Outsource Marketing Solutions blog

Featured blog

Diabetes Mine - check it out.  A veritable gold mine of diabetes related info.

Excited about the new year? Click here for a little Happy New Year.

Trendspotting

You've heard of silver, now see what's up with bamboo!
Check out Jonano's website.

From the Textile Cotton Market blog:

"Natural bamboo fabric is also a good choice for diabetic and compression hose. The softness of the fabric is a natural choice for this application. Lower extremity amputation among the diabetic population increased from 67,000 in 1994 to 140,000 in 2000. While amputation in the diabetic population is a viable option in the presence of significant peripheral arterial disease and gangrene, life expectancy after major lower extremity amputation is appalling with only a 40 % five-year survival rate. (2,3)...

Antimicrobial and antibacterial textiles can play a part in a strategic plan to reduce healthcare associated infections. Tactics such as isolating infected and colonized patients, practicing stringent handwashing policies, and implementing antimicrobial and antibacterial textiles can help combat the spread of a wide range of resistant bacteria, viruses and other microbes including Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a form of staph bacteria which is blamed for about 13 % of the nation’s two million hospital infections each year according to the CDC.

'It is well documented that soiled linens harbor microorganisms that can be transmitted to others,” said Gang Sun, professor of clothing and textiles at the University of California, Davis. “In light of the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the development of (antimicrobial and antibacterial textiles) can be a major advancement in the battle against the spread of infection.'  (4 )"

Ebook for You!

It's "The Best of The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week of 2006," an ebook that was Joan Stewart's  holiday gift to me and she has very graciously allowed me to share it with you.

It includes the top 24 tips from this past year, the ones that generated the biggest responses from readers of Joan Stewart's Publicity Tips.

You can download the book here.  

Custom Communications

If Home Depot, American Express, WBC Industries, Inc. and Elizabeth Mansfield are doing it, you should think about it!

Email newsletters.

Today's the day after Christmas. 

In my inbox, email newsletters from...

Sports Authority, Dicks Sporting Goods, (My kids play soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and ice hockey...I need all the discounts I can get.)

Macy's, Home Depot, Sears, Target, Overstock.com, Southwest Airlines, Delta, United, Borders Books and Music, CVS, Walgreen's, Ocean State Job Lot -

and that's in addition to several marketing email newsletters.

I signed up for all of them.  I like to know what's going on and an email newsletter keeps me up to date without having to wade through all that junk mail. 

I scan the subject line, decide to open, delete or save and move on to the next one.

Overstock.com sends me one almost every single day.  I rarely open them but when I do, I almost always buy something.  If they didn't send them, I probably wouldn't buy from them.  I am loyal because they keep me in the loop.  Sales, coupons, shipping discounts - all stuff I wouldn't know about if they hadn't sent me the email!

Why should you use an email newsletter?

Cost-effective (especially in comparison to direct mail campaigns)
Drives traffic to your website (you've got a website, use it!)
Increases sales (Are you selling anything? Proactively inform your customers!)
Builds loyalty (Name recognition!)
Immediate
Targeted (Remember my sports equipment comment/)
Customizable (easily and cheaply!)
and my favorite - MEASURABLE (a.k.a. checking stats!)

It's impossible to measure direct marketing or any other kind of marketing effort the way you can measure your email newsletter marketing campaigns.
Open rates
Click through rates
Bounce rates

It is time to put email marketing to work for your business!
O&P Vendors and Manufacturers CLICK HERE
O&P Patient Care facilities CLICK HERE

Email me.

Love These Marketing Blogs

If you have some time over the holidays and need some creative ideas for your 2007 marketing plan.
Check out these blogs!

Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
The Viral Garden
Kinetic Ideas

Langer buys Regal

From PRNewswire

DEER PARK, N.Y., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Langer, Inc. (Nasdaq: GAIT, "Langer" or the "Company") today announced that on Friday December 15th it signed a definitive agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Regal Medical Supply, LLC ("Regal") through Langer's wholly- owned subsidiary Regal Acquisition Co. 

Regal is a Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification accredited supplier of contracture management products and services focused on the long term care market with 24 sales representatives covering both chain and independently operated skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in 22 states.  The purchase price is approximately $1.64 million, including the satisfaction of certain obligations to affiliated parties in exchange for the delivery of excess working capital.

O&P Interesting Quick Links

2007 DEMPOS Fee Schedule

Amputation Bill rejected by likely Indonesian governor

The UMC St Radboud Amputee Team

Cuthbert was her leg's name

From AP

BALTIMORE - "In 1942, the Gestapo circulated posters offering a reward for the capture of  'the woman with a limp. She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies and we must find and destroy her.'

The dangerous woman was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore native working in France for British intelligence, and the limp was the result of an artificial leg. Her left leg had been amputated below the knee about a decade earlier after she stumbled and blasted her foot with a shotgun while hunting in Turkey.

The injury derailed Hall's dream of becoming a Foreign Service officer because the State Department wouldn't hire amputees, but it didn't prevent her from becoming one of the most celebrated spies of World War II."

Aetna members info stolen

From Hartford Business Journal
"Hartford-based Aetna reported that computer records containing personal information on about 130,000 of its members were stolen Oct. 26 from the office of a vendor, Concentra Preferred Systems . The records included medical claim data stored on computer backup tapes, which can only be read by specialized computer equipment. In addition to the backup tapes, cash, DVD players and other items were also stolen. Concentra, a Naperville, Ill.-based company, provides claims cost management services to health insurance carriers and HMOs. Aetna plans to notify members and providers who could be affected and offer them free credit monitoring services for a year."

For a Chronology of Data Breaches in the last 18 months - click here.  It's a VERY extensive list.  You'll be amazed.

Highway to Heaven(ly Sales)

People do business with people/companies that they know, like and trust.
If they recognize your name, they think they know you.
If they know you, they feel more comfortable.
If they feel more comfortable, they like you, etc., etc.

If you live in the states listed below, here's a way to get some super high(way) name recognition!

• Arizona
• California
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New York
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Washington

http://www.adoptahighway.com/markets.html