Well, it’s that time of the year again and I am seeing lots of e-Christmas messages being blasted out wishing me a Happy Holiday from firms I don’t have any kind of a relationship with. I just shake my head and promptly delete. If a company can’t take the time to send me a personalized card then please don’t waste my time.

Want to help the economy and the USPS. Buy American made Christmas cards and buy “live” stamps to put on them and send them to your customers and vendors. You will help keep jobs in America and help the USPS get out of it’s quagmire of debt. Don’t send out ecards as they suck in my opinion.

Direct Marketing

I attended the NH Postal Customer Council’s annual conference today and learned a new tool for small businesses to market their business in their own town or community using the USPS’s Every door mailing service. You don’t have to purchase a mailing list (darnit) and you don’t have to address the mailpiece. You can send out a flat size mailing piece for only $.142@ so the postage is cheap. It’s a great way to market your business if you need to saturate your area. Please write me or visit the website shown below for more details.

www.eddm.usps.com

1) The bathroom factor. You can’t take an e-newsletter and read it on the throne.

2) Quality of reproduction. We work very hard to ensure that your newsletter and, in particular, your photos, are reproduced exactly as you want them to be. It’s a virtual guarantee that won’t be the case if the newsletter is sent electronically. People will be viewing it on poorly calibrated monitors that are likely to display grass as blue, sky as green, etc. Even if they print it out, the quality of their printer can’t match offset printing.

The above article is courtesy of David Wood, Publistist, Copywriter and Marketing Guru

3) The desire to delete. Think about your own mindset when you open up your e-mailbox in the morning: your goal is to get rid of as much as you can as quickly as you can so you can get to the “important” stuff. How much time are you going to spend reading someone’s newsletter, if you don’t delete it without even opening it, that is? And how much of what you “save to read later” do you actually read? Not to mention spam filters!

4) Print establishes legitimacy. Receiving a printed piece through the mail creates the perception that the sender is a legitimate and substantial business, especially if it’s a quality piece. On the other hand, anyone with access to a computer can create and distribute an impressive electronic document. People still remember the dot-com boom and bust, where companies with virtually no assets and who created nothing of value made tens of millions of dollars.

5) Pass-along rate. A printed newsletter has a much higher pass-along rate than an e-newsletter. Even if someone forwards it to others, all the above come into play.

6) Finally, I strongly believe that an electronic version of your newsletter is an excellent complement to the print copy. Developing an e-mail list and sending an electronic version in addition to the print one offers another means of ensuring they see it. Posting your newsletters on your website (and archiving back issues) where they can be downloaded by clients and prospects is also worthwhile.

This article is courtesy of David Wood, Copywriter, Publicist, and marketing Guru.

Beware the Gatekeeper

I get lots of calls regarding direct mail regarding B to B campaigns — specifically, questions about how to succeed in this arena. B to B direct mail requires a different approach. This is especially true for businesses with more than 25 employees, because it is all too easy for a mailroom clerk or administrative assistant to discard mail that appears to be solicitations or advertisements. Post cards are particularly susceptible to this. Letter packages tend to fare a little better, but, only if you follow some of these key tactics:

• Segment your mailings by company size. Mail that goes to businesses with less than 25 employees may not require as much attention, but when mailing to individuals at larger companies where gatekeepers frequently exist, consider the following:
  • Make sure your envelope conveys real value – a relevant message and a not too “sales-y” appearance that is clear about the contents.
  • Smart designs get noticed. Some gatekeepers have a good understanding of what their companies or their bosses’ needs are. You want them to say, “I really have to show this to the boss; it might be a very good fit.” Don’t be afraid to use graphics to convey the message, but don’t overdo it. o Make the letter appear to be continuing correspondence. A bold statement on the envelope that says something like “Here is the information you requested” will many times get your mailing into the right hands.
  • Try to appeal directly to the gatekeeper with a message on the outer envelope. Make the message convey value to the gatekeeper as well as the intended recipient.
• Make sure that your mailing list is current and the names and titles of the people you are trying to reach are correct. One sure way to get the piece in the round file is to address it to a nonexistent person or to someone who is no longer with the firm. Misspellings are also a no-no. This is a major tipoff that you don’t know the recipient so you can bet that this piece is destined for file 13.
• Keep in mind that creating a compelling outer envelope is a very delicate task, especially for B to B direct mail. Success usually involves extensive testing. Be prepared to test a few envelope versions before betting the ranch on a single B to B mailing. Once you find the right combination, however, B to B direct mail can be very lucrative.

Courtesy of  Ed Glaser
Chief Marketing Officer
Colortree Marketing Resources

How to Avoid 5 Pitfalls of Mailing List Selection
By Craig Huey, president of Creative Direct Marketing Group

The selection of proper mailing lists is one of the most critical elements of any direct marketing program. Unfortunately, too many people involved in promotional programs for their products and services do not give proper time and consideration to the selection of mailing lists. Here’s what you need to know to avoid making a mistake.

The quality of your product or service is immaterial if your message does not reach those people who are most interested in it. Likewise, your mailing package—no matter what its quality—will be ineffective if not placed in the hands of real prospects.

To plan a successful direct mail program, you—as marketing manager—must plan carefully the selection and use of mailing lists. To help you make such an important decision, I have prepared a list of common pitfalls for you to avoid.

Pitfall No. 1 – Failure to seek advice from a professional.
Too often marketers assume that they can select the best mailing lists simply by thumbing through the SRDS book, or mailing list catalog. Not necessarily so. And, since professional advice is available at no cost (list brokers earn their fees through the rental of lists), it just makes smart business sense to tap their expertise and experience before you make your list decision.

