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From Sacred Cows to Successful Campaigns — Real Life Victories

What happens after you tip your sacred cows?  In our previous blogs (one and two), we discussed how to identify your nonprofit’s specific sacred cows — those programs, events, campaigns, and practices that you perform religiously, often because that’s the way it’s always been done. Or sometimes our sacred cows are programs that represent too…

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Data Strategy Forum Brings List Community Under One Roof

On May 9th, list professionals will be convening once again, but instead of heading to the List Bazaar, they are all coming down for the new and improved Data Strategy Forum. The name change reflects the changes in the industry. Certainly, for a long time now, we have been working with more than just mailing…

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2017 Data Strategy Forum (Formerly List Bazaar)

  The annual gathering of list professionals started in the mid-1980s as a way to exchange and market mail list information. We didn’t have web sites, emails, Mail Chimp or any online capabilities to share our lists.  Word of mouth…it was as simple as that! But, in recent years, we have been doing much more…

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IP Targeting Brings Digital and Mail Together

  How would you change your next direct mail campaign if you had access to the IP address that matches your prospect list? It’s a question many direct mailers now face. With increasing sophistication and relatively new technologies, you can harness the best of targeted digital and direct marketing. What are my choices? Before we…

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Brainstorming new ideas for your next marketing campaign?

Here’s a sure fire way to gain some competitive marketing intelligence: one word – IFIT. Because if you’re interested in learning what’s new, unique and working in digital, mobile, and direct mail – you need to get March 7th on your calendar – pronto. The DMAW Innovative Formats Inventive Techniques (IFIT) Seminar brings suppliers, manufacturers…

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Direct Marketing 101: Mail is Not Dead

You are important. You matter. When push comes to shove, you’re the one that will make a difference. A bit over the top perhaps, but do you feel engaged right now? If so, the piece of advice I’m following from DMAW’s Direct Marketing 101 event has worked—use ‘you’ liberally and make your audience a part…

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Direct Mail Copy for Skimmers, Swimmers and Divers

Direct response copywriting is a combination of art and science. There are thoughtful reasons behind the techniques, phrases and structure of the copy used in different media, as well as the way it’s formatted. It all begins with knowing that people consume information in different ways and that copy will be seen by very different…

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4 Mistakes to Easily Avoid

by Alicia Toles Can you guess which of the following mistakes happened? A back to school appeal that mails in August without a reply envelope, a segment of donors who were included by mistake, or Midwest chapter donors receiving a mailing that references Los Angeles… If you guessed all, you are correct. Hopefully, you haven’t…

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LISTS!

“Succeeding in business is all about making connections.”  – Richard Branson, Virgin Group By Charlie Rice and Molly Rinaldi While we always talk about networking and being “connected,” in today’s digital world, we sometimes cheat and take the easy way out by just sending that email or text message. The truth is, though, today more…

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Communication is Key to Saving Money

Recently, I attended the DMAW’s Direct Mail 101 seminar.  The major takeaway I found from the eight different sessions was that at every step of the process, proper communication could save you time and money. It’s worth spending time on the front end to set up communication practices internally and externally with your vendors and…

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