My blog is singing happy birthday to me! (and a contest to win for you!)

Dear friends and readers. Exactly one year ago today the Gilbert Direct Marketing blog was born. Frankly I never expected it to take off the way it did. I want to offer you my readers my sincerest thank you for turning this blog into one of the top rated (99th percentile, based on Grader by Hubspot) direct and social media blogs.

Your comments, both public and private have kept me going.

So here is a contest for you. Winner gets a free one hour review of either your linkedin profile, or your own social media sites. Guess how many page views I have had in the last year. Closest the the exact number of page views wins. Post your answer to the comments below to win.

Dying to Get Your Offer (aka: dead men still get mail)

Another kind of “do not mail” database:

Don’t mailers know they’re wasting money? Direct mail costs enough these days. So much so that it doesn’t make sense to mail someone who can be easily suppressed from a mailing list.

Brands and the social media conversation – the statistics

Being a brand today means joining the conversation about their products, NOT STARTING THE CONVERSATION. This 2 minute video tells the story. Your feedback is always welcomed.

BERNHART SURVEY: Digital & direct marketing employment outlook shows improvement for 4th quarter 2009

With the drumbeat of layoffs diminishing only faintly, the latest Bernhart Associates Quarterly Digital and Direct Marketing Employment Report shows digital and direct marketers are poised in the current fourth quarter (Q4) to add to payrolls for the third consecutive quarter.

David Ogilvy had it right!

It’s time to go back to the future with David Ogilvy. Direct vs General vs. Internet vs. Social Media. Direct wins hands down. Here’s why…

Easy, Cost Effective Internet Video Part 2 – Video search optimization and a bonus content tip

Online video can also drive search engine results. Since I’m by no means a search expert, I reached out to Khrysti Nazzaro, director of optimized services at the search engine marketing firm MoreVisibility, for some advice. “Videos can be powerful tools for ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs) if your site’s pages are well-optimized for them.

Consider creating a “

Three years and 75,000 words later…

Note from Jim. This week marks my 3 year anniversary of my column for All About ROI (formerly Catalog Success) magazine. Here is the anniversary article. Hope you enjoy my favorites “best of” articles referenced. But before moving forward, I wanted to take a look back at some of my more memorable columns of the past three years with some thoughts sprinkled here and there on how they relate to today’s environment.

My very first column was

Social Media Rules (of engagement) To Live By

Over in the linkedin group I manage, (Direct Marketing Questions & Answers), we’ve been having a discussion on the zig vs. zag nature of direct marketing and social media.

In essence, the theory is this: with everybody zigging towards social media these days, does that leave a giant hole (translation: opportunity) for traditional direct marketing to be used to engage customers and prospects? It’s been a spirited discussion so far. And I firmly believe that traditional direct marketing (integrated with the web) presents such an opportunity in a zigzag market.

Customer service now!!! The convergence of customer service and social media (and a moral)

There’s just too much prime opportunity online — e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc. — for brands to get dinged when they screw up. In the few weeks I’ve been back from vacation, I’ve been thinking about this as I go about my day-to-day dealings with companies.

Twice in the last few weeks I’ve gotten dinged: once by a salesman and once by a so-called customer service rep (CSR). But helping to restore my faith in our industry, I also recently had a fantastic customer service experience as well.

Bernhart Survey Reveals New Data On Direct Marketing Unemployment

Here is a grim look at the realities of employment in the direct marketing industry – From a survey done by Bernhart Associates. In a nutshell, what this survey doesn’t state is simple…. If you are employed in this economy, do everything you can to stay employed. Work harder, longer, smarter, get “win’s” on the board and in general make your self indispensable!