Hard to believe, but the United States Postal Service is CUTTING the cost of a first-class stamp. This applies to all first class – letters, post cards and international mail. The USPS had no choice. They are not happy.

Why?

This price cutting decision involves an obscure agency that approves postage rates. A provision for an “emergency” rate hike to 49 cents actually had a sunset provision. Sunday, April 10, 2016, the price drops to 47 cents for a first-class letter. So maybe sending a card or letter is now possible?

Here is a complete breakdown of First Class Postage Rates compliments of Pitney-Bowes, as reprinted in Target Marketing’s eNewsletter today.

These USPS rates will last until the next rate hike.  Of course, your “Forever” stamps now have a value that is 2 cents less. At the moment that is.

Ah, progress.

Bethesda List Center is a full-service provider of U.S. and Worldwide mailing lists. Founded in 1992, BLC is a leading manager and broker of business-to-business lists.

Bethesda List Center meets the mailing list needs of all types of businesses. Publishers, associations, seminar providers, catalogers, and computer software and hardware companies are some of the major industries that we serve. Here’s a little bit about what we do and who we are:

List Management Services
Bethesda List Center represents many List Owner Links to the direct marketing industry. We increase list rental income while relieving owners of the burdens of marketing, selling, order fulfillment, customer service, and collections. To find out more about our list management services, please go to our List Management page.

List Brokerage Services
Bethesda List Center serves mailers by finding and obtaining the best lists to support their marketing campaigns. Because we maintain key industry relationships and cultivate list resources around the globe, our customers receive expert direct mail counsel and thorough list research. To find out more about our list brokerage services, please go to our List Brokerage page.

World Class Service
Noted in the industry for prompt and thorough service, Bethesda List Center’s specialized and experienced brokers, managers and production professionals deliver researched recommendations, list counts and delivery information that our customers need. BLC is one of few firms that combines expert international list advice with timely guidance on foreign mail methods and processes.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing
Get more information on our sister company, Bethesda Emedia Marketing. This service provides Email transmission services, Email list cleaning, newsletter design, template design, Social Media blogging, SEO clean-up and the Email Knowledge System to help you track all your campaigns. bethesdaemediamarketing.com

Location
We are located in suburban Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Our address is:
Bethesda List Center, Inc.
4300 Montgomery Avenue, Suite 204-B
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4463
USA

www.bethesda-list.com

With Spring knocking at the door, it is a good time to review your list sales, practices and asking yourself, “Am I getting everything I should from my list management company or why do I need a list management company?”  Bethesda List Center is an extremely unique company with your best interests at heart each and every day.  The company is run by two of the most knowledgeable professionals in the industry today and the rest of the staff has tons of experience handeling all aspects of list management.  Their decades of experience and commitment will turn your slumping sales, daily list hassle and time consuming into successful gains.

Shopping for a list and managing your list.
You are your own best list source. Comb your list of customers, trade show leads, other prospects, inquirers and former buyers as the backbone for your own comprehensive direct marketing list. Always include opt-in email addresses. Many Bethesda List Center customers have also asked us to market their organizations’ mailing lists. If you already have an up to date list of 10,000 or more names, we can advise you how to go about marketing your files for additional income. Your selling message should address the needs and interests of your audience. A good list professional will be specific, too. With the details you give them, they will recommend lists that give you an outlook to your best customer prospects.

Mailing list managers such as Bethesda List Center (BLC) can help individuals or organizations rent their lists. For some organizations, such as specialized niche publications or charitable groups, their lists may be some of their most valuable assets, and mailing list managers help them maximize the value of their lists. They can also help with coding, analysis, and complex issues of usage that may be confusing to new users. This is especially true of organizations that are in the process of converting from bulk mail to electronic mail.

Bethesda List Center represents many List Owner Links to the direct marketing industry.
We increase List Owner Links’ rental income while relieving them of the burdens of:

Marketing and Selling
Bethesda List Center‘s intensive promotion and constant direct selling means increased list revenue for owners. Our active relationships with nearly all recognized list brokers and many large mailers give BLC List Owner Links far greater market exposure than they could generate from their own efforts.

