You can use this framework to determine your KPI’s according to your marketing objective.

Download the Actionable Social Analytics from Social Media Metrics to Business Insights here

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How does it work?
The Shitter app takes one or more feeds from your Twitter account and turns it into four rolls of toilet paper, delivered straight to your door. Customers can choose from their own Twitter feeds or friends’. The rolls cost $35 plus shipping.

Shitter will print twitter feeds on your toilet paper, giving you time to catch up on tweets while in the bathroom. This creative startup is hoping to earn a few bucks  by printing Twitter feeds onto rolls of toilet paper.

Learn more about “Shitter” here

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Poets & Plumbers A/S was founded in 2008 and quickly became a recognizable brand in the Danish market. With a number of unique event formats and a compelling community and networking component, Poets & Plumbers have been highly visible within the marketing and communication community in Denmark.

English Poets & Plumbers website here

Says Michael Leander; “we have been contemplating how Markedu could get a different role in the Danish market for quite some time. When the opportunity to acquire the majority of the shares in Poets & Plumbers came up, we knew we had found the right partner.

Jonathan Winch and the other founders in Poets & Plumbers have done a great job of putting together a winning concept. Now our job is to improve Poets & Plumbers offering to the market.

A few facts about what happens next

• Michael Leander assumes the role of acting CEO in Poets & Plumbers A/S
• For the time being Markedu will be active in Denmark with both the Poets & Plumbers brand and the Markedu brand
• Poets & Plumbers will introduce a number of new event and training formats in Denmark in 2012.
• The marketing Wiki developed by Poets & Plumbers community is likely to be expanded in both English and Danish. you can check the English language Wiki here
• Poets & Plumbers expect to expand the team focused on Denmark over the next months

Testing ground in a mature market
Michael Leander says that Markedu – via the Poets & Plumbers brand – will test a number of new concepts for training and inspiration in Denmark.  He says “we are convinced  that there is room for a lean, innovative and focused concept for training and inspirational events in Denmark.  We will test different models over the next 12 months and bring those that work well to our focus markets in Europe and the Middle East.

-> If you want to stay tuned on our newest developments and get invitation to evens, get the Markedu News Alert here
-> Check out Poets & Plumbers website here
-> See this interview with Poets & Plumbers founder Jonathan Winch talking about his new book

If you are not yet familiar with Google Plus, we recommend you have a look here

Over the next months, Markedu will bring you in-depth information about the current changes in the online space related to Google Plus. Get our free marketing event alerts newsletter here to stay tuned.

Google’s determination to succeed with Google Plus has seen the search engine giant implement some major changes to search. This effects not only how search results are displayed, but also how content from users on Google Plus take display priority.

It would seem that with this bold move, marketers really need to find out how to get a compelling presence on Google Plus. And on YouTube – another giant searchable platform controlled by Google.

While you may not like using Google Plus at this point in time and you may find that Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin better suits your purpose, I think you need to put your personal preferences aside and have a serious look at the implications IF (or when) Google Plus reach the same point of domination as we see Facebook enjoy at the moment.

In the video below, SEO expert Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz explains in 15 minutes why these changes are significant, and why every marketer on the Planet need to pay attention to what is going on. Highly recommended to watch this video from start to finish.

Rand Fishkin explains expertly why you need to take Google Plus seriously, and how G+ may change the game of SEO. This is serious stuff and paying attention is highly recommended as this might effect your placement in the Google search engine dramatically.

What’s next?
>> Get Markedu’s Event News Alert and receive invitations to free web seminars and more
>> Check out Markedu’s Google Plus page here
>> Follow Markedu on Linkedin to connect with like minded marketers

An interview with B2B marketing guru Jonathan Winch

Michael Leander interviews Jonathan Winch, B2B marketing expert and a co-author of “The Death of Propaganda”, a new book that expounds a new strategic B2B marketing framework based on three “voices” – Voice of Company, Voice of Customer, and Voice of Industry. Released in just 500 copies to date, the book is already helping to re-focus the attention of top management on issues essential to marketing success.

Michael Leander: How would you describe the state of B2B marketing among your customers today?

