Marketing Nerd

So, Does Your Direct Marketing Campaign Work?

2006-05-31T14:57:00.000-07:00

This is the $64,000 question after all, isn’t it? We get this question from most every person we talk to. And while there are many variables that determine the success of a direct marketing campaign (list, offer, mail piece, etc.), let’s focus simply on the nuts and bolts of gathering response data and proving that your campaign works.

With direct mail advertising, as opposed to most any other form of advertising, you are blessed that you have a truly accountable means of tracking results by building in a coupon or other response device that must be redeemed in order to get the offer presented. But we have seen cases where our client’s staff is not disciplined in collecting these coupons… “oh the customer forgot their coupon but we still gave them the special deal”. With this lack of a disciplined coupon collection system it is impossible to get real response data to prove how well the campaign works.

But now there is a better way: 1-800 # call tracking.

If you are not already familiar with Who’s Calling? (www.whoscalling.com) then you need to pay attention. Their technology is remarkable and really the Holy Grail in terms of tracking and measuring the real effectiveness of a direct marketing campaign.

Disclaimer: We make no money from Who’s Calling. We’re not a dealer or a reseller of their service. We’re a customer of theirs. And we are so excited about what they do, that we have an uncontrollable urge to tell everyone we know about how great their technology is. It’s perfect for marketing data geeks like us (and you).

Here’s how it works:

You get a unique 800# assigned just to your specific direct marketing campaign. That 800# only exists on the direct mail piece you send out.
The 800# is redirected to your local number.
You get a report every morning of every call that came in off of that direct mail piece. Imagine that… a direct mail campaign that is 100% accountable for results! Response Analytics Nirvana, baby!

But wait, there’s more:

You also get the phone numbers of everyone that called along with the time, date and length of call. Wow!
On approx. 50% of the calls you get the name and address of the caller (your caller ID blocking is ignored when you call an 800# since the other guy pays for the calls). Double Wow!
You can get a recording of every phone call that came in from the mailer. Great tool for training your staff that handles inbound calls. Triple Wow!
Who’s Calling has this really cool whisper feature where you (and not the customer) will hear a little voice that tells you the source of the phone call (i.e. “Trigger Direct” or “PennySaver” or “Website”) while you are on the phone with the client so you can respond intelligently (i.e. “So did you get our postcard in the mail?”)
In your daily report you get a listing of all calls that were dropped (i.e. line dropped, customer hung up during ring, customer hung up within a few seconds of answering, etc.) so you can call these interested prospects back.
And, for all dropped calls, you can get an email triggered instantly after the dropped call occurred so you can call the customer back pronto. Often as quick as 60 seconds after the dropped call.
You can visit their website and see history on all calls for your campaign.
In their website you can key in your total investment and then see a real time report showing actual “cost per call”… the real deal apples-to-apples way of comparing multiple marketing strategies.
Who’s Calling supplements their reporting with census data demographics (i.e. age, income, ethnicity, etc.) for every zip code that responds to your campaign.
You can implement really cool A/B tests for campaigns (i.e. test which offer works best by using 800# A for mail piece with offer A, and 800# B for mail piece with offer B)

Can you tell that I like this stuff? Hopefully you do too.

Wow Benefits of Who’s Calling’s cool technology:

We can truly judge the effectiveness of your direct marketing campaign. You know precisely how many responses your direct mail campaign is generating. No more depending on undisciplined or untrained staff members to tabulate “how did you hear about us?” responses.
The response analysis is “pure” and not tainted by the closing skills of your sales people. Marketing programs need to be judged on how much response they create… inbound phone traffic.
At the head honcho board meeting the VP of Marketing finally has a great answer to tell his challenging and combative CFO when he asks “So Dave, you spent $50,000 on this campaign, what did it get you?” Now Dave doesn’t shrug his shoulders… now Dave has a great answer. Dave can quantify precisely all inbound leads (ideally highly qualified) he generated for the sales team to engage with and sell. And now the monkey is on the back of the VP of Sales to address how well his team is closing these deals.

Speaking for all of the marketing nerds at Trigger Direct, we really dig this technology. It gives us a platform to showcase the response we are offering our clients. And it allows us to test all elements of a direct marketing campaign (list, offer, copy, creative) to determine that the magic formula is for getting excellent results.

Information is power.
What gets measured gets done.
Performance monitored is performance improved.

We highly encourage you to consider Who’s Calling technology for all of your advertising vehicles (TV, radio, newspaper, direct mail, etc.) so you can understand which marketing strategy is working best.

No more guessing. No more hunches about what works. Real data. Real business decisions.

As a special promotion, Trigger Direct is offering FREE Who’s Calling tracking for all client campaigns that sign up prior to June 30, 2006.

Good Selling!

Will Your Direct Mail Pass the 5 Point Inspection?

2005-09-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you are a nervous single guy in your late 20's asking for your beautiful girlfriend's hand in marriage.

