Is your company considering a database driven direct marketing campaign, either through the Internet or the mail? I've been receiving a lot of inquiries about this type of marketing tactic, but see that the marketing people are sometimes having a hard time getting executive management on board with the idea. If you need some help making your case, here are a list of benefits you can point out that may sway opinion.

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Too often, ad concepts get evaluated on gut instinct - especially when you're sending them around for approvals from other managers. Rather than letting the project stall as opinions fly back and forth, I've found it's useful to offer some objective criteria for evaluating the ad.

What works?

Here's a checklist you can use. In my experience, I've found that successful ads usually share some of the same characteristics.

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What do people want to know? That's one of the most frequently asked questions I hear when developing e-newsletters. Maybe more to the heart of the matter is, "what will make people read my newsletter?"

It's a good way of approaching both what to include and what not to include in your e-newsletter. I can say that because I receive plenty of poorly developed newsletters that contain useless information or that don't pertain to me or my business.

What should you include in your newsletters that will keep your customers and prospects reading?

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