Month: March 2011

• Social

  Facebook Tips: Get the Right Message to the Right Audience

  Watershed moments can come in unusual places. In 2007, Clara Shih had one in a tiny noodle shop located on a nondescript Hong Kong side street when she overheard two old men talking about Facebook.

  “It seemed like the wrong place, the wrong language, and the wrong demographic,” Shih, founder and CEO of Hearsay Corp., told an audience at a Direct Marketing Club luncheon. But as she listened she understood their interest in what was then a nascent social network which boasted barely 20 million members.

  Facebook has grown a touch during the intervening four years, with current users topping a half-billion people. Its importance to marketers has similarly expanded: Shih cites a survey in which 72.5% of U.S. companies consider social media a top marketing priority.

• Agencies

  Six Tips To Increase Your Direct Mail Open Rates

  Your direct mail package could include the most clever appeal ever written or offer the world’s best premium, but if your target never opens it, it is all for naught

• Agencies

  California’s No-ZIP Ruling Breeds Lawsuits, List Concerns

  Last month’s ruling by the California Supreme Court bars retailers from asking for ZIP codes from credit-card store shoppers

• Agencies

  Hospital DR Effort Seeks Patients, Donors

  National Jewish Health, a specialized hospital in Denver, is launching its first national direct response space campaign to attract patients and potential donors as well as build its brand.

• Agencies

  Asking the Right Questions in Data Analysis

  What is required for a company to do effective data analysis? Many would respond, “People with advanced degrees in statistics.” This is most assuredly a worthwhile characteristic. However, I would also add, “The ability to ask the right question!”

• Agencies

  Five Tips for Successful B-to-B Paid Search Campaigns

  Many best practices across B-to-C and B-to-B paid search campaigns are similar. However, B-to-B marketers face some unique challenges

• Email

  Tailor Your B-to-B Newsletter to the Reader, Not the Company

  Chief Marketer recently talked with Craig Fitzgerald, editorial director of Waltham, MA-based e-newsletter firm IMN, to get his thoughts on what types of content work best in B-to-B newsletters, best practices, and what to avoid if you want to keep your audience opted-in and reading.

• Agencies

  Prospecting With Puppets Pulls for Scientific Firm

  Tom Simons of Partners + Simons shares how measurement-tools firm Agilent used puppets to charm online prospects into checking out a new product line, and offers thoughts on healthcare/scientific marketing trends you should watch.

• Agencies

  Coors Light/Bacardi: From Flash-mob to YouTube within 24 Hours

  On Tuesday evening over the course of about 30 minutes a flash-mob video was produced on the Las Vegas strip for both the Miller Light and Bacardi brands. The production was edited down to 2.5 minutes and is now up on YouTube with 1,016 views and counting.

• Android Overtakes BlackBerry as the Top Smart Phone Platform in the U.S.

  After just two months as the second-place dog in the U.S. smart phone platform race, Google’s Android OS leapfrogged RIM’s BlackBerry OS in January, according to comScore.