Vancouver, BC, May 15, 2012 — Kirk Marketing has become the first epost authorized partner in Western Canada, helping deliver important statements and documents to customer digitally, 24/7 on their smart phones, laptops, tablets and desktops.

The epost Service, which lets Canadians receive all their electronic mail securely and conveniently in one place, is bringing digital mail delivery to the forefront of the postal industry.

“We’re excited to offer this ground-breaking marketing service to financial institutions, banks, credit unions, insurance companies, municipalities, retailers and other organizations that want to connect quickly and effectively with Canadian customers,” said Mike Cowan, VP Sales & Marketing, Kirk Marketing. “We are proud of our partnership with Canada Post and are confident it will bring excellent value to our clients.”

The epost Service is the way of the future, with over 85 per cent of Canadians online. The online service allows secure and assured mail delivery, including publications, flyers, targeted advertising, government notices, bills and statements. It allows customers to store their digital mail for up to seven years, and reduces organizations’ operational costs, such as mail production, customer service calls and technology support.

As a local, authorized epost partner, Kirk Marketing is building on almost 60 years’ experience delivering industry-leading direct marketing solutions to help businesses boost sales and cultivate loyalty.

Organizations interested in exploring opportunities through the epost Service should contact Kirk Marketing.

About Kirk Marketing

Kirk Marketing is a data-driven direct marketing services provider based in Richmond, BC. It designs, plans and executes direct marketing campaigns to help clients reach prospects and increase customers with measurable results. Website: kirkmarketing.com

Contact:

James Hvezda
Marketing & Communications Manager, Kirk Marketing
jamesh@kirkmarketing.com
(604) 333-5551

LinkedIn is a growing social network with over 160 million users worldwide, many of them high-level executives and key decision-makers. Your next big opportunity might be just one, two or three connections away.

But why leave it up to chance? Reduce the degrees of separation and guarantee your success by following these tips and working your LinkedIn network, Obama-style!

Use Your Headline to Increase Search-ability
Obama’s campaign-winning slogan was based around one word: change. Figure out what you want to be ‘known’ for (professionally of course) and create a headline specific to your expertise. Your headline appears at the top of your profile and influences search results. Don’t forget to gear the headline towards the kinds of searches you would like to appear in.

Garden Your Network
Politics is a networking game that Obama plays better than most, aligning himself with the right people (and avoiding the wrong ones). How can you apply this to LinkedIn? Accept invitations from people you actually have met and ‘garden’ your network once a month, unfollowing those people that you no longer have a connection with.

Read LinkedIn Today
Obama is a great debater and public speaker – partly because he’s always ready to speak to current issues, as with his recent announcement supporting same sex marriages. Similarly, LinkedIn Today (the ‘newspaper’ style headlines that appear on the linked in home page) contain content pushed from what’s being shared in the network. If the business community is buzzing a quick read of LinkedIn Today will make sure you can toss in your 2 cents.

Do More Than Just Look for Jobs
Sure, the presidency is one long campaign pitch, but that didn’t stop Obama from pushing hard on health care reform. Users on LinkedIn spend only 20% of their time related to job search, so it really is a networking tool, not just a place to drop your resume.

Get the App(s)
One of the last semi-public appearances of Steve Jobs was a dinner with the president, revealing Obama to be the most powerful Apple Fanboy around. There’s no question the iphone and ipad apps for LinkedIn are fantastic. And if you ever do get a chance to sit down at the white house, you can use your app to send the president a quick LinkedIn invite… followed by a high five when he accepts of course!

Special thanks to the BCAMA for hosting Gary Fearnall, Director of Global Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn Canada – tips in this post inspired by his recent presentation at the Coast Harbour Hotel.

1. Offer a free trial

This is a great way to get your foot in the door. Free trials are often used in the software industry, but they also work for equipment, especially if you are selling a new technology or if the product requires a relatively high capital investment.

Example: Innovex GoldXpert
Product: New technology allows for ‘countertop’ testing of precious metals. Ensures metal buyers are not overpaying for jewelry or scrap metal.

Why it works: A new technology marketed to small business owners needs to be seen and tested in order to understand the value. A free trial means small businesses can test the product and see the return it will bring to their business without having to worry about immediate costs. Notice the deadline for an added touch of urgency?

2. Differentiate your brand.

B2B marketing can produce some unfortunately generic branding. Businesses are keen to borrow from competitors, forgetting that what makes them unique is what will set them apart. The rule of differentiation applies to direct mail as a key component to communicate value.

