Category Archives: Direct Response

Who Pulled the Names?

Posted on Friday, 4 December 2020 8:45 am by markpilip

Every time I get a wacky, mis-targeted email, in-stream ad, or direct mail, one thought goes through my mind… Continue reading →

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First Mile Problems

Posted on Thursday, 18 April 2019 7:30 am by markpilip

I was recently interviewed by Tim Furey, CEO of MarketBridge, on The Last Mile Podcast. Among our discussion of SAC, CAC, LTV, ROI, other three-letter acronyms, we also spent time on “first mile” marketing problems. As a practicing performance/direct response … Continue reading →

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Ads on blogs

Posted on Monday, 26 November 2018 9:24 am by markpilip

I just had a chance to check my blog. Here’s the type of quality ad that gets served on blogs like mine. Do you know if the creative is automatically generated by some brilliant AI? Or have you ever really … Continue reading →

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The Forgotten Boolean NOT

Posted on Tuesday, 3 April 2018 9:02 am by markpilip

I spent last week in Glasgow and London, with a UK SIM card temporarily in my phone. As part of my daily routine of checking Twitter, I learned that many social media advertisers and agencies have forgotten how to use … Continue reading →

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Media Whitewash

Posted on Wednesday, 21 February 2018 8:29 am by markpilip

The ever thought-provoking Don Marti wrote something in “This is why we can’t have nice brands” on February 17th that reminded me of a standard direct mail practice: “Twitter has a solution that keeps its ads saleable: just don’t show … Continue reading →

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Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Posted on Friday, 29 December 2017 9:36 am by markpilip

Market only to humans. If you only change one thing about how you undertake your marketing in 2018, let it be this one. According to the U.S. Census bureau, there were about 252.8 million adult (18+) humans in the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Behavioral economics, Data, digital marketing, Direct Response, fraud, Leadership, Media, Philosophy, Predictions, Privacy, Strategy | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Let’s Market to Humans in 2018

Continuity Marketing: Profit or Scale?

Posted on Tuesday, 24 October 2017 9:17 am by markpilip

I had an interesting discussion on continuity acquisition strategy yesterday, which boiled down to two questions: Do we spend profitability, at break-even, or to penetrate (i.e. at a loss) at the margin? By profit, do we mean gross margin, marketing … Continue reading →

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2 LLCs and an SFDU: A Merge/Purge Fail

Posted on Tuesday, 17 October 2017 8:23 am by markpilip

A couple of days ago, I was reminiscing about a great piece of direct mail I received last year. Yesterday, I received the opposite. This falls under the category of a merge/purge fail. As you can see here, there are … Continue reading →

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Re-Seal the Deal: Category Repurchase

Posted on Tuesday, 10 October 2017 8:17 am by markpilip

Three years ago today, I wrote about a great piece of direct mail I received from a local driveway sealer company. The piece had everything needed to make a purchase decision: a great offer, strong call to action, and perfect … Continue reading →

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Buy Digital Directly. No, I’m Not Crazy!

Posted on Wednesday, 20 September 2017 7:15 am by markpilip

Dr. Augustine Fou just published an interesting presentation, “You’re Not Getting What You Paid For,” which I encourage all marketers to read. The presentation lays out a number of the ways you–yes you–are being screwed in the digital ecosystem. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, digital marketing, Direct Response, fraud, Media, Strategy | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments