One of the most critical and over looked elements to marketing success is… timing. Most practioners, even seasoned veterans, overlook this key factor when conducting campaigns, writing briefs or completing the business and marketing plan. They explain that the target audience, offers/messaging, creative and competitive factors play a role in the results, but never seem to touch on timing.

Most products or services have a seasonal factor. For instance, most people in the Midwest would not consider buying lawn mowers in December, and thus very few firms market them then. Snow shovels typically sell briskly after the first winter’s storm.

I recall a program I did in 2001 that illustrates the point. The company called me in in the 4th quarter of 2000 to do some direct mail testing for “final expense” insurance, or burial policies. I was to test against another direct mail package. The mail date was September and the 100,000 pieces were co-branded with Chase and the test was to take place in Manhattan.

Do you recall 9/11/01? It was the day America was attacked.

The client called and asked what to do. I explained they should scrap the program and save the postage. They mailed anyway, two weeks later than planned. The results: 3 responses, two angry letters and an empty reply envelope. Although the campaign had been in development for some time, the timing of the mail drop date was horrible. Most folks assumed that the company was taking advantage of them… at a time when their fear was heightened.

So please, keep in mind timing when planning your marketing. Be willing to adjust time frames up, back or even scarp the campaign if need be. You’ll be very happy you did. The results will prove it.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

April 30, 2008

Yesterday I spoke very frankly with a team of decision makers for a food industry company. Honesty paid off, and I feel really good about it.

They were looking to specify a third-party software solution for their new (not yet designed) website. I shared my experience … Building the new corporate website before adding brand new functionality is a more prudent approach. As their new agency, the Johnson Direct team will learn a great deal about them and how their audiences have, will and want to interact with them online. And, with a solid, highly relevant, competitive and usable website foundation, we’ll have the basis for identifying parameters before we source and qualify viable software options.

The client agreed!

In this case, honesty paid off. But there are times customers really don’t want to hear the truth. If you’ve got a tale to tell - when telling the truth did or did not pay off - blog me! I’d love to hear about it.

Denise B. Hearden

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

If you’re interested in a better understanding of Direct Branding, Johnson Direct’s proprietary process to simultaneously build your brand and achieve results, check out the DVD we posted on YouTube recently.

Enjoy the show!

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

Multi-channel marketing is still quite the rage in the circles I run with, yet too many marketers don’t do MCM correctly. That was the topic I discussed in a recent Direct magazine article. Understanding the process of how to implement a MCM campaign is critical in this day and age. After all, more and more media options are available to us and finding the right mix, along with the right approach can make or break your campaign.

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

Using email as a marketing tool creates an interesting dilemma. Email initially held a lot of promise, but its overuse and abuse made marketers and prospects alike run away from it. Today, email is again growing and it is best used as a customer communication and retention method. Recently Fuel magazine asked for my insights on testing email — specifically email subject lines — and I was happy to share my experience with their readers which I now share with you.

Grant A. Johnson

1-800-710-2750

www.johnsondirect.com

The Marketing Site was kind enough to include me in a recent post on direct marketing and its future. Don’t worry, me aside, the newsletter has a lot of great information that makes it worth your time to click the above link. I hope your Q1 2008 was profitable and very, very measurable.

 Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750 

I have always said that it’s easier for a direct marketer to follow branding then it is for a brander to become a direct marketer. This point was nicely captured in Ted Grigg’s latest blog.

Why is this the case? Because direct marketing is counter intuitive to traditional advertising and marketing thinking where the killer idea and killer creative reside. For measurable marketers it’s about the results. And results can be improved upon in direct marketing by segmentation and testing. After we reach our goals we do more testing.

Traditional advertisers swing for the fence, whereas direct marketers are happy to move the base runners and are even more comfortable striking out — as long as we learn and can apply that knowledge to our next at bat.

It is why direct marketers are in demand. The “new” media is measurable and thus requires the thinking of direct response pros.

And it’s about time!

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750 

Overuse of personalization is a marketing trend that we all must be aware of. While ultra-customization (at the individual level) is very doable today with direct mail, email and PURLS (Personalized URLs), overuse will lead to less effective marketing long term as we train our customers and prospects to tune us out, not to mention privacy issues and overuse can lead to less responses as people grow ever more skeptical about what marketing is legitimate and what is not. That was what I recently wrote in an article in Direct. I hope you enjoy the read…

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

It’s that time of year again when many big name advertisers line-up and pay big bucks to entertain us with their ads. Most Superbowl’s are judged by the ad content and not the game itself. Worse yet, most of the ads don’t sell products or services — at least not enough to recoup the lavish spend required to air a spot on the big game.

This point was brought up again this year (You may recall I blogged about it last year) on the PR Crumudgeon blog.

Here’s to silly marketing spends…

Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750

Recently B2B Magazine included me in an article on 2008 tips and trends. As the economy softens, marketing will be tasked to work even harder and measurement will become even more crucial. Happy reading.

 Grant A. Johnson

Johnson Direct LLC

1-800-710-2750