continues the story for the consumer.
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Traditional non-screen channels like print and direct mail need QR codes that will direct tablet and smartphone users to specific content or a microsite related to the offer. This can include form fields to drive conversions, additional documentation in PDF and info-videos that bring the details of a product or service to life.
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36% of all emails are opened on a mobile device — a number that has more than tripled since 2010. These need obvious fat-finger links or buttons that drive the recipient to specific pages focused on that topic or offer. And since there’s a good chance that users are on a phone or other VoIP-enabled device, make sure phone numbers are
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Media Queries – Specifies layout parameters based on certain screen sizes or breakpoints that, for example tell the site when it needs to fold two columns into one.
easy to spot and easily clickable. To a large extent, these behavior patterns have made the web the hub of the customer journey. In all of the examples above, the web is playing a critical role in assisting the conversion. The conundrum is designing web experiences that account for the variety of screen sizes that may be involved in any given purchase. Here are some examples that could show up in our scenarios above: • 70” Vizio Smart TV • 27” Samsung LCD desktop monitor • 18” Alienware laptop • 9.7” iPad • 7.9” iPad Mini • 6” Kindle Fire • 5.38” Samsung Galazy • 4.3” Droid Razr • 4” iPhone 5 Responsive design is a series of best practices that allows for websites or landing pages to morph appropriately for the device on which they’re being viewed. Some of the basic principles include: Flexible Grids – Allows the size of the pages to expand or contract relative to the screen they’re being viewed on. Flexible Images – Settings that allow images and other media to expand within flexible grids while protecting their aspect ratios.
Direct marketing has become reliant on the integration with digital channels. Screen proliferation and growing media consumption have put screen-based experiences at the heart of consumers’ buying behavior. Multiscreen response marketing is the discipline of reconciling these trends by better understanding the customer journey and building integrated digital experiences that serve the right message, at the right time, for the right device. Greg Marta has been a leader in interactive marketing for over 17 years. Greg’s experience includes virtually every aspect of digital marketing but these days he’s focused on paid search, targeted display, landing page testing and optimization, user experience design and attribution modeling. He has enjoyed working with top Fortune 500 brands both client-side with MetLife and agency-side with Razorfish as well as leading several successful entrepreneurial start ups. Greg has earned an MBA from Loyola College’s Executive fellows program as well as professional certifications from Marketing Experiments in Paid Search Management and The Fundamentals of Online Testing and from Pragmatic Marketing for Practical Product Management, Requirements that Work and Pragmatic Roadmapping.
A lead or not a lead, that is the question! Nancy Harlan
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n the movie, Glengarry Glen Ross (1982), we are immersed into the stressful lives of salesmen. Early in the movie, excitement builds regarding the new leads that will soon be distributed by headquarters. How many will there be? Who will get which leads? But as we move through the story, we see it is not the quantity of the leads that matter, but instead, the quality of the leads that the salesmen care most about. This is the same for any business. Many marketing organizations are driven and measured to create demand, and in turn, leads for their sales organizations. Leads can come in many forms—organic, snail mail, email, events, cold calling, websites, to name just a few. But no matter where or how the lead is created, a mistake is often made in assuming a lead is a lead. It is not. High performing marketing organizations establish standardized lead stages and qualification rules to determine if and when a lead is passed to their sales organization. Here are the four stages you will see most often.
has been met. If yes, they immediately engage to move the prospect through the opportunity development cycle. If no, sales kicks back the lead to marketing and has a dialogue as to what was missing in the lead. This closed loop process ensures that marketing is continually refining and improving their ability to qualify leads.
• Opportunity – Critically important for
your marketing organization is the ability to quantify the opportunities created through demand programs as well as the revenue ultimately generated by the sales team. By monitoring your leads through the opportunity development cycle to close/won or close/lost status, you will come away with valuable information about what constitutes the right target for your sales teams and therefore will allow you to better target your demand programs.
So it’s important not to assume a lead is a lead. Taking the time to define exactly what constitutes a lead for your organization will prove valuable for both the sales organization as well as for the marketing organization. Sales will have access to leads that ensure they have a good chance at converting to deals. Marketing will have detailed data that ensures future demand generation programs are highly targeted and will generate a large volume of quality leads for sales. Nancy Harlan has over 20 years of successful experience in North American and Global Marketing, Sales, Sales Management, and Global Account Management.
