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.

The 4 Rules of Direct Marketing: Ignore them at your own risk

I think we can agree that direct marketing is complicated. It’s a mix of strategy, psychology, technology, with a modicum of just luck thrown in for seasoning. But it essentially all boils down to 4 rules that can make—or break—your mailing.

Much as Boris Pasternak said of families in Dr. Zhivago, (All happy families are alike; unhappy families are different, each in its own way), all successful marketing efforts have 4 things going for them. All unsuccessful marketing has violated one (or more) of the rules.

Rule #1. What does your mail (or e-mail) LOOK like? Does it stand out in the crowd? Are the colors and design attractive? Does it “catch the eye” right away? Catching the eye is good—it gives your promotion that little extra millisecond in someone’s hand—a millisecond that could be enough to advance your mailing to rule #2.

If mail, is it big enough? If your mail is so small that the carrier hides it inside a missing kids flyer, then your mail is lost. If your mail is buried with 50 other advertisers, it is not doing what it could—what it should—do for you. It’s violated Rule #1.

Violate Rule #1, and you’ve lost the race at the starting gate. People have to see your offer before they can respond to it.

Rule #2. Does your promotion SPEAK to the recipient? Does it catch attention with a good headline, or teaser, or an offer that a recipient can’t refuse? Does it make recipients want to read further? (more on great hooks another day). Does it recognize the recipient’s needs/wants/concerns? Is the message more “you” than “me?” Are you reaching out to establish a relationship or just talking to yourself? Bottom line: are you speaking to the recipient?

If rule #1 engages the eye; rule #2 engages the brain. You need to analyze how you can best present your message to your audience. Succinctly. Cleverly. Pointedly.

If brevity is wit, less is often more. You want to present your information in such a way that recipients want to read more and know more about your organization/offer. You want them to want to open the email, or flip over the postcard and read on. You want to keep them engaged.

Violate Rule #2 and you’ve lost your audience. Your promo dies an ignominious death in the recycle pile or delete bin.

Rule #3. Are you addressing the right AUDIENCE? You could have the most beautifully designed and written piece, but if you’re sending it to the wrong people, they won’t care. Your campaign is over.

How do you find your audience? Go to someone who knows lists. There are 40,000+ lists on the rental market in the US. A reputable list broker like Paul&Partners will be able to steer you in the right direction.

The broadest—and cheapest—is a list of all addresses in the US. If you’re announcing a new restaurant in the neighborhood, this is the list for you. However, if you’re announcing a pricey new pre-school, then you need “selects” like household income, as well as presence (and age) of children. Your list got smaller, more targeted, and more expensive. And your marketing probably will be much more successful.

If you’re asking for contributions, go to contributor lists. (More on this huge subject another day, too.) There are also lists of people with specific medical ailments, and lists of publication subscribers. Lists of people who listen to certain genres of music…people who own (or rent) their home…what kind of car they drive…what they like to do in their spare time…if they’ve just married/divorced/had a child or retired…and about a million other details about their lives. Details you can use to find the exactly right people you need to address.

Business lists can tell you the industry, size of company, number of employees, annual billings, computer software they use, number of locations, and a multitude of other “selects” that you can use to define your market.

There are lists for everything. Approaching the right people is the lynchpin to marketing success. Analyze your message; define the audience that would be most receptive. Then call a list broker.

Rule #4. TIMING. It sounds obvious, but you need to launch your marketing at the time when your message would be appropriate. Don’t send summer camp messages at Christmas. Duh!

But Rule #4 also has an evil doppelganger. You could do everything right, but then something happens outside your control and your mail fails.

A tornado comes out of the blue and destroys the town you just sent your mailing to…a hurricane devastates the city where you have been planning to have your annual meeting…a blizzard, flood or fire seizes the headlines, hearts and wallets of people. Your marketing, no matter how ingenious or clever, doesn’t have a chance.

Those outside influences needn’t stop with weather-related disasters. On a macro scale, geopolitical events like invasions, wars, or unexpected emergencies large and small can refocus the mind and work against your campaign. On a micro scale, an unexpected illness or death of a family member or beloved pet, a car that just broke down for the last time, a really bad report card, or many other recipient-level disasters can doom your promotion household by household.

You can’t control everything all the time. Rule #4 is the “gotcha” factor. It’s Loki, the Norse god of mischief and mayhem, having his way with you.

Sometimes you just can’t win. But if you follow the rules, you’ll give your marketing the very best chance of being a success.

