Mail House Rock!

Most of you have probably already heard that a postage rate increase has been proposed for January of 2011  The post office has put up a spreadsheet with the details here:

New Rates in an Excel File

So far it looks like 5% across the board, but I'm sure I'll find variances as I drill into it.

Some what hidden, along with the rate changes, are some other changes.  The move update error rate allowance will go down to 25% from 30%,  Rigid flats will no longer be automatable.  Further information can be found in the federal register notice.

Federal Register Notices

If you build it will they come?

Having a website is one thing.  People actually being able to find your website is another.  Most people who are looking for what you are offering are going to use a search engine.  When they look at the results, more often then not they will click on the organic results.  Organic results are the ones in the center of the page rather than the paid ones along the side and top of the page.

If you want people to find you, you need to be near the top of the first page of organic results.

That's where SEO comes in.  SEO is Search Engine Optimization.  It's all about optimizing your web pages and your web site to be friendly to the search engines and getting them to rank you higher in the search results.

Some of SEO can be very easy to do, simple changes like fixing the titles of your web pages can make a big difference.  But if you really want top ranking.  You're probably going to have your work cut out for you.  Getting and keeping a top ranking is usually an ongoing battle that will require constant effort on your part.  There may be days that you miss having to write that huge check to Ma Bell every month for your yellow pages advertising.

Yet, I think it's probably one of the most rewarding forms of online marketing.  And, it is an important part of making your web site work well with your direct mail campaigns. 

For years we did mailings for our business and when new prospects called in we would ask them "Where did you hear about us?" the response more often then not was "In the yellow pages."  However, almost always, these were people we had mailed to.  Why were they suddenly looking for our services in the yellow pages, and why did they pick us to call?

Sometimes direct mail isn't as direct as we would like it to be.  If your piece was well written, you will have created some want for your product.  However your prospect doesn't necessarily react to that want instantly, sometimes it takes them a while.  But when they do start to look, you want to be there.  SEO is your best bet for that.

I find myself hard pressed to think of a business that would not benefit from having a website.  It used to be that people went to the yellow pages when they looked to find a business.  Now it seems that more often then not they go to the web instead.  It is every bit as important to have someplace in the virtual world where you can be reached as it is to have one in the real world.  Your website is your location in the virtual world of cyberspace.

Considering that you can get a website for free, there is really no excuse for not having one.  But if you are serious about marketing your business you should get a decent site designed and have it hosted on a fast server with your own URL.

When it comes to direct mail your web site provides a valuable way for your prospective customers to learn more about you and the services or products you provide.  It also enables your customers to interact with you; through things like email, feedback forms and online stores.

When we design mail pieces, we consider the web address to be just as important as the phone number.  A good website that ties in well with your direct mail pieces can go a long way to increasing the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign.

I'm going to start a new series of blog posts showing how the Internet can be used to bolster the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns.  I've always been a firm believer that advertising works best when you coordinate multiple activities and use them in concert to bring new clients to your business.  I talked a little bit about this in an earlier post "Marketing: Active, Passive & PR."  In this series we will look at specifically how direct mail and the Internet can work together to make your marketing more effective.

The Post Office is continuing to move forward on changing to five-day delivery.  Tuesday they filed their official request with the Postal Regulatory Commission to make the change.

We have started adding some direct mail guides to our web site.  I posted the first one this morning.

How to Create a Direct Mail Campaign

Because I want to make my guides as helpful and useful as possible, I am very interested in your feed back on this.  So... please, read the guide and let me know what you think!

Over the last few weeks I have been doing upgrades on the Website.  I am about to clean up the blogs. Hopefully this won't result in a bunch of RSS spam.  This post is my first to attempt to verify that it does not. 

We just updated our blog software.  Looks like it re-fed the entire blog on the RSS feeds.  Sorry for the info overload and the Spam.

When discussing various forms of marketing I like to break them down a bit. One of the big distinctions I make is, are they Active, Passive or PR. If you are going to be successful you need to consider all three.

I was going through some of our old marketing materials and came across a gem of a newsletter article written by my wife in the early 90s. I think it’s particularly apropos, given the recent economic climate. So… here it is with a few minor edits to bring it into the current century.