• Inquiry – This stage can be defined as
when an individual indicates to your organization that they want to learn more. They can do this by filling out a form or downloading a piece of content or telling your agent to have a sales person call. This stage is not really a lead, but instead the first step in establishing a conversation with a potential customer.
• Marketing Qualified Lead – This
is a critical stage in lead development that is often missed. Many marketing organizations will pass to their sales team any inquiry. This is a mistake that can cause a break in the relationship between sales and marketing. It is critically important that sales and marketing come together to define, in detail, what constitutes a real and valuable lead for the seller. Once agreed, it is marketing’s job to ensure that all inquiries are nurtured until that qualification criteria is met.
• Sales Validated Lead – Sometimes
called the Sales Accepted Lead stage, I prefer the term Sales Validated Lead. Sales Validated Lead has the seller taking the role of quickly ensuring the defined and agreed to definition of a Marketing Qualified Lead
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Creating the Perfect Storm Carolyn Goodman
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hifting from a B2B sales model to a B2C means shifting marketing strategies and tactics — and that’s exactly what ACE USA needed to do when it started offering their Personal Disaster Recovery Plan (PDRP) directly to consumers. Previously sold exclusively through 3rd party financial institutions, ACE PDRP helps consumers fill in the financial gaps when disaster strikes and their home becomes unlivable for 48-hours or longer. ACE wanted to test and measure the effectiveness of two different marketing strategies to two different geographies using DRTV, print, FSI’s, digital banners and direct mail. The call-to-action was to contact ACE for a quote whether via toll-free number or online. ACE engaged Goodman Marketing Partners (GMP) to develop, design and host the online landing pages. GMP knew that the concept of PDRP could be confusing or potentially mistaken for homeowners insurance, so instead of creating a straightforward landing page with
a form, GMP created a mini Resource Page. This created more potential for prospect engagement and education which could lead to optimization of quote requests. The site included helpful reports that were downloadable — like statistics on natural disaster trends as well as preparation tips on how to get ready for the next disaster. The site also included a colorful interactive map that visually displayed the history of extreme weather events in the last 60 years. Specific cities around the prospects home city had a visually
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prominent push-pin that, when rolled over, provided historical statistics on the number of hail storms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, to help plant the seed of the likelihood of a disaster. The site carried a live Google newsfeed of current disaster news in the state, and links to other disaster resources. There were two different buttons that could take prospects to a quote request page, but GMP also cleverly added an “interrupter” device. If the prospect tried to leave the site without clicking on one of the buttons, a pop-up quote request form appeared. The campaign drove nearly 1,000 site visitors, and, on average, prospects spent nearly 3 minutes on the page. While the majority clicked on the request-a-quote button, many completed the “interrupter” quote form. Even 6 months after the campaign was over, quote requests continue to come in to ACE from these pages. The site can be viewed at www. relief-birmingham.com.
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You aren’t working? What’s wrong with you? Corey Eridon
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urely, you have noticed people aren’t just handing out jobs. But if you’re looking for a job in marketing — specifically inbound marketing — there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. According to Monster.com, “In 2012, leading-edge internet technologies will again be a leading generator of marketing jobs.” And the job search giant cites that people with skills in SEO, interactive marketing, mobile marketing, and marketing analytics are in the best position among their marketing colleagues. Basically, the job market is hot for your skills, and people want to hire you. So what’s the problem? The problem is that marketers are often the worst at marketing themselves. That translates to trouble, well, translating job skills during the application process. If you’re looking to get hired as an inbound marketer, here’s what you should be doing.