Example: Vanguard Painting
Product: Commercial Painting

Why it works: The perception of contractors is that they can be difficult to deal with. Vanguard’s culture is the opposite of that – they are friendly, reliable guys that show up to work hard. By focusing on the people, they differentiated themselves in the minds of prospects. Anyone can paint a building, but it takes a pro to do it quickly, efficiently, and with a smile.

3. Focus on benefits (not features)

Example: Industrial Clean Air – ICA
Product: Portable Air Filtration

Why it works: Clean air is something we generally take for granted while the products that make workspaces breathable go unnoticed. ICA makes their product the star by focusing on the benefits and positioning clean air as “What’s good for customers, employees, and the environment”. Now there’s a value proposition that’s not just full of hot air.

If you have other tips or examples you’d like to share please leave a comment below.

Now rather than go on I thought I’d post some facts about the video and throw this out to you – what do YOU think we can learn from the Double Rainbow meme (if anything)? What is your favorite meme and why? Let me know in the comments (or click here to read more about memes)

WATCH
Youtube: Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10

ORIGINS
“Double Rainbow” began as video that was posted to YouTube in 2010. Late night show host Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it to his followers and then it spread, quickly exceeding 1 million views. The creator of the video was eventually hired by Microsoft to appear in a television commercial that used the ‘double rainbow’ theme.

MY FAVORITE QUOTE FROM THE VIDEO:
“Oh my god, it’s full on, double rainbow right across the sky”… *crying*

VIEWS
33.4 million… and counting.

Who can argue against track-able, measurable return on investment? Direct mail, when implemented correctly, is a gold mine.

Left Brain / Right Brain

The strategy behind a direct mail campaign is completely rational: Who will I target? What is the delivery system? What is the intended action? Testing, tracking, and financial analysis are all left brain functions.

Then, the right brain swoops-in and executes with a creative expression of that strategy. Graphic design, message development, branding, copy writing, and even photography are all right brain functions of direct marketing.

When I solve a problem, I love using my whole brain.

“En garde!” – direct marketing makes for a great duel

I love it when marketers or potential clients say, “Direct marketing just doesn’t work for me!” It riles me up and gives me the opportunity to “duke it out” and prove that, whatever they’ve thought about direct marketing in the past, they’re dead wrong.

Poor execution, irrelevant offers, improper targeting, and timing can all affect the response rate for direct mail. If people see you as “spam”, your direct marketing efforts need a serious tune up. That’s where strategic direct marketers come in.

Application in every industry

For some companies, direct mail is a no brainer. Not-for-profits use direct mail every day for appeals, receipts, and newsletters. But other industries like tourism, real estate, trades, finance, and retail can use this medium to turn their marketing dollars in big “bang for your buck” direct marketing campaigns.

Ask us how we got over 1000% return on investment for a service based company, or whether a food franchise can use direct mail to support their franchisees. Ask us how a painting company used coffee cards and personalized URLs to capture more than $200,000 in new sales.

Direct marketing works, and Kirk Marketing will make it work for you.

En garde!

The man in the black tie and tuxedo on the sidewalk waves a gloved hand and fans a deck of cards out on the collapsible table before him. As a gaggle of on-lookers stops to see what will happen next, the man nods to you and waves you closer. You step forward after an encouraging cheer from the crowd and are instructed to “pick a card, any card”. You hesitate for a moment, your finger hovering like a bee caught in a sudden headwind, then point to a random card on the table.

The man whisks the card up for you to inspect before shuffling it back into the deck. After a few minutes he ends to a round of applause – the card having made its way around the crowd, magically appearing and disappearing in pockets and miraculously ending up on a nearby shop window.

To choose, or not to choose. Not to choose, actually.

The interactive component of the magician’s card trick works well because you are given a very specific task, with a limited number of options. In life, we associate choice with freedom and freedom with happiness. But choice overload – the presence of too many choices – can cause anxiety and, ironically, unhappiness. The more choices we have the more we need to understand, to research, to become experts and to compare options. We become burdened by too much choice and either move on or linger unhappily in a state of indecision.

Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things (Steve Jobs)

Businesses will often push to get as much information on a marketing piece as possible: a list of benefits, association memberships, phone numbers, email addresses, twitter handles, product shots, product graphs… etc. etc. The thinking is “Hey, I’m spending x dollars on getting this out, I want to say as much about us as possible”. The result is cluttered, difficult to understand, and most importantly – does not give the recipient a clear, simple choice.