Dear Misguided Customer...

Dear Misguided Customer,

I know times are tough and resources are scarce. Yes, I realize that everyone is trying to come up with ideas to pinch pennies and save money.

But some ideas are just plain bad ideas.

Yes, I know that God helps those who help themselves. I’m sure the Bible and Ben Franklin would agree. Self-sufficiency is a good thing.

Yes, I know that for years your organization has used volunteers to fold, insert, seal and stamp your appeals and newsletters. So what if the news is stale by the time it gets to its destination? Your volunteers get a sense of connecting with your organization and doing something good for their community. Tradition is a good thing.

Up to a point.

Continuing to do something the “way we’ve always done it” those are your exact words!—without questioning if that way works any more isn’t just bad, it’s plain stupid.

Yes, I know you’re the newbie on staff. You don’t want to shake things up or jeopardize the job it took you 8 months to find. I got that. But blind adherence to “Tradition” is costing your organization cold, hard cash—money that could be put into services.

I bet your boss would love to simplify her life, get newsletters and appeals out faster…and save the cost of your salary in the bargain. The only thing standing in your way is “Tradition.” Show her what I’m going to show you, you will be her hero on the white horse. And that’s a lock-tight guarantee.

Hang on. Here we go…

I betcha that years ago, when a newsletter or appeal was ready to mail, someone—probably your predecessor—called for all hands on deck from the office staff. But that got old really old fast. Maybe the task built staff esprit de corps, but when assigned duties weren’t getting done, there was a lot of bad juju.

So your predecessor put out the plea for volunteers, and volunteers—God Bless ‘em—responded. For years that cadre of loyal ladies folded and stuffed, licked and sticked their way through countless thousands of envelopes.

It takes 3 weeks to get out each newsletter, but it costs your organization nothing. Right? Let’s think about it.

You have to feed the ladies milk and cookies, and you have to keep supervisory staff on hand “just in case.” But that is minimal. Right?

You have to keep recruiting volunteers, which is a constant hassle, but…

Then once a year you have to throw a big “Volunteer Appreciation Gala.” While that gala costs a lot of money, and takes a bunch of staff time to coordinate, it is the price you have to pay to compensate your volunteers.

Your organization is stuck in the past, my Friend, in “Old Think.”

Here are the facts:

1. It takes 3 weeks to assemble, address, wafer seal and mail 10,000 newsletters. The “news” in the newsletters is old by the time it hits the mail. In this day of instantaneous news, stale stuff is poison. That’s an obvious image problem for you. It makes you seem out of touch. Fuddy Duddy. No wonder new volunteers are scarce.

2. Because your appeals aren’t unique to each donor, the likelihood is that you are as asking donors who could give $100 to give $10—your “default” ask. This screams out for better data management and personalization. It’s costing your organization big moola.

If points 1 and 2 address squishy unquantifiables, here is what Blind Tradition is costing in cold, hard cash:

3. It takes a staffer 4 hours every night to supervise the volunteer crew. If that person makes $20 an hour, you’re spending $80 a night to get “Free” labor. $20,800 a year.

4. Volunteer victuals are another $20 per night. That’s $100 a week. $5200 a year.

5. What does the Volunteer Appreciation Gala and extra wear and tear on your facility cost? I can’t even hazard a guess.

Discounting the Gala, you're at $26,000 a year in expenses to compensate your “free” volunteer labor force. Not enough to convince you to rethink Old Think Tradition? Try this:

6. You’re paying 17.9 cents each in postage per newsletter. It’s better than paying First Class, but as a non-profit you should be paying about 13.2 cents! That means you’re paying an extra 4.7 cents per piece in postage because you lack the basic mailing technology that the USPS requires.

Every month your 10,000 newsletters are contributing $470 unnecessary postage to the USPS. That’s another $5640 a year.

See how you're paying your -- salary $ 31,640 -- a year in unnecessary costs? That’s a lot of money any day, but in this economy that’s an enormous waste.

Yes, waste. Stupid waste.

And it gets worse.

7. You know that many the addresses you’re mailing to are wrong and many of the people have moved. But you don’t know which are wrong, and you don’t know how to fix your list. So you keep mailing to them. Yet every one of these badly addressed pieces is costing you money: Money to print. Money to mail.

If you have money to burn—and I know you don’t—then keep on using your Old Think Traditional ways.

The solution is obvious: move your direct mail marketing into the 21st Century by working with a professional direct marketing firm.

