NextMark

Prospecting Trends -- Digging For Gold

The theme of this year's VT/NH Marketing Group Annual Conference was 'Making Cents of your Marketing Dollars'. Before you criticize the play on words, consider the fact that the keynote speaker was David Sundman of Littleton Coin Company. Making 'Cents' certainly does make 'Sense' in this context, when you consider that a rare find like the 1804 one cent coin sells for $2,994. The conference included a wealth of information related to offline and online marketing, and ended with a tour of the Littleton Coin Company facility.

On Thursday afternoon, Chris DeMartine and Joe Pych presented the facts about prospecting trends for 2010 and beyond. Attendees were challenged to differentiate between pure gold and fool's gold in a rapidly changing environment of emerging media channels. Session attendees also received an objective survey of what's happening with inbound versus outbound marketing, and an actionable resource guide to the mother lode.

Although most of the current conversations are about online marketing going social and mobile, we were able to put some context around the spending in those areas. The takeaway was that marketers need to continue to invest in what works, and to test emerging media channels with the same level of discipline used for traditional media channels. A quick look a the 2010 aggregate spending and growth will certainly add some perspective. The total marketing spend for digital still has a long way to go to catch up to traditional channels like broadcast, phone, and print.

For the local marketers we surveyed in New England, it was paid search that seemed to be the most widely accepted form of measureable advertising. Joe Pych noted in his presentation, however, that search gets most of the credit when other media channels are driving awareness. If you stop everything else to rely solely on your search marketing, then you could very well be putting your business at risk. Research continues to reveal the impact of print and online display advertising on click-through rates and cost per click (CPC). Also, keep in mind that your CPC is likely to be much lower with branded keyword searches.

Saving Direct Mail -- One Video at a Time

It's a fact. The mailing lists you choose will determine the success of your marketing campaign. There are more than 60,000 active postal lists, email lists, and insert media programs on the market today. NextMark is helping you find them, one video at a time.

NextMark technology makes it easier to find better lists, and get marketing services providers connected online.

RMI and Millard First To Add Video To Data Cards

RMI Direct Marketing was well-prepared for NextMark's latest software release (version 6.12) enabling video marketing for mailing lists. As of this morning, a NextMark list search revealed that RMI had posted a total of 90 videos to their data cards. Included in the mix were list management presentations exclusively for non-profit list brokers and mailers, and a nice pitch from Richard Leary regarding statistical modeling on the Guideposts Associates Masterfile. Check it out below:

RMI's Chief Executive Officer, Martin Stein was among tfirst to comment on this innovation.

"The data card has always served the list community as a one dimensional marketing tool - a basic template of segments, selections and pricing. NextMark's introduction of videos offers a new vehicle for data managers to capture the attention of list brokers and mailers in a personalized fashion for today's digital world. This type of forward thinking is a boon to our industry, and RMI is honored to be a part of such ground breaking innovation."

Anthony DiNino, Millard Group also responded to the opportunity with the posting of an informative video that promotes the unique attributes of the Time Life Package Insert Program. Check it out below:

For the full story, check out today's press release titled "NextMark Enables Video Marketing For Mailing Lists". The DMNews article is also good and it points to the ROI associated with leveraging video technology for lists. I wonder what we'll see next?

Remix culture

Chris' recent blog on Chocolate Rain reminded me of new cultural phenomenon that Larry Lessig calls the Remix Culture. You may chide Tay Zonday and Chocolate Rain for it's amateur production relative to broadcast standard, but you have to respect its 33 million views. And you also have to respect it for the remix attention it has received including John Mayer's version, Weezer's references in Pork n Beans, and one of my personal favorites, Chad Vader. Chad, as you might guess, is a remix of Darth Vader.  So, Chad Vader's version of Chocolate Rain is a double-derivative remix:

What does this mean for you and your business? People love to remix. For example, it didn't stop with Chad Vader. You may have also heard about the Cookie Monster's version from Michael Scott on 'The Office'.

Is there a way for you to allow your customers to interact with and remix your products and services? Larry Lessig might give you some ideas.

Marketing Freeconomics and The Chocolate Rainmaker

Don't be discouraged if your 2009 marketing budget has been cut - there's still hope! Take a look at the success of the Chocolate Rainmaker, Tay Zonday. This baritone claims no formal musical training, and uses a cheap clamp on light with a fluorescent bulb as his signature hardware for on-line video production. His YouTube video "Chocolate Rain" has been viewed 33 million times, voted one of the best according to the Washington Post, and got him multiple appearances on national television. Check out the original version below:

Don't think for a minute that the opportunities of this current on-line video age do not apply to direct marketers. The rise of direct marketing freeconomics is a maturing concept, and NextMark is embracing it. Why not you?

We're looking to enable list managers to post video content on data cards as a free service in late Q1 2009. Traffic continues to soar on free mailing list search portals now that word is out that they can be used to gather market intelligence in addition to list research. List managers can embrace direct marketing freeconomics, and become rainmakers for list and data sales, by posting quality content about their files in direct marketing forums and blogs. A simple URL applied to a data card is all you need to promote your list title no cost. Here's an example:

Check out the list popularity index (LPI) on the data card for The Swiss Colony Catalog Food and Gift Buyers mailing list. Now that's not only an impressive statistic, but valuable information for list brokers. Take a look at the hightly correlated lists section and you'll see Godiva Chocolatier. Maybe it's time to start thinking 'Outside The Box of Chocolates'?

Videos by List Management companies

After blogging yesterday on the increasing importance of video in business, I was curious to see if any mailing list management companies had videos on YouTube. My research did not reveal much other than some cheesy videos from MLM opportunity seekers.

That's great news for legitimate companies seeking a competitive advantage! It's a wide open domain and you can win "mind-share" and market in a very inexpensive way.

But you think it's too hard? If a college kid can do a mailing list video out of his dorm room, you can create videos, too!

A good example of one company that's moving into this frontier is RMI Direct Marketing. They posted a video to promote their Nutrition Action Healthletter Subscribers mailing list:

This entertaining video not only helps to promote the list but also solidifies the relationship with their client. I think list management companies would be well-served by following RMI's example.

Online video watching jumps 34% in 2008

According to a January 5, 2009 comScore report, "U.S. Internet users viewed 12.7 billion online videos during [November 2008], representing an increase of 34 percent versus year ago." This shows the increasing importance of online video. If you are not already looking at this for your business, you should start now.

Need more proof? Here's an interview with Bruce Clay by WebProNews where he says "if you don't have video and your competition does, you'll lose":

This interview also provides an excellent perspective on the state of search engine marketing in 2009.