Name that Tune!

List brokers are singing the blues. Competition is vicious; rental volume, blamed variously on the weak economy, jittery clients and postal increases is down; prices—which do seem to obey certain inviolate economic laws are down; ultimately commissions—the lifeblood of list brokers and managers—are down.

All in all, it's truly a downer. In years of being in direct marketing, I have never seen so many emails from list mavens desperately hawking lists, offering to make free recommendations, or to put lists "on sale" to get my order.

As striking as the situation appears to be, the pain is not felt evenly across the list rental market. Specialty subsets within the larger list industry are faring better or worse than their peers. Here's a quick view of what's what, according to information just released by Worldata, one of the largest list brokerages in the world.

Attendees/Members, Public Sector and Donor files are the only categories of lists that have increased in price since 2006. They have seen increases of $16/M ($16 per thousand records), $12/M and $2/M respectively.

Donor files remain the lowest priced list category, with an average rental price of $85/M.

Permission-based email lists have gone from $290/M in 2005 up to a high of $299/M in 2008, dropping slowly to their current average rate of $269/M. Even with the drop in price, this category of list remains the most expensive domestic category.

Permission-based consumer email lists fell 49% in cost over the past 5 years. Why? The market is oversaturated. Too much supply; too little demand.

Permission-based international email lists have remained stable, with a continued average price of a whopping $407/M.

Permission-based Business-to-Consumer email category saw the largest price decrease year over year, plummeting 20.54% since 2006 to today's $89/M.

The highest percentage increase was in the Attendees/Members list category which saw a very modest 1.54% increase in price year over year.

So what does this mean to a list broker? Simply put, it means pain. Intense economic pain. List brokers are desperately looking for ways to differentiate their lists from the pack, even as margins get tighter, the rental market shrinks, and competition gets increasingly fierce. Times are bleak.

What does this mean to you, a list user? It means you may have just gotten lucky. Most list brokers are hungry. They are willing to reduce costs, accept lower minimum rentals, multiple use for a one-time use fee, or strike other deals with you to get the sale.

But those deals still do not include turning over lucrative opt-in email lists to the end-user. It's a line the legitimate list brokers/managers/owners are not prepared to cross.

Times are undoubtedly tough in the list industry. As a list user, you can expect brokerage consolidation soon. Expect to see marginally performing lists disappear off the rental market. Expect new selects that will help you dig down to find exactly the right people for your project. Expect new "hidden fees" for "special services" to emerge. And expect prices to keep moving around.

On a less upbeat note, you can expect a plethora of fly-by-night operators who offer a terrific-sounding product for an amazingly low price. If the offering price seems too good to be true, (I've seen offers of 100,000 records with full postal and email information for $99!), then it probably isn't true. Walk away. Don't let opportunistic predators into your wallet.

The list industry is in a bit of an upheaval right now. "Hard Times" to be exact. And that's the name of that tune.

It's not personal. It's math.

If you drive a car, use a bank or a credit card, shop at a grocery store, rent movies from Netflix, have a cell phone, surf the web, or live in the 21st Century, you’re probably a denizen of a databank somewhere.

Like it or not, Google, Facebook, Walmart and the government are building profiles of you. They know who you talk to and what you search for online. They know what you purchase and how much you buy. They know your likes and preferences.

Your car probably has a black box in it—just in case you’re ever in an accident—but also to track your position anywhere on the globe via GPS. Ditto your cell phone.

There’s no escaping scrutiny. You may keep a low profile, but these guys know more about you than even close family. You may hide your Mars Bars addiction at home, but these guys have your number.

And that’s just what you are to them: a vast series of numbers that describe your attributes.

Data mining is used to drill down through all those jumble of numbers to find the attributes (described by those numbers) that should resonate with your audience. Data mining is simply finding the patterns, relationships and correlations in all that stored information.

As marketers, you probably know that the problem is that there is simply so much data, it is hard to extract the exactly right bit of information to pinpoint your perfect target. And finding exactly the right bit is critical. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But fear not, gentle marketer. Exhaustive new programs are being written—even as I type—to simplify and clarify the process. Stay tuned. It is a brave new world out there. Soon even more information about your customers/donors/prospects will be available. At a price.

