Psst! I'm talking to YOU! Almost 8 hints to cut through the noise

Machines run our lives today. They ring. They beep. They vibrate. They unfailingly demand our attention. And if you're like most of us, you readily give in to their insistent electronic demands. That we can still function despite all the electronic distraction is a testament to our capacity to multi-task.

Multi-tasking is both an amazing intellectual skill unique to humans and the bane of a marketer's existence. For to be successful in marketing, you've got to get someone's attention. And that means cutting through all the cacophony of electronic noise that fills heads today.

As a marketer, you know the first challenge is to make your message heard above the noise...to make people stop, listen and respond to your message. But it isn't as easy as it sounds. "Psst! I'm talking to you!" has never been more difficult.

But hey! You're in marketing, and you're up for a good challenge. So here are a few techniques to help you combat the multi-tasking madness:

1. Repetition. If they don't hear you the first time, say it again. How many times a day do you hear ads for McDonalds? It's about getting someone's attention and cutting through the clutter. And coincidentally about selling a burger or two.
2. Choose your Audience carefully. Studies show that 40% of your success is based on the list you use. If the audience is wrong, your message—even a brilliantly creative one—will fail.
3. Personalization. Catch your recipient's attention—at least momentarily. Call them by name. Refer to their last purchase/donation by date or dollar amount. Mention their hobby or passion. Make your message about them. After all, everybody likes to talk about themselves.
4. Timeliness. Make your message pertinent to your recipient. It is no coincidence that Super Bowl ads often have football themes.
5. KISS it. Keep it short and simple. Attention spans are shortening. Recipients only have so much time they will expend on your message. They've got to get back to their texting, after all.
6. Make it amusing. They may not have much time, but everyone likes to laugh.
7. Experiment. If your message or audience isn't suited to one media, change your message, change your audience or change your media. Find the combination that yields best results, then "work it."
8. Repetition. Successful marketing today is a lot like voting in old-time Chicago. Market them early and market them often. And yes, I am repeating myself.

You get the picture. Marketing in this noisy environment is not for the faint of heart, but there are techniques that will make you more successful.

I could go on, but Dancing With the Stars is starting soon, I've got to check my email and the phone is ringing.

I know you understand.

Direct Mail: Dinosaur or Dynamite?

If you're under 30 you may think Direct Mail is ancient technology. Passe'. A marketing dinosaur in an increasingly electronic age. But before you write off Direct Mail as being irrelevant, youngster, you may need a bit larger perspective than your tender years allow.

What you may not realize is that direct mail is the Grand Dame of marketing. Like Grand Dames everywhere, Direct Mail lead the way to Direct Marketing. Like what other Grand Dames—Katherine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor—did for the film industry, Direct Mail did for Direct Marketing.

If Hepburn and Taylor showed ingenue actresses who followed how to act with style and maximize their assets, Direct Mail showed upstart media like email, websites, microsites, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, other social media and YouTube how to do it with style... and how to maximize their results.

Segment data, test packaging, test messages. Use personalization, teasers and pinpoint messaging to get the best return on investment. The first media to do it all—and to do it all right—was Direct Mail.

But life goes on. Sometime around 1960 the electronic invasion began and direct marketing rules started to change. Equipment got smaller, faster. New technologies arose to take advantage of these smaller, faster thingies. Other new technologies allowed better data capture and collection. This is where you enter the picture, newbie—at the dawn of the electronic era.

The wave of new media changed the way we communicate, giving us many new ways to do so. And because the older generation really does want to communicate with the younger (please ask your Mother), Direct Mail had to learn a few new tricks as well. After all, a True Grand Dame can evolve—just look at what Elizabeth Taylor became. (I could digress at length, but will avoid the temptation.)

Today, savvy marketers of all generations say Direct Mail has proven to be one of the most effective means of driving leads to websites and mobile platforms.

How did Direct Mail do it? By integrating new technology into print media. That's how. Personalized urls (PURLS), and quick response codes (QR codes) are only two of the most obvious techniques Direct Mail has made its own.

