New Proof that Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus.

Like we needed any corroboration!

Ladies: If you've ever wondered if your husband/boyfriend/brother/father has tuned out in the middle of an intense discussion (and who among us can't honestly say this has happened)...

Gentlemen: If you've ever found yourself in the awkward position of seeing your boss's mouth moving, you hear angry sounds spewing forth, but you simply can't figure out what he's saying (sound familiar?)...

Then you have experienced first-hand the new scientific finding that says when men are tense, the part of their brains that reads facial expressions and emotions shuts down.

It's not their fault, really. Men are wired to respond like deer in a headlight when under this kind of social stress.

Researcher Mara Mather of the University of Southern California explains, "For men under stress, the regions of the brain used for social understanding became less coordinated with other regions, especially when looking at angry faces."

The men simply shut down. They withdraw, reacting to too much stimulation. Mather suspects hormones. Male brains with higher testosterone level allow less activity in the brain's facial-expression region.

On the other hand, she writes, "For women, those regions were more coordinated. When looking at someone showing emotion, women put themselves in the others' shoes."

Mather's conclusion? "If a man and a woman are in a stressful situation," she writes, "they may want to change their strategies for how they relate to each other."

What does this have to do with marketing?

Successful marketing requires that you understand your audience.

So if you and your spouse find yourselves discussing (ahem) who is going to walk the dog at 3:30 in the morning, my advice is "Keep the lights off!"

Your husband won't see your face, so won't freeze up. Hence you can have a lengthy, adult conversation about the situation. And when you win the argument — I mean discussion — he won't see you smirking in the dark as you roll over to go back to sleep.

Now that's successful marketing.

Am I Too Late?

When widely circulated statistics show that more than 40% of annual web-based non-profit donations come in during the last 30 days of the year, the question should really be “Why aren’t you in the mail?”

Every day your non-profit is not in the mail is lost opportunity, lost revenue. Getting into the mail fast is imperative.

Here are a few ideas from Paul&Partners to help you move fast and effectively:

1. Select your optimal housefile donors. People over 80 will probably not donate on line; people who have donated only small amounts previously will probably not increase their contributions much at this time. Multiple donors are a must.
2. Keep your package simple. A lot of four color printing, too many inserts or too much handworked froufrou and folderol may make it harder to produce quickly.
3. What is not froufrou and folderol is using personalization to previous donors including a personalized letter with appropriate salutation, suggested donation upgrades and a closed-faced envelope with a live stamp. Your housefile is your financial bread-and-butter. Don’t skimp on them.
4. Emphasize the year-end urgency and restate the tax deductibility of their gift.
5. Include the usual response card and envelope, but emphasize the web donation option for procrastinators.

10 days to lift-off: If you’re truly committed, you can be in the mail 10 days from today. Here’s how:

Today: commitment decision. Start selecting data pulls and writing copy. Basic package design roughs.

Day 2 determine data selects, hone copy and design concepts.

Day 3 data selection is complete; copy is finished and approved.

Day 4 data submitted for NCOA, merge/purge, etc; design completed.

Day 5 letter and personalization set-ups. Start printing letterhead then envelopes and lift notes or other enclosures.

Day 5-6 finish printing generic pieces. Live carrier, letter and reply set-ups.

Day 7-8 imaging and mailing

Day 9-10 insurance days. Just in case.

Need a helping hand? Ask us. If you’re committed to making a difference to your bottom line this year, we are committed to making it happen for you. Call us today 703-996-0800 or visit online www.PaulandPartners.net.

Kid Power in the Marketplace (and it's not just at the supermarket!)

Back in the dark ages—when I was a child—a good allowance was 25 cents a week. By the time I got to junior high school inflation had raised it to $1 a week.

So I gasp in astonishment when I see that the typical Tweenager (defined as children 8-12 years old) is spending an average of $9 per week on “stuff.” That “stuff” can be music, clothing, arcade games, or food. It’s all about making the kids feel grown-up and independent.