Jonathan Winch: Our customers are typically medium-to-large-sized companies headquartered in Scandinavia. Most fall into the category of business-to-business (B2B), and the vast majority serve business customers in markets all over the globe. As far as marketing and communication practices go, almost all are lagging far behind their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts. And they are often out of touch with changes in the way their customers and prospects are behaving when it comes to information gathering and decision-making processes.

I think this current state can be attributed to a number of different factors. One is the difficulty, as I’ve touched on already, of gaining a strategic overview of what needs to be done and why – that’s something our new book tries to do. Another is the challenge of convincing top management of B2B companies – and many of them are headed up by engineers or accountants rather than marketers – that significant change is required.

And I would also point to what I see as a lack of skills among marketers in the B2B space. This last point isn’t an expression of incompetence or laziness on the part of corporate marketers, but probably reflects how busy they tend to be just trying to keep up with the number of meetings and administrative tasks that go along with the job. So the time they really need to spend keeping up with a very fast-moving strategic landscape outside their companies is pretty scarce.

Michael Leander: Can you sum up the basic idea of your book, The Death of Propaganda, for us?

Jonathan Winch: Sure. It starts with what some people are calling the new breed of B2B buyer – an important change in the way B2B buyers evaluate and purchase goods and services that means much of the information-gathering process and shortlisting decision now takes place without any dialog with a vendor.

More and more, buyers are consulting each other first and forming their opinions before coming into contact with vendor websites, marketing materials or the sales force. Yet most B2B suppliers still approach their markets with hyped-up, propaganda-like messages that lack the credibility today’s buyers are looking for.

The Death of Propaganda urges companies to move from spouting propaganda to establishing credibility, from acting like pushy salespeople to taking on the role of customer advocate, and from broadcasting self-recommendations toward a more appropriate model where B2B customers and prospects are stimulated to recommend the company and its products to their peers.

And it outlines what we call a “Three Voices strategic framework” for meeting this challenge via three distinct modes of stakeholder engagement.

Michael Leander: How do you define “propaganda” in a marketing context?

Jonathan Winch: The phenomenon my co-authors and I call propaganda in the marketing world isn’t hard to spot. It’s those carefully crafted messages designed to persuade the masses using superlatives such as “advanced”, “state-of-the-art”, “cutting edge” and so on. It’s the often ridiculous claims that try and turn some minor technical feature of a product into a compelling reason to buy.

And frankly, B2B buyers just don’t believe this stuff anymore – just as today’s consumers have become increasingly skeptical of promotional messages. Yet B2B companies, or most of them, I should say, are still doing this pushy style of communication. Often, the real problem isn’t the marketing and communication departments themselves, but the demands placed on corporate messages by top management who seem to be stuck with the idea that using impressive words to tell people you are the leader is still a valid means of persuasion.

Michael Leander: If propaganda is out, what do B2B companies need to replace it with?

Jonathan Winch: Credibility. If you’re in a knowledge-intensive industry like IT or engineering services, for example, then you should focus on showcasing and sharing your know-how, rather than on telling people how good you are at doing whatever it is you do. Make this knowledge available via survey reports, helpful checklists, white papers on industry issues, expert videos and so on.

And all the time, think about how you can create content that people are likely to share with others, effectively communicating that they like your company and what it does. Because that’s where all the credibility is these days – at the peer-to-peer, word-of-mouth level.

Michael Leander: Why did you decide to write the book – and why now?

Jonathan Winch: I guess you could say that the book is an attempt to solve two key issues. The first of these is that, for years, we’ve watched our clients struggling to get their minds (and budgets) around the principles and techniques of integrated marketing. We’ve seen them attempt – and often fail – to put together communication plans that combine offline with online activities.

Our problem was this: For all our strategic knowledge of how to work with offline and online marketing and communications, we still hadn’t found a sufficiently simple way to explain it all to people – not to our customers nor, for that matter, to ourselves. And we weren’t good enough at helping the marketing department convince top management of the need to invest in new ways of approaching the market.

The second key issue concerns an opportunity that a lot of our knowledge-intensive customers have woken up to: the strategic value of becoming perceived as a thought leader in their industries. So, along with pulling online and offline activities into a clearer structure, the book is also a recipe for achieving this comparatively new aim.

Michael Leander: Why has it been difficult for people to understand these perspectives before now?