You want to propose the old fashioned way... down on one knee with the diamond solitaire in one of those flip up boxes... maybe in a fancy downtown restaurant.... Since you are Mr. Old Fashioned you first want to gain her parent's permission. And you are absolutely dreading speaking to your soon-to-be mother-in-law because she will grill you, probe you, flip you upside down and backwards testing you and ensuring you are worthy of her daughter's hand.

Talk about a gruelling test. But if you can pass that test, you can probably pass anything.

Now let's see if your direct mail campaign can pass such a test. Instead of a Spanish Inquisition from your mother-in-law, you'll get one from me, your resident Marketing Nerd.

Actually, here is your 5-Point Inspection Test to ensure that your Mail Piece includes the key elements to be successful. You can beat yourself up if you don't pass this test.

#1. Does Your Headline Bang Your Prospect Over the Head with a Powerful Benefit?

Does your headline answer the question "What's in it for me?" and thus deliver a single and powerful benefit? Is the headline personalized with your recipient's name to create a sudden burst of relevance? Is the benefit in your headline aligned with the needs, wants and desires of your prospect?

Your headline is your #1 most important component of your direct mail piece.

To reinforce this fact, let me share with you the National Enquirer test for headlines... The National Enquirer charges hundreds of dollars for a classified in the back of their tabloid, and they charge by the word, so brevity is important if you don't want to go broke. Ultimately you need to have a compelling headline and a call to action because that is all you can likely fit or afford in the National Enquirer. "The Secret 7 Step Plan to Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days. Call 800-555-5555". In the National Enquirer classified section there is no room for detailed explanations, features/benefits listings, testimonials, etc. Ultimately only a headline and a call to action.

So, now we are applying the National Enquirer test to your direct mail piece and we are going to strip the entire piece down naked so that all is left is your headline and your call to action. Everything else gets booted. Then we put it in the National Enquirer classified section. Will people call you? If not, then you have a problem.

Your headline needs to be able to stand alone, grab the recipient's instant attention, deliver a powerful benefit and make them want to learn more.

#2. Does Your Offer Get Your Prospect Up Off the Couch to Call You or Visit You?
Mail pieces without an offer are like a fisherman fishing with no bait. You need to have a powerful offer to attract response... to get the fish to bite.

In the world of offers, Free is always the magic word. If you can offer a Free Trial, a Free Item, Buy One Get One Free you are dramatically improving your odds of generating response and ultimately revenue. Free works.

We have seen companies present weak offers and then, of course, they get a weak response. Since people are hit with thousands of marketing messages every day, you need to deliver an unbelievable, jaw dropping, Wow! offer that creates an irresistible desire in your prospect that they literally jump up off the couch to call you.

When considering your offer, think of it in terms of Customer Lifetime Value. Use a powerful offer to get that customer the first time, and sets you up for a solid and loyal relationship of future business. Even if your first transaction delivers a small profit, you are positioned for much more long term profitability over the course of your relationship. Don't skimp on the offer... do whatever it takes to bring them in the first time.

And your offer must be a Limited Time Offer (LTO). This is necessary to create a sense of urgency to respond NOW. Be sure every offer includes an expiration date.

#3. Does Your Mail Piece Create an Emotional Response that Draws You In?
Pay attention to the great ads in print, online or on TV. Virtually everyone of them uses a photo of a *person* enjoying the product or service. The good ads don't show an inanimate piece of furniture. Instead they present a humanized image... a person that looks like the target recipient's demographic so they can "see themselves in the mail piece"... and this makes the piece much more compelling.

Bob Barker and his entourage of attractive models has this figured out on the Price is Right. Suddenly a box of laundry detergent looks alot more interesting.

We have found that a single image of a person, blown up with a focus around their face, is a great way to showcase this emotion. And when this humanized image syncs with the benefit laden headline, then you are creating a powerful graphics/text package that generates response.

#4. Does Your Mail Piece Tell Them What To Do?
Every mail piece needs a Call to Action. You need to clearly tell your prospect what you want them to do. Call Now at 888.555.1212. Visit our Dallas store by September 24th to get your free gift.

Don't make it hard for your prospect to figure out what to do. Make it plainly obvious. As if they were in the 3rd grade. Assume nothing.

#5. Can Your Mail Piece Survive the Skim Test?
People don't read direct mail, they skim it.... hunting for benefits and other relevant information to determine if it is of value. Often your mail piece only has 0.8 seconds to pass the skim test or you are destined for the recycle bin. So you must pass the skim test first, and then you have a shot of your prospect reading your info in more detail.

Imagine you (or your best friend's Mom) retrieving the daily mail. It is a game to pass the skim test every day. The mail is always sorted quickly as A pile or B pile... and the B's land in the recycle bin. Ensuring you successfully pass the skim test gives you permission to land in your best friend's Mom's A pile and ultimately will become worthy of consideration.

If you are a postcard, understand that you are not a 4-page sales letter or a brochure and therefore can not tell your entire story. So tell them just enough, and no more, to generate a response. Leave lots of white space your piece can breathe. Study your postcard and test yourself and others as to where your eye is drawn. It should be to the headline first. If your eye is confused and does not know where to look in the first instant, then you are failing the skim test.

