Testimonials & Press

Press

I would highly recommend Ruth without reservation for any B2B company that needs an outsider’s fresh perspective. Ruth is the consummate professional, and her experience in B2B direct marketing and especially international direct marketing, provided us with excellent insight and knowledge in preparing for 2009. She provided us with a Best Practices evaluation that helped us prioritize our projects for 2009 for how we could improve, and provided an expert’s understanding and support for programs that our CEO was not convinced were beneficial. We referred to the Best Practices study continually throughout the planning phase of our budget preparations.

— Jake Ring, VP Sales & Marketing, Pasternack Enterprises, Inc.

Thanks for bringing forth one of the best turnouts we have had this year at the American Chamber of Hong Kong. The conversations I had with attendees as they were leaving indicated that they found what they heard useful – as we did.

— Greg Fergin, Government Affairs and Committees Manager, American Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong

Last year I contacted you for your help in raising the response of our b-to-b mailings. We followed your advice, and our response rate on our LeadSmart mailings nearly doubled.

— Janice L. Milhem, Director of Sales and Marketing, Allegra Network

You have been an invaluable resource as I have built my business over the year. Your strategic guidance in nurturing leads, clarifying my positioning and bundling my services have all produced bottom line results and have become the backbone of my business's success.

— Bill Baird, President, Baird Direct Marketing, Inc.

Your great book on Trade Show and Event Marketing saved my life! A client asked me to write copy for the booth signage for their most important industry trade show. I didn't have a clue what to do as, in spite of 26 years as a copywriter, I'd never actually written booth signs and banners before. Your book gave me very clear direction on how the copy should be handled and why, so I could write something that would be effective for them — and do it with confidence. Thanks for making me look like an expert.

— Susan Fantle, Owner, The Copy Works, Denver, CO

It's been two years since I graduated from the Executive MBA Program at Columbia. Ruth's course in Customer Acquisition and Retention was very valuable to me. As an Emergency Physician who was transitioning into the world of Hospital Business Development and Sales I was immediately struck by the concepts in her class. From Life Time Value strategies to Database Marketing tools to CRM philosophy to Customer Equity, Ruth's insights radically changed my professional viewpoint for the better. Frankly, Ruth's course was the most valuable investment of my time at Columbia. I use the tools regularly to shape opinion at my hospital, and I am now pushing for a complete SEM strategy within my organization. I hope Ruth keeps spreading the gospel. She is a remarkable marketing evangelist.

— Brian A. Nester, DO, MS, MBA, CPE, FACOEP Sr. Vice President/Physician Practice and Network Development Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Allentown, PA

Ruth exceeded my expectations. She completed my project faster and more thoroughly than I anticipated. I couldn't be more pleased and will definitely use her again.

— Michael S. Hyatt, President & Chief Executive Officer, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville TN

SmartMeeting is a start-up with enormous potential for success in the world of Internet-based collaboration, but we were struggling to sort through a myriad of options for strategic direction in our marketing. We engaged Ruth to analyze the opportunity and identify those areas with the most promise. Ruth developed an excellent strategic marketing plan for us, including not only strategy but also specific tactics that we could deploy immediately, to acquire and retain users among the small to medium business market sector. We were very happy with her work.

— Jim Guy Tucker, Co-Chairman, smartMeeting, a division of Virtual Application Partner LLC

As a seller of high-end networked printers and copiers, Imagistics needs a steady supply of qualified leads for its field sales force. In 2003, we determined that our lead-generation program was not as effective as it should be. So we asked Ruth Stevens to evaluate our program and make recommendations for improvements. She prepared a comprehensive report on our campaign strategies and results, including a detailed action plan to improve our media selection, offers, target audience, testing, creative execution and response management. She also helped us identify external resources to execute our new program. We found Ruth's contribution to be timely and valuable.

— Nathaniel M. Gifford, Vice President, Marketing & Product Development, Imagistics International Inc.