Jonathan Winch: Over the years, like many communication agencies in the industry, we have created numerous PowerPoint presentations that laid out statistic after frightening statistic about the changes underway in the marketing landscape, before launching into descriptions of SEO/SEM, mobile marketing, behavioral targeting and so on.

Mostly, our audiences seemed to understand what we were saying. They came away with a vague notion of urgency and a better understanding of the specific techniques of online marketing. What we felt was lacking, however, was an “Aha! experience” – that moment of revelation where the clouds evaporate and all becomes crystal clear.

Michael Leander: So you had an “Aha!” experience and decided to write a book about it?

Jonathan Winch: Discovering our “Aha!” experience made us keen to get the message out to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. And that’s where this book comes in – to bring this revelation of the Three Voices framework to many more people than those we’ve been able to help to date.

Michael Leander: What does this mean for the way in which B2B companies design their corporate websites?

Jonathan Winch: Companies need to make sure that, when a potential customer finally comes to their corporate website or in contact with other marketing materials, there isn’t a significant disconnect between the opinions people have formed when they were doing their pre-purchase information gathering, and the messages they encounter when they turn to the companies on the resulting shortlists.

And marketers need to think through the customer experience on their sites in terms of continued credibility and a new role as a customer advocate – someone who helps people to make intelligent and appropriate buying decisions. So the content on sites will often need to be adapted for this new approach. Most B2B companies could also do with taking a good, hard look at the power of their brand, too.

Here I’m primarily thinking about the need to create some sort of emotional connection instead of simply focusing on dry facts. That’s something that can really bond customers to your company and make you stand out in the B2B crowd.

Michael Leander: If you were to name just one thing, what would you say is the most useful contribution the book makes to business strategy?

Jonathan Winch: Without a doubt, I’d say it’s the ability of the Three Voices strategic framework to educate and convince top management to set a new strategy for the way their companies approach the market. One of the biggest barriers to updating the sales and marketing strategies of B2B companies has long been the inability of marketing departments to secure the funding and commitment that’s needed.

It takes a powerful argument to convince the CEO, particularly in these economic crisis times, to make an investment that goes beyond the agreed annual marketing budget to create a new foundation. What we’ve found is that first, the book’s message opens the door to top management and board-level presentation of its principles, and second, management is quick to adopt those principles and seriously consider what needs to be done.

Michael Leander: So the Three Voices framework is a tool that marketing directors can use to convince their CEO to think beyond the status quo?

Jonathan Winch: Absolutely. I recently spent an hour presenting Three Voices thinking to a group of managers at an energy industry client. The sales and marketing director told me later that already that afternoon, management had met again to discuss the insights they had received and agreed to launch a project that would upgrade the company’s entire marketing approach to achieve a position as the industry’s thought leader. In all my years of advising clients on such issues, I have seldom seen such a quick and decisive reaction.

Michael Leander: I’ve heard you call the Three Voices framework “old wine in new bottles”. What do you mean by that?

Jonathan Winch: (Laughs) That’s an expression I picked up from Denmark where I’m based these days. What I mean to say is that many of the basic ideas behind the Three Voices are nothing new to those who have kept up to date with what’s happening these days in B2B buyer behavior and modern marketing approaches.

But its power lies in the way it pulls these developments together, its imagery, and its ability to bring clarity and structure to the rather confusing world of integrated marketing. And that’s why, these days, we’re urging the CEOs, marketing vice presidents and communications vice presidents we meet to get their minds around the framework and use it to convince others in their organizations of the need to significantly re-think and re-organize their market approaches.

Michael Leander: Do you expect B2B companies to widely adopt the Three Voices framework?

Jonathan Winch: That’s our hope, of course. Because we know it’s an idea that works. We’ve seen its effect on client after client. We’ve seen them literally jump out of their chairs and walk excitedly around the room, energized by their new understanding and its implications for how they can reach and engage their B2B audiences.

I like to point to the experience that, once you have placed the word “propaganda” in a manager’s mind as a way of describing the way his or her company is currently marketing its products, it has a tremendous motivating effect. After all, who wants to think that what they are doing is essentially disseminating propaganda?

Michael Leander: How has the “discovery” of the Three Voices framework affected the way you and your colleagues approach your work with clients?

