Presence.

Recently, while searching the internet for unique and creative marketing ideas, I stumbled across an article on DesignShack, which showcased a number of interesting direct mail pieces. Of the 12 pieces listed, there was one that stood out to me more than the others.

The piece was for LavOnline, an Italian company that identifies itself as an online laundry. From what I can tell from running their website through Google Translate (alas, I have a very limited understanding of Italian), the company appears to offer remote laundry, tailoring, leather work and shoemaking (or possibly repair), with pickups administered and scheduled through their website or over the phone.

The purpose of their direct mailer was to increase overall awareness of their service within a targeted demographic of young professionals who work long hours and have trouble finding an actual shop that is open after they leave the office. A total of 1,000 of the following packages were sent to this targeted group.

An image depicting the LavOnline mailer in various stages of being opened. Note: the layout of this image has been slightly modified from the original for better viewing.

I am not certain if the piece was mailed as shown, or whether it arrived in a more substantial cardboard box. Either way, its very dimensions will give it more presence than traditional mail. That presence will give it more impact, which in turn will help to capture attention.

Of course, what you do with that attention is just as important as capturing it, and this mailer takes care of that too. Notice how the blue box folds out into the shape of a t-shirt and contains a bright red tomato! The recipeint is actually encouraged to throw this tomato at the shirt, and then watch what happens. You can see this in action in this video:

I have no idea how the tomato is able bounce back into its original shape, but the fact that it does is extremely cool. It provides a fun an engaging ways for recipients to engage with the brand, while stressing the message of a simple, easy and fast service from LavOnline.

Of course, the true effectiveness of any campaign is measured by its results, and they speak for themselves. Reported results are that within 4 weeks:

• 32% of recipients registered on the site (320 new registrations)
• 8% of recipients actually tried the service (80 new customers)
• site traffic increased by 15%

Those are pretty good numbers, and hopefully the overall ROI has been amplified by many (if not all) of those 80 new customers coming back to use the service again and again, or by some of the 240 other registered users having tried the service for the first time.

So what does this campaign illustrate? Most obviously, it underscores the power of physical presence and interaction in direct mail. Presence gets attention. Interaction helps maintain attention and drive action.

Lastly, a campaign like this also demonstrates the importance of targeting. LavOnline took the time to identify their absolute best prospective customers, crafted a piece tailored specifically to the needs of those customers and invested the funds required to deliver an effective message.

We have prepped and mailed millions of products samples over the years and we have had the opportunity to work with many talented marketers and brand managers. Of course, we continue to meet new people all the time and we do our best to ensure that they are made aware of the things than can cost them money – and sometimes, a lot of money.

As many product samples (weighing 500 grams or less) exceed the maximum 2 cm thickness for Oversize Addressed Admail, a large percentage of our sampling mailings are prepared as Dimensional Addressed Admail. Postage is, indeed, higher than Oversize Addressed Admail in the same weight category, but Dimensional Addressed Admail does offer a great alternative, with significant savings when compared to parcel rates.

Price Volatility

There is no doubt that Dimensional Addressed Admail is a marvellous product and can be perfect for sampling. Interestingly, however, many of the people we meet are often very surprised when they take a closer look at its price volatility.

One of our more popular blog posts, How Does an LCP Sort Work, explains step by step, how postage rates are determined at various levels. I encourage you to read it, but the crux of the post is that mailings with higher geographic concentrations do tend to enjoy better postage rates than those with sparser distributions.

I invite you to take a look at the table below, which shows general rates for Dimensional Addressed Admail – Small, based on national distribution, using 2013 postage rates. These numbers were generated using our large, national database of addresses.

Sample Pricing for Dimensional Addressed Admail – Small (Up to 50 grams)

As you can see, the average postage at 1,000 pieces is $1.33, as compared to $0.84 at 100,000 pieces. That is a staggering difference of 49 cents apiece! So, when planning a lower volume Dimensional Addressed Admail mailing, one must understand that postage will be significantly higher. Conversely, we can enjoy much lower postage rates with mailings that have higher volumes

Obviously, the foregoing is an extreme situation, but even the difference of $0.20 between 2,500 and 50,000 can have an impact. Why? Simply because many sample fulfillments stem from web requests, which are typically downloaded on a periodic basis. For example if we fulfill 50,000 requests via 20 downloads of 2,500 records, postage will cost us $15,000 more to fulfill the requests this way than by fulfilling 50,000 at once. Therefore, if you are planning a sampling program of 50,000 units over multiple downloads, you cannot base your postage estimate on the cost of a single mailing of 50,000 pieces.

