SIPAlert Daily, Vol. 1, Issue 64

The Road Taken
An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead.

Karen Piontkowski, Founder and President, Direct Answer, Inc.
Katie Rogers, Vice President, Direct Answer, Inc.

Editor’s Note: We give you a pre-Labor Day special today of two-for-the-price-of-one.

SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
Karen Piontkowski: Printing broker...doesn't everyone in direct marketing start in printing? Once the ink is in your blood and the feel of the different paper textures, you cannot get it out so it seems! Throughout the years, I find most of my colleagues who began with me in the late ’70s and early ’80s are connected to printing in some sort of fashion...however, I fear we may be losing those wonderful smells of a web press running at full speed!

Katie Rogers: I was being recruited to work for a certain three-letter government agency, but when I found out that I could and would be called at a moment’s notice to head overseas for an undetermined amount of time, I and my soon-to-be husband, decided it might not be the best environment to raise a family. As for how I got into this business, I don’t think I ever was NOT in this business. I started folding T-shirts for premiums and doing data entry before I was legally allowed to work: my friends are still impressed with my 100 wpm! Growing up surrounded by this industry, I swore I would never work in it when I “grew up”—I wanted to break the mold. Do something different! However, the passion must run in my blood as I kept being drawn back to it—it seemed to come naturally. After completing my EMBA, I realized this was what I was made to do and haven’t looked back since.

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SIPA’s 10 for ’10
An ongoing series of valuable lists for 2010.

Aim, Shoot, Post. But First Get Some Equipment

Last week, 3D, the DMA Daily Digest, led us to a website called Target Marketing that published a nice piece on “Creating and Promoting a Viral Video.” (More on that below.)

Fortunately—since you definitely need some equipment before undertaking these videos—SIPA’s June Hotline published an article by Alan Prochoroff, editor and publisher of Insurance Compliance Insight for ProBusiness Publishing LLC, to help get you started in the video realm. The article compared the Flip Ultra HD camcorder and the Kodak vi8 (now available as the zi8 HD).
Here were some of his findings:

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Whirled Power
...on staying current with the latest marketing trends

Marketing to a Diverse Audience, Part 1

I wrote an article a few years ago about a newspaper in San Angelo, Texas, that scripted a series of house ads starring their very own employees. The series was called “Get Connected Every Day with the San Angelo Standard-Times” and was part of the paper’s “Passion Campaign” that let readers see a bit of themselves in the paper every day.

“It fit into this whole philosophy of improving our relationship with the community,” the marketing director said. “It was an important first step in the process.”

At that time, 2004, a community was still mostly measured in physical terms. Today, of course, an online community is probably more appropriate for our marketing directives. But that doesn’t mean strategies have to change all that much. Improving your relationship with your online community should remain a major goal.

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