Posts filed under 'Speakers'
Joining us as a special guest blogger this week is Mariah Hunt, who is a Senior Production Manager at Digitas, working on the FedEx, AT&T and Virgin Life Care accounts.
Prior to joining Digitas, Mariah had her own direct marketing consulting business with clients such as Monster.com, Crabtree & Evelyn, and Intersystems. She has won many DM awards, and has participated in many DM forums, speaking engagements and postal forums.
With over 18 years of DM experience, Mariah has helped many clients realize their ROI while making sure all cost efficiencies are realized in the data processing, print and lettershop areas.
Programs she has worked on include loyalty, acquisition and retention, financial and retail.
Mariah earned a B.S. in Marketing at Skidmore College in New York.
Mariah will be appearing at NEDMA ‘06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition, during the “Lunch with the Experts” session. Her topic will be Direct Mail Production Management.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mariah Hunt…
First, let me start out by saying I am not a blogger — my attention span lasts no more than 10 minutes and scrolling to read the blogs (page after page after page) is a good way to find my computer at the bottom of a 22-story building on the sidewalk in pieces.
That said, I am excited to be doing a lunch session on DM production. It has become a lost art to produce something tangible in this new age “digital” world — do it on budget and within the speedy timeframe that everyone wants. I find less and less people knowing the true art of colorwork, typography, creating and printing a piece you can hold in your hand, and marvel at. And, even worse, there are not many new faces coming into the profession these days, either. DM offline production is not the “glamorous” end. We are the red- headed stepchildren who churn and burn to get pieces of mail out. Most “younger kids” want to do online, not offline, work.
Me? I still find things to be excited about doing offline work — even after 20 something years.
With all that being true, I am still amazed at the amount of mail that has been circulating these days. Dimensional mail, pop ups, diecut packages, packages with credit card-type things attached to them — it is a new mail that most people are seeing in their boxes these days, along with some of the “old world” packages still unbeaten from every test thrown at them.
If you were at the last monthly meeting with Steve Penn (who was great, by the way), you would have learned that it took 28 years for the old tried and true white mail #10 package from the Wall Street Journal to be beaten out by something else.
I hope that people come to the lunch session with lots of questions, issues, problems, and stories to share. I am excited to talk about the thing that has kept me gainfully employed for the past 20 something years.
And if there really is nothing to talk about, we can talk about my feelings on blogs….
June 6th, 2006
In the last of his posts as one of our special guest bloggers, Ted Demopoulos — who will be appearing at NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition, during the “Lunch with the Experts” session on June 15 – tells us what he thinks the benefits of blogging are for the non-bloggers among us…
Blogs have enormous benefits for non-bloggers.
Let’s be serious, most people don’t and may never blog. Many of you reading this may never blog.
Most inhabitants of the blogosphere don’t blog. But they keep reading blogs. Why? What are the benefits?
Blogs are an enormous and effective information source. I can think of many stories that the mainstream media didn’t get quite right, but that blogs did. Often these are admittedly in niche areas, but hey, we all live and work in our own niches!
I know a great sales guy – the kind you want to buy from because he doesn’t waste your time and is always trying to offer you value. He wouldn’t dream on calling on a company without doing basic blog research – reading any official company as well as non-official employee blogs, and looking for any recent mentions of the company and their products in blogs. He benefits from the blogosphere, and I don’t see him ever blogging.
One big company I work with has no immediate plans to blog, although I set them up to regularly monitor the blogsphere using tools like PubSub and Technorati to see what their customers are saying and they get a lot of valuable feedback that way, as well as keeping up on industry trends and sentiments.
Most people don’t write books, but a lot of us benefit from reading – probably everyone here. Blogs are getting a greater percentage of people to publish information, and that benefits both bloggers AND non-bloggers.