Saving Money & Optimizing Deliveries

There are a couple of things that we have learned over the years that can help you to keep your costs down as well as even out delivery times on larger programs.

Maximize Your Volumes, Wherever Possible

If you have an ongoing program where you are gathering sample requests via the web, you might consider accumulating requests over a relatively short period. For example, if you are experiencing about 2,500 records per download, you could save almost $1,000 by grouping two downloads together and sending out one mailing of 5,000 records rather than two mailings of 2,500 records. Of course, you must also ensure that you are satisfying delivery timelines.

Use Geographic Splits to Meet Stated Delivery Times

In our experience, many web-driven programs experience the heaviest volumes of requests in the early stage and then dwindle down over time. If you’re not careful, the first download might overwhelm you. But here is an interesting approach that can usually help you to even your load and meet stated delivery goals.

Almost all sampling programs that we have handled have had national delivery and this lends itself to the varying delivery times we experience when using Addressed Admail products. For example, Addressed Admail will usually be delivered within a few days in the province in which it is inducted, but could take up to 3 weeks to reach destinations further across the country. Therefore, if you have stated delivery times of 4 – 6 weeks, you can often segment the mailing into multiple streams, preparing records with the longest deliveries first.

Because these splits are along geographic lines, you would not dilute your geographic concentrations and, as such, you would not experience any increases in postage costs, provided the geographic splits are applied correctly. This approach allows you to blend your deliveries, ensuring that all or most of your pieces will be delivered within the stated timeframes.

No Lettermail Alternative

Many of our clients use our 9-Day program to help balance out deliveries time where quicker deliveries are required for more distant destinations. This program uses a combination of both Addressed Admail and the corresponding class of Lettermail. However, it is very important to note that there is not corresponding Lettermail class for Dimensional Addressed Admail and that the only alternative would be parcel, which would be very expensive.

Conclusion

Looking back over the years, I think I can safely say that, had it not been for Dimensional Addressed Admail, many of the sampling projects that we have managed would have been cost prohibitive. The only alternative would have been to mail some of the larger samples at parcel rates of about $10 each. Most budgets could not withstand that. So, Dimensional Addressed Admail has certainly proven itself to be a very worthwhile product – for our clients as well as ourselves.

However, despite its position with the direct marketing arsenal, we cannot forget that fluctuating volumes can really impact postage costs and could serious impact budgets. However as long as we have a handle on the approximate volumes per mailing and we simply don’t base our postage estimates on the accumulated volumes of individual mailings, it is fairly easy to get a handle on Dimensional Addressed Admail postage costs.

These’s no doubt that these are the big players. If you don’t have an account to all (or any) of these yourself, chances are that you know someone who does. Businesses are all over them, and they have—and continue to be—written about at length.

But just because these are the platforms that tend to attract the most attention in the media, that doesn’t mean that your social media strategy should necessarily end with the big players.

Far from it.

There are all sorts of smaller, interesting social sites/networks that are targeted at specific niches and interest groups. Here are just a few examples:

Dribbble, for designers

Dribbble is a community for designers and illustrators, allowing members to share snapshots of projects they are currently working on. It’s a great platform for reaching into the design community.

Oh and the three b’s are intentional.

Ravelry, for knitters and crocheters

Ravelry is a website designed specifically for knitters and crocheters, with the intention of helping them connect with others, manage projects, find patterns and wools. It also allows members to join groups and post on forums.

GoodReads, for book lovers

GoodReads is a social networking site for readers and book lovers. It allows you to share what you’re reading with your friends, make lists of books you’ve read and/or want to read, and rate/review books. It’s also built to work closely with Facebook.