Marketers know that how these Tweenagers spend those funds today is a strong indicator of how their spending patterns will firm up as they age.

Ms. Fashion Plate who spends her funds on make-up, mini-skirts and temporary tattoos, is going to make certain stores very happy in 10 years.

Starbucks is probably salivating at the concept of turning the coke-sipping 10 year olds into latte-loving college seniors.

Children today have more personal income than ever before. Living in their parents’ home, they have few bills to pay. At the same time, they hugely influence family shopping patterns. And it’s not just about which breakfast cereal to put in Mom’s grocery cart, either.

Think this is small potatoes, marketers?

Think again. According to Teen Research Unlimited, US teens spent and influenced spending $175 Billion in 2009. $115 billion of that sum was earned through babysitting, grass cutting and similar chores; $60 billion was allowance from their parents.

Great Gugga mugga! These 33 million American children have more spending power than the gross domestic product of many countries!

In the old days, Saturday morning TV sold sugary sweet cereals and got-to-have toys to my generation. Parents could stop the conversation by forbidding TV gazing. It was easy.

Today, the messages are coming at the children hard and fast. The kids get it from TV, of course, but also from home computers, school computers, cell phones, social media, commercially underwritten school programs, trend-setting friends and the perennial teenage bugaboo: peer pressure. There is no escape.

It’s a long term strategy, but many marketers know that by teaching the children to want ______ today, they will be building demand for tomorrow. And while the children may not need ______ today, in 10 years they won’t be able to live without it!

Joe Camel won’t be the first. Or the last.

What are you doing to position your organization to take advantage of this growing groundswell of youth power and influence? I’d be interested to hear from you. Please email me at Ellen@PaulandPartners.net.

Dear Befuddled Customer

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to do your direct mail production. But we need a bit more clarity from you as to what you truly want.

You say you want your packages to be personalized. That’s why we’ve been inkjetting your recipient’s name and address on the envelope and on the letter. We’ve even used a blue handwriting font on the envelope occasionally to boost the personal touch.

But then you say you want to save money. So that’s why we suggested using First Class Presort, Standard, or Non-profit rates as appropriate. These presorted rates save you 10 cents, 20 cents, and 30 cents respectively per letter mailed. They do require a barcode, which we inconspicuously tuck away in the far right corner of the envelope.

You say you want your envelopes opened, so we put a live stamp on them. After all, market testing shows that stamps get opened before meters, and meters get opened before preprinted indicias. If you want more of a good thing, we can put multiple stamps on your envelope.

We can put a mailer’s cancellation over the stamps, too. You see, the post office only cancels First Class mail these days (too much volume, not enough time in the day). So any envelope arriving with a cancellation mark increases the mail’s perceived importance.

But then you say you want to save money, so you want to use a window envelope.

Here is where you’ve lost me.

Any pretense of the letter being a personalized letter goes right out the window. Literally.

If you’re going to use a window, you’re going to get a barcode, whether you like it or not IF you want a presorted class of mail. Worse yet, the barcode will be on the letter, so that it can show through the window, further diminishing your efforts at personalization.

If you’re going to use a window, forget the stamps. No one’s going to believe it is a personalized letter anyway. Anyone who sees this window package is going to know it’s a bulk mailing. So there. You don’t mail your Mother’s Birthday card in a window envelope, do you?

Yes, you’ll save money because you’ll avoid several production steps, but you’ll lose the very thing you were trying to achieve in the first place: a personal one-on-one communication with your membership.

You could flip the conversation, and include a generic, non-personalized letter in the personally addressed envelope. Then we could use all the tricks-of-the-trade available to us to get your envelopes opened. But the interior would not be recipient-specific.

So you’re between the proverbial rock and a hard spot. I can see why you’re befuddled. On one hand, you want a personalized one-to-one communication. On the other hand, you need to save money.

It sounds so straight forward, but it isn’t.

