Award-Winning Blog


Direct Mail Buzzes

I’ve noticed a few good items regarding direct mail lately that I’m sharing today. First up from Target Marketing is Paul Bobnak’s collection of The 6 Best Direct Mail Teasers of 2016. Gotta get that letter noticed and open folks! Here are the two probably most relevant for Agitator readers, from Consumer Reports and The […]

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Memorial Day

Roger and I are taking the day off; it’s the end of  Memorial Day weekend in the States.   Since my coming of age in the Sixties, the US has fought wars and engaged in military actions some of which I actively opposed, but nothing should detract from paying honor to those who have given their lives in […]

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8 Biggest Email Mistakes

Our subject line today is the model of perfection … according to online marketing firm Marketo. Why? It’s clear and direct … not clever. ‘Unclear subject lines’ is the first of eight biggest email mistakes marketers make according to Marketo in this white paper. They cite a case study reporting that clear subject lines received 541% […]

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It’s audience, not channel

The problem begins, as usual, in a spreadsheet. You must budget direct marketing and your board will not accept something with three lines: revenue, expenses, and net.  How then to split your marketing programs? Naturally, you do this by channel, since that’s how you’ll be spending money. A rational decision spurs irrational implications of thinking of […]

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Tragic Windfall?

Is there such a thing? Or just an oxymoron? I’m thinking about the first Trump budget. Here is a ‘plan’ that would rip to shreds our social safety net; our commitment to affordable, accessible health care; and our protection of the environment, food safety and much more that we expect from government. While enlarging tax […]

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No One Wants More Email

That’s just one of the basic premises of our new book Start Over explores. The problem with getting the manuscript off to the publisher is that new research findings keep coming in. So, another chapter or two have to be re-written. Let me explain. In preparing my earlier book, Retention Fundraising: the art and science of keeping your donors […]

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