Noisetrade, for musicians and music lovers

Noisetrade is a different sort of social media site, in that it’s more of a gateway that allows bands and musicians to give away music (albums, EPs, compilations) to listeners. In exchange, listeners agree to allow the band/musician to add them to an email list. It also allows listeners to connect with and/or promote artists on Facebook or Twitter.

500px, for photographers

500px is just one of many social networks designed for Photographers (Flickr being one of the bigger ones). It focuses on showcasing incredible photography, and provides artists with a means of both displaying and selling their works.

Untapped, for beer lovers

Untapped is a unique social media site platform that focuses on beer and beer lovers. It allows users to share what they’re drinking with friends, rate and review beers, and even receive personalized beer recommendations.

Fitocracy, for fitness enthusiasts (or beginners)

Fitocracy is a social media platform for those looking to improve their fitness. Based on a points and reward system, it turns overall fitness and weight loss into a social game that you can share with your friends. The platform uses quests, levels and badges to help establish that game-like feeling.

The Power of Niche

Obviously, each of these sites is somewhat different, because they all serve different needs, in a different communities. The interesting and important thing to note here, however, is that these are not only communities—an essential aspect of social media. They’re niche communities of like-minded people who share a common interest.

In other words, they’re extremely targeted.

If you have a product or service that you are selling to designers, for instance, Dribbble could be an excellent platform for reaching that niche, either through advertising or by becoming an active member of the community.

If you’re a writer or publisher, you could consider using GoodReads’ advertising platform to reach a specific cross-section of book lovers who would be interested in your work or offerings.

If you’re a small, specialty brewery or a hip new bar, a platform like Untapped could be hugely beneficial for building your business and overall customer base.

The list could go on… and on. The point is that, whatever your business does, and whatever niche it serves, don’t just let your social media marketing plan begin and end with the big platforms like Facebook and Twitter. There are so many other great platforms out there that can help contribute to your marketing efforts in a targeted and meaningful way.

So get out there and start researching. Look for interesting niche platforms. Find out what they’re doing and think of ways that your business could get involved. Can you become a member? An advertiser? A supporter or partner? Get creative!

Of course, if all of this is not your proverbial cup of tea, drop us a line. We’d love to help you out.

In some ways, I suppose, it’s an understandable conflict.

Over the years, we’ve seen very significant portions of the direct mail industry dwindle away, as more and more marketers turned to email as their medium of choice. From this perspective, it only makes sense that those in the direct mail camp would have dug in their heels and sought to defend their traditional turf against this upstart medium called email.

By the same token, I can also understand how email sought to establish itself. As the newer kid on the block (relatively speaking of course), proponents of email could easily have attempted to increase its foothold by positioning it as the natural heir to traditional direct mail. After all, it is faster, more economical and a fully digital experience.

With these opposing points of view, it only stands to reason that direct mail and email would continue to butt heads. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

By now, email is firmly entrenched as a communication medium. Personally, I’ve been using email for the last 17 years now, and email Marketing Companies like Constant Contact (1995), MailChimp (2001) and iContact (2003) are all past or quickly approaching ten years in business.

The simple fact is that email is not the new kid on the block anymore (that title might best be given to social media—for now). And, for all the conflict and antagonism between direct mail and email over the past decade and a half, experience paints a much different picture, one which suggests that perhaps direct mail and email would do better to support each other—rather than tearing at each other’s throats.

So, instead of pitting them against each other in an attempt to crown a clear victor, let’s instead consider how the strengths of one medium help to offset the weaknesses of the other.

Speed

One of the most attractive aspects of email marketing has to be its speed. Email is fast—so fast that your message will start landing in inboxes moments after you hit the send button (or after a scheduled campaign is deployed). And fast delivery can equal fast results.

Mail, on the other hand is much slower. Many economy categories with low price points can take several days (if not weeks) for delivery. Even premium forms of mail can take a day or two arrive in mailboxes. There are programs—like our 9-day program—which work to minimize the impact of extended delivery times, but the simple fact of the matter is that direct mail takes time.

So, if you need to get your message out with lightning like-speed, email is clearly the more ideal solution.

