The announcement last week that the U.S. Postal Service plans to eliminate next-day delivery of first-class mail was hard news for direct marketers like me to hear.

Not because the direct mail campaigns our marketing agency creates require next day delivery. In most cases, we mail standard class to get lower rates and we factor in the necessary delivery time when crafting a marketing plan.

But I got a sinking feeling when I heard this latest news. I fear that as service delivery levels continue to fall and the cost of using direct mail climbs, we may be nearing a tipping point when mail will lose its viability as a marketing channel.

Here’s what I think this news means for smart marketers whose strategies include direct mail marketing.

Every smart marketer knows the importance of an effective website. But there’s a big difference between a good site and a great one.

A great website is the foundation of a smart marketing strategy. It supports your brand promise and differentiates you from competitors. It delivers high-value information that demonstrates your capabilities and makes people want to do business with you. And if you’re a business-to-business (B2B) marketer, it’s probably also your best tool for lead generation, according to new research.

So how do you create a great website? It’s all in the planning.

Here’s the planning guide we use when creating new websites for clients of our Cleveland marketing agency.

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.

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 your package.

Business-to-business (B2B) marketers often use such tactics as direct marketing, e-marketing, advertising, trade shows, and web marketing to generate sales leads.

But a smart lead generation marketing strategy goes well beyond the creation of the marketing campaign.

If your goal is to build a relationship with a business prospect, increase your sales conversion rate, and maximize the value of your sales resources, you need a careful plan for what happens after the lead comes in.

Here are the seven steps you should take with a marketing-generated sales lead to achieve success.

If you break into a cold sweat at the thought of walking into a business networking event as a complete stranger, you’re not alone.

Networking is essential to building and growing a business, especially for business-to-business (B2B) marketers who participate in professional associations and trade shows.

But it takes skill and experience to feel confident in a networking situation, and it takes careful planning to capitalize on the value of networking for lead generation.

Here’s what I’ve learned about personal marketing and successful networking at B2B events, and 21 tips you can use to make networking a powerful component of your smart marketing strategy.

What’s the best way to maximize the return on your marketing investment? Take a step back from your day-to-day marketing projects and conduct a marketing audit.

A marketing audit is a top-to-bottom assessment of your entire marketing program, from branding to tactics. The beginning of a new year or the start of a new budget period is an ideal time to do it.

How do you conduct a marketing audit? And how can an audit help you develop a smart marketing strategy? Here are some answers.

What if you got a real mailbox – a full-size, metal mailbox – sent to you at your office? Would you open it? You bet you would.

MSP, a direct marketing services company in Pittsburgh, has been sending real mailboxes to its best prospects for nearly 10 years. I still remember my reaction — “Wow!” — when I opened the mailbox I received from MSP in 2004.

Six years later, MSP’s mailbox remains the single best example of effective B2B lead generation dimensional mail I’ve ever received. Here’s how MSP deploys dimensional mail in its smart marketing strategy, and five lessons for every B2B marketer using direct mail to generate leads from C-suite executives.

Ms. Jean Gianfagna is tired of getting Mr. Gean Gianfagna’s mail. When I started a marketing consulting business in Cleveland in the early 1990s, someone who was compiling a direct mail list of small businesses made a typo in my name. I became Gean Gianfagna on this list and the compiler assumed that I was a man. It’s hard to believe, but nearly 20 years later, I still get direct mail addressed to Mr. Gean Gianfagna. This address has been so wrong for so long that I instantly discard any mailing that uses it. But it’s more than an ongoing annoyance: It’s an example of poor list hygiene and bad marketing strategy.

The phones are ringing, web traffic is up, and the sales manager is telling everyone you’re a marketing genius. Your business-to-business lead generation campaign is a success! But before you break out the bubbly, remember that getting prospects to express interest in a product or service can be the easy part of business-to-business marketing. Converting those leads to sales is often a lengthy and complex process. Here’s how to build a smart marketing strategy that engages B-to-B prospects and gets them to say “yes.”