8 Tips to Get Hired as an Inbound Marketer
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Be a Content Creator
Content creation is kind of a big deal for inbound marketing. As in, if you don’t do it, it doesn’t work. Seriously, your marketing just stops working. So it makes sense that when looking to hire an inbound marketer, content creation skills is one of the first things hiring managers look for. And how do we look for it? Just saying “content creator” on your resume isn’t enough; people hiring for inbound marketing positions use this little tool called Google to see if you actually create content. So do a quick Google search for your name, and see what comes up. Is it your personal blog? Content you’ve written for other people’s blogs? News content you’ve authored? Infographics you’ve designed? Tutorial videos you’ve recorded? Whitepapers you’ve put together? If it’s none of the above, you’re in trouble. Why? Because 1) it means you’re not really an inbound marketer, and 2) it
gives us no indication of whether you can actually create content when asked to. And even if you’re applying for a job in, say, mobile marketing, it doesn’t mean you won’t have to create content from time to time, even if it isn’t the primary function of your role. The content out there under your name doesn’t have to align 100% with the content you’d hypothetically create for the jobs to which you’re applying, it simply has to be relatively well-written and demonstrate your capacity to put pen to paper (or cursor to screen, rather). Unless you’re applying for a blogging job — then it should be ridiculously well-written ;-)
engaging in some form of analytics.” He goes on to say that marketing departments and agencies want people who are “somewhat well-rounded, who are not afraid to wrestle numbers to the ground, but [who] are also able to express themselves in writing and make recommendations intelligibly...They look at budgets, sales data and forecasts, and analyze which marketing media and channels are working and which aren’t.”
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Don’t Shy Away From Technology
You know what else should show up when someone Googles a prospective inbound marketing hire’s name? Their social media accounts. I’m not saying you need to make your Facebook profile public or anything, but you should be able to be easily found on networks like Twitter and LinkedIn, at the very least. It’s not enough to just have the accounts. You actually have to use them. When your last tweet was sent out two months ago, it doesn’t look like you really “get” how social media works.
Inbound marketing requires a certain level of comfort with technology. You don’t have to be a master coder or anything, but you should be comfortable doing things like learning new software, navigating a CMS, figuring out how your company’s CRM works, even doing some basic HTML. Again, being a full-on expert isn’t always required (although if you’re in marketing operations, for example, you should probably be more CRM-savvy than the average bear), but comfort, coachability, and the ability to self-teach are critical. Plus, they’re indicators that you’ll be able to keep up with the fast pace at which the inbound marketing world moves. There are new developments every day!
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Have an Active Social Presence
Be Part of a Community
Speaking of social media, if you’re actively involved in it, you’ll start to find little communities you can be a part of, like LinkedIn groups or industry forums. It behooves you to become an active member of these communities — even if they’re offline, in fact — because you never know when these connections will pop up again down the road. Online communities are the new, efficient, and effective way to network!
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Develop an Analytical Mindset
Inbound marketers aren’t afraid of numbers. Professor of marketing at Pace University Larry Chiagouris notes, “The good entry-level jobs in 2012 will be for new graduates who are comfortable
Always Be Learning
Speaking of which ... there are new developments every day! You should be staying up to date on industry developments, and be able to talk intelligently about them. Did Facebook recently release a new feature or tool to help out marketers? (Hint: they probably did.) Make sure you’re reading up on these types of developments, and know how to apply new concepts and tools to inbound marketing. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps your marketing tactics from becoming stale, makes you insanely effective at your job, and positions you as a forward-thinking candidate that can bring something new to the table.
Inbound Marketing continued on page 12
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“Out of Sight, Out Of Mind”
Reinforce your Brand with Web Remarketing Eric Jacobson
A
fter people visit our website (www. IQnection.com) they tell us that they see our name everywhere as they visit other websites. They assume that we spend a lot of money for banner ads to showcase our business. They are unaware that Google® provides a method of advertising that helps businesses stay noticed. As we all know, people need to see a business logo and name many times before there is recognition. Remarketing is a cost effective tool that can help you be known. It is effective in three areas: • Brand awareness • Recall • Interaction
Here’s how it works. You set up a remarketing campaign with Google. When people visit your website there is a cookie placed on their computer that records that
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they have been to your website. Then as they travel the web Google will display your ad on various websites that they visit. You only pay for the service when people click on the ad. The cost per click is less than for traditional Google marketing. We don’t actually want people to click on the ad (we just want the brand recognition) so we created a professional looking ad, but not one that will entice people to click on it. Remarketing is a tool you can use to enforce your brand in the marketplace. It is particularly effective when your product is one with a long buying cycle or when the prospective consumer will be going to other websites before selecting their vendor. Remarketing ads are displayed on websites that accept Google’s ads, so don’t expect to see your ad on your competitor’s website.