Visibility

On the other hand, if you’re looking to achieve the highest possible level of readership—meaning people who actually take the time to read your message—email may not be the best option. Our inboxes are crowded, and they seem to be getting more crowded every day. We have personal correspondence, business correspondence, newsletters we’ve subscribed to and, unfortunately, a deluge of spammy emails that we did not ask for at all. In one week, I’ll easily receive over 300 different emails across multiple addresses. And I know that there are people out there who get a whole lot more than that.

Personally, I simply do not have the time to dedicate to reading all of those emails in detail unless they are not from people or relate to day to day business.

And somehow I don’t think that I’m not all that unique in this regard.

Mail, however, is not nearly so overwhelming. Yes, our mailboxes can sometimes be filled with flyers and other forms of direct mail, but I doubt that most of us receive anywhere close to 300 direct mail messages in a given week. Because the medium is less crowded, a direct mail message simply has more opportunity to stand out and be seen.

This is especially true if the piece employs one of a variety of techniques that can be used to help increase its visibility (check out our gallery for some awesome examples).

Acquisition vs Retention

In our experience, we have also found that the effectiveness of both media can be impacted by the nature and goal of your message.

If you are trying to attract new prospects or acquire news business from people you don’t know, email is usually not the best option. Emails from unknown businesses tend to put people off, and are more likely to be viewed and/or treated as spam.

It’s not the sort of thing that leads to a good first impression.

Direct mail, however, tends to be more widely accepted. In a research study conducted by Canada Post in late 2009—titled “The Value of an Integrated Multi-channel Marketing Strategy”—results showed that there is still an overwhelming preference for direct mail in Canada, as can be seen in the following numbers:

Clearly, direct mail has a wider level of acceptance as a marketing medium, making it the preferred choice for reaching out to prospects who don’t know you or who are unfamiliar with your business.

Of course, email has its place too. It’s extremely effective for distributing industry-related news. It can also be effective if you are looking to communicate with an existing customer base or a list of opt-in subscribers. Because you already have an established relationship with these groups, your email should not appear to be coming from a stranger or an unknown company, thereby reducing the likelihood of it being viewed as spam and increasing the chances of it being read.

Of course, this does not mean that all of your emails will be read. In reality, they probably won’t. Still, we’ve found that a well exectured email program that is targeted at a list of qualified, opted-in subscribers can be a simple and efficient means of building customer retention and even drumming up new business from this group.

Demographics

For all of the strengths and weaknesses of direct mail and email, sometimes there are still external factors to be considered. One of these factors is demographics.

As all seasoned marketers know, it’s critical to understand your customers. The more you know about them, the better you can become at communicating with them, and at choosing how to communicate with them.

If you have an audience that you know does not like (or perhaps even use) email, then don’t use it. The reverse is also true. If your primary customer base dislikes the use of direct mail for some reason (perhaps they see it as wasteful), then stay away from it—at least when communicated with that customer group.

Conclusion

In the end, I think it’s clear that the relationship between email and direct mail should not need to be dominated by questions of choosing one over the other. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, and a carefully considered, strategic use of both media might very well yield better overall results that choosing one at the expense of the other.

Together, they can pack a powerful marketing punch.

Let’s look at some of the most common. I’ve broken these out into four different categories, based on the primary motivating factors—benefits, security, financial and urgency. Of course, some of the examples we’ll touch on below will tend to fit into multiple categories, so I’ve tried to break them out by their primary motivator.

Benefits

Benefit-based calls to action focus specifically on the benefits (not the features) that a particular product or service will offer to the customer.

<ACT> and <BENEFIT>

Using this model, you are asking the customer to perform a desired action in order to recieve a particular benefit. For example:

• Call today and start earning more money
• Visit us at the Home Show and ask us for your FREE planning kit

Learn how to <BENEFIT>

This is a great one for education-based organizations or websites. The idea is to motivate the customer by helping them learn how to achieve a particular benefit for themselves. Examples would include:

• Learn how to speak French in just 30 days
• Learn to build an eye-catching resume

<BENEFIT> for only <PRICE>

This CTA formula reaches into the area of finance, which we’ll cover below, but I include it here because it starts with the benefit. The idea is to present the customer with the benefit, and then motivate them into action with an awesome price point. Something like:

• Lose 20lbs for only $40
• Help us feed a hungry child for only $1 a day

Join <COUNT> who have <BENEFIT>

People like to be a part of the crowd. They also like products or services with a track record of success. This type of CTA plays on both of these desires, by encouraging the reader to become one of a (preferably large) number of satisfied customers. You could write things like:

• Join more than 500,000 happy couples who have found love on our site
• Join the 10,000+ students who are paying off their loans faster

Security

Security can be a strong motivating factor. People will be more inclined to try something new if they feel that there is no (or at least minimal) risk involved.

Try <PRODUCT> risk-free

Be explicit about removing the risk. With this type of CTA, you cut straight to the heart of the security issue, by assuring the customer that there is no risk involved.

• Try our AccountMax Suite, risk-free
• Try the Ab Crusher yourself, risk-free

Of course, you may need to qualify exactly what you mean by risk free. Are you offering a trial period during which the customer does not have to pay? Does your product come with an extended warranty? These types of details can be important.

<BENEFIT>, Guaranteed

Another way to help eliminate the issue of risk is through the use of a guarantee. With this type of CTA, you take a bold stance and openly guarantee that the customer will achieve a particular benefit. Consider these bold statements:

• The best sleep you’ve ever had, guaranteed
• Cut your mobile computing costs in HALF, guaranteed

Financial

Not every business transaction is entirely about money, but it’s certainly a big part of the equation. If you can help customers feel like they are saving money or getting a deal, that can help motivate them to action.

Save <X> on <PRODUCT>

This is a classic. Just come right out with your offer and tell the customer exactly how much they will save on their purchase. You can position this as either a percentage or a hard dollar value:

• Save 20% on SiqDeck skateboards
• Save $100 on the FlipPad 9000s

FREE <PRODUCT>

Everyone likes free stuff, right? Some people will even go out of their way to get their hands on freebies. Why not consider a CTA that builds on this impulse, by offering some sort of free product (or service)? For example:

• Get a FREE Report on the future of Web development
• We want to give you a FREE appetizer

If you are looking to motivate a particular action, sometimes you may need to add a further qualifier to explain the context of the offer. For example, our second example might read:

• Get a FREE appetizer with the purchase of any 2 entrées

Buy <X> and Get <X>

In a way, this is very similar to the <ACTION> for <BENEFIT> CTA, but with a very specific action and financial benefit. When the customer purchases a given amount of product (or service), they then receive another amount of product for free or for a discounted rate. There are all kinds of variations on this kind of CTA, the most classic likely being the basic BOGO (Buy One, Get One) configuration. Of course, there are many other variations that you could use:

• Buy 3 books, Get 1 half-price
• Buy 2 suits, Get 1 FREE

The Rewards Program

This CTA is built on the same basic principal as the Buy <X> and Get <X> CTA, except that it tends to be extended over a period of multiple purchases, rewarding customers for their continued patronage. You could establish your own rewards program, or partner with an established program:

• After 5 visits, the 6th is FREE
• Earn 1000 FREE Airmiles

Urgency

People are busy, and while they may be interested in your offer, they may also set it aside, with every intention of getting back to it later. Despite all the best intentions in the world, however, this can lead to your piece and/or message being forgotten. Adding a sense of urgency to your CTA can be an effective way of breaking through the procrastination barrier.

The interesting thing about-urgency based calls to action is that they usually work best when used to amplify the effectiveness of one of the other types of CTAs. We’ll look at how this works in a number of the examples below.

Limited Time Offer

One simple way of creating urgency is to present a limited time offer, implying that there is only a very narrow window in which the customer can take advantage of your offer. For example:

• For a limited time, purchase 1 website theme and get the second FREE!
• Until March 1st, save up to 50% on all winter apparel

As you can see in both of these examples, the sense of urgency is used primarily as a means of amplifying an existing CTA.

