Gilbert Direct Marketing

In the first part of this series on tips for catalogers looking for useful ways to bolster their housefiles with prospect names, this week I provide a background on the value of customer acquisition in the catalog industry.
Of course most everyone knows that customers are the lifeblood of any direct marketing company. Everything catalog marketers do revolves around acquiring and retaining customers — and doing so at a profitable level.
Between recent printing and paper increases, the undeserved beating the U.S. Postal Service handed catalog mailers last year, and fierce competition (where the Internet comes into play heavily), the job of a

This week, I’m stepping away from last week’s column on increasing average order value in your call center to share a personal experience from which all multichannel marketers can learn. Next week, I’ll be back with part two of that series. I felt this was topic was so fresh in my mind that it would be worth saving the second part until next week.
I enjoy mixing things up in my weekly column; after all, I need to keep it fresh more than 50 times a year. As a teacher of direct marketing, I take my marketing cues from many sources. So when I

I hope you had a fun and safe New Year’s. I was planning to do a different and informative article for the first column this year … then I read about Lillian Vernon letting go 100 employees a mere five days before Christmas. With no warning! Does anyone else find this to be a despicable act?
I’m not against making a profit, but as a direct marketer, I always seek ways to reduce costs rather than cutting staff — a last resort to me — to meet profit goals. Was it really going to kill a multimillion-dollar enterprise’s profits to keep 100 employees,

I just got out of one of those mind-numbing meetings that appears to last a lifetime. It seems that “based on a view from 30,000 feet, the wagons need to be circled, and a new client facing 2.0 something-or-other needs to be re-imagin-eered.” I have no idea what on earth this means, which is scary because I was the one saying it (kidding!).
Don’t you just love corporate jargon? I prefer to speak straight, which can be a bit bewildering to others who prefer the more high-minded stuff you learn in an M.B.A program. But I digress.
It’s been a tough year and, frankly,

You don’t have to operate any stores to always “mind the store.” For us in the catalog/direct/multichannel world, that means finding time in our 24/7, 365-days-a-year world to step back and ask ourselves a few questions. It’s not an easy task to pull back from our everyday happenings, but it’s mission critical to stop and ask:
1. Are we the company our customers want us to be?
2. Are we the company our competition envies?
3. Are we looking around every corner to see what’s coming next?
4. And for that matter, how can we adapt to meet the needs of

Friends and readers: I hope you all had a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I also hope you had a great Black Friday and a killer Cyber Monday.
I seem to remember not too long ago when Black Friday was just a retail industry term for the one day of the year that could change a company’s P&L from red to black. Somehow the term has crept into our national lexicon and collective psyche. As I went through my e-mails on Thanksgiving morning, Nov. 22, I had at least a half-dozen sale-oriented e-mails pitching Black Friday sales. Most referenced Black Friday right in

Continuing my list from last week, here’s the second part (tips 8-13) of my rules for CEOs to follow to most effectively manage their direct marketing businesses.
8. Don’t be a negative example. Want your employees to underperform? Come to work sporadically, keep unspecified hours, pull up in a ultra high-end foreign luxury car while your employees drive cars with rust holes, and watch what happens. When your employees lack motivation, blame them, not you. But as a wise old boss I had early in my career told me, “The fish stinks from the head!” Get in before your employees, leave later

Maybe it’s the fact that I live and work (mostly) in Florida — the sun, scam and lazy person’s escape capital of the world. Or maybe it’s just that I’ve worked for so many entrepreneurial companies that “hit” with the right product at the right time — and had no idea how to spark the lightning to strike twice. Or perhaps, it’s because as a consultant I’m usually called in when there are problems (sometimes insurmountable) that need to be fixed, and start-ups that need to be funded.
Or maybe it’s just my dumb luck? Neh!
Be that as it may, I’ve had the

Seems my office Internet connection has been down for the past week while all of the cable wiring is replaced. Due to this, I had to postpone my last bit of research on the LinkedIn network and owe you a review next week.
For those who haven’t yet checked it out, please go to www.linkedin.com. Or better yet, go to my profile page and link to me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert .
Self-promotion Cuts Both Ways: A Cautionary Tale
Last week, I told you about a self-promotion effort that worked well for me. To continue the conversation regarding self-promotion, this week I must

Last week, I wrote about an online business-networking Web site I planned to review called LinkedIn.com. First off, I want to thank those of you who joined linkedin.com and linked to me.
For those of you who have yet to check it out, please go to www.linkedin.com. Or better yet, go to my profile page and link to me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert .
While I’m not ready to write a full review just yet (that’ll come next week), I can tell you the following:
1. I met two contacts in the catalog business in Europe who were looking for products to sell