Cover Story: 50 Best Tips of 2009

35. In-house photography has its advantages.
Save time, cut costs and increase flexibility by shooting at the last minute without having to hire somebody for the day. If your company has some extra space in its building, set up a photo studio there. Marketers can save a tremendous amount of money doing it in-house.
Jean Giesmann, Stony Creek Brands; Chris Bradley, Cuddledown of Maine
“10 Survival Tips From NEMOA,” Sept. 29, The ROI Report

36. Use active voice.
Active sentences carry more emotion and zest than passive sentences. Take these two examples:
* Active voice: Illuminate outdoor areas with a sconce.
* Passive voice: Outdoor areas can be illuminated with a sconce.
In the passive voice example, two “neutral” words, “can be,” bring no value to the content.
Denise McGill, McGill Copywriting
“9 Tips to Better Catalog Copy,” April 21, Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips

37. Figure out time to next purchase.
Do you know how long it takes for a new buyer to repurchase? Is it three weeks or three months? With that knowledge, you can build a strategic campaign to reactivate buyers who haven’t repurchased by that time. Or, if you know new buyers won’t purchase in a given window, scale marketing efforts back to avoid overinvesting.
Tim Hoerrner, Carmot Marketing
“4 Tips to Better Understand and Retain New Buyers,” May 5, Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips

38. Sharpen your segmentation strategy.
Best segmentation practices start with needs/motivations, then overlay lifetime value, segment by where customers are in their life cycles and model based on RFM.
Paul Becker, marketing consultant
“From Market Segmentation to Customer Segmentation: Opportunities for Competitive Advantage and Growth, Part 2,” Aug. 4, The ROI Report

39. Capture social media for database marketing.
Store the date of the last social media activity in your database. It’s not difficult to create database fields that list the most recent date of a visit from Twitter, Facebook or any other social media website. This information can and should be used in future marketing campaigns.
Kevin Hillstrom, MineThatData
“Explore Social Media’s Link to Database Marketing,” July 6, AllAboutROIMag.com columns