Order Fulfillment
Bethesda List Center shoulders all of the time-consuming tasks of order fulfillment. We produce, ship and track list orders faster than anyone else in the industry.

Customer Service
Bethesda List Center responds quickly and effectively to mailer needs. That is our business.

Billing and Collecting
Bethesda List Center manages the detailed tasks of invoicing, bookkeeping, and collecting for every list order. Our owners receive activity reports and rental revenue, monthly.

Would you like to learn more about some of the organizations whose lists we manage?
Links to their sites are available on our List Owner page.

http://www.socialmonkee.com/index.php?af=123467253

Bethesda List Center, is based in Bethesda, Maryland. The company is 19 years old and specializes in business-to-business marketing campaigns with direct mail, Email, CPA / CPL – click per action / click per lead, web marketing, SEO and website landing pages.

Bethesda List Center has a sister company, Bethesda Emedia Marketing.   Bethesda Emedia Marketing is a Full Service Email Transmission Service. “From your text and graphics, Bethesda Emedia does the rest!”

Bethesda List Center has a sister company, Bethesda Emedia Marketing, which provides Full Service Email Transmission Services. Your text and we can do the rest.

Bethesda List Center, offers free marketing newsletters published every Monday through Thursday.  Sign up for all of them or the ones that will help you and your company the most.

Take advantage of the decades of marketing experience that Bethesda List Center and Bethesda eMedia Marketing bring to the table.  You will gain insight and find keys to success in every issue.

Click here to sign up today:  http://www.bethesda-list.com/lists/free-newsletters

Bethesda List Center has a sister company, Bethesda Emedia Marketing.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing, Bethesda, Maryland, announces the availability of a new white paper on the subject of A/B testing. This process is used by marketing executives to improve their results whether the campaign uses Email, postal or telephone. The White Paper explains the key concepts used in an easy to understand format.

A/B testing permits you to make an adjustment to your offer and track the results. For an Email campaign, this may be changing the size or color of a “call to action” button, in postal mail, it may mean changing a signature to blue ink from black, in a telephone campaign, changing the wording on the offer are all examples of A/B testing.

Full details about the A/B Testing White Paper are to be found on the Bethesda Emedia Marketing website.

http://www.bethesdaemediamarketing.com/library/email-markting/ab-testing-101

Bethesda Emedia Marketing is the Email Transmission Service unit of Bethesda List Center, Inc., Bethesda, MD. Clients include: associations, publishers, marketing firms and many others who are sending Enewsletters, Journals, Conference Offers, subscription offers and a wide range of business-to-business and business-to-consumer offers.

Bethesda List Center, Inc and Bethesda Emedia Marketing are available on the Twitter platform.  The address is  djamesbethesda – lots of useful info on Email, SEO, twitter, link-building, other marketing topics.

www.twitter.com/djamesbethesda is the address to follow!

Find our what we have read, found interesting that you may find interesting, announcements of interest, marketing materials, marketing templates and more.  This account has been active for over a year and is a well curated source of news for those interested in these fields.

Bethesda List Center, Inc was founded in 1992. The company specializes in direct marketing – postal marketing, Email marketing, SEO, CPA /CPL and worldwide telephone research for marketing companies.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing is an Email Transmission Service that offers oodles of support. Send your text, we handle the rest. Template and website designs are also available. The company works with associations, publishers, direct marketing firms and others to handle their recurring Email needs.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing announces that it’s Emarketing Library of almost 250 articles written by Emarketing experts is available.

The Emarketing Library articles are carefully selected by one of 9 marketing topics and then indexed for ease of use. Every effort is made to include information  in the library from recognized experts who are presenting the latest best practices and research based upon their professional experience.  The result is a comprehensive resource of Emarketing information and best practices.