If you are a letter, make sure you still use a powerful headline at the top of the letter, right before or after the salutation. Use underlines to draw attention to key elements of text (underlines are more skim friendly than bold face). Use numbered or bulleted lists of benefits. Numbered lists are especially skim friendly and people enjoy reading them (see your tabloids and magazines in your check out counter at grocery stores for loads of Top 5 and Top 10 lists).

Make sure items #1-#4 above .... the headline, offer, humanized image and call to action.... are easily absorbed in a skim.

Now, does your mail piece pass the 5 Point Inspection? Or do I need to send your mother-in-law to your house to grill you?

Good Selling!

The Postcard vs. Letter Controversy

2005-08-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

We get this question all the time at our agency.... "Which is better? A postcard or a letter in an envelope?"

Before I answer this question, let me say upfront that there are issues far more important, such as making sure you are targeting the right people, with the right message at the right time. The physical characteristics of your mail piece is only 10% of the formula to creating winning direct mail campaigns... your database (60%) and your message (30%) carry a grand total of 90% of your success. See an article we published earlier about the 60-30-10 rule at http://www.triggerdirect.com/drctmktgtips.cfm

So we are playing in the 10% sandbox. But this question of postcards vs letters is indeed an important topic. Let's explore further.

Direct marketers are like chemists in a laboratory. They test everything. And test after test proves that when keeping all other variables the same (list, message, offer, colors, etc.) the letter will always outperform the self-mailer (postcard or folded card/flyer not in an envelope). The letter always wins.

Why do letters always win? Most importantly they allow you to tell your story in a more compelling fashion than a postcard. Letters are like salespeople in an envelope and they can keep piling on the benefits and value of your offering. And letters have a higher perceived value to the recipient than a postcard. Letters are more serious. Letters are relationship builders.

We did a test like this for a client where we mailed 5,000 postcards and 5,000 letters, both with virtually identical content with the exception that the letter told the story in more detail. The highly targeted list was split in half using an A/B strategy. End result: letter had a response rate 7x that of the postcard. Now, this is an extreme example, mind you, but it proves that letters always win.

But letters in envelopes cost more. So it is really about determining which has the best ROI. After all, ROI is your true bottom line.

Certainly every campaign is different, but we have found that postcards and other self-mailers get good ROI when planned well, but letters in envelopes have always had superior ROI... as much as $29 in revenue for every $1 spent for one of our clients.

Now I know there are some out there that are religious in their affection to postcards. They say that postcards are more easily digestible. In this case, they are right. They also say "I never read letters, but I will look at postcards...". And for every person like that, I know people that say the opposite. :-)

Here's an important question. Are you launching a B2B or a B2C campaign? There are big differences between the two and this topic of letters vs. postcards plays a key role.

In a B2B strategy where you are targeting executives at large companies, a postcard has a very high likelihood of getting quashed and never making it to your recipient. To reach these C-level executives in Fortune 1000 companies your mail piece needs to be able to jump through the hurdles of mail rooms, administrative assistants and other assorted gatekeepers to make it to your destination. This is why we almost always recommend letters when doing B2B campaigns, sometimes in creative packages to ensure the mail piece makes it to the finish line.

Today we are working on a B2B client for a campaign where the envelopes are cloaked. There is no messaging other than the recipient's name & address... and the sender's address but not their name. It looks like a wedding invitation when it arrives. Humans are a curious lot and virtually every piece will be opened. And once it does, they have the perfect message for that recipient and the 60-30 part of the 60-30-10 rule will work brilliantly. This B2B client has already closed 16 new customers with this strategy and the campaign is not yet complete.

In a B2C strategy postcards work very well. In fact, amongst our retail clients, the postcard is the dominant format that we create. One of our clients recently sent a postcard to 11,000 of their customers and carefully selected prospects and they received over $12 in revenue for every $1 they spent. Postcards can work great.

And there are some specific B2B cases where postcards will work, especially if it is a small business where your decision maker is the one that picks up the mail or when it is a case where you already have a solid relationship and you simply want to make an announcement or present a promotion.

In summary:

Letters in envelopes will almost always outpull postcards but they are more expensive to produce.
Letters in envelopes should be strongly considered for B2B mailings.
If you have a complex offering, then use a letter. A postcard will not give you enough real estate to tell your story and present all of the benefits. Ed McMahon and the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes understand this concept.
Postcards are excellent for B2C mailings, especially when your offering is straight forward (window coverings sale) or where you have a previous relationship with the customer/prospect.

Good Selling!

Your 5 Step Response Analytics Business Process that Came to Me in a Dream

2005-08-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

I dream about direct marketing. I must be sick.

This morning I woke up and had a vivid memory of my dream last night. No, I didn't fall off a cliff and wake up just before I landed.

Instead I was dreaming about response analytics. I wish I landed.