Jonathan Winch: We’ve been energized by it. In fact, it’s enabled us to discover new opportunities among our clients and caused us to build new capabilities and platforms for both ourselves and our clients.

Michael Leander: You’re calling this first version of the book a “co-creation” edition. Why is that?

Jonathan Winch: While my co-authors and I are the originators of the Three Voices framework, we don’t claim to have all the answers to how the full potential of this framework can be unlocked by B2B companies. So, in keeping with the more open, sharing nature of know-how in today’s business world, we have chosen to self-publish a limited number of books to begin with – and we are encouraging our clients, partners and other participants in the business arena to contribute their perspectives and learnings to help develop the framework further.

In fact, that’s what we’ve seen already happening with those who have helped us to form our ideas and through the feedback from communication professionals and business strategists who have read the pre-release edition. Now we’re gathering those comments and feedback and will incorporate them into the official release of the book in the first half of 2012.

About Jonathan Winch

Jonathan Winch is a partner and co-founder of Copenhagen-based strategic communications agency Eye for Image. His career spans over 25 years, making contributions to the strategies and communications of companies of all sizes, the best known of which include Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Danisco, GN ReSound, Hempel, Nokia Siemens Networks, LEGO, Coloplast, and Johnson & Johnson.

Jonathan’s focus is on assisting knowledge-intensive B2B companies to become perceived as thought leaders within their industries.

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Markedu’s founder talked to transactional email expert Mia Papanicolaou from Striata. The interview is part of our interview series about the people whom matter in marketing.

If you recognize Mia Papanicolaou’s name, it might be because she was one of the selected experts Markedu invited to present at the Email Marketing Day @Your Desk.

We found her talk so intriguing that we decided to ask her a few questions. Read on to see what Mia has to say about transactional email messaging and other marketing related “stuff”.

How did you become involved in eMarketing?
I first experienced the world of email marketing when I managed the newsletter for a magazine I worked for as a journalist – I was hooked. I moved to an email marketing company called eMessageX.com in 2001, as the business director. Our motto was simple “provide great solutions that meet customer goals.”

This approach allowed us to establish ourselves in the South African market , as an email marketing specialist and in 2006 the company was bought by Striata. I took on the role of Head of eMarketing at Striata and have had the good fortune to work with some fantastic brands.

Striata provides email solutions for both the eMarketing and eBilling environments – pushing the right message to the customer at the right time, thus positioning Striata as a leader in the field of transactional communication. In 2010 I relocated to the United Kingdom and took on the role of Head of Operations for the UK team, where I assist companies gain maximise response off transactional email communications.

How is social media impacting on the email marketing environment?
Email marketing and social media are two entirely different mediums, yet they complement each other, rather than work against each other – email content can be shared on social media, while social media can be effectively used to organically grow an email database.

see if Markedu has a free web seminar about email marketing 

While social media has established itself as a mass platform for disseminating news and facilitating customer interaction, email marketing enables personalised, targeted communications based on customer profiles. It is a one-to-many medium that can act as a one-to-one due to the sheer amount of personalisation. Email is the app of choice, as it also informs and draws consumers back into social media – most notifications from various social networking sites arrive in a customer’s inbox.

How would industries such as financial services and perhaps energy & utilities benefit from email messaging?
Email messaging serves a massive gap in the market – that is, to switch off paper. Both these industries have relied on paper to get information to customers, as well as to their portals, where customers can find billing information.

They have struggled to switch off paper because of the registration process required for portal access (imagine how many logins one person has to have across these industries?) and so they continue to send paper, even though a portal is available.

see if Markedu has a free web seminar about email marketing 

Email solves this issue – it delivers the document to the customer directly into their inbox. By sending documents/bills via email, customers have the information at their fingertips, without needing to login – a convenience for customers that shouldn’t be overlooked and a cost saving exercise that cannot be ignored by these industries.

I understand that you are considered an expert in transactional messages – what are they and why are they important?
Transactional messages are those messages that are triggered based on an action or an event. A statement or an invoice would be considered a transactional message, as would order confirmations and retail receipts. Transactional messages are important as they supply important information to customers.

Is usability important when designing transactional messages?
Usability is important with all email marketing and transactional messaging is no different. These messages are often forgotten, appear as text and aren’t tracked. Designing these emails, testing them for effectiveness and tracking them is crucial.