Marketers need to remember that setting the stage for success is as simple as laying a deck of cards out on the table. The key to moving prospects to act is to give your audience a very simple and clear choice – and to do it in an entertaining way. In the end, like a well performed card trick, the audience can feel good about participating and will happily hand over their dollars.

Bonus points if you pitch your next concept in a tuxedo.

Let me start off by saying that this venue is a hoot! (insert obligatory laughter here). All kidding aside, much to my surprise, the only cheesy gimmicks the whole night were my lame one-liners.

The venue was impressive to say the least. With two bars, exposed brick, and graffiti pipe lighting up the back wall, the vibe was decidedly up-market underground. The crowd might be able to pass under the same definition if they weren’t elevated by the intelligent and strategic conversations I heard going on around me (and with me). With so many thinkers in one place it was impossible to tell who was more excited – the audience or the presenters.

An experience is all about the impression you’re left with. I definitely went into the event open to being won over by the idea of experiential marketing, there were several moments during the course of the evening that left an “impression”, here are some of my favourites.

“Nobody likes advertising”.

Jerrid Grimm from Newad took a risk by making this statement at the beginning of his presentation.

To a room full of professionals who make their money in advertising, the tide could easily turn against a less adept presenter. But the key here is that everybody loves experiences, and experiences can be created across many different mediums and adapted to the needs of any client.

Jerrid explained how in Montreal, those crazy Francophone’s all move on the same, collective “Moving Day”, July 1st of every year. Newad created an experience where Home Depot drove around and were useful in any way possible. They brought tape and cleaning products, helped people move, fetched water for the thirsty, and were generally bringers of good cheer.

That’s all well and good, but the question remained: how could a campaign like this be scaled without having a giant budget, or being forced to dilute the experience? The answer is a formula that all marketing campaigns should be using:

Social + Mobile + Technology = Scalability

Social media needs something to talk about – let it be your brand. Create an experience that gets people talking and the message will scale on it’s own.

Don’t be an interruption. Be an interaction.

There’s always been something a little creepy about identical twins. Just like the Olympic Coca Cola campaign was a liiittttttlllllle creepily successful. Headed by the self professed “old guy” of the experiential game, David Nichols (an identical twin) from Inventa, this campaign was the benchmark for experiential success. I mean, over 24 million media collections from one experience?

The Coca Cola Pavillion at the Olympics had a four hour line-up, and each brand interaction lasted an average of 45 minutes. This campaign was so successful that 76% immediately bought a Coca Cola after visiting the pavilion.

The key here is that people wanted to interact with the brand. They weren’t being forced to listen to irrelevant messaging or blasted with inconsequential blather. It was a meaningful and mutually beneficial interaction.

Mad Men gets Punk’d!

Rob Finkelstein was a veritable Don Draper as his presentation truly showed the prowess of GMR Marketing in creating an experience.

Midway through the well-crafted PowerPoint presentation, Rob’s computer crashed from a virus to a chorus of coordinated audience gasps. How would the evening continue??? Luckily Rob was well practised, and continued his presentation verbatim. After calling for tech support from the audience, the presentation flashed back to life 60 seconds later with an ad from Best Buy’s Geek Squad, “Another computer problem solved by the experts at Best Buy’s Geek Squad.”

We’d been Punk’d! The whole stunt was part of Rob’s presentation and was the most memorable moment of the night. This stunt illustrated “roach marketing” and also showed that experiential marketing is not about big budgets and flashy events. It’s about honest, memorable experiences that create conversation and stay in your memory.

Keep the party going – extend the conversation beyond the event

ROI + OMG/Brand.Live are a marketing agency that takes events beyond logistics, and combines aspects of experiential marketing to create truly memorable moments.

By integrating events with social media, the conversation continues before and after events to extend the experience, which is really the point of any marketing integration. The more time someone thinks about your brand in a positive way, the more likely they are to engage with you in the future.

Experiential marketing has been around a long time – and its heyday is just on the horizon. With social and tech integration becoming more readily accepted and used, experiences can grow way beyond a single interaction. And that idea can extend into the direct marketing medium quite easily. Create pieces that are memorable, and enhance the moments in which they appear. Stimulate conversation with useful and relevant pieces, and the experience of direct marketing too, can extend beyond a single moment.

1. Subtlety is not appreciated

You have only a few seconds to communicate your message in any direct mail piece. Make your offer clear and your benefits clearer. A short, concise, and relevant message will incite action and minimize the “interruption factor” in your potential customer’s eyes.