Variably printed PURLs direct prospects to personalized microsites customized to the individual recipient's interests and concerns. On the self-named site, recipients can leave specific information about themselves, which allows the marketer to prequalify leads and segment lists for more accurate messaging later.

Want another great evolutionary and revolutionary example? Try QR codes! QR codes take a recipient with a smart phone straight from the printed page to the mailer's webpage, YouTube video, or FaceBook page.

Want to promote something with a web-based address? A QR code is the fastest shortcut to get an interested person there. Want to segment your list into different messages or different platforms? Use different QR codes—one for each message or platform.

And it gets better! The USPS is so excited about QR codes, that it is offering a 3% postage rebate in July and August of 2011 for mail pieces that meet the requirements. I mean, when have you heard of the government giving the public something? Big banks and brokerages, car manufacturers, oil drillers, Big Ag and pharmaceutical megalopolies, sure. But you and me? This is amazing!

But more is coming. This is only the beginning. Direct marketing is evolving as I type. Intense list segmentation and data mining is creating the possibility of ever more personalized approaches. Variable Data Printing ensures that each recipient can get a message and graphics specific to that person's needs and interests. I can't begin to predict where Direct Marketing will be in even a few months. But someone somewhere is working on an amazing new app today that will change the conversation yet again tomorrow.

After all, Grand Dames don't become Grand Dames by sitting around on their tushes and eating bon bons. They get out and do things. They make things happen. They change themselves and their worlds.

That's what Direct Mail has done... and is doing. In the process it has become marketing dynamite.

Listen Up. I’m only going to tell you once…

The masters of marketing say that you have tell prospects what you are going to tell them... then you tell them... and then you remind them of what you told them. In other words, repeat your message.

So why would you think that one email or one direct mail or one tweet or one text message would be enough? Surely one of anything will pull in some business, but if there were an easy way to multiply your effectiveness wouldn't you want to do it?

You'd be an idiot not to! And yo' Momma didn't raise no idiots. Right?

But if you've read this far you already know how to create this marketing magic.

Need a hint?

Go back and read the first paragraph again. And again.

Got it now? Repeating your message is good marketing.

No, I'm not saying to robotically say the same thing over and over again until you hypnotize your audience into zombie-like group think. I'm saying to use multi-channel marketing. Mix the media, but not the message.

Need corroboration? Consider this statistical gem: Direct, targeted direct mail, combined with a same-day delivery of an email can boost response rates above 10%.

It starts with direct mail. 98% of consumers retrieve their mail the day it is delivered; and 77% of that 98% sort through it immediately. A great DM piece—well written, well designed, well presented—grabs eyeballs and attention. It probably lands in a "to do" pile, and it probably brings in a 3-8% return.

Now add a little "sweetener" in the form of a complementary email. Same message. Same graphics. Same call to action. Same day. Voila' marketing magic!

OK, usually only 10% of your email recipients open your email, and only about 10% of that 10% click through to your offer. Now that's an itsy bitsy group, but if the email and the DM appear on the same day, they exponentially reinforce each other.

Let me say it one more time:

Mix your media and repeat your message.

Then get out of the way.

Belly Up to the Barcodes, Boys!

Barcodes have come a long way from the UPC codes that took grocery stores by storm in the 1970s.

On one day recently —Black Friday, 2010—product barcode scanning was 30 times higher than the same day in 2009. Thirty times in just 12 months! If my retirement fund behaved that way I wouldn't have to keep working until I'm 80. But that's another story.

In order of popularity, toy scans beat out electronics (#2) and housewares (#3). But books beat out everybody. Seems that folks with smart phones also like to read. Hmmm. I thought they liked to text each other and compare notes on who had more electronica on their phone. Shows what I know.

