
We've won 27 Gold & Silver SouthStar Awards, presented by the Direct Marketing Association for the challenging combination of Strategy + Creativity + Results.
IS DIRECT MAIL MARKETING
YOUR SECRET WEAPON?
David Ogilvy — probably the single most famous ad guy of all time — called Direct Marketing his "Secret Weapon." You might think if it that way, too. (Even if you've tried it and swear "it doesn't work!)
Direct Marketing -- also known as Direct Response Marketing, Database Marketing, One-To-One Marketing, even just Targeted Marketing -- is about identifying prospects. Benefit-oriented selling. Strong offers. Persuasive, action-oriented content. Media you might not have considered. Targeted Marketing that produces results.
Direct Marketing is an approach to marketing — it can include direct mail, email, social media marketing, dierct response television, and any medium that seeks a specific response, such as a billboard with an 800 number.
Direct Mail is a unique Direct Marketing tool. Direct Mail brings you targetability…highest flexibility… high impact.
Cut Thru Online Clutter with in-hand, full-attention, brand development
Capitalize on Social Media contacts — with higher engagement and close rates
Full control: timing… market segments… recipient list… offers…segmented/split offers…personalization and personalized messaging… 1-1 approaches
Integrate with digital media
Brand Development, Lead Generation, Special Events, Sales Campaigns:
Target your best prospects
Infinite Flexibility: Gain Engagement and Response with high-impact formats… custom folding… specialized papers… finishing techniques (such as foil embossing) … 2-D/3-D…
Engage Powerfully, Cultivate Clients & Cross-Sell: build more powerful cross-channel campaigns based on previous contacts and their activity
"Your team’s direct mail piece was tested against another direct mail package we had developed elsewhere -- yours pulled three times the response.”
Nancy Payne
Direct Mail Manager

PowerDirectSM
OUR DIRECT MAIL MARKETING IS FRESH
AND TIME-TESTED. WITH AWARDS
AND TESTIMONIALS FROM CLIENTS
AMPED ABOUT THE RESULTS
Should Direct Marketing — particularly Direct Mail — be part of your mix?
Direct Marketing — also known as Direct Response Marketing and Database Marketing — is a highly-targeted marketing approach. Why would you "target" just anybody?
Direct Marketing is an approach, a subset of marketing and usually includes Prospect and Customer Data, Offer/CTA, sophisticated benefit-oriented creative selling approaches designed to elicit response. It can include almost any medium — social, email, direct mail (flat and 3-dimensional), print ads, digital ads, Direct Response TV and radio, billboards, retargeting, using channels effectively, and more.
You can gain leads and sales via phone response… provide promo or access codes and links, and drive people to a landing page or website… build a higher level of awareness and engagement, and much more.
So you say "I've tried Direct Mail Marketing, and it doesn't work? Just what have you tried?!
When we talk about helping clients reach targeted markets, and recommend Direct Mail Marketing, we often hear:
"We're tried it… it doesn't work."
"It's too expensive… email is no cost."
Yes, that's what some people say. But don't tell that to people who are killing it with Direct Mail! And good direct mail gains and holds the attention of prospects longer, and converts at higher rates — than any other medium.
Direct Mail Marketing needs a number of factors to work, to make it successful:
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Good understanding of your audience before you start
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Good database to reach your targeted audience — these can be "house" lists: purchased or traded
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A segmented approach — if your messaging really meets the needs of the target segment, you're way ahead of the game
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Your Offer/CTA must be strong — why should they respond now?
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Your Creative must be engaging — get their attention with benefits- oriented thinking.
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You are testing key components noted above, and tweaking further with elements such as formats to gain response or reduce cost.
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Analyze your results, and level-up in the next round of tests, and your roll-out.
If you put all that together properly… most companies can print money.
When does Direct Response Marketing work best?
This approach works best when highly targeted... and it's highly valuable for small and large companies and non-profits. Your customer database is your strongest resource in this regard. And if it's segmented and ready to go to market via an effective CRM system, even better.
Email and direct mail are proven workhorses for this targeted marketing approach. And an integrated approach — using multiple media in your campaign is always the most effective of approaches.
Direct Mail ain't dead. It never was.
"Snail Mail" is way more powerful and cost effective than you might have thought, and can integrate digitally with online media. Believe it or not, it's more cost-effective, and time-efficient than building a following of social media tire kickers.
"Paper" puts your message in the hands of your prospects and customers, in an infinite variety of formats, for their full attention.
We get to employ dimension and folding, and paper texture and color and special effects like gloss, emboss and foil stamp, and even surprises, as your prospects sift through your offer with their full attention. And direct mail has longer "legs"... often people start to read, then have it sit around their desks, creating additional impressions.
Direct Mail is the most flexible and powerful medium you have in marketing
And if you have select high-end prospects, or a must-sell higher-ticket offering, we can help you gain high impact among these key prospects, C-Level executives, and other special must-get audiences, with 3-Dimensional promotional mailings. We break through here, where other approaches fall flat.
Dimensional mailings cut through the clutter with highest response rates — engaging key prospects with this highest-impact breakthrough messaging, engagement, and response.


