Nice. Dumb. Plus...

NICE
Last week, I received a mailing from Rogers Wireless, my cell phone company. And as I discovered when I saw the flap of the envelope, it wasn’t just from the company; it was from their President, Rob Bruce.

With it coming from El Presidente, I expected that I was in for bad news – like they wanted to thank me for my loyalty but were raising rates. But no. All Rob wanted to do was say thanks, tell me how they’re striving to offer even better service in future, and to wish me happy holidays.

TIP: If you want people to be more responsive to your sales mailings, try sending them something every once in a while that doesn’t try to sell them anything. After receiving a “just thought I’d drop you a note” mailing, people will keep looking for more of the same.


DUMB
Coincidently, I also received a package from the Toronto Blue Jays, who play in the Rogers Centre in Toronto, which is owned by Rogers Wireless’s parent company.

And why were the Jays writing me? To try and talk me into buying a pack of 10 or 15 tickets to see them play…3000 miles away!

OK, I was at a couple of Jays games this year but, prior to that, I hadn’t been in about 20 years. So why did they waste their money sending me a full colour package of materials?

Save your dough on mailings like these, Jays, and spend it on players. Maybe you’ll field a better team next year and people will be begging you for tickets.

TIP: Sure, look under rocks to find new potential customers. But also use a little common sense.


GOOD START. QUESTIONABLE FINISH.
The Canadian Wildlife Federation sent me a glorious, colorful calendar featuring animal photos. It led me to say to myself, are they crazy spending this kind of money on a prospecting campaign?

But they had the wisdom to write in their first sentence, “When we began sending out these free calendars, people said we were crazy!”

Good move! They disarmed me totally. So I kept on reading to see what other arguments of mine they could overcome.

It was a pretty decent letter. But it ended with a PS. Which was followed by a PPS. Which was followed by a PPPS.

I’ve tested PPS’s and have never found that they worked as well as a singular postscript. If the PPPS works in this mailing, I sure hope they’ll publish the results. They may turn at least one skeptic into a believer. His name would be…

Dr. Bob
P.S. Questions? Email me at symbiomarketing@telus.net
P.P.S. Comments? Same thing.
P.P.P.S. Want to subscribe to my “Rants ‘N Raves” newsletter? Ditto.
P.P.P.P.S. OK, enough.

TWO TIPS

1) PERSONALIZATION+INVOLVEMENT

Personalization nearly always pays for itself. So do good involvement devices.
But if you want to really hit a home run, try a twist on both of them…like
the Canadian Food for the Hungry International did.

Someone – the sponsor of three children in Uganda – sent me CFHI's latest
package. I’m impressed by it.

It contains three Christmas cards, each featuring the Ugandan words for
“Merry Christmas.” But they didn’t stop there; they personalized the front
of each card with the actual name of the child being sponsored!

Then, inside, the cards have room for you to write a message and sign your
name – a brilliant twist on the popular hospital fundraising involvement
device of writing a message on a Christmas ornament for patients and sending
it back with a donation.


2) DON’T OVERTARGET

Targeting a narrow market is fine. But sometimes you don’t have to spend the
money on it. For example...

I was surprised to receive an unaddressed self-mailer promoting the
Accu-Chek blood glucose monitor for diabetics.

At first I thought it was a waste of money to fill mailboxes with a message
that wouldn’t appeal to most people. Then I recalled some stats about the
prevalence of the disease. Something like 10% of people aged 20-60 have it,
and over 20% of people older than that have diabetes.

So the manufacturer of the Accu-Chek wisely said to themselves, “We can
reach 10-20% of our target market with a cheap, unaddressed self-mailer.
Why pay for segmenting?” Then, to extend its appeal further, the headline reads,
“If anyone you know has diabetes…” Now they’re reaching 30%, 40% or more
of the interested population!

The next time you’re looking at putting out a targeted mailing, ask yourself
if your market is really so small that you need to spend the money on a
highly segmented list. You might be surprised. Like Accu-Chek and…

Dr. Bob
symbiomarketing@telus.net

WHAT GIFT? + NO-KEY

YOU CALL THAT A GIFT?

A non-profit organization sent me a package with an OE teaser reading, "Special 50th Anniversary Gift Enclosed!" Eager with anticipation of what kind of present they were bestowing upon me, I tore into the envelope.

Lunchbag letdown!

Inside all I found was a letter, a BRE and a note pad featuring the organization's logo, contact info and slogan. Each page of the pad was a to-do list. And the first 'to do' on each page was already filled in – a reminder for me to send THEM "a special 50th Anniversary gift."

I like the work that this organization does and I'd like to help them out. But there's no way I can send them a donation. It would just encourage them to continue building up prospects' hopes, then dashing them.


LOW KEY vs NO KEY

I received an invitation size envelope that intrigued me. And, like the previously mentioned package, it disappointed me.

For starters in the intrigue area, my name and address were printed in red. And the upper left corner read, "The Mountain, Framingham, MA" which had me thinking the package was from a mountain resort in Maine.

But overprinting the international mail postal indicia was a cancellation by the post office that read, "N'oublions Pas/Lest We Forget" – the bilingual Canadian slogan for Remembrance Day. And the back had a full return address: "Bose" and a Canadian address.

Who was this from, I wondered? And who was sending it?

It only featured one small enclosure – a small card with front copy that read, "Be among the first to know", accompanied by a blurred photo of something. A string of pearls? A line of night time traffic?

The back copy gave me the answers. It was from the Bose speaker store and they were inviting me to check out their 'new product event' on two dates. That should be exciting news. But it sure didn't look like it, visually, or sound like it verbally.

MAYBE I could understand a very upscale jewellery store being so low key. But an audio speaker store? Who do they think they're kidding? Not...

Dr. Bob
symbiomarketing@telus.net

COOL MAILER + CANCER SENSE

COOL MAILER

For those of you who don’t live and work in the area, Shaw is a company that provides TV cable, Internet and home phone service.

They’re also the folks who have the terrific TV commercials and web site I mentioned in a recent issue of my newsletter…the ones featuring the Snailskis (http://www.snailskis.com)

Last week, Shaw sent me a self-mailer that’s pretty compelling. The front only features the recipient’s name and address, so you’re pretty much compelled to turn it over to see if there’s anything more interesting.

The other side is a full colour shot of a sofa with the headline, “There are ways to save money all over your home. And Shaw will help you find them.”

Lift the cushions of the cardboard couch and you see money lying on the floor, plus their promise to save you money through a joint cable-Internet-phone package.

Then that flap folds down to form three other panels, each of which hypes a different service. That's great because you don't have to slog through a ton of copy if you're only interested in one or two of their offerings.

It’s really pretty simple. And like so many simple executions, it will likely prove to be very effective.


NOW THEIR MAILING MAKE SENSE

Last week, I told you about the nonsensical mailing I’d received from an organization fighting cancer. Well, a few days later I received another package from them.

It had the same sized envelope. Like the previous one, it only featured their logo. And this OE, too, had a live stamp. “Oh boy,” thought your scribe. “what are they sending me this time – a birth announcement?"

Inside was the same donation form. But the rest of the package was very different. Thank goodness.

There was a note from its head, apologizing. He explained that they’d put the wrong card into the previous mailing and that, now, he was enclosing the proper one – an invitation to help them launch a new venture.

Too bad they screwed up in the beginning, though, because that forced them to mail twice. And the mistake doesn’t make them look like the most well-organized non-profit on the planet. Here’s hoping that recipients will be forgiving, or I might have to send the organization a sympathy card from...


Dr. Bob
symbiomarketing@telus.net