The design doesn’t necessarily mean just adding the logo, it’s about writing the content and laying it out in a way that appeals to customers, without confusing them. It should also lead them to take the necessary action, like click on links, complete forms etc. Design becomes crucial when marketing is included, as it ensures that the email doesn’t detract from the message, but instead, achieves the desired results.

see if Markedu has a free web seminar about email marketing 

It’s very important to remember that these are emails that customers are expecting, which makes marketing to these customers on related topics a fantastic way to increase spend.

How important is clarity of communication for transactional emails? And what do marketers need to consider in that respect?
Transactional messages provide a perfect platform to up- and cross-sell to customers who are engaged and expect to receive these messages. However, one shouldn’t forget that the customer should easily be able to read the expected message and so, it’s best to avoid including many disparate marketing messages.

The marketing should complement the transactional message (e.g. include links to purchase a different policy on an insurance email) and should always strive to improve the customer experience rather than detract from it.

Now take a look at your crystal ball and tell us how you see email marketing and in particular lifecycle marketing automation developing over the next 3-5 years?
That’s so difficult to say. Technology progresses at lightning pace and as a result, what we believe today, changes by tomorrow. Mobile will continue to evolve and become a vital part of our digital lives, which makes mobile email an important factor for email marketers.

Paper turn-off will hopefully be more prolific with customers opting to receive all manner of documentation via email, which can be saved in the cloud and recalled at any moment. Exchanges in stores – retrieve the email receipt from your phone. Applying for a mortgage and need the documentation? Simply retrieve the last three bank statements from your email, as well as any other utility bills required. Personal information will be even more accessible and at our finger tips.

Finally, if our readers would like to get in touch with you, how would they do that?
LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/miapapanicolaou
Twitter- http://twitter.com/#!/miapapanicolaou
Email – mia.papanicolaou@striata.com

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At Markedu we are busy interviewing some of the best and brightest from the world of digital and direct marketing. In this brief interview you can hear what Anders Frankel  the founder of the market leading email marketing service provider in Scandinavia – have to say about the success of his company Apsis.

The Skype conversation we had with Swedish based Anders Frankel very much reminded us of how a stringent focus on reel market needs often brings bucket loads of success. That is especially true for technology.

Understanding where the limitations are – and should be – more often than not is the key to success. And success that is exactly what best describes this businessman from the fair land that also have produced global successes and talent such as music band Abba, tennis players Borg and Wilander, socialist politician Olaf Palme and Astrid Lindgren – the author of Pippi Longstocking.

10 years of constant growth
Apsis was founded by Anders Frankel around 10 years ago. Since then this hugely successful company has attracted an impressive 6.000 customers in 50 countries. While the majority of Apsis’ customers reside in Sweden, Anders Frankel and his team of enthusiastic email marketing professionals are also present in near home markets such as Denmark, Norway and Finland.

Apart from a local  presence in the Netherlands, Poland and Turkey, Apsis has more recently entered the Asian Pacific market through an office in Hong Kong.

When we asked Anders Frankel what he thinks is the secret to the success, he replied: “consistency, simplicity and care for our customers are the key factors behind our growth. We are dealing in a market where many email marketing service providers (ESP’s) often focus too much on creating an abundance of features.

Anders Frankel: Simplicity and ease of use is the key

At Apsis we have always focused on the needs of our customers. And on keeping it simple. Email marketing is very execution focused – so it is important that email marketing software is easy and fast to use.

We aim to make the features that email marketers use frequently extremely easy and straight forward to use. The practical details that probably aren’t very compelling in a sales pitch are important to the daily use of email marketing software.

Little details like identifying the right target group, segmenting, creating an email message, testing the email message and tracking the results must be extremely easy and quick to do. The same for A/B split testing and surveys. So what we are aiming to do is to develop software that looks and feels easy to use, but still offers a lot of more advanced features.

If you want to know more about Apsis, check out their website here 

Positioned for growth in the email marketing space
In 2010 Apsis attracted a major investment from Norwegian venture capital. Anders Frankel explains that this will allow Apsis to more rapidly exploit growth opportunities. With an outstanding financial performance growing by 80% year-on-year over the past three years, we believe Apsis are well positioned for growth.