Have the money? If so, you can look like a marketing genius. After all, getting your message to someone who has a high likelihood of a positive response earns you better return on marketing investment. Your job is still to define the characteristics you are looking for. Then let the computers do the heavy lifting and sifting.

So what about individual privacy? Now there’s a quaint 20th Century concept. Forget about privacy in an era of Facebook and all-seeing cameras at every street corner. Sorry, it’s history.

Netflix and Amazon are using data mining today to increase sales. Enter their websites and they recognize you. They then recommend books and movies to you that “people like you” have enjoyed. The recommendations are based on the theory that you will enjoy what people like you have enjoyed. Aka, similar number strings like similar things.

Can beauty be in the eye of the beholder? Probably. If Netflix makes a movie recommendation and you like the pick, the information becomes useful. You come to rely on Netflix’ subsequent recommendations and the process becomes less like advertising and more like a friendly exchange between friends. Even robots and computers need friends, it seems.

It doesn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes you question what where they thinking. And sometimes you agree. But don’t take it personally.

Remember, it’s not personal. It’s math. It’s data mining.  And you are just a number in a computational labyrinth.

Gotta love NCOA

You can’t live with it. And you can’t mail without it.

I have to admit: We’re good do-bees. When the USPS says thou shalt NCOA all addresses before you mail, that’s what we do. But what is it really doing for our clients?

NCOA—National Change of Address—checks the validity of addresses on a datafile. It answers the questions (1) is the address accurate? and (2) does that individual/business still reside there?

OK. What constitutes an “accurate address”? NCOA gives more than 40 reasons why an address can fail. Some are fatal like a state abbreviated AM (what the heck is that?)…some are mere inconveniences like “Street” instead of “St”…and most errors are somewhere in the middle.

If you’re like most clients, once you get over the shock of potentially having 40 blunders in three simple lines of type, you start to determine how many precious records have fatal flaws…how many addresses are readily fixable (and who are you going to assign to do the heavy lifting)...and how many do you throw the dice on and “takes your chances.”

After you’re over that emotional and logistical hurdle, things get easier. NCOA now tells you if the intended recipient still resides there.

Sounds pretty black-and-white, doesn’t it: Yes, he does or No, he doesn’t. But of course it’s more complicated than that.

IF the person has moved within the US and IF the person has given the USPS a forwarding address and IF the address is typed accurately (human error creates a lot of bad data), then NCOA will tell you where to find that person. Maybe.

IF he’s a college student and has left home to study, maybe you can find him. IF he’s moved out and she’s still in the home, then maybe NCOA can track him down. IF he’s moved to Heavenly Acres Cemetery, then he’s probably left no forwarding address.

That’s a lot of “ifs.”

So you clean up the data you can, expunge the records you must, and do the mailing.

That’s exactly what our client, Jane, did. Only she put an endorsement line on her envelopes, requesting the post office to return all undeliverable mail.

Now Jane has six mail tubs of envelopes with USPS-affixed yellow stickies proclaiming No such address …Undeliverable as addressed … No Forwarding address and the like.

These addresses had all passed through the rigors of NCOA just days before. Yet a large percentage of the mail was clearly undeliverable.

We were commiserating over lunch about the problem.

“How long does it take to get an address change into the NCOA datafile?” she asked me.

“How can an address pass NCOA on Monday and be undeliverable on Friday?”

“Does a sticker that reads ‘Undeliverable as addressed’ really mean that? Or did the harried clerk pick a sticker at random and slap it on my letter? I’m pretty sure this letter got to the recipient before. What gives?”

Frankly, we don’t know what gives, so we called our regional postal authority to answer some of Jane’s many questions. Here’s what we learned:

* It takes 3-4 days to get an address change listed in the NCOA if someone fills out and mails the yellow address forwarding forms found at every post office.

* It takes about one hour and $1 if the person submits the information online. (The USPS sends a confirming letter—hence the $1 fee.)

* Sticker fatigue? Well, maybe. We looked at the returned envelopes and saw what looked to be good addresses. Each envelope had been read by a postal scanner to check for why the address was in error, and that information was compared to The Big Database in the Sky.

Address order could have caused some of the come-backs. Sometimes the address was 123 Apple Ave T1 (apartment T1) which is the correct addressing format. Sometimes the address was T1 123 Apple Avenue. That second presentation could have confused the smartest USPS computer.