Topics covered in the E-marketing Library include:

• Business to Business (B2B)
• Business to Consume (B2C)
• Ecommerce
• Email Marketing
• Free White Papers
• Google
• Pay per Click (PPC)
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Other

These articles were drawn from over 25 independent E-newsletters, publishers, webinar papers and other generally non-sales materials.  The information contained in the articles draws upon experts in each field. Access to the library is free and unrestricted.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing also publishes an Enewsletter that selects article of particular interest each Wednesday.This E-newsletter has 4-5 articles that have appeared recently and will be of interest to the Marketing Managers, E-commerce Managers, Advertising Managers, and Media Buyers.

To subscribe please use this link:

http://www.bethesdaemediamarketing.com/bem-news

To reach the Bethesda Emedia Marketing Emarketing Library click here:

http://www.bethesdaemediamarketing.com/library/

Bethesda Emedia Marketing is an Email Service Provider (ESP) that offers “white gloves” partnering associations; publishers; advertising agencies and media buyers; and,  small, medium and large businesses in the US and worldwide. The company has been working with customers since 2004. Bethesda Emedia Marketing is a sister company to Bethesda List Center, a recognized leader in world wide Business-to-Business direct marketing since 1992.

With  Bethesda Emedia “white gloves service” mailers can write the creative, supply pictures and the balance of the work is done by Bethesda Emedia’s technical staff. This permits many organizations to permit their staff work with important, company related issues while letting technical experts handle the messy details.

Among the creative work done regularly by Bethesda Emedia are: Enewsletters, Press Releases, Association Journals, solo e-mail promotions, timed promotional campaigns. Other technical services includes:  eMail list opt-in/opt out management; Opt-out linking; Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and email file maintenance.

Bethesda Emedia Marketing is located at: 4300 Montgomery Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814-4463, or info@BethesdaEmediaMarketing.com

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Tweeter and Corporate Blogging Guru Debbie Weil has a series of talks in Washington on social media topics. Last night the speaker was Anil Dash of MacArthur Foundation funded Expert Labs.

The location, a wired cupcake shop in Georgetown with a pink bike parked out front, thus the name of the series.

Dash says the goal of Expert Labs is to open government (gov 2.0) using social media to LISTEN as well as talk to their audience. His company is currently working with the White House Science and Technology office. So far, no other gov’t agencies, Congress, etc.  Of course, he saw applications in the commercial sector as well.

During the discussion of his project, there was discussion about citizen participants having  to “put on a tie” when talking to gov’t. Really some form of identification and a call for responsible comment.

IMHO, not the way to get folks to participate.  Especially in this over-media hyped environment. Dash mentioned that most issues now activate the legalize pot crowd when comment is called for. So his software is able to collapse issues and summarize.

This new software is designed to have a civil conversation and learned discussion. Good idea, hard, if not impossible, to impliment. That is where Expert Labs software and cloud computing coming in.

Other attendees, in discussion with me, felt the whole conversation with all 305+ million Americans, in theory, was 20-30 years away due to computer limitations. I don’t think it’s the computer limitations but the fear of government, the certainty that everyone thinks they know best that is factor to slow this “group listening.”

I live and work in the Washington area and see plenty of boldface political people in  everyday life – at the supermarket, the gym, getting coffee and whatnot. They generally seem to be genuine but all too often, their objectives are driven by many things, the least of which is direct public input. Even for good ideas.

That is hard nut to crack. Did the Constitutional founders expect us to run everything by opinion poll? Or was it their belief that even a “common man” can do the job of representative in Congress by voting and shaping legislation he believes best represents his voters and any other groups he is representing.

Bethesda Emedia has been working diligently to put up articles on a variety of subjects. We have about 100 articles that we consider a “best of” group.  Best of all, they are organized with tags that include:

• SEO (search engine optimization)
• Direct marketing
• Direct mail,
• Email marketing
• B2B
• B2C
• Ecommerce
• Google
• Social marketing

We search out articles from many sources, this is not just a bare knuckles promotion for one or two companies. Some of our best ideas come from those who Tweet themselves. Our Twitter site, djamesbethesda, re-tweets winners as well.

Access to the Bethesda Emedia Marketing Library is free.

Tell me what you think.