Follow Martha on  Twitter  or connect with her on  LinkedIn. Companies from all industries need to better understand their customers, but in the financial services space, it’s more critical than most. Whether you work for a bank, insurance company or in the investment sector, you’re challenged to have a better and more complete understanding of your customers than in most other sectors. Missteps in the financial services industry are critical because the engagement with our customers concerns a subject near and dear to their hearts – their financial well-being. MORE >>

Connect with Gidgett on  LinkedIn  or follow her on  Twitter. Gidgett Ingalls. Reading Susan Cain’s book Quiet:   The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking certainly leads to thinking about the world we live in, our own ladders of inference and the value we place on personality. encourage you to watch her TED Talk – link below. link]. am a firm believer that we all need to be true to ourselves, who we are at our core.  Only by being true to our core can we be our BEST selves. If you have an equal number of true and false responses, then you are an “ambivert.” MORE >>

Connect with Barb on  LinkedIn  or follow her on  Twitter. SIGMA has helped clients deploy hundreds of email campaigns, including demand generation, lead nurture and loyalty programs. As expected, the performance of email campaigns ranges significantly. Contributing factors mostly involve list and offer. One test we have tried across many different types of campaigns that has consistently improved response is to create multiple email waves. We have seen campaign gains of over two times—for opens and responses—when three email waves—vs. one—are deployed. MORE >>

Follow Martha on  Twitter  or connect with her on  LinkedIn. At this writing, wedding season is in full swing. Even Brangelina have finally announced their intentions to wed. Throngs of people will certainly herd to their wedding locale to catch a glimpse of the first kiss of the newlyweds. What’s that got to do with marketing and sales?   While I don’t think that Brad (or Angelina, for that matter) have had to kiss too many frogs during their lifetimes, it’s something that we in B2B sales do every day. touches to make contact with a prospect. If we only knew who they were! MORE >>

Follow Martha on  Twitter  or connect with her on  LinkedIn. At SIGMA, we have developed a methodology for assessing the capacity and maturity of an affinity marketing organization. Based on over 25 years of direct marketing services experience in working with clients in affinity and non-affinity organizations, this assessment forms the basis for a marketing roadmap to help organizations get to the next level. These assessments have allowed us to develop a four-stage scorecard for each of six performance categories. Affinity Marketing Maturity Grid. MORE >>