While Supplies Last

Another way of building urgencty into your CTA is through the use of a limited supply. Sometimes, this limit might be built right in to your offer due to actual supply limits. You may only have 500 copies of a limited run book, for example. Other times, you may simply designate a portion of your inventory as the “promotional supply” and count down from this.

Either way, the idea is to encourage customers to take action quickly, so as to not miss out on your amazing offering. Two different ways of phrasing this concept might be:

• While supplies last, you can get the amazing RetroWidget for just $20.
• Visit us today and receive our FREE guide to better eating. While supplies last.

First Number People

Though very similar to the While Supplies Last CTA, this one shifts the focus back onto the customer, by stating that only a certain number of people will be able to take advantage of the offer. While this can certainly help to add urgency to your offer, it can also help instill a sense of exclusivity, through which the customer can feel part of a select group. This is especially true if the number is small. Some uses of this CTA might be:

• Be one of the first 25 registrants and receive a FREE iPad
• The first 10,000 fans receive a FREE bobblehead

Conclusion

As you can see, there are all kinds of different ways of constructing your call to action—and this list is far from exhaustive. Nor are any of the examples set in stone. You can play with the wording and phrasing to suit your needs, or use these examples as inspiration for an entirely different sort of CTA.

Either way, we hope that some of these ideas will prove useful to you as you work to develop a call to action that motivates your customers and helps drive your overall sales.

Wonder what RPN stands for? How about:

• Reverse, Park, Neutral
• Regional, Provincial, National
• Really Powerful Notion

RPN would work as an acronym for all of these, but in this instance, RPN stands for Repositionable Notes. I suppose it could have simply been RN, but RPN does have a nicer ring to it.

So, what is an RPN exactly? Basically, it’s a Post-It Note with extra glue that is machine-applied to certain mailing pieces. Very cool—a Post-It note on the outside of a mailing piece. But does it work? Well, according to an article in Direct Marketing News a few years back, Rogers experienced open rate increases upwards of 100% when using RPNs. Impressive!

“But,” you may ask, “if they’re that good, why doesn’t everybody use them?”

Well, one of the challenges has been that the minimum order quantity for RPNs used to be 10,000, which was a bit too steep for those mailing in smaller volumes. That being said, as with “all things neat” (be they die cuts or a snazzy carrier for product sampling), RPNs do add to the overall expense, BUT (and it’s a big BUT) additional investments like these usually do pay larger dividends.

All of our organizations are different, and each of us will have different ways that we might want to use RPNs. Here are a few examples:

• highlight an ad or article on a given page of a catalogue, newsletter, magazine etc.
• reminder of a trade show or event
• reminder to order or send something in by a given date
• simply provide your particulars on a sticky note that people will stick on their fridge or computer or whatever

So, what is driving our renewed interest in RPNs at this time? Well, we did promote RPNs heavily a few years ago and we have bandied the idea around with different clients. More to the point, a client just ordered 30,000 RPNs for an upcoming mailing. It’s a great application too, as it will be reminding people of an important industry event. Additionally, another client, who mails in smaller quantities of 1,500 to 5,000, is looking for something that he can use to apply corporate particulars to the outside of his catalogues. He is considering RPNs and 10,000 of these could easily be used up over a couple of different mailings.

As mentioned above, we did wave the RPN flag pretty hard a few years back. I guess some ideas just take a bit of time to mature or find a use. The bottom line is that we have always liked the idea of RPNs and we have just the machine to apply them.

We’d sure like to chat more about RPNs with you, so why not give us a call? We would love to toss a few ideas around. RPNs are a great little marketing tool. Maybe we ought to call them ”Really Powerful Notes”!

Needless to say, as we are wont to do with things that excite us in this day and age, I shared my excitement on social media, posting about my trip on Twitter.

I few hours later, I received the following response from Prestons, a restaurant based out of Vancouver:

@echoenduring exciting! hope you find time on your trip to stop by for a bite!

— Prestons (@dineprestons) January 17, 2013

Now, I don’t know Prestons. I’d had never even heard of them until this tweet came to my attention through notification on my phone. Due to the nature and timing of my trip, I’m not sure that I’ll be get out and see much of Vancouver itself, but if I can find the time, a visit to Prestons would be near the top of my list!

