 Profile
Theodore Bartek, MBA, APC
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Theodore currently serves as a copywriter for Direct-Mail-Marketing-Agency.com, which
provides direct response copy and consulting for clients in in financial newsletter publishing and financial advisory services. His specailty is subscribtion promotion and customer acquisition. Theodre writes in all formats and voices including magalogs, self-mailers, banner ads, landing pages, emails, direct mail letter packages, postcards, and more.
Innocom Publishing, Alexandria, VA
At one time he was President of a multi-title book publishing company in the consumer finance field, Innocom Publishing. In this role he had full responsibility for all phases of company management, including: financial management, editorial product development, marketing, web site search engine optimization, advertising and product distribution. Starting from scratch he built this company into a profitable multi-million dollar publishing enterprise. He wrote the direct mail copy that made a substantial profit on the front end, and generated millions of dollars of income each year. Some of the mailing campaigns attained response rates as high as 35% on outside lists! He also organized and streamlined operations so that this company operated efficiently with the least amount of overhead.
Human Potential Publishing Company, Inc., Alexandria, VA
He was the founder, Editor–in Chief, President and CEO of Human Potential, a magazine publishing company in the field of motivation and high achievement. He managed all phases of magazine publishing, including: financial management, editorial concepts and article development, art and design, marketing, advertising sales and circulation fulfillment distribution. Developed the concept for this magazine, then started this company and within two years built it to a large circulation base of paid subscribers. The direct marketing was so successful that we were able to acquire subscribers at a profit, while most magazines lose money on subscription acquisition. Negotiated the sale of Human Potential magazine to Success magazine.
Theo Bartek Associates, Alexandria, VA
President and CEO. Directed all activities of a publishing consultancy that specialized in publishing new product development, marketing, advertising and overall company profitability studies and direct mail campaign design and direct response copywriting. Served many clients including: Horchow Books, Psychotherapy Bookclub, Rodale Press, Kiplinger Letter, Mongomery Ward Insurance, Inc. Magazine, Ford Investment Letter and many others.
KCI Communications. Alexandria, VA
Executive Vice President
Was responsible for the supervision of all staff operations of KCI Communications, the publisher of Personal Finance and Tax Angles. Duties included editorial management, circulation management, fulfillment, financial management, production and personnel management. Supervised a staff of 16. Lead an overall organizational restructuring. Reassigned reporting responsibilities and duties. Hired and fired. Handles the transition from in-house fulfillment and order processing to a completely external function. Installed first fiscal budgeting system. Made complete review of company’s data processing needs. Evaluated available computer systems. Implemented computer system for financial accounting and media and direct mail campaign analysis. Counseled company president on direct mail concept and strategy. Did a major strategic analysis of renewals. Reviewed all direct mail copy. Developed a direct mail campaign that beat all previous efforts and resulted in a doubling of circulation. Participated in editorial in an advisory role. Attended all editorial staff meeting- reviewed article in advance of publication, giving comments and recommendation.
American Can, Inc. –Trade Magazine Division, New York, NY
Marketing Communications Manager
Headed the department that prepared design and copywriting for brochures and sales materials for the Advertising Sales departments of Progressive Grocer and Convenience Stores magazines. Was entirely responsible for advertising sales promotion and market strategy. Managed Creative Services Department with $300M budget. I solved one the biggest problems facing the previous manager and streamed lined the advertising production process so that sales representatives always had the necessary sales materials on time.
Responsibilities included:
Planning – Developed overall advertising sales strategy. Pioneered quantitative market analysis to identify problems and opportunities. Assembled plan to take advantage of opportunities. Scheduling – Set up systematic scheduling to meet sales promotion objectives. Implementation - Personally managed each project from start to finish. Performed promotion research, generated promotion concepts and ideas, established guidelines, wrote copy, and hired and supervised art directors, printers and mailing services.
Forbes, Inc. –Magazine Division, New York, NY
Circulation Manager
Assisted the Circulation Director in planning and evaluation of customer acquisition and renewal campaigns for Forbes Magazine, Forbes Special Situation Survey and Forbes Stock Market Course. Developed new promotion ideas. Evaluated various offer according to term, price, response, bad debt and renew ability. Participated in promotion concept and strategy decisions. Performed promotion analysis of renewals, direct mail, tests, subscription agencies, gift promotions and insert cards.
