Gilbert Direct Marketing

One Kings Lane, a flash-sales site for high-end home goods, has taken a different approach to building a high-quality affiliate program. Its solution is to block coupon, loyalty or any other nonbrand relevant sites from its affiliate program. This puts all affiliates on a level playing field, making the program very attractive to those affiliates who

Today's digital age has become impersonal.  Sure, we still get greeted online and retailers know our preferences thanks to cookies, but the human element is gone for sure. Within this impersonal, digital world we live in, however, there are huge opportunities for retailers to step back and become more personal. Consider the following customer service tips as you prepare for the busy holiday shopping season: 

A compilation of this year’s best and brightest ideas in our annual 50 Best Tips issue.

"The smartest thing those wunderkinds at our beloved Postal Service can do is nurture the direct mail industry. Imagine what would happen if the USPS actually offered discounts for online 
marketers to give direct mail a chance?" From "PRC Denies Exigent Postage Rate Increase … Big !@#$ Deal," by Jim Gilbert, CEO of multidiscipline direct…

To me it's simple: Make it easy to speak with me or my business goes elsewhere.

Choose designers who specifically know the mail order market. Catalogs/mailers accustomed to generating sales via mail/internet ordering are a very different animal from a branding vehicle. They may look similar, but companies that create mail order catalogs and direct mail know exactly how to leverage creative that not only builds their brands, but also sells product. What looks simple is actually highly specialized and technical.

It’s amazing how a little customer care from a typical, nameless, faceless corporate entity changes people's attitudes and perceptions of a company. And when the CEO gets involved, the goodwill level goes up exponentially.

I've always believed that branding is something you do while you're stimulating orders and leads via direct marketing. To me, making someone laugh while watching a commercial doesn’t exactly cause new customer acquisition. You do that with offers, calls to action, superior guarantees and, of course, products that measure up to and exceed expectations. 

Q: "We've been using Google Ad Manager to serve our internal promotional banners, but unfortunately, the benefits of scheduling, tracking, testing and inventory control can't outweigh the cost of the painfully slow load times it's created. Are there any other solutions out there? Any suggestions or research would be gratefully accepted!"

Everything we do today on high speed (and sometimes on autopilot) has an effect. Mistakes happen with all this multitasking, for instance. And sometimes those mistakes play themselves out with your employees, bosses, clients and customers. Other times mistakes — seemingly harmless at the time — wind up on the internet, being reviewed millions of times on social media sites.