Planning for Fall Campaigns
Co-op Names May Not Be the Most Cost-Effective
Several major direct marketers have abandoned list rentals in favor of sourcing names from cooperative databases. Cooperative databases commingle buyer lists from thousands of companies and optimize “their names.” Co-ops use compiled data to append lifestyle or demographic information to each transactional record for modeling. One of the old wives’ tales in the list business is that co-op names are superior to individual files. The fact is that  co-op names are good and not so good. Individual response lists with appropriate pre-selects can rival or outperform their co-op cousins. To learn why, read more.

What’s Working
Direct Marketing Is Still a Key Driver of Online Success
Those e-commerce firms who think they can save money and boost ROI by cutting direct marketing dollars, take heed of the following cautionary tale: InsWeb, the online insurance firm, slashed its direct marketing budget by 70% between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. What happened? InsWeb experienced a 73% decline in first-quarter revenue, transforming six-figure net income in the 2008 first quarter into a six-figure net loss for the 2009 first quarter.

What’s New
Charities Are ‘Twittering’ About New Fundraising Channel
Charities are all a-Twitter lately about the potential of this blossoming social network for fundraising. One example: At February’s global “Twestival,” charity:water, a group dedicated to bringing clean drinking water to developing nations, raised over $250,000 in donations by launching into the Twittosphere.

Social Media Activity Is Linked With Higher Growth
A recent study of 100 brands found that companies most active in social media also have higher growth rates. The most active brands, dubbed “mavens,” had an 18% revenue increase over the prior year, while the least active in social media, the “wallflowers,” posted a 6% revenue decline.

Industry Survey
Do you plan to add/expand your social media activity in the second half of 2009?
(Click one) YES     NO

Results of previous Industry Survey: Of those responding, 55% DO NOT plan to shift marketing dollars away from direct mail to e-mail or other interactive media, and 45% DO plan to adjust their marketing mix.

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