Multichannel Marketing for B2B Marketers

Here we are, almost a year after the idea was seriously floated, and the U.S. Postal Service has still not decided whether to kill Saturday mail delivery. And there seems to be little consensus about it even within the direct mail community.

Some observers worry about mailbox glut on Mondays. Others object to paying higher rates for less service. But many on the B2B side say it won’t have any real effect. Who wants their pieces hitting on Saturday?

Our own Greg Grdodian told BtoB magazine that declining volumes have reduced the potential impact of a Monday mail deluge. “More and more, we’re seeing business mail getting opened because the volume is reduced,” Greg said. continue reading…

Sobered by the recession and by the ever-changing media mix, marketers are retooling, and they’re willing to spend money on the effort. Those are the main findings of a study from the CMO Council.

Of the 600+ marketers surveyed, 35% plan to start “transformational marketing projects to improve go-to-market effectiveness.” And marketing budgets are rising by an average of 5%, compared with flat growth in 2009. continue reading…

Damn. Just when we thought things were calming down, the anti-marketing fringe reared its ugly head again on Earth Day. A so-called nonprofit group called 41pounds.org urged consumers to “say NO to unwanted junk mail,” and argued that direct mail produces “more greenhouse gas emissions than 9 million cars.”

That would be dismaying if true, but the source is far from credible. If these guys were on the up-and-up, they wouldn’t be charging $41 to get peoples’ names removed from mailing lists. The Direct Marketing Association offers this service for free. continue reading…

Planning to be in New York in June? You could do worse than wander into DMDays at the Hilton New York, June 14-16.

DMDays used to be an acronym for Direct Marketing Days. Now it stands for Digital Marketing Days. And the program reflects it.

For example, there’s a track on best practices in email, mobile and search, and another on social media. And DMDays will have joint sessions on June 14 with TWTRCON NY10 (the one-day Twitter business conference). Martha Stewart will deliver the keynote. continue reading…

Direct marketers must have gotten at least a few of the jobs given to Americans in March. But that doesn’t mean positions are there for the taking, judging by the latest survey from Bernhart Associates Executive Search.

Of 454 DM firms polled by Bernhart from January to March, only 20% have job freezes in effect, down from 45% six months ago. And a mere 3% expect layoffs.

But there’s no rush to recruit. Only 43% plan to add staff in the second quarter. That’s down three points from the first quarter. continue reading…