2. Incite action first, build brand 2nd (or 3rd or 4th)

The first step in capturing a new customer is getting them to interact with your company – which is why branding takes a back seat to action in DM. Creating action means thinking carefully about your target (and less about you). Give them something, help them to do something, or fill an urgent need for them. If you target your campaign well, your offer will coincide with what the recipient is thinking about right now!

3. Customer (not Company)-focused Copy

It’s easy to fall into this trap:

“With 60 years of experience in 25 different countries, we know our stuff. We’ve received 6 Business of the Year awards and have recently moved into a fancy-pants high rise in the downtown core. You should be impressed by the letters after our employees’ names blah blah blah…”

Instead, focus your copy on what the customer wants, how the customer feels, and why the customer should interact with your company. Use testimonials, benefits, and an offer that is relevant.

And non-profits? This is the difference between mediocre and successful copy. When sending an appeal letter, focus the copy on the donor: what they have helped accomplish, why they are so important, where you would be without them, and why you are soooo thankful they are sticking around. If you’re not doing this already, get started and watch your response rates soar!

4. The changing mailbox

When was the last time your mailbox contained a letter from someone you knew? The average person knows their mail box will likely contain bills, bills, bills, and some annoying advertising thrown in for good measure.

There is precious little to be excited about in the 21st century mail box. Use this knowledge to your advantage and make sure your direct mail piece stands out. Make it exciting, interesting, and useful.

Think outside the box… and inside the mail box.

5. Build-in tracking from the start

Tracking your responses should never be considered in hindsight. Before you mail, build tracking and information capture procedures into your campaign. This will make testing easier and simpler, and ensure that ROI is accurately represented.

New technology has arrived to integrate traditional DM with online, and it helps with tracking as well. Try using QR codes and personalized URLs to move customers to interact with your brand online.

Even the best copywriters get writer’s block. The fact of the matter is this, the longer you stare zombie-like at your screen, the more frustrated you will become. And the more frustrated you become, the less creative you’ll be. Marketing lives and breathes creativity, so don’t get stifled.

There are endless articles and blogs on ways to overcome writer’s block but here is my favorite way to unblock my neural pathways when writing slogans, intros, headlines, or just to get your juices flowing.

There are patterns in ad copywriting that become super obvious once you know what to look for. A few of these are:

• repetition (“It keeps going and going and going,” Energizer)
• rhyming (“Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”)
• alliteration (“The quilted quicker picker upper,” Bounty)
• exaggeration for emphasis (“The world’s favourite airline,” British Airways)
• juxtaposition (“Life’s messy, clean it up,” Bissel).

You can use any of these as a jumping off point for brainstorming. First, write down everything about the brand, company or product that is good.

Then, use each of the techniques on each of the words. Below are examples of each word using one of these techniques:

Juxtaposition:

Alliteration:

Rhyming:

Exaggeration:

Repetition:

Your brainstorming, like mine, will yield mixed results. The point of the exercise is that your paper is no longer empty, your brain is not longer struggling to move forward, and your ideas have started flowing.

At the very least you’ll have a jumping off point with which to get started. At the most, you’ll have created the next global brand.

Hot shot advertising agencies will tell you that marketing is all about the “Big Idea” – an abstract concept that is totally subject to opinion. While there have been many successful campaigns that started from a singular big idea, the graveyard of unsuccessful good ideas has also been piled high.

That’s because an awesome concept to one creative director is last week’s garbage to the next. And it’s completely subjective. Even more than that, it’s near impossible to accurately predict the success of a campaign created in this manner.

“Big Ideas” get awards and press – typically followed by lots of toasting and high fives. But do they get results? Is there more at stake here than our egos? And how can we push back against decades of “because I said so”?

Data.

Data is one irrefutable, bullet-proof, toss it to lions and watch it walk away unscathed tool in a marketer’s arsenal that can be used in any battle scenario. Data is not subject to opinion. Data has no ego. Data is merely there to help marketers to prove whether their “Big Idea” will fly or not. And, sometimes, the answer is not.

But what a really intelligent creative director/account manager/advertising executive will do is look at the data first and then give their creativity free reign. Insights from data coupled with a creative and pertinent idea is a winning combination.

Really, the two gladiators in our make-believe arena should stop fighting against one another, embrace teamwork that leads to such amazing synergy, and guarantee the success of their campaign. It’s a no-brainer. Alas, getting along and playing nice is not always the law of the jungle – and believe me, it is a jungle out there.

Direct marketers, remember that data is your best friend and your most lethal weapon. Use it to push back against bad ideas, bullies, and bull****. And you will find that, similar to Russell Crowe in “Gladiator”, data always wins.