David Meerman Scott on working with Agencies

via The Direct Marketing Voice – The QuantumDigital marketing team is sharing a book by David Meerman Scott called The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and generally find it to be a good read.  As part of a new book tour, David promotes his newest book, World Wide Rave, by filming this short spoof of his experience interacting with agencies who “just don’t get it”.

Are Email Appends An Achilles Heel For Deliverability And Strategy?

via MediaPost – While opt-out email append is not without risk, if managed correctly it can be an excellent way for marketers to grow their email lists.  In these tough economic times, companies are looking for ways to accelerate the use of the email channel, essentially reallocating marketing budget from less “accountable” channels to email.

Direct Mail Nugget: Resizing Artwork To Cut Printing Costs

via The Ballantine Blog – We recently quoted a postcard project for a new client. Like we do on every project, we made sure the piece was running on the press at the most efficient size. In doing so, we realized that if they shaved just 1/8″ off the height, it would save them $1,200.

Tactics and strategies: Model behavior for greater list efficiency

via DMNews – Marketing budgets may ebb and flow, but one area of investment is always essential: lists and data. Database marketing is a key part of any successful campaign, whether through direct mail, e-mail or an integrated effort. The following expert articles focus on issues such as list efficiency, database quality and processing costs.