Qwest’s sales team needed help breaking into accounts on their target list. The challenge was to break through to IT Executives at top-tier enterprise organizations (accounts/contacts that are arguably the most difficult types of companies to reach).  Our goals:1.       Drive engagement with personalized solutions.
2.       Deliver qualified leads that resulted in sales meetings. After close collaboration with […]

2010 is the year that marketing is making a dramatic transformation. A tough economy, combined with a critical mass of technologies, is set to dramatically change the tactics that marketing teams use to reach their prospects… and the core asset of this transformation is a company’s marketing database.

Jon Caplan from HSI recently stopped by the Babcock & Jenkins office. I had a chance to speak with him while he was there. We discussed relationships, integrating sales & marketing, and doing more with less in 2009. Check out the short interview now.

You and your sales colleagues call them leads. Some call them prospects. Others suspects. Whatever you call those who you believe absolutely need what you sell—take a breath.

In case you’re like me and want to skip to the good part about marketing segmentation to reach technical decision makers (TDMs) and technical influencers (TIs), let me save you the scroll: Reach decision makers with psychically startling creative that hits on their weaknesses without actually pointing out their weaknesses; Reach influencers by having a […]

Being in the marketing department during a budget crisis is like being a cornered fox in a foxhunt. All eyes are on your next move. If you’re not faster and smarter, the dogs are going to get you. Feed your sales dogs actionable sales leads now to get them off your tail and help you […]

The relationship business is getting hectic. As the premier (and to the best of my knowledge, “only”) relationship therapist working in marketing today, agencies are clamoring to get a piece of the Doc.
Representatives from Ciena Corporation recently visited the office of my favorite relationship marketing agency, Babcock & Jenkins. These partners gather once every year […]

Perhaps you’ve heard the news. Traditional agencies don’t get social media. But just how do social networks and other emerging channels threaten agencies? Is this the start of the end?
A recent article from the Financial Times, Social networks threaten advertising growth, is one more in a long line of shots fired. At the heart of […]

As the economy continues to struggle, we are all hearing about companies putting their marketing budgets on the chopping block. Historically, marketing budgets are the first casualty when budget cuts are imposed. But “going dark” and not having a marketing presence may solve a short term problem but typically creates a much bigger long term […]

Like every facet of business today, marketers are being asked to do more with less, stretch resources and prove positive bottom-line impact.
Testing your programs and approaches against each other provides the foundation for challenging existing assumptions, developing new insights and continuously improving marketing results. And that is what we are all after, right? Before you […]

As marketers we strive to deliver the best results for our clients on their campaigns. E-mail marketing in particular has become a tricky business, and the quest to deliver results is increasingly elusive. Response rates, open rates and clickthrough metrics have all dropped recently.
To ensure that you don’t disappoint the client it is easy to […]

In this economy, there continues to be talk about whether marketing should be the first place to cut — or an opportunity to capitalize with less noise in your space. Regardless of what your next move is, there’s no question that 2009 is a time to get much smarter and more qualitative about your efforts. […]

If your company is international, or wants to be, you’ve probably heard the term BRICs as the “place to be”. BRIC is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, although it’s become a euphemism for all the emerging economies with similar profiles.

After a few months of collaboration with the National Center for Database Marketing team, we recently launched a new online resource: TheCenter@NCDM.
TheCenter@NCDM is built on our Social Cultivation Engine platform and creates an online presence for the incredible NCDM event. We designed the community to leverage the content and thought leadership from the conference, along […]

There’s a simple fact that all financial experts agree upon: Asset allocation is the key strategy for maintaining a consistent yet superior rate of investment return.

Like a good investment portfolio, an effective integrated marketing campaign uses a balanced approach. Here are a few “do’s” and “don’ts” to consider as you’re developing your marketing campaigns:

Do: Understand […]

We drop a lot of mail on behalf of our clients. The recent postage rate change by the USPS impacts the Direct Mail Advertising industry more than most people realize. The USPS not only raised the overall postage, but widened the gap between letter rate and flat rate.
Additionally, the USPS changed some of the physical […]

I am well versed in the hold music for my bank, my favorite pizza parlor and my cell phone company. And to date, no one is showing me the love I feel I deserve.
Where is my incentive for being a long-term customer? Why don’t you have a history of my pizza orders and give me […]

When it comes to the new social Web, everyone wants you to join their club, participate in their community, add your thoughts to the conversation, upload your content. Unless you’re running a Web site, and then YOU want everyone to participate in YOUR community.
Content is valuable and takes time and effort. So why do end […]

Have you ever attended a trade show and come across the drive-by attendee? I’ve witnessed the phenomena many times over the years.
The drive-by attendee is less interested in the product you have to promote and more interested in the coolness factor of your giveaway. I once had an overly-aggressive booth mate who would actually track […]

How do you view your indirect sales channel? Friend or foe? Depending on your strategy, your channel can be your biggest advocate or your biggest challenge to success.
How do you turn your VAR into an advocate? When I begin a new channel relationship, I employ the following:
I: Educate
Your product is one in […]

I have incredibly high expectations today about the companies I do business with—or am considering doing business with. Whether they communicate with me via the Web, email, mail, phone or other channel, I’m keenly aware of the continuity of their messages and information (probably because I’m a marketer!).
I’m amazed at how disconnected these communications appear. […]

What do you do when something strikes you as funny? Probably grin a little bit and continue about your business. Even if it makes you happy or makes you feel good, it rarely makes you stop to be drawn deeper. What about when something angers you, or makes you feel a little sad or guilty?
Most […]

Here at Babcock & Jenkins we are dedicated to the art of applying strategy, analysis and data management to direct marketing campaigns for our clients. Foremost, we strongly believe that good marketing starts with good data.
Direct marketing requires far more thought than dropping 10,000 pieces of mail to your crusty prospect list and waiting for […]

There are thousands of people online dying to talk about and read about your product. Probably tens of thousands. Maybe millions…
Early pioneers have built online reputations by being highly relevant to a specific group of people about a specific topic. They’ll refer lovingly to their niche, and they’ve discovered that there are so many people […]

I’m always amazed when I hear Clients say “my sales team complains that marketing leads are terrible – but they want more!”
We’ve all heard this right?
Being on the Agency side – I, unfortunately, hear this all too much.
You’re not alone.

According to the CMO Counsel Survey – 53.4% of respondents said their company has no […]