Meet DMS VP of Growth Strategies, Mark Tolman.
I sat down with Mark to discuss his new role at DMS.
Key takeaways
- Growth strategy starts by moving beyond standalone tactics.
- Direct mail, digital, data, and analytics work best when connected.
- Smarter testing helps identify what is actually driving performance.
- A direct mail file can support digital, social, modeling, and deeper optimization.
Many people know DMS for direct mail, but your role goes beyond DM campaign execution. What does the VP of Growth Strategies do at DMS? And how do you help clients think about growth and long-term marketing success?
As VP of Growth Strategies, I leverage over 25 years of experience in the financial vertical to help others uncover opportunities they may not have considered before. I also have the privilege of leading a team of talented people who get to engage with our clients on a much deeper level than just printing and production. We help create customized strategies to impact the overall campaign. This can involve enhancements to creative, data, digital, and cadence. We can also build multi-month strategies to test various elements of the campaign and assist with optimization to improve overall ROI.
What are some of the biggest opportunities you see when organizations connect direct mail, digital marketing, data, and analytics into a unified approach? And how do you help clients move from individual marketing tactics to a true growth strategy?
When clients begin incorporating additional strategies into their campaigns, they quickly realize that different channels can help uncover new universes that aren’t always able to be targeted with a single strategy. Data enhancements and modeling can improve response and back-end performance that can be replicated in future campaigns. When these strategies are built proactively with analytical reporting, clients can see which enhancements are driving change.
What are some of the common growth challenges you help clients solve?
The most common challenges I see involve testing and the thought that you can only do direct mail to a mail file. We have helped many clients reinvent their testing strategy. This usually involves defining what you want to learn with your testing and isolating a single variable to each test, so you understand exactly what’s driving change. Often clients need to look deeper than just trying to improve their response rate by looking at front-end and back-end impacts. We also work with many clients to build the understanding that your direct mail file can be used for digital, social, and analytical/modeling, not just direct mail.
About the author:
David Kindervater is a Content Marketing Specialist at DMS with nearly two decades of marketing and content creation experience. He specializes in SEO, AEO, and GEO strategies, creating content that strengthens visibility across search engines and AI-driven platforms. David collaborates with DMS’ marketing/sales team and subject matter experts to develop educational content that helps organizations grow and make better business decisions.
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