Pitfall No. 2 – Failure to check out the list broker or consultant. It is important that you select a professional list broker or consultant, not a list peddler. You want to make sure the recommendations you receive are based on knowledge and experience of similar promotions, not “guesstimations.” You should know who some of the consultant’s clients have been. Whether his list recommendations have been productive or whether he owns or manages the lists, etc.

Pitfall No. 3 – Failure to adequately test.
Too often, those going into direct marketing do not make provisions for adequate testing of lists. Testing is the key to successful direct marketing programs. Minimum tests of 5,000 to 10,000 names per list should be made in order to determine the extent of your market and feasibility of roll outs. Explore peripheral areas by testing list segments, and you will then have the highest potential of return. Rolling out to the most successful names will provide you with the highest returns.

Pitfall No. 4 – Failure to test segments within a list.
Testing a list and analyzing the results is important, but it shouldn’t stop there. Too often mail marketers fail to take a hard look at the list to find the different ways it can work for them. What are the different segments available on the list? Are most recent available? Is it possible to select those names representing multiple purchases, minimum dollar purchase amounts, full term subscribers, credit card orders, etc. These are a few of the questions you should ask, especially on those marginal lists where a rollout of the entire list would be risky.

Pitfall No. 5 – Failure to allow sufficient list delivery time.
Mailers are notorious for not allowing list companies sufficient time to process their orders. Most list brokers advice their clients to order 3-4 weeks in advance. Sometimes, turn-around is faster, but not often. By properly planning your mailing 5-6 weeks in advance, you can assure yourself of on-time delivery, with no last minute headaches.

—Source: Craig Huey is the president of Creative Direct Marketing Group (CDMG), a direct response agency. Reach him at craig@cdmginc.com or 310-212-5727.

Germany resulting in massive destruction to German cities and civilian casualties.   The war was won but at a great cost to society.

In today’s military our aircraft conduct precision bombing to minimize civilian casualties and buildings.   We have the technology to do so.

marketing world the old style of spray & praymarketing is wasteful and unnecessary.   We can easily pinpoint our customers based on demographics and customizemarketing offers to fit their needs.  

Using a hypothetical case study of blasting out 25M direct mail postcards to a specified geographical area the costs might run something like this:

            Occupant list…..                                              $10 per M

            Printing a 4-color 5.5” x 8.5” postcard 4/4…    $84 per M

            Mail prep…..                                                   $30 per M

            Postage….                                                       $182 per M

            Total cost………                                             $306 per M x 25= $7650

tomers for a per customer acquisition cost of $121.43@.   Not a very good return in my opinion.

Now if we pull our targeted audience using targeted demographics to 7500 folks the costs might look like this:

            Mailing list…..              $40 per M

            Printing 4-color postcards…     $105 per M

            Mail prep….                            $35 per M

            Postage…                                $251 per M

            Total cost….                            $431 per M x 7.5=$3232.50

tomers.   The cost per new customer nets out at $26.94@.   That is a heck of lot cheaper than the spray and pray method.

My argument is to spend your

marketing dollars wisely and not waste money and paper sending to folks who have no interest in your products or services.LinkedIN

I hate getting e-cards for Christmas.  I promptly delete them.  If someone can’t take the time to send me a personalized card than don’t bother.   I recently sent out approx. 85 Christmas cards that I had printed with my company name.  I signed everyone of them.  Sure they weren’t cheap; however, I feel it is important to convey to my customers that they are important to me.   I also sent cards out to a few of my vendors as well.  I love  getting Christmas cards and I proudly display them on my office walls and bulletin board.  Unfortunately, I don’t get as many cards as I had in the past years.

LinkedIn

 I would love to hear from other business folks about their thoughts on this issue.  

Lately I’ve been getting customer supplied print files with nothing but headaches.   A few expect me to fix their problem or wave a magic wand over the file to make it press-ready for printing.   sorry, but that’s not my responsibility.   My competitive pricing is based on the receipt of acceptable press-ready electronic files.   That has always been the way I conduct business.   If a file needs fixing I will have to send it out to a graphic designer or have my factory fix the problem (minor) at an additional cost.   It is not my responsibility to fix submitted files to get them to work.   I’ve run up to a gammut of problems including low resolution graphics, Publisher files which are a pain, or in one case, clip art that was “borrowed” off the internet.  

It would be better if customers would invest in using a qualified graphic artist to preflight their files and pay them to fix the problem.   I equate this problem to buying parts from a auto parts store and then taking the parts to their local mechanic and tell him to fix the car.   sorry, but it just doesn’t work that way.

Now that I’ve vented give me your feedback please.

A lot of folks are now using e-newsletters to save on printing costs and higher postal rates.   This is all well and good; however, I can’t stand reading a lot of text on-line.  My opinion is that if you are going to send out more than 2 pages of text than you ought to use the mail.   I don’t like reading mulitple pages on the computer screen as it is harder on my eyes.   Also, I don’t like to have to print out multiple pages on my printer as it sucks up a lot of ink.    The laser and inkjet printer manufacturers must love it when you have to print multiple pages because they make a ton of money on the supplies.

My thought is to use e-newsletters only for the shortened version of your monthly or quarterly newsletters but send a hard copy through the mail when you have more than a couple of pages.    I generally don’t read long newsletters on-line and wait for the hard copy to be sent to me.   I would rather read newsletters at home at night while watching some TV program or just listening to music. 

I would like to solicit other bloggers to see what their thoughts are on this.