That’s powerful marketing. So what did Prestons do right here? I think there are three important things we can touch on.

1. Watching for Tweet Content

Twitter is more than a passive medium, where you sit back and wait for customer or prospects to contact you. It’s also more than a broadcast medium that allows you to distribute your thoughts and content to the world (though that is certainly part of it). It is an open, social medium, and one of its greatest, and possibly most underrated, aspects might very well be its public searchability.

Unless you are a part of the very small percentage of people who elect to protect their tweets, your Twitter content is publicly available to everyone, meaning that it can be found through Twitter’s search function.

Now, I don’t know for certain how Prestons came across my original tweet, but since they don’t follow me, I have to assume that it was though some sort of search, likely on the keyword Vancouver. This may have been a manual search or a saved search stream. Either way, the point is that Prestons took the time to look for potential customers—in their case, people who either were in or would be in the Vancouver area.

2. An Engaging Response

Of course, searching for tweets with a particular keyword, tweets from a particular area or even tweets mentioning a particular account is not particularly useful if you fail to respond to those tweets in an engaging way.

Again, I thought that Prestons did a really great job of this.

They did not simply introduce themselves and ask me to come in to their restaurant. Instead, they started by building off my initial tweet, sharing in the excitement of my first trip to Vancouver. They followed this up with the sort of friendly and casual invitation that one would extend to a friend.

In other words, it felt extremely social.

3. Responded Without a Link

Often, it can be tempting to include links with tweets, in hopes that people will visit a website or a blog post. Prestons, for example, could easily have included a link to their menu. Instead, they left it out, a decision which only further added to the social quality of the tweet.

Though its certainly a common practice, I feel that the presence of a link in this tweet would have made the tweet seem more contrived than social. It would have appeared as a tweet with an agenda—namely getting me to visit a specific page.

Instead, it came across as a simple and genuine social interaction, and as a result I went ahead and checked out the menu on their website all on my own.

Of course, this is not to say that you should never include links in your tweets. There are many situations in which doing so would be appropriate. For instance, if you were to find someone asking a question or looking for help with something, sending them a link to a useful article or video on your website makes perfect sense.

Conclusion

Ultimately, what I believe this single tweet illustrates is that, for all the discussion and analysis that surrounds the strategic use of Twitter as a marketing and promotional platform, one simple truth remains unchanged. Twitter is a social platform.

Get out there, find people who might have an interest in your business or offering, and then engage them in a real, authentic and social way.

I’m off to Vancouver. Hopefully I’ll have the chance to stop in to Prestons for a bite.

Of course, as Lettermail travels by air and arrives within a few days, it can usually solve your delivery problems, but often at quite a cost—a cost that you may not be willing to bear.

At Highland Marketing, we have developed an effective program for establishing and maintaining a balance between cost and delivery times. We call it the 9-Day program and it certainly works well for mailing Addressed Admail destined outside of Ontario.

Through an analysis of delivery times for postal codes right across the country, we have determined that there are relatively few instances where delivery will take more than 9 business days for Addressed Admail mailed from Southern Ontario. Based on this, we wrote a computer program that analyzes your mailing list, flagging any records that will require 9 or more days for delivery. Generally speaking, the flagged records usually account for less than 7% of mailing lists with relatively even national distribution.

As an example (using 2012 rates), if we were mailing 10,000 pieces right across the country, 7% of the file would account for only 700 records. If we mail these 700 pieces as Oversize Lettermail at $1.29 each and the other 9,300 records as Oversize Addressed Admail, at an average cost of $0.60 each, our total postage cost will be $6,483. This comes out to an average cost of $0.6483 per address for the 10,000 records.

Mailing all the pieces as Addressed Admail would cost somewhere in the range of $6,000, and delivery for all pieces would take up to 3 weeks. Using our 9-Day program, we are able to improve the overall experience by bringing delivery times for all of the samples into the 9 day range, all for just an extra $483.