In the dream my friend asked me what software program I used to do response analytics for my client's direct mail campaigns. And I told him that the software program is not what is important. The crucial element is the business process.

My other friend nodded his head in agreement, acknowledging that I am indeed an exalted direct marketing guru (clearly "in my dreams). Then I woke up.

But it is true. In order to accurately measure the response rate and ROI of your direct mail campaign and get a true "dashboard view", you need a solid business process in place.

So I am sharing with you the deepest and most profound secrets from my subconscious dream state... Here is your 5 Step Response Analytics Business Process to help you track results:

1. Keycode. It starts with a strategy to keycode each direct mail piece with a unique number that links the mail piece back to the master database. With that keycode, you can ultimately tell who responded, what offer they responded to and what their demographic profile is. If you are a B2C marketer it may contain info such as their age/income/ethnicity/homevalue/# of children/etc. If you are a B2B marketer, it may contain info such SIC/number of employees/revenue/type of computers installed at the site/etc. Linking your keycode back to these demographics will ultimately give you the intelligence to understand how your campaign is working and which demographic segments are responding to which offer.

2. Coupon. The mail piece MUST have a coupon. Because without the coupon, there is no accountable documentation that proves that they are responding to the direct mail piece. It is also crucial that the coupon include a location where the sales person can write in the amount of purchase (thus allowing revenue to be tracked to the direct mail campaign). Bonus points if you put a barcode representation of the keycode in the coupon to make the scanning of the keycodes that much easier after the coupons are redeemed.

3. Offer. Your offer must be presented in the coupon and the coupon MUST be redeemed at the point of sale or with the sales person. This way the recipient has a compelling reason (the offer) to turn in that coupon. Because if there is no compelling reason to turn in the coupon then the coupon becomes a nice-to-have rather than a mandatory. And without the mandatory you will not have the accountable evidence that the mailing is working. Further, the offer in the coupon must be exclusive to your direct mail campaign and can not be acquired for any other customer that visits your store or calls in.... otherwise people may be responding but you can not track their response.

4. Disciplined Business Process. This is huge. And this is often where it breaks down for customers. You must have the discipline to insist that customers provide a coupon in order to get the offer. If they don't have the coupon, then you MUST get their name & contact info so you can create a "manual response" and then position your marketing nerd to sync their name back to the original database. This is very, very important. Often marketers will give their clients the offer without the coupon and then the direct mail program does get fair and accurate results.

5. Simplified Reporting. Once the coupons are collected and scanned, a reporting system needs to be created that can show response rates and return on investment ratios for the mailing. And because your keycoding is done intelligently linking them back to the original database with the demographic data, then you can also report on which offer/demographic cells respond best (the sweet spots) and which respond worst (the dogs). These reports will give you the intelligence to enhance your campaign, mail less, spend less, and earn more ROI. Your CFO will love you.

A few addendums to the above:

a. There are some instances where a coupon does not make sense because the entire transaction is done over the phone. Mail order catalog companies are a great example of this. Therefore you must have the discipline to follow the rule of these mail order guys... put your keycode above their name in the mailing address area and then INSIST that the client give you that keycode when they are calling in their order. And... make sure you have the internal discipline to log this keycode along with the amount of purchase and deliver this log to your marketing nerd so he can crunch the numbers.

b. Direct mail, by its very nature, is prone to the weaknesses of humans. Humans may forget or resist. That is why the Disciplined Process is so important. However, if you do your marketing strictly through email then you have an opportunity to build a closed loop system that covers for human weakness and ensures that every order has an electronic keycode attached. Of course, that means that you are swimming in the pool of spammers and battling with challenges of anti-spam software.... but your reporting has an opportunity to be a perfect reflection of the reality of your campaign provided it is built correctly.

.... now I want to go back to sleep.

Good Selling!

The Death of Junk Mail

2005-07-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today, Junk Mail died. Printers everywhere are mourning. Consumers and environmentalists are celebrating. Old school direct marketers are gasping. Postal carrier back muscles are feeling relief.

I am in charge of writing his epitaph and am considering some of these. What do you think?
· Ashes to Ashes. Dust to Dust. I Got Recycled.
· Merged, then Purged.
· This time I got a 0% response rate.

This is fun.

It may raise an eyebrow for a direct marketer like me to talk about the death of junk mail. After all, I make my living in the world of results-driven direct mail advertising. But I am convinced we are entering a new era where junk mail is on the way out.

According to dictionary.com here is the definition of junk mail:
Third-class mail, such as advertisements, mailed indiscriminately in large quantities.

Key words here are ‘indiscriminately’ and ‘large quantities’. In other words, direct mail spam.

You get this stuff at your home. Sweepstakes letters, credit card offers and mortgage re-fi offerings seemingly every day. These direct marketers are by definition ‘large quantities’. Most have a science behind their targeting efforts, but they are often on the liberal side of the indiscriminate spectrum.

Just like spammers, these junk mailers are playing a numbers game and making profit often at a 0.1% response rate (or lower!). But there is a higher road with higher response for these marketers.