* A couple of the envelopes had someone’s nickname. The computer doesn’t know that Robert is also called Bob, Rob, Bobbie and Robbie. Nicknames can lead to computer confusion.

* And since so many of Jane’s returns were from college students, we can assume that they didn’t bother to register when they changed housing each semester. Records older than 24 months can make the computer reject an address, too.

* Finally, the ubiquitous response: human error. Not infrequently, the USPS hardcopy change of address form is not readable. The USPS keypunchers are left to take educated guesses on spelling. Guesses lead to inevitable errors. Similarly, people who enter their information online make typing errors. Those errors can result in rejected mail later.

Want to check an address? The USPS suggests you to go their website: www.USPS.com. In the upper left corner click on Zip Code look up. Follow the steps and you’ll find out why the USPS computers have rejected that specific address. Maybe.

Whew! Now Jane’s got her answers. But she’s still got six mail tubs to sort through, ensuring her clerk will have job security for weeks.

I repeat: Gotta love NCOA. You can’t live with it and you can’t mail without it.

Get a USPS Endorsement

First a truth-in-advertising confession: Anyone can get an endorsement from the post office.

No, a postal endorsement is not a letter of recommendation that adds glowing creds to your resume. But it does sound important, doesn’t it?

An endorsement is a line of type under the return address that instructs the letter carrier to do something specific with the mail piece should the intended recipient not live there anymore.

In today’s economy, 40% of people moving in this country are sneaking out in the dead of night to avoid creditors. Not surprisingly, they fail to report their new location to the post office. And because they don’t report their whereabouts, USPS NCOA (National Change of Address) processing can’t find them.

So what’s a mailer to do? You don’t want to mail to people who have skipped town. After all, they are no longer the good prospects you had hoped they would be.

Self-protective act #1 is to run an NCOA on your data before you mail it. NCOA casts a wide net, and you’ll catch most—but not all—of your bad addresses.

Self-protective act #2 is using a postal endorsement to catch the people who fell through the NCOA safety net.

One endorsement reads ‘RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED.’ This instructs the postman to return the original mail piece to you. There will probably be a yellow sticker on it with an (not The) explanation. “Moved. Left no Forwarding Address”…“Addressee Unknown”…“Bad Address” etc. Then you remove the name from your mailing list as they are gone. Skeedaddled. Voted with their feet. Vamoosed.

If you’re lucky, they’ll show up another day, another time. But for today, they are probably laying low at the nearest KOA kampground.

Another endorsement reads ‘FORWARDING SERVICE REQUESTED.’ This wording instructs the postman to make a photocopy of the piece—with the yellow sticker affixed to it. He forwards the mail if he can and returns the photocopy to you.

The theory behind this processing is that your info gets to your recipient faster, and you can correct your data for your next mailing.

There are three major flaws with this thinking:

#1. Your intended recipient is gone. He hasn’t left a forwarding address. There simply is no one and no where to forward that letter to.

#2. Some idiot at the post office regularly puts the yellow corrective label directly over the addressee’s name and address. So even if you can read the corrected address, you can’t tell whose address is being corrected.

#3. The copier machine badly needs a new toner cartridge and you can’t read the information that the post office is so helpfully sending to you anyway.

You’ve probably guessed that this service has a price tag. However, if you’re mailing at First Class, your cost per piece returned is FREE. You saw it right: your cost is Zippo. Nada. If your piece weighs less than one ounce.

However, if you’re mailing that same piece at Standard or non-Profit rates, your cost per piece returned is $1.09.

And while $1.09 sounds rather high, if you consider the cost of not mailing to this non-existent person again and again with all that incumbent expense, it becomes much more reasonable.

Check with your post office to ensure you’re getting exactly the endorsement you want. And while you’re at it, check on other critical USPS requirements for endorsement lines including point size, spacing, and positioning.

Bottom line: a USPS endorsement sounds impressive, but it won’t help your resume at all. It can, however, help your mailing list stay up-to-date.

After all, keeping your list clean really is important when every penny counts.

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 1 of 3)

Get Personal. Get Results.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

If you’re thinking this article is another how-to guide with sure-fire tips to success in the sack, you’re wrong. So sorry to disappoint.

But if you think this article is how to make your direct marketing better, then you just got lucky. Read on!

Creating effective direct marketing is a lot like dating.