Anyway, the huge increase in barcode usage started with the acceptance of smart phone technology. Just a few years ago smart phones were simply clever ads on TV. Today 30% of us—phone-using Americans, that is—have smart phones with their myriad downloadable applications. "Apps" for the cognoscente.

Among those apps are ways to find the best deal on a specific item in a specific geographic area, price comparisons, manufacturers' coupons, and offers from restaurants where you can relax between forays into the maelstrom at the mall.

Jumping on the barcode bandwagon, Big Box retailers like Toys R US and Target as well as cyber behemoth Amazon are using barcodes to push product.

Toys R Us stores have barcode scanners so sales clerks can scan mobile e-mail coupons straight from the smart phones. Target lets customers earn points simply for entering the store and scanning certain items. No purchase necessary.

Amazon lets users scan items in brick-and-mortar stores see if they can get a better deal through the online retailing giant. (Jeff Bezos, Amazon's founder and muse wasn't Times' Man of the Year a decade ago just because he had a pretty face!)

But barcodes are a lot more flexible than just aiding shopaholics. They have a real place in marketing for smaller companies, too! Companies like yours and mine.

For instance, want to get people from your corporate brochure or business card to your really kickin' website? A QR code does the trick. Point. Click. Show off your flash.

I mean, how impressive is that?

QR codes are also popping up on road signs, billboards, window posters, bus signage, newspaper advertising, church bulletins, sports programs and even clothing.

I've seen them on "For Sale" signs in front of million dollar houses; take a cyber tour of your dream home and never leave your car.

Click on the sign in the restaurant window to see the daily specials.

Click on the politician's roadside sign and watch him tell you his policy statement on road congestion while you're stuck in traffic.

Click on the barcoded tee shirt worn by a landscaping company employee and see what the company can do to help your weed-infested lawn even as you see guided tours of their favorite success stories.

Once you know what QR codes and a bit of imagination can do for your marketing, you'll see a thousand uses.

It's what you do with it that counts.

Belly up to the barcode, boys. It's almost closing time and you need to get with it.

What Goes Around Comes Around, "Snail mail" gains new creds

Just a few years ago, when online marketing was still a twinkle in the eyes of the marketing technocrats, those same overly ambitious techies prematurely announced, “Direct Mail is Dead.” 

And while the premature announcement of DM’s demise didn’t make the cover of Time Magazine, it nonetheless shook the marketing community to its roots. 

Direct mail (DM), the long-time savior of all things marketing, became denigrated as “Snail Mail” — slower than the electron-fast e-mail marketing that was rising to prominence.  Fast was in; slow was out.  Shotguns were in; rifles were out. 

Well, that view is so... yesterday.

Today, the brilliant target-ability of direct mail has proven its worth as a tried-and-true in-the-trenches marketing success story.  Sure, DM has taken a hit from email and its electronic cousins.  Mail volume has dropped dramatically over the last 10 years, hurting both the USPS and providers of mailing services.

But consider this:  your letter/postcard/catalog/package now shares the mailbox with far fewer competing pieces of mail.  That means your recipient has longer to ponder your offer than ever before.  You get more “eyeball time,” and because there is less competition, response rates are rising again.

One retailer analyzed side-by-side marketing performance of three media:  DM, email and in-store promos.  With response up 150% from the previous year with no significant change in strategy, DM was the hands down winner over flashier new media.

So here’s the headline:  Snail mail, the so-called “obsolete marketing media,” is outperforming digital, including social media.  Who’d a-thunk it just 10 years ago?  DM is leading the new marketing wave.

The Past is Prologue.

Word.

Show me a Little Love!

Every marketer—whether working in a for-profit or not-for-profit—has one goal: Get customers, clients and donors to “Show Me the Love.” You want them to sign in, sign up, and send money.

In the dark days of yore, your options to reach these folks were limited. Direct mail; print, radio and TV advertising (or PSAs); public relations (like press releases); telephone solicitations; special events, and of course, word-of-mouth. You recognize it: It’s Marketing 101 stuff.