Eric Jacobson is a Web Marketing Consultant at IQnection Internet Services. (Located in Doylestown, Pennsylvania) Before working in the internet business he worked as a programmer, customer realtions manager, and other positions within the direct mail and fulfillment industry for over 30 years at CC3/ Transcontinental Direct, DA Lewis Associates, and Prudential AARP. Eric is able to combine his direct mail/marketing experience with the online website process to provide extra value to his customers. Eric’s hobby is creative photography and he recently published a book that incorporates over 60 of his photographs in an inspirational book.
The New Age of Customer Experience Jon T. Hamilton
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he contact industry has discovered in today’s multi-tasking, multi-device world, customers want to resolve their issues on the go, via their mobile or tablet device, and in between text messages. As a result, this industry must evolve its business models to ensure a hightouch, interactive and engaging customer experience. An increasing number of consumers are using social media to research their buying decision and no industry seems immune. When deciding what company to go with, what product is best, and where to purchase, consumers will turn to the internet and social media channels to do their research. They will leverage complaint forums, consumer review sites, read blog posts, and most importantly ask for recommendations from their Facebook® friends. At the end of the day, consumers trust peer recommendations more than they trust advertisements. According to Max Kalehoff; “Customer Experience is the New Advertising Department” Thanks to the Internet, a customer can share their positive AND negative experiences with a specific company to hundreds of friends on Facebook and Twitter® as well as tens of thousands of complete strangers on Yelp or Amazon. Because the reach of social media far expands traditional word of mouth, positive customer testimony can serve as a form of free advertisement for a company’s goods or services, while negative testimony can drastically affect the company as a whole.
Positive customer engagement seems to be the key to an overall positive customer experience. Higher engagement with customers using mobile technologies and social media will also mean less need to discount products in order to get them to buy or renew. Think about brands that symbolize great customer experiences: USAA, Zappos, Disney, Apple, and Starbucks. Overtime, these companies’ traditional marketing efforts have significantly diminished because their customers do the advertising for them. They do not need to offer discounts or lower prices to help acquire new customers; instead these brands charge a premium for great service and leverage social media to deepen relationships with loyal customers, who will in turn promote the brand to their peers online. Companies need to monitor the social media landscape to learn what consumers are saying about their brand relative to its competition. Anytime one uncovers a negative post, it’s important to jump into the conversation and reply back to the consumer (even if they are not expecting a response). It shows the rest of the community that this company really cares about its customers and wants to make the bad experience right. And remember this; Customer feedback is critical to assessing the current customer experience and finding new ways to make it better. It’s important to hear first-hand what customers think of your company, its employees, and products. The great part
about social media feedback is market research has never been easier! The last point is measurement. As direct marketers, it is as important to measure our efforts in the customer experience area as it is to measure response and conversion. Social media has its own set of metrics and before embarking on a program of monitoring and engagement, you need a dynamic measurement tool. Other obvious measurements include increased traffic, first call resolution and voice of the customer and/or net promoter score. Nothing causes the CMO to go gray faster than agreeing to spend a lot of money to better understand the customer experience without knowing what that knowledge will do for the bottom line. Jon Hamilton is Vice President of Strategic Solutions for Insurance Dialogue, the Insurance and Financial Services Division of Dialogue Marketing, Inc. Jon’s experience includes over 35 years in the call center industry. Prior to joining ID, Jon’s career included the design and management of telemarketing programs and operations for many leading companies. Jon is Past National President of the American Teleservices Association and Past Chairman of the DMA’s Telephone Marketing Council. He was the 2001 recipient of the DMA’s Teleservices Excellence Award.
