Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Thanks for another successful Nonprofit Symposium

For the third year, RMI hosted a Nonprofit Symposium the day prior to the Washington Nonprofit Conference in DC. In attendance were representatives from some of the leading nonprofit mailers in the industry. The day's agenda was set by the attendees who submitted questions for group discussions prior to the event. Many interesting topics were covered ranging from creative design to on-line/mobile fundraising. Even the weather couldn't dampen the day.

I thank everyone who attended and submitted topics. Hope to see you all again next year.

If you were not in attendance and would like to be invited to the next year's event, shoot me an email at mstein@rmidirect.com and I'd be happy to set you up.

(Click on the above picture and scroll over everyone's faces to see who's who. Missing from the photo are Kelly Browning of AICR and Jennifer Bielat of Easter Seals.)

Labels: Nonprofit Mailer Symposium

The Laura Smith Fund

Pace University has established the Laura Smith Fund for its interactive and Direct Marketing Studies Program. The fund will be used to develop labs and provide equipment for students who want to become interactive and direct mail marketers.

Laura was Vice President and Director of List Management at RMI and passed away in April of 2008. This is a wonderful tribute to her memory. Laura was always very willing to help people expand their knowledge in our field.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

RMI Round-Up: Meet Decio

For the past year or so, every time we take on a new employee we give them a grand-old welcome on our blog - talking about who they are, their interests, what they'll do at RMI... yadda yadda. But what about all of those folks who have been with us for 5, 10, 15 or even 20+ years? We've decided it's about time we introduce you to some of those "oldies but goodies".

And if you know RMI, you know our corporate philosophy is "ELEVEN" - an office culture of constantly raising the bar. Going above and beyond. With every employee highlight, we're going to let them explain, in their own words, what "ELEVEN" means to them.

Today's lucky contestant: Decio Tenreiro.

Decio is RMI's 7+ year veteran Information Technology super-genius... AKA our Network Administrator. If you're a client, you may recognize Decio as being our Web Reporting Technician or Reporting Analyst. To us, he's much more. Aside from occasionally entertaining RMI employees in banana, hazmat and centaur costumes - he is also our Database Administrator and runs the RMI NSF Check Recovery Program.

On the home-front, Decio spends time with his wife and 1 year old son Hudson. He also enjoys saltwater fishing, boating, and running 4-5 miles daily. We think that's a little neurotic, but hey - he's healthy, lean, and has endurance on the job so who are we to judge.

If you want to give a shout to Decio you can call him at 203-825-4605 or email dtenreiro@rmidirect.com.

Labels: 11, employees

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

RMI Slippers go to a better place

Although we mainly used our RMI Slippers as promotional gifts, they have been one of our most appreciated premiums here at RMI. The “shush” they made as a much happier person padded along on the carpets has become a familiar sound, as well as the sight of heels hidden under desks. There came a time though (when Martin let us wear jeans to work), when we had to admit that we don’t use them quite as much anymore. So, this week we took the slippers to a better place, where they can be enjoyed by families who really need some extra comfort, the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury. We’ll miss them but we’re glad that they have such a good home now.

If you’d like to contribute to the women’s shelter, please visit their website for more information on what you can do to help.

Labels: donation

Friday, February 13, 2009

Grassroots efforts still paying dividends

All in the Direct Marketing world we have heard and/or read about the efforts of the Obama campaign in raising some $600 million during his run for President. A hefty portion of those funds were brought in over the Internet, from a group of donors that has been reported to be close to 4 million. This grassroots effort to build this file looks to be paying off additional dividends.

According to an online article on CNN.com the Obama camp has contacted many of these donors again in the hopes that they will back the economic stimulus plan that he is pushing through Congress this week. The emails contain stories of people who are in need of help due to the economic environment.

Whether you agree of disagree with his politics, you have to applaud his direct marketing efforts in using this forum to get his message out and to garner support for his stimulus package.

Labels: Obama

Thursday, February 12, 2009

It's a sad day

On Tuesday The Nonprofit Times reported that Barton-Cotton, a long time leading direct mail agency, filed for Chapter 11 protection. It is estimated that approximately 110 people will be released.

Barton-Cotton had worked with many of the largest non profit mailers in the industry and at one time was considered the agency to work with. It's always sad when one of our industry's major players falls.

I wish those employees who have lost heir jobs well and hope they land on their feet soon.

Labels: nonprofit

Hillary Taylor enlightens us on Package Inserts

RMI's own "PIP Princess", Hillary Taylor, wrote an article that made it into DM News on February 2nd. It's a nice concise piece with some food for thought about testing out-of-the-box ideas for insert media success. Definitely worth the read.

Labels: employees, insert media

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Hear Ye!! Hear Ye!!

