I was reading a blog from a recruiting firm recently bemoaning the escalating talent shortage as baby boomers retire. Depth of expertise lags behind demand in numerous industries. In fact, the writer postulated that this shortage was driving companies to go outside of the US for talent.

In my mid twenties, I made a remarkable discovery that changed the way I looked at the direct marketing creative process.

I just came from one of the major mobile phone carriers. Every time I go there, I find myself liking the industry less after each experience.

This perennial question came up on LinkedIn’s Q&A where members ask questions of their network. The last time I checked, there were 17 answers to this question.

What works for print advertising, direct mail, DRTV and other traditional direct marketing advertising works with new media. People still respond to strong offers, certain words, longer copy and proven formats regardless of the channel used to communicate the message.

Imagine yourself working in an insurance company as head of a division that sells individual insurance products directly by phone and the Internet. Now imagine that your internal direct marketing team exceeded both volume and ROI goals for 2007 by a wide margin.

Dean Rieck’s superb Direct Creative Blog provides a listing of his practical and FREE articles about how to create winning direct response copy. Go here and survey an even larger list of useful articles.

It really rankles me when non-direct marketers call direct marketing a tactic rather than a strategy. They flat do not understand what the direct marketing discipline is all about.

It is well known that successful fundraising direct marketing leaders have contributed much to the direct marketing industry. No industry depends more on advanced direct marketing strategies to fund their futures than nonprofits.