In dating, the more you know about the individual you’re going out with, the better your date can go. You know what to say, how to say it, and when to shut up and listen. A good date necessitates 2-way communication. As you learn more, you get better and better at communicating with the other person. A relationship develops.

Similarly, in direct marketing, the more you know about the individual recipient of your message, the better and more targeted you can make your approach to him or her.

Suppose you care passionately about a park proposed for your community. You decide to send a letter to everybody in 2-mile area asking for support. That is shot gun marketing. Not everyone is a donor. Not everyone cares. Even the small fraction of people who are donors may not care a whit about your park. It’s rough out there, Baby.

But send that same message to those people who are most likely to agree with you, and your success rate increases exponentially. Who are these folks? Bicyclers, campers, hikers, bird watchers, nature lovers of all stripes. They are your go-to constituency.

Blind dates and non-targeted “shot gun” marketing both have the same abysmal result: They are expensive, frustrating, usually doomed to failure. There has to be a better way.

While people who continue to go out on blind dates get what they deserve, marketers have indeed found a better way to find out whom they are approaching.

But first, a brief history of getting personal in direct marketing…

50 years ago, the height of getting personal in marketing was using the recipient’s name and address in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. All of us over a certain age remember getting letters that read in part

Dear WILLIAM E. JOHNSON,

The WILLIAM E. JOHNSON household is one of the few households in
SEVERNA PARK, MARYLAND receiving this letter…

In this Pleistocene era before computers became ubiquitous, this ALL CAPS stuff was sophisticated marketing. Recipients had never seen their names in print, much less their city and state. It stopped them in their tracks. It was revolutionary. It was wildly successful. For a time.
The quirky ALL CAPS novelty wore off quickly, so then marketers went to less obvious upper/lower casing. But the information content was unchanged. For years all marketers had to work with was the recipient’s name and address. We needed help.

In the 1960’s lists got more sophisticated. Soon 35,000+ lists were on the rental market, with each list purporting to be the absolutely best list available of people with some common interest or need. This was an improvement. Marketers could at least select recipient lists based on some common criterion.

But even that improvement was not enough. Not every list could be absolutely the best, nor even relevant. After all, one of the best producing lists of all time was a list of households that owned vacuum cleaners! What did owning a vacuum have to do with the price of tea in China?

OK, it wasn’t great, but it was getting better. We could at least choose our lists based on donor history, magazine subscriptions, membership in clubs and associations, and other general indicators.

Still, marketers only had a minimum amount of generalized information about the target group as a whole. Even with the advent of “selects” which allowed us to “drill down deeper” we lacked specificity about the individuals who comprised that amorphous whole.

The revolution began with the advent of inexpensive computers in the 1970s and 80s. As more organizations could afford computers (remember at the beginning of time, computer time that is, world experts predicted that only 24 computers could run the whole world!) the rules changed again.

Companies and organizations could keep their own data. They could keep it in greater depth, tracking such things as most recent donation/purchase and highest donation/purchase. There was a gleam in marketers’ eyes as we saw the possibilities.

It was another big improvement when we got selects for gender and implied age on consumer lists. It helped even more when we got selects for job title, company size (by number of employees or annual billings), and industry type on business-to-business lists.

Sure, we had some idea of who these people were and what they wanted/believed in/bought into (that’s what put them on the list probably, and what list research is supposed to ferret out, after all). But we also knew that good marketing copy is written by one individual to another individual. It’s one-to-one. It’s about being personal.

We needed more. And in just the last few years we finally got what we needed.

Today, there are dozens of data “filters” through which we can run lists to “data mine” the demographic and psychographic composition of the list.

OK, that’s a big mouthful. What it means is that finally we can determine the gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, language preference, household income, homeowner or renter, presence of children, personal interests, hobbies, credit worthiness, religious and political affiliations of individuals on lists. And that’s just for starters!

Filters can help determine education level, likely profession and level within that profession, as well as the car they drive and the music they listen to. We may know more about them than their Mothers!

What can we do with all this info, really? The goal is to take this new-found knowledge and use it well.

Part II of this series addresses what some innovative marketers are doing to use personalization in their prospect mailings.

===

Get Personal. Get Results.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
http://www.paulandpartners.net/ sales@paulandpartners

Dear upset client...

Dear Upset Client,

I've gotten your envelope with the returned mail pieces.