But today is a Brave New World, gentle people. Statistics show that each one of us is bombarded with 5,000+ advertising messages per day. That’s more than our great grandparents saw in their entire lifetimes!

Email, social media, PURLs, and text messaging has added opportunity, but has made it harder to get your message to stand out from the crowd. Figuring out where you get your donations or sales from is affecting marketers in all industries.

We are all adrift in a sea of uncertainty. Some of us simply have better life jackets than others.

So many options. So few facts.

Before you develop that fatal deer-in-the-headlight stare, consider the age of your target market. Younger folk have a variety of paths from which they get information, and no single channel predominates. Muddying the picture further, the X and Y crowd don’t seem to have developed the brand loyalty of older generations, so their allegiance is up for grabs until a clear pattern emerges. Older folks tend to stay with what they know and are comfortable with.

Here is what’s working (or not!) for a variety of marketers:

Retail. 100% of us buy retail. Just ask Safeway. But just over half of us say they have made contributions at the grocery or retail store. Most of the contributors are younger, as older folk still prefer to receive their information through direct mail, and younger people tend to spend and give more spontaneously (ie “Would you like fries with that?” “Of course!”)

Internet. Despite lingering privacy issues, most of us shop on-line today. Retailers are making great headway on the web. Non-profits are benefiting as well. 35% of the Gen Xers have gone on a charity’s web site to contribute as have 29% of the Gen Yers. But here’s the bad news: What had gotten them to that website in the first place is still TBD.

Social Media. Social Media is still largely a young person’s game. Nearly 100% of individuals under 30 use social media, with that percentage decreasing as age increases. While many of the younger users look to friends for recommendations, older users don’t. 36% of those under 30 years old have talked about a charity with friends in the past month and 29% have posted that information on their Facebook page; oldsters, not so much.

Text messaging. With near 100% cell phone market penetration, you’d think that text messaging would be huge. For instance, 77% of the public had heard about contributing to Haiti earthquake relief via their cell phones and 36% indicated willingness to contribute this way. But there is a huge generational divide. While 13-14% of the X and Yers contribute by phone, only 4% of Boomers do.

Social Events. Younger people tend to prefer social events such as 5K runs and galas. Older individuals who participate in galas tend to be gala goers, not long term prospects for donations (“I want to be seen with the right people.”) Younger people tend to give/buy spontaneously without much forethought. By comparison, older donors like to do research before they invest (think Consumer Reports and charity watchdogs), hence social events provide a bit of peer pressure to get more from younger audiences.

Direct Mail. Direct Mail is still one of the best channels for reaching people. DM earned attention—and money—from almost 100% of the Boomers, 43% of the Xers and 26% of the Yers in the last year. The age divide continues: Individuals born before 1965 voiced a strong preference for direct mail; people born after 1965 preferred web sites.

It goes on and on. Today’s multi-channel environment demands that marketers find new ways to determine response rates and ROI. We’ve figured that much out.

We haven’t figured out how to compute the value of internet vs DM (direct mail) vs WoM (word of mouth) vs text messaging vs Social Media vs special events, etc.

So many options. So few facts.

Like so many things, it used to be simpler.

Give me a hug. I need one.

Get what you pay for

The third rule of economics is simple: You get what you pay for. It’s been an immutable economic fact of nature. Until now. In a blink of an eye, technology took over and the rule changed.

TV has Tivo. Consumers can avoid those pesky commercials with a click of the button. That 30-minute show turns into a commercial-free 22 minutes just like that! 8 minutes saved! I love my Tivo. Of course, those commercials paid for that programming, but what the heck?!

OK, someone has to be watching the commercials that keep my shows on the air. But it isn’t me. Not any more.

Newspapers and Magazines are also seeing dramatically dwindling ad sales. The lucky ones find buyers or mergers. The less lucky ones go the way of the late lamented Gourmet.

The inventive survivors look for alternative income streams like paid on-line subscriptions (not gaining much traction yet) or ads (annoying, but necessary) or pay-for-special-features promotions (too early to tell).

