I got disturbed when I read Greg Sterling’s Screenwerk blog, in which he described how certain big media companies are turning to “content farms” populated by barely-paid “digital serfs.” Ugh! Writers are worth a lot more than $5 an article. In fact, a good copywriter can save your business.

In its August issue, Target Marketing magazine featured a story about how the Mayo Clinic lifted its newsletter subscriptions 28 percent. Moreover, the boost in subscriptions happened during a price hike, a postal rate increase, and a looming economic recession. The copywriter did it. Marketing Director James Hale, Sr., explains. “I directed our lead copywriter .. to take the tough economic issue, actually acknowledge it, and demonstrate the good value and wisdom in buying our newsletter.”

Still not convinced? Ever heard the phrase “Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?” How about “I’ll take the roast duck with the mango salsa“? Copywriters did that, too (and a lot more for Geico).

That’s right, marketing folks. Copy. Don’t leave the post office without it.

Nancy Scott is the Editor at Direct Marketing Association of Washington and the President of Liberty Communications. See more of Nancy’s work at www.marketingbrillo.blogspot.com

In today’s competitive market, experience, tactical expertise, education, and a mantel-full of industry awards may not be enough to land you a job, let alone your dream job. In fact, they may only be enough to get you a “thanks for your time.” To stand apart, you’ll need more.

I’ve interviewed and hired a lot of candidates and have come to recognize the importance of an expanded skill set that goes beyond the traditional and expected. Let me share two things I look for in an account director for our agency.

First, be human. Too many of the candidates we see try to be perfect. They focus on what they’ve accomplished, their successes, and how “good” they are. As people, I think we can learn far more from our failures than from our successes. I learn far more about a candidate and his or her true strengths by learning about how they’ve dealt with adversity.

The truth is, things happen. Unpredictable things. Not always good things. Especially in direct marketing, and especially in account management, or as we refer to it, client advisement. Emphasize how you’ve been tested by and navigated through something for which you couldn’t have prepared. Describe a situation in which you’ve been uncomfortable yet followed the truth, won a hand with the cards you were dealt–or ground past the status quo to achieve something notable. Remember, it’s not about the products, it’s about the process.

Second, as with any communication, you need to be relevant. Know the company you’re speaking with. Go beyond what’s published, and find out what makes them tick and what their aspirations are. Knowing where they come from, where they want to go, and how you can help them get there–information that’s relevant to your interviewer–can catapult you out of the pack and into the lead…and help managers separate the best people from the best resumes.

Here are three of the latest disaster stories from members of LinkedIn’s Direct Marketing Association (Official) discussion group. You might want to put down your coffee before reading so you don’t burst out into laughter and spit it at the screen.

When I was just starting my DM career, the blank spots for personalization were inside parentheses and usually had copy that said (insert name) as a reference for production purposes. You guessed it! When the material was printed, all the personalization spots were printed exactly as the original boards, i.e. with a salutation that said: “Dear (insert name).” It was just a test, but nonetheless, we printed 50,000 pieces that had to be trashed.

One of my insurance client’s mailings to home/auto policyholders for renewals also included “Dear Deceased.”

We lasered 11,000 (of a 150,000 run) before someone noticed the bottom line of the address read “City, State, ZIP.”

These are a funny read, but I’m sure it wasn’t funny when these things actually happened. The good news for us is that we can learn from someone else’s disaster.

Has your client checked its name field and cleansed it for “deceased”? What proofing processes do you have in place to ensure that variable field markers are not printed as text? It seems impossible until it actually happens to you.

So how about you? Got any of your own disaster stories to share?

 That the days of producing 20,000 of the same message, checking addresses for the longest record, sprinkling a few seeds into the list, reviewing one piece for quality and pushing the send button are numbered is a prognostication we’ve all accepted. For over a decade vendors have been extolling the virtues of variable data and one-to-one marketing with demos that often seem as miraculous as a Las Vegas magic show. And yet, the old one-size-fits-all direct marketing lives on in spite of the increasingly obvious shortcomings. The majority of the effort to sell marketers on variable data marketing has been focused on gimmicky creatives that spell a prospect’s name in shells to advertise a beach resort travel package.

 The exercise of bridging the gap between a flashy demo and putting a process in place that gives the marketer confidence that Joe didn’t receive Jane’s creative, or that the VIP pricing wasn’t pushed to the entire list, is rarely discussed.  Such questions as those below are rarely included in demos and many service providers end up wrestling with these as they move from demo to deployment:

1. How should information be gathered and managed?
2. How does a marketer proof variable data marketing?
3. What needs to be done to validate information?

 It’s often at this juncture between the flash and the process that variable data marketing fails or succeeds. Not surprisingly, it’s also where the most innovation is required and the hard work has to be done if variable data marketing is to become a trusted tool for majority of direct marketers.

With social media being, well, everywhere, it was no surprise that it made its presence at the June NEDMA Awards in four new categories:

1. Best SEO Campaign
2. Best Twitter Page
3. Best Blog
4. Best Other Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

What was surprising was the amount of entries in these categories – or lack thereof. Where competition was fierce in more traditional categories, there were only a sprinkling of entries in these new media categories. This is where I pause and ask the question, “Can someone please remind me, and all marketers, the true definition of direct marketing?”