Ted Demopoulos’ professional background includes over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and Business, including 15 years as an independent consultant. Ted has helped start a successful information security company, was the CTO at a “textbook failure” of a software startup, and has advised several other startups. Ted is a frequent speaker at conferences and other events, co-author of Blogging for Business, and the principal of Demopoulos Associates. Ted also has an ongoing software concern in Hong Kong, The Arial Group, an Enterprise Risk Management solutions provider.
June 2nd, 2006
Today, Ted Demopoulos – who will be joining us at NEDMA ’06 to talk about both blogging and podcasting – asks what you’re going to blog about if, in fact, you start a business blog…
So, you’re starting a business blog. What are you going to blog about?
Obviously this depends on your blog’s goals, your business, and your target audience.
You do NOT need to blog on your industry, your products, or even anything related — although this is extremely common — but your topics need to be interesting to your target audience.
Maybe you are a manufacturer of Yellow Gray Widgets and you want to “connect” somehow with your target buyers (your planning had better be more detailed than just “connect with target buyers via blog!”). As we all know, Yellow Gray Widgets are horribly dull yet critical for many people.
A blog on Yellow Gray Widgets would probably fall flat on its face – yes, some people might use it for research, which is good, but it’ll probably have few regular readers or interactivity. Your proposed Yellow Gray Widgets material may be better suited for spec sheets, case studies, etc. on your corporate web site.
Who buys your horribly dull yet essential product? Hmmm…if you know, you can tailor your blog to their interests. Maybe your research has shown most of your buyers are male, between 20-30, and have an income of 25-50 thousand dollars a year. What is this demographic interested in? Maybe sports? Cars? Women? I don’t know, I haven’t done the research, but write “stuff” interesting to them.
Washing machines are pretty dull – especially when they work like they should. What did Whirlpool do, start a blog on washing machines? They could have called it “Whirlpools are Exciting!”
No, they targeted families – families buy washing machines. Whirlpool started the American Family series of podcasts, covering topics like “homeschooling,” “positive parenting,” and other topics of interest to families (note: podcast – think audio blog with a show-like format).
So, your blog needs goals, and that includes a target audience. Write for your target audience. And hopefully, you are one of your target audience and share their interests and passions! If you don’t, maybe someone else should be writing the blog.
May 31st, 2006
Here’s Ted Demopoulos once more, this time around on the worst type of business blog…
Driving to work naked and starting a Biz Blog with zero planning are similar. Both might start out ok . . .
“Joe, I heard blogs are hot on the news, and our competitor XYZ Corp has one. I don’t know what a blog is, but start one. NOW!!”
“Yes, sir, Mr. President! Right away”
NO NO NO. A blog requires planning. The worst type of blog is the “let’s start a blog” blog.
A blog needs to be part of your strategy, whether you are a mammoth multinational with a well thought-out corporate communications and marketing strategy, or just me, one person Ted’s Company.
What are the blog’s main goals? Who will write it? What will it be about? Maybe you should simply encourage employees to blog instead of starting an official company blog?
How will you keep legal, marketing and PR from turning your wannabeblog into a shiny and glossy “produced” non-blog like this one from Nike, that does NOT have most of the advantages of a real blog? Nice job, for a corporate marketing brochure, but not for a blog.
It takes planning. Not necessarily a lot, depending on the company or individual, but absolutely some thought.
May 30th, 2006
During the “Lunch with the Experts” session at NEDMA ’06, you’ll have the opportunity to sit down and chat with an array of top direct marketing pros – designers, copywriters, database marketers, production people, even a blogger.
Yes, Ted Demopoulos will be joining us on June 15 from noon to 1:15 PM to talk about blogging — and, also, podcasting. You can register to attend his session (and all the others, too) by clicking here.
Ted Demopoulos’ professional background includes over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and Business, including 15 years as an independent consultant. Ted has helped start a successful information security company, was the CTO at a “textbook failure” of a software startup, and has advised several other startups. Ted is a frequent speaker at conferences and other events, coauthor of Blogging for Business, and the principal of Demopoulos Associates.
