How I used direct mail and online strategies to generate B2B leads for The Weather Channel

Throughout the recession of 2008–2009, I’ve adamantly reminded marketers not to give up on prospecting. Cutting your prospecting only leads to lost opportunities that will put you light years behind your competitors.

Here is an example of a lead-generation campaign that got a response boost by using multiple formats during the last recession that hit businesses hard…

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campaign · Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · microsite

Here is an unmitigated fact: In a recession, companies who reign in expenses and cut advertising costs do not perform as well as companies who aggressively increase their efforts.

In every crisis there is opportunity. In a previous issue, we looked at the success of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies, launched at the height of the Great Depression.

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Direct Marketing · Recession marketing: 9 survival and growth strategies

When clients come to me for a landing page makeover, there’s one common error that shows up time and time again. There’s no video!

Talk about missed opportunity! The reason I love video marketing is simple: It can boost your response rates anywhere from 10%–100%, depending on the value of your product or service.

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Direct Marketing · Direct Response · landing page · video · Web strategy · websites

With the skyrocketing number of spam messages sent per day, spam filters have really had to step up their game. But that’s bad news for marketers like you.

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Direct Marketing · Internet · spam triggers · Web strategy

The greatest headline in marketing history means nothing if it never gets read—and it won’t if your envelope doesn’t do its job.

The Wilderness Society—a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that mails 2 to 3 million pieces a year—recently ran an envelope test in the hopes of boosting results.

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Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · Direct Response

In past issues of Direct Marketing Update, I’ve encouraged readers to fight the recession with a rewards program. Here’s proof that it works…

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Direct Marketing · loyalty programs

The good news is that the United States Postal Service (USPS) handled an estimated 16 billion pieces of mail in the month of December—the busiest month of the year.

The bad news is, that estimate is 4 billion short of last year’s 20-billion-piece estimate.

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Direct Mail · Direct Marketing · USPS

Here are the articles that you and your fellow readers found most helpful when navigating the rocky economic terrain of 2009:

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Direct Marketing

I’m a longtime proponent of setting quotation marks around your headline. Why? They grab attention. They can add credibility and a newsy feel. They make the reader wonder who’s saying this and why.

Best of all, they increase response, according to years of testing.

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copywriting · Direct Marketing · quotation marks · Testing corner