Who: Ruth Stevens
What: President
Where: eMarketing Strategy
Why: When it comes to customer acquisition and retention, there are few direct marketing consultants in Stevens's class. Her experience and expertise gained from top stints at IBM Corp., Ziff-Davis and Time Warner put her in great demand.

— Crain's BtoB: The Magazine for Marketing and e-Commerce Strategists, April 8, 2002, listing of "The 100 Most Influential People in B-to-B."

My department highly appreciated Ruth's valuable contribution in the latest esteemed course in Marketing ROI Techniques. It really puts us all in the right track, and we have adjusted many of our marketing campaign issues to suit the theories presented by Ruth. Myself, I highly benefited from her smooth elegant delivery of lectures, which are still turning in my mind. We wish to see her again soon in Sudan.

— Gamal El Din Mohd Ali, Sales & Marketing Manager, Sayga Flour Mills, Khartoum, Sudan

Ruth supported my marketing function at DoubleClick with several projects, all of which were very productive and valuable to us. She advised me on organizational and budgetary issues that face business marketers. She conducted a training session for our sales and marketing staff that helped them understand better the mind of their customer. She also conducted two research studies into our customer and prospect universes, to help us optimize our marketing programs and develop the most effective products to serve them. My team and I found Ruth very smart, capable, and easy to work with. I would recommend her highly.

— Susan Sachatello, Chief Marketing Officer, DoubleClick, Inc.

Ruth Stevens provided outstanding service to Avaya's Small and Medium Business division when we needed direct marketing programs to support our 1500+ business partners. She analyzed the opportunity, and developed an insightful and practical strategic plan, based on her deep knowledge of business-to business marketing. Then, when we asked her to take the lead on executing the plan, she stepped up to the plate, and covered the details, with tenacity and patience. We are very happy with the results. I recommend Ruth highly.

— Ron Austerlade, Marketing Director Avaya, Inc. Small and Medium Business Solutions

I recently had the pleasure of being a student of Professor Ruth P. Stevens at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. You might ask why I enrolled in the course. We physicians have long been in denial that our professions are affected by market forces. But we now understand that our medical practices must be responsive to our customers.

Professor Stevens's four-month course opened with the line, "If you have a customer, you have a business." She taught us how to change from being product focused to being customer focused — in my case, from being procedure oriented to being patient oriented. After we learned the principles of database marketing, I took steps to draw on the thousands of patients that had previously passed through my office without understanding the full range of my services.

I also learned that building a practice is more than making the right diagnosis and performing top-notch surgery. It is enhancing the patient's entire office experience. I trained my staff to be as responsive to our patients as they are to me. I better educated my patients, first with in-office information and then by instituting a rigorous system of follow-up contacts that not only increased their use of our services, but significantly increased our referrals as well.

What was most important to me was that in spite of the emphasis on marketing per se, the course examined the legal and ethical implications of what we learned, and we never lost site of the importance of professional integrity. Professor Stevens's parting message was, "Make sure you deliver on your value proposition." After a semester of such a customer- focused course, her words had the resonance of the Hippocratic Oath.

— Robert M. Bernstein, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University; Medical Director, New Hair Institute

We were just delighted to have Ruth Stevens speak at the DMOC Meet & Learn Forum on "The Challenges of B2B Marketing Today". She is the subject matter expert, and all the attendees agreed. Ruth certainly knows how to engage her audience with direct questions, lively exchanges, and good humor. We look forward to having her speak again.

— Heather Frayne, President, Direct Marketers On Call, Inc.

Ruth Stevens provided a valuable service for our team. Pfizer’s US Pharmaceutical Trade Group was interested in creating retail level programs that would increase the number of patients who were compliant with the scripts written by their doctor. Ruth introduced the group to concepts of customer acquisition and retention. Her insights and perspective were unique and served as the platform from which program development has taken shape. Ruth is a pleasure to work with and feedback from the team was unanimous; our session was time well spent.

