Reinforcing Your Value with Postcards

Last month I had professional headshots taken at diSogno Photography for use on my website, in membership directories and for bylined articles. This week I received a postcard from the photographer. He used my images as the art on the face and included a thank you on the back. Thi was a fantastic use of the medium and the properties he had. Placing my photo on the card immediately captured my attention and made me read it but using the image…  (Read on)

Miscalculating the ROI of Social Media

In Ed Schipul’s Personal Brand Era presentation to the PRSA Georgia crowd yesterday, he cited stats about the of success of small business owner Gary V’s venture into social media marketing as highlighted in popular Social Media ROI: Socialnomics video. The issue I discussed with Schipul afterwards is how the example perpetuates the idea that social media is free. Here’s the mathematical flaw: $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers $7500 for a billboard = 300 new customers $0 on…  (Read on)

When Direct Mail Can Still be More Effective than Email

The WSJ made an excellent point in a piece posted last week about the continued importance of direct mail in the marketing mix of the average small business owner. The article goes on to cite examples of real small businesses who after briefly succumbing to the lure of saving money by cutting their partnership with the USPS, quickly re-instated their previously successful direct mail campaign. Email sounds great on paper but for most small business, email lists are still an…  (Read on)

Mailing List Hygiene and the NCOA

When you submit a mailing to a direct mail house, they run your list up against something called the NCOA (national change of address) database. This list of physical addresses is updated quarterly using the information that mailing recipients provide when they move to a new home or office. In an era of ever improving printing equipment, we’re increasingly seeing businesses manage their mailings in house. Especially for smaller quantities, the benefits of outsourcing your mailing simply for a pre-sort discounted just…  (Read on)

Respecting the Opt Out List

In honor of the death of John Jay Daly, former president of the Direct Marketing Association and  founder of the program that allows consumers to opt out of direct mail marketing campaigns, I thought it be valuable to revisit the topic of email and direct mail marketing preferences. The most prevalent misinformation about e-mailing lists is that they are readily available and cheap. When businesses started abandoning dmail in favor of email, most of them argued that it would be…  (Read on)