Print/Direct Mail

In our business, there is always another great idea right around the corner. Usually Michael Platt comes up with these ideas, but recently we came across ShipShapes. These are hard plastic direct mail pieces, some of which are done in very unique die-cuts.

According to their website, ShipShapes are “the next generation ad media”. In addition, “ShipShapes delivers your message with maximum impact”. Sounds pretty good to me and I have to admit, the samples I’ve seen are pretty gosh darn good (you should see the die-cut of the guy in a Zoot Suit).

But do they work for our industry? We always need to keep in mind budget, Cost Per Lead and Cost Per Start for every campaign that we conduct. I definitely think these pieces would stand out in the mailbox, but does the potential response outweigh the cost?

This week’s topic: have you ever used these hard plastic, die-cut pieces for any of your campaigns and what were the results? Do you recommend these for our industry?

So remember to ask yourself one question before your next direct mail campaign, paper or plastic?

You have the topic, now let’s get some responses.

We continue to throw out ideas and questions in an effort to elicit responses from the readers on how they have seen direct mail affect their advertising efforts – good or bad. A few months back, we threw out the challenge to get 10 responses in an effort to get a fellow coworker to dress up like a chicken. It didn’t happen. Regardless, we’re marching on with a new topic this month.

Two weeks ago we had one of our clients who consistently use direct mail come to us with the idea of having an open house at several of their campuses. Open houses – we love ‘em. What a great way to get potential students on your campus.

Our plan involved setting up a mini-site people could log-on to reserve their spot, a calling campaign and a 6×11 postcard. All of these were targeted to old leads that didn’t start for whatever reason.

As for the results, we’ll have to get back to you on that. The event is later this week. In the meantime, we want to know what types of methods you use to push an open house. What have you found worked and what didn’t work?

You have the topic, now let’s get some responses (don’t be a chicken).

By Kevin Jones

As 2008 begins, direct mail doesn’t look to be going anywhere. Currently, fourteen states have tried to pass bills similar to the popular ‘Do Not Call’ Registry. Out of these fourteen, zero passed.

No matter where you stand on this issue, direct mail is a very important part of the mail service these days. With a decreased amount of mail going through the post office, postal workers will be left jobless, and companies will find it hard to keep or attract new customers. Some have gone as far as to say that the loss of direct mail would be an infringement on their rights. While I’m not prepared to go that far, many people’s livelihoods depend on it.

Additionally, direct mail allows us to communicate more information than we would ever be able to in face-to-face or phone communications. Direct mail has survived everything from the fax machine to e-mail, and it won’t become obsolete anytime soon. It may not be as glitzy or glamorous as other mediums, but it is effective, and that is what really matters.

According to the U.S. Postal Service, “U.S. companies sent 35 billion pieces of direct postal mail in 1980, 64 billion pieces in 1990, 90 billion pieces in 2000, and 100 billion pieces in 2005. That’s more than 300 pieces of bulk mail for every man, woman, and child!”

While opposition may be growing towards direct mail, industry’s reliance on it is still quite evident. One reason that I think this trend will continue is because of the ‘Do Not Call’ Registry and people’s aversion to spam. With more restrictions on telemarketing, the reliance on direct mail has increased.

So as we look forward to the rest of 2008, several states still have decisions to make on what to do with these ‘Do Not Junk’ bills, but I would expect more of the same. Direct mail will be as important as ever.

We failed – well, sort of.

Last month we encouraged responses to our direct mail blog by promising that our very own Michael Mackie (M2) would dress up like a chicken if we had 10 responses to the question that we posed. It didn’t happen. We ended up with six responses, which is six more than any other blog we have posted. So in a sense, it was a success to actually have some feedback, but how funny would it have been to see M2 in a chicken outfit for a day (as a side note, M2’s reaction when he read the blog was “Cluck Off!”).

In our business of generating leads for schools, we want responses. Actually, some of us go to bed praying for responses – they’re what keep us in business. And that’s the point of our direct mail blog as well – we want responses. We want to get the facts and opinions from others who are involved in direct mail and not just from the ones involved in the career education industry. We’ll pose a question or we’ll throw out an opinion of ours in an effort to open up a dialogue with anyone who has feedback – good or bad.

The topic I’d like to throw out there today is the life of direct mail. With the growth of e-mail and the Internet, where do you see direct mail going in the next year, five years or 10 years? What are some of the complaints you have or have heard regarding direct mail? How do you sell direct mail to a client? What are your clients saying about direct mail?

You have the topic, now discuss. (Sorry we can’t promise having anyone dress up like a chicken this time.)

A couple of months ago the Direct Mail blog focused on utilizing PURLs as a response method on direct mail pieces. To recap, PURLs are simply personalized URLs (www.briansumner.com, for example). The thinking is that people will be more inclined to check out a website with their name as part of the URL, thus turning into a lead. We asked the readers what they thought of this idea and their response was … nothing. Not one single person had an opinion (or not single person read it).

This month, I’m putting the challenge out there. I’m looking for 10 people to respond to the topic below. If that magical number is hit, our very own Michael Mackie will dress up and wear a chicken outfit for an entire day (he doesn’t know about this yet, so let’s keep this on the down-low).

Topic: Do you think a direct mail campaign is more successful if the person receiving the piece has their personal information pre-populated on the business reply slip/card? By personal information, I mean mainly name and address.

I’ve been looking for data that supports this argument one way or the other and have come up empty handed. The Direct Mail team is pushing to test this (currently we pre-populate everything we send out), but until we have some rock-solid data, we want your opinion. Remember, we need 10 people to respond in order for Mr. Mackie to dawn the chicken outfit.

You have the topic, now discuss.