Recommendations, updates, and thoughts from the NextMark executive team.
NOBLEVentures has just activated the data cards on their website using NextMark’s MarketMax Pro Service. Besides making it a snap to update their data cards instantly, they also get the benefit of search engine optimization. Bottom line: reduce costs through productivity + increase sales through website optimization = higher profits for NOBLEVentures.
You can see their implementation here: http://lists.nobleventures.com/
Learn more about MarketMax Pro here: http://nextmark.com/mmp/
The session title was "The New Way to Find Mailing Lists on the Internet". Session attendees (12) included investment bankers, international opportunity seekers, media consultants, and others who were sincere about their desire to learn more about mailing lists – a subject that is getting lost in the multi-channel marketing mix of analytics, attitudes, and anything else that sounds new and exciting. As the host of the session, I was certainly in for a surprise.
I began by asking three questions that would help me better understand the group's knowledge about mailing lists.
"Who knows what a response list is?"
"What is a net name arrangement?"
"Have you ever ordered a mailing list?
Here's the surprise. Only a couple had any idea about the first two questions, and only a third of the attendees had ever ordered a mailing list. However, it didn't take long for the group to gain momentum. Before the box lunches were eaten, I would confidently say that the group was up-to-speed on all three of the following learning objectives:
1) Leverage free internet portals to find targeted mailing lists and usage information.
2) Monitor the success of your competitors' direct marketing efforts.
3) Uncover highly correlated lists without a statistician or regression model.
We referenced a copy of the data card for "The Swiss Colony Catalog Food and Gi
ft Buyers Mailing List" (accessible in the public domain). It was a great example because the list manager had done a comprehensive data card update to include 39 mailer usage entries, 30 list segments and selections, and all of the key source and demographic information. There were also ten highly correlated list titles including: Harry and David, Wolferman's, Lillian Vernon, Godiva, and Figis Gifts.
It was as much a learning experience for me as it was for those who attended. The group left the table with a sense of empowerment, because they could find valuable direct marketing information in the public domain. I left that afternoon with a sense of obligation to help direct marketers learn more about mailing lists, and with a renewed interest in the "Rise of Direct Marketing Freeconomics".
The $0 cost per chair (CPC) and cost per table (CPT) were also pretty good for these DMA Ask The Experts (ATE) Roundtable Sessions, especially when compared with the $143.85 CPC and $152.60 CPT for the exhibit hall. So if you're upset about the DMA's Annual Fleecing of Vendors, take advantage of the free chairs and table and hopefully we'll see more reasonable rates in 2009.
Scott, Lisa, Joni, John, Chris, and I headed to Las Vegas earlier this week to represent NextMark at the DMA*08 conference. The theme of this year’s conference was "r u connected?"
The theme was meant to prompt consideration of new marketing mediums in direct marketing programs such as social networks and mobile platforms. It’s good for the DMA to show their support for these other marketing mediums because the DMA is often perceived as exclusively devoted to postal mail. That’s something they’d like to change as more direct marketing is done outside the mailbox.
As always, the conference was an ideal place to connect with customers, partners, friends, and colleagues.
I was impressed by how hard the team worked to make the most of the conference. Between the six of us, we held 60 scheduled meetings and countless serendipidous meetings at our booth, on the show floor, and around town. Judging by the nice comments I received, we certainly connected with our clients. Thank you!
What were the results from the conference? I don’t know just yet, but I will be tallying the costs and the results soon and will post them to this blog when I have them.
Joni Frederick just passed along some nice feedback from one of our happy customers, Bob Campbell from MidAmerica Lists:
"I want to congratulate Nextmark on your system. I am the type of person who has trouble putting lead in a mechanical pencil. So navigating around a computer is a test for me. The fact that I can go into Nextmark and update existing and create new datacards is mind boggling to me."
So that proves it: Publishing data cards on NextMark is easier than using a mechanical pencil!
We just published our 3Q2008 Data Card Quality Report. It’s always interesting to see who comes out on the top of the rankings. But, to me, the most impressive result was the overall 8% increase in data card quality scores.
Why is this so impressive? The scores were good to start with and we just made the scoring more stringent. So, jumping the quality by 8% in just 3 months is quite a feat. It shows that list managers who publish their data cards on NextMark strive to provide excellent data cards.
It’s good for the list managers who post those data cards because they will get more business due to their professional presentation. And it’s good for direct marketers who depend on this information to make good list purchasing decisions.
Here is the official press release on the 3Q2008 report: http://nextmark.com/news/pr_10082008.html
Hanover, NH – October 8, 2008 – NextMark, Inc. a leading provider of direct marketing tools and resources, today published its third quarter 2008 Data Card Quality Report. Among the findings was an eight percent increase in data card quality for all list managers. Read the rest of this entry »
Gail Horinek soon begins her 18th year with mIn and today sets off on a new journey, when she and long time companion Brad Harber head off to Las Vegas to make it official.
Through the years Gail has been THE key component to the mIn Audited data. Her understanding of data cards, what list brokers want to see and what list managers try to get by with are only matched by a handful in the industry.
Congratulations to Gail!
Online Social Networking is all the rage these days. Being in the technology industry, I feel an obligation to keep up with major technology trends. So, I’ve jumped in by taking LinkedIn and Facebook for an extended test drive.
LinkedIn is who you are
LinkedIn is a resume board. It lets you post an enhanced resume and to selectively share it with your friends and the public. Beyond the standard resume items, you can post recommendations to others’ resume and vice versa. It’s a combination of resume and recommendation letters in a clean package. You can see my LinkedIn profile here.