The company recently acquired key assets in the now defunct Danish email marketing service provider Zoomio, which will boost the number of Apsis Newsletter Pro customers in Denmark – the second largest email marketing market in Scandinavia.

Whats Next?
>> Go here to learn why 6.000 customers made Apsis their email marketing system?  
>> Get the Markedu Events Alerts Newsletter to get more stories like this one
>> See if Markedu has a free web seminar about email marketing 

In this interview you can meet Brian Mdluli– the CEO of th Direct Marketing Association of South Africa.

» You can see an interview with Marian Seitan of the Romanian Direct Marketing Association here
» Go here to get Markedu’s Event Alert Newsletter

1 ) Please tell us about yourself; what is your current job role and what have you done before?
I am the CEO of the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa and before joining the DMA I headed up the SA division of a large multinational engineering firm. My role is that of chief administrator at the Direct Marketing Association.

2 ) How is direct marketing developing in South Africa?
Direct Marketing in SA has increased from R5billion a year in 2005 to approx R15billion in 2010 (that’s approximately 1,3 billion Euros). The major brands in South Africa have embraced Direct Marketing as their go to market vehicle

How do you see the future in terms of media mix and spending?
Direct Marketing in South Africa still enjoys a small % with relation to total marketing spend but gaining momentum on an annual basis

What about integration of digital?
Very exciting times as bandwidth become more available to the masses of South Africa and the digital space is enjoying the fastest growth in Direct Marketing channels.

3 ) In your opinion what do you believe are the three biggest direct marketing challenges for direct marketers in South Africa today?
1) Not enough internet penetration in South Africa 2) prohibitive pricing on some of the traditional media channels 3) a very small skills pool.

4 ) When thinking about skills, which are the skills that you believe are most important to develop for the modern direct marketer?
1) data management and analytics

5 ) Imagine that you were taken to the High Marketing Court by a brand-aficionado accusing you of practicing response marketing in a society where branding was seen as the norm. What would be your defence?
Direct Marketing is the only discipline with this marketing fraternity that allows brands to gain meaningful customer insight and open a meaningful dialogue with their customers.

6 ) Will we be using stamps for direct mail letters 25 years from now?
That’s the same questions we asked 25 years ago and we are still using stamps. South African marketers still has an affinity to direct mail and it is a legacy of our past.

7 ) Do you have any examples of great direct marketing work that generated massive Return on Marketing Investment?
Some star Direct Marketing work available on www.assegaiawards.co.za

8 ) How about data privacy. Are you taking steps to decrease the amount of unsolicited emails being sent by South African marketers?
South African direct marketers are regulated by 14 pieces of legislation and there is a great move towards responsible permission based marketing. This will not be overnight but we are making steady progress.

9 ) Is direct response advertising in South Africa common?
Brand communication is steadily moving towards direct response advertising. But the numbers are still low compared to the total marketing purse.

10 ) What is the single most exciting development in direct marketing you have seen in the past 12 months?
Integrated real time direct marketing made possible by social media

11 ) When comparing direct marketing skills in South Africa to central and northern Europe, what is the status?
South Africans excels in some specific channels and we are stars when it comes to integrating traditional media with new Direct Marketing Media. Still a lot to learn from our counterparts, but we can also teach a lot.

You can learn more about the Direct Marketing Association of South Africa here 

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In this interview you can meet Matjaz Vracko – the President of the Slovenian Direct Marketing Association

» Read the interview with Brian Mdluli of the Association of Direct Marketing South Africa
» You can see an interview with Marian Seitan of the Romanian Direct Marketing Association here
» Go here to get Markedu’s Event Alert Newsletter

1 ) Please tell us about yourself; what is your current job role and what have you done before?
Chief of direct sales and bookclub department in Mladinska Knjiga Publishing house and also the President of the ZDMA – Direct Marketing Association of Slovenia

2 ) How is direct marketing developing in Slovenia? How do you see the future in terms of media mix and spending? What about integration of digital?
It is quickly developing, especially digital formats (web, mobile…). Due to the recession some big players are thinking of quitting the market. The economic situation has influence, average response rates have dropped, good and the best customers segments are doing the same, but quite big influence is on average and occasional buyers. They are more careful (think twice before buying).