Work with them to clean up your list. Correct bad addresses. Get rid of deadwood. Run your data against NCOA—National Change of Address software. Cost: $50-100 plus any data clean up effort.

Now turn your mailings over to that mailing professional. Your postage will plummet and you’ll be in the mail lickety split.

Cost: Roughly $500 to process your 10,000 newsletters.

Production time: 2 days

Bottom line: 2 days versus 3 weeks. Best yet, the postage you’ll save pays for the mailshop. Not bad, eh? But there’s more: because your mail will have barcodes, it will arrive faster and in better condition.

You’ll see some cost increases in your appeals, but the extra effort to personalize letters and responses will bring in far more money than the cost of the personalization.

Don't know where to turn? Call me. I'll give you recommendations.

Don’t believe me? One of our nonprofit clients brought in 35% more than they had ever raised before just by personalizing the letter and the ask. Another raised increased its average gift to almost $90 simply by upgrading ask amounts!

It isn’t magic. It’s marketing. It’s using modern mail technology to replace outmoded though well-meaning volunteers.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-volunteer. In fact, I’m strongly pro-volunteer. I just believe in using volunteers in ways that make sense for both the volunteers and the organization and the community.

There are, after all, things that a machine just can’t do. Like being human: Manning hot lines…consoling crime victims…counseling rape victims…hugging and clothing the newly homeless…feeding the hungry…providing hope and stability for those who need it the most.

Tradition is good up to a point. And you reached that tipping point some time ago.

It’s time to put your uniquely wonderful volunteers to work doing the work they can best do: serving the community your non-profit was commissioned to serve.

Self-sufficiency is fine.

Being a hero is even better.

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.

Finding my new BFF!

I can’t tell you how many times people ask me to help them with direct mail marketing….but they can’t tell me who their audience is!

Like the guy last Thursday who wanted to mail to “People who love their homes.”

Or the lady who defined her audience as “women.”

They are Doomed! Doomed! Doomed!

There is absolutely no clarity or critical thinking on their part. They can’t give me a reason why “women” would care about their product or service.

But ask me to find “Married African American women ages 25-50, in a specific geography, with household income over $xx, and kids” now there’s something I can work with!

We’re talking about knowing the audience for your message. Understanding who you are trying to reach so you can tailor your presentation to them. Finding your new BFF! (Best Friend Forever)

Demographics. Big word, but use it right and it can generate huge results.

For instance, last week I had the privilege of working with Kathy, a real estate agent who knew exactly the audience she wanted to reach. She knew her demographics.

She wanted homeowners with household income over $100,000 and home values over $775,000. Having lived in their homes for at least 10 years, they are now empty nesters. And yes, she wanted a very specific geographic area.

Sweet! She had her demographics down pat.

I had to go out only 1.39 miles from her office to find 1000 families that met her criterion. Her sales literature, phone calls and conversations are targeted to their unique needs. Her closure rate should be phenomenal because she “talks the talk” and “walks the walk.” She knows her audience and what drives them.

Most of these folks (772 of them) have HHI over $250K. The majority (714 families) have lived in their homes more than 14 years.

Are they ready to downsize? Retire? Move up and move out? I assure you Kathy will know in short order. Sales will inevitably follow.

So here’s the next-to-last word on demographics. Truly, thoughtfully consider the optimal person for your message. Not every person is the right person for every message. By using selective demographics to weed out inappropriate people, you can select the people who are right for your message.

Among some of the defining demographic factors are age, gender, household income, marital status, homeowner/renter, home value and length of residence, type of home (ie multi-family or single family), geographic location.

If you need to have even deeper analysis, you can ask for political or religious affiliation, credit worthiness, hobbies and interests, type of car they are likely to drive, pets and a multitude of other factors.

Last word: If you don’t know if something is available, ask. But don’t ask for information that is not core to your message. You’ll pay for something that you really don’t need. And that’s almost as stupid as mailing to “people who love their homes.”

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

Get Personal. Get Results. (Part 2 of 3)

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

Personalizing Prospect Marketing

First, a definition.

Everyone starts as a prospect, ie someone that a marketer believes might donate/buy/subscribe/join/attend or in some fashion show interest in the sponsoring non-profit/company/magazine/organization, etc.

Not all prospects are created equal. To paraphrase George Orwell, some are more equal than others. Hence the first challenge is to find the right people who might want to donate/buy etc. That effort is called “prospecting.”