From what I was taught and continue to practice, Direct Marketing really has two main principles:

1. Engage in a one-to-one dialogue with your target audience
2. Require your target audience to take some sort of action–call, click, move, you name it.

If you accept this definition, why is direct marketing synonymous with direct mail in so many marketers’ eyes? In the last five years or so, there has been no bigger trend than delivering relevant, personalized communications to build trust and credibility with your audience. For most companies that aren’t spending marketing dollars on broadband awareness campaigns, one-size-fits-all communications are passé–almost irresponsible in today’s marketing communications mix.

As a result, DR TV and radio, email, and yes even social media is about creating relevant, one-to-one dialogue with your target audience and motivating them to act in some way, shape, or form. If this is the case, why hasn’t direct marketing led the charge instead of being relegated to a category on the bar graph titled “direct mail” that decreases in size and budget year over year?

My plea to direct marketers is to strip the stigma of the red-headed stepchild that only creates unwanted credit card solicitations and rethink what it means to be a true direct marketer in this day and age.

How has your agency or company expanded the definition and importance of direct marketing for your business? Or is it thought of more as the dinosaur that used to have the stature of a T-Rex, but has shrunk to the size of a Flintstone vitamin?

Asymmetrical Triple Parallel with Short Foldout:

“Is the art and science of using transaction documents as a customer retention vehicle a threat to direct mailers or an opportunity? “

People took various positions, some positing that direct mail service bureaus (DMers) don’t know enough about data to take on transaction documents, others suggesting that transaction printers (TPers) don’t know enough about serving the needs of marketing to take on Transpromo. There seemed to be several consistent themes:

1. The business of marketing on transaction communications is growing.
2. Service providers who can offer both direct mail and marketing on transaction print (essential mail) have a brighter future than those who can’t.
3. Partnering, in the near term, may be the most effective and reliable solution for service providers and their customers.

I’ve included some quotes from the (much longer) LinkedIn thread below. Please join in and share your opinion.

“It should be an opportunity to DM service providers but their fear of effectively managing data makes it a threat for many. Some will steer their way through and then manage the relationships they have with DM customers from whom they can take advantage to deliver true TransPromo applications. Many will shy away from the opportunity and the challenge – for those I fear life will be short. “ James Shand, TriPartum Limited

 “I’m not sure most DMers can make the leap to transactional, let alone TP, which is much more sophisticated. Some can and have, but these are mostly different skill sets. DM firms in general have neither the IT/data sophistication nor the access to the right c-level execs in their customer-companies to get the buy-in and traction required to get the TP ball rolling.

Or spun another way, it would be easier for a transactional firm that does some good TP to expand much more easily into doing DM for its customers. And in that sense TP could be a real threat to DM firms. Now imagine a partnership between a smart DM firm and a smart transactional shop. That’s not a threat. That’s opportunity. “ Noel Ward, Managing Director, Brimstone Hill Associates

 “From a data standpoint, I respectfully disagree that direct mailers are somehow inferior in their data utilization. Show me a TransPromo client who is currently utilizing not only modeling techniques, but then further refining those prospective “buyers” into Deciles 1 – 10? Show me a TransPromo client who is effectively employing Lifetime Value scores for direct mailing and lead generation cross-selling? Show me a TransPromo client truly utilizing household-level data to understand both the attitudinal and the behavioral characteristics of the prospect, then – and then only – crafting the message to that household?

The key to success, from my perspective, is building relationships with partners who have the hands-on experience in developing, implementing, and then measuring every step of the way. “  Mark Weishaar, Direct Marketing Practice Leader at IBM/Ricoh InfoPrint Solutions

 “The key is for those companies who take on the data to have the skill set to manage the data, keep care of the data, and help the clients do more with the data. We find much too often companies who take this role on do not have the required skill set, and while a DM shop may have great skill in doing more with the data, they may lack the skill to take care of the data.

A Transactional Shop and a DM Shop have very different cultures, and having experienced working in both cultures, and attempting to integrate the two, they are both very interesting. It may seem simple enough, but they are typically at opposite ends of the spectrum.

I do see DM shops working on building up to being able to handle Transaction type of work, but it is not just about having nice fancy full color devices, it is about being able to manage the process, and the data.  

And we see Transaction shops working on adding DM capability to help fill in the valleys in production, but they to need to change how they manage the process of bringing work in house.

The change in business culture for DM to start work with TP type applications, even the standard transaction type applications will be too much for some, and it is the same on the other side of the fence, the change in business culture on the transaction side to work with DM type of applications, the cultures are very different, those that can make the transition can be successful, but it is not a simple transition for high percentage of the market.” Kevin Smith, Principal and Founder at Courier10

 “TP can grow as a way to communicate with and market to *existing* customers, but it doesn’t work at all for customer acquisition. That requires other mechanisms, including (really good) DM.

This is why a company that can do both, either internally or with a partner will be in a better position moving forward. Service providers especially must stop thinking of themselves one-dimensionally–that they are a DM shop or a transactional printer. Or even as a TP printer. Yet I see bureaus do this all the time. Success will come to those that can do more for their customers. The ones that don’t are gonna’ go away. “ Noel Ward, Managing Director, Brimstone Hill Associates

I’ll look forward to hearing what The Digital Nirvana community thinks of this topic!