Mail House Rock

The Reports of Direct Mail’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated!

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 23:14:00 GMT

By Jeanette Fenton

When I hear rumors, I demand facts. Don’t you? So I did a little searching for reliable sources of data. By statistics and survey, direct mail is still a major and reliable tool in the marketing arena. Here’s just three recent surveys that illustrate its strength:

Google, in their “2011 B to B Marketing Outlook”, notes that a majority of B2B marketers surveyed still assign 66% of their budgets for the traditional “Top 3” media: trade shows/events, magazines/trade publications, and direct mail.
“MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark” reports that 79% of those surveyed found Direct mail somewhat to very effective.
Winterberry Group, in their “WG Analysis - Outlook 2011”, Direct and Digital Channels show a “strong recovery forecast” with direct mail rising to a projected $48 Billion this year.

Now, I seriously doubt that many businesses are just stupidly wasting their money, so why are they still using it?

Getting the "Powers-that-Be" to Give You That Budget

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:23:00 GMT

By Jeanette Fenton

There's a famous quote totally apropos to this subject for all marketers and business owners:

“A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” Henry Ford

Perhaps you, like many of our clients, especially those in marketing departments, are frustrated with major cuts in your advertising budget. We (marketers) know that doesn’t make sense, but what can you do about it?

So, let’s demonstrate why Henry speaks such sooth in terms your manager might understand… real numbers and results, like these:

256% revenue growth – McGraw-Hill Research found, analyzing 600 companies during the 1981/2 recession, that companies who maintained aggressive marketing experienced significantly higher sales growth than those who did not. ¹
Double the odds of growth – “Fortune follows the Brave” – That’s what Management Review concluded after surveying AMA members on spending during the 90/91 recession. They were twice as likely to pick up market share by raising their marketing budgets and staff. ²
“Advertising is an anti-recession tool” said Harvard Business Review in its 1980 report. “Advertising should be regarded not as a drain on profits but as a contributor...budgets should be related to the company’s goals, instead of to last year’s sales.” ³
Maintaining market identity costs much less than rebuilding it later on. A study by Roger Graham of over 3000 firms found decreasing advertising during a recession resulted in immediate loss of earnings, especially for firms offering consumer goods or industrial products. ⁴
"Marketing is muscle, not fat. Be careful about cutting it." states Steve McKee as he explains "Cutting your marketing spending is a sure way to give ground to competitors..." ⁵
And by the way, keep in mind….
Accounting tries to “save” capital, but sales and marketing grow capital… which do you want to achieve?

The list goes on and on, study after study on every recession since 1925. It is absolutely true that to continue growth you must continue or even increase advertising, not just hope people will come to you. Hopefully the above references arm you better in convincing the “powers that be.”

But, there’s something vital missing in all these studies, something you MUST apply…. You can’t just spend money on advertising, willy nilly, and expect much of a result. Some, yes, but to get the results you really need and want, you have to invest in an advertising campaign, and be really smart about how you do it and how you track results.

We’ll be covering more tips on how you do this, but for now, call us if you have questions or would like help on your next project at 916-923-1000.

¹ (McGraw-Hill Research Laboratory of Advertising Performance Report 5262 New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986)

² (Greenburg, Eric Rolfe. “Fortune Follows the Brave”, Management Review January 1993)

³ (Dhalla, Nairman K. “Advertising as an anti-recession tool” Harvard Business Review, Jan–Feb 1980.)

⁴ (“Advertising During a Recession May Yield Increased Earnings Later.” PHYorg.com March 30, 2009)

^5. (Steve McKee, "Don't Let Hard Times Derail Your Advertising" Bloomberg Businessweek, Oct 7, 2008)

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Save 3% on postage this Summer!

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:26:00 GMT

QR Barcode
“Quick Response”

The USPS is helping make your direct mail projects even more cost effective this summer with a special program.

The art on the right is a QR code (for “Quick Response”).

When a recipient takes a photo of it with his Smartphone, it auto-directs him to the web URL encoded within it to get more information about the product or service you are promoting.

Beginning July 1 through August 31, 2011, you can get a 3% postage discount just for including this Smartphone-friendly QR code on or in your mail pieces.

The QR code is easy to get and print.

Just go to a QR code generator like http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

The discount applies to most bulk mail.

According to the DMM Advisory, key requirements include:

“A two-dimensional mobile barcode – readable by a mobile smartphone – must be on or in each mail piece in a mailing.
“The barcode must be used for marketing, promotional or educational purposes and be relevant to the contents of the mail piece.
“Postage must be paid with a permit imprint and electronic documentation (eDoc) must be submitted to PostalOne!"

For more information . . . Call us today at 913-923-1000

of course, if you want to dive into the USPS verbiage yourself go to:

USPS 2011 Mobile Barcode Promotion – FAQs

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Tags: mail

Microsoft Community Contributor Award

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:34:00 GMT

I mention in my bio that I like to post in various programmers forums to help others learn the art of coding. Well, I received a pleasant surprise from Microsoft, they just honored me with an award for my contributions to their forums:

I contribute to their forums mostly for fun and to help others. But receiving this Award totally made my day.

