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Keep up to date on the latest trends in hiring and employment in digital and direct marketing with our free quarterly reports, distributed to more than 15,000 professionals at the forefront of digital and direct marketing. To opt-in, send an email to survey@bernhart.com and put "opt-in" in the subject line.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

New Direct Marketing Group on LinkedIn


An exciting new LinkedIn Group for direct marketers has appeared and it's quickly gaining popularity. It's called DM Q&A, moderated by social media expert Jim Gilbert. Jim wanted to create a group where members could ask questions about any aspect of direct marketing-
direct mail, email, social media, direct response TV, strategy, execution, creative development, lists, vendor recommendations, etc. The group has already attracted an impressive line up of industry experts. Have a question? Chances are they'll have the answer, or know someone who does.
You can check it out at http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2080726/
.

Visit our website at www.bernhart.com

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Bernhart Associates Launches Twitter Group for Direct Marketing Job Seekers


Owatonna, MN, July 13, 2009- Direct marketing job seekers will soon have a new on-line tool to help with their job search.

Leading direct marketing recruiter Jerry Bernhart will be moderating a new weekly chat session on Twitter focusing specifically on all things related to jobs and hiring in direct marketing.

"There are online communities for just about every subject you can imagine," said Jerry Bernhart, owner of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, who is also well known in direct marketing for his quarterly employment reports. "This is a natural extension of the use of social media to help those who are looking for their next career opportunity in direct marketing, including ecommerce and emarketing."

Bernhart said the new forum will use Tweetchat, allowing messages to be posted and read by participants in a matter of seconds. ""It's kind of like texting but a whole lot faster and easier," said Bernhart. "It also allows quick and easy sharing of links."

Participants can choose their level of participation, jumping in and out of the discussion whenever there's something of interest being discussed.

"It will be an opportunity to ask questions, share ideas and get advice onlots of topics, including resume preparation, interviewing tips, job leads, salaries, bonuses, finding candidates, job offers, counteroffers, job descriptions, anything related to hiring and jobs in online or offline direct marketing," said Bernhart.

Employers are also invited to put up tweets on positions they are looking to fill.

The first direct marketing careers Tweetchat event will take place Sunday, August 2nd, at 8 pm Eastern time.

To participate, go to tweetchat.com, sign-in with your Twitter account, and enter DMCareers in the "Hashtag to follow" box. Bernhart explains that once you're in the group there is no need to use the hashtag because Tweetchat automatically applies it to each message, saving you the bother of typing it in each time you want to post. Bernhart adds that if you want to monitor the discussion but you won't be home at the time, no worries. Tweetchat works great on your mobile phone, too.


Visit our website at www.bernhart.com

Monday, July 13, 2009

Recession Easing Its Grip on Direct Marketing Jobs

by Jerry Bernhart

Owatonna, MN, July 13, 2009- Hundreds of direct marketers, agencies and service providers are offering some new glimmers of hope for direct marketing job seekers, according to the latest Bernhart Associatess employment update.

“It appears the direct marketing job market is scraping the bottom,” said Jerry Bernhart, Principal of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, a leading direct marketing recruiter who has been issuing quarterly direct marketing employment reports since 2001. “This is the
first quarter in two years in which the hiring index is showing improvement, and planned layoffs are continuing their trend lower,” said Bernhart.

According to the survey, 20% of the respondents said they will be adding to staff during the current summer quarter, up from 16% in the spring. Layoffs declined for the third quarter in a row, with 8% planning to reduce staff compared with 13% last quarter and 20% at the start of 2009. The number of companies reporting hiring freezes held steady at 30%.

The hiring freeze figure was even higher for agencies, with 44% reporting that they’re holding the line on hiring.

Bernhart said responses to the hiring freeze question underscores the prevailing mood
of uncertainty. “We always ask when they plan to lift their hiring freezes, and the vast majority said they expected those freezes to remain in place through the rest of 2009,” said Bernhart.

Bernhart noted that business-to-business direct marketers are faring better overall in the key employment indicators compared with their business-to-consumer counterparts.

For example, when asked if they plan to reduce staff 13% of business-to-consumer direct marketers said they expect further layoffs this summer compared with 9% among business-to-business respondents.

Despite the uptick in the survey’s overall results, Bernhart foresees no significant comeback in direct marketing hiring until at least 2010.

“You can’t stage a recovery with only one in five direct marketers planning to hire, and one-third of the others holding on to hiring freezes with no plans to lift them until at least the end of the year. In my conversations with senior level executives, there is no consistent level of optimism in the current economic environment for them to jump into the employment market. I’m also seeing that same caution in executive search. Companies are telling us they’re thinking about making staffing changes, but they are slow to pull the trigger.”

Despite the abundance of job seekers, the survey also shows that filling open direct marketing positions is not always an easy task. When asked if they were experiencing difficulty hiring new talent, 42% said it was either “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to fill certain positions.

When asked what specific positions will be in greatest demand this summer, Bernhart said the list of job categories named was across the board including analytics, sales, creative, technical and marketing. “There was lots of mention of analytics from agencies, service providers and marketers,” said Bernhart.

A record 402 companies responded to the random survey which was emailed the week of June 22.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, marketers – commercial and nonprofit - spent $176.9 billion on direct marketing in 2008, which accounted for 52.1 percent of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $2.057 trillion in incremental sales. Last year, direct marketing accounted for approximately 10 percent of total US gross domestic product. Also, there are today 1.6 million direct marketing employees in the US. Their collective sales efforts directly support 9.3 million other jobs, accounting for a total of 10.9 million US jobs.

Results of past surveys can be found in the DMA’s Statistical Fact Book and on the website of Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC.

Companies interested in participating in the Bernhart Associates Quarterly Direct Marketing Employment Report should send an email to survey@bernhart.com with “Opt-In” in the subject line, or they can sign up directly on the Bernhart Associates website.

About Bernhart Associates:

Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC, is owned by Jerry Bernhart, a leading and nationally recognized direct marketing recruiter, writer and speaker focusing on senior level Multichannel Direct Marketing, CRM, ECommerce, Database Marketing, Business Development and Quantitative Analysis positions. Jerry has been a leading direct marketing recruiter since 1990, and specializes in direct marketing positions, online and offline, at all levels. The Bernhart Associates Employment Survey, now in its eighth year, has become the most widely followed employment report in direct marketing. In February, Bernhart Associates partnered with the Direct Marketing Association in providing exclusive analysis for the DMA’s 2009 Employment Outlook Report, a comprehensive study of trends in hiring and employee retention in direct marketing and available for sale at the DMA Bookstore. Viewed as a leading authority on issues related to direct marketing recruiting, Jerry is a frequent speaker at national direct marketing conferences and is often quoted by the direct marketing news media. Jerry has written dozens of articles for all leading online and offline direct marketing publications and conducts a widely followed employment survey for EM+C covering internet marketing and ecommerce.