— Nancy C. Apicella, Director Trade Marketing, US Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc

When Ruth gave me some smart marketing advice 5 years ago, I wish I had listened. She has an ability to cut right to the heart of the matter.

— Susan D. Goodman, Chief Corporate Development Officer Answerthink, Inc.

Ruth created a very interactive, lively seminar on the basics of direct marketing that helped our more online-astute employees in understanding the bigger picture, and how concepts that were developed offline apply to new media.

— Kathryn Koegel, Director of Marketing Communications, DoubleClick Inc.

We are very pleased with the advice and help we received from Ruth Stevens as Xmpie was preparing to go to market. She has high energy and keen insights regarding the direct marketing industry. Ruth is a pleasure to work with.

— Philip Asche, CEO, Xmpie

Ruth Stevens is a fun person with a good sense of humor, as well as being a skilled direct marketer. Her passion for the subject is certain to pay off in strong business results for her clients. You can't go wrong if she is helping with your project.

— Arthur Middleton Hughes,Vice President /Solutions Architect, KnowledgeBase Marketing, and author, Strategic Database Marketing, The Complete Database Marketer and the Customer Loyalty Solution.

When our company needed target marketing assistance to drive immediate revenue to our company, we looked for someone smart, responsive and experienced in both online and offline target marketing to assist us. Ruth helped us sort through our myriad target marketing opportunities and zero in on those that were the most productive. She's not only smart, experienced and responsive, but also a complete pleasure to work with. I recommend her highly.

— Tara Herberth, Vice President, Marketing, InsureZone

Ruth tiene el don de combinar sus vastos conocimientos sobre marketing directo con una comunicación clara e impactante de los mismos. Sus seminarios en Perú fueron un éxito.

Ruth has the ability to combine her extensive knowledge of direct marketing with a clear and powerful communications style. Her seminars in Peru were a great success.

— José Domenack, MD Seminarios y Eventos

Ruth really knows her stuff and is a pleasure to work with. She has been a tremendously valuable resource for Renegade.

— Drew Neisser, President, Renegade Marketing Group

Wanted – talented, energetic volunteer with wide-ranging industry expertise and unflagging dedication and enthusiasm to serve in multiple roles at the Center for Direct Marketing. Position requires hours of unstinting effort: as a remarkably versatile faculty member who can reformat a graduate course and infuse it with fresh ideas and a new dynamism; as chair of the program's Development Committee, recruiting top industry leaders to raise scholarship funds; and as a proactive Advisory Board member. Ruth Stevens is the remarkable woman who fills all these roles as a collegial partner in developing the Center to its fullest potential.

— Lynda Confessore, Associate Director, Center for Direct Marketing, New York University

Press Coverage

I am occasionally quoted in the business press on a variety of subjects. Here are some recent examples:

How Business Marketers Can Take Advantage of Direct Marketing Techniques
BtoB Magazine

Ways Small Businesses Can Make The Most of Exhibiting at a Trade Show
Inc Magazine

Web 2.0 Marketing
Interview by Asahi Kokoku Geppo (Asahi Advertising Monthly), Tokyo, September 2006. (In Japanese)

Customer Acquisition and Retention
From a daily newspaper in Athens; download only if you can read Greek!

The Wisdom of Preselecting Potential Customers
Inc Magazine

Surveying Customers to Better Understand Their Needs
Bankrate.com

Trade Show Planning for Small Businesses
Bankrate.com

The Difference Between Email and Spam
e-Commerce Times

Point and Counterpoint on the Value of Email Newsletters
eNewsletter Journal

Turning Business Data into Business Intelligence
Business 2.0

How List Rental Provides "Found Money" for Publishers and Website Owners
eContent

The Overselling of CRM as a Technology Solution to Marketing Problems
Crain's BtoB Magazine

The Best Use of Direct Marketing Agencies in B-to-B
Crain's BtoB Magazine

Trends in B2B Email Prospecting Lists
Direct Magazine

Tracking Customers on the Web
Direct Magazine

Business-to-Business Email Marketing
WordBiz Report

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