All rise, for the new President of the United States! Who would have thunk it? Direct Marketing professional works his way up to become the new Commander-in-Chief. Check out that photo above. Perhaps this new face on the DC scene can help solve the economic crisis facing our country.

This pic and many other more interesting ones were taken at Madam Tussaud’s museum in Washington during the networking reception at the recent Nonprofit Conference. Take a moment to see if you could tell who is actually made of wax.

Labels: DMA Nonprofit, employees

Monday, February 9, 2009

"Five Simple Steps to Successful Project Management"

That's the title of an article penned by Karen Taggart from PETA. It's in the latest edition of the DMAW's Marketing Advents. Ms. Taggart clearly outlines how to:

1) Define the objective
2) Choose goals
3) Create a list of project steps
4) List all resources you will need
5) Evaluate the ROI of your project

If you didn't get this issue email to info@dmaw.org and maybe they can send you a copy. I think it's a great read and clearly she knows what she's talking about.

Labels: tips

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Take 10 minutes

An RMI PSA. Take 10 minutes out of your already inundated schedule and take a look at the handout from the recent presentation by Steve Froehlich, from ASPCA, at the DMA Washington Nonprofit conference. You will be glad you did!

Included, according to Steve, are some of the best sources of information about what we do and what is going on in our industry. Sources include books, offline newsletters, online newsletters & publications, blogs, RSS Feeds etc. (a virtual cornucopia of knowledge)

As the Great Ron Popeil said, “but wait, that’s not all you get”. If you act now I will throw in another PSA in the near future.

Labels: DMA Nonprofit

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

"Tweeters" on the Hill

Who would have thought it? Our Congressional representatives are on line and using Twitter!

And who Tweets more? Republicans by an almost 2-1 margin. Who's the biggest Tweeter? Rep Culberson (R) Texas and he tweets as himself not a staffer. Staying in touch with constituents...

If you follow the link to the article there's another link for a quick tutorial on Twitter for those who want to get Tweet'n.

Labels: social media, Twitter

Monday, February 2, 2009

Congratulations to the winners of the RMI Super Bowl pool!

1st Quarter - Sheila Johnsen, Arbor Day Foundation
Half - Courtney Waters, RMI
3rd Quarter - Darcy Duggan
Final - Kathy Woods, The Services Group

Kathy won on this catch by Steelers wide receiver Santonio Holmes, making the final score Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Arizona Cardinals 23. She won the grand prize of 200 units (the RMI pool is strictly for entertainment purposes only - wink, wink). I came up empty with my 2s, 6s, and 9s. It never fails - every year I get stuck with 2s and 5s and this year was no different. Oh well, I guess it's wait til next year. One consolation - I'm a Steelers fan! Woohoo! That's one for the other thumb if you're counting. (six)

Thanks for playing. See you next year. Less than two weeks until Pitchers and Catchers... :-)

Multicultural enhancements for nonprofits

When searching for ways to beef up your bottom line in list rental revenue, consider multicultural Target Enhancement: enhancing your list to provide ethnic and religious segments such as Catholic, Hispanic, Spanish Speaking and African-American. Strictly speaking from the non-profit angle, these niche markets files have enabled us to attract many new mailers, expanding our coverage in the marketplace. What’s the attraction? Being that ethnic and religious mailers are not direct competitors, the normal restrictions that apply to mainstream nonprofit mailers don't apply to them. They are allowed to access some great selections such as One Month Recency and 'High Dollar Donors', making it easier to test the files.

When it comes to Catholic enhancements, most Catholic mailers will jump at the chance to test Catholic overlayed lists. And, believe it or not, will test Hispanic enhanced names as well. In fact, there's such a strong affinity between Hispanics and Catholics that the bulk of usage on Hispanic enhancements typically comes from Catholic mailers.

However, the hottest and strongest growing selection has been Spanish Speaking. Finally! For 20 years the conventional thinking was that the Spanish speaking market was the next big thing. Through trial and error, early DM pioneers discovered that the Spanish speaking market was much different then their English speaking counterparts. Spanish promotions were taken at their word; soft offers would receive 10% upfront response and crash & burn in the back-end – meaning, if potential customers received a "3 free issues, no obligation to act" piece, they took the 3 issues and were never heard from again. Yet, perseverance has paid off. Being the fastest growing ethnic group in the country, more data has become available over the years and as a result, the quality of databases used in enhancements has improved immensely. As the quality improved, so did the response - this being especially true for Spanish speaking and African-American overlays. Mailers who could never make enhanced files work before are doing so now.

To get your list enhanced, ideal candidates should be able to provide at least 750,000 names within a 36 month time-frame. The greater the input, the more revenue can organization can earn. Ask your list manager about costs incurred – or (warning: plug), at RMI, it’s a service offered free of charge. How/why you may ask? Enhancements are so successful that we make our money on the back-end. You reap the rewards.

Labels: list rental, multicultural, nonprofit