You see, direct mail has changed. In my marketing nerd world, it was a contestant on one of those Ultimate Make Over reality shows…

Good direct mail, the kind of direct mail that gets fabulous return, the kind of direct mail that is responsible and ethical is “Relevant Mail”. In other words, mail that is massively customized and relevant to the needs of the recipient at precisely that time.

Relevant mail is the opposite of junk mail.
· It is mailed with scientific precision and customization. The content of the mail piece contains information and offers that are uniquely matched with the needs of the recipient. It is tremendously personalized and hand crafted. It is timely. It is one-to-one marketing. It is not indiscriminate. It is not a blast.
· Relevant mail is mailed in tiny quantities. Because each mail piece is customized to the needs of that recipient at that time, the quantity of mail delivered at that time is very, very small, but incredibly targeted and relevant. It is not mailed in large quantities.

Today technology is available that makes this all possible. It is called Variable Data Digital Printing. It works like “Mail Merge on Steroids” where the graphics/photos and text are all interchangeable based on the geographics, demographics, psychographics, and purchasing history of the recipient. Every mail piece that comes off the press is different, unique and custom. And it is all database driven.

This is not just the future of direct mail advertising. It is the present. Junk mail is the past.

At Trigger Direct we are exclusively focused in this world of Relevant Mail. Our clients are getting tremendous ROI, as high as $29 in revenue for every $1 spent.

The reason?

Relevant mail increases response rates, sometimes as high as 8%, and revenue goes way up. Relevant mail decreases quantity and expenses goes way down.

End result? ROI shoots up like an oil geyser. Texas Tea.

Relevant mail is often mailed in quantities of hundreds rather than tens of thousands…. And on recycled paper. Relevant mail is ethical, responsible and environmentally friendly. Kumbaya.

Junk mail died today. But don’t be surprised if you continue to see corpses in your mailbox. Many marketers are failing to check the pulse of their campaigns.

Junk mail is dead. R.I.P.

Good Selling!

When Marketing is Like a Vegas Slot Machine that Never Loses

2005-07-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

This week my beautiful wife Kimberly and I decided to jaunt to Vegas for 3 days. I nice respite from our day-to-day activities in San Diego... but, wow, is it hot out here. 112 degrees when we arrived yesterday.

A marketing nerd like me gets all sorts of stimuli here in Vegas. Lots of imagery. Lots of compelling benefits, either said in headlines or unsaid in the photography. Sexuality is a common theme.... a great one as it plays on human emotion. All ads have pictures of people (not just products), typically sexy people enjoying the product and experiencing the benefits, so they know how to play the game of humanizing their images to make them more powerful and compelling to consumers (see my previous blog posting on this topic).

As I was at the pool this morning with The Fine Wife (TFW) my mind drifted into the similarities between gambling and marketing. There are many analogies. For one, both as gamblers and as marketers we are focused on ROI... what is our return on investment? You hear people say that they are up $250 or down $800. They know their ROI at any split second. As direct marketers we are also very focused on this metric.

I was also thinking about how to play the game when all of the odds are stacked in your favor. It's both a marketer's and a gambler's ideal scenario.

When I gamble, I often enjoy playing craps. Fun game. Very social. Lots of numbers and probabilities to stimulate my mathematics geek background. I know that craps, when played intelligently, gives me the best odds of winning.

In craps I play the Don't Pass line. My friends Jack and Lloyd taught me this strategy and jokingly refer to it as "The Dark Side" because we win when everyone else loses. But, put another way, it is very similar to how the house plays the game. When you play the Don't Pass line, and when you play the odds correctly, the house's advantage is almost nil. Most everytime I bet this way using $10 bets, I will often walk away from the table after 20-30 minutes and be up $50, $100, $150. Not bad for a nerd like me.

In direct marketing we also want to stack the odds in our favor using every conceivable advantage at our disposal. And everyday I am shocked when I see people market the same way they play roulette.... they close their eyes, pick a number and then pray while the wheel spins.

The way to get the odds leaning in your favor is to simply follow the fundamentals of direct marketing. The 60-30-10 rule is a must. For more fundamentals see http://www.triggerdirect.com/drctmktgtips.cfm

But the secret sauce that we have discovered, the strategy that is similar to playing craps with the Don't Pass line, the way to get all of the odds stacked in your favor is to target prospects right when they are in buying mode. To reach people when they have their wallet open and are about to spend a boatload of money on products and services for their home, financial products and more.

This notion of targeting people at just the right time, or "Marketing to the When" that we talk about so much, is indeed the secret sauce.

If you are selling life insurance, target people that are pregnant with their first child.
If you are selling satellite TV services, target people the instant they move into their new home.
If you are selling high end doors and windows, target people right when they start their construction project.
If you are selling furniture, target homeowners that have just taken a home equity loan on their house and have a wad of cash burning in their pocket.
If you are selling copy machines, target people 6 months before their current lease expires.