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Postage Prices to Change on April 17, 2011

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:47:00 GMT

Oddly, if what they put up on the site is correct the single piece First Class mail rate will stay at .44!

The new rates can be viewed on the Postal Explorer http://pe.usps.com/ under

*NEW* April 17, 2011 Pricing Information

At a glance, the changes look fairly minor. Post office is saying it's 1.741% across the board.

They also decided to extend the deadline for when we have to switch to the newer IMB barcodes.

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 01:07:00 GMT

Happy Holidays

from all of us at Wordmasters!

Wishing you all the joy of the holiday season and a prosperous new year.

As another year comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on how lucky we are to have such wonderful family and friends. It really is a pleasure working with each and every one of our clients, and we look forward to helping you with your mailing and data processing projects in the new year.

Have a Happy Holiday Season and enjoy a safe but fun New Years Celebration!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:14:00 GMT

To all of our friends and clients,
from all of us here at Wordmasters

We would like to wish you a
Happy Thanksgiving!

We are truly lucky to have such
wonderful people to call our friends.

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USPS Appeals PRC Decision on Price Increase

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:56:00 GMT

Not too surprising, but the Postal Service announced today that it has decided to appeal the ruling denying the postage rate increase. They will be filling a petition in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

USPS Press Release

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Postal Regulatory Commission Denies Rate Increase

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:26:00 GMT

The Postal Regulatory Commission has denied the Post Offices rate increase request that was scheduled for January.

While this does not mean that rates will not be going up, it does mean that we will have to wait to see by how much and when. It might not even change it at all.

If your interested, here's the official reaction from the Post Office:

Statement of Postmaster General on PRC Ruling,
Fully Paying Retiree Health Benefit Mandate

We are disappointed to learn that the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) has denied our price filing. But we are encouraged by their acknowledgment and understanding of the larger financial risk we face through the mandated prefunding of Retiree Health Benefits.

Clearly, the Postal Service is a viable business. Maintaining that status requires elimination of several legislatively-imposed constraints that hamper our ability to operate efficiently and profitably.

Specifically: 1) enable us to alter frequency of delivery consistent with use of the mail; 2) allow us to close unprofitable post offices; 3) restructure our obligation under a 2006 law to prefund retiree health benefits, an obligation not applicable to any other private or government entity; 4) permit us to create and offer products and services beyond mail; 5) assure that arbitrators consider the financial health of the Postal Service when agreement cannot be reached with our labor unions; and 6) resolve overfunding of our pension systems. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to address these issues.

We will need to take a much closer look at the ruling from the PRC in order to make an informed decision about what options we have and what may be the best course of action for our customers, our employees, our stakeholders and the American public.

The Postal Service ends the current fiscal year with approximately $2 billion cash and available credit, meeting all our end-of-year financial obligations, including a $5.5 billion payment to the Retiree Health Benefit Fund as required by law.

As we have stated repeatedly throughout the year, the Postal Service sought a deferral of this $5.5 billion payment to minimize the risk of defaulting on our financial obligations in Fiscal Year 2011. Unfortunately, no legislative action has been taken at this time.

The financial risk remains. We will carefully manage every dollar we spend in the upcoming fiscal year. Our current forecast shows that we will not have sufficient cash to make the $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30, 2011, and any major disruption, whether in volume loss or unforeseen circumstances, could cause us to default on financial obligations earlier in FY11.

In the midst of financial and regulatory challenges, the Postal Service achieved record productivity gains in 2010 and a reduction of over 100,000 career employees and cost savings of over $10 billion during the last three years.

As always, service to our customers remains our number one priority. No financial challenge or uncertainty will change that. We will continue to work with Congress and our stakeholders to implement necessary changes to ensure a viable Postal Service for decades to come.

John E. Potter
Postmaster General of the United States
CEO of the U.S. Postal Service

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Tags: USPS,Postage,Rates

Direct Mail and the Internet - PPC

webmaster@wordmasters.com — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:09:00 GMT

This post goes hand in hand with my "Direct Mail and the Internet - SEO" post, so you may want to read that one first if you haven't already.

Unfortunately SEO is not a magic bullet. It takes time to get the rankings you want for the key words you want.

PPC (Pay Per Click) search engine advertising helps fill the void while you work on getting better placement in the search engines, and helps fill in the gaps once you do have it.

PPC search engine ads are the ones that are listed at the very top and to the right of the organic search results. When you place an ad here, you pay anytime someone clicks on it. Depending on what keywords you are targeting, the cost can range from a few pennies a click, to many dollars per click. So it's important that you choose your keywords wisely. Design your ads to work well with your key words. And create landing pages that also work well for those key words.

The reasons for doing this in conjunction with your Direct Mailings are the same as for SEO, so I'm not going to repeat them here.

But it is worth noting that PPC can go beyond just search engines, it can also be placed on many websites. It will probably be worth testing that as well. It may or may not be of value for you, but it's pretty inexpensive to find out.

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Tags: PPC,Internet Marketing