In an act of solidarity with those who produce the written word, I send magazine subscriptions to family and friends at the holidays. I’m not sure my tiny “Atta Boy” is worth much in the great scheme of things financially to the publishers, but it makes me feel better about canceling my daily newspaper subscription two years ago.

You see, I couldn’t read the paper during my daily commute-by-car, and the ever-growing pile of newspaper carcasses impeded anyone from sitting in my passenger seat. So now I read the paper on the internet at lunch. For Free! A world-class newspaper for Free! It’s one of life’s real bargains. Thank goodness for the advertisers and readers who keep it afloat for me every day. I love you guys!

The internet—the technological instrument of destruction for thousands of magazines and newspapers—didn’t get it at first either. Obtrusive pop-up ads alienated viewers, then pay-for-click evolved. But this is still TBD, and the technology is evolving daily—just ask the SEO guys who are always scrambling to keep up. Do I do my part to underwrite this world-changing media? Probably not. My husband is doing more than enough. I’ll sit this one out, too.

My favorite NPR and PBS stations, realizing that they can get on board or get run over, are broadcasting on the internet, sending shows to anyone anywhere with a computer. They also podcast, webcast, simulcast and recast. And yes, hosts are on FaceBook and Twitter, too. Twice a year they ask for a donation which I am happy to fork over. I’d pay for those real-time traffic alerts, even without the extraordinary content.

So, like most of us, I pay for the media I most value, and hope someone else will pick up the bill for the other guys. With my Tivo I can watch TV and skip the commercials. With my internet connection I can read the newspaper I once subscribed to and ignore the ads that pay for it. I can listen to my NPR and PBS stations with no cash outlay should I choose to do so. It is obvious to me that technology is rewriting the third law of economics. Today, I can get what I don’t pay for.

What is less obvious is that mail is a medium, too—like TV, newspapers, radio, internet. Way before Al Gore thought of the internet, Ben Franklin was putting the post office together. Hence, direct marketing is one of the oldest media around, and is so institutionalized it is easy to overlook. But very time I put a stamp on a letter I’m helping to pay for it.

Direct Mail has been hammered by time and technology, too. Email has almost wiped out whole classes of Mail. The escalating cost of postage is a significant damper in its own right. But now comes “Do Not Mail” legislation—ostensibly a “green” movement upset over destruction of trees.

I’m probably the greenest person you’ll meet today, but I think this legislation, though well intended, is in fact destructive.

Recently Postmaster General John Potter took on proponents of “Do Not Mail” legislation, citing that advertising mail helps fund the USPS.

“Somehow, they think a sale offer coming through the mail—as opposed to a newspaper, a magazine, TV, radio or the Internet—is a bad thing” he said at the National Press Club. “Ads pay for the Internet as well as broadcast TV and radio programs. So, too, ad mail helps pay for universal mail service in America.”

That’s right: DNM threatens universal mail service.

Most of us love—and expect—universal mail service. It’s our right to get mail, even if it’s an envelope from ValPak chock-a-block with ads from maid services, tree surgeons and power washers. That blue envelope helps buoy up the US Postal system in a way that the monthly bill from the cable provider who rents me the Tivo can’t.

The volume of the advertising mail helps keep USPS numbers high. Ad mail doesn’t have to be delivered at a breakneck pace, giving the USPS opportunity to plan distribution and maximize delivery efficiencies. Hence, robust advertising mail numbers are vital to USPS financial health.

But mail volume is down by about 28 billion pieces in FY 2009—driven down by postage, by the internet, by the economy, by dire doom-and-gloom forecasts, by home foreclosures, and by a series of sequential well-reported economic disasters and expensive bailbouts. So despite slashing 40,000 jobs and trimming $6 billion from its costs this year, the USPS lost $3 billion.

Everyone knows the USPS can’t lose money like this forever. But everyone also expects to dependably receive mail. That’s what universal mail service is all about. It’s a given. Like the third rule of economics.

