Good Non-Profit, Bad Banks, Commercial Killer
GOOD FOR THIS NON-PROFIT
I've ranted in this blog and my newsletter about a particular non-profit organization that keeps sending me the same prospect mailing over and over again. I must have received the idential mailing from them a half dozen times or more over the past year or so.
There's some wisdom in the adage, "If you don't succeed at first, try, try again." But there's also a saying, "Don't beat a dead horse." Obviously, this organization had never heard of the latter.
But I kept hoping they'd eventually figure it out – that I didn't respond the first couple of times, so I likely wouldn't respond on attempts #5 & 6. And they did finallly get the message!
Last week I received a new mailing from them. The teaser was different. The content of the letter was different. The signatory was different. So I treated the package differently – I read it. And I'm actually thinking I might donate.
"BAD, BANK. DON'T DO THAT AGAIN."
A financial institution that holds a lot of my retirement funds sent me a kraft envelope like those that contain my financial statements. There was no teaser, so I presumed that it was about my funds. Wrong!
It was a sales package, trying to talk me into taking out one of their credit cards.
I also got a package from my main financial institution, using a #10 closed face, envelope. Again, because there was no teaser, I presumed that it was about my financial dealings with them. But it was just their newsletter.
Yes, it's nice that they sent me a newsletter. But if I'd known what was inside the envelope, I would have opened it at my leisure and not ahead of more pressing business. And I wouldn't still be ticked off at them.
Recommendation to any company mailing existing customers – use a teaser to let people know what you're up to. Yes, you might get more envelopes opened by being sneaky. But you'll also end up with more customers who no longer think you're the fine, upstanding organizaiton they use to think you were.
COMMERCIAL KILLER
I'll get into more details in my newsletter later this week, but the jist of this story is – Wendy's has been running a humourous commercial showing people inhaling helium directly from a tank. Some anti-inhalant society has been after them, saying it's not good to encourage people to breathe inhalants. No result.
Someone else wrote the Advertising Standards Council stating that, yes the commercial is really funny, but breathing directly from a helium tank can kill you (it killed a Winnipeg teen a few years ago). Days later, Wendy's wrote them saying the commercial would be off air by the end of the week.
Who was that someone? None other than...
Dr. Bob
symbiomarketing@telus.net
P.S. So you're sitting there saying, "Hey, that last item wasn't about direct mail!" But actually it was.
It was about how the right message to the right audience at the right time can generate an immediate, desired result...just like more traditional DM campaigns can and should.
I've ranted in this blog and my newsletter about a particular non-profit organization that keeps sending me the same prospect mailing over and over again. I must have received the idential mailing from them a half dozen times or more over the past year or so.
There's some wisdom in the adage, "If you don't succeed at first, try, try again." But there's also a saying, "Don't beat a dead horse." Obviously, this organization had never heard of the latter.
But I kept hoping they'd eventually figure it out – that I didn't respond the first couple of times, so I likely wouldn't respond on attempts #5 & 6. And they did finallly get the message!
Last week I received a new mailing from them. The teaser was different. The content of the letter was different. The signatory was different. So I treated the package differently – I read it. And I'm actually thinking I might donate.
"BAD, BANK. DON'T DO THAT AGAIN."
A financial institution that holds a lot of my retirement funds sent me a kraft envelope like those that contain my financial statements. There was no teaser, so I presumed that it was about my funds. Wrong!
It was a sales package, trying to talk me into taking out one of their credit cards.
I also got a package from my main financial institution, using a #10 closed face, envelope. Again, because there was no teaser, I presumed that it was about my financial dealings with them. But it was just their newsletter.
Yes, it's nice that they sent me a newsletter. But if I'd known what was inside the envelope, I would have opened it at my leisure and not ahead of more pressing business. And I wouldn't still be ticked off at them.
Recommendation to any company mailing existing customers – use a teaser to let people know what you're up to. Yes, you might get more envelopes opened by being sneaky. But you'll also end up with more customers who no longer think you're the fine, upstanding organizaiton they use to think you were.
COMMERCIAL KILLER
I'll get into more details in my newsletter later this week, but the jist of this story is – Wendy's has been running a humourous commercial showing people inhaling helium directly from a tank. Some anti-inhalant society has been after them, saying it's not good to encourage people to breathe inhalants. No result.
Someone else wrote the Advertising Standards Council stating that, yes the commercial is really funny, but breathing directly from a helium tank can kill you (it killed a Winnipeg teen a few years ago). Days later, Wendy's wrote them saying the commercial would be off air by the end of the week.
Who was that someone? None other than...
Dr. Bob
symbiomarketing@telus.net
P.S. So you're sitting there saying, "Hey, that last item wasn't about direct mail!" But actually it was.
It was about how the right message to the right audience at the right time can generate an immediate, desired result...just like more traditional DM campaigns can and should.
posted by DoctorBob | 4:41 PM
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