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Promoting wine in a new global marketplace Chris Jelepis
S
o, let me get something right out of the way here: I love wine. I do. But wine can be a difficult thing to market in today’s ever-changing alcohol industry. Let me explain: The alcohol industry has something called the three-tier-system. I won’t bore you too much with the specifics of this, but essentially, U.S. Federal law requires that producers of alcohol are required to sell to a distributor in each state, then to aretailer, and then, finally, to the consumer. My role in this whole scheme is that of an importer. Our company—Sonata Wine, LLC —brings in wine from Greece for sale here in the U.S. That makes us an agent of the supplier (i.e. winery). Thus, if I want to sell to a customer in Alabama, I need to sell our wine to a distributor there, who then will sell to a restaurant or wine store, who will then sell to a consumer. What a headache, huh? As if running a business wasn’t tough enough, my job is to sell the same bottle of wine THREE times!! Let me break down the sell a bit for you: Distributor
These guys are typically the pros when it comes to moving boxes. There are BIG distributors who move huge quantities of alcohol (i.e., big beer producers, standard spirits, giant wine producers) and smaller distributors who focus on more “boutique” types of alcohol. Marketing to distributors is a bit like dating: you’re both convincing each other why you should become partners. Some states also stipulate that once you’re in the marriage, you’re stuck there. So choosing the right relationship can make or break you as you decide on who to sell to (assuming they want to buy from you). These folks also are usually carrying many different wines from several different producers and/or importers, so a big consideration for both parties is showing why YOUR product belongs in THEIR portfolio. With Sonata’s wines, this means convincing people that Greece is an upcoming segment (which it is), and then
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Customer
showing them how our wine is going to sell in their respective marketplace. The trick here is understanding your market, and then designing your business plan for that market. For example, Greek wine will sell differently in a Detroit then it will in New York City. The advantage for Sonata in this segment is that we have a very unique portfolio, since we’ve focused on quality at affordable prices, rather than “commodity” wine which has often defined Greek wine.
Retailer
These customers can be broken down into two separate and distinct categories: on-premise (places like restaurants and bars, where the wine will be drunk on the premises) and off-premise (wine stores, grocery stores, etc.). For on-premise accounts, the trick is to get onto a “by-the-glass” list. Marketing to these accounts means getting wine at a price that will drive turnover in wine, while also getting esoteric wine that people will like and ask for over and over again. With off-premise accounts, the recipe for success is getting visibility on the sales floor with appropriately priced wines. The $8.99, $9.99, and $14.99 price-points are key here. But the difference between success and failure here is having attractive labels, recognizable names, and, of course, good juice.
Ahh, the end-user. At the end of the day, you need somebody to open their wallet and fork over the dough if you want to succeed in this biz. For Sonata, this means figuring out how to get a random customer to get interested in our bottle of Greek wine instead of the other 10,000+ bottles available in any given winestore or restaurant. This is accomplished with constant promotion like tastings, winedinners, and other events. We also spend a great deal of time doing outreach with local wine communities to get Greek wine (particularly from us) into the collective consciousness. The last hurdle to get through is convincing people that wine is something not only for the very affluent. I wish I had a dime for every time somebody started a wine conversation with me by saying, “well, I’m no connoisseur, but....” Wine can be an intimidating subject, and I often see people overstating or understating their wine knowledge, with a good degree of insecurity. The beautiful thing about wine is that it’s a rare confluence of art and science. A clever beer producer can make an excellent beer with tap water and some basic ingredients. With spirits, the goal is consistency. But wine is truly a 4-dimensional thing. You can have very different experience drinking a glass of wine depending on where a wine is from, what grapes are used, and how the wine was made. Plus, when you drink a wine is also an important characteristic. There’s no need to be intimidated: the best way to figure it all out is to get a good wine opener, pop open the cork, and figure it out with your nose and mouth! Sonata Wine is an importer of quality Greek wines to the United States. The company’s mission is to establish Greece as a source of affordably priced, consistent quality wine within the U.S. wine market.
Holiday Wine-tasting Event
Aleka Agapitides hosted this holiday event for PDMA members.
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Renew and Reap the Big Benefits It’s time to renew your annual membership in the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association.
Reap the Benefit of Visibility
Program and Event Discounts: Only members can attend events and meetings and enter the Bennys at a discounted fee.
What Are You Waiting For?
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.
Renew and Reap the Big Benefits!
Reap the Practical Benefits
Individual Membership: $140 per person
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. 12 | PDMA directviews | SPRING 2013
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.
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.
Inbound Marketing continued from page 7
7
Read Everything
Aspiring inbound marketers should be reading everything they can get their hands on about inbound marketing, and doing it all the time. Be prepared to rattle off the publications you read on a daily or weekly basis, know the names of important authors and bloggers, explain why you read what you read, and, you know, actually read them.
