Greg Tirico is Senior Social Media Manager for Sage North America – providers of business management software and services to over 3 million small and mid-sized businesses in North America. In this role, Tirico stays current with social media trends and works across the Sage Business Units to help set strategy and success metrics for social media marketing programs. Follow Sage North America on Twitter via @SageNAmerica and Greg Tirico via @gregt12

Everybody likes to win stuff. Or, at minimum, they like to know they are getting a good deal. This is a basic consumer principle and it carries over into the business world as well. CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

The Good ‘ol Days

Back in the day (and by that I mean waayyy back in 2008), driving new business through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was a straightforward nut to crack. Find your keywords, optimize your website, start a blog and wait for the orders to roll in. Customers were plentiful and CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

It’s that time of year again when everyone is making their New Years Resolutions. Though your personal resolutions might consist of a newly found dedication to the gym after a plentiful holiday season, don’t forget about your business resolutions. What can you do this year to be even more successful? CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

Marketers are always looking for good tips on how to make their programs more effective, get more ROI, develop better relationships with their customers, etc. Here at Kirk, we have developed some tips (check out our our last tip here) that we would like to pass on to our blog followers – they will be up at random intervals, so make sure you check back often!

Direct Marketing Tip #7:

There is one very important thing to know when promoting your brand: CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

Prior to the financial collapse in 2009, there were a handful of bond traders buying insurance against subprime mortgages. These traders were buying insurance bonds that would payout if subprime mortgages fell into default (and by extension the housing market crashed). In other words, in a time when everyone was trying to make money off growth in the housing market and trading subprime loans like hockey cards in the school yard, these guys were laying major bets that CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

We all love it, don’t we? That extra hour of sleep in the fall when we get to move our clocks back is just fantastic. But don’t let this season be the time that you start to “fall back” into your old direct marketing habits CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

Surely the writing is on the (digital) wall.

Tablets, iPads, and e-readers abound. Mobile adoption and penetration rates continue to climb. Environmentalists decry the use of paper, ready to handout seals of approval to any business that even hints at an immediate reduction of paper use. Surely, as I write this on a soggy Monday CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

Marketers are always looking for good tips on how to make their programs more effective, get more ROI, develop better relationships with their customers, etc. Here at Kirk, we have developed some tips that we would like to pass on to our blog followers – they will be up at random intervals, so make sure you check back often!

Here we go…Direct Marketing Tip #34:

#34. Think Multi-Channel

Thinking multi-channel means doing two things:

1) Making sure that your message is consistent within all your advertising, and CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY

There are several important Canada Post rate and service changes coming in January 2012, including:

• Addressed Admail & Lettermail Rate Increases
• New Unaddressed Admail Rate Structure
• New Address Accuracy Requirements
• Enhanced GeoPost Targeting Tools

A complete summary of all the changes can be found on Canada Post’s website here.

Please contact us if you’d like us to walk you through the updates or to speak with a direct marketing expert about leveraging these changes to make your direct marketing more efficient and effective.

In January 2012, Canada Post will introduce new address accuracy requirements for commercial mail within Canada. The new requirements will mean that a typical mailing list will see a small increase in CONTINUE READING THIS ENTRY