NextMark

10 Most Useful SalesForce Apps

Monday, December 14, 2009, Salesforcefaq.com updated a list of the AppExchange's 10 most useful apps of SalesForce. The list provides the application name, publisher, price, and a brief description for each application. The NextMark lead finder was ranked second right behind Salesforce for Google AdWords.

1. Salesforce for Google AdWords
2. A+ Lead Finder by NextMark 
3. DataSynch QuickBooks Edition
4. Sales Activity Dashboard
5. SalesGenius
6. Jigsaw
7. Sales KPI Dashboard 1.0
8. Share Now
9. MapQuest for AppExchange 1.0
10. Lead and Opportunity Management Dashboards

Click on the table image below to see the details:

Uncovering quality leads and targeted direct mail lists continue to be important tasks for sales, business development, and direct marketing professionals.

Digital vs. direct mail in 2010

DM News article "Digital Shines in 2010" predicts the continued rise of digital spending as a share of total marketing dollars. Two interesting takeaways from a direct mail perspective:

#1) Digital is stealing share away from direct mail

"Just like in the old days, direct marketing used to be the safe haven because it provides quick, measurable results. Online has assumed that safe haven role now," said Adam Smith, futures director at GroupM.

#2) Digital is more measurable than direct mail

"If we send a direct mailer, it's an absolute impression, but is it as trackable? Will the consumer, for example, type Overstock.com/directmailer? It's fuzzy. Some people do and others don't," [Stormy Simon, SVP of marketing and customer care for Overstock.com] explained. "But I do know that when I spend on online marketing, I'm able to say 'I spent a penny and I got a penny [back].'"

The hallmark of direct mail has always been accountability. Digital is beating it at it's own game. The challenge to direct mail is to prove ROI superiority if it is to hold onto a significant portion of advertising expenditures.

See full article here: http://www.dmnews.com/digital-shines-in-2010-forecasts/article/159509/

How to save the Post Office?

The US Postal Service lost $3.8 billion last year. While still one of the most effective marketing channels, postal mail is in danger of extinction. Can the post office be saved? Postal Journal is a new website that aims to find a solution.

Postal Journal's mission is:

To explore the evolution of the American postal system as part of the nation's 21st century economic and communication infrastructure. To facilitate an exchange of postal perspectives by individuals without regard to past or present occupational affiliations.

The website is not high on design, but it contains links to a number of interesting proposals, such as the "Examination of Potential Postal Business Models" by Alan Robinson. He studies various models and proposes consideration of a private corporate model as other services have done successfully:

Is Robinson's the right business model? That's a good debate. And it's good that the Postal Journal website is presenting this idea and many others for consideration. Unfortunately, the website is not interactive... it would be very helpful to see discussion and debate related to the various proposals.

The Postal Journal site has been made possible through the support of the Association for Postal Commerce, Direct Communications Group, the Direct Marketing Association, the Envelope Manufacturers Association Foundation, and the Mailing and Fulfillment Service Association - all of whom have a vested interest in a viable postal service.

Amity Direct adds list research widget to web site

It didn't take long for the first multi-channel marketing services provider to add the Mailing Lists Search Tool widget to their web site. Amity Direct found the deployable search tool on the NextMark blog and installed it within the hour.

"Yet another great idea from NextMark that's quick and easy to use," says Jerry Mamola, Managing Partner at Amity Direct. "It only took a few minutes to add it to the site. My partner just copied and pasted some html code from the blog page onto our site and it was done -- technology never used to be this easy to implement."

It's important to focus on your unique value proposition and keep your online visitors close with quality tools and resources. For Amity Direct, the focus is helping their clients with multi-channel integration and break-through creative.

"We work hard to find and retain more customers for our clients.  The mailing lists search tool provides our clients and web site visitors with access to all of the market research and intelligence they desire and deserve," says Jerry Mamola. "Marketers can now review their prospect markets at their own pace using our site, and we can spend more time doing what we do best -- marrying traditional direct marketing strategies with break-through creative, then making the most of it with new interactive tools, CRM integration, and the latest in mobile media."

Click here to add the tool to your web site or blog -- it's very easy and only takes a minute.

Harold Pratt Beats the Economy with NextMark and MIN

Harold Pratt, president of Pratt Direct Marketing, knows how to survive and thrive in a down economy. He’s discovered how to do more with less by exploiting NextMark and mIn. According to "Meet the Broker: Harold Pratt":

"I would say you can do a lot more," he says. "You can handle a lot more business with one or two people than you could back then and list searching is a lot easier today, using tools like NextMark and MIN than in the olden days of having to leaf through an SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Systems) directory."

Mr. Pratt knows that an inefficient back room operation will steal time and money from you every day. He’s implemented tools that enable him to spend more time delivering valuable insights and advice to clients and less time on “grunt work.” Now that’s smart business!