You have a lot of options, but they can be mutually exclusive. Short of changing your format to a postcard or a flyer—both of which have obvious limitations—you’ll have to compromise somewhere.

Please let me know how I can help “de-fuddle” you.

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.

Content with your Content? Maybe you shouldn’t be!

I don’t pretend to be The Final Arbitrar of things e-marketing. I’m still learning as I go. I do read a lot about the subject, however, and have found several “truths” on my travels that might enhance your web site or e-newsletter or e-pitch.

In a nutshell, the “authorities” (ie those who have book deals so someone somewhere must think their information valuable enough to share) agree on 4 points. Your materials must have good content, real value and usefulness to its readership, authenticity and a genuine point of view, unique products, pricing, delivery or some other differentiator.

Sounds pretty simple and straight forward until you really get down to it. Then it becomes amazingly complicated.

Let’s start with SEO—Search Engine Optimization. You want as many eyeballs as you can attract on the theory that some of those eyeballs will become buyers. Right?

Step back a second. David Meerman Scott says in his book, World Wide Rave, that “performing SEO on crappy site content does not make any sense.”

Hmmm. Makes sense, doesn’t it? If you throw a party and no one comes, it was a bust. If you have a website and drive traffic to it, but no one converts, signs up, joins or buys your stuff, then you have a bit of a problem. It just isn’t doing what you need it to do.

So what will make your website better? More SEO-driven words? Probably not. More than one expert suggests you go back to the drawing board and do what you do best. But do it with passion. Let that passion, intensity and purpose shine through your materials. Put quality into your product and passion into your presentation. It’ll shine through. As Steve Martin wrote, “Be so good that they can’t ignore you.”

As an obvious corollary, you’ve got to like what you do. It will show. Like dogs that can sniff out explosives, your audience will sense your enthusiasm or lack of it. If they like what they sense, they will want to be part of it; if they don’t, they won’t.

So what is “good content”? It’s something that you are truly, deeply interested in. It is special knowledge that you have that you want to share. It’s something that you are so interested in or enthusiastic about that you want to share it with others, and you do it with such enthusiasm that they want to know about it, too. It’s something that when you share it, it makes your audience smarter.

What makes it valuable or useful? Your site must impart information that your readers need/want to know. Maybe you’ve got an industry-specific site. Give your readers the best up-to-date info you can on industry trends…legislation that will affect them…tips, tricks and techniques that work.

Whether you’re concerned about Barbie Dolls, a medical issue, a resort on a Caribbean Island or the high school marching band, the rules are the same: if it doesn’t talk to the needs and interests of your readership, you’re a tree falling in the forest. No one is listening.

How can you tell if anyone is there? Talk to them. Blog ‘em. Ask questions. And really, really listen to their answers. You can even poll them with Survey Monkey and Poll Daddy. They will tell you if there is any “there there.” Or not.

So how do you sound authentic? Sincere? Real? The best response is to just be yourself. Some people find that talking into a tape recorder helps. Then they edit.

If you’re not comfortable expressing yourself in writing, find someone who can take your words, your enthusiasm, your point of view and turn it into presentable prose. Maybe someone on your staff can help; maybe your spouse will volunteer—for who knows you better than your spouse!

One last critical piece of advice I’ve gleaned on my travels: There is no get rich quick scheme. You’ve got to be in it for the long term. You’ve got to be constant and you’ve got to be consistent.

Sure, keep an eye on the Google analytics. Measure the audience and see if your audience is building. That’s a good thing. But don’t obsess on the details. If your trend lines are upward, you’re heading in the right direction.

And that’s as good as it gets.

Goodness knows Paul&Partners is trying to get better at this stuff, too. Please contact me and tell me how you think we’re doing. I’d like to know. Really! Call me at 703-996-0800. Ask for Sam.

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 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

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

Email could learn lessons from Snail Mail Marketing

"Snail Mail"-aka direct mail-is truly alive and well. Need proof? Just look at your mailbox. Every day there are provocative mailings that demand you read them.

