Nashville Business Journal “Best in Business”

05/19/2006

After running a full-service advertising agency in Philadelphia for nine years, Paula Milam decided to uproot and bring direct-response advertising to what she saw as an untapped Nashville market. Her business has been in a whirlwind of growth ever since.

At first, Milam worked on her own, helping companies launch products and ramp up their direct-to-consumer business. Then, after a successful broadcast media campaign for Direct Buy of Cool Springs, Direct Buy owners in other markets started knocking on her door for the same services. To accommodate the anticipated expansion of business, Milam decided to incorporate.

Moving her office from home to a Maryland Farms space, Milam pulled $5,000 from her own pocket to invest in a computer, high-speed Internet and telephone service, thus launching Milam Results Marketing in 2003.

By the end of the next year, the agency had quadrupled its revenue, and it is projected to more than double its results for 2006. Milam attributes the business’ success to keeping a sharp focus on one core strength: Measurably improving client results.

The direct-response advertising agency fuses brand marketing and direct-response marketing techniques, tracking responses (calls, clicks, mail replies) from customers in each campaign. That way, the company can measure the success of the campaigns and adjust them, if needed, in order to markedly grow clients’ bottom lines.

“It’s fun because it’s both creative and analytical,” says Milam. “It has everything to do with growing business in a measurable way, but you also get to apply the art of the brand.”

The biggest challenge for the firm has been finding qualified staff to handle the work load.

Working at Milam Results requires mastering the unique way direct response and brand marketing can be fused together, as well as an ability to juggle many tasks at the same time.

To make sure she finds the best prospects, Milam uses a specialty search firm, attends conferences, holds internal proprietary training sessions and sends her employees out for direct response training.

Back to news