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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I know you understand.

Direct Mail: Dinosaur or Dynamite?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of Ankle Bracelets and other wonders... The technological generation gap widens. Again.

I've never been a fan of ankle bracelets. Except maybe for convicted felons on home release. But that's the effective use (in my humble opinion) of the new location-based tracking software for your cell phone.

If you've ever irretrievably lost your family in a big crowd, then maybe this software is for you. But most of us reunite sooner or later, and we would find this software superfluous, I think.

Maybe I'm just being a technophobe. Or maybe I'm acting my age.

Pew Internet & American Life Project statistics show that only 1-4% of Americans going online use location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Not surprisingly that small percentage is younger, hipper and Hispanic. You know 'em. They are the generational trend setters.

Watch a flock of teenage girls descend upon a mall. They may scatter to the four winds, but they keep track of each other to such a degree that they all converge on the food court simultaneously. They used to do it the old fashioned way: by calling each other to confirm arrival time. Now they don't even have to do that.

Looking to capitalize on this up-and-coming group of super consumers, Starbucks, Arby's and The Gap are experimenting with ads, special offers and contests on these "geosocial" sites. When one of their user "friends" gets within range, zap 'em with an offer they can't refuse.

Insidious. Clever. And marvelously successful.

Except perhaps for the Big Brother aspect of it all.

I'm of the generation that likes its privacy; apparently the born-with-a-cell phone-in-their-hands crowd doesn't feel the same way. We don't post drunken pictures of ourselves on our Facebook pages; they do. For us it would be humiliating; for them it's a reminder of a great bash with good friends. It's a generational divide as great as the Grand Canyon.

But I fear I am fighting a losing battle here. Pew reports that now 24% of Americans tweet. Of that tweeting 24%, 10% use a location-sharing or "geosocial" service. Only 6% of Facebookers utilize this software, but the numbers are growing.

In the old days, (and yes, I mean just last year) you could get away and be alone. You could think... pray... meditate... drive aimlessly for hours... or eat bonbons until you got sick. But you'd do it by yourself. Today, you take your friends with you wherever you go.

As Greta Garbo famously said "I vant to be alone." I couldn't agree more.