Our clients are getting $16 in revenue for every $1 they spend (bet) using this strategy. And my clients always win. It's like a Vegas Slot Machine that never loses. It's like playing craps on the Don't Pass line and collecting winnings everytime.

It makes so much sense. You target very few people, but at just the right time. Since you are not mailing to the thousands of people that are not in buying mode, waste is virtually eliminated. Thus costs are kept low. Meanwhile, since you are targeting people when they are in buying mode, your response rate goes way, way up.

So many marketers fail in stacking the odds in their favor. I see examples of their work all the time on TV, radio, billboards, direct mail... everywhere. A marketing Hall of Shame might a great way to glorify these bloopers.

What is sad is that these marketers go by trial and error. They don't have a solid strategy. They hope. They pray. Meanwhile their CFO is not seeing any ROI on the money they are spending on marketing.... Now there's a strategy to go bust.

The Marketing Laboratory: Huge Returns for Advertisers & the Elimination of Junk Mail

2005-07-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Last summer I read Tom Peter's book Re-Imagine (which I highly recommended). Peters encourages business leaders to innovate. To create laboratories. To break models, push limits and invent mind blowing new solutions for clients.

I now have a new laboratory. The subject of study is variable data printing. The result is the marketing equivalent of a cure for cancer: huge returns for advertisers and the elimination of junk mail for recipients.

I know this is going to have a massive impact on the results we deliver for clients. And it will have an equally colossal, positive impact on Trigger Direct's business. This is an inflection point for both Trigger Direct and our clients.

Here's the story. Digital printing technology is available today that allows you to customize every direct mail piece uniquely for every recipient. This means that the offer, the photography, the colors, and the messaging is all crafted specifically to be *relevant* for the end user.

Higher relevance means higher response rates and ultimately more revenue for advertisers.
Higher relevance means that the direct mail piece is "of value" for the client. It is built to perfectly touch on their hot buttons and current needs. It is emotional. It connects. It is no longer junk mail. It is Relevant Mail.

Here's an example.... Let's say you are a credit card company offering a new, low rate card that earns you airline mileage and all sorts of other goodies. A solid offering. And, let's say you want to target people that are big credit card users... perhaps those that have high balances so they can transfer over that balance (and interest payments) to your company. OK. So far, this is nothing new. Credit card companies do this every day getting ho-hum response rates and ROI.

Now let's add the secret sauce.

First let's cross reference that target credit card user mailing list with people that are die hard friends of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. These people have purchased SF Giants memorabilia online, are in SF Giants fan clubs or are simply baseball "fanatics" that live in SF. We only mail to the people that satisfy both criteria: big SF Giants fan and ideal credit card user.

Next, let's position the credit card as part of the SF Giants VISA Fan Club. The card has a SF Giants logo. Classic affinity marketing. These fans will be proud to carry this credit card in their wallet and show it off to their friends.

Finally, let's customize the package so there is a SF Giants logo on the outside of the mail piece. Colors are black, orange and white. Perhaps there is a picture of Barry Bonds or Willie Mays. (of course, we are getting permission from all applicable parties).

End result: We now have a mail package that will stop this SF Giants fan in their tracks when they scan their inbound mail. We have about 0.8 seconds to get this person's attention when they flip through their stack of mail and that SF Giants logo will "pop" instantly. And, we are matching the perfect offer (affinity credit card with SF Giants logo and great rates and many other perks) to the perfect person (SF Giants fan, big credit card user, already has a credit card balance).

For the advertiser, this campaign is now positioned for break through response rates and model busting return on investment.

For the recipient, suddenly this mail piece is no longer junk mail. It is "Relevant Mail". It speaks the recipient's language. It touches on their hot buttons. It is very emotional. It is an product offering that gives them great value in a category where they have high usage.

In the old days, to manage a campaign like this for all 30 MLB teams would require you to do 30 different mailings. Very complex. Very costly. But with Variable Data Digital Printing Technology, this becomes very easy and very cost effective.

It's like mail merge on steroids. (forgive the Bonds pun)

Today we are using a Xerox Docucolor digital printer to make this happen. One of the most exciting pieces of new technology to hit the direct marketing industry in the last decade.

This technology also offers many other benefits:

1. Very inexpensive to produce small, short run print jobs. For example, a traditional offset printer might charge you the same to produce 500 postcards as they would to produce 5,000 because of all of the setup costs. With digital printing technology you can just print what you need when you need it. All very inexpensively.

2. Very environmentally friendly. Gone are the days of shot gun marketing and gigantic mailings. Because we are now launching massively targeted, massively relevant direct mail campaigns, we are mailing far fewer pieces. Thus significantly less paper is used. Tree huggers, rejoice!

We are planting a flag in this space of variable data digital printing and expect to be at the vanguard of this new era in direct marketing.

High response rates and ROI. The elimination of junk mail. It's a marketing nerd's dream come true.

Good Selling!