Looking for prospects starts with a definition of your optimal buyer. Then you define and refine until you get a many faceted profile.

Like grizzled 49ers of old prospected for gold in them thar hills of California, today’s frazzled marketers prospect for gold in the thousands of lists on the market. With the right list and the right approach, the marketer finds his gold.

Finding good prospects just starts with list selection.

Looking for donors? Go to donor files. Select donors to allied organizations. Simple. Or maybe not.

Looking for business owners? There are a thousand lists. Drill down through company size, gender of owner, location (and number of locations), industry sector, number of employees, type of organization (franchise, LLC, Inc, privately/publicly held, HOBO, etc) to find the list you need.

Now you can use the new technology of “data mining” to get even further into the prospect’s head.

Are you asking for the donors to support a non-profit summer camp for indigent children? Women would probably be your best prospects, and women with children would be even better. Families with household income over $xx would mean the family has expendable income to share, and those who have shown their love of nature and support for children’s causes would improve your “hit” rate.

If you’re looking for business owners who travel a lot, maybe those with multiple office/plant locations would be a starting point. If they have a second home, that’s a plus. If they are pilots or sailors, that helps define them as well.

Now you’re finding out what really makes these people tick.

Simultaneously with extracting the gold from the lists, you need to develop creative copy and design that maximizes the impact of your message. Find out what their individuals needs and interests are, then design your message to emphasize those issues.

New production technologies allow for variable full color graphics and copy. Here is how a few companies are using the latest in personalization technology to enhance their prospecting efforts...

Case Study #1. The exclusive mountain resort community. They sent oversized postcards to married couples with household income over $xx, in a specific geographic region. Artwork was based on the recipient’s ethnicity, age and hobbies.

If the recipients were Caucasian, 40-60 years old, so were the models. If he liked golf and she liked tennis, the male model had golf clubs in his hands; she had a tennis racket in hers. They stood in front of the magnificent clubhouse with a world-class view of receding mountains.

The graphic designer used the recipient’s name in color to eye-catching effect, thus creating a split second opening for the recipients to soak it all in. It wasn’t much of a stretch for the targeted couple to see themselves in the picture as it spoke directly to them and their interests.

Case Study #2. The Long Term Care Insurance provider. His marketing package utilized variable art and copy based on the recipient’s age, gender, ethnicity, physical location, and household income. The photo showed a couple waking on the beach with the statement “Now is the time to think about Long Term Care Insurance.”

The copy speaks to women by name as they tend to outlive their husbands and therefore need this product more, and because women make 70% of insurance decisions for their households. “Hypothetical” tables based on the couple’s age and income show what a plan could cost—and could deliver.

Case Study #3. The real estate agent. In an economy that had produced zero house sales for her the previous year, she opted to mail renters telling them to stop wasting rent money and buy a home.
The renters, selected on geographic proximity to her office as well as their household income, got an oversized postcard showing a photo of a home with a curbside mailbox. The home was in the background in soft focus; the mailbox was center front and crisp. On each mailbox was the name of the targeted family: Ramirez, Wong, Williams, Curtis. Subliminally the recipients could “see” themselves in this picture, in their new home.

These three examples show how the newly available filters can help inventive marketers position themselves in unique ways, to people who are specifically qualified for those messages. All three were working with prospect lists, using new technology and fresh creativity to stand out in the mailbox.

Are these individualized approaches more expensive than a traditional one-shot-fits-all marketing approach? Yep. Each individually prepared piece has a different mix of graphics and copy going to highly selected and qualified targets. That effort does have a price.

Are these personalized approaches more successful? Yep again. People see themselves and they respond.

The result: companies mail smaller quantities and get the same number of leads.

Technically, this extreme personalization process is called VDP or Variable Data Printing. It requires lots of computer power, marketing expertise and a precise mix of people and equipment to pull it off.

However, unlike shot gun marketing, with VDP you can approach only people that you know are the perfect target for your message. So you print less (that’s good green business practice), pay less in postage (that’ll keep the bean counters happy) and generate a higher return rate (that’ll make the boss ecstatic).

As the pharmaceutical ads say, VDP isn’t for everyone. It’s more expensive, it takes more time in development, and it can be nerve wracking waiting for the creative and data processing and programming to come together. But when it works, it’s amazing!

It’s state-of-the-art direct marketing. Until the next new-best-thing comes along.

Part III of this series focuses on personalization in housefiles.

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

www.paulandpartners.net sales@paulandpartners