It’s 2 pm. My mind is foggy. The coffee buzz is gone. I’m staring at a blank screen because the inspiration to blog has wandered out the window. A quick flick by my homepage (and the who-knows-how-many RSS feeds I’m subscribed to at the moment) shows there’s a new blog post from Joel Rubinson that will put my mind back on the path of vitality, creativity and excellence-or at the very least, provide a great distraction from my current, raging case of writer’s block. ‘He doesn’t post often,’ I think, ‘but when he does it’s always worth reading.
Then I realized in only a dozen words I’d summed up 90% of the problem with today’s marketing philosophy, especially direct mail marketing, and given myself today’s blog post in one fell swoop.
There are so many people out there clamoring to have their voices heard in the direct mail marketing arena that it can be difficult to pick one voice out of the chatter. So we yell louder, longer, and with more consistency than the guy next to us in the hope that somehow our voice will stick out above the crowd. But what are we going to say when they actually hear us? Do we keep yelling, or do we say something worth hearing?
Is what you say worth hearing? Or are you just hoping you can bark loud enough to be heard?
I want to hop in here with a quick confession. I’m the direct mail marketing specialist’s worst nightmare. If you can get a direct mail piece to make it from the mailbox to the little calendar pocket reserved for stuff I actually want to be able to find later, you’re doing something right. So when I say that something works, I say it with the absolute conviction of someone who spends a large percentage of her life throwing these direct mail pieces away!
You want to be heard. So you design creative pieces, use bright, fun colors and kick in great promotions to convince people to “come on down”-in other words, take the time to flip it over and look at the back! At its heart, however, the point of any direct mail marketing piece is to tell your customers you had something so important to say that you took time out of your busy day to mail it to their house. Don’t be the company that sends so much junk mail your customers look at it, shrug and say, “Junk” before tossing it in the trash. Be the company that puts enough thought and effort into their direct mail campaign that when your customers see something from you they say, “Hey, they might not mail me much, but when they do they always have something to say that’s worth hearing.”
**graphic created by Wizard of Draws Jeff Bucchino, www.wizardofdraws.com.