BOOK REVIEW: No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy (5 Stars out of 5)

2005-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

You've gotta love a book whose title is:
No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs
The Ultimate No Holds Barred Kick Butt Take No Prisoners Guide to Time Productivity and Sanity

While this is a recent book review, it makes sense for me to tee this up....

Back in 1994 at the San Diego Convention Center I became entranced with this book's author, Dan Kennedy.

I was attending one of those giant traveling road shows with inspirational/leadership speakers including Zig Zigler, Tom Hopkins, and Peter Lowe. They even had General Norman Schwarzkopf and Mary Lou Retten on the docket. At the very end of the agenda a portly fellow with a big moustache walked on stage. This was Dan Kennedy and I quickly understood why he is one considered one of the foremost (and controversial) marketing experts in the nation.

At the conclusion of his speech I sprinted to the back of the hall and dropped down a cool $295 to buy all of his tapes. A great investment. I must have worn out those tapes during the summer of 1994 in my Mitsubishi Eclipse. Great stuff. I soaked it up like a sponge.

So, time warp back to June 2005.....

Last month I am cleaning out my garage and I stumble across my original $295 investment. Tapes, books all from Dan Kennedy. I was re-fired up to listen again. And I re-gobbled up his awesome marketing insight on a recent drive up up to Sacramento. That then led me to Borders where I bought three of his books, including No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs.

For any of you have read a time management book, or worse, attended a time management seminar, you know some of the systems they teach. Some are good, others not. Most are boring and don't create an emotional driving force to keep you on track.

Amongst many other things, Dan Kennedy is certainly emotional.

Here are 3 nuggets from this book that I have already taken to the bank.

1. Your time is worth $340.92 per hour.
If the project you are working on does not have the ability to generate at least $340.92 for every hour you invest, you are wasting your valuable time.

How does he come up with this amount? If your goal is to earn $200,000 per year (a solid goal for an entrepreneur) and you work 220 days per year (accounts for a healthy amount of vacation, weekends, national holidays), and you work 8 hours a day, then you would need to earn if $113.64 if every hour you work is billable.

But there is no way you are at 100% productivity every day. You are lucky if you are truly productive 33% of the time.... the rest of your time is spent haggling with vendors, filling out paperwork, stuck in insane meetings, emptying the trash, occasionally goofing off... all non productive time. So that means we need to triple that $113.64 number to truly measure what your time is worth for your *productive* hours. And that equals $340.92.

I now have this number placed on my computer monitor staring me in the face reminding me what my time is worth. And when I am working on a project or with a client that does not net me this amount, then I know it is time for me to start cutting the chaffe and focusing on 'A' opportunities.

(Right now my coach, David Facer www.activatepotential.com is likely standing up and applauding as he has been preaching this same mantra to me to focus on the A opportunities. Now with this monetary value of my time, this is really locked into my inner brain cycles.)

2. Avoid the Time Vampires that Want to Suck You Dry
This is a great piece of advice. The first thing we need to do is recognize these vampires before falling into their trap. This could be a 'D' level prospect that is lucky to net you $50 in profit yet wants to occupy 45 minutes of your time on the phone. Another one, especially for me, is maintaining an addiction to checking email every 22.8 seconds or scoping out ESPN.com to see if the Padres made a big trade yet. Seems obvious to avoid these things, but life sometimes takes you down this river and you react rather than proact. And sometimes I am reacting for half a day and meanwhile my time has flown out the window. (thus the reason for that big fat $340.92 sign on my computer).

So this is what I am going to do. I am not answering the phone. Period. The phone is perhaps the biggest interruption machine on the planet.

What I am working on right now, is my #1 priority and I intend to get that done. MY to do list are MY priorities. Someone else's #1 priority is not necessarily my #1 priority. And besides, I work in direct marketing... it's not like my wife Kim's job as an oncology pharmacist in a hospital. People are not going to die because I don't pick up the phone.

Of course, there will be exceptions. I have a list of 13 people/companies that I will take a call immediately as these are my top customers, my most attractive prospects or my family. Everyone else can wait.

3. Self Discipline Is the Magic Power That Makes You Unstoppable
I love this word discipline. It evokes so many images, so many emotions... both good and bad. But in the end, all good.

This word also reminds me of a good friend and former boss, Mike Valant, who worked with me at Harte-Hanks. He made a big point of instilling a disciplined sales culture and I was his chief whipping boy to make it happen. We ruffled alot of feathers doing so. People that did not like the discipline either left the organization, or were asked to leave. But I believe we were better off as a result. Sales people were making more calls and delivering more proposals. Revenue and accounts were growing. Sales people were being measured for performance. Accountability was at an all time high. Discipline is a good thing. Ask your coach, your trainer, your doctor.

Dan Kennedy focuses on this topic as it relates to time management.

The discipline to be massively focused on what is important and get it done.
The discipline to block off time on your calendar and make appointments with yourself to work on projects and get them done.
The discipline to be punctual in order to demonstrate to others that your time is indeed valuable and should be respected.
The discipline to drive a stake through the heart of the time vampires.
The discipline to link everything you do to your goals.