Ted also has an ongoing software concern in Hong Kong, The Arial Group, an Enterprise Risk Management solutions provider.
For the next few days, Ted will be all but taking over the NEDMA ‘06 Conference Blog with a few great posts on, well, blogging. As another one in our series of our special guest bloggers, he’ll be weighing in on how he thinks you can use a blog to communicate more effectively with your prospects, customers and colleagues.
Ladies and gentlemen, Ted Demopoulos…
Blogging for Business
I’m Ted Demopoulos, co-author of Blogging for Business, and excited to be blogging here today, and very much looking forward to the conference.
But, as an intro, “Why do I Blog??” – simple, RESULTS.
I started The Ted Rap with a somewhat lame “interview of myself by myself” post. Literally with 24 hours, my placement in the search engines had improved greatly. The traffic to my website more than doubled in a month (sounds like an infomercial, and it’s even true!). I’ve also sold keynotes, consulting and training classes from my blog.
In one case a potential client called me back after reading my blog and gave me the job — skipping the “selection committee” and proposal process I’d been told to expect. He felt he knew me well enough from reading my blog and was comfortable immediately hiring me.
I spoke with an E-commerce consultant last week who told me that all 20 or so blogs he had started for clients recently had increased traffic and profits to their related sites. The BloggingforBusinessBook.com blog is a main part of promotion for my book as well.
“Big” companies are getting massive benefits as well. Microsoft is no longer a faceless 800 pound gorilla due to the efforts of Robert Scoble, Channel9, and many others. Companies are getting valuable feedback from their blogs - often far better than from “focus groups” and surveys.
Blogging is NOT a silver bullet. Your results may vary. It DOES take time and effort, however the time and effort spent is enjoyable for most bloggers, and blogging helps bloggers stay current in their field.
Bloggers also usually become better writers — and writing IS a critical business skill.
May 30th, 2006
At NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition, M. H. “Mac” McIntosh — described by many as one of America’s leading business-to-business sales and marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales leads — will be delivering the closing keynote (June 15, 4:30-5:30 PM), entitled “How to Get Your CEO, CFO, the Folks in Sales, Your Agency and Your Client to Buy Into Your Marketing Plan.”
Mac is president of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in helping companies get more high-quality sales leads and turn them into sales. For more information about his firm, or to request a free subscription to his newsletter, Sales Lead Report®, please click here.
Yesterday, here in this space, Mac was kind enough to share with us just a few of his many wishes for B2B marketing pros. Today, he’s going to do the same, only for those on the sales side of the equation.
Ladies and gentlemen, Mac McIntosh…
•I wish sales management would design compensation programs that reward salespeople for all behaviors that contribute to the success of the company. Commissions are important, but how about also rewarding salespeople for “closed-loop” feedback on sales leads, more accurate forecasts, adding names and information to the sales and marketing database, and other tasks important to the company’s ongoing success? Then, maybe salespeople would invest more time and effort towards these important tasks.
•I wish more sales managers would insist that the company’s marketers accompany salespeople on at least one sales call per month, so they better understand what the salesperson is up against and what sales tools are really needed.
•I wish salespeople would quit complaining about marketing and, instead, try to help the company’s marketers understand how they can assist sales in finding qualified sales opportunities, demonstrating product or service advantages, proposing and closing sales.
•I wish salespeople would stop ignoring qualified sales leads generated by marketing programs. (Notice I said “qualified sales leads.” I don’t think salespeople should follow up on every inquiry or website visitor; only those that have been pre-qualified.) Their company spent thousands of dollars generating and qualifying sales leads, and if salespeople don’t contact these prospective customers, they will go elsewhere to buy.
•I wish salespeople would take the time to report back on the results of the sales leads they are provided from marketing. Their feedback would allow the folks in marketing to better target their future lead generation programs, eliminating the efforts that don’t work and concentrating marketing efforts where they will produce more of the high-quality leads salespeople want.
