Call it contact management, lead follow-up, or just good salesmanship: One-to-one communication from sales representatives to prospects is vital to a smart business-to-business marketing strategy. But how do you do it well? Here are five tips for creating a one-to-one sales communication plan that engages prospects in a dynamic sales dialogue with your company and converts leads to sales.

Savvy direct marketers know that the list is the most important factor in the success of a direct marketing campaign. That’s why so much time and effort goes into keeping mailing list data current and complete. But too many direct marketers fail to pay this same kind of attention to the cleanliness of their email lists. Case in point: The Wall Street Journal. Here’s how a major marketer’s poor email list hygiene ruined their promotion, and five lessons you can apply to a smart marketing strategy.

EZ Pass, the electronic toll collection system, finally has come to the Ohio Turnpike. Since I often drive the turnpike from Cleveland to Toledo, I was eager for EZ Pass to arrive in Ohio, and it was worth the wait.

Every time I zip past those poor folks paying tolls with paper tickets and fumbling in their pockets for cash, I feel great about the time I’m saving. E-Z Pass has added huge value to my busy life, and therein lies a lesson for marketers about creating the type of customer satisfaction that leads to loyalty.

Loyal customers are a marketer’s best source of new sales and referrals. That’s why smart marketers treat their best customers like gold, and why earning customer loyalty is the goal of every smart marketing strategy. Except at Toyota. Their recent direct mail campaign to a loyal Toyota customer broke many of the rules of effective direct marketing and harmed a 25-year customer relationship. Here’s why this campaign failed and what Toyota should have done instead.

When marketing to current or lapsed customers, it’s essential to use your knowledge of the customer — gleaned from database analysis — to deliver a direct mail package or email that acknowledges and capitalizes on the customer’s relationship with your organization.