Behind our work for you are multiple certifications, and truckloads of experience with a wide range of clients




“I find your mailing pieces well thought-out, well-written, and well-designed.”
Ed Burnett,
President, Leo Burnett Agency
President, Ed Burnett Consultants
Legendary Direct Marketing Industry Expert
3D "blueprints" mailer in a tube, marketing a not-yet-completed subdivision, for an ad agency client in Mississipi

3-D - Dimensional Mail




'3-part campaign to introduce IBM/CD Group's new eCommerce software platform, resulting in successful launch of the program (after 2 other agency attempts)..
3 square colorful pieces were mailed, building brand interest, driving webinar attendance; third piece is tabbed and expands into a rocket launch in stages.






4-part 3-D campaign targeted for shipping managers, to introduce or expand their use of CSX Transportation's intermodal services
"You’ve created a major problem for us. The direct mail piece that you did for [our client] did so well that we had to hire extra temporary help for a larger-than-expected response. We didn’t even run the newspaper space ad you developed, the response to the mail was so good. It’s kicking tail!”
Ken Sandridge, President
Maris West & Baker
Direct Mail, Self-Mailers and Email



Disruptive direct mail for Champion Mortgage



AirTouch/Verizon: Self-Mailer "customer satisfaction survey" also identified interests of high-end purchasing accounts

Email promoting a consulting offer from a specialized insurance company

Final email in a campaign promoting a community event

Postcard invitation, part of a series, promoting annual insurance conference. We also developed the event branding and logo.

"Joel is truly a person that has taught me and impressed me with his deep and wide understanding of Direct Response Marketing when I had the opportunity to work with him. Even though he is a Master at his craft — he never stops being a student of the discipline. Trust him."
Paul Stackpole
Pel Hughes
Digital Response Media




Animated banner ads for Jetstream, a company that decompresses gas cylinders

Linked email graphic promoting a special event

Location-based (LBS) smartphone app creating immediate response and new business for service providers

Animated banner ad targeted to trade show attendees, and retargeted

Banner ad retargeting a CTA/Offer from an IT consulting firm


Joel Alpert (middle) with recognized industry icons Bob Stone (left) and Martin Baier (right) at the Professional Direct Marketer certification program at the Center For Direct Marketing.
WE'VE WORKED WITH
SOME OF THE WORLD'S
LEADING EXPERTS
IN DIRECT MARKETING
INCLUDING THE LEGENDARY BOB STONE AND MARTIN BAIER, FOUNDERS OF THE PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Bob Stone co-founded the renowned Stone & Adler agency, known for strong strategic and creative thinking. He is author of the acclaimed "bible of Direct Marketing, Successful Direct Marketing Methods" (14 editions, translated into multiple languages), and he said:
"Joel is a talented and creative marketer... with a flair for the unexpected!"
Martin Baier, author of Contemporary Direct and Interactive Marketing, and one of the inventors of the ZIP code system. said:
"Joel has given us some of the strongest
strategy, creativity, and presentations we've had.…"
Stone and Baier founded the PDM certification program — an application-only program designed for industry professionals in Direct Marketing, who had at least 5 years of hands-on experience.
When Joel and these pioneering experts got to know each other through the program, they asked Joel to work shoulder-to-shoulder with them as part of a "Direct Marketing Dream Team" engineered by one of program graduates.
Most notably, the team was asked to brainstorm and engineer a Direct Marketing profit center at a major energy conglomerate. That work quickly produced multi-million dollar success, and has been an ongoing business engine bringing in billions of dollars in revenue across their companies, using the techniques these pioneers developed, to drive business on a large scale to the company.

Direct Response Marketing is one of our "secret weapons"…don't tell anyone, or it won't be a secret!
Joel is certified as a Professional Direct Marketer — part of a select group of working professionals accepted into this certification program at The Center for Direct Marketing.
Not only has Joel studied and worked with pioneering Direct Marketing industry strategic and creative experts including Bob Stone, Martin Baier, Ed Nash, Emily Soell, Sol Blumenfeld, John Francis Tighe, Herschel Gordon Lewis, and more…
He's also worked for 5 of the world's leading Direct Marketing
agencies in New York City and Atlanta — Ogilvy & Mather Direct, Rapp Collins, Stone & Adler, The Stenrich Group, Kaiser Kuhn Bennett (KKB Direct)… and as a Secret Weapon (shhh!) for other respected agencies and consulting firms in the Southeast.
And have you see his client list? The testimonials? The response rates? They're not too shabby….
“By the nature of our business, we don’t get a huge number of responses on any of the material we send out... but your group’s work is doing so much better than anything else we’ve done.”
Sharon Tanner, CEO
Jackson Liability Solutions