Overall I give this book 5 stars out of 5. Great book. Has me fired up to be more focused on my time and its true value. I now now starting on his "No BS for Business Success" book and his "No BS for Sales Success" book is in the on deck circle.

Come by and visit my office and I'll show you my $340.92 green index card on my monitor.

If you have never heard of Dan Kennedy, then you need to stop, take a deep breathe and the visit his website (www.dankennedy.com).

Good Selling!

Graphic Design Pet Peeve - Humanize It

2005-07-06T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'll file this in one of my rants about advertising graphic design that just simply drives me crazy. Particularly a direct mail piece that is completely missing the boat.

I will often see direct mail pieces from furniture retailers showcasing a couch, a dinette set, or a table. Nice products, mind you. But will a picture of a couch make you stop in your tracks when you are going through your day's incoming mail?

You see, people don't study or read direct mail. They skim it. They will pass by your mail piece in something like 0.8 seconds and make an assessment if this is something they will look more closely at, or file in the recycle bin.

You need to present a graphic image that evokes an *emotional* response in the reader. And a couch doesn't get me emotional.

One way to pass this 0.8 second skim test is to include a picture of a person on the mail piece, particularly a person enjoying the product offering you are selling. Now you are creating a positive emotion. This is crucial.

For one, people subliminally like to see themselves through the person in the mail piece. They want to project that it is them enjoying that particular product.

Bob Barker has this completely figured out.

Have you ever noticed on the Price is Right that they don't just showcase the product that contestants bid on? They have an attractive model interacting with the product. Granted they do it in a dumb blonde way, but they pretend to be using that backyard grille and having a fun time doing so. Somehow, you think that could be you enjoying the product on a sunny day in your backyard with your family. If they just showed the grille sitting there by its lonesome self, it becomes an unemotional metal shell with wheels.

Another reason to include a human in the picture is a fundamental marketing rule: people buy benefits, not features. A product by itself is a just a pile of features. Leather upholstery. 5 gallon propane tank. Big deal.

Now, put a person in the picture enjoying the product and suddenly you are projecting an avalanche of benefits. Get away from the stress of your day and enjoy the comfort and relaxation of your new couch. Entertain your friends in your backyard with your mondo BBQ and make your best buddy jealous.

When people skim their mail in 0.8 seconds, you need to project a benefit that smacks them upside the head, and in a hurry.

Next time you think about showcasing the spectacular detail of that new whizbang product of yours, think twice. Instead, present your customer enjoying the product. Your direct mail piece's objective is to simply get them to respond. When they respond you can begin the sales dance and then share the crucial features that are relevant to your customer.

Good Selling!

Dude, present an offer!

2005-07-05T19:55:00.000-07:00

It just blows me away when smart business people invest in a marketing campaign only to make absolutely certain that it will fail. They choose not to present a compelling offer.

Right now our agency is working on a restaurant guide project for a local community organization. Certainly outside the sweet spot of our expertise in "marketing to the when" that we are known for, but it is our way of giving back to our community. Call us humble Joe Citizens.
Anyway, the advertisers are spending up to $200 to get an ad in this publication that will be distributed to 1200 pent-up, out-of-town, certainly-will-get-hungry visitors to the community. A solid value for a local restaurant that wants to drive customers in their door.

So these restaurants fork over the cash and some decide not to present an offer. They just want their ad to announce that they exist.

No one cares if you exist! I certainly don't. Prospective customers only care about the value they will receive in visiting your restaurant.

Some of the restaurants are presenting solid values. A FREE dessert with entree. A FREE fish taco. (yes, Martha, a fish taco.... They are a sort of phenomenon here in the San Diego area) Others only give you their address & phone number. Which offer do you think has the best chance of creating a line out their front door?

There is a rule in direct marketing called the 60-30-10 rule. Those that know me probably are tired of hearing this, but it is such a direct marketing fundamental that it can not be ignored. This is the equation that defines your direct marketing success.

The 60 represents who you are trying to target. 60% of your success is based on the targetability and quality of your database or list. This restaurant guide has this nailed. Visitors in town for a week long athletic event with no idea where to get some good grub.

The 30 represents your message, and more specifically your offer. 30% of your success is based on how compelling of an offer you're presenting to your audience. Think about matching the optimal offer for that specific audience. Make the offer relevant. The advertiser in this restaurant guide offering the FREE fish taco has it all figured out.... hungry visitors, free food. The advertisers that simply tell you they exist are doomed for failure. There is no incentive to visit. There is no candy to attract.

The 10 represents the media or the look of the piece. Is it red? Is it blue? Is it direct mail or is it email? Is it a letter or an envelope? We can go really deep in this 10% space, but it plays a distant third place to matching the right offer to the right audience.

So what to do? Our client, the local community organization, is the one responsible for selling the program to the advertiser. We are functioning as the good guy, volunteer design and print partner in the shadows. We have no control over the advertiser's decision. And it is killing me.

Please don't ever make this same mistake. Dude, present an offer.