But today technology is voiding the third rule of economics. DNM could nix universal mail service just as effectively.

It’s all about ME! LoL

Gen-Xers famously seem to think that everything is all about them. Their needs. Their wants. Their expectations.

But you know, fellow marketers, they’re right! Maybe it’s not media-hyped self-centeredness at all. Just maybe it’s simple self-awareness.

Think about it. The Gen-Xers have figured it out: They’re consumers of the products/services you and I—old fogies that we are—have to offer. They can choose to buy into our pitch, or opt out of it entirely. Yes indeed, they are in the proverbial driver’s seat.

These guys grew up with remote controls in their hands. They got their first cell phone in the sixth grade; text messaging is their native language. They listen to music pulsing through those cute white wires in their ears. They don’t read newspapers; they download.

Jon Stewart is their go-to guy. They have best-buddy lists that reach out electronically to thousands of people. They are hooked in and tuned on. We’re the foreigners in this strange land, not them.

They are smart, educated and tech-savvy. They know what they want, and if you’re selling the hot technology and gizmos, good for you! On the other hand, what’s in today is out tomorrow. So you’ve got to stay on top of your game just to stay in the game.

However, if you’re selling retirement plans, your job is a lot tougher. These 20-somethings live in the here-and-now. Tomorrow is a long way away for them. 40 years hence is almost incomprehensible.

Making it worse, the economic downturn has left many of them who never knew anything but the good old go-go days reeling with justified fear. Social Security? Probably not a reality for them and they know it.

Selling big-ticket items like real estate? Hmmm. The Gen-Xers get “hooked up” later (they don’t trust the institution of marriage the way their now-divorced parents did) and have fewer children. Maybe they don’t need the McMansions you’re hocking. And they certainly don’t want the high mortgages that go with them.

This generation will be inheriting an earth that is noisy, dirty and overheating. Going green is more than a slogan for them. Their efforts to live green may be what makes the earth inhabitable for their children. And they know that, too.

While they have cash—lots of it—to spend, theirs may be the first generation of Americans that has lower expectations than their parents. And marketers have to come to terms with that.

If we want to address them successfully…if we want to earn their trust and their business…then we have to realize that it is all about them.

How can we as marketers become their new BFFs?

Chose a marketing media that is appropriate, like direct mail. This tech-wise generation loves “old fashioned” direct mail catalogs which they keep as reference books and use to make informed buying decisions later.

The Facebook generation loves the privacy of direct mail; and because so many of their “human interfaces” are electronic, they still get a genuine thrill when they get a letter in the mail.

Use marketing media that speak to them, like email. OK, email is so 1990s, but it’s still a very effective tool with the right message to the right list. Email lists, while still more expensive than DM lists, are coming down in price, and the ability to segment to reach the exact group you need is quite good. Best yet: you get almost instantaneous feedback.

Use new marketing media like PURLs and SMS text messaging. These new cross-platform media proved enormously successful in Obama’s run for the Presidency. They “galvanized the base” (read: they energized the very people we’re writing about here!) and can help you get your message out too. Read the next article about PURLs to learn more about these newest marketing technologies.

But it’s not just how you say it, it’s what you say. Forget the fluff. Hold the hype. Give them real, valuable content. It’s what they want and what they expect.

They are bombarded with information every day. They can—with a few keystrokes—find almost anything they need to make a buying decision. And yes, they want information from you, too, but they want it on their own terms. If they think you’re “selling” them, they’ll turn you off in a hot minute. However, if you’re providing honest content, they’ll give you their time and attention.

The content has to be relevant. It has to arm them with facts about your company, your industry, solutions to problems, approaches they can take, and the best practices that lead to successful relationships. Give them answers to their questions, and you give them the ability to make up their mind about you.

They can choose to listen in or tune out. They can decide if you are relevant, or not. Thumbs up or thumbs down.

Is it all about them? You bet it is!

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