Libey's DailyDM

I've read the commentary on Twitter and other blogs in the past day, so I'll forward this to you as well.

Don Libey has launched Libey's DailyDM, a portal, if you will, in to everything that is direct marketing, be it online marketing or direct marketing or catalog marketing or hologram marketing!

Give it a try --- see if you can find interesting commentary or viewpoints!

Full Disclosure: Mr. Libey edited and published two of my books.

White Paper For CEOs And Owners: Investment Strategy From Don Libey

One of the things missing from our "5 Easy Ways To Tweet Your Way To Twitter Success" culture is a genuine, strategic discussion about how to grow a business that will sell for a reasonable multiple of EBIDTA.

In doing some research on the topic for a current client grappling with this very issue, I ran across an article, written by Don Libey nearly ten years ago. The article perfectly articulates the concept of investing in customer acquisition in a way that allows a CEO/Owner to harvest an additional million or two million from a future change in ownership.

I asked Mr. Libey if I could publish his article. He agreed, so long as I complemented the article with a few examples from my Multichannel Forensics work.

This article is a must-read for any CEO / Owner looking to maximize the long-term value of a business.

Please download the free white paper: "Investment Prospecting: Building Business Valuation through Strategic Planning".

Housing Market Deflation Correlates With Zip Code Forensics

Don Libey forwards us this map of the United States as illustrated in the NY Times (see via this link, related article here), illustrating states with high "debt to value" ratios.

His question ... does this data correlate with Zip Code Forensics?

The answer ... yes.

We can match state-level data to the zip-level data in Zip Code Forensics. Statisticians would point out the flaws associated with doing this. Point taken.


Catalog Crazies, the most productive zip codes in the United States, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 63.0%.

Online Bliss, among the most productive zip codes in the United States, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 63.5%.

Catalog Fans, zip codes with average productivity, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 63.8%.

Online Spend, zip codes with average productivity, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 66.2% (oh oh, a trend is beginning).

Catalog Preference, zip codes that perform well below average, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 67.8%.

Online Preference, zip codes that perform well below average, have an average debt-to-value ratio of 69.0%.

In other words, Zip Code Forensics identifies regions that have customers who, on average, have an additional four to six percent equity in their homes. These customers are less impacted by the mortgage/housing crisis, and therefore, have more money to spend on other things.

And you can have access to this data for free! Contribute your anonymous annual sales data by zip code by channel to the database, and you'll receive this segmentation system. If you do not wish to contribute your data, the cost for an annual license is $5,000.

Download the paper to learn more.

Micro-Channel Consultant Success Stories

This image is of the Libey Economic Outlook. Don Libey is a multichannel direct marketing consultant. Once a month, he mails a newsletter filled with topics and parables relevant to the catalog-based direct marketer. When this document arrives in the mail, my first priority is to set down what I am working on, and read the publication.

Lenser marketing also has an e-mail marketing newsletter, though I tend to read the newsletter online. The online newsletter doesn't allow comments, though honestly, it doesn't need to facilitate a conversation.

The Rimm-Kaufman group hosts a blog. I almost never visit their website, though I am an avid reader of their information when it arrives via Google Reader. Their articles are among the content I most appreciate receiving. The blog does accept comments, allowing for a conversation to happen.

John Hagel is lucky to publish a handful of articles each year on his blog, but when he publishes them, they are must reads. I also read his articles via RSS Feed.

The next image is from Amy Africa's E-mail newsletter, called "Thinking Inside The Box". This newsletter has stories and is full of best practices to help struggling marketers improve performance. You can subscribe to her monthly newsletter here.



What's the point of all of this? Each example represents a specific use of a micro-channel, a preferred method for these folks to communicate with their audience.

Sometimes we're led to believe we have to do everything in order to be successful. We have to do direct mail, and e-mail, and have a website, and host a blog, and participate in social media.

Maybe we're better off focusing on fully capitalizing on a fusion of micro-channels that are appropriate for the audience we want to speak to? None of these folks are doing everything --- instead, they are specializing (and, by consequence, excelling) in specific micro-channels.

