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AN ODE TO THE SELF-MAILER
It's time to update you notions about this maligned format.

If you haven’t tested formats in a while, you might want to consider adding a self-mailer to the media mix. You may be pleasantly surprised by the results you achieve. Read An Ode to the Self-Mailer to separate facts from fiction and uncover effective self-mailer strategies that prove typical myths about this clever direct mail format all wrong.
» Read "Ode" article.	Read "Self-mailer Outperforms Letter Package" case study.

LOOKING INWARD IN TROUBLED TIMES

The 2009 Marketing Outlook published by the The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council says today’s gloomy and turbulent economic outlook has many marketers looking inward to hone in on key operations while reducing spend. (Are you one of these marketers?)

But almost as many CMOs feeling the pressure to produce results in the wake of the market downturn aren’t feeling anything and report they’re unaffected by current economic conditions and their plans are unchanged. (Is this you?)

ONE QUESTION SURVEY: How are current economic conditions influencing your marketing plans and budgets? It's anonymous and just one question ... select one answer and click to submit! Tell us now.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. Download the full 2009 Marketing Outlook report.

NEW! Special 5 Part Series on New Media

In this special feature, we’ll share with you 5 new things that you should immediately incorporate into your ’09 budget … and guess what!? All of them are FREE!

Each month we’ll feature 3 quick tips to help you get started.

PART THREE : LINKEDIN

Effective Marketing on LinkedIn

More and more professionals are using LinkedIn, to connect with colleagues and business contacts. However, one comment we hear over and over is that many people don’t know exactly why or how to used it.

The JD team has been experimenting with LinkedIn this year to see what kind of value the service can offer from a marketing perspective. Get LinkedIn with Johnson Direct.

Following are 3 tips on strategies that you can use for marketing on LinkedIn.

What is LinkedIn?

For those of you that don’t know, LinkedIn is a professional niche social networking site. On LinkedIn, you can connect with professional colleagues, meet new people, find recommended services and find new contacts in your current network. Currently, you can reach “more than 11 million” professionals on the service, including all of the Fortune 500 companies.

What Can You Do With LinkedIn?

It is important to remember that LinkedIn is a good tool to reach specific people; however, like all social media sites, it is not designed for mass marketing. If you want to reach large quantities of people, then this is not your best avenue. If, however, you want to reach the specific (and probably more qualified) person who may be interested in your service, then LinkedIn can definitely be a very useful tool.

LinkedIn has many useful qualities to help you with networking and building your business. You can see who your friends know, in order to take advantage of your existing network. You can also find out “who you need to know” to reach your goals. For example, you can find out who is in charge of purchasing your product at the company you want to do business with.

Aside from these basic uses, there are other uses for LinkedIn. For example, by using LinkedIn effectively you can:

• Increase the visibility of your business and brand
• Pursue direct sales
• Generate traffic and support your SEO efforts

LinkedIn Marketing Strategies

1. Increase Your Brand’s Visibility

There are several ways you can use LinkedIn to increase the visibility of your business;

• Showcase your expertise. There are far too many ways to do this to list. The “Answers” section is a great place to start. Frequently people ask questions like “where can I find X?”, “how do I X?” etc. If you answer the question, you can use the opportunity to open a conversation. Spend some time searching through the answers section (you can filter) and try to get your name out there.
• Announce your services.
• Drive readers to your blog posts.
• Get your service recommended in “Services.” The more recommendations you have, the better your business looks.

2. Generate Sales Leads

• Reach potential clients through LinkedIn by conversing with people in “Answers”. Not only can you find new business partners and ventures, but you can also answer the questions of people who may be suitable clients.
• Respond to service requests, such as when people are looking for a consultant in your field.
• Locate the right people to contact at the organization you are seeking to do business with.

3. Support Your SEO

LinkedIn is a reasonably good, quality site to get a link from. More and more people are recognizing the need to build a network of quality links to their websites. Not only can these links provide a way for search engines to find you, but they can also drive qualified, relevant traffic.

If your organization has 50 employees, and 25 of them have LinkedIn accounts, then why not request a link back to the company website? If only 12 employees add a link, you’re still up 12 free, quality links.

One last thing to think about ...

Instead of reaching a few million people, the vast majority of whom may not be interested in your service, LinkedIn allows you to reach the one influential person who is in need of your services. When you boil it right down - isn’t strategically reaching “the right people” a big part of what marketing is all about?

Source: http://www.nonlinearcreations.com/blog/index.php/2007/06/26/effective-marketing-on-linkedin/

Did You Miss Part One and Two? In January, we gave you 3 reasons to consider blogging and in February we told you about the benefits of Facebook.

COMING UP IN OUR NEXT ISSUE

How did we celebrate?

In April, look forward to new, useful marketing insights AND a closer look at how Johnson Direct celebrated our 10 year anniversary. After a decade of building business relationships - while keeping our eye on measurable marketing - each of us at Johnson Direct is proud and thankful for the clients and strategic partners who've helped us achieve our dreams. Thank you!

Stay tuned for the next issue!