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Creative Tag

Gianfagna Strategic Marketing / Posts tagged "Creative" (Page 6)

A Lesson in Bad Direct Mail List Preparation–from the USPS

I am a born and bred direct marketer. I learned about direct mail from the legends of the industry – Ed Mayer, John Yeck, Paul Sampson, and Rose Harper – at a seminar for college marketing students sponsored by the Direct Marketing Association in the 1970s. And though I often recommend social media and other marketing strategies to clients of my marketing agency, direct mail is still my first love. Like all direct marketing practitioners, I’ve been dismayed to watch the U.S. Postal Service struggle for survival. As the organization...

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Social Media Marketing Success | Smart Marketing Cleveland

For Social Media Success, Think Like a Direct Marketer

Clients of my marketing agency often want help with social media marketing. So I’ve been researching best practices and using my own experience as a blogger and social media marketer to help clients integrate social media into a smart marketing strategy. And guess what? I’ve discovered a simple secret about social media: To achieve success, you need to think like a direct marketer....

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How to Tell Your Branding Story in Your Product

There’s more to effective product branding and marketing than putting a logo on a label or box. Telling a brand story through well-crafted marketing copy can capture the essence of a brand. And building those brand messages into the physical product itself can reinforce the brand’s value proposition every time the product is used. Here are three consumer product marketers who are doing this brilliantly, and some branding advice for your smart marketing strategy. ...

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13 Creative Ideas for Your Next B2B Direct Mail Campaign

Smart marketers know that direct marketing can play a crucial role in a business-to-business lead generation marketing strategy. But creating a direct mail campaign that makes it past the mailroom and the administrative assistant to the desk of a business decision-maker – and captures the executive’s attention – can be a real marketing challenge. Here are 13 ideas for creative direct mail formats – some familiar and some you may not have thought of – that can help get your next B2B mailing past the gatekeepers and entice business executives to open...

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6 Factors that Set Great Brands Apart

Every smart marketer knows the importance of branding. A strong brand differentiates your company from competitors, conveys the highest value you deliver, and serves as an implicit promise to your customers of what your organization stands for. But what’s the difference between a good brand and a truly great one? How do you create a brand identity that’s so powerful, it becomes one of your most valuable assets -- and the centerpiece of a smart marketing strategy? Here are six factors that separate the best brands from the rest, and examples of...

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4 Lessons Big Direct Marketers Can Learn from Small Mailers

The marketing budget for a local, service-based business is a tiny fraction of what a global company spends on marketing. Yet small marketers with limited resources sometimes outshine the big guys when it comes to marketing effectiveness, especially in direct mail. Here’s how a regional painting business in Cleveland, Ohio nailed a prospect direct mail campaign with a simple postcard, while Dell, a huge business-to-business marketer, committed several cardinal sins of direct marketing in a B2B direct mail promotion -- plus four lessons for your smart marketing strategy....

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Can Your Marketing Campaign Pass the “Huh?” Test?

A marketer has a few seconds at best to engage the audience in an ad or marketing message. But many marketers forget this simple fact when they develop marketing campaigns using elaborate or confusing creative concepts. When the audience’s reaction to an ad is “Huh?” instead of “Wow!,” it’s a painful waste of marketing resources. Here are three examples of advertising and marketing campaigns that fail the “Huh?” test – and three tips to avoid making mistakes like this in your smart marketing strategy. ...

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10 Ways to Boost the Marketing Value of Your Website

Are you getting the results you want from your website? Whether you’re a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) marketer, a great website is essential for a smart marketing strategy. Here are 10 ideas to boost the marketing value of your website through higher traffic, better search engine rankings, and more effective engagement with your customers and prospects. ...

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How Cleveland Marketing Agencies are Winning Big Accounts

You’d expect marketing agencies on Madison Avenue and Michigan Avenue to be producing world-class work for big companies. But how about marketing agencies in Cleveland, Ohio? Major marketers can choose agencies anywhere in the world, yet more and more are selecting marketing teams in Northeast Ohio. Top executives from three regional agencies and a large Midwestern bank explained why global brands and other market leaders are “Choosing Cleveland” at a NOCA (Northeast Ohio Communications Advocates) Forum at the Cleveland Plain Dealer on April 27. Here’s how these local firms are landing prestigious accounts...

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To BRC or Not to BRC? The New Direct Mail Strategy Question

Take a look inside the next direct mail package you receive and you might discover something’s missing: The reply card. Business reply cards (BRCs) and reply forms with postpaid envelopes (BREs) have been core elements of direct mail since the medium began. But they’ve been notably absent from some recent direct marketing campaigns I’ve received. Is this a new trend? A test? A fundamental shift? Here are some insights for your smart marketing strategy....

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