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Use Inbound Marketing to Get a Hiring Manager’s Attention
Hiring managers are inundated with resumes whenever a new position is posted. Consider how yours could stand out in the crowd, or “get found.” That is a basic tenet of inbound marketing, after all! For example, Anum Hussain, a star intern on our inbound marketing team here at HubSpot, applied for her position here by creating an ebook. She selected a HubSpot ebook and adapted it to be 7 Reasons HubSpot Should Hire Anum Hussain, maintaining the same layout and design as one of our ebooks. That certainly got our attention, and it was also indicative of her talent. That was almost a year ago, and she’s still rocking and rolling in our marketing department! It doesn’t end there. We’ve had employees launch full-fledged inbound marketing campaigns to apply for their jobs here. Another member of the marketing team, Sam Mallikarjunan, created a website called HireMeHubSpot where he created content about why he would be an excellent hire for HubSpot, built a landing page with a webinar about why HubSpot should hire him, and used social media to distribute all this content. 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. Outside of HubSpot, Corey is an incessant traveler who enjoys baking, outdoor adventures, Renaissance literature, and spontaneous reimaginations of popular commercial jingles.
PDMA Members-Only Benefit! Preferred Partners Program The PDMA Preferred Partners Program brings you both professional referrals and generous discounts! PDMA has negotiated with Philadelphia’s best-in-class partners to assist our members in areas that require special knowledge (so we won’t be competing with our members’ core services.) This is a growing partners list. In the meantime, get to know our partners better by going to the PDMA Web site at www.the-pdma.org and reviewing the list yourself. When you call a Preferred Partner, you will need to identify yourself as a PDMA member, using your PDMA membership number. For a complete description and contact information, E-mail us at contact@the-pdma.org. This is just a glimpse of some of our partners… • Adver-Tech Consulting & Management • Diamond Technology Services • Elements to Wellness • Health Insurance | USI Affinity • Jobecca Technology Group • Kelleher Associates • Lindy Powers Photography • Makarios Consulting • MTM Linguasoft • Ryder & Company, Inc. – CPAs
PDMA Preferred Partners Spotlight Kelleher Associates, LLC.
In our commitment to add value to your membership at PDMA, we are introducing a Preferred Partner, Kelleher Associates, LLC. Kelleher provides career and executive coaching in a highly personalized, consultative approach. They have helped thousands of executives and professionals secure new fulfilling positions, further their career goals, and enrich their career experience. One-on-one coaching is provided to:
• Those who are embarking on a career transition. • individuals whose company has recently restructured or downsized, or those who are still in their current position but are interested in changing jobs or careers. • Individuals who could benefit from executive coaching to fine-tune their management, business, interpersonal, and presentation skills; assimilate quickly into a new position; drive strategy and implement change or take their career to the next level.
As a courtesy to PDMA Members, Kelleher is offering a 10% discount on all coaching services. To learn more about Kelleher’s coaching, contact Tammy at tbeil@kelleherllc.com, visit their website at www.kelleherllc.com or request an exploratory meeting.
Lindy Powers Portraiture Artist
Lindy Powers sees beyond the smile to the inner, more powerful you. Through use of media coaching, personal styling, skilled lighting and fine-art photography, Lindy captures the true you - and the very best you. Her portraiture brings out your personality and expresses your energy. Think of regular photography as still life, maybe a bowl of bananas. But when portraying yourself, your all-important profile image, forget the bananas. Call Lindy. Other photographers might understand lighting and pose, but it takes a real portraiture artist to bring out personality in the person, and that’s what we need in our industry. We’re talking about your brand. And unless you’re a natural beauty who is inherently photogenic, you may want to give Lindy a shout. Lindy Powers brings out the best — and why settle for anything less? You are the only brand you have. As a Preferred Partner, Lindy will offer PDMA members special pricing on selected packages. Take advantage of your PDMA membership and reach out via email to Lindy at lindy@lindypowers.com
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 and then click the Career Center tab.
Job Seekers
Employers
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
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
SPRING 203 | PDMA directviews | 13
Welcome New PDMA Members
News & Notes DMW Direct Wins Two AVA Digital Awards
DMW Direct, a leading direct response advertising agency, recently received two AVA Digital Awards for outstanding work in digital communications. The agency garnered Gold awards for campaigns designed on behalf of clients Center for Vein Restoration (CVR) and CrozerKeystone Health System. The AVA Digital Awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP). Each year, the awards competition recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design and production of media that is part of the evolution of digital communication.
