Newsletter Confusion
You know how to build a campaign. It’s Marketing 101, just the basics. A good list, creative design, a great offer. Bingo.
We’re told it’s all about the numbers: reach and repetition. Write a great headline, use the right tools, hire a Flash whiz, get an account at Constant Contact. Hang in there. This strategy works. [...]
A Basic Direct Mail Marketing Plan
by Bill Alpert
Forget the elevator speeches and the boring chamber mixers. Follow this plan and you’ll be more successful in business and in life!
1. Concentrate on pinpointed target market(s).
2. Have at least two good reasons to add a name to your list.
3. Call to check names and titles on your list
4. Write great copy, for [...]
Organic Marketing, Part 2: What’s Your Story?
It must have been the 1960s. Still, I can still remember the agony of my junior high history class. It was a mind numbing succession of dates, names and places. The teacher, who may have been old enough to have been present at the signing of the Mayflower Compact, spoke in a monotone drawl that [...]
Print Is Forever
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How much would you pay for this screen shot of Wednesday’s New York Times Inauguration issue? Likely, not much, even in full resolution. E-mail and web pages live in the cyber-world. We don’t put much value on them.
Physical copies of the actual newspaper were going for $30 or more on E-Bay, according to a report on [...]
United States Postal Service new NCOA rules
Starting November 23, the USPS will require that all presorted mailing lists be cleaned using the National Change of Address (NCOA) directory. It’s a 95 day rule. Your list needs to get cleaned at least every 3 months. If you’re busted for sending “dirty” mail, your postal discounts will be forfeited, and you’re liable to [...]
10 cents worth of shampoo
How can just a few words and a single ounce of shampoo bring fortune to your company? How can saving a few pennies end up costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars?
I’m in Chicago on an extended business trip, and decided to try a new (to me) hotel chain: Extended Stay Hotels. Upon checking in [...]
The United States of Bland
This morning I ran across a display ad in Sunset Magazine; it was a tourism piece for the City of Portland, Oregon. Regardless of the ad’s merit, it does make a point that resonates well today: that most cities across the country lack much individual personality. Everything looks so mind-numbingly bland. The same strip malls, [...]
Un-Confuse Your Marketing!
People send mailers for all the wrong reasons.
Are you thinking about sending out a flyer or mailer? Stop! Why are you sending it? Unless you have a clear picture of your reason, you’re cooking up a recipe for disappointment!
Most people who send out flyers are thinking DRM, or direct response marketing. Compare that to “branding” [...]
Control Freaks: Print is for you!
Think you’ve got your website design nailed? Here’s what Joseph Webb, Ph.D., Director of WhatTheyThink.com Economics & Research Center says:
“Content creators use graphic design techniques to ensure that images are viewed in a manner that they will make their client’s message effective. In print, they have almost full control of the physical nature of their [...]
Featured Site: Brainy Zip
While working on a client’s consumer survey project I recently ran across brainyzip.com , a quick and easy way to look up a plethora of demographic information, all sorted by zip code…. Of course you’ll find the typical stuff, such as distribution of population by age group, but how about some interesting tidbits?
William Alpert is a seasoned entrepreneur and 35 year business veteran. His California based companies design and create printed and electronic marketing materials for Fortune 500s, entrepreneurs as well as advertising and graphic design professionals. He is the author of InkBlot, a weekly journal on business marketing in the internet era. 