Under the guidance of the Circulation Director and Gary Bencivenga, a noted direct mail copy expert, honed my skills at direct mail copy writing and package design. Conducted budgeting and financial planning and control of 16 million direct mail per year. Responsible for circulation forecasting and control: Designed an programmed rate base management system that produces a six month circulation forecast. Using this system, the company was successful in controlling circulation, averaging from 2,000 – 4,000 subs above rate base on each issue. Involved in broad range of subscription acquisition activities – list rentals, space exchanges, ABC, 2nd class postage/entry point studies, single-copy sales. Interacted with purchasing, letter shop, data processing and accounting.
CBS, Inc. –Publishing Division, New York, NY
Circulation Fulfillment Director
Directed the activities of circulation fulfillment operation in Marion, Ohio that served seven special interest consumer magazine including: Road and Track, Women’s World, Pickup Van and 4-Wheel Drive, Cycle World, Field and Stream and World Tennis magazines. Provided financial and marketing information. Developed ideas for short range forecasting system and long-range trend analysis. Designed an information system for updating circulation planning and analysis models. This helped circulation directors to evaluate sources more intelligently and forecast circulation levels. Worked with computer software suppliers and supervised Report Manager to implement ideas. The exertion of managerial skills in eliciting cooperation from executives, Report Manager and staff organizations was an integral part of my responsibility. Strengthened relations with service bureau representing a cost center of $1,000,000 per year.
Doubleday and Company, Inc. –Book Club Division, New York, NY ,
Financial Analyst
Major duty was financial analysis and control. Performed financial analysis related to the identification of critical issues and development of strategies for six book clubs – Doubleday Book Club, Contempo Book Club, Military Book Club, Universe Book Club, Rod and Gun Book Club and Mystery Guild Book Club.Prepared financial plans, operating budgets, forecasts and variance analysis, and performed year-end financial performance reviews of book clubs. Acted as consultant to marketing V.P.’s in marketing planning and decision-making. Did special studies and made recommendations on the financial viability of alternative investment proposals. Evaluated book club product lines for bottom-line profitability and return on advertising investment. Developed financial models for evaluating book club success based on advertising media and source codes. Created a very effective tool for marketing managers and CEO to make informed decisions about advertising channels that were most profitable. Utilized regression models to predict long-term product-line profitability based on early customer buying behavior. Did a through investigation of the new mail order merchandising catalog operation. Identified segment of lists causing huge bad debt losses. Elimination saved $100,000.
Evaluated Universe Book Club and using predictive models alerted marketing V.P’s that a new marketing approach would be unprofitable in the long term. Marketing V.P’s discontinued these promotions. This information saved the company $150,000 in potential losses.
Professional Reference:
Gary Bencivenga is considered to be one of the top direct response copywriters alive today. And he is probably the highest paid copy writer ever. Gary has been my friend and mentor since the beginning of my career, when I first started writing copy. He has agreed to be a reference for me regarding my copy writing abilities. Here is what Gary has said about my copy:
"Your concept is brilliant ... and your copy fabulous. You're going to do very well with this. Make sure you protect your name and to copyright your advertising. This could really be big..."
"Your new web page is great. Much improved from before, at least from a marketing point of view. I love the way you used the "If ... then" style headline, as well as the long list of bullets. Very persuasive."
Gary BencivengaAccountable Advertising, Inc.,734 Franklin Ave., #312, Garden City, NY 11530 BencivengaBullet@aol.com
Education:
Advanced Professional Certificate in Marketing (APC), New York University, New York, NY
Masters of Business Administration (MBA), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA Graduated Magna Cum Laude, ranked 7th in my graduating class.
Bachelor of Science (BS), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Special Education:
School of Visual Arts, New York City,
Courses in Copy Writing and Advertising Design and Graphics
Center for Direct Marketing, Westport, CT,
Courses in Direct Mail Copy Writing, Direct Mail Promotion, Space Advertising and Advertising Graphic Design
Ed McLean's Direct Mail Strategies for Sales & Marketing Executives
American Writers & Artists, Inc. (AWAI) Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
Michael Masterson’s Masters Program for Six-Figure Copywriting
Authorship:
Have authored several articles that were published in Folio Magazine including:
“Direct Mail According to Freud” The psychology of direct mail: Find out where they stand on Maslow’s Hierarchy and appeal to that need.
“Newsletters: Your Next Profit Center” A guide to starting a profitable consumer newsletter from scratch.
“Relationship Marketing” How to build long-term profitability by looking beyond the initial sale to streamline and enhance every contact you make with your customers.
Direct Mail Decision Dynamics” Methods for direct marketers to handle difficult and risky decision making situations.
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