Note from Mac McIntosh: Giving credit where credit is due, not all the items above were my ideas. I enlisted the aid of a small group of business-to-business sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to Sales Lead Report®. They include Peter Altschuler, Bob Derr, Tracy Emerick, Dianna Huff, Mike Wallen and Kristin Zhivago.
May 26th, 2006
M. H. “Mac” McIntosh is described by many as one of America’s leading business-to-business marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales leads. His firm, Mac McIntosh Incorporated, located in North Kingstown, RI, specializes in helping companies who sell products or services to other companies to:
• Generate more high-quality sales leads.
• Nurture and qualify leads as being sales-ready.
• Convert leads into new business and sales revenue.
• Track and measure marketing results and ROI.
Mac’s consulting clients include dozens of industry leaders like ADC, CardScan, Intel, Microsoft, NEC, NSK and Sigma-Aldrich, as well as many small and medium-sized companies you may not have heard of—yet.
In addition to consulting, Mac conducts marketing workshops and seminars for leading associations and corporations around the world, writes regularly for leading marketing and business publications, and is the publisher of Sales Lead Report®, a newsletter with more than 14,000 B2B marketing professionals as subscribers.
At NEDMA ’06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition, Mac will be delivering the closing keynote (June 15, 4:30-5:30 PM), entitled “How to Get Your CEO, CFO, the Folks in Sales, Your Agency and Your Client to Buy Into Your Marketing Plan.”
But you don’t have to wait till the conference to hear from Mac. Today, he’s going to share with us just a few of his many wishes for B2B marketing pros. Tomorrow, he’ll do the same, only for those on the sales side of the equation. Here’s Mac…
•I wish that more marketers would interview a couple of their company’s prospects and customers every week. This will help them to better understand their prospects’ and customers’ needs and points-of-view, allowing the marketers to better craft and target their marketing messages. It would also give the marketers a lot more credibility with management, product development, finance, and sales.
•I wish more marketers would start treating the company’s sales people as though they were the customer. (They are the marketer’s customer. The end buyer is the salesperson’s customer.) This approach will allow marketers to better focus on supporting their company’s salespeople and driving sales and revenue with their marketing programs.
•I wish more marketers would make the time to regularly accompany their company’s sales people, reps, dealers or distributors on sales calls. This would give the marketers a better understanding of what the salespeople are up against and what sales tools marketing could and should provide to assist salespeople with demonstrating, proposing and closing sales.
•I wish more companies would stop wasting the sales leads they invested hundreds or thousands of dollars each to get. How? By putting in place marketing programs designed to nurture those leads until they are ripe and ready for sales attention.
•I wish marketers did the work required to better understand the true value of sales leads to their companies. If they tracked and measured cost-per-inquiry, cost-per-qualified-lead, cost-per-closed lead and the average sales value of leads that close, they could demonstrate their contribution to the company’s sales goals and use the same information to justify their marketing budgets.
Remember, there’s more from Mac – right here – tomorrow. Do stay tuned….
Note from Mac McIntosh: Giving credit where credit is due, not all the items above were my ideas. I enlisted the aid of a small group of business-to-business sales and marketing professionals who subscribe to Sales Lead Report®. They include Peter Altschuler, Bob Derr, Tracy Emerick, Dianna Huff, Mike Wallen and Kristin Zhivago.
May 25th, 2006
A few months ago, I was fortunate enough to be in attendance when Kurt Medina spoke at a NEDMA dinner meeting, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed his presentation.
It wasn’t just what Kurt had to say about marketing to the 50+ consumer. It was how he said it, too. He had those of us in the audience that evening on the edge of our seats, hanging on his every word. Clearly, Kurt is an incredibly gifted speaker with a wealth of knowledge to share about the mature marketplace. Which is why we’re so excited about his appearance on Day One (June 14) of NEDMA ’06, when he’ll teach a workshop from 9 AM to 4 PM (lunch included) on his area of expertise.