Old technology snail mailers have a thing or two to teach tech-happy eMarketers about good marketing. Here are some Marketing 101 errors I found in my email just this week-amateur errors that cost these companies my time and attention.

Lesson #1 Verify the basics: presentation, spelling and grammar. We all know that direct mail isn't instant. But it's typically better thought out, more compelling and better composed than text messages or email blasts.

Just this past week I received email blasts from bona fide companies offering to get me some of the "simulous [sic] money that's flooding the market" and help me "refiance [sic] my home." And I don't even want to think about the spam I get offering a "free colege [sic] education" or cheap "Canadan [sic] pharmaceuticals."

Can you imagine a direct mail piece going out with those egregious errors?

eMarketers: Check your spelling before you hit the "send" button. Your error makes it easy for me to ignore your message. It makes you seem unorganized and ill-prepared. And I don't choose to spend my time or money with someone who is either unorganized or ill-prepared.

Lesson #2. Time is your ally. OK, direct mail takes longer to produce, longer to deliver and longer to start to get feedback. But time can be your friend. Truly.

Time gives the marketer a chance to think about his message. It lets him prepare it in a compelling way and select graphics to reinforce the presentation. It gives him an opportunity to consider what audience would be most receptive to his message and to craft his message to that audience. It gives him time to reflect, to reconsider, before he pulls the trigger.

eMarketers: Don't be a cowboy. Plan then execute! Doing things fast and doing things right shouldn't be mutually exclusive.

Lesson #3. Know your audience. Good direct mail does a terrific job of talking to its audience. Successful marketers who put direct mail together think about their audience before they launch. That's why letters are personalized to the recipient-to reestablish the existing relationship. That's why people living in apartments don't get letters meant for homeowners. Or why hunters don't get letters intended for PETA members.

It's patently obvious: market to someone you know with a message that is right for that person, and you'll increase your response rate. Duh!

If my incoming email is an indicator, the guys (I'm assuming they are guys) who generate this electronic stuff need a few lessons in who they are reaching out to.

As a woman, I don't need little blue pills that will give me "hours of exstacy [sic, again!]" and I certainly don't need to "keep her happy all night long." ...As a college postgrad, I don't need a free college education...As an owner of a company, I don't want to work out of my house at night to generate extra income. I am not interested in buying foreclosed property or in becoming a secret shopper, or in getting free coupons for products/stores/restaurants I don't buy/frequent/eat at.
Come on, guys! Focus!

eMarketers: Rifles work better than shotguns. Targeted, personalized messages work better than helter skelter get-as-many-out-as-you-can-in-as-short-a-time-as-you-can. That's leaping before you look. That's stupid marketing.

Lesson #4. Quantity does not equal Quality. If your marketing plan is to send out as many emails as you can to as many people as you can hoping that something will register with someone, then you have no plan. You're wasting your money and my time.

By the way, sending me the same email twice in 5 minutes does nothing to endear you to me. Sending it to me four times in two days alienates me. Got it?

Lesson #5. Give me a way to get back to you. Let's suppose I'm interested. Please be sure your email has an obvious "Contact us" link that I can use. Better yet, give me the name of a real person with a real phone number.

Oh yes-back to Lesson #1. Check and re-check your info. Be sure you've got the phone number and "contact us" link correct. Last week I responded to the Contact us link and got back a bounced message that [name of intended recipient] was no longer employed at [name of company that sent me the email]. Geez. No one is watching that store to be sure! Makes one wonder.

Maybe I am a little old gray-haired lady who is a bit crotchety and stogy. But I am your potential customer. That should count for something.

Take a lesson or two from the fuddy duddies who do direct mail marketing. Focus on the marketing basics. Good copy. Good graphics. Correct spelling. Relate your message to the recipient's interests/needs. Provide a reliable respond-back mechanism.

They've been doing it right for 50 years. Study the masters.

Need help with your direct mail marketing and email 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 find the perfect people for your message, and then we'll design a package that is the right one for your audience 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