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Caveat emptor: beware putting all your acquisition marketing hopes into the wrong basket

June 18, 2013 Leave a Comment

We see it quite often: clients believing that since they’ve invested in a database platform, or are in a relationship with a data provider, that they’re in good hands.

Wrong.

Truth is, there are no shortcuts to creating a profitable marketing lead machine. And the most critical component is not a platform or list, but proven experience and know-how. If there’s an investment to be made, start at the beginning with an unbiased, independent marketing agency partner.

Five reasons why:

All hat and no horse. Big data suppliers have dressed themselves up as marketeers, when what they really have to offer are costly platforms and lists.
Locked in. Instead of being able to find the right solution for your needs from an unlimited range, a “relationship” with a data provider means you’re stuck with their offering.
Pile on. Smart client-side marketing officers and decision makers today are looking to leverage the acquisition marketing investments made by other (bigger) clients. Choosing a marketing agency partner gives clients the better solutions uncovered—and paid for—by someone else.
Experience. Nothing replaces having thousands of marketing acquisition and lead generation programs under your belt. You’ll avoid costly mistakes and career-killer decisions by choosing a partner who’s been there already.
Maturity. Data, lists, platforms and applications are only as good as the brains and hands to put them to good use. These pros have the keys to the Ferrari and can let you safely come along.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Filed under General Marketing Tagged with full service advertising agency, Philadelphia direct marketing

Psych 101

June 4, 2013 Leave a Comment

There’s a great book for marketers of all types: Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

It breaks down how the decision to purchase is made by consumers, and is widely considered a Bible of sorts.

Germane as well to SEO, the book and its relevance were picked up on last week by Forbes in a great article that pretty much says it all.

If you are a business of any size, how and why you are discovered online—and whether or not your product or service is potently and persuasively marketed—can make or break your success. The ABCs of SEO will only take you so far, and this is where the psychology of buyerology take over.

Paging Don Draper

May 21, 2013 Leave a Comment

In spite of the fact that Don Draper is an anachronism, he’s still everywhere.

There are dozens of Draper-driven sites online, inspired by a variety of the adman’s mystifyingly contradictory qualities. Most seem to seek answers for today’s complex marketing and advertising conundrums, attributing oracle-like seer capabilities to his fictional—and fictive—character.

Other sites appear to be testing out whether the Don can improve their own SEO positions.

Why are marketers so in love with him? Take away the stylish clothes, the tone-perfect reductive rendering of the “simple ’60s.” In the end, we think it’s the grip of guilty nostalgia overtaking many of us. That sense that it’ll never be like that ever again. And why would we want it to be, when the times were clearly less evolved, less honest, more challenging to women, minorities and others?

It’s truly just the story of swine, posing as swain. Don’s pessimism and relentlessly empty soul remain a fascination, regardless of the times or industry.

“What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.”

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