It’s been a long, winding road, but our local boys got it done in six. What does this say about marketing, sales, social media, and the like? Who cares! We beat the Heat! We’ll get back to business tomorrow. Let us enjoy this one.
Archive for the ‘Michael Simmons’ Category
Lebron gets dunked on by Cavs coach
It started during the fourth quarter and continued after the game tonight. Fans hungry for a Miami Heat loss felt justice was done. Call it negative karma or just rewards, for the manner in which the Heat claimed dynasty before the 2010-2011 even tipped. The Tweets weren’t all negative, however, as many give credit where credit is due–to the Dallas Mavericks.
Here’s some of the reaction via Twitter:
“Congrats to Mark (Cuban) & entire Mavs org,” Gilbert said on his Twitter account. “Mavs NEVER stopped & now entire franchise gets rings. Old Lesson for all: There are NO SHORTCUTS. NONE.”
“Heat fans heading for the exits,” says ESPN NBA Writer John Hollinger, “Will conduct search for LeBron in parking lot.”
I love how dirk just walked off the court! 13 yrs of going to work everyday perfecting his craft! It was all about the journey for him! Congrats mavs! Amazing to see the hard work they put in pay off!” from Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten.
Comedian George Lopez wrote, “Go Head MAVS !! You earned it .. Enjoy the hardware @jjbareapr “felicidades !!”
” Thanks for letting me off the hook, LeBron — Signed, Kobe in the 2004 NBA Finals,” posted by ESPN writer Jemele Hill.
Uh, oh Cowboys. Miami AP writer Tim Reynolds tweets, “Dallas does it … meet America’s (new) Team.”
Why do personalized URLs fail…sometimes?
The introduction of the variable press has printers giddy about the prospect of one-off mail customized to the individual user. When you read the popular press about personalized URLs the propondarence of information is printers talking about PURLs. It was to the magic pill for an ailing industry.
Why do most miss the boat?
Printers are not digital ad agency. They lack web expertise and the ability to do much more than template landing pages via MindFire or other stock web sites. Printers also think all you have to do is add a PURL to the same old print pieces and they will be transformed into dynamic, exciting marketing touches.
Not so.
The PURL can’t be an after thought. It needs to be the central element in any postcard (yuck!), print ad, billboard, you name it. A page with nothing but a PURL, no brand, no other copy, no images, will drive more web traffic than any ad loaded and bloated with content and imagery. You have to get people to the web for a PURL to work for you. Again, you have to drive traffic to the web.
The Internet is the game changer, because with it you understand the true measure of success. Sadly, printers pushing PURLs fail. That’s why we do it a little different. Here are the keys:
1. Dimensional mail…nothing flat
2. Handwritten envelopes or a darn good handwritten font
3. Intrigue-driven, unique Internet domains (never a corporate domain or your tagline as a domain)
4. Moving, engaging and memorable Flash microsites
5. Solid back-end tracking software with real-time sales alerts and marketing reports
Put this 5 step solution in play for you to make sure your PURLs live up to the promise of one-to-one marketing gold.
Five ways to fight boredom (5 of 5)
This is perhaps the most obvious and certainly chief among the reasons VLG gets hired to run direct marketing programs. Everyone wants their customers to think they are cool. No exceptions.
1. Be fun, intriguing, or dramatic with your marketing to breath a little life into your marketing. Too often marketers want to use a microsite to package up the same message, look and feel of the corporate presence. Why in the world would you do that when a little creativity tells the same story in a much more meaningful and memorable way? That’s rhetorical. Fun = time = money. Make the microsite fun, keep them on the site longer, drive them through to sales faster. That’s what it means to fight boredom.
So, that’s it.
1. Be fun
2. Be specific
3. Personalize
4. Un-brand
5. Mail less
We love it when our phone rings. Call us to make your marketing less blah and more rah! rah!
Five ways to fight boredom (4 of 5)
I wish I could be even more specific, but I don’t know as much about our blog’s audience as I’d like. Nothing is more exciting than a deep, updated, quality database with demographic information down to the individual.
2. Be specific when building a microsite. Your target audience has the ability to bore themselves through your corporate website at leisure. Direct targeting should be more focused, personalized and engaging. Using a slick microsite you can engage prospects long enough to pitch just about anything. Unlike a corporate website, our microsite are quick to react to decisions the recipient makes. This gives you tactical advantage during the engagement.
Five ways to fight boredom (3 of 5)
Day three. John told Jill this was the most important boredom fighting decision he ever made. Jill agreed.
3. Personalize direct mail even a little bit goes a long way. Personalization is so readily available today that you shouldn’t send another non-personalized piece of mail again. It’s just too easy, too cheap and too effective to do otherwise. You’re more likely to drive web traffic with personalization and the web is where all marketing magic happens.
Five ways to fight boredom (2 of 5)
Our countdown of five ways you can fight boring B2B direct marketing continues with the most controversial of all suggestions.
4. Save your brand for the web. It is very tempting to slap your brand on everything from pens and pencils to towels and t-shirts, but the word is likely not quite as proud of that mark. You spent a lot of time and money to get the brand just so, but show restraint and keep the brand off your mail piece if you can. Mail gets higher negatives than a microsite, so don’t burn yourself with your own brand. Do you want your branded mail piece sitting in the trash can staring up at the recipient all day? Probably not.
Five ways to fight boredom (1 of 5)
Time and again it’s a good idea to take a step back for a refresher course in boredom fighting. Five years ago we made it our mantra. We still do it today. Here’s our top 5 ways to fight boring business to business direct marketing.
5. Send fewer mail pieces and don’t send metered mail. B2B marketers would do well to reduce the number of mailings, but spend the same. Reduce the mailing list, but spend the same you would for a larger list. Switching from metered to hand stamped increases the open rate. Culling the list reduces the number of returns you get and allows you to send a more polished dimensional mailer.
500 Million People
Gaylord Nelson, a United States Senator from Wisconsin held the first Earth Day in 1970. Here we are 41 years later and the movement seems to be losing steam. Is the brand losing ground despite the huge volume of media on the topic? General thinking is that we’ve collectively failed on the education front. How would you brand earth day to make it cool to the disinterested American teenager. Read more…
PR vs. Communications
I recently stumbled upon a post by Paul Holmes endorsing Edelman’s decision to reposition itself as a communications agency instead of a public relations firm. That’s certainly a subtle move that will go unnoticed in most circles. Firms are evil. Lawyers have firms. You have to dig a little deeper to find an evil agency. Well, depending on your political leanings (e.g. CIA, NSA, ATSDR) you do. Anyway, thought I’d share.
Oh, what about us or any “interactive ad agency”? Do we keep our category or spruce it up a bit?
- social engagement agency
- intelligent technical communications agency
- traditional marketing is stupid agency (although we think some old is good)
- converging media agency
- reciprocal communications facilitation organization
- joint consumer strike force
Nah, none seem to fit.