Installing the Mailing Lists Search Tool

#1 Add the mailing lists search tool to your web site or blog:

To add the mailing lists search tool to your web site and provide your visitors with access to over 60,000 mailing lists, just copy and paste the following code into the HTML document where you want the search tool to appear:

<form target="blank" method="post" action="http://lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/search_results"> <input type="hidden" name="selection" value="0"> <input type="hidden" name="searchMode" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="prevSearchMode" value="1"> <input type="hidden" name="listStatus" value="ACTV"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td style="vertical-align: top;"><img src="http://www.nextmark.com/graphics/search.gif"></td> <td style="background-image: url(http://www.nextmark.com/graphics/search-back.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 30px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; margin: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"> <select name="listType" class="searchinput"> <option value="ALL" selected>All Mailing Lists <option value="POSTL">Postal Lists <option value="EMAIL">Email Lists <option value="TELPHN">Telemarketing Lists <option value="INSERT">Package Inserts <option value="STUFFR">Statement Stuffers </select> </td> <td style="vertical-align: top;"><img src="http://www.nextmark.com/graphics/for.gif"></td> <td style="background-image: url(http://www.nextmark.com/graphics/search-back.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 30px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; margin: 0px; vertical-align: middle;"> <input type="text" size="15" name="searchText" class="searchinput" title="Mailing List Search Keywords"> </td> <td><input type="image" name="search" src="http://www.nextmark.com/graphics/go.gif" title="Search for Mailing Lists"> </td> </tr></table></form<P>This free <A title="mailing lists" href="http://lists.nextmark.com/" target=_blank>mailing lists search tool</A> is powered by <A title="mailing lists" href="http://www.nextmark.com/" target=_blank>NextMark</A>.</P>

#2 Give it a test drive.

Enter the keywords for your mailing lists search. The tool should look like this on your web page or blog:

All Mailing ListsPostal ListsEmail ListsTelemarketing ListsPackage InsertsStatement Stuffers

This free mailing lists search tool is powered by NextMark.

 

#3 Watch the YouTube video tutorial on mailing lists:

By installing the mailing lists search tool, you agree to the terms and conditions of use.

Google bets on mobile with $750 mm AdMob acquisition

Google's $750 mm acquisition of AdMob is their 3rd biggest behind Doubleclick and YouTube. AdMob, the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, has certainly done a lot of things right in its first 3 years of operation with revenue approaching $100 million. Google thinks this can be a lot bigger:

"Despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile web is still in its early stages. We believe that great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem. That's what has us excited about this deal."

The trend is clear. This deal shouts the importance of the mobile advertising channel. What can we learn from this? What should we do to capitalize on this trend?

5 tweets from the tower of 'babble'

Has Twitter become the tower of 'babble'? Here are five 'tweets' that might help you decide:

1. redclaymedia:  how to spam Facebook like a pro: an insider’s confession
2. marlooz:  how does a spoiled rich girl change a lightbulb? She says, "daddy, I want a new apartment."
3. erinragan:  apparently it's a bad idea to discuss your dog(s) on Twitter. Spammers come out of the woodwork!
4. austin03112007:  ouch! i just bit my freaking cheek!
5. wfullerton:  I just ate a 32 ounce steak. I thought u all should know that.

Maybe Ozzy can help clarify a few of these now that he's gone mobile with Samsung. Enjoy!

What can direct marketers learn from this? I'm not exactly sure, but I am certainly feeling much better about the integrity of direct marketing and mailing lists nowadays.

NextMark innovations recognized by DestinationCRM (CRM Magazine)

DestinationCRM wrote a detailed story covering the DMA's Future Industry Award winners and recognizing NextMark as one of the eight recipients of this inaugural award. According to the article:

Bernice Grossman, principal consultant and founder of Direct Marketing Resource Services (DMRS) Group and one of the FIA judges, says the award is meant to spotlight innovation thriving in the face of a recession. "The economy was so stifling," she says. "This was a way that we could tell everybody else in the industry [that] there's a lot of wonderful stuff happening."

The 11 judges, who were selected from the DMA membership, took two rounds of evaluations to winnow the field of 54 down to the group of 12 finalists. Those evaluations were based on detailed explanations provided by each submission of:

• the innovative product or service, including whether the offering is entirely new or a new spin on an existing offering;
• the impact the product or service has on the end user and what benefits have been achieved or are anticipated; and
• the impact the product or service has had on the marketing community overall.

It's an honor to have been recognized among all the deserving innvovations in the marketing field! See the full article here.

LinkedIn Police Nabs Profile Perpetrator

As detective Adrian Monk obsessively states "here's what happened":

On October 22, 2009 Joe Pych, NextMark's Founder was contacted via LinkedIn to let him know he had a new colleague. Surprisingly, it was a guy from the Netherlands who was claiming to be the owner of NextMark. There is only one NextMark, so it was pretty clear that a profile perpetrator was on the loose.

I reviewed the profile and contacted LinkedIn requesting that action be taken. I was a bit concerned that it would be difficult to resolve this issue since my experiences with a few other social networks had led to some frustration.

I received the following email shortly after following up with LinkedIn Customer Support:

Dear Chris,

Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Support. Thank you for informing us of this situation. We will take the appropriate action on this account.

We appreciate your assistance in making LinkedIn a professional and trustworthy site. If you have further questions, please feel free to reply to this message.

Thank you for being a valued member of our LinkedIn community!

Regards,

Jason

LinkedIn Customer Support

Moments after receiving this email I received a note from Joe indicating that the perpetrator's profile was gone. The distraction was temporary and we were back to business.

When I was thirteen I used to run from the police, but now I'm thankful for their service. I'm also thankful for guys like Jason who take initiative and get things done right.

This may not sound all that heroic, but time is valuable and LinkedIn Customer Support saved the day. Thank you Jason!