Kurt Medina is President of Medina Associates, a consultancy specializing in marketing to the 50+ consumer. He brings his clients a unique blend of 20+ years of senior line direct response marketing experience with major quality companies … coupled with 15 years as an independent consultant who has worked with over 75 U.S. corporations to help them achieve their marketing goals.
He is also co-author of the book, 77 Truths About Marketing to the 50+ Consumer.
And this week he is our special guest blogger.
Ladies and gentlemen, Kurt Medina…
“Why on earth do I need to spend an entire day learning about marketing to the 50+ consumer?”
This, of course, is the question of the hour for anyone even considering participation in the NEDMA ’06 Workshop I’ll be leading on June 14 entitled 77 Truths About Marketing to the 50+ Consumer. (OK, maybe that question hasn’t been on the top of your mind yet, but read the rest of this and perhaps it will be!)
The answers to the question are two-fold. I’ll give you an initial set of answers for the left side of your brain (that’s the part of your thinking that has to convince your boss or CFO that the time and money will be well spent) … and one set of answers for the right side of your brain (that’s the part that wants to learn super new stuff you can use right away, but that also wants to have fun at the same time!).
Left-Side-of-the-Brain Reasons to Attend “77 Truths” Workshop
Any company wanting to grow in the next 5-10 years MUST master this critical market segment … or risk major stagnation or business decline.
• In the next 15 years, the number of folks under 50 will remain almost flat, while the number of folks over 50 will grow by 45%!
• Already today, the population over 50 owns 77% of the nation’s assets and possesses over half of all of the disposable income. There is more available money among 50+’ers than all other segments combined.
• So, there IS a market there! Now, all we need do is to mail some 50+ lists and we’re home free! Right? Wrong! Marketing to the 50+ mature world is totally different from marketing to younger folks. To start with, there’s not even one single market. There are at least three major sub-segments that need to be approached separately (Boomers, Active Retirees and then Seniors). And all have different lifestyles, different hot buttons,
different motivations for purchase.
• They also, by the way, look at advertising differently.
• And you need to learn how to reach them.
OK, there are some practical reasons why you should become at least 50+ knowledgeable.
Right-Side-of-the-Brain Reasons to Attend “77 Truths” Workshop
Now, let’s look at the other side.
First and foremost, you’ll have fun! The Workshop will be interactive and informal. We’ll have some PowerPoint slides, sure. But we’ll have videos, ads, DRTV clips, focus group videos and a lot more surprises that will keep you involved. You’ll see literally dozens of examples of good stuff … as well as terrible stuff. Print ads, newsletters, direct mail, television spots, websites and more. And you’ll learn WHY there’s a difference between the successful and the not-so-successful.
There’s a bunch of humor in the whole thing too! Jokes and cartoons will be used to make points.
And, I guarantee that you’ll write down AT LEAST four new action items that you can put to good use as early as the day you get back from the conference.
How can you lose? All this and a free book to boot!
So, go to the upper left-hand corner of this blog and take a look at the NEDMA ’06 conference schedule, download the brochure (but promise you’ll look at the Day One sessions first) … and register today. At the Atlanta DMA Annual Conference last fall, my one hour 50+ session was literally standing room only with people peeking in from the hall outside. Find out what they knew … and I’ll see you on June 14! You won’t be sorry!
Thanks, Kurt. I wouldn’t be surprised if your appearance at NEDMA ‘06 is SRO, also.
To learn more about Kurt Medina’s workshop on Day One (June 14) of NEDMA ‘06, click here.
For more information on Kurt Medina and Medina Associates, a consultancy specializing in marketing to the 50+ consumer, click here.
May 10th, 2006
Filing a report this week is Todd Bairstow, a smart and talented direct marketing professional whom I’ve had the pleasure to work with in the past.
Todd specializes in developing local search marketing campaigns for clients in a variety of industries. He was most recently an Associate Creative Director at Arnold Worldwide, and has worked as an interactive strategist and copywriter at several greater Boston agencies.
Ladies and gentlemen, Todd Bairstow…
By now, even the most hard-core direct mail advocates have heard the term “search” or “search marketing.” Clients are asking about it, the trades are writing about it and Google is the hottest company in the world.
Now I know there are a lot of direct mail veterans out there who look quizzically at the world of search engine marketing, and ask “I wonder what that’s all about?”
Well, that’s what I’ll be discussing during the “Lunch with the Experts” sessions on Day Two of NEDMA ‘06, so get your questions ready. But for newbies out there who want to get a head start, here are some resources to check out.
Search Engine Optimization for Dummies by Peter Kent
In half an hour, you’ll have the answer to the age-old question “Why isn’t my web site showing up on Google?”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471979988/sr=8-1/qid=1146435687/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3109779-9509721?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Pay Per Click Campaigns
Paid search, local search, contextual advertising – there’s a whole new world out there. ClickZ has a great team covering the market from all angles.
http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/
Search Engine Watch
Don’t be overwhelmed by all of the banners and links. Do a little digging to find tons of great search info. Helmed by search guru Danny Sullivan.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com
The SEMPO Learning Center
Once you think you’ve got the grasp of basic SEO and Pay Per Click strategies, check out the pros and step it up a notch.
http://www.sempo.org/learning_center/
Bruce Clay
The original master of search engine optimization manages to bring the complexities of organic search back to a level most of us non-techies can understand.
http://www.bruceclay.com/web_rank.htm
There is truly an overwhelming amount of information on search marketing out on the Web. But these are some good places to get started. So get some questions together for the “Lunch with the Experts” sessions on Day Two of NEDMA ’06, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition. I’ll see you there.
Thanks, Todd. We appreciate your contribution to the blog. And we look forward to seeing you at NEDMA ’06.
May 3rd, 2006
This week, I would like to introduce you to Dianna Huff, President of DH Communications, Inc., a B2B marketing writing and search engine optimization company whose clients include Cabot Corporation, Coldwell Banker, Thermo Electron, and a host of small and mid-size companies located throughout the U.S.
Dianna is also MarketingSherpa’s B2B Contributing Editor, for whom she has written extensively researched articles including the recent two-part marketing to China special report.
In addition to making her debut on the NEDMA ‘06 Conference Blog, Dianna is also appearing for the first time at a NEDMA conference as a presenter this year. In fact, she has two roles at NEDMA ‘06: speaking at our all-day eMarketing 101 workshop on June 14 and moderating a panel discussion on direct mail on June 15.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dianna Huff . . .
As a B2B marketing communications copywriter, I view marketing with mild skepticism – the same way a magician might watch a fellow magician.
I watch TV with my eight-year old and explain to him why Zoobooks is giving away free posters when one subscribes. I throw away most of the direct mail I receive and rarely read the unsolicited email I get by the bushel from companies that never asked me if I wanted to receive it in the first place.
But, great marketing still grabs my attention – and it’s one reason I’m pretty excited about moderating a panel discussion at NEDMA ‘06 entitled, “Direct Mail: What’s Hot, What’s Not.”
One, I’m fortunate to be working with four terrific direct marketing experts – Jonathan Kranz, Bob McCarthy, Pam Sullivan, and Pat Farley.
And two, they’ll be sharing their expertise in B2B, B2C, and non-profit direct mail practices.
We’re still working on our presentation, but preliminary conversations deem this a not-to-be missed session.
If you haven’t attended a NEDMA conference before, make this year your first time. I’m a relatively new member – I joined in 2001 after attending my first conference – and consider NEDMA a top-notch organization. If you’re looking for a friendly, welcoming group and excellent programming, you’ll find it at NEDMA. I love this group and am honored to be a part of NEDMA ‘06, It’s a Brave New World, the New England Direct Marketing Association’s Conference and Exposition.
Thank you, Dianna. We’re fortunate to have you on board as not just a guest blogger, but also as both a moderator and speaker at NEDMA ‘06.
April 20th, 2006
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