Increasingly, we have an opportunity to be excellent at one or two things, rather than being good across multiple channels. We have a chance to stand for something.

Boxing Day and Customer Service

Welcome to the Boxing Day edition of The MineThatData Blog! Today, in Boxing Day tradition, we switch roles. Readers Jim Fulton, Jeff Larche, Michael Gamma and Don Libey contribute content. Please read their columns, and comment on their topics. Thank you Jim, Jeff, Michael and Don.

As you may know, Boxing Day is about switching roles. A recent post from Seth Godin illustrates an employee at CVS talking on a cell phone, standing in front of a grease board that says "We cannot provide service if you are on your cell phone."

It is so, so easy to find an example of a customer service associate making a mistake. Maybe today, on Boxing Day, we switch roles, and consider what it is like to be a customer service associate. We assume that this employee is talking to a friend about an evening activity or a party. What if the associate is talking to her doctor about her biopsy? Do you feel differently about her if that is the case?

What would happen if somebody walked around our offices, snapping photos of our daily activities? Would the photographer ever find us reading blogs during the workday when we should be working? Would the photographer find us sending e-mails to friends, or find us using the phone for non-work-related calls? What would the photographer find if she walked through our offices?

For one day, can we switch roles, and try to have a little empathy for the folks who provide customer service for all of us? Can we try to understand what it is like to make $8.00 an hour working the counter at CVS, working without breaks, while the reader of this blog earns four or five times as much sitting in front of a computer on the day after Christmas? Can we, as business leaders, try to provide a work environment that is rewarding and enjoyable, paying a living wage with benefits, so that the these photos do not need to be snapped?

Don Libey: Futures And Presents

Don Libey of Libey Incorporated, offers us this Boxing Day discussion titled 'Futures And Presents' to the readers of The MineThatData Blog.


If the present is any indicator, the future needs to be reconsidered.

The consulting year 2006 is over. I had the privilege of advising and consulting with 35 companies this year, almost all of that work at the request of the CEO or the board.

In only one of those 35 companies, was the consulting engagement focused on the future. In the other 34, it was remedial work; analyzing and advising how to fix what was wrong. In the one exceptional company, the question was, “How do we leverage all the things we are doing right and grow the company to a billion dollars?” That was a remarkable experience. That is a remarkable company.

Yesterday, after reviewing the year and the final assignment before getting ready for an extended trip to Sonoma and Napa and the splendors of the vineyards for Christmas, I emailed a trusted colleague and asked, “Why is it we see so much under performance by so many major direct marketers in so many sectors of business-to-business?” The paraphrased response was, “I don’t know. It has always been like this. And there is so much opportunity everywhere.”

So, why are so many direct marketing companies performing at half of their potential? And why are only a handful performing at or above their potential? What makes the difference?

The first thing I see is passion. Top performers have a passion for what they do that most of us only dream about. These people love business and they love their business. In one way, they are truly fortunate. Passion of that kind is rare, and very successful people invariably possess it to extremes. In another way, they are cursed. They can never get away from that passion and their lives are shaped by it almost totally and almost constantly. I always ask these passionate, extraordinary people, “What do you read?” The answer has always been, “Peter Drucker’s books,” or “Jack Trout,” or some other business titan. It has never been Charles Dickens or Thomas Hardy or John Steinbeck.

Because passionate business owners and leaders are mono-focused on the business, they often re-invent themselves and the business to assure they remain at the leading edges. Others (the 34 others) enjoy the familiar groove, the familiar niche, the same familiar SICs. They maintain the past and the present; the passionate ones create the future. And that is the difference: maintain or create.

The second thing I see is the use of money. The passionate creators spend money; the maintainers take the money out of the business and make it earn every step of its undistinguished way. All investment has to be ‘self-funding.’ The exceptional business knows the value of talent, technology, facilities, investment prospecting, advanced logistics, integrated enterprise operating systems. The unexceptional companies have only enough talent, technology, facilities, prospecting, logistics, and operating systems to get by without having to invest anything in the future. Consequently, they often don’t have one.

