Effective Nov. 23, 2008 all mailings submitted to the USPS are subject to the new move update requirements.   In the past this was only required for Presort 1st Class mail–no more.  Now, you must either use a approved Ancillary Endorsement under your return address such as RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED,  send your list out for NCOA processing, or put CURRENT OCCUPANT under the person’s name or business name.   If you don’t due any of the above you may be liable for some kind of a fine on every piece of mail sent out.  This is still being disussed by the powers-to-be in Washington.   

For the NCOA processing and for the Ancillary Endorsement it must be done no earlier than 95 days prior to the mail drop date.    So mailers will need to get their ducks in-line to meet this new requirement.   The cheapest method is to simply put CURRENT RESIDENT OR OCCUPANT below the Company or person’s name.   It doesn’t look pretty but it gets you by the move update requirement.    If you choose the NCOA route I can help as I have a great company I partner with to handle this.   Typically it only takes 24 hrs to process your list; however, with this new requirement taking place on Nov. 23rd I’m sure that everybody will be slammend with work so I would allow 48 hrs for processing. 

The USPS thought process for this new requirement is to cut down on undeliverable mail that gets disposed of.    That’s a good thing but I don’t feel that mailers should get fined if they don’t fully meet the requirement.    I feel there should be a 6-month to a year grace period.   Please post your comments or ask me a question regarding this new requirement.    Thanks,  Preston Lawrance

A great way to market in this down economy is to use a Lenticular postcard which gives your sales message a 3D effect.    These New postcards are readily available and can be customized in any application.  They stand out from the mail clutter and have a high retention rate so your message keeps fresh in the receipents mind.   They qualify for automation rate postage so you don’t have to pay the gotcha rates with the USPS.  I would recommend that you order at least 2500 postcards to keep the unit cost affordable.    I predict that this product will be a big hit with direct marketers.   Please post your comments or ask questions about this product.

I recently read an article in DM News regarding increasing pressure for Do-Not-Mail legistlation in various states by so-called do gooders who want to cut down on saving our trees and landfills.   Some knuckle heads claim junk mail is an invasion of privacy.   What nonsense!   Direct mail is one of least intrusive maketing means to reach potential buyers.   It is recyclable; therefore it does not get toosed into landfills for the most part.  There is a good market for recycled paper here and in China.    According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, direct mail only accounts for 2.4% in weight of the total municipal solide waster generated annually in the U.S.   Furthermore, 53.4% of the paper consumed in the U.S was recovered for recycling according to Patricia Kachura,  SVP of corporate responsibility for the DMA.

  If one doesn’t want to receive direct mail they can go to catalogchoice.org, ProQuo.com greendimes.com, 41pounds.org, Catalogend.com & DirectMail.com to get there names removed.  We don’t need government to impose on the direct marketing industry to stem the flow of direct mail.   The consequences are huge; such as:  higher postal rates due to lower mail volumes, loss of thousands of jobs, loss of lively hood for many small businesses that rely on direct mail to reach out to their potential customers. 

I would entertain any comments pro or con to the above.

Recently I had been contacted via email from a person from the Washington DC area (so I thought!) inquiring about purchasing a opt-in email list for opportunity seekers.   After locating a good list for his email blast and persenting him with my payment opitions he wanted to wire me the funds.   I said OK and gave him my bank account information for him to completed the transaction and order the list.  Big mistake on my part as he stole my account information and proceeded to write and send bogus checks via UPS to folks who responded to some sort of employment scam for handling payments.   Fortunately I only had minimum amount in my checking account for handling wire transfers so no funds were lost on my end.    I thank God that my local Community Bank,  Bank of New England,  promptly advise me to shut down the account and open up a new account. 

I even got a check from the scammers from a company in the Midwest for $3950 advising me to deposit the funds and wait for further instructions on where to send a portion of the proceeds.   The check looked authentic but I knew it as bogus.    I called the company up and told them what had happened and they advised me to destroy the check as they had also closed their account as well.

The moral for this story is to always know who you are doing business with and NEVER accept wire transfers with anybody you don’t know or trust.   Accept only credit cards or use Paypal for any foreign or domestic  transactions until you know who you are doing business with.    Run from anybody in Nigeria as they are the scam capitol of the world.

Also, be sure to avoid doing business with any company that wants you to handle payment  funds in the U. S. and send monies overseas.   They are all scams in my opinion.  Also, be very leery of a website called  www.jbc-fabrics.info from India as the nature of their offer to handle payment transactions for them in the states could be a scam.  Make sure to get references and check them out with the Better Business Bureau.

Remember if it sounds too good to be true it is probably a scam of some sort.    These scammers are only in it to steal your money.   They are very clever so be aware.

OK,  it looks like we’re heading to a recession so whatcha goin to do to grow your business?   You need to do some serious direct marketing by pressing the flesh, direct mail,  print advertising, networking, windshield flyers, or door hangers.   Yes, door hangers.   I don’t understand why more businesses use this low cost alternative to market their businesses in their own back yard.   Door hangers are cheap to print and distribute.  If you can’t distribute them yourself  or hire some kids or temps to distribute them out to homes or businesses in your market area.   Door hangers would work great for restuarants, sub shops, pizza shops, hair salons, insurance agency, flooring company, or any local service oriented business.   I would entertain postings for testimonies from any business who has successfully used door hangers.