Logan now VP at Group G
June Logan was recently promoted to Vice President of Production at Group G Direct. Ms. Logan has been with the Bucks Countybased direct marketing agency since 2011 and offers over 25 years of production experience.
Looking for Writers
Would you like to write for Dirct Views? Here’s your chance to showcase your unique knowledge. Contact Joanna Smith (jcsmith19027@yahoo.com) for more information or to pitch your story idea.
GOT SOME NEWS?
Let us know what is going on at your company. Promotions, awards, achievements — anything you’d like to share with your fellow PhillyDMA members. Send it to us at contact@ the-pdma.org and we will work to get it into the next edition of Direct Views magazine.
14 | PDMA directviews | SPRING 2013
Susan Richard
Richard Associates (215) 595-8959 susan@richardassociates.net 618 Palmer Lane Yardley PA 19067 Suzanne Hayes
Vice President of Client Services Innovative Print & Media Group, Inc. (610) 489-4800 101 suzanne.hayes@innoprint.com 500 Schell Lane Phoenixville PA 19460 Timothy Hughes
Vice President TPG (267) 825-9511 thughes@tpgphl.com 7 N Columbus Blvd Philadelphia PA 19106 Michele White
Sales Executive, Business Development evSpring Direct (610) 650-3900 mwhite@revspringinc.com 105 Montgomery Ave Oaks PA 19456 Linda Cruz
Business Development- Sales Executive AmeriClic LLC Global Language Services (610) 613-3583 glindacruz@gmail.com 900 West Valley Rd Suite 300 Wayne PA 19087 Karen Blanco
Group G Direct, Inc. 215-957-9936 karen@groupgdirect.com 99 Willard Avenue Ivyland PA 18974
George Pelose
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Marlin Business Services Corp. (856) 505-4142 dhalsted@marlinleasing.com 300 Fellowship Road Mount Laurel NJ 08054 Sue Schlegel
Group G Direct, Inc. (215) 957-9903 sue@groupgdirect.com 99 Willard Avenue Ivyland PA 18974 Sandy Ostrander
ListSolutions Associate Director, Client Services (917) 438-4987 Sostrander@Listsolutions.com 825 Georges Rd, 3rd Floor North Brunswick NJ 08902 Christina Fissel
Administrative Assistant Valley Forge Tape & Label Co., Inc. (610) 524-8900 X35 cfissel@vftl.com 119 Summit Drive Exton PA 19341 Amber Flynn
President Brown Industries, Inc. (610) 544-8888 aflynn@browninc.com 101 S. Chester Road Swarthmore PA 19081 Wayne Heimbach
Digital Dog Direct (609) 882-3444 wheimbach@digitaldogdirect.com 200 Ludlow Drive , Building E Ewing NJ 08638
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 long-term 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!
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
p. 5
Nova Label Alan Fine at (800) 246-0506
p. 14
Independent Graphics Sal Caimano at (215) 205-6859
p. 6
Valley Forge Tape & Label Co Paul Myers at (610) 524-8900
p. 9
Japs-Olson Company Back Cover Debbie Roth at (952) 912-1440
To place your ad, email PDMA Sales Rep., Lou Yager at louyager@aol.com
About this issue of Direct Views’ cover
The cover of this issue of Direct Views was a team effort. As we looked for a way to illustrate the concept of marketing driven by digital devices, PDMA-member dmw Direct volunteered to take some photos. DMW Direct’s Mark Mandia, PDMA treasurer, and Megan Shisler, copy writer, arranged a photo shoot with staff as models. They are (back to front): Dominic Presutti, Tara DiFrancesco and Liz Meischeid. Thanks for adding some fun—and beauty— to this issue’s topic!
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 Voice (484) 270-5141 Email contact@the-pdma.org Website www.the-pdma.org For advertising rates and schedules for all PDMA publications and sponsorships, contact PDMA at (484) 270-5141. 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 Ruffles 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 Christine Wagner Direct Choice, Inc.
SPRING 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.
SPRING 203 | PDMA directviews | 15
technology. innovation.
SCAN
CHA NG ING
THE GAME.
FOR A SAMPLE KIT
http://info.japsolson.com/pdma TO RECEIVE OUR SAMPLE KIT, FOLLOW THE LINK OR CONTACT DEBBIE ROTH AT droth@japsolson.com OR (952) 912-1440