3 ) In your opinion what do you believe are the three biggest direct marketing challenges for direct marketers in Slovenia today?
- Building strong relationship with customers
- Providing excellent customer care
- To stay relevant (so the stories and communication with customers »touchpoints« are useful, relevant to end user, have added value)

4 ) When thinking about skills, which are the skills that you believe are most important to develop for the modern direct marketer?
Flexibility, not to be creative when there is no need to (stick to the basics of direct marketing, use creativity when building stories), to be a good storyteller, by the nature has to know the facts, economy, figures, plans ….

5 ) Imagine that you were taken to the High Marketing Court by a brand-aficionado accusing you of practicing response marketing in a society where branding was seen as the norm. What would be your defense?
Don’t know.

6 ) Will we be using stamps for direct mail letters 25 years from now?
No, we actually don’t use them nowadays.-))) Maybe 25 years from now they will be retro and trendy.-))

7 ) Do you have any examples of great direct marketing work that generated massive Return on Marketing Investment?
Yes, quite a lot.-))

Follow Markedu’s Newsletters to get info on successful direct marketing case studies 

8 ) How about data privacy. Are you taking steps to decrease the amount of unsolicited emails being sent by Slovenian marketers?
We are really careful and do things by the book. Slovenian regulation is even more strict than the EU legislation, so we put a lot of effort to ensure compliance (in terms, rules, keeping the data, deleting the data). For example: each customer, who want to block his contact in our database get from our company in 14-days period from his call or lettter by post in which we notice him/her that he/she was deleted from our database etc.

9 ) Is direct response advertising in Slovenia common?
We have international player TopShop/Studio Moderna who is really one of the top players in the EU.

10 ) What is the single most exciting development in direct marketing you have seen in the past 12 months?
Well done triggered campaigns (if it is done really smart: timing, story …) the results can be really awsome.

11 ) When comparing direct marketing skills in Slovenia to central and northern Europe, what is the status?
I would say that we are on the same level:
- Our market is small (2 mio people) so we have to test and play our game in the niche markets (5.000, 10.000) so we developed really strong segmentation.
- A lot of slovenian Direct Marketing professionals visit the DMA in USA and other European Direct Marketing Congresses, so we are getting up-to-date on know how and trends
- The tradition of Direct marketing  in Slovenia is long (ca. from 1970).

You can learn more about the Slovenian Direct Marketing Association here 

Markedu asked Norwegian direct marketer and copywriter Øystein Svaröd to give his viewpoint on what is happening in the glorious world of direct and digital marketing.

You can experience Oystein Svaröd at one of Markedu’s webinars – see the list here

In the world of communications we have seen a convergence between technologies and the way to use them. And with the web we have honestly seen a dramatic decline of the quality in copy and design. Not to speak about the ideas. It is quite similar to when the direct marketing creatives were second rate in any big agency.

Historically it actually began when the HTML-programmers started creating websites for clients. Suddenly the programmer became an all-in-one solution for programming (which was their trade), copywriting (which they had no idea about, and it was therefore left to the client´s organization), design (which is actually fun, and loads of software for automated design popped up) and photos (which they left to the client with his new digital camera with a zillion pixels).

With the app market emerging, I believe that the creativity will take a new turn of convergence. I mean, communications creativity will converge with the technical creativity. And that is because the iOS offers a world of new and innovative combinations, both in the visuals and the technological areas. The creative options in the iOS are without visible borders.

Remember the old definition of creativity?

Creativity is the talent to combine well-known things in a new way

This definition pretty much covers the new app creativity for marketing creatives. I will recommend spending some time and checking out the fun at Appstore. Not just fun, an avalanche of ideas, technological, visual and how to do effective copywriting.

Spend some money on apps and check out how people have used the technology in creative ways, ways that Apple had no idea about. And, please check out the beautiful digital design pieces and the intelligent and fun interfaces. This is directy marketing or one-to-one communications as good as it gets.

I suspect that the brave new world for good creatives is here. Enjoy!

Check out this mobile application. Art communicated to kids in a digital and new way:

Mobile application example

You can interact with Oystein Svaröd on his website here and check if there is a webinar coming up about mobile applications for marketing and customer service here