Pitney Bowes and DMNews support direct mail

In a multipage ode to direct mail, DMNews goes over the top. I'm not
going to disagree with many of the points. Sure, DM is a great way to
get a physical offer in someone's hands, it is highly targetable, and
it continues to be cost effective for many marketers.

However, the article is difficult to take seriously. The Kool-Aid drips
from every page. For instance, consumer 'enjoy' reviewing direct mail just
as much as email. But wait, a recent study flagged email spam as the
MOST annoying marketing format, with DM and other email not too far
behind. So what does the comparison really represent? Do we 'enjoy'
it, or is this a relative comparison between two evils, spun into a
positive?

Another of favorite observation here: direct mail is delivered at no
cost to the consumer, while we still pay for internet access. Sure,
but there is nothing in the data that shows this is a problem for
individuals. And given the share of people that watch online video,
play games, or use social networks, they aren't paying a flat internet
bill for access to email. Often their email isn't even provided by
their ISP.

Can direct mail work for marketers? Sure. However, this article didn't
convince me it was an unbiased look at DM, and I'm not even one of the
ones that needed convincing.

Want Direct Mail?

Consider the story of Steven Padgett, mail carrier extraordinaire. After failing to deliver standard class mail for more than 7 years (!!), people on his route were not up in arms when they heard about it. Not at all. They came to his defense, as did the public at large, inspiring headlines including "Mailman fails to deliver, becomes local hero".

It just goes to show, despite all the 'great' direct mail marketers create, it isn't enough to overcome the general distaste for direct mail. As the DMA defends the value of direct marketing and works to limit consumer opt-out choices, it would be well served to consider the environment our collective behavior has inspired. Working to maintain the 'right' to behave in a way that rankles consumers is not the long term solution.

Discover This: Timing is Everything

And the latest Discover More mailer has very poor timing. Arriving in my mailbox yesterday, the copy trumpeted rewards available from leading retailers in their online mall. And at the top of the list:
Circuitcity.com.

On November 10, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy. A week earlier, the company announced they were closing more than 20% of their stores. On October 20, they said they were considering closing stores to avoid Chapter 11. More than six weeks before I received your letter.

Yes, direct mail has long lead times. Yes, the piece was sent standard mail, and took its time in transit. So Discover, you have poor timing. Yes, circuitcity.com is still selling products. But you lost me. Probably like so many others, I will not see your mall as really representing my top online shopping options.

Timing is everything.

Widgets People Want

I had lunch today with a friend from a research and measurement company, and the conversation turned to widgets and the kinds of widgets people will pass along.

Marketers want their widget to be adopted by the community as their own. If it is, then the savvy marketers can lean back, drink margaritas, and watch their widget spread like wildfire. At least for five minutes. So what does it take to give a widget a chance?

First, it has to engage the audience. Marketers have three methods generally at their disposal to engage the audience:

• Inform
• Entertain
• Incent

With a wealth of information channels, a multitude of entertainment options, and micro-second multi-tasking attention spans, engaging is the first challenge. Second, the audience has to believe it will capture and engage the community. The initial audience acts as a filter for the community. So the first requirement for distribution:

Appeal to a connected community

As an example, I enjoy working in the yard, pruning, planting, and the like, but I could certainly use some help. I would gladly use a Garden Care widget that tells me when and how to prune, fertilize and care for the plants I have. However, seeding that widget with me is not going to drive distribution. My friends and family tolerate my interest in gardening more than they share it, and would not appreciate the Garden Care widget.

Even within a connected community, there are numerous widgets already competing for attention. Southwest has done it, but very few widgets today truly stand on their own and gain mass distribution based on their value to an individual. So the second requirement:

Incent distribution

Most widgets incent distribution through comparisons or challenges (the ubiquitous movie compatibility or movie trivia challenge) or pyramid structures (who hasn't been a waterboy for their favorite team?). In all cases, by passing along the widget, the value to me is increased. What good is knowing your movie compatibility with ... no one?

Now that your widget is on top, how does it stay there?

Continue to engage

Continuing to provide information or entertain requires continual updates or lively community contributions.

So when attention spans are only micro-seconds (and blog posts run to multiple pages), put down the margarita, its time to start working on your next hit widget.

Consolidate processes to increase efficiency

As we enter the final stages of 2009 planning, we are looking for ways
to squeeze more out of each program. Yet in just the last couple days,
I have talked to clients who are continuing to plan and execute each
campaign individually. As we are all pushed to deliver more with less,
it is time for this approach to end. By pooling resources and
consolidating processes, you can do more with less.

Here are a few examples where processes can be consolidated to save
time, money, or both.

List Rentals: consolidate your list research. You will save time, and
depending on the size of your programs, you may save money and
increase your list options as well.

Production: Combining multiple print jobs can reduce costs. For
smaller campaigns in the same format, the savings can be dramatic. And
save time on press checks while you are at it.

Advertising: Look to establish larger relationships with partners that
can cross multiple campaigns. Not only will you get price
efficiencies, you may find yourself getting better service with your
increased scale as well.

Webcasts: Consider a larger webcast instead of another webcast. You
willl save on speaker and productions costs as well as your time to
manage the program.

Fewer campaigns: This is heresy to many traditional direct marketers,
but if you have more than a handful of campaigns, make certain you
really need all of them. The cost of running two campaigns is
significantly more in terms of time and, if you aren't already
consolidating processes, money. By combining the budgets for two
campaigns, you can increase reach, improve offers, or upgrade campaign
elements within your existing budget.

In short, look across all your marketing activities for opportunities
to operate more efficiently.

When Advertising Annoys

As marketers, we all look for opportunities to break through the
clutter of competing messages, using tools like creative, format, and
frequency. And time and time again, we find these breakthrough tactics
work. They increase response, awareness, and other metrics.

But what about the downside? Remember the popup and popunder ads of
yesterday? Reactions bordered on rage and opinions of companies that used them dropped. But publishers and advertisers didn't do
away with them until popup blockers made the format increasingly
undeliverable (and some continue to use them to this day).

Now we have welcome ads, one of today's 'premium' formats, receiving
similarly dismal reviews. According to AdAge and a Gfk Roper study,
70% of us find them annoying. Compare that to spam email, which 84%
find annoying (just who are the other 16%?).

If history is any indication, advertisers and publishers will continue
to use welcome ads, but at what cost? Sure, with click rates ranging
from 0.5 to 2.5%, they beat most other online display formats, but
what is the negative response? How many of us think less of the brands
and products that make themselves a barrier between us and our
destination? Or of the publications that so clearly put advertisers ahead of us, their audience?

How did other formats fair? Email marketing, TV commercials and direct
mail annoy us. On the other end of the spectrum, magazines, newspapers, and free samples are some of
the least annoying advertisements.

There is a clear trend here. Unless you want to annoy (and it seems
some marketers do), be very careful when placing your ad between your
audience and their destination, don't encroach on personal space (only
5% said mobile advertising was acceptable!), put the audience in
control and always provide value, through humor, information,
services, samples, discounts or other forms.

Exploring Mobile Blogging

Ok, so it has become clear over the last couple months that I wasn't
cut out to write a blog. Or has it? Maybe the format just wasn't right
for me?

My original goal was to have a place to save, and
possibly share, reactions and thoughts on the marketing, media
and advertising world I live in. So on the train today, I was
wondering if there was a better option. Like many in this industry, I
live on my blackberry. So I thought:

What better way than to write from a very small keyboard and a very
slow internet connection!

The experiment begins today.