I want OUT!

Listen to me, online advertisers. I mean it, dammit!

No, I don't want to be a pharmacy technician. I do not want to buy a foreclosed property. And I certainly don't want the electronic cigarettes you've been pushing at me lately.

So I've taken the next step.

Knowing that it is a matter of months before the FTC will force you to honor my request to leave me alone in my self-imposed cyber isolation, I have decided to preemptively kick you guys off my screen and out of my life.

It was easy. I simply visited www.AboutAds.info, an admittedly Beta Website (ie maybe not ready for prime time yet), and opted out of the 43 companies that were following me online.

The site which introduces itself as a self-regulatory effort by the online marketing industry (sponsors are listed in the right column) lets consumers like me see which advertisers are following us. By clicking on the box to the right of the advertiser's name, and then hitting "submit" I informed all 43 of you to take a hike.

Bye bye!

Now if those ads for the electronic cigarettes keep showing up, I'll know what "self-regulation" means in the advertising industry.

The FTC is looking for comments on its pending legislation to control online tracking which the ad industry insists can be self-regulating. I can't wait to tell them what I know.

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

How Do We Fare on the Environmental Report Card?

Is “going green” important? You betcha! After all, we only have one world and we need to protect it. All of it.

For the record, I come down firmly in the green camp. My hybrid Prius gets 50+ mph; at home, our lights at home are all low-energy fluorescent and LCD (which, by the way, cut 30% off our electric bill immediately); we had the first recycle bin on the block; and our yard is certified by National Wildlife. Eighteen months ago we installed a new Energy Star furnace and air conditioner.

Just yesterday we got our electric bill. Last month we started unplugging appliances when not in use to see if we could cut down on our electric bill and help our carbon footprint. The answer: we saved another 5% by unplugging the "vampire power" suckers. We're so far ahead of the neighbors, we're talking about selling carbon footprint offset vouchers to them.

At the office, things are a bit dicier.

Last year I convinced the building association to stop using dangerous chemicals to melt ice and snow. I’m still trying to get them to consider a green, living roof which will help clean the air, control water runoff, and reduce the building’s carbon footprint. After all, the roof has to be replaced in 5 years; I think we need to start thinking about options. The lifespan of a “regular” flat commercial roof is 10-15 years; the lifespan of a green roof can be 50. So it would make both economic and environmental sense, I proffer futilely, to the sound of no hands clapping.

Where I have more control, we’re doing a bit better. We do all the obvious environmentally sound practices. We use FSC and recycled papers as much as possible. We have a company-wide auto CAFÉ of over 35mph. We recycle what we can and we don’t dump chemicals into the water. We have set-back thermostats, so we moderate climate control during off-peak hours, and all our equipment is as energy efficient as current technology allows.

But Paul & Partners is still in Direct Marketing, which “harvests”100 million trees each year to produce the paper for 100 billion pieces of mail. Yes, DM leaves a huge footprint on our environment.
The USPS, God Bless ‘em, keeps coming up with truly brilliant methods to help the DM industry go greener.

Remember the 90% postage hike last summer that left magazine mailers gasping? In its wake, dozens of magazines folded. Viola! Just like that, the USPS helped save thousands of endangered trees, and made the planet a bit greener.

The catalog corollary is that a number of successful catalogs including those for Timberland, Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus are being phased out completely. They’re going online. Fewer catalogs in the mail mean a greener mail stream.

A secondary benefit of fewer pieces in the mail is felt by my mail carrier, Chris. He’s getting better mileage out of his USPS truck because it’s not weighted down with enormous catalogs printed on hefty 80# gloss stock. As a result, he’s making his rounds faster. So he’s saving gas and getting home earlier in the day. His dog appreciates the extra time with Dad, too.

And that’s just the benefit from just one USPS effort to help us clean up our act! There’s more!

Remember the mandatory NCOA rule that went into effect last November? Suddenly DMers are having their service bureaus--companies similar to Paul & Partners--cleaning their lists religiously, purging bad addresses, eliminating dead wood, reducing the number of pieces going into print and mail.

OK, we should have been doing list hygiene all along, but the USPS-inspired Tough Love has cut the “junk” out of “junk mail.” And that is good.

The USPS is doing its bit internally, too. They are testing a small fleet of hydrogen vehicles. So far the fleet is limited to LA and DC because of the lack of hydrogen sources, but it’s a start.
The USPS is trying to close underutilized facilities to save on utilities, rents, maintenance, and yes, payroll. It’s basic economics, and makes good green sense.

By utilizing automation as much as possible, the USPS is processing mail faster, with fewer humans in the loop. Humans, unlike machinery, demand health care, vacations, breaks, and can only work 8 to 12 hours a day. Machinery is a lot more efficient, and can work 24 hours a day without complaining. That efficiency enhances greenness.

The economy is lending a hand, too. As banks fail and merge, mail dries up. As non-profits sputter to a standstill because they can’t get donations, the mail stops. As retailers and car dealers hang on by their fingernails because no one is shopping, the mail slows. As more people become unemployed and can’t afford to eat out, shop, or replace their old clunkers (if they could find someone to lend them money anyway), they drive fewer miles.

Just before Christmas oil dropped to $39 a barrel for a short time. Did it spur a buying frenzy? Nope. We are just not driving as much as we did. Maybe we can’t afford to do so. Maybe we choose not to do so. But we are indeed changing our ways.

We may be going greener just because we HAVE to. Not because we WANT to.

But whatever the reason, going green is a good thing. Now if we can only remember to sustain the effort once the economy turns around.

Ask the trees and polar bears if going green really matters.