Yes, we did run NCOA (National Change of Address software) against your data before we mailed the job for you. You thought it was unnecessary, but we insisted. “It’s my list. I know them. Been mailing to them for years!” you said. But it really didn’t matter. New USPS regulations say we must run NCOA on any presorted classification of mail that includes a recipient’s name. That means First Class Presort, Standard or Non-Profit. That means you.

So we NCOA’d your data.

We corrected your bad addresses where possible. Your data was ugly, frankly, and we corrected what we could for you. You’re welcome.

Yes, we did update the recipient’s address where possible. You hadn’t cleaned your data since the flood—OK, since 1953, but that’s an eon in marketing. Even the best NCOA list only goes back 48 months. 1953 is two generations ago!

And yes, we did delete a lot of folks. Not surprisingly, a huge number of your folks are dead. Let’s see, if they started donating in 1953 at age 50, they’d be 106 today. 106-year olds just don’t donate the way they used to.

Yes, it was a surprise to us, too, that 25% of your list was deceased. Maybe that’s why they left no forwarding address. Maybe that’s why your response rates have been going down the drain of late. Maybe that’s why you’re paying more in postage and printing and production and seeing fewer dollars back each year. Go figure.

We didn’t—but could have—run your list against a list of people currently living at government expense in Leavenworth, Kansas. Knowing your database, we didn’t think that was necessary.

We differentiated for you between individual moves (ie divorces, going away to school, moving to a nursing home, etc) and family moves and did as you directed us to do on each one.

And yes, we eliminated the folks who had moved overseas, addresses with fatal flaws, and businesses that had closed.

We also did an internal dedupe, so that you would send only one letter to the Smith household. When we started with your data clean up, the Smiths were getting 5 letters. One to Bob and Mary Smith, one to Robert and Mary Smith, one to Robert Smith, one to Mary Smith and one to Bob Smith. Remember we told you that 40% of your list was duplicate addresses? That’s what we meant. The Smiths were getting five letters from you each time you mailed!

So we did all this clean up for you, and then we gave you your data back. Ignore what we sent you at your peril. We don’t want to go through all this with you next time. It would be like taking the same hill twice.

I’m truly sorry you are disappointed that your list went from 136,000 people to 28,000. I think you’d be glad. Instead of mailing 108,000 bad and iffy addresses, you’ll be mailing to 28,000 good ones. If those 28,000 people give like they have been giving, your response rate will skyrocket even as your costs plummet. Now that’s a win/win in my book. Sorry you don’t see it that way.

Now about those 86 bad addresses you sent me.

In 100% of the cases, the yellow stickie labels say "Unable to Forward." They do not say the address was bad--which substantiates the value of the NCOA. They say "Unable to Forward."

In this economy people are moving in the dead of night. They simply leave the key in the mailbox and drive away. It’s one way to temporarily avoid creditors. Dying is another. Both result in “Unable to Forward” stickies.

Currently, 40% of those who move do NOT send their new address info to the Post Office which means that that 40% will not be caught on an NCOA.

Please contact me in a month when your campaign is running at full tilt.

I bet those 86 records that are aggravating you today don’t look so bad then.

Thank you.


43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
http://www.paulandpartners.net/ sales@paulandpartners.net

Why do I like direct mail?

As a marketer, I like direct mail because it is a proven marketing technique that’s been around for years. Yes, it’s a bit old fashioned. But that’s not always a bad thing. You can get hurt on a cutting edge. It’s all perspective.

I like the preparation and planning that goes into a mailing. The thousand and one decisions that can make or break the campaign. The copy. The graphics. List segmentation. Proofs and press checks. Deadlines and re-dos. The stress and the pressure. The teamwork. And the feeling when it’s all over that “We got it right.”

If, as my wise Grandmother used to say, “Anticipation is half the fun of getting there” then that time waiting for the mail to hit is indeed a delicious pins-and-needles pleasure. But much like Alaskans who wager on the day and hour when the frozen river will break up in spring, we wait anxiously for the day when the mail hits.

Watching early returns come in is like a game of expanding geography. First the areas closest to our mailing point come in, then spreading farther afield, moving from East Coast to West Coast in a predictable pattern validating our pre-launch planning.

