I recently caught up with Jim Kobs, an internationally known direct marketer and author of Profitable Direct Marketing. Here are some excerpts:

What's the most important direct marketing lesson you've learned?

The importance of the offer-or what you promise someone to have them take the desired action. Yes, it's true that the list and the media choice have more overall impact on a mailing's response. But, I've found that the offer plays a pivotal role.

Over 30 years ago, I authored a list of "99 Proven Direct Response Offers" for the first edition of my book. Today, when I go to revise that section, I find 95% of the offers are still relevant. Spend time developing the right offer and your direct marketing efforts will benefit.

How has direct marketing changed in the last 5 years?

To start, there's an emphasis on branding. In addition to creating an immediate response, today's direct marketers also seek to enhance the brand image. They've found that establishing an image and position in the market yields additional long term sales.

And things have really snowballed in the e-commerce arena. Five years ago, this marketing vehicle was in its infancy. But, just in the last year, I've seen the Internet make a huge impact on a company's sales. Just a year or so ago, Internet sales were concentrated in a handful of industries. Today however, most traditional direct marketers are seeing it impact sales-to the tune of 5-10% or more of a company's total sales.

What do marketers have to do differently with the Internet?

So many companies today underutilize their websites. They should look to a web-site as a vehicle to drive relationship marketing. This is the real potential for the
Internet. Use your website as a lever to strengthen relationships and the payoffs will be enormous.
Marketers must also integrate the web with their traditional direct marketing activities. Do your consumers peruse your catalog, and then place orders online? Do they visit your website first then pick up the phone to order? Use the web the way the consumer wants to use it-not the other way around.

What marketing advice would you give the owner of a growing company today?

Establish a database that includes history about each customer's purchases and interests. I still run into companies these days whose only database is for billing purposes. They haven't transformed this tool into a marketing database. Today, with the tremendous improvements in computer technology, capturing and analyzing marketing information is very affordable. I recently heard that if automobile technology had made the same advances as computer technology, we'd all be able to afford a Rolls Royce that got 2000 miles per gallon for only $1,000!

Jim Kobs Formed Kobs Gregory Passavant in 1989. Recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities in direct marketing, he's won most of the industry's top awards in his 25-year career, including the Ed Moyer Award for Educational Leadership and was recently Hall of Fame. He can be reached at (312) 819-2300.