Guest Post: Black Friday? Cyber Monday? It’s Binge Discounting All This Week by Paul Miller

Who knows where we’ll be a year from now, but at least for this season of store and online retail bargains, the killer sales are already going on. Although there will still be big store sales this Friday and probably even bigger ones online next Monday, the big retailers already began to duke it out for the lowest prices earlier this month.

USPS “No 2010 Rate Increase”: The Loophole and a Call to Action

Just when I thought it was safe to believe in the U.S. Postal Service, I find out this lovely tidbit of information: Despite Postmaster General John Potter’s grand statement (or was it a grandstanding statement) that there’d be no postal rate increase in 2010, there’s a giant loophole.

BREAKING NEWS: US Postal Service makes a bold statement: No 2010 postal increases!

US Postal Service makes a bold statement: No 2010 postal increases!

You lost me there part 2 (your website doesn’t do enough to capture leads)

This week, let’s look at the many ways you can lose prospects who visit your Web site without even knowing who they are. This “phantom demand” can be captured and added to your contact strategy, and these leads can be nurtured until they’re ready to buy. To capture them and begin a sales dialogue, however, you must get them to identify themselves, right? So without further preamble, here are some more tips for you:

Catalog and Direct Mail’s Slippery Slope: The Environment, Some Facts and Mail Suppression Files

I’ve been getting a lot of comments to my last article on the evolution of our industry. There’s been some back and forth about going green and its impact on direct mail — the typical “direct mail kills the environment” issue.

Does direct mail really destroy the environment? I don’t think so. The Direct Marketing Association, on its DMAchoice Web site, has published the following information about direct mail being the “green” way to shop:

“Facts About Direct Mail…

Evolution, Revolution: Attention All Marketers – Change Is Gonna Come (and ROI Will Follow)

As we near the end of the first decade of the new century (time flies right?), the direct marketing business is caught in a war that’s being played out on many fronts.

Let me put this in perspective for you: If you study history, you’ll see that at the turn of every new century comes great change. However, great change is often preceded by great turmoil. Whether it was the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century or the buildup to World War I and the Great Depression in the early 20th century, change, as they say, is gonna come.

Update on the US Post Office Summer Direct Mail Sale

Recently the USPS was onsidering a postal sale to stimulate more mail traffic. It looks like we in the direct marketing industry are gettting closer to seeing this sale become a reality. I applaud the Post Office for beginning to think like businesspeople and marketers and taking the initiative. Your help is needed to pass the sale. See the below letters to use in order to make this sale go into effect.

Here is the latest info

4 Tips Any CEO or C-Level Exec Can Take to the Bank

Being a C-level executive these days has to be the ultimate challenge. These execs face a ton of pressure to keep their companies above water during these turbulent times. Truly, I feel for them.

But, in many cases, my empathy for them goes only so far. Especially when C-levels exemplify what I call “ivory tower thinking.” With this in mind, I’d like to offer four pointers for any and every CEO and C-level exec:

Want to know what’s

Marketing and Finance: the Peanut Butter and Jelly of Direct Marketing

Over the years, I’ve written many times about the importance of financial acumen as a core competency for direct marketing success.

Many people seem to think direct marketing is about killer creative, or campaign management, or even great customer service. But to me, it always starts with the finances…. Now with social media all the rage, and multi channel marketing being the norm for mail order, catalog and electronic retailers, the need for financial measurement and knowledge is greater then ever.

Another Year, Another Catalog Conference, Another Dog-and-Pony Show, Another Thank You!

It’s that time of year again, readers. Catalog conference time — or to be more precise, Annual Conference for Catalog and Multichannel Merchants (ACCM) time. This year it’s in New Orleans., and despite that love New Orleans and the music especially, once again I’m not going.

I had planned to go this year. I even set up some meetings. But then some other meetings took precedence. Truth is, however, I have mixed feelings every year about going. Oddly enough, the people I’ll miss the most are the vendors I’ve worked with over the years. These are the people who’ve allowed me to do my job to the best of my abilities. I truly believe that the job of a direct marketer is just as much externally focused, if not more, as it is internally.