LinkedIn connects you with your colleagues. It enables you to establish connections with your business associates. You can use this to meet other people through their network. I’ve never used this feature, but I can see how that could be handy in business situations where you are looking to get a "foot in the door". Beyond making new connections, I have not found much utility in these connections.
Facebook is what you do
Facebook is "lifecasting." Your profile is very limited — no extended resume like LinkedIn. Instead, Facebook lets you post comments, pictures, videos, links to websites, etc. As you post these items, it shows up on your "news feed." So, your presence in Facebook less about who you claim yourself to be and more about what you post. Your behavior defines your persona.
Facebook is personal. Your items are only available to your friends. So, it’s a safe way to share personal information. I think it’s a great way to share photos with your friends. I’m hesitant to use Facebook for business use because it’s so personal.
Facebook gets you reconnected. In my short time using Facebook, I’ve reconnected with a bunch of college and high school friends I’ve not spoken with in 20 years. We just drifted away from each other. Facebook made it easy to find these friends, connect with them, and then stay connected. It’s amazing in that respect.
Facebook is entertaining. Unlike LinkedIn, I find it entertaining to log into Facebook. On the main page, I can see what my friends have been up to — I see a consolidated listing of all my friends’ postings. And most items allow for comments making it more interactive and fun.
For example, my friend Tom posted a video of his son doing some tricks on his skateboard. I clicked the link and was able to see the video. Then I posted a comment complementing his son on the tricks and Tom on the videography. Tom got an email right away and responded to my comment with one of his own.
Facebook is hard to navigate. Good luck trying to find anything that’s not on the main feed. I find the user interface confusing and it’s even hard to find the stuff that I’ve posted.
Facebook is an applications platform. There are a million little applications that you can add to your Facebook account. To me, most have little value. For example, there’s a "pieces of flair" application that enables you to post virtual buttons on your own and others virtual corkboard. Big deal. And I think you have to share your personal information with the application provider, which I don’t like. But lots of people like these little apps and find it to be a fun way to stay connected. I should be more open-minded about these applications. But as of today, I don’t get it.
Facebook vs. LinkedIn: which to choose?
Both are social networks, but there’s no need to choose between the two. Each is unique and complements the other. Definitely post your resume on LinkedIn to connect with your business colleagues and use Facebook to stay connected with your close friends.
There’s a new web browser on the block. Google has introduced
Chrome, a new browser that is being hailed, perhaps a bit
prematurely, as superior to Internet Explorer and Firefox with
regards to speed, stability, and security. Google Chrome is a bit
different from the others. It behaves less like your average desktop
application and more like a thin, simple picture frame around the web
sites you visit.
With Chrome, Google is responding to the fact that many of today’s web
sites, from online banks to retailers (and of course, NextMark), are
really complete applications in their own right that need to be secure
and responsive. They may even need to continue to work if your
internet connection goes down. The web browser used to display the web
site needs to get out of the way and be as invisible as possible while
still making sure that the web site follows the rules of security and
generally "plays nice".
At NextMark we’re excited to take advantage of what Google Chrome has
to offer, and we’d like to offer official support for it and for other
web browsers in the near future. We’ve taken it for a test drive, and
we encourage others to do the same. However, Google Chrome is still
beta quality, meaning that it is still rough around the edges and,
despite claims to the contrary, might crash on you. Use (and enjoy) at
your own risk!
Joni Frederick, Account Director, just forwarded me a nice note from a new customer. It put a big smile on my face, so I got permission to post it here on our blog (with links to services he mentions):
Joni,
I just wanted to write you and tell you a few things about Nextmark and my experience so far.
As I told you on the phone, I am an old school list guy. I had my own company and was one of Genobi’s first clients when he first started working with Rickard. Then I was with LSDI and was one of the first ones to be exposed to Nextmark when Joe first started. At that time, the system was clunky and difficult and we did not use it much. Since then, I have been away from the list business for about 5 years or so. Now I am back.
I must say that Nextmark is truly Da Bomb! That is the only way I can put it. I listed my first data card on Friday and when I came into the office on Monday I had 2 leads! You have no idea what that means to an old sales guy like me. It was like finding gold on the front steps.
Then after going through the datacard system and the list search, you gave me the demo of the true power of Nextmark. And, I mean POWER! Nextmark is at warp factor 12 and going forward like I had never imagined. The functionality that you guys have developed is truly an awesome feat comparable to climbing mount Everest. I know, because I tried (not to climb Everest but to make a list ordering system – with Genobi).
You have all the bells and whistles a list person could ever want. The only things I see that I would make suggestions on are truly semantic and have mostly to do with language.
The merger with MIN is also an exciting aspect. Your capability of sending data cards to SRDS, DM News etc. is hot hot hot. What a pain in the butt it used to be to fax to 8 million places. No more!
I can also say that your customer service people are wonderful and when I had a problem, it was handled in a more than professional manner. As far as I am concerned I now consider myself to be a devoted worshiper and follower of Nextmark (kind of like the devoted blood drinking worshipers in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), and I truly look forward to being with you guys for a long long time.
Oh, I almost forgot the second best part……………………….I got two more leads this morning!
Like I said – NEXTMARK IS DA BOMB!
Glenn Weissman
Sr. Marketing Consultant
CGC Consulting Services, Inc.
5175 Performance Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
It’s always nice to get a note like this. We must be doing something right!
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