All Posts Tagged With: "direct mail"

The other day, I was checking out the InfoUSA.com website on behalf of a client who is thinking about doing a modest direct mail campaign. After choosing criteria and generating a mailing list, I had to register on the company’s website to get a price quote.

I filled out the short form and hit the submit button. At that precise moment, my phone rang. Wouldn’t it be something, I joked with him, if it was InfoUSA calling to welcome me to their database.

Alas, that wasn’t the case.

However, five minutes later I did receive a call from InfoUSA welcoming me and assuring me I would receive personalized attention if I needed it. It made me feel welcomed and appreciated. As a new customer, it made me feel confident that I will be able to get help.

In these tough times, successful marketing is all about relationships. It doesn’t have to be expensive ad campaigns or elaborate branding efforts, although those sure are helpful. For InfoUSA, all it took was a simple timely phone call from a cheerful voice to get our relationship off to a flying start.

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My mailbox has been a fertile source of blogging inspiration during the last week.

The Good. A small green envelope with vaguely familiar handwriting stood out from the stack of bills when I walked back from getting the mail one morning. It didn’t have a return address and the postage included a 41 cent stamp and a one-cent stamp. Intrigued by the personal look and hefty feel — I could tell there was something substantial inside — I opened it first. Inside, was a page that seemed to have been torn out of a local newspaper, with a yellow sticky note attached. “Joseph,” it read in the same handwriting as on the envelope. “I’ll make you an awesome deal.” It was signed by someone named “Cory.” Only then did I realize this was a carefully crafted direct mail piece sent on behalf of a local car dealership. I haven’t been called “Joseph” since third grade and I don’t know anyone by the name of Cory. The “newspaper” page was actually an ad for the dealership’s Grand Opening Sale. Kudos to whoever designed and executed that piece. It didn’t make me buy a car but it sure made me aware of their sale.

The Bad. The jumbo postcard for a company advertising its trash hauling services was attractive enough. It had all the right elements: it caught my attention, it had a powerful offer and a strong call to action. Only one problem: I live in a community where our trash is collected by the municipality. We don’t get a choice of haulers. If they sent the same postcard to all 2,500 households in the borough, that’s huge waste of money.

The Ugly. A local Realtor sent a postcard touting his success in a tough market. Unfortunately, he cited sales data that was a year old, misidentified a local landmark and had 11 — count ‘em 11 — spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. Didn’t do much to enhance his reputation as a “someone who will pay attention to every detail of your deal.”

The moral? If you’re going to do direct mail, go the extra mile to make it memorable. And if you keep it simple, at least target the right market and use spellcheck!

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For those of us who still use direct mail as a means of getting the word out, it’s time for Postal Rates 101.

As you probably know, a lot changed last year in the world of direct mail. By switching to a system based on shape rather than weight, the United States Postal Service threw a lot of people for a loop.

Case in point: two of my clients are Realtors who send out quarterly newsletters. Until last year, they were the standard 8½×11 publications. One mails pre-sorted first class, the other pre-sorted standard. Both were looking at nearly 40 percent increases in postage if they kept their format.

One chose to fold his newsletter in half, making it a 5½×8½ finished size. The other chose to downsize his format to 6×10. It took a little work, but we didn’t have to sacrifice content in either newsletter. Not only did they not have to pay an extra 40 percent for postage, both Realtors actually saved money compared to their previous mailing. Continued

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