The third thing I see is ideas. The exceptional owners surround themselves with more ideas than they can ever accomplish. But, they have options. The average company spends a lot of time pushing ideas away, mostly because they require investment, but also because they might be dangerous, especially if they aren’t the owner’s idea. All of the original ideas are monopolized in the marketplace by the exceptional companies; the average companies haven’t had an original idea since the first one that got them their niche.

The fourth thing I see is people. The extraordinary company has extraordinary people and all of them are also passionate. The average company has average people and none of them are passionate. Extraordinary attracts extraordinary; average attracts average. And when average companies inadvertently attract an extraordinary person, the result is painful and short-lived (and the extraordinary person moves on).

The fifth thing I see is attention to basics. While leading in innovation, technology and ideas, the extraordinary company is also totally grounded in and proficient with all the direct marketing basics. They know the numbers off the top of their heads—and they are accurate numbers—to the penny and the percent. The average companies are struggling to cover or discover the basics. They are employing entry-level people to manage the circulation plan because they are cheaper and—after all—all you have to do is tell Abacus what it is you want and they do everything. The extraordinary company is running circles around its competitors in every channel because they have a seasoned, confident and proven circulation pro working with a seasoned, confident and proven broker and everybody’s feet are held to the fire for performance and productivity. And the extraordinary company doesn’t ask for a discount; in fact, they often pay their broker a higher commission for delivering higher prospecting performance.

The sixth thing I see is elegance. The extraordinary company has an elegance of mind as well as an elegance of style. The owner wears custom made or designer clothing and has a custom analytic and perceptive mind. The restrooms and the minds are well-decorated and fully furnished, one with choices of soaps and linen towels, the other with concepts and open-minded reasoning. The warehouse and the personality are neat, orderly, clean, automated and totally organized. These people are their business; the business mirrors the person. And the management team in these extraordinary companies lives that elegance. The average company is—well—average. Things are a little dusty, a bit wrinkled.

The seventh thing I see is boldness. The extraordinary companies are fearless; the average companies are fearful. One attacks the future; one defends the past. One is comfortable with challenge and the unknown; one is comfortable with only the known and what once worked. One leads; one follows. One takes risks; one is riskless.

The eighth thing I see is inclusion. The extraordinary company includes all of their trusted advisors in their research and decision-making processes. The conference room for a strategy session may have 10 or 15 vendors, suppliers, consultants, all charged with the objective, “Help us leverage what we do well to become a $1 billion company.” And every one of these Trusted Advisors wants to be innovative, wants to find a breakthrough, wants to create, wants to uncover a hidden opportunity. The average company doesn’t trust its vendors; bends them for another 2 percent; spreads the business among as many as possible to assure the lowest possible price, and often lays failure at the feet of the vendor. One is inclusive and thrives on the combined intellect of many; one excludes and wastes away on the squandering of intellectual opportunities.

The ninth thing I see is rule breaking. The extraordinary companies do almost everything differently than they should; they disregard what should be for what is. While attending to the direct marketing basics and truth, they also only believe what the customer tells them. And if what the customer wants requires breaking direct marketing conventional wisdom—out goes the conventional wisdom! The average company plays by the rules, takes no chances, hasn’t talked—really talked—to a customer in years. Chiseled above the door is the time-worn motto: Status Quo.

The tenth thing I see is questioning. The extraordinary owner or leader questions everyone they come into contact with. These are not accuracy questions, rather questions about what is new, how others are changing pagination, what landing pages are working, whether video is getting prospecting response in search hits, how much fall off in pay per click there was in October, whether long term response is eroding in co-ops . . . and a thousand questions aimed at people with knowledge that can be utilized. The average company asks few questions and—frankly—usually doesn’t know what questions to ask.

And, I guess that is what I see after the 2006 consulting season. I wonder what we will see next year? Imagine . . . . What if we waved a magic wand and gave every average direct marketing company the ten attributes of an extraordinary company?

Wow!