Thursday, April 17, 2008

Happy Birthday to the Direct Marketing Blog!


Yes, that's right . . . our Direct Marketing Blog is 1-year-old today. In blog years, that's all grown up! And, we are still loving having this blog, 233 posts later. When you subtract out weekends and holidays, that means we've posted pretty much every other day in the last year. We're feeling pretty, pretty smug about that! :)

Seriously, we hope you, our valued readers have enjoyed our posts on all things direct marketing. And, we hope that we've been able to provide you with a new nugget or two as food for thought for your direct marketing strategies over the past year.

Now, down to the brass tacks . . . so, after a year of blogging are we rich, are we famous? What exactly has this blogging thing done for you? . . . you may be asking. Good question.

Well, we aren't exactly rich (except in character), but perhaps we're just-a-little-bit-famous (at least we have t-shirts from the Blogworld Expo that say we are). In reality, this blog has accomplished exactly what we wanted it to accomplish for us. It's established our foray into social media/marketing. We have over 1,000 unique visitors per month that read our blogs and many more than that who visit often. We believe we have brought our direct marketing expertise to a world-wide audience who we may not have otherwise been able to reach as a West-Coast-based-in-the-US consulting firm.

However, we believe that aside from our great readers, the next greatest benefit to us has been the partnerships that we have developed with other bloggers that are also in direct marketing -- but in complimentary spaces.

Here's a concrete example . . . we often refer to Robert Rosenthal of the Mothers of Invention Creative Agency and his Freaking Marketing blog. Robert operates a brilliant creative agency that provides his customers with out-of-the-box creative development and campaign deployment, along with a myriad of other very forward-thinking services that we simply don't offer. However, with our data and analytical services expertise, we, too, offer services that Robert doesn't offer. Together, we think we can provide a very compelling and complimentary service offering that it's tough to find in the marketplace.

Don't get me wrong, you can find other agencies and analytical firms out there and even some companies who offer it all. What I'm saying is that with our very specific expertise -- and our very different approach to direct marketing -- you can hire in some non-traditional direct marketers that will be able to provide you with solutions very different -- and we believe better and more relevant today -- than the traditional DM firms.

Our point here is that we've figured this out through authoring our respective blogs. We found Robert and Robert found us. From the purest sense, this is the beauty of Social Media . . . building communities, linking with others and creating relationships. See . . . it ain't just for the teenagers! And, by the way, isn't this what pure business strategy is all about, too? Making connections with the right people and creating value for your customers, while building profitability for your business. Yep, sounds about right.

So, yes . . . our blogging experience has been very successful from our viewpoint. As we embark on our 2nd year, we'll continue to comb the news and the industry for thought-provoking information that we hope you'll find interesting and will help you do what you do more successfully. Meanwhile, thanks for reading and commenting on our blog posts over the last year. Keep your comments coming -- we love them! And, we'd love to hear how social media has helped your business. If you have a story to share with us and our readers, please do so!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! Thanks for the kind words about Mothers of Invention -- and for teaming up with us.

Yep, we believe, pound for pound, our collective offering is the Floyd Mayweather of direct marketing. (Now you'll probably have Mayweather searchers hitting this blog thinking, "What the hell am I doing here?" along with RRW readers who go, "Who the hell is Floyd Mayweather?")

Nancy Arter said...

Thanks Robert! For the RRW readers who may not know of the "sweet science," Floyd is one of the greatest heavy-weight champions in the history of boxing . . . and for those Mayweather searchers . . . you belong here! We can help you direct market Floyd! : )

Ron Shevlin said...

Happy Birthday!

What has this blogging thing done for you? I can't imagine that you haven't experienced satisfaction from simply doing it.

You don't have to put a price tag on everything.

dmcg said...

Congratulations on your first year!

I am now on my 6th month and still learning about how to use my blog to full advantage.

Keep up the good efforts and continue to give it your best. I enjoy your blogs and bird's eye view of CRM.

Ted

Nancy Arter said...

Hey,

Thanks Ron and Ted! Ron, you're right -- the biggest thing we get out of it is the actual fun of doing it. It's nice to have a place to state your views, ask questions of the world and share info.

And Ted, thanks for your kind comments, too. I think this blogging thing is lots of fun . . . and a lot of the fun is meeting people like you.

For our readers, you can click over and see both of these Gentleman's blogs from our blogroll. Ron's is "Ron Shevlin's Marketing Whims" and Ted's is "Ted Grigg's Reflections About Direct Marketing."

Suzanne Ortiz said...

I love Nancy's post about our blog's birthday and echo her sentiments completely.

I wanted to add another reason why I'm so happy we started this blog. The creativity. It's FUN to have this forum to be able to write about anyone and anything we want. By having to write every other day (we take turns!), I now know that I can write every other day!

This has led to some new ventures (be on the look-out for some new direct marketing and entrepreneurial marketing books/manuals). Before this blogging stuff, did I ever think I could write a book. Heck no! Now, I have several outlines and one almost done.

This blog has also led to other creative ideas. We've started a forum (www.AskDirectMarketers.com) where anyone can ask us their burning direct marketing question, and we invite other experts to help with answers, too. We've also started a new business line, www.AnalyzeYourCustomers.com, and its associated blog.

But, even with all of the newfound creativity spawned almost certainly by this blog, I still echo Nancy's thoughts about the best thing is the new people that we've met this year.
Suzanne

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Nancy and Suzanne, on your one year "blogiversary"! That is quite an accomplishment in itself.

At the end of the day, it really is all about the people. I am glad to hear you have made so many new friends this way - including me and my Customers Rock! blog. Thank you!

Nancy Arter said...

Thanks Becky . . . YOU ROCK! : )