I just recently moved to Loudon, NH and have yet to receive any kind of welcome letter, coupons, or just a postcard from any local merchants in the Concord/Loudon area.    These merchants must have rocks in their brains.    What a golden opportunity to market their business.    It’s their lost!    New movers lists are cheap and the ROI is there for merchants & restuarants to market to new folks moving into the area.   I can’t figure out their mindset here.  Can somebody explain why they don’t market their producsts/services to new movers?  Even dentists and other professionals should be marketing to new homeowners.  

I have been reading a lot about the new technology of using variable printing for personalized direct mail campaigns and how it will increase your response rates and ROI.  Well, be cautious here because it ain’t all its cracked up to be.   I don’t believe it’s worth spending extra $$ using it for prospecting.   The novelty of it is wearing off now that the marketplace is getting flooded with it.   I personally believe that it makes more sense to use VDP when sending relevant personalized direct mail pieces to customers or prospect where you KNOW their buying habits.  For example, if you are a travel business and you know that your audience is interested in a specific type of a cruise then it makes sense to make them an offer based on their interest.   But first, you have to know what turns them on before you offer them a hook.   You could also get them to go to a personalized URL where they can review your offer and click on to a link to book the trip.    I think it is a waste of time to send propects to a personalized URL if you don’t know what their buying habits are.   You are just throwing darts into a big black hole.    

Data mining is critical when using personalized direct mail.     By knowing what their past purchases were you can tailor a personalized direct mail piece with special offers that will wow them.    I hope this makes sense.  If not write a comment and I will give you my feedback. 

According to Canada Poste, Canadian consumers are feeling underserved by their respective retailers and are interested in doing business with American retailers.   Canadian consumers are paying top dollar to buy goods and services in Canada so the market is ripe for Americans to begin marketing their products to Canadians.    Canada Poste has begun working with many US retailers through its Border Free product. 

This product allows retailers in the U.S. sell to Canadians directly online in Canadian dollars without having to deal with taxes & import fees. 

Canada has only around 150 online or catalog retailers whereas, the U.S. has 13,000 or more.   

The Canadian dollar is now  worth $1.00USD so we can now compete very well against any Canadian retailer for the same product.    The demand is there so why aren’t more American retailers targeting the Canadian market?    Either they feel the market is too small or they have tunnel vision.  

Direct marketers would do well to mail into Canada with relevant products and services.   Mailing lists are readily available and it is a lot cheaper to mail into Canada than Europe.    

Please feel free to post your comments and questions regarding marketing to Canada.

Targeting the right list means understanding the demographics that you feel has the best chance of replicating your customers from rented or purchased mailing lists.   If you don’t know the demogrpahics of your customer base you need to find out.   Hire a database company that can analyze your data and report this back to you concretely.   It’s work the $$ to find this out.    The exception to the above rule of thumb is if you are selling pizzas, take-out, or hair cutting.   In this case everyone is a prospect so all you need to do is bitz-krieg your neigborhood.

There are thousands of mailing lists available in the marketplace so tread carefully and get as much information on the proposed mailing list and how recent it was updated.    Before making a big leap of faith I would encourage you test 3-5M names before doing a roll out.   Testing a list is a great way to know whether a list will work for your offer.    And make darn sure that you have an offer and not just an information piece.   Informational mail pieces are a waste of time & money unless you’re a library, politician or the government.   You must have a call to action.

If you have questions about mailing lists in general please feel to post your comments here.  

With the increasing competiton in the restaurant business it is imperative to stand out from the crowd when conducting direct mail campaigns.  I get so many mondain menus that I just toss most off them especially the ones for Chinese restaurants.  They all look the same.  I swear they all use the same printer.   Some of the more egarious ones look like they came off a cheap copier.    So, how do you stand out from the crowd?  Use magnets.  They have a very high retention and get stuck on the ole refrigator or the a metal cabinent.    If you are going to use them then by all means be sure to attach at least 4 tear off coupons to the bottom of the magnets.   Consumers will definitely use the coupons to take to their favorite pizza joint or sub shop.   The smart restauranter will spend the extra dough a reap a much better ROI using magnets than sending out a cheap copy of his menue.   The magnetic coupons can be readily mailed at the cheapest postal rates by inserting into a #10 regular envelope.    Please post your questions or thoughts to this savvy marketing tool.

I was recently contacted by a prospective customer about getting small quanities for her labeling needs.    She had contacted another company but was told that she would have to buy sheets of labels and cut them individually.   That is assenine in my opinion.   With the new digital printing presses now one can order as few as 1 label, although it is a bit pricy.   With the need for on demand labeling in small print runs you don’t have to order thousands of labels anymore.  Small press runs printed in 4-color process ink is also possible.   All of this can be achieved on-line by going to my website and clicking on the custom label solutions.   If you have any concerns or questions about labeling please post them here or drop me an email.