Cautionary Notes:

1. Although Addressed Admail and Lettermail may often look the same, there are subtle differences in specifications. Therefore, if you plan to use a combination of Addressed Admail and Lettermail for items within the same campaign, be sure to check the specs for each to ensure that you are compliant with both. Otherwise, your efforts to optimize delivery might end up costing considerably more that you had planned.

2. There is no Lettermail counterpart for Dimensional Addressed Admail, other than parcel, which is almost always cost prohibitive. That said, we cannot use our 9-Day program for Dimensional Addressed Admail mailings.

If you would like to add our 9-Day service to your next national mailing campaign, just give us a call. As the title says, the 9-Day program really delivers.

Sensible Solutions for Mailings

We started with the slogan “Sensible Solutions for Mailings” back in 1993. It made sense then and it makes sense now. Through our core programing expertise, the technologies of the day and our in-depth knowledge of Canada Post products we have continued to deliver sensible mailing solutions for a broad range of clients.

A New Approach to Direct Marketing

Back in 2006, as price points for certain print technologies began to drop, we recognized that we could help our customers even more by enriching our product mix with advanced variable data integration, die cuts and other types of DM pieces that demanded attention. It was “A New Approach to Direct Marketing” and through a wonderful group of adventurous customers we were able to walk the talk, bringing several “first of a kind” DM projects to fruition.

Linking It All Together

Today, we have many forms of content hosts to help you tell your story and there are different types of content drivers to direct people to your content. The overall mix includes direct mail, email, web content, blog posts and various social media platforms and there are unlimited opportunities to forge very exciting integrated direct communication strategies and we are here to help you by “Linking It All Together” at whatever levels you choose.

Moving forward, we will continue to seek out new ideas and opportunities for our clients. These are exciting times that we live in and, like everyone, we are curious to see how new technologies will help to advance the art of direct marketing.

Those words have been kicking around in my head for the last few weeks, but the reality is, this is what direct marketing is for some people today. It also gave me pause and confirmed my conviction that those of us in the direct marketing business should embrace the full gamut of direct communication, long before the last inserter is finally unplugged.

So, does this mean a long and painful death for conventional direct mail? I don’t think so, but I believe that it is going to evolve differently. As a matter of fact, it already has. Consider the following.

1. Millions of people now pay their bills online and this has seen a dramatic reduction in conventional mail.
2. Some businesses with online catalogues have identified customer preferences and mail only to those that prefer traditional hardcopy catalogues.
3. Qualified (opt-in) consumer email lists are a powerful way to communicate with specific target groups and have supplanted direct mail in different areas.
4. Lastly, intelligent uses of social media platforms now allow businesses to communicate succinct messages with links to the broader picture, be it a website, blog post etc. And good marketers can dangle the bait that will entice readers to enter their lairs to read more. Of course, this is yet another form of direct marketing that serves to displace conventional direct mail, at one level or another.

Considering that direct marketing is really the practice of delivering promotional messages, we can see how it has expanded into different media and platforms. However, I still believe that the most important aspect of any type of direct marketing is getting noticed. Interestingly, this presents a new set of enticing challenges, where a myriad of social media messages compete across multiple platforms and applications for a user’s attention on several different devices (computers, tablets, smartphones).

Like the world wide web of the early 90’s, social media is here to stay and it will likely evolve in much the same way. I am sure that it will remain social for most, as that is its strength and charm. Unfortunately, we are already seeing crass use at some levels and we can only hope that this stays at a minimum.

As we welcome social media to the overall direct marketing mix and integrate it with other direct marketing channels we must ensure that we maintain our identity. Like other forms of direct marketing we will want to get attention, be interesting, engage the reader and – yes, be social.

Many of you know that direct mail has been a large part of my life for nearly 20 years and I am certainly not about to abandon it. I love creative mail and die cuts and getting people’s attention. I am also firm believer in product sampling and, until someone invents molecular transportation, direct mail will be a vital component of getting samples into the hands of consumers. But today, like many of you, social media has simply become a part of who I am and what I do, both personally and in my business activities – and I can’t see that changing.

BTW, my Twitter handle is Highland_DM and, although I remain a strong supporter of direct mail, if you want my attention, you can also send me 140 characters with a URL.