Get Personal: Letters vs. Direct MailWritten by Lisa Packer
One of reasons direct mail works is personal aspect. It’s ostensibly a letter from you to your prospect. Because of this, more personal you make it, better your response will be. If you’re mailing to 100,000 people, putting your prospect’s name on your letter is about as personal you can get. But there are times when you can – and should – send out highly personal letters to individual prospects. Say you sell gardening supplies, and driving to work one day you notice a home with a lovely garden, but dying roses. You find out who owner is and send her a letter complimenting her on her wonderful garden, along with tips on rose care. Or, you meet a prospect at a business networking function. You get back to office and send out a letter referencing your conversation and outlining what your business can do for his.
| | Marketing: Are You Focused?Written by Lisa Packer
In early1992, President George H.W. Bush was riding high. He was sitting on an almost unprecedented 80% approval rating following first Gulf War. Conventional wisdom pegged him as a shoe-in for a second term.Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton faced an uphill battle. He was largely unknown at start of 1992, facing a very popular incumbent. Worse for him, his opponent “owned” foreign policy. There was no way to successfully attack him on that front. So what did Governor’s campaign do? They got focused. They found (or created, depending on your politics) a chink in President’s armor: economy. Every word that came out of campaign’s collective mouth had something to do with state of economic affairs. And just so no one would even think about changing subject, signs were posted in campaign headquarters across country that read, “It’s economy, stupid!”
|