As a user of direct mail, I know it works. I see responses come in, building housefiles, making sales and providing information we can use to make our next campaign even better. Every response is validates the planning process and ultimate execution. Our team rocks!

I value how targetable direct marketing is. I know that by pinpointing our message to each audience in our universe, we can make our approach more personal and generate more response. Manipulative? Maybe a little. Marketing magic? Absolutely!

I appreciate how statistically quantifiable direct mail marketing is. No other media allows us to know exactly how many people received our message, how many opted to respond, and at what level of commitment. It proffers verifiable, concrete proof of performance.

On the other hand, as a recipient, I like direct mail because it lets me choose who/what to let into my home, my head, my wallet. It’s polite and gracious, allowing me to respond as I deem appropriate.
I like direct mail for its “keeper” value. I can act on it immediately, or I can store it away for action later. I go back to it when or if I want to, on my time, at my convenience. I keep catalogs so I can see fashion trends on the horizon—and confirm just how truly hopeless I am.

I like direct mail because it has tactile value. I can hold it in my hand. It has physical heft and reality.

I like direct mail because it has a wonderful freshly printed smell that is faintly reminiscent of my Father’s beloved workshop.

My bottom line: I like direct mail because it works. On so many levels.

Need help with your direct mail marketing? Consult a professional like Paul&Partners. We’ll help you navigate the postal regulations to ensure you get the best postage rate available to you. We’ll help you design a package that is the right one for you and your budget.

Check us out at www.PaulandPartners.net. Let us know how we can help make your next marketing program more successful.

43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166

Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858

www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners

The Death of Direct Mail?

If Mark Twain famously wrote that "rumors of my death are highly exaggerated" much the same can be said of direct mail marketing. Just look at these new statistics:

Nearly 40% of American consumers have tried a new business because of information they received from that business via direct mail. (DMNews/Pitney Bowes survey)

That same survey also disclosed that nearly 70% of consumers have renewed a relationship with a business because they received direct mail from that business.

And if having those overwhelming figures in your favor isn't enough, consider this:

* Most consumers say they prefer mail as the delivery method for "must-read" documents. (infoPrint Solutions)

So if you are not considering incorporating direct mail marketing into your marketing plans, then you are missing a real opportunity to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. That means lost opportunity for you. And lost opportunity = fewer $$. Fewer $$ means...well, you get the picture.

Consider this: despite the current economy, 29% of marketing professionals indicate they are increasing their 2009 marketing budgets. More than 40% say they are maintaining their 2008 budget levels. So that's almost 70% of marketing pros maintaining or increasing marketing dollars.

The pros know. Direct marketing is good for business.

Trim your marketing spending by even a smidgeon, and it can cost you big. The now-classic textbook case of Kmart proves the point.

In the 2001 recession, Kmart cut marketing slightly for two months in the early fall. In month 1 of the cutback, Kmart sales dropped by an astounding 5%, costing them more in sales than they saved by trimming back on the marketing budget. Management quickly reversed the decision and put bucks back into the marketing budget.

Need more proof of the vitality of direct mail marketing? Here you go....

Can you guess what is the most dependable, most response-trackable media? You got it: Direct Mail. Only direct mail can tell you exactly how many pieces you mailed to generate a specific response.

TV can deliver "eyeballs" but those eyeballs are often snoozing in front of the tube. Radio brings "ears" but those ears may be tuning out your message. Newspapers are losing so much marketshare that they are shutting down. On-line ads are annoying, expensive, and/or ignorable. Only direct mail requires that you interact with it.

When someone gets direct mail, he has to make a conscious decision to read it or toss it. He can't just ignore it. That split second as he makes his read-it-or-toss-it decision gives you, the marketer, a little window of opportunity to get your message across.

It's a tiny window, but it's often enough. When 40% of the American public says direct mail influences their buying patterns, you've just got to go with the flow. Ignore direct mail at your own financial peril.

Need help with your direct mail marketing? Consult with a professional like Paul&Partners. We'll help you navigate the postal regulations to ensure you get the best postage rate available to you. We'll help you design a package that is the right one for you and your budget.

Check us out at www.PaulandPartners.net. Let us know how we can help make your next marketing program more successful.

43670 Trade Center Place, Suite 150, Dulles, VA 20166
Phone: 703.